The second layer, "The Chamber of Frozen Solitude," was as cold as ever today. Ice crystals coating the walls reflected pale blue light across the floor. Selen Carvan confirmed his breath turning white as he folded his arms and surveyed his surroundings. The campfire from last night felt like a distant memory. He still couldn't shake the moment when Noel had whispered "…Thank you" in a small voice and looked away. (Today I'll do it right.) He told himself. Yesterday had been a mess. The seal repair had gone sideways in unexpected ways. But today would be different. He'd learn the theory properly. With an earnestness unbecoming of a hero, Selen sat in seiza before the seal array. "…You're planning to listen while sitting like that?" "I thought it would show how serious I am" "It doesn't. Just stand normally." Noel Silvalen retied her silver-white hair and pulled out a stone tablet. Her fingertip began tracing ancient characters across the pale gray surface with fluid precision. Her movements were economical. "I'll explain the basics of sealing magic. First, the flow of marrow-qi has directionality. Following the structure of the array——" "Got it, so I just flow it like this?" Three seconds later. Frost clung thickly to the wall. Mere seconds after Noel began her explanation, Selen had already attempted to practice on his own. He failed, naturally, and the temperature of the second layer seemed to drop another two or three degrees. "…Were you listening?" "I was listening, but my body moved first." "Don't let your body move first. Theory comes first." "I know, I'm reflecting on it." He said this with a face that showed no reflection whatsoever. Noel sighed softly and returned to her tablet. She carefully redrew the diagram. This time with more detail, even marking the line directions with arrows. That's when something moved behind the tablet. A translucent, faint outline. Elias Milen stood directly behind the tablet. Her pale purple hair didn't sway, and her light violet eyes stared intently at the diagram. No one knew when she'd appeared. "…The diagram is reversed left and right." She said only that, then vanished. Noel checked the tablet from the back. …It was indeed reversed. "Why didn't you say so earlier?" Elias was already gone. There was a faint shimmer near the wall, but no response. "…I just noticed." Her voice came from somewhere. "That's somehow scarier." As for Chris Fernaal, she was drawing a butterfly on the wall corner with her index finger. Each time her fingertip—marked with flame patterns—touched the stone, a faint scorch mark appeared. A small ring of flame circled at her feet, indicating her good mood. "Chris. We're in class." "I'm studying too!" "That doodle isn't studying." "I'm researching how butterflies fly!" "Butterflies drawn on walls don't fly." "They don't…?" She looked genuinely shocked. Selen almost burst out laughing, but Noel's gaze flew toward him, so he managed to hold it in. Class resumed. Noel corrected the tablet's orientation and began the explanation from the start. The flow of marrow-qi had "starting points" and "ending points," and one needed to guide it consciously along the seal array's lines. This time, Selen listened quietly. …For about three minutes. But the failures continued. The second attempt, frost extended to the ceiling. The third, the floor froze thinly. The fourth, frost appeared on the back of Selen's own hand. "Wait, why is it coming at me?" "You're not controlling it, so it's backflowing. That's why I said, focus on the starting point——" "Starting point, starting point… Is it here?" A small crack sounded, and frost appeared on another part of the wall. "No." "…Then here?" "That's wrong too. Why are you going there?" "I don't know either." Noel closed her eyes. A long silence. Selen felt like she was counting something in her mind. Probably confirming her patience threshold. "…Can I ask you something?" "Yeah." "Are you really a Crowned Hero?" Crowned Hero—the highest warrior title the Council of Partinas granted to only seven people on the continent. Selen had received the designation as the youngest, recognized as the hero who defeated Gehenart Volm. "I'm good at combat." "Then just do combat." "But that won't fix the seal." Noel fell silent again. This time a slightly longer silence, during which her white fingertip traced the diagram on the tablet. She was thinking. "…I have no choice. I'll try directly." "Directly?" "Give me your hand. It's inefficient, but I'll directly correct the habits in how your marrow-qi flows." Selen extended his right hand. Noel's white fingertips touched the back of his hand. Cold. But strangely, pleasantly cold. Her fingers moved each of his fingers one by one, quietly. She guided the form of the seal-script—the combination of hand seals to activate marrow-qi sorcery—with precision and care. Close. Silver-white hair entered his field of vision. Her breath came out white, passing just beside his cheek. Noel's concentrated profile stood out in the pale blue light. (…She's beautiful.) The moment he thought it, he pushed the thought to the back of his mind. Right now was seal magic practice. "Like this. Align the flow with the array's lines——slowly." Following her instruction, Selen flowed his marrow-qi thinly and carefully. A faint light ignited on the seal array on the wall. Dim, but it clearly traced the array's lines. Stable. "Ah." "…Yes. Keep it like that." Three seconds. The light faded. But it had definitely succeeded. The seal array had responded properly. Selen felt joy like a child's. "I did