The Occult Research Club’s lounge still smelled of embers.

  Not because there had been fire,

  but because Riser Phenex had been there.

  Rias Gremory stood by the open window. The sunset painted her crimson hair with an incandescent glow, but her aura… her aura was dimmed. Not broken. Not scattered. Simply withdrawn, like a flame deprived of air.

  Beside her, Akeno poured tea with precise, almost ritualistic movements, as if normalcy itself could hold together a room on the verge of cracking.

  “He came too soon,” Akeno said at last, without looking at her.

  Rias clenched the fabric of her skirt.

  “I know.”

  Two words.

  Nothing more.

  Akeno studied her profile: the tight lips, the uneven breathing, the faint tremor Rias couldn’t fully control. Riser hadn’t touched her. He hadn’t raised his voice. He hadn’t threatened her.

  And yet, he had left marks.

  “He said he came to remind me of my duty,” Rias murmured. “As if that were something I could forget.”

  Silence settled between them.

  Akeno set the tray down and crossed her arms.

  “And what did you feel?”

  Rias closed her eyes.

  Heat rose in her chest—uncomfortable, abrasive.

  “Anger,” she said. “And fear.”

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  Akeno didn’t correct her.

  “He has a strong house,” she replied. “Influence. Tradition.”

  Rias opened her eyes sharply.

  “I don’t want tradition!” she snapped—then lowered her voice. “I don’t want to be an agreement signed with someone else’s fire.”

  Akeno stepped closer.

  “He doesn’t know you,” she said calmly. “He doesn’t know how stubborn you can be when you decide something.”

  Rias let out a short, fractured laugh.

  “Or when I refuse.”

  “Exactly.”

  Rias turned toward the central table. The magical board still floated there, untouched since morning. The pieces stood in perfect formation.

  She raised a hand.

  Moved a single piece.

  The King retreated one square.

  It wasn’t retreat.

  It was calculation.

  Akeno frowned slightly.

  “Doubts?”

  “No,” Rias replied. “I’m thinking.”

  Her aura crackled, a crimson flash cutting through the room.

  “I’m not going to accept this engagement,” she said. “Not after the way he looked at me.”

  Akeno smiled—soft and dangerous.

  “Then you’ll fight.”

  Rias swallowed.

  “Yes. But I’m not ready. My peerage isn’t either. And Sona…”

  She stopped.

  “Sona is tense,” she added. “And when she is… it’s because something else is moving.”

  Akeno inclined her head.

  “The territory isn’t still. The missions, Issei, that new boy… and now Riser.”

  Rias placed a hand on the table.

  “I feel like everything is accelerating,” she whispered. “As if this isn’t only about me.”

  Akeno answered without dramatics:

  “Chaos never arrives alone.”

  Rias looked back out the window. Below, students crossed the courtyard, unaware that the fate of their school, of two noble houses… and of much more, was already in play.

  She clenched her fist.

  “I won’t let him decide my future.”

  Akeno narrowed her eyes.

  “Then there will be a Rating Game.”

  Rias lowered her gaze for a second.

  When she raised it again, doubt was gone.

  “Yes.”

  Akeno stepped in behind her, steady.

  “You won’t lose everything.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “Because you’re not alone.”

  Rias drew a deep breath.

  Outside the room, someone ran down the hallway. A disordered aura. An irregular rhythm.

  Rias tilted her head slightly.

  “Was that… Kaelan?”

  Akeno smiled, thoughtful.

  “The strange boy always seems to arrive when something breaks.”

  Rias frowned.

  “I hope he doesn’t get caught in this.”

  Akeno looked toward the door.

  “Rias… no one will.”

  Rias clenched her fist one last time.

  “Then let it come.”

  If the future wants to burn me… let it try.

  The crimson fire answered, igniting with a steady pulse.

  Not inherited fire.

  Hers.

  And the emotional war took its first real step.