Ch.19- Can't Escape.

Amy stopped smiling.
“Wait, it’s out already?” She had been enjoying making plans. Actually reading what happened was another matter.
[Chapters 154 and 155. A double release this month.]
“Two? Why two? Since when is that a thing?”
[The manga reached a milestone. The publisher asked the “author” for an extra chapter to celebrate. Presumably they expect to sell more copies.]
Amy shifted on the bench. She remembered the last time she’d read the manga, and suddenly didn’t feel like opening Libris at all.
“I have homework, actually. Just remembered.”
[You were eager to influence the readers a moment ago. I offered to show you what they are reading, and now you have homework?]
“It’s not the same thing.”
[Really? Explain.]
She scowled, hugging Libris closer to her chest as she walked. “The last time I read those comments, it wasn’t exactly a pleasant experience, if you recall.”
[I am aware.]
“Then—
[Running away from uncomfortable truths won’t change your reality, only make it worse.]
“I’m not running away,” Amy muttered.
[Deny it as much as you want.] Libris said with a sigh. [It doesn’t change that if you don’t know what the readers think about your character, you won’t be able to affect their perception of you.]
Amy slowed down. That was the annoying part: she needed to know. Otherwise she would be making up plans based on what she hoped the readers thought of her, which probably wasn’t going to work.
“Ughhhhhhh…..fine,” she grumbled, picking up her pace again. “Actually I don’t really care that much about what a bunch of random people think about me anyway.”
[First you need them to like you, then you don’t want to know whether they like you, and now their opinions don’t matter. Do tell me when you settle on one.]
“You really can’t let me have anything, can you?”
She found an oak away from the paths and sat against it. Most of the students had gone to eat or returned to their rooms to study; hardly anyone was left outside.
[Chapter 154 is titled: “Past never leaves.” It covers everything after the nightmare to Crow, Lyra, Lain, Ash, and you, gathering in Crow’s room to open the box.]
Libris transformed. The cover art for Chapter 154 showed Crow standing alone on the Academy rooftop at sunset, his expression somber as he held a small wooden box against his chest.
“Why is he on a rooftop?”
[Because it’s cool?]
Always so edgy…
With a sigh, Amy began reading.
The first panel was Crow looking around the courtyard. Academy security had arrived. Behind them, healers were examining the students while teachers sealed off Building B. Crow stood watching, apparently with nothing to say.
The text box disagreed: Fuck.
“I get it,” Amy said, smiling despite herself. “More than I’d like to.”
Crow still hadn’t sheathed his sword. The next panel showed him standing in his bloodied uniform among what was left of the creatures. Their bodies were turning to liquid, with a hiss written beside the puddles.
Ash walked up to him. His clothes hadn’t fared any better.
“Headcount?” Crow asked without looking at him.
“Dunno,” Ash replied quietly. “I think everyone on our side survived, though I don’t know about Lain’s.”
“Lain?”
“Apparently, she and Amy were in a nightmare this whole time and were stopping a ritual of some kind.”
“What…?” Crow asked with an incredulous expression on his face.
“Go and ask her yourself, she’s in the infirmary, east wing. I’ll go back with Lyra, make sure she doesn’t overextend herself on healing the students.”
He nodded then began walking towards—
“Wait,” Ash’s voice stopped him.
Crow looked back toward Ash, who held a book in his hands.
“Lyra told me to give you this,” he said as he gave Libris to Crow.
Crow inspected the book for a few seconds before nodding to himself. Then he left.
[I still find the fact that you gave me to him very distasteful.]
“…didn’t we get over this already…?” Amy asked aloud, feeling exasperated. Was it genuinely such a big deal? She wondered.
[Whatever…]
She rolled her eyes before shifting her attention back to the manga.
The scene changed to the Academy infirmary. The rescued students filled most of the beds in the wide opening panel. Healers worked between them, their spells lighting the sheets and faces. Instructions crowded the speech bubbles. From one of the beds, someone was crying.
Crow entered, immediately drawing everyone’s attention; several people were eying him with admiration.
He walked forward, soon reaching the far end of the room. Lain was resting in a bed partially hidden behind a privacy screen.
She looked tired and had some bruises around her arm and leg, but thankfully she did not seem severely injured.
What followed was a tirade of questions as Lain explained the whole situation to Crow before the topic focused on the box.
“…are you certain?” Lain’s speech bubble was characteristically small.
Crow hadn’t looked away from the box.
“Yes. I know this work.” His speech bubble had sharper edges than hers.
“…your father’s?”
