Sona was flipping through some papers without looking up when Kaelan entered.

  “Arverth, I have a minor task for you.”

  Kaelan blinked.

  “Just for me?”

  “Yes. It doesn’t require advanced magic,” Sona said, adjusting her glasses. “And Saji is currently busy cleaning the ingredient storage.”

  From the back of the room, Saji growled:

  “Because someone blew up a pot with weird blue magic!”

  Kaelan snorted.

  “It was an accident.”

  Sona ignored the exchange.

  “A student’s familiar escaped. A low-level demonic cat. It’s in the residential district, on a rooftop. Go retrieve it.”

  Kaelan felt immediate relief.

  Finally something simple. Something normal.

  Something without cracks, anomalies, or his Resonance trying to tear out of his chest.

  “Understood,” he nodded, taking the card with the address.

  Sona watched him for a second longer than necessary.

  “Do not use your Resonance. It shouldn’t be required.”

  Kaelan swallowed.

  “I’ll do my best.”

  He left.

  The sun was setting slowly between the houses, painting everything orange. Dry leaves rolled across the sidewalk with every gust of wind.

  Kaelan followed the address… and there it was.

  A demonic cat with black fur, a split tail, and bright yellow eyes sat on a low roof, staring at the world like it owed him something.

  “Of course…” Kaelan sighed. “Of course you’re that kind.”

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  The cat looked at him with professional disdain.

  Kaelan carefully climbed the side fence and made his way onto the roof. The tiles creaked under his weight.

  “Come on, buddy… I just want to take you home,” he murmured. “It’s not—”

  The pulse cut him off.

  It wasn’t strong.

  It wasn’t painful.

  It was immediate.

  A blue pulse crossed his chest like an involuntary reflex. Kaelan froze.

  “What…?”

  Then he heard it.

  “HELP!”

  Kaelan spun so fast he almost lost his balance.

  Down on the street, a girl in a school uniform was stumbling backward. In front of her, a low, misshapen creature advanced with bared teeth—too big to be a normal dog, too malformed to be anything stable.

  A minor beast. Poorly anchored. Nervous.

  “Shit…” Kaelan whispered.

  He didn’t think.

  He jumped off the roof.

  He landed badly. Rolled. His shoulder burned. He barely had time to get up when the creature lunged.

  Kaelan raised his arm on pure instinct.

  He didn’t summon anything.

  He didn’t want to do anything.

  But fear, urgency, and the echo of the scream still hanging in the air mixed together… and his aura reacted too late.

  The air warped for an instant.

  It wasn’t an explosion.

  It was a clumsy, irregular wave—like a poorly contained emotion pushed outward.

  The creature shrieked, staggered back in confusion… and fled, disappearing into the alleys.

  Kaelan stood there, panting, his fingers trembling.

  He didn’t feel strong.

  He felt exposed.

  “A-are you okay?” he asked, turning toward the girl.

  She stared at him as if she didn’t know whether to thank him or run away.

  “Y-you’re Arverth, right?” she murmured. “From Class 1-B…”

  Kaelan nodded, uncomfortable.

  “That… that was magic, wasn’t it?”

  “No,” he answered quickly. “I just… scared it off.”

  She didn’t look convinced. She also didn’t have the strength to argue.

  “Th-thank you…” she said, bowing awkwardly. “No one comes through here at this hour…”

  She hurried off.

  Kaelan exhaled—and then felt the stare.

  The demonic cat was behind him, sitting on the edge of the collapsed roof, looking at him as if it had just reevaluated its entire opinion of him.

  Kaelan picked it up.

  “Not a word,” he murmured.

  The cat growled, offended.

  Sona looked up when Kaelan entered.

  First, she looked at the cat.

  Then at Kaelan.

  “Anything to report?”

  Kaelan hesitated.

  He could still feel the pulse.

  The sensation of having reacted after the danger, not before.

  Of having arrived late.

  “No, President,” he said at last. “Everything under control.”

  Sona watched him for a second longer than necessary.

  “Very well. You may go.”

  Kaelan bowed and left.

  When the door closed, Tsubaki spoke softly.

  “President… a few minutes ago I registered a brief emotional fluctuation. Localized.”

  Sona adjusted her glasses.

  “I assumed as much.”

  “Should we restrict him from minor tasks?”

  Sona closed her eyes for just an instant.

  “No.”

  She opened them, serious.

  “If even simple assignments are producing incidents… I’d rather they happen while I can observe them.”

  Tsubaki nodded.

  Sona turned her gaze toward the door.

  There were no certainties.

  Only an unsettling intuition:

  Whatever was failing within the territory

  no longer distinguished between what was important and what was trivial.

  And Kaelan…

  was right in the middle of it.