I lay there in the middle of the sand, staring at the fragments of the shattered moon.
While Izel’s body rested on top of me.
Suddenly, a cold breeze blew, carrying the sand and throwing it over me, but I kept staring at the night sky without even blinking.
I thought what I was seeing was just an illusion... or perhaps there was something wrong with my eyes.
But no matter how many times I looked again, I always saw the same thing.
That gray moon from my past life.
And those familiar constellations.
Ursa Major... Ursa Minor... Orion.
The more I stared, the more I saw.
And above them all stretched a river of diamond dust, linking horizon to horizon... I didn’t need much to recognize it.
It was the galactic belt... simply the Milky Way.
"We really are on Earth," I muttered.
I raised my hand, grains of sand sliding over it before I pushed Izel off me.
Normally, her weight was very light to me, but now she felt extremely heavy.
I pushed her, her unconscious body falling into the sand.
Once her weight was off me, I managed to rise again, then forced myself into a sitting position.
My damaged mind made it hard to focus, and the moment I sat up, I felt the world spinning around me.
But slowly, it improved, and I was able to see again.
In front of me, the sand dunes stretched to the horizon. I turned my head right and left and saw the same thing.
Beneath the shattered moon extended a world of golden sand.
It was beautiful... very beautiful.
With great effort, I managed to turn and saw what was behind me.
This time, it wasn’t just sand.
There was something else as well.
A few meters away from us, there was what looked like a hollow tree trunk. Its colors weren’t clear because of the dizziness and nausea.
I stared into the void inside it for a while.
Then, with great effort, I managed to move the essence in my body again and activate my ability.
But the moment I did, the pain multiplied several times. I gritted my teeth as I endured it.
I needed to check our surroundings.
Fortunately, I didn’t sense anything. Then I deactivated my ability, and the pain lessened slightly.
I looked at Izel lying beside me as I forced myself to stand.
I stood, my feet sinking into the sand, then bent down and picked up Izel before heading toward the hollow trunk.
After only a few meters, I reached it and stepped inside.
Its diameter was about five meters, so it seemed very large.
I didn’t go deep inside. I only walked a few meters before dropping Izel onto the sand-filled ground and collapsing beside her.
I leaned my back against the wall of the trunk, struggling to remain conscious.
But my struggle was useless.
Because soon, darkness devoured my vision.
...
Three days had passed since the disappearance of the first-year students who had been sent on the Helen mission.
Since the victims who had disappeared were ordinary people, the academy had believed this mission would be safe for the students.
But in the end, it turned into a disaster.
All seven vanished at the same time.
This event raised the Helen disappearance case to the highest levels.
The Temple students who had been sent were not weak—they were the best... a group capable of facing second-year students.
So it became clear that the matter was not simple, and that Helen’s security had underestimated it.
Thus, as soon as news of the students’ disappearance reached the Axis, a group of the very best was sent to investigate and retrieve the students.
And not just experts—the Axis Director himself went there... not because the case concerned him, but because the students did.
They weren’t merely children, but much more than that.
High-ranking nobles, the adopted son of Duke Sivrax, and even a princess.
All of this turned what happened into a catastrophe for the Axis.
It was true that the Axis considered the death of students a possibility in missions and even examinations—but not like this.
Not when such a group disappeared all at once.
It was true that the method of their disappearance was discovered through certain special abilities possessed by some of the powerful individuals the Axis had sent.
But all they obtained was that Talia had uttered ancient words while holding something in her hand.
What was that thing, and where had she obtained it? No one knew.
It wasn’t that they hadn’t conducted enough investigations or lacked the necessary abilities... no.
It was different this time... it was as if those events had been erased.
As though they had happened and not happened at the same time.
One of the individuals sent by the Axis possessed a powerful and extremely rare ability.
An ability that allowed him to see a specific person’s past at a specific time through a medium.
But whether it was the students’ past or the past of the victims who had disappeared... they shared one thing in common.
Glimpses of their past—those that should have indicated to the investigators how they disappeared—were no longer there.
Or at least, they could not see them.
What was the reason? Perhaps some ability... a very powerful one at that.
Who was responsible for this? No one knew.
In the end, the Director was still investigating in Helen, while the Axis was trying to prevent the news from leaking to the families of the missing.
And the latter task was Alicia’s.
Now she walked down the corridor leading to her office, her shoes tapping against the floor.
Soon she reached the door, opened it, stepped inside, and closed it again.
She stared at the familiar office with the same expressionless look, then walked and sat behind the neatly arranged stack of papers on the desk.
She knew the news would soon leak—but only to the noble families.
As for the imperial family itself, they had already learned of their princess’s disappearance.
As a result, there was an important guest at the Axis today.
Perhaps Alicia was supposed to go receive him, but she saw no need to do so.
She reached for the stack of papers, pulled the first one toward her, then calmly picked up her pen and began handling the same routine work as usual.
It was boring... and today even more so.
Time passed while she remained in that state.
But it did not last forever, for soon a faint knock spread across the door.
Alicia did not raise her head from the paper, ignoring the persistent knocking.
But it seemed the person behind the door had already lost his patience.
The handle moved, and the door opened before a twenty-five-year-old young man with a striking appearance stepped inside.
With black hair and red eyes, pure skin and a tall stature, a member of the imperial family walked into Alicia’s office with a cheerful smile on his face.
Prince Zen Asterval, Ellen’s older brother, stared at Alicia behind the stack of papers.
"It’s been a while since we last saw each other, Alice."