He nodded, giving her nothing else to go on.
“How did it come to be there…? In that place?”
The view moved closer to Crow. “I would like to know that myself.”
His thoughts continued beneath the panel: Three years following rumors. Looking everywhere I could think of. And Lain finds it here, at the Academy. In a nightmare ritual.
A nurse came over before they could say more.
“You should let Miss Arkwright sleep. Her core needs time to recover.” The nurse looked Crow over. “And you could use some rest yourself.”
“I’m going. She was giving back something I’d lent her to read.”
“Then I’ll give you five minutes to finish. Professor Vanheim has already spoken to us about your recovery.”
When she went to the next bed, Lain passed him the box. Crow tucked it inside his jacket.
“…are you going to open it?”
“Not until I know why it was there.”
Lain nodded. She didn’t argue, though a thought box appeared beside her: He’s afraid.
“Get some sleep,” Crow said, more gently. “I’m going to see how the others are doing.”
After guarding the box in his spatial storage ring, Crow moved through the infirmary, stopping at where Amy was currently resting. He put Libris next to a bedside table, and then studied her sleeping form with a mixture of curiosity and wariness but also gratefulness.
A moment of hesitation later, he bowed. “Thank you for your help,” he muttered.
She knew everything, his internal monologue read. She gave me this book already expecting those creatures to appear…
He silently stared at the unconscious girl before shaking his head. Whatever her plans are, one thing is sure…she’s on our side…at least for now.
Amy smiled as she read Crow’s thoughts. “Finally, some trust in me! I was getting tired of all this undeserved suspicion.”
[Are you forgetting he stabbed your copy without hesitation?]
“Small steps, Libris, small steps…”
Back to the manga, the scene shifted once again to show the nurse from before returning.
“Mr. Thorne, you’re wanted in the headmistress’ office. Now, please.”
Crow got up without asking why. There it is, he thought.
The following panels took him through the administrative wing. Students moved out of his way, though they waited barely a second before whispering to each other. He continued past them.
Amy turned the page and found a drawing of the office spread across both sides. It was round, with bookshelves lining the walls. Painted stars covered the dome above Elyndra’s desk.
“You seem determined to visit this office regularly, Mr. Thorne.” The headmistress indicated a chair. “Sit down. I’d like your account of what happened.”
“I’d prefer to stand.”
His thoughts appeared beside the speech bubble: They know something about my father and won’t tell me. I have no reason to trust her.
Elyndra studied him before answering. “As you wish. Start at the beginning. Leave nothing out.”
“Wait a second,” Amy interrupted, offended. “Why does Crow get the Headmistress and I have to deal with fucking Kaelen!?”
[Protagonist perks.]
“This isn’t fair…”
[Life isn’t fair. If it was, you wouldn’t be in this manga fighting for your life in the first place.]
“Ugghhhh….”
Amy returned to the page. Crow described the incident, and the manga returned to Building B as he spoke. There were parts Amy hadn’t read before. He was holding several creatures off a group of younger students, keeping Bloodedge between them. Other panels covered how he’d identified the copies and searched for Amy and Lain after they went missing.
“What were we fighting?” he asked. “I’ve never seen anything like them.”
“Blood mimics.” Elyndra got up and went to the window. It was nearly dark outside. “Very old magic. From hell.”
“The Blood Emperor.”
“Yes.” She turned from the window. “Someone had the knowledge to perform his ritual here. We need to find out who, and where they learned it.”
The Tribe of Onyx? Crow wondered.
“Let me help.” His hands had closed into fists.
“You have helped. Now the faculty and the Council will take over.”
“Headmistress—”
“You will attend your classes and keep out of this investigation. I want that understood before you leave my office.”
He finally nodded, still plainly unhappy with the answer.
The manga skipped ahead.
It was evening when Crow next appeared, back in his room. A framed photograph stood on his nightstand. The man in it was smiling, and had the same black eyes as Crow. It was his supposed father, Abaddon, whom he had never met, the same man from his fragmented memories.
“Wait,” Amy interjected, curiosity clear in her voice. “Now that I think about it, they have photographs here? Isn’t this world supposed to be medieval-inspired?” she asked with a frown.
[We also have showers and magical elevators. What did you expect? This is a manga world.]
“…whatever.”
Amy kept reading.
Crow had spread a cloth on the floor and placed the box on it. He sat cross-legged in front of it as the room grew darker, still without opening it.
Someone knocked.
“Come in.” He pulled the cloth over the box.
Lain opened the door and looked around.
