"I already tried healing magic," I replied with a small shrug. "Didn't do anything. Guess it'll fade on its own eventually."

She studied the scar for a moment longer, her expression unreadable. Then, with a quiet sigh, she looked away.

Professor Petania had apparently used healing magic on me yesterday while I was asleep.

But for some reason, the wound hadn't improved at all. Not even a little. Her magic was supposed to be top-tier—fast, clean, reliable—yet here I was, still hurting.

I tried not to think too deeply about it.

"It'll heal eventually," I told myself. "One or two scars shouldn't matter anyway."

So I brushed it off. Or at least, I pretended to.

"…Is that so?"

Anna's soft voice drifted toward me.

When I glanced at her, she wasn't looking at me—she was staring blankly at the floor, as if my words had triggered something she couldn't quite put into place. Her brows furrowed in a way that made me pause.

What was she thinking about?

Before I could ask, Feiru—who had dozed off curled against her—shifted slightly. I gently moved the small creature aside and set it down so it wouldn't wake her.

Then I quietly got to work.

I walked toward the far wall, the one covered in rows of old documents and neatly pinned notes. Pages full of complicated symbols and unfamiliar handwriting crowded the space.

I scanned through them, pulling out stacks of parchment, skimming, replacing, and searching again.

Then—

Found it.

My fingers closed around a thick register sitting on a lower shelf. The leather cover was worn, and its corners were frayed from use. It was labeled:

Academy Entrants – Current Year

Exactly what I needed.

I opened it immediately, flipping through the pages as quickly as I could while still reading every name. One by one, line by line.

But as I went on, my eyes narrowed.

Something was wrong.

"…No way."

I read through it again.

And again.

And one more time just to be sure.

But no matter how carefully I checked, one fact remained painfully clear.

Lisa's name wasn't there.

Not once.

Not anywhere.

She simply… didn't exist on the list.

According to the original story, Lisa should have enrolled in the academy the same year as me.

No matter how I look at it, her name should have been on the freshman list.

But it wasn't.

Not a typo, not an omission.

It simply… wasn't there.

That could only mean one thing—

Lisa truly didn't enter the academy this year.

"Why… isn't she here?"

I'd already been thrown off countless times by this world deviating from the original plot, but this?

A main heroine not appearing at all?

That was something I never saw coming.

To be honest, aside from Elena, I never cared much for the other heroines.

I didn't hate them, but I didn't have any affection for them either.

Their roles in the original were mostly the result of the author's… well, harem-writing fantasies.

If anything, I used to think things would go smoother if they just weren't around.

But that was when they were just drawings in a webtoon.

"Hm? What's wrong?"

Anna's voice pulled me back to reality.

She blinked at me slowly, looking a bit puzzled, her hand lazily stroking the Feiru on her lap.

She looked nothing like the strict, sharp, businesslike character I remembered from the story.

Just like Elena—who had become someone warm and real in front of me—Anna wasn't a fictional heroine anymore.

None of them were.

And Lisa…

Lisa definitely wasn't.

I could still clearly remember her expression from that day.

Her trembling lips.

The tears gathering in her eyes.

Her voice—

"Please… save me."

That wasn't the plea of a comic character.

That was a real girl standing in front of me, desperate and afraid.

Ignoring that would be… impossible.

My chest tightened with unease as the thought settled in.

I need to find her.

No matter what it takes.

----

The student council room fell silent again after Louis departed, the door closing with a soft click that seemed to echo longer than it should have.

Anna didn't move right away.

She sat there, fingertips lightly tapping the polished table—steady, controlled, almost as if each tap was helping her sort through the irritation gathering behind her composed expression.

Only after a few moments did she finally speak.

"Andel."

"Yes. You called for me."

The reply came from behind her, smooth and quiet enough to make it unclear if he had walked in… or had been there the entire time.

The man in the low-pulled hat stepped forward, slipping out of the shadows with an ease that suggested the darkness was more familiar to him than the light.

Anna still didn't look back at him.

Her eyes remained on the table as she asked, voice cool as glass—

"How is the task I assigned you progressing?"

"As you instructed, we are currently tracking the remaining culprits."

"So you still haven't captured all of them."

"…I apologize."

A sharp tsk escaped her lips.

The group that had tried to kidnap her—twice.

She'd given the order to apprehend them ages ago.

And yet, here they were… still "being tracked."

Not captured.

Not neutralized.

Just followed around like a lost trail of footprints.

Annoyance prickled at the edge of her expression.

"Then what about the information on that man?" she asked.

Andel didn't hesitate. "Here it is."

He handed her a thin stack of documents.

Anna took them and began flipping through the pages.

The handwriting was clean.

The reports were thorough.

Every detail had been neatly compiled: background records, affiliations, behavior patterns, sightings…

Then her eyes caught on a single word.

A small word.

Easy to miss.

But unmistakable.

Rebels.

Her eyebrows narrowed.

So that was it.

So that was the connection.

She exhaled slowly, her composure intact, but a faint twitch at the corner of her eye betrayed her irritability.

"This is getting more troublesome than I thought…" she muttered, voice barely above a whisper—yet heavy enough to send a chill through the room.

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