“It felt like… if I went in there, I’d never be able to come back out again.”
“……”
The young men underground fell silent. A heavy hush settled over them, like the eerie quiet that follows a scary story. The chill that swept through them, carried by the damp, haunting breeze of the basement, made their skin crawl.
“Would you mind explaining a bit more?”
Adrian was the first to speak.
Over the span of countless years, he’d had strange experiences from time to time. Moments when he faced forces even a dragon couldn’t comprehend—just like now. He wanted to understand more before this fragile link was severed.
Mikhail, who had been standing in the corridor beside him, turned to look at Adrian. He had his own goal—reclaiming his sword—but he couldn’t help but wonder why this guy was helping him so willingly.
“…More details?”
Hans opened his mouth to speak, then froze. It was because Adrian was staring directly at him.
Maybe it was because he was reliving the shock of that moment, but Hans felt his heart shrink under the freshman’s intense gaze. Adrian’s face, usually adorned with a light smile, now displayed a symmetry so inhuman it stood out even more starkly.
The dragon realized the being in front of him was, after all, merely human.
Sensing Hans’ fear and silence, Adrian gave him a reassuring smile. At that, Hans slowly began to part his stiffened lips.
“Well…”
Hans muttered. His voice echoed through the quiet basement corridor.
“Isn’t it kinda creepy down here? Can’t we talk somewhere else?”
He hugged his arms and rubbed them, his face on the verge of a pout.
“Let’s talk under the warm, bright sun instead.”
“Sure, we can do that.”
Adrian and Mikhail nodded. There was no real need to have this conversation in a place this dark and gloomy anyway.
***
Between the main building of the academy and the dormitories lay a vast garden.
In the center of the garden, several fountains and benches were arranged in neat rows, and students would spend time there after class or between lectures.
Adrian, Mikhail, and Hans walked across the garden.
At the center stood a beautifully landscaped fountain adorned with a dragon sculpture, surrounded by various materials and statues arranged with aesthetic precision. It was a space used for outdoor academy parties or speeches by invited guests. The tall, well-maintained trees around it offered just enough seclusion for secret meetings like this.
The young men gathered near one of the benches. Though it was said they “occupied” it, none of them actually sat down—they simply stood in comfortable positions.
Hans stretched with a deep inhale the moment they left the lecture hall basement. After being in that dark underground space, the bright sunlight felt like salvation.
Swinging his raised arms lightly in circles, he began to speak.
“Well, I’d still take the forest over the lava lake.”
He smiled at the two younger students beside him. Just hearing “lava lake” conjured images of bubbling molten danger.
“You two are something else. You went in there without flinching? There are even rumors, you know. That the students who went missing from the academy… walked right through that door!”
Adrian smirked, as if he’d just heard a clever joke.
“Is that so? Then I suppose no one’s ever come out after walking through it?”
But Hans’s expression was dead serious. He looked at Adrian and Mikhail with a worried gaze, like an older brother concerned for his juniors.
“Of course not. No one knows exactly why, but even though everyone saw something different behind that door, they all said the same thing—that it felt like a place you must never go into.”
That feeling, huh.
Adrian thought back to his own experience—how he had felt nothing at all.
Humans.
A place you must never go into.
A forest and a lava lake.
Did the presence of a dragon cause a different outcome in their case?
What if only the prince had entered?
Adrian furrowed his brows.
Each question led to another, and he didn’t have a single answer. But if he could find just one, it might become the key that unlocked the rest.
“Next time, don’t go in—call the academy security force. They mentioned it during orientation, remember?”
Adrian and Mikhail, only a year younger than Hans, avoided eye contact, feigning indifference. In fact, this was the first time they’d even heard that the academy had a security force. Hans, sensing this, was just about to launch into another round of lecturing when—
“Ah,” Adrian cut in, as if something had just occurred to him.
“By the way, did you happen to feel the earthquake too, senior?”
Adrian’s amber-colored eyes fixed on Hans, as if scanning his face for the slightest reaction.
“Uh…”
Hans stared into the air, racking his brain in response to Adrian’s question, but eventually gave up. He shook his head with a sheepish smile.
“I’m not sure. But the academy’s main building has always had frequent tremors, even in the past.”
“I see. In that case, I’ll need to speak with other witnesses as well.”
Adrian assumed he’d gotten everything he could from Hans, and smoothly shifted the topic toward other possible sources of information. Hans thought for a moment, mentally sorting through the students who came to mind, then nodded.
“…There are a few. Some have already graduated, but… I can introduce you to the ones still enrolled.”
“Thank you. That would be a huge help.”
Adrian responded with a warm smile.
“But, senior.”
Just as things were winding down and Hans was mentally preparing for his next class, Adrian called out to him again.
“How do you think that door forms? Magic?”
“No.”
Mikhail pushed himself off the fountain he had been leaning against.
“It’s not magic. If it were, there should have been at least a trace of mana—but I didn’t sense anything at all.”
He had placed his hand on the wall where the door had appeared in the basement. Detecting mana residue was basic-level spellcraft, so he was certain of his judgment. Hans nodded in agreement with Mikhail’s words.
“Yeah. Catherine said the same thing.”
Coming from a student in the Department of Magic, rather than someone in the Arts Department, the statement carried more weight. Of course, Adrian already knew this. He hadn’t asked because he didn’t know—he’d simply set the question up so the other two could draw the conclusions themselves.
“If it’s not magic… then what is it?”
Mikhail muttered under his breath, a frown forming. Everything in the world obeyed fixed laws, and within the framework of what he knew, the only thing capable of bending those laws was magic. If it wasn’t magic, then the door in the basement had to be something that existed outside the known boundaries of this world.
Adrian shrugged lightly and spoke again.
“Senior. Do you remember the date you saw the door?”
“Yeah. Uh, I think so? It was around exam time last year, so I should be able to figure out the date.”
Adrian nodded at Hans’s answer.
Hmm—Hans crossed his arms, eyeing Adrian and Mikhail, who were both brimming with intensity. This wasn’t just idle curiosity about spirits or mystical phenomena, that much was clear. He started to suspect there was another reason these two were digging so deeply.
“So, what exactly are you trying to figure out? Is it just curiosity?”
“Well, I suppose so.”
“No.”
The first answer came from Adrian, but the second belonged to Mikhail.
At the sound of Mikhail’s cold voice, Adrian turned his gaze away from the fountain to look at him. Mikhail’s expression was blazing—like he was dead set on capturing the Salamander no matter what.
“If it’s not curiosity, then what is it?”
In response to Hans’s question, Mikhail curled up one side of his lip into a smirk.
“The Salamander… stole my sword.”
“What?”
Hans blinked, as if he’d just heard something ridiculous, and looked over at Adrian for confirmation—only to find Adrian giving a quiet nod.
“You’re serious?”
Hans tilted his head. Now that he thought about it, the prince wasn’t wearing his sword in its sheath.
That’s odd.
Hans might have been in the Department of Arts, but he’d still spent a year studying elemental spirits like any proper academy student. So he asked a perfectly reasonable question.
“Did you, like… leave your sword out in front of the Salamander or something? Spirits don’t usually steal from people just standing around, you know.”
“……”
It wasn’t just left out—he’d practically offered it to the thing, like please, take this. Adrian glanced over at the prince with a smile tugging at his lips.
Mikhail, catching the look, scowled and turned his head sharply away. That question had rubbed salt into a wound that had only just begun to scab over.