Crow let out a breath when he saw her. He uncovered the box again.
“…still closed?” she asked, shutting the door.
“Yes.”
She came over and knelt across from him. There were still bandages around her wrists.
“…are you afraid?”
“I’m being careful. If my father made this, opening it may not be that simple.”
“If?” Lain looked at the box. “…you aren’t certain?”
His hands tightened on his knees.
“As certain as I can be. Those are Avalon symbols. Old Kingdom work. I remember…” He didn’t finish.
“Then what is it?” she asked.
Crow stared at the box for a while. When he answered, the lettering was smaller.
“Five years ago, I didn’t even know I had a father. Since then I’ve had these memories, but nothing from him. No message. I’ve chased every rumor that might tell me something.” He looked down at the box. “Now I have this. Something of his, in that ritual chamber. What am I supposed to think? If he had a part in it…”
“…you don’t want that to be the answer,” Lain said.
“Yes.”
“I see…”
A few panels showed Crow and Lain in momentary silence as they gazed at the box, before Crow spoke once again.
“We are running late to class; let’s get that done, and then we will think about it.”
After a slight time skip, the scene shifted to Crow during Professor Drayke’s combat class—
“Wait…what…?” Amy’s face furrowed, her hands tightened against the book, and her heart dropped.
[What is it?]
She stared at the pages with a disbelieving expression, her fingers gripping the book tighter. Then, she frantically began looking back and forth, searching for it. But it wasn’t there.
It took more than a few seconds to process the torrent of emotions crashing down on her. Her heart began beating gradually faster.
“They…they completely skipped the minute of silence for Elias?” It took a big effort to say that name. “Like it never even happened?”
The manga had jumped from the aftermath of the Building B incident straight to Crow’s storyline, with no mention of the memorial service that had taken place for the student who died.
[Mmm… You’re right. It’s not included at all. Perhaps it would disrupt the narrative flow? Or maybe they’re saving it for a flashback in a later chapter.]
“That’s…” Amy swallowed hard, irritation starting to permeate in her expression. “….they can’t just skip over it like it didn’t matter.”
[Does it bother you that much? I thought you’d be relieved not to have to revisit that difficult moment. You yourself did not attend the service, after all.]
Amy shook her head, frustrated at her own conflicted feelings. “Hypocritical, I know. It’s just… it happened, you know? It was important. And now it’s like…” She trailed off, unable to properly articulate what was bothering her so much.
[I don’t understand.]
A long silence stretched on for several seconds as Amy wondered if she should continue speaking further. At the end, it did not matter what she wanted; her mouth just moved on its own, speaking despite herself.
“It’s like… they only needed him for that one scene. He dies, everyone leaves, and we’re done with him. That’s all he gets?”
[We are reading Crow’s story. He hardly knew Elias. You were there when it happened, so of course you notice what is missing. The readers have only what the author chose to show them.]
“Right,” Amy muttered. Her eyes fixated on the manga once again. “Everything is so real, people here are not that different from people back on Earth… It’s so confusing remembering that this whole thing is just a manga made to entertain…”
[…Would you like to take a break?]
It took a little while before she responded. “No,” She finally said after a shake of her head, her voice betraying no emotion. “Let’s keep going. There is no time to lose.”
Libris stayed silent momentarily, as if studying her.
[Very well.] It finally said.
Amy went back to Crow’s combat lesson. Building B had left him sore, but it didn’t seem to affect how well he did the exercises.
While the others took their assessment matches, he watched from beside the platform. Amy’s turn held his attention. Every time Tallen attacked, she was already getting out of the way.
Before he moves, Crow noted. She can see it coming. She hasn’t learned to fight like this.
He frowned when she gave up. She could have kept going. Why surrender? There is something else she isn’t showing us.
Crow’s match followed. The second-year facing him could manipulate shadows, but never got much chance to use them. Crow disarmed him with Bloodedge and had him pinned in seconds, without using his own abilities.
The next scene was outside, after class. Ash had stretched out on the grass. Lyra sat on a wall with Lain standing near her, and Crow paced in front of all three.
“What’s got you brooding today?” Ash asked, stretching his arms. “More than you usually do, I mean.”
“I don’t brood.” Lyra snorted.
“Right. You just walk around looking like that for fun.”
“Crow,” Lyra said, “we can tell something is bothering you.”
He stopped. These were the people he thought of as family. He could tell them this much.
“Lain brought something out of the nightmare. A box. She gave it to me.”
“What sort of box?” Lyra asked.
