CHAPTER 276: NEW PROFESSORS (4)

Maerin hesitated. "It’s not just affinity count. His control, it’s beyond the scale. We had to shut down the dome’s secondary ward when it began to destabilize from interference."

Morgana’s eyes narrowed faintly. "And yet he walked out unharmed."

"Yes," Maerin said. "Almost serene."

A pause. Then, softer: "Headmistress... what is he?"

Morgana didn’t answer immediately.

Her gaze drifted toward the distant dome, the runes still faintly glowing from the overload earlier that day.

"I’ve asked myself that same question since the first day he enrolled," she said finally. "Merlin Everhart appeared from nowhere. No records from any academy. No family listed in the census. His mana signature doesn’t match any known bloodline pattern. He exists here, yet his origin is... blank."

Maerin’s brows furrowed. "You mean he’s undocumented?"

Morgana turned to face her, expression unreadable. "No. I mean his signature reads as new. Like the system recognized him as if he had just been born the moment he entered the academy’s records."

The air grew colder.

"That’s impossible," Maerin said.

"So is stabilizing four affinities."

The silence that followed was heavy. The kind of silence that felt alive, coiled tight, waiting to strike.

Morgana walked back to her desk, tapping the surface once. A holographic model rose, a sphere of light representing Merlin’s mana flow.

It pulsed rhythmically, four colors spiraling together, azure for water, gold for lightning, pale green for wind, and silver-white for space.

But beneath that swirl was something else.

A fifth color, faint, almost invisible. A distortion in the center, like the mana itself didn’t want to be read.

Maerin frowned. "That layer wasn’t in the readings earlier."

"It appeared when I adjusted the depth to Tier-10 perception," Morgana said softly. "A hidden resonance field. One I’ve never seen before."

She leaned closer, eyes narrowing. "It’s not interference. It’s... deliberate concealment. His mana signature is wrapped around something."

Maerin exhaled slowly. "You think he’s hiding his true level?"

Morgana’s gaze sharpened. "Or something inside him is hiding itself."

A shiver crawled down Maerin’s spine at the phrasing.

The headmistress straightened. "Either way, it changes nothing for now. Keep his results classified. Only the senior staff are to know. The students, especially Nathaniel Varen, must not hear a word."

Maerin nodded. "Understood. What about further testing?"

"Continue the Convergence Sessions," Morgana said. "But observe without interference. I want to see what happens when he reaches his limit."

"And if he doesn’t have one?"

Morgana turned away again, her reflection in the window sharp and distant. "Then this academy may not be the place that teaches him, it will be the place that learns from him."

After Maerin left, the office fell silent again.

Only the faint hum of mana filled the space, vibrating softly through the wards.

Morgana stayed standing by the window, her gaze still locked on the dome. Her reflection looked tired, not in body, but in the weight behind her eyes.

On her desk, the crystal tablet flickered once, a new reading sliding into view, Unauthorized Energy Surge Detected: Source, Unknown.

Morgana’s eyes narrowed.

Her fingers brushed the tablet, opening the report.

The coordinates were precise: the outskirts of the capital, near the city’s defense grid. The energy pattern, identical to the distortion at the core of Merlin’s signature.

A quiet, sharp breath escaped her lips.

"So it’s begun again," she whispered.

She reached into her desk drawer, pulling out a small pendant, a silver charm shaped like an ancient rune. The symbol of the Ten Stars, the world’s highest-ranked individuals. Hers.

The rune pulsed faintly, recognizing her touch.

For a moment, she hesitated, then whispered a single command.

"Trace resonance origin. Lock pattern ’Everhart.’"

The pendant glowed once, then dimmed, its runes shifting.

Morgana’s gaze hardened.

"Whatever you are, Merlin," she murmured, voice quiet, "you’re not just a student anymore."

Outside, thunder rolled faintly across the distant mountains, not from a storm, but from the city’s defense grid cycling power.

The night shuddered with energy, and the lights across the academy flickered once, as if the world itself was holding its breath.

The morning after the convergence session was washed in pale silver light.

The academy grounds shimmered faintly with dew, students scattered through the courtyards in slow conversation, some yawning, some laughing, some still bleary from late-night study.

But Merlin wasn’t among them.

He walked the silent upper halls of the main tower, the air cooler there, thinner, humming faintly with layered enchantments. His steps echoed softly over the polished marble, each sound swallowed by the quiet.

[Summoned: Headmistress Morgana Valecourt — Location: Northern Wing, Observation Chamber.]

The message had appeared when he woke.

Simple. Direct. No explanation.

He hadn’t needed one.

’So she noticed it too.’

He pushed open the double doors.

The Observation Chamber was vast, round, high-ceilinged, the walls carved with flowing runic sigils that bent light into rivers of color. In the center stood Morgana herself, her long coat shifting slightly in the mana breeze that pulsed through the air.

She turned when he entered. Her gaze was as sharp as ever, steady, golden, calm. The gaze of someone who had seen far more than she ever said aloud.

"Merlin," she said simply.

"Headmistress."

He stopped a few paces away, his posture relaxed but alert.

"You know why I called you."

"I can guess."

"Then tell me."

He met her eyes. "The Convergence Dome yesterday."

Morgana gave a faint nod. "The energy readings reached values beyond any recorded second-year in history. That, by itself, would have been noteworthy. But there was something else, wasn’t there?"

Merlin didn’t answer immediately. His gaze drifted upward, at the dome ceiling, where motes of suspended mana drifted like dust caught in sunlight.

"...The harmonics," he said quietly. "They weren’t stable. Something interfered midway."

"Something?"

He looked back at her. "Someone, maybe. Or something deeper."

Morgana’s expression didn’t change, but her attention sharpened. "Explain."

Merlin exhaled, slow. "When I connected the four affinities, lightning, wind, water, space, there was a moment when the resonance folded inward. Like another pulse, just beneath my own. It wasn’t hostile, but it wasn’t mine either."

"You didn’t lose control?"

"No." He paused. "It was like it wanted to be seen."

Silence hung between them.

Morgana stepped closer, her mana presence brushing faintly against his, not threatening, just testing.

"You’ve told me before that you sense mana differently," she said. "That it feels more like movement than pressure."

"Yes."

"What did this one feel like?"

Merlin hesitated, searching for the right words. "...Like memory."

Her brow furrowed slightly. "Memory?"

"Not mine," he said quietly. "Older. Familiar in the way a sound is familiar, even if you can’t remember where you heard it."