Volume 1: Path – [Academy Arc]
Chapter 15: A Glasswing Butterfly
From the midst of the crowd of students flooding in through the academy gates, one boy suddenly halted in his tracks.
That name... 'Uriel Evernight'.
As soon as he heard it whispered from the voices around him, his entire world stilled.
A storm churned within his chest, thoughts clashing, memories resurfacing. His eyes welled up. Tears pushed at the edges of his vision, threatening to fall. But he swallowed the feeling. He couldn't let anyone see him like this, and he is a man, a man can't cry.
With the back of his right hand, he wiped the near-tears away, steadying his breath. Slowly, deliberately, he turned to look.
In the sea of motion, one figure stood still.
It was her.
Uriel.
Her silvery platinum blonde hair cascaded to her mid-back in elegant, softly waving strands, parted neatly to the side. Her beautiful almond-shaped eyes were glowing with vivid gold irises. Her poised and effortless standing only amplified her presence. She wore the same academy uniform as the other girls, but it looked regal on her.
A Chronolink adorned her wrist, catching a glint of light as she adjusted her stance.
She stood silently just inside the academy, near the inner entrance, ten steps away from the Chronolink distribution counter, as if she were waiting for someone.
When he looked at her, a soft warmth bloomed in his chest. For a fleeting moment, he let himself believe she was waiting for him, just maybe, someone had told her he would be attending the same academy. The thought brought a fragile hope he hadn't felt in a long time.
But that hope was shattered when a voice called out.
"Uriel!" a boy shouted, cheerful and excited.
The sound pierced through the moment like a blade, pulling her gaze away from him.
He looked at the boy who had called out to Uriel.
The boy had neatly styled black hair that fell just slightly over his brows, giving him a sharp yet elegant appearance. His skin was fair, his features clean and well-defined. His eyes, a calm gray, lit up with joy as he waved toward Uriel.
He wore the same academy uniform as the rest dark navy with structured geometric lines and a clear hourglass insignia on the chest but on him, it looked crisp and authoritative. His posture was upright, confident.
A wide, genuine smile stretched across his face as he approached her without hesitation, like someone who belonged by her side.
She turned around with a slightly exasperated yet familiar look in her eyes and called out to the boy, "How long are you going to take? It shouldn't take more than ten seconds to finish synchronization."
The boy scratched the back of his head with a sheepish grin, his hand ruffling his neatly set hair. "Sorry, sorry! I just went to the other counter to talk to my big sister. Couldn't help it."
"Oh, you should have said so I would've talked to her. It's been so long since I met her," she replied.
"Next time. She's busy right now with all the stuff she has to do."
"Okay, okay."
"What, did you miss me in that short amount of time?" he teased.
"No way! Why would I miss you?" she shot back, cheeks tinting slightly red.
"Well, I missed you." He said
"Idiot. Let's go. We don't have time, we need to get to our dormitories first and then to classes. We only have 40 minutes."
"Okay."
They both began walking forward as he smiled happily, but before she could take her second step, Uriel turned subtly to glance over her back-right shoulder.
There was nothing there no figure, no presence except a butterfly.
It hovered in the air, delicate and still. Its wings were translucent, like finely polished glass, edged with a faint bluish shimmer. The creature's veins were thin and precise, running through the crystal-clear wings like silver filigree.
'A glasswing butterfly.' Uriel thought. 'Why the hell do I have this much knowledge on butterflies?'
So fragile, yet impossibly elegant.
Her eyes lingered on it for a heartbeat longer than necessary, then she turned away without a word.
"What are you looking at?" the boy asked Uriel, his gaze following hers. He spotted the delicate glasswing butterfly drifting away from that very spot, its wings shimmering faintly in the air.
"Nothing... just felt like someone was watching me," she murmured, her voice low as she turned and began walking again.
"You think a butterfly was watching you? Hahaha!" he laughed, the sound light and teasing.
She didn't respond with words. Instead, she raised her fist and thumped him lightly on the head.
"Ouch! That hurts!"
"You deserved it," she said with a smirk, not looking back.
The glasswing butterfly in the back flew away slowly in the opposite direction—its wings nearly invisible against the air. Each gentle beat carried it farther from the crowd.
Just then, a cuckoo bird darted through the air with predatory speed. In a blink, its beak snapped shut around the fragile glasswing butterfly.
The butterfly tried to fight, but its strength was so weak that it couldn't fight it out as it simply vanished between the bird's wings, like silence being swallowed whole.
The cuckoo flapped once, then soared upward, carrying the devoured beauty with it, disappearing into the sky as if nothing had ever existed there at all.
...
'Can I meet with Uriel or at least see her just once?' Caelus asked Micheal, his voice low, almost trembling.
Micheal sighed. 'Well... there's a big problem with that. Whether things go how you hope or not, there's no guarantee. She's in the hands of the Evernight familyand they don't share anything with outsiders. When it's about their own, they'll block all forms of information, and if you're caught outside snooping around, they might even kill you.'
He leaned forward slightly, his tone grave. 'The only reason they even left youalive and also brought you here was in case Uriel asked about you. But it's been over an hour since her revival, and she hasn't even mentioned your name. That can only mean one thing, she's lost her memories of you.'
'What... what do you mean by that?' Caelus asked, his eyes darkening.
'Listen carefully,' Michael said. 'To gain something, something must be sacrificed. For her to be brought back… she had to give up something precious. And judging by what's happened, that something… was you.'
Caelus clenched his fists.
'It wasn't her choice. The revival process was managed entirely by her family. Now that you were erased from her memory, they're gonna replace you with someone else. That's why… the only place you might see her again is at the academy. But even there, she won't remember you. And honestly? Seeing her with no memory of you will hurt worse than anything.'
Michael's voice softened. 'That's also why I'm asking you, do you want to go there even if you were gonna get hurt, and it's also the one place they can't reach you. The one place you'll be safe… even if your heart won't be.'
'I see…' Caelus whispered, more to himself than anyone else.
'So are you still going to go to that academy, or should I send you to a different one?'
'It doesn't make a big difference whether I go to another academy. I'll still feel sad. But… if I go to the same academy as her, I'll at least get to see her happy face as she walks through those halls. So I'll go to her academy. And thank you for telling me everything.' Caelus smiled as he said to Michael.
In the dormitory of Thalos Academy, Caelus collapsed onto the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling as the weight of his conversation with Micheal settled heavily in his chest.
"Even though I'm sad right now… I'm still happy she's alive, able to live a peaceful life."
His thoughts spiraled.
"Life is really strange. Just two days ago, I was living like a normal kid. Then Uriel was killed by that monster… and I half-awakened without even realizing it. Yesterday, I learned everything about this new world I'm being dragged into. And today… I saw her again. Smiling. Laughing. With someone else."
He paused, swallowing a breath that trembled.
"I knew from the start love was never meant for me in this life."
He sighed deeply, voice cracking inside his head.
"Maybe this is for the best. If she stayed with me… I'd die eventually, and she'd die too. But if there's someone who can live longer than me, someone who can keep her safe… someone who can give her a life filled with happiness, then that's enough for me. That's enough."
Tears welled again, but this time he didn't fight them. He couldn't.
They fell, hot and silent.
"If only I had awakened earlier… if only I knew what was coming… if I had a proper lifespan… maybe I could've stayed by her side… for a lifetime."
[End of chapter 15]