The Anomaly's Path

Chapter 237: A Walk in the Dark

The cold night air did nothing to calm the low hum of the Magic Tower City.

Malva walked with her arms crossed, her fingers pressing lightly into the fabric of her uniform sleeve. She did not have a destination. When she had whispered to Lyssaria twenty minutes ago that she was stepping out for fresh air, it was not a lie.

The Silver Crest Pavilion had become too loud. The others were sharing stories of childhoods she could not even imagine.

She kept her pace slow and steady. Her pale, blank face showed no emotion, a mask she had spent a lifetime perfecting. She moved like a shadow between the buildings of the Aurelia District, her footsteps silent against the ground.

To anyone passing by, she looked like just another student out late, but her body was always tense, always ready to disappear into the nearest alley at the first sign of trouble.

Her mind was quiet.

She liked it that way. In her world, thinking too much about things you could not change only brought back memories that did not help you survive.

She just kept walking, letting her feet carry her away from the laughter, away from Roan’s loud talk and Alice’s shouting.

They had dragged her out tonight under the idea of "team bonding," saying she should join because she was part of Leo’s team. She knew they probably meant well in their own loud, chaotic way.

But kindness without a clear reason always made her uneasy.

Without realizing how far she had gone, the quiet, clean streets of the district began to change into something more messy.

The air grew thicker, smelling of fried food, strong spices, and cheap smoke.

Malva stopped, her sharp black eyes looking around. She had walked straight into one of the markets. Despite the late hour, the place was alive. This was the City of Magic, the lower workers and traders did not sleep on the empire’s schedule.

Canvas tents and wooden stalls lined the street, lit by cheap, flickering glow-stones that did not have the clean brightness of the runes in the upper areas. Merchants shouted over each other, selling everything from dried meat to basic iron tools.

Malva stopped in front of a small, old stall near the edge of the market.

Her eyes fell on a row of small, roughly carved wooden figures resting on a piece of cloth. They were not magical. They were not fancy. They were simple toys — little knights, wooden horses, and small birds with poorly painted wings.

She stared at a small wooden bird, her face blank, but her fingers twitched slightly against her sleeve.

A few feet away, three young children, dressed in old, oversized shirts that had seen better days, were huddled together near a pile of empty wooden crates.

They were sharing a single piece of stale, hard bread, their small hands shaking. One of them, a little girl with dirt on her cheeks, dropped her small piece into the dirt. She did not cry. She just stared at it with a quiet, empty look that Malva knew all too well.

Malva didn’t think. She simply moved.

She walked over to a bakery stall a few steps away, pulled a few loose copper coins from her pocket, and bought a small loaf of fresh, warm honey-bread. Walking back to the crates, she dropped the bread into the little girl’s lap without a word, her face cold, as if she were just throwing away trash.

The children blinked up in surprise, but before they could even murmur a thank you, Malva had already turned her back on them, walking away into the crowd.

"You are surprisingly soft with kids for someone who looks like they are about to murder the entire street."

Malva did not jump, but her hand went to the hilt of the sword at her waist. She spun around, her black eyes narrowing as the silence broke.

It was Leo.

Standing a few steps behind her in the crowded market, his white hair catching the dull light. His hands were deep in his pockets.

_

[Leo’s POV]

I had been tracking her for the last fifteen minutes.

Using Soul Perception out here in the crowded market was exhausting. The passive ability was a constant flood of unwanted feelings — the greed of the merchants, the tiredness of the workers, and the anger of a few thugs lurking in the dark corners.

But Malva’s soul was easy to spot.

It did not flicker with the bright energy of Roan or Alice. Her soul was a quiet, dense, cold mass that felt like a vacuum, swallowing the mana around it. Yet, right under that cold outside, I had felt a sudden, sharp spike of protectiveness when she looked at those street kids.

"Leo..." Malva said, her voice a flat whisper as she slowly let go of her sword. "Why are you here? You should be at the pavilion."

"Yeah, I know I should not have followed you. You are not a kid," I said dryly, gesturing for her to walk with me as I turned back toward the main street.

"But hey, don’t forget you still came out with us tonight. You’re part of the team, so you’re my responsibility. Besides, if you got lost and Morgana found out, she would blame me. That woman has been after me these past few days by dumping her work on me. Let’s go."

She fell into step beside me without a word. Her movements were so quiet she did not even make a sound on the ground, keeping her head low as we left the shouting vendors behind.

"Besides those two fools," I said after a long silence, my eyes straight ahead.

"Roan and Alice... they do not think before they act. They dragged you out tonight because they wanted the classmates to be together, but they did not stop to think how suffocating that environment would be for someone not used to their world."

