Path of the Extra

“Ah…”

A soft sound escaped Lumine’s lips as he felt the cold eyes of both Caleus and Azriel settle on him.

Tightening his grip on the doorframe to stop his body from trembling too much, Lumine steeled himself and stepped farther inside.

His gaze flickered briefly to the unconscious prince lying on the floor, but he forced himself to look away.

“You… you are the boy who ranked second in Azriel’s year, aren’t you?”

The Nebula prince spoke with a scrutinizing gaze that made Lumine’s heart pound even faster in fear.

“Y-Yes, that is me. My name is Lumine Versille. It is… an honor to meet you, Prince Caleus.”

Lumine saluted respectfully, trying to appear as harmless as possible.

“You had better have a good reason for barging in here like this,” Caleus said.

“Otherwise, there will be severe consequences.”

Looking back up, Lumine paled at the word consequences, then nodded quickly.

“I-I do, Your Highness! It is about Princess Jasmine, I-I—”

He stopped himself mid-sentence and looked toward Azriel instead.

At some point, Azriel had seated himself on the bed right beside Hioren, who sat hunched over, clutching his knees and shivering violently while quiet sobs left him. Azriel, meanwhile, had one leg crossed over the other and was resting a balled fist against his mouth, watching Lumine with open interest.

A wave of terror swept through Lumine.

Still, he forced himself to speak.

“You will need me to save Princess Jasmine.”

That stunned everyone in the room.

Caleus snarled almost instantly.

“What? What makes—”

“Is this one of your visions?”

Azriel cut him off.

Lumine gulped and nodded several times.

“Yeah…”

Confused, Caleus looked at Azriel.

“What do you mean by visions?”

Azriel turned toward him and answered in a dead-serious tone.

“He is a seer. Though he is still extremely lacking.”

A vein bulged on Caleus’s forehead.

“…I see. So that is how he already knew Jasmine was in trouble. But why am I only aware of this now? If we had a seer among us, this should have been told back when we dined Azriel!”

“Yes,” Azriel said. “But as I said, he is lacking. He only gets vague information as a seer, which he barely understands once in a blue moon.”

Caleus accepted the answer reluctantly, while Lumine fought the urge to cover his face in shame.

’I actually only found out about jasmine after going back to the garden, thinking it was all over, and the surviving participants told me what happened when these two showed up… but it’s better not to say that.’

Just the thought of the garden, painted red, made Lumine feel sick.

Looking at the unconscious body of one of the Dusk brothers made him feel worse.

But he swallowed it all down.

’Gods… he really broke his back… I was terrified to come in here after hearing those screams echo through the estate…’

Lumine narrowed his eyes slightly as he looked at Azriel.

’But… he covered for me again, huh… Azriel knows I’m lying, but he didn’t hesitate to lie for me. He trusts me. At least that much is clear.’

“Then why do we need your help?” Caleus asked.

Steadying his voice and forcing a bit more confidence into it, Lumine answered,

“I… I don’t know. In fact, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. I-I just know that when we reach Princess Jasmine and Princess Celestina… you will need my help.”

Caleus pinched his chin and looked at Lumine suspiciously.

“Lacking indeed,” he muttered.

Then, sighing as he ran a hand through his blood-soaked hair, he said,

“Still, now that Lioren is officially missing, we’ll have to form a rescue team. I assume you want to be part of it?”

Lumine nodded immediately.

“I promise I won’t hold you back.”

“I doubt that,” Caleus said, catching him off guard. “You’re the same one who got his ass kicked on the first day and let your girl get her back broken—just like little Vi over there.”

He jerked a thumb toward Vioren’s unconscious body, making Lumine bite his lip.

“Give him a break, Caleus.”

Azriel rose to his feet, patting Hioren’s shoulder a few times and making him flinch.

“We do not have much time left. I can personally vouch for his ability to be useful to us.”

“What about Sir Felix?”

Azriel walked toward them, leaving Hioren behind, and shook his head.

“None of my men are here, it seems. What about yours?”

“…Only one soldier.”

“Better than none.”

Rubbing his face, Caleus gave a sharp nod.

“This is a rescue mission, then. You know where they are, right? So we go in without being noticed, get Jasmine—”

“And Celestina.”

“Right. And her. Then we get out.”

Caleus looked at Lumine.

“You any good at stealth?”

Lumine nodded at once.

“The best. You won’t hear a sound from me.”

Scowling faintly, Caleus walked over to him and sized him up for a moment while Lumine stood there stiffly, sweat trickling down his face.

“Move,” Caleus said at last.

“R-Right.”

As Lumine stepped aside, Caleus walked past him and left a final order behind.

“Meet me at the gate in thirty minutes. I’ll try to gather anyone useful I can still find.”

Feeling awkward after Caleus’s sudden exit—and even more nervous now that he was gone—Lumine glanced at Azriel, who was looking at him with a mysterious smile.

“Well?”

“Well?” Lumine repeated, his voice noticeably more uneasy.

“You wanted me to spare them, didn’t you?”

Azriel stepped aside.

Hioren immediately looked at Lumine with gratitude before quickly rushing to his brother’s side.

“T-thank you…” Lumine said softly.

’I guess this counts as gaining an ally from a royal of a great clan,’ Lumine noted to himself.

