For a moment, the world stood completely still.
The wind stopped.
The birds froze in the trees.
It was as if time itself had forgotten how to move.
All eyes — hundreds of them — locked onto Elian.
Mouths hung open.
Shockwaves of whispers rippled like electricity through the students and teachers alike.
Master Elian?
Come home?
What kind of joke was this?
---
Elian sat frozen.
Mina clutched his arm so tightly it hurt, but he barely noticed.
His brain refused to process the scene unfolding in front of him.
The masked man waited patiently, bowing his head slightly lower — the picture of obedience and deference.
Inspector Hale's piercing green eyes snapped onto Elian, assessing, calculating.
Principal Abernathy's hands trembled around the letter.
Every instinct Elian had screamed at him to run.
To deny.
To disappear.
This can't be real...
This can't be about me.
---
Mina was the first to recover.
She stood up shakily, putting herself between Elian and the masked man.
"Who are you?" she demanded, voice cracking.
The man straightened, and though the mask covered his face, there was a sense of a smile beneath it — a strange, almost tragic smile.
"I am merely a servant," he said softly. "I have been tasked to retrieve the rightful heir."
Elian flinched as if struck.
Heir?
He shook his head violently.
"You've got the wrong person," Elian croaked, finally finding his voice.
The man tilted his head, like a patient father humorously tolerating a child's tantrum.
"No, Master Elian. It is you. We have been watching... waiting. It is time."
---
A sleek black envelope was pressed into Elian's trembling hands.
He nearly dropped it.
Mina grabbed his arm again.
"Don't open it," she whispered, terrified.
But curiosity — the same cruel mistress that had caused every disaster in his life — burned too hot.
Elian slid a finger under the wax seal and unfolded the heavy, expensive paper inside.
At first, he didn't understand the elegant looping words written in old-fashioned ink.
Then he saw it:
> "To my grandson,
When the time comes, your suffering will no longer be in vain.
Inherit everything.
Change everything.
But trust no one."
Signed only with a single, cryptic name:
"M."
---
The ground fell away from under him.
He didn't know how, or why, or what any of it truly meant.
But one thing was suddenly, brutally clear:
His life — his miserable, painful, humiliating life — was about to change in ways he couldn't even imagine.
And not necessarily for the better.
Because power never came without chains.
And love — the true kind he had always secretly craved — became even harder to find in a world that bowed to money, not hearts.
---
Principal Abernathy's face twisted into a mask of barely-concealed fury.
He marched forward, trying to intercept the masked man, but was stopped dead by a simple flash of a silver badge.
"Private Authority," the man said calmly.
"International jurisdiction."
Even Abernathy, corrupt as he was, knew he couldn't touch them.
Inspector Hale stepped closer, her eyes never leaving Elian.
Her voice was low, careful.
"Elian... Do you know who you are?"
Elian shook his head weakly.
He didn't.
He wasn't sure he wanted to.
But