it!" Noel quickly pulled her hand away. Her fingers withdrew from his, returning to her own palm. She turned her gaze toward the seal array, facing sideways. "Luck." Her profile. Was faintly, very faintly, red. "Noel's face is red!!!!" Chris looked up from her wall doodle and shouted. The sound bounced off the stone walls of the second layer, echoing back with a resonant thud. "It's the temperature change in the ruins." She said immediately. "The second layer is -10℃." "Be quiet." It was absolute. That's when a face appeared upside-down from the ceiling. Elias had thrust her upper body down through the ceiling near the tablet, her pale purple hair hanging downward with gravity, her light violet eyes fixed seriously on Noel. "…Your face is red. Are you unwell?" Noel turned completely away, toward a direction no one was looking. She began staring intently at a single point on the wall corner. "If you're not unwell… fever?" "Not a fever." "Then…" "Stop talking to me." Elias retreated back into the ceiling. Chris tilted her head and asked "What was that~?" Selen desperately held back his smile. Noel left the wall corner and picked up the tablet again. She cleared her throat once. "Let's continue." "Yes." As if nothing had happened. --- It was the moment that light faded. Noel suddenly stood up. The tablet fell to the floor with a sound, but she didn't care. Her blue eyes sharpened, turning toward the fourth layer—the passage to the deeper levels of the ruins. Her expression was completely different from moments before. "…I sense external marrow-qi interference from the direction of the fourth layer." Her tone had changed. "It's not natural degradation. Someone is deliberately touching it." Silence fell. The small ring of flame circling at Chris's feet wavered gently. "A ghost? A ghost other than Elias?" Her amber eyes, now rounded, turned toward the fourth layer passage. Elias descended from the ceiling. She appeared from the wall, upper body only, quietly observing the three of them. "…I don't know if I'm a ghost." For a moment, time seemed to slip. Chris's eyes went wide. "Huh, you don't know!?" Selen said "That's not the point right now." Elias simply said "…I see" and started to withdraw. "Wait, don't disappear." But the lightness vanished immediately. Noel's face wouldn't allow it. "If a being who knows this ruin's seal structure is interfering from outside, then——" She stopped mid-sentence. Selen watched her profile. Noel's fingertips trembled slightly. "Do you know something?" He pressed. Noel was silent for several seconds. A long, heavy silence. "…I can't say now." Her voice was quiet, but that quietness made it heavier. "But don't go near the fourth layer. Absolutely not." It was a strength he'd never heard before. Selen had never heard Noel speak with such force, saying "absolutely not." (She's scared.) In that moment, Selen understood. Noel was afraid. That calm, sarcastic woman who didn't easily show her emotions. "You're scared." It was direct. Noel's eyes wavered for just an instant. "…It's just a warning." She looked down and said that. The hollowness of those words sank into the chamber, heavier than the second layer's cold air. --- "We're done for today." Noel picked up the tablet and began checking the second layer's seal arrays one by one. Each one, carefully. Were there cracks? How stable was the light? That very carefulness seemed to reveal her agitation. Chris approached hesitantly. "Hey, were you scared, Noel?" A direct question. Noel didn't take her eyes off the seal array. "…It doesn't matter." "I think it does." "Why." "Because if you're scared, I want you to tell us. We're all here." Chris said this with a serious face. Not her usual airheaded rambling, not her usual obliviousness—just her honest thoughts spoken plainly. Noel's hands stopped for a moment. That's when Elias appeared from the wall's edge, upper body only. "…The fourth layer's marrow-qi has been changing for the past hour." She said it casually. Silence. "…An hour ago!?" "Why are you saying it now!!" "…I thought this was the appropriate timing." "It's not appropriate at all! You should've said earlier!!" "…Is that so?" Elias withdrew into the wall. Chris shouted "It is!!" at the wall. Her voice bounced off the stone. Noel's lips moved slightly. Very slightly. It might not have been a smile. But something had definitely loosened. "…Let's go." The three of them began descending the stone stairs back to the first layer. Noel led. Chris followed behind, saying "Wait for me~!" Selen brought up the rear, watching Noel's back as he stepped down. He was arranging today's events in his mind. The coldness of her hand on his. The sensation of that faint light igniting on the seal array. The moment of success that lasted only three seconds, but was definitely real. And then—Noel's face when she said "absolutely don't go near it." (It was the same person.) The profile that blushed slightly at the accidental success, and the eyes that wavered when the fourth layer was mentioned. The same face, the same person. That's what stuck with him. "Don't try to carry it alone again." He said it to her back. Noel didn't answer. The pale blue light ahead gradually faded. The gray stone floor of the first layer came into view. The shallow levels of the Luthvain Ruins were still safe. But something was in the direction of the fourth layer. Noel knew. And she still wasn't saying. Whatever that secret was, Selen didn't know yet. But he did know—Noel was trying to carry it alone. And he had no intention of overlooking that.