Then Azriel said something that made Lumine’s heartbeat skip.

“Bring Yelena with us.”

Lumine’s eyes widened.

“What? She—she shouldn’t! It’s too dan—”

“Her [Instincts] will be vital if we want to get in and out alive.”

Lumine shut his mouth.

’…He’s right.’

Even so, he hated the thought of putting Yelena in that kind of danger.

“You can show yourself, you know.”

Frowning in confusion at Azriel’s sudden words, Lumine heard footsteps behind him. He turned—and his eyes widened.

“H-Hi…” Yelena gave an awkward smile and a small wave from the doorway. Beside her stood another handsome boy with copper hair and hazel eyes.

Azriel looked at Yelena.

“You are fine with coming, Yelena?”

Yelena nodded, her expression turning serious.

“I owe Princess Celestina, Princess Jasmine, and you more than I can repay. I’ll help in any way I can.”

She clenched her fists, determined.

’…I guess that settles it.’

Knowing there was no point trying to change her mind, Lumine let out a quiet sigh before noticing the questioning look Azriel was giving the other boy, who looked visibly terrified.

“Ah.” Catching Azriel’s attention, Lumine quickly introduced him.

“This is Jeremy, a student and a noble from a clan called Cesk. We met during the… well, challenge that angel forced on the participants. He had a green marker, and we stuck together.”

’To be exact, he was cowering in a corner until Yelena and I found him, and I took the opportunity to make an ally of him…’

“Cesk?” Azriel tilted his head slightly.

At the same time, the sounds of Vioren coughing—finally beginning to wake—could be heard from behind them.

Jeremy stepped forward and bowed with proper decorum.

“It is an honor to meet you, Prince Azriel.”

“Mhm.”

Looking down at him, Azriel asked,

“What great clan does your clan fall under?”

“…The Frost Clan, Your Highness.”

Azriel narrowed his eyes at him. The boy kept his gaze lowered in humility.

“Do you have any value?”

Value?

Yelena and Lumine both tensed at the question, as though Azriel might butcher the poor boy on the spot. Jeremy pursed his lips before finally answering,

“I… I am a healer…”

Azriel glanced toward the Dusk twins.

“Well, someone here needs healing, don’t they? Shouldn’t it be your noble duty to help rescue a prince?”

Jeremy’s eyes widened. He looked at Azriel, then toward the twins. Hioren, still pale and shaken, silently gave the noble boy a pleading look.

Gone was the arrogant superiority of a young prince.

All that remained was a frightened royal, too scared of what Azriel might do to even speak carelessly.

“R-Right, Your Highness…”

Bowing again, Jeremy hurried over to assist the twins.

’I need to talk to Azriel. Shit… there’s so much I need to ask him, but I can’t do it here.’

Azriel walked past the two of them.

“Even though we are supposed to sneak in and rescue them from where they are being held, be prepared for a possible fight. For some reason, Nol couldn’t send them an invitation to [White Haven] either. Be prepared for anything.”

The two of them nodded at Azriel’s warning.

As he walked away, Lumine watched his back and bit his lip.

’Dammit…’

He still had not managed to properly talk to him again.

Frustrated, Lumine clenched his fists.

Then he felt Yelena’s soft fingers gently wrap around his arm.

She looked at him with worry in her eyes and spoke in a quiet whisper meant only for him.

“You’ve been acting strange…” She shook her head. “…No, your actions have been strange. And now this… with the princesses needing to be rescued… You could have died barging into this room like that…”

Her gaze drifted toward the Dusk twins.

Lumine could not bear to look at them for long.

“I… I had no choice.”

With visible turmoil in her eyes, Yelena asked in an even quieter voice, meant for only the two of them,

“Did it finally come back?”

The system.

Lumine nodded immediately.

That was answer enough—and it only made her more anxious.

“…The last time we listened to it…”

“I know…”

“But—”

“But it’s different this time…” Lumine said quickly.

“It… it’s nothing like last time.”

“Does it involve Prince Azriel?”

Lumine shook his head, then hesitated before leaning closer.

“…But I am going to confront him. I need to know what the deal with him really is. It’s driving me insane.”

Yelena’s eyes widened at his words. Then she pressed her lips together, as though weighing something heavy in her mind.

“If you’re really going to confront him properly…” she said at last, “then you should know that he knows.”

Lumine frowned, caught completely off guard.

“He told me back when we went with him into the Void Realm, when I was alone with him. I-I wanted to tell you much earlier, but I was unsure… I was scared, and confused. And even when I asked him how he knew, he said he would only tell me under one strange condition—that I impress him at the Tournament of the Greats…”

She lowered her gaze.

“I’m sorry, Lumine… I thought it was fine if I waited until I had sorted out my thoughts about him. One moment, my [Instincts] would tell me to stay as far away from him as possible… and the next, they would tell me he was the safest person there was. It confused me so badly. That’s why I kept telling you to keep your distance from him all this time…”

Lumine frowned harder, struggling to keep up with her sudden confession.

“What are you talking about?”

“..!”

Suddenly, Yelena grabbed his robes tightly and leaned in closer, startling him. Her lips came close to his ear as she whispered the words that made Lumine’s world stop for a moment.

“He knows everything.”