CHAPTER 227: CHAPTER 226: STRONGEST [1]

Huh?

"Not ’President.’ Call me Rhea. Like your sister did."

Aurhea slowly rose to her feet, her voice soft but steady.

She tilted her head, that familiar teasing curl tugging at her lips as her gaze narrowed on me.

"Again, I’m sorry it’s taken me this long to finally meet you, lil’ bro."

I stared at her, speechless. Then blinked, leaning back against my seat.

Next to me, Ceres continued her ritualistic assault on her salad — separating every pea and carrot dice with surgical precision. The girl was in her own world. Unbothered. Unbent. Unmoved.

Her focus could be published in a research paper.

Just how much does she hate salad...? My thoughts drifted briefly before I caught myself.

I shook off the distraction and returned my attention to the glowing spectacle that was Aurhea.

For a single breath, I said nothing. Just watched her.

I needed a second. Just one beat to process the weight of her words.

Then finally, I inhaled — steady, deep — regaining enough calm to string thoughts into speech.

Meeting her gaze, Aurhea returned mine without flinching.

"So you really knew my sister?" I asked calmly.

Aurhea chuckled — a soft, melodic giggle, light as a bell.

"’Knew her’ is an understatement," she said, her golden eyes flickering with a distant glint.

"If that were the case, then who didn’t know the famous Adrienne Solvaine Bright, hmm? She was... hard to miss."

Her voice lingered on the name with a fondness that made something in my chest pull tight.

She continued, still standing over the table, posture graceful but firm.

"What I had with your sister was more than just passing acquaintance. I didn’t just know her name. We were almost inseparable."

A breath. Then, gently:

"To me, she was just as much a big sister as she was to you. Adrienne... she was my role model." She added softly.

"..."

I silently regarded Aurhea’s words, my mind a mess.

Thoughts tangled, overlapping.

I wasn’t sure what to make of this.

Adrienne and I had been physically far apart ever since she won the Bloodline Ritual and got into the Academy, but we still shared a lot whenever we got the chance — if not everything.

Well... not everything.

I mean, obviously.

I knew I never told Adrienne all of my secrets.

But I also knew she didn’t tell me everything either.

Only, our reasons were probably very different.

While I held back because of obvious reasons about my secrets — whatever excuse I told myself — Adrienne? She held back to protect me. I knew that.

I saw it in her eyes.

She didn’t want me getting tangled in her mess. Didn’t want me burdened by things she thought I couldn’t change. Things i didn’t matter in.

So maybe... it kind of made sense she never mentioned Aurhea?

But still.

Why?

If they were really that close — if Adrienne had meant that much to Aurhea — then why hadn’t she come up even once? Not in all those years?

I didn’t know.

And honestly? I wasn’t trying to think too hard about it.

Because, whether it made sense or not...

I looked at Aurhea, studying her closely.

...I didn’t think she was lying.

A heavy sigh escaped my lips as I rubbed the bridge of my nose with two fingers.

Well... it’s not that deep.

Despite the knot of confusion, my gut still told me Aurhea wasn’t lying — and honestly, I couldn’t think of a good reason why she would.

Besides, if I really wanted answers, I could just confirm with Adrienne through my communicator later.

"So..." I asked, lifting an eyebrow, skeptical. "You’re not here to interrogate me or anything?"

Aurhea blinked. Her expression shifted — surprised, a little amused.

She tilted her head, and a wave of gold-spun hair fell to one side as she regarded me with curious eyes.

"Hm? Interrogate you?" she echoed. "Well, I am a little curious to hear what you’ve been through — your version of things. But if you’re referring specifically to the whole Dungeon incident..."

She trailed off slightly, then offered a small shrug.

"Unless there’s something you want to tell me about it?"

Just like that, she casually bulldozed through the entire chain of theories I’d just been stringing together in my head.

I stared at her for a moment.

Then I exhaled — long and slow.

It was one of those sighs that started in your soul.

Suddenly, I felt the weight return — the same exhaustion that had been crawling over me since morning. My headache, which had briefly dulled, now throbbed back to life with renewed vengeance.

I must’ve been making a pathetic face — because Aurhea, clearly amused, let out a soft laugh as she rose to her feet.

But then she stilled.

Her smile faltered. Something wary slipped into her expression.

The shift in her usual charismatic, teasing air didn’t go unnoticed. I glanced up at her.

"...What?"

"I guess our time’s up, Vic," she said lightly, scratching the side of her face with a sheepish smile. Then came the sigh — quiet, resigned.

"Huh...?" I blinked, slow on the uptake.

Her golden hair caught the dim light as she looked down at me, that small, strange smile still hovering on her lips — warm, but edged with something I couldn’t place. It made something stir oddly in my chest.

"Your sister used to talk about you all the time when it was just the two of us," she said. "I always thought it’d be nice to meet you one day. I even floated the idea of having you enrolled in the Academy to Adrienne... and ever since then, I kept looking forward to seeing you."

It sounded like a farewell. Or maybe just a confession she’d been waiting a long time to make.

She sighed again, more deeply this time.

"But... here you are. And here I am. Guess things didn’t quite turn out the way either of us imagined, huh? I ended up as Student Council President — buried under work and mind-numbing responsibilities. And you..."

She met my gaze with something softer than pity.

"You’ve been through your own kind of hell."

"..."

"I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you."