Malva did not look at me, but her shoulders dropped a little. "It was loud... and a bit much. But... I am glad they wanted me to join."

We kept walking, leaving the flickering lights of the market behind.

The noise of shouting vendors and sizzling food faded, replaced by the cold, clean air of the upper district. The rough cobblestones smoothed out into the clean white stone paths of the outer academy area. Tall silver streetlamps lined the road, casting long shadows ahead of us.

I kept my hands in my pockets, watching the way Malva moved beside me.

Even out here, in a safe place, her footsteps made no sound. Her head was low, her body tense like a coiled spring.

She is completely on guard, I thought.

I knew that look. I knew the weight of the armor she was wearing. I did not know her past, and that was the truth of this world.

Back in my past life, playing the game, I knew about the main characters. I knew Arthur’s path, Amelia’s future, and even Caster’s hidden potential because the game laid it all out in neat text boxes.

But the game did not show every soul. It did not tell me about Malva.

It did not write down the pain of the thousands of people living in the margins, trying to survive day by day. Out here, people carried heavy, broken things inside them, and they did not just share them with a stranger. They buried them deep.

She looked exactly like I did when the world decided I was a failure. She looked like someone who had learned the hard way that every open hand eventually turns into a hidden blade.

I respected that.

In a world full of naive nobles who thought peace was a birthright, her caution was the only thing keeping her alive. But watching her stay locked behind those walls while the rest of the team was getting drunk back at the pavilion... it bothered me.

We walked in silence for a long time, the hum of the streetlamps the only sound between us.

"You know, Malva..." I spoke up, my voice low and steady.

"Human feelings are a pain in ass. They are the most unpredictable things in the world. One moment you are fine, the next you are angry, or confused, or drowning in sadness. It is chaotic. And because people cannot handle that chaos, they find ways to turn it into transactions."

Malva stayed quiet, but beside me, her steps slowed just a little. I could feel her attention shift to me.

"They expect things from you," I went on, a faint, mocking smile on my lips. "Even a simple thing like kindness comes with a price. An obligation. It makes you put up walls. It makes you decide it is safer to just be invisible."

I let out a soft breath, pulling one hand from my pocket to rub my neck.

"When my B-rank core awakened years ago... I went off the rails. I was so desperate for people to look at me the way they used to, so desperate for attention, that I became the family failure. I hated the nobles, I hated their fake smiles, so I caused trouble, picked fights, and drank myself numb just to feel something. I was done hoping for things from people who only saw me as a disappointment."

I glanced at her from the corner of my eye. Her dark eyes were wide, staring at me through the silver light.

"And the current me? Honestly, I am probably worse. I am cold, arrogant, and I act like a bastard half the time. I am careless because caring is tiring." I paused, letting the cool wind move my white hair.

"But the strangest thing happened when I tried to push everyone away."

"...What?" she whispered, her voice low.

"Roan and Alice," I said, my tone shifting back to its usual dry edge.

"They are idiots, but they are stubborn. When I first met them, I thought they would take one look at my shitty personality and leave me alone. I tried to push them away. But they did not. The same goes for the other people. My family... they never gave up on me either, even when I treated them like trash. It is a miracle, honestly."

I stopped walking, turning to face her under the glow of a tall lamp.

"I might be a cold bastard, Malva. I do not care about most people in this world. But I do care about my people. And you signed a contract with me, which means you are mine to look after."

Her breath caught. For the first time, her stiff, emotionless mask cracked. She looked up at me, her black eyes filled with deep, quiet confusion. Her brow furrowed slightly, her lips parting as if she was trying to understand something that did not make sense.

In her world, powerful people did not claim commoners as their own without expecting something in return. She looked lost, unsure how to react to someone throwing a shield over her without demanding a price.

"Since the day we met, I never asked what you want," I said, ignoring her confused look.

"I never pried into why you need money, because it was not my place. I am selfish — I told everyone. I cannot promise I will solve all your problems or give you everything you want. But your problems are mine now. I will respect your privacy, and I will not force you to tell me a damn thing until you trust me enough to do it yourself."

I stepped closer, looking down at her. "But I do hope you try to let the others in. Even a little bit. Do not look at the people around you and assume they are all waiting to stab you. Some of them are just too stupid to leave."

Malva stayed frozen, her wide eyes still searching my face, trying to find the catch, the hidden reason, but finding only my usual blunt honesty.

I raised my hand, gently patting her head, messing up her neat dark hair just a little. My voice softened. "Think about it."

Before she could react, I turned and walked up to the heavy iron door of the magic shop we had stopped in front of.

"Wait here for a second," I called over my shoulder, reaching for the handle. "I need to buy something."