Atman led them down a corridor that was tilted slightly downward.

The rain outside stayed loud for a moment, drumming against windows and roofs, but as they moved deeper, the sound softened. It didn't vanish completely - it just turned distant, muffled.

Raizen followed behind Atman, Saffi close at his side, Kenzo walking a step ahead with his hammer floating near his shoulder.

At first, Raizen expected the Academy to look like most places of status. Or at least like the other halls he's seen, like the Sky Domain.

He expected a hall of trophies of some sort. Painted portraits of known summoners. Intricate banners that spoke about history and glory. Something that showed how many things Ukai has done.

But the walls were empty.

No diplomas. No paintings. No medals. No plaques.

Nothing.

Just smooth wooden surfaces. The wood wasn't polished into shine either. It still looked natural, alive, the way a tree trunk looks when you take off the bark.

Raizen stared, and the longer he walked, the more unsettled he felt.

This space didn't feel humble.

It felt… Liminal.

Like these halls were meant simply to be passed through, not remembered. Like the Academy didn't want you to linger here long enough to ask questions.

The corridor turned.

Then turned again.

Then split into a junction.

Atman didn't hesitate at first. He kept walking with the confidence of someone who knew things around here. But Raizen noticed the small things.

Atman's eyes flicking to the left wall. Then to the right.

He slowed for half a second.

Then kept going.

A few meters later, the hall angled again, the floor tilting just a bit.

These corridors weren't just leading somewhere. They were more like a maze.

But not the kind of maze someone designed with intention.

More like a maze that formed because of how it grew.

The halls didn't follow patterns. They didn't line up the way Neoshiman buildings did. There were no clean grids. No consistent symmetry.

Sometimes a corridor widened for no reason. Sometimes it narrowed until Kenzo's (wide) shoulders almost brushed both sides.

Sometimes doors appeared, simple wooden doors set into the walls with no markings, no nameplates, no signs. They looked like ordinary doors, but in a place like this, ordinary meant suspicious.

Raizen's eyes drifted to one as they passed.

He thought that there must be classrooms behind it. He tried to imagine them: smaller halls. Studies on their own beasts. He imagined students sitting quietly inside, unaware that just outside their door, a Royal Scholar, the personal assistant of the Lighthouse and two Academy figures walked in circles like lost tourists.

Atman muttered under his breath.

Raizen didn't catch the words at first.

Atman made another turn, then frowned as if the turn was wrong.

Kenzo glanced back. "Where are you taking us?"

"At the practice hall, of course!" Atman said quickly.

Kenzo lifted a brow. "Which one?"

Atman's eyes flicked. "There is only one big room! We call it, the Ball Room."

He kept walking, a little faster now, like speed could fix orientation.

Raizen kept watching him.

Atman's posture stayed straight, but the confidence in his steps began to thin. His eyes moved more often now, scanning corners, checking angles, searching for something familiar that refused to appear.

Saffi whispered in Raizen's ear again, startling him: "He's stressed."

Raizen nodded slowly.

Atman muttered again. This time Raizen caught a few words.

"No… that's not right…" Atman whispered to himself. "It should be… it should have been before…"

He stopped for half a second, stared at a blank wall like it was never there, then kept walking.

Kenzo's gift was noticing things and immediately asked the one question nobody wanted asked.

"Hey! You good?" Kenzo asked.

Atman's jaw tightened. "Yes."

Kenzo hummed. "You look like you're arguing with the pathway."

Atman rubbed the bridge of his nose once, then dropped his hand like he didn't have enough energy for that either.

"The pathway is… Built differently" Atman said.

Kenzo's hammer drifted slightly as Kenzo leaned closer to look around.

"Differently how?" Kenzo asked.

Raizen's gaze stayed on the wood. The grain didn't look like boards fit together. It looked continuous, like the hall was carved out of a single living structure.

Except it wasn't carved.

Raizen saw it now.

The walls weren't one giant trunk.

They were shaped from multiple thick trees grown right next to each other, their forms pressed together and intertwined until there was no clear boundary between where one ended and another began. You could still see small hints of separation in the way the grain shifted, like overlapping muscles under skin.

Ukai didn't cut these trees down and rebuild over them.

