Elysium—located at the farthest edge of the academy grounds.

The moment I arrived, I felt it.

"The atmosphere…" I muttered under my breath.

It was dark. Not just dim, but oppressively so. The rest of the campus had been basking under a bright, clear sky all morning, yet here… it felt like I had stepped into a different world entirely.

The air was heavy, and the faint chill crawling up my spine made me hesitate before taking another step.

Still, I forced my reluctant feet to move and entered the building.

As I walked through the long corridor, the unsettling atmosphere only grew stronger. The faint echo of my footsteps bounced off the cold stone walls, swallowed quickly by the silence.

I had imagined Elysium to be like a graduate research division—a place for advanced study, maybe a bit serious, but nothing out of the ordinary.

…Yeah. I was completely wrong.

The deeper I went, the clearer it became that this wasn't an ordinary research building. The faint flickering lights, the thick scent of old paper mixed with something… metallic, and the unnatural quiet—it felt less like an academy facility and more like the setting of a ritual chamber where someone might summon a demon lord.

Not exactly reassuring.

After passing through a narrow hall lined with strange crystal tubes and tightly packed doors, I finally stopped in front of one marked with a brass nameplate.

[Fantasy Magic Research Lab]

[Professor – Petania Narsen]

"This should be it," I murmured, squaring my shoulders.

I raised a hand and knocked firmly on the door.

Knock, knock.

Silence.

I waited a few seconds, then lifted my hand to knock again—

"Who is it…?"

"Ahhh!!"

A voice came right next to my ear—soft, cold, and entirely too close. I jumped, spinning around with my heart in my throat.

And there she was.

A woman stood beside me, far too close for comfort. Her dark brown bob framed a pale face, and her eyes—deep, hollow, and sunken with exhaustion—stared straight into mine without a hint of emotion.

I froze on the spot.

She blinked once, tilting her head slightly. "…You're loud."

With a tired, almost lifeless expression, the woman finally spoke.

"What business do you have with our lab…?"

"I have something I'd like to ask Professor Petania," I replied.

Her dull eyes flicked toward me, squinting slightly. "Are you… an Elysium aspirant?"

"No, nothing like that."

"Tch."

She clicked her tongue the moment I denied it, clearly disappointed—or maybe just annoyed that I wasn't part of their department. Her gaze swept over my Academy uniform, and she sighed as if she'd already decided I was a waste of her time.

"…Follow me. The professor's probably in the laboratory."

"Got it."

I nodded and followed behind her. Her steps were slow and weary, almost dragging against the floor. Watching her move like that made one thing clear—this woman hadn't slept properly in days.

'Is she a Luminary?'

It wasn't hard to guess.

The long white coat, the faint ink stains on her cuffs, and that haunting, overworked look on her face—everything about her screamed graduate researcher.

A Luminary.

A graduate student from Elysium, the Empire's highest institute of magic research.

"But why is an Academy student looking for the professor…?" she asked without looking back.

"I have something to ask about fantasy," I said simply.

Her steps faltered. "Fantasy? Could it be… a new research topic?"

I shook my head quickly. "No, nothing like that. It's for personal reasons."

"…I see."

At the mention of "fantasy," her expression had stiffened for a moment—eyes rolling ever so slightly like she was reliving some trauma. I hurried to clarify before she could have a breakdown.

Only then did her face ease a little, though the exhaustion still lingered.

Watching her sigh deeply, I couldn't help thinking to myself:

'Yeah. There's definitely not a single normal person in this place.'

"You can go in here. Well, I'm busy, so I'll be going now."

"Thank you for guiding me," I replied politely, giving the Luminary a small nod before turning toward the door.

The brass handle felt cold against my palm as I twisted it open and stepped inside the laboratory.

And then—

BANG!

"Why on earth is this working properly?! Arghhh!!"

The sudden yell nearly made me jump out of my skin.

I froze mid-step, blinking as the echo of the outburst bounced around the lab's walls. The air inside was thick with the smell of burning mana and oil, and the faint hum of magical devices filled the silence that followed.

'What… did I just walk into?'

My eyes darted around the cluttered space—tables buried under mountains of parchment, bubbling vials, and strange contraptions that looked like they'd come straight out of a fever dream.

And there, in one corner, stood a man clutching his head in despair. In front of him, a rectangular crystal screen flickered, lines of runic code racing across it in dizzying streams of light.

From what he was shouting, it sounded like the machine was working… perfectly.

So why did he look like he'd just witnessed the end of the world?

"Why?! Why is it working now of all times?!" the man cried, gripping the edge of the desk like it had personally betrayed him. His hair was a mess, his robes half-unbuttoned, and there was an unmistakable madness in his eyes.

'...He's definitely happy. Just expressing it in the most terrifying way possible,' I thought, resisting the urge to quietly back out of the room.

Before I could decide whether to announce myself or pretend I'd never been here, a sharp voice cut through the chaos.

"Who are you?"

I turned toward the sound.

A woman with sharp eyes and sleek dark hair approached, her expression unreadable behind the glint of her thick-rimmed glasses. Her lab coat was crisp and immaculate, a stark contrast to the chaos around her.

The moment I saw her face, I felt a spark of recognition.

Found her.

Petania Narsen.

A researcher renowned for her studies in dreams and the realm of Arcana, and one of Elysium's top professors in the field of magical cognition.

She was the reason I had come here today.

And from the sharp look in her eyes as she stopped in front of me, I could already tell—

This was going to be anything but a quiet conversation.

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