“Wooden, with Old Kingdom carvings.” He paused. “My father made it.”
Ash sat up. Lyra stared at Crow with her mouth slightly open. Even Lain seemed tense hearing him say it again.
“You’re sure it’s his?” Ash asked.
“I recognize the work. I don’t think it could be anyone else’s.”
“What was inside?” Lyra leaned toward him.
“I haven’t opened it.”
Ash got to his feet. “Why? There could be a message in there. Something to tell us where he went.”
“Or something meant to hurt whoever opens it. It came from a Blood Emperor ritual, Ash. What if the people behind that were involved in his disappearance?”
“Then we need to find out. How long has it been since we had anything this useful? We can’t just leave it shut.”
Crow didn’t answer at once. His thoughts appeared beside him: After all this time, it appears now. Someone chose when we’d find it…
“Tonight,” he said at last. “We’ll do it tonight.”
Lyra wound a strand of hair around her finger. “Only us?”
She was still unsure about Amy, but she hadn’t forgotten who had helped them get the box.
Crow looked across the courtyard. Students were leaving class, and Amy was walking by herself. Of course the manga found room for another look at the pretty, mysterious new girl. So intelligent, so powerful, so incredibly beautiful. Strange how much had happened since she’d arrived.
The next panel showed what Lain had told him: Amy in the nightmare, bleeding from her eyes while she worked to free students she didn’t know.
When Crow heard that, he couldn’t help but feel a little more comfortable about that girl. Despite her mysteriousness, hearing that she apparently seemed to feel great care for others was both reassuring and confusing.
She was there, his internal monologue noted. She found the box. Whatever game is being played, she’s already a part of it.
“Alright, we will tell her,” he told his companions, his decision made.
The next few pages showed Crow’s group’s conversation with Amy. Then the scene transitioned to Crow’s dormitory on the top floor of the Class S residential tower.
“Wow, I thought your room was a mess since you didn’t let me get in, but it’s actually kind of cool,” Ash commented, flopping down onto Crow’s perfectly made bed without invitation, immediately disrupting the orderly sheets. “Very… you.”
A small text box noted: I should have chosen another place.
Crow left Ash on the bed and took the box from his drawer. The panels grew smaller as he put the key beside it, with most of the room lost in shadow.
They spoke a little more before he picked it up.
His hand stopped over the lock. The following panel showed his eyes; he wanted to open it, but still couldn’t quite make himself do it.
Then the key went in. A small click appeared beside the lock.
He rested his hand on the lid. Nobody said anything.
Opening it took a whole page. Light came out, though much less than they had expected. Everyone except Amy leaned closer to see.
There was another golden key inside, larger than the one Crow had used. Amy recognized the faint pulse around it, too. Next to the key was an old, yellowed sheet of parchment, folded shut.
“Another key? And a piece of paper?” Ash said. “Seriously?”
Crow got the last panel. He was still staring into the box, unable to believe what he’d found.
[End of Chapter 154]
“I’m tired…” Amy sighed, closing the book with a weary gesture. It had been only a single chapter, yet she was already completely drained.
The thought of Elias’ dismembered head, pulsating with increasing intensity. She could see every minuscule detail. The fluids of his brain, the red blood all over the floor, his eyeball popping out next to her feet…
He hadn’t even been mentioned, yet his absence was the thing that made his memory so powerful. It didn’t matter how much she tried to distract herself from that thought; it just kept coming back, frustrating her to a degree she couldn’t articulate.
[Would you like to take a small break before we continue with Chapter 155 and the comments?]
Amy frowned slightly. “Take a break to do what?”
[Just take a walk with me. Clear your head.]
“We don’t have long before curfew.” Amy looked up at the sky. It was getting dark, and she still hadn’t read the second chapter.
[And?]
Libris rose from her satchel. Amy blinked; it hadn’t done that in a while. It stopped in front of her face, close enough that she could see its shadow move across her uniform.
[Look, with everything that’s going on—your plans with Crow and the others, Kaelen’s plotting, my request, classes, your determination to work hard until Act 1 continues—we won’t have much time to just… sit around like this. Who knows when we’ll have time for this again?]
Amy frowned. There were several reasons she should stay and finish reading, and Libris had just listed most of them.
[You can finish reading when we come back.]
Amy hesitated. She should get it over with, but even thinking about the next chapter made her tired. Eventually, she sighed and stood, brushing the dirt from her uniform.
“Alright. Where do you want to go?”
[This way.]
The book floated past her before she could ask anything else. Amy followed it out from under the tree