Ukai made the trees become the building itself.

Kenzo's eyes narrowed as he noticed the same detail.

"So…?" Kenzo asked.

Atman exhaled through his nose, as if he was tired of explaining things that should be obvious in Ukai.

"We didn't carve the trees" Atman tried to explain.

Kenzo frowned. "You didn't carve them?"

Atman shook his head once. "We reshaped them."

Kenzo stared. "Atman, I think you're a bit tired…"

Atman nodded. "I'm serious. Building an entire structure from separate planks or logs would've been too heavy. Too difficult. And it would hurt the city."

His eyes flicked toward the wall again. "So we shaped the trees to become the structure themselves. Using Eon, of course."

Raizen tried to imagine it.

Multiple trees guided to grow together, thickening in specific places, bending without breaking, opening space without cutting. Eon shaping life into architecture with patience.

It was beautiful.

For Raizen, it was also… Mildly terrifying.

Because it feels really weird to know that your building is alive…

Kenzo grunted. "So the classes and halls are made of… Trees."

Atman's mouth twitched. "Yes."

Kenzo stared down the hall. "Then why are the corridoes so complicated?"

Atman's expression tightened again.

He glanced left.

Then right.

"They shift" Atman said quietly.

Kenzo blinked. "You're dead serious."

Atman puffed once, then slapped Kenzo's back. "HAH! Got you, dummy!"

Kenzo made a sound that could've been disappointment or laughter.

"You're telling me the Academy moves, and was supposed to believe you? Grow up…"

Atman started to laugh, but it sounded like a donkey suffocating.

Kenzo stared at him, then at the hall, then at the doors along the wall.

Raizen watched Atman as he couldn't stop laughing.

Between the wheezes, his exhaustion showed again. Dark circles. But now there was something else layered over it - quiet stress that tried hard not to show.

Atman took another turn.

Then another.

Raizen noticed how the sound never changed.

The wooden halls echoed a bit, and the rain sounds became even more distant now.

Atman slowed down near a junction with three corridors branching off.

He stared at it.

His lips moved.

"No… no, it should be…" he whispered.

Kenzo leaned in. "It should be what?"

Atman didn't answer right away.

He took the left corridor.

They kept following him like ducklings cluelessly follow their mother.

Raizen's unease rose.

There was something unsettling about this place being so empty. So clean. So undecorated.

A school should look lived in, no? This looked more like a passageway inside something larger.

Saffi's eyes drifted around constantly, but even she didn't talk much at all. The atmosphere pressed down on her excitement, turning it into quiet observation.

Kenzo, thankfully, kept the humor alive.

He glanced at another blank wall. "Do you ever hang anything up? Like a sign? A map? A large arrow that says "This way, you moron"?"

Atman exhaled through his nose. "Nah."

Kenzo frowned. "Why?"

Atman kept walking. "Because if you memorize the building, you stop paying attention."

Kenzo blinked. "That is the worst philosophy I've ever heard in my entire life."

Raizen's mouth twitched, but the unease didn't leave.

They passed another door. Then another one.

Then a hallway that widened into a small open space for literally no reason.

Atman paused there and looked around quickly.

His eyes flicked to a corner.

Then to a corner somewhere at an intersection.

Then to the floor, like the floor might have markings.

Nothing.

Raizen watched the tension tighten in Atman's shoulders.

He wasn't panicking.

He was just quietly stressed.

Like he was when he found out about the Ruler's "curse" and Elin's history.

Atman turned around another corner, then immediately slowed down again.

His brows bent.

He stared at a section of wall where the grain curled differently.

"…That wasn't there before…" he whispered.

Kenzo's head snapped toward him. "No, I'm pretty sure we're just somewhere else."

Atman's mouth pressed into a thin line.

He kept moving, faster now.

Raizen followed, curiosity pulling him forward. He wanted to understand this place. After another series of turns, Atman stopped abruptly.

He looked ahead.

Then behind.

Then ahead again.

Kenzo raised an eyebrow. "Don't tell me."

Atman didn't respond immediately.

He sighed, then he turned toward the three of them.

His shoulders sank slightly, and his expression softened into reluctant honesty.

"Well… I think" Atman finally said.

"I'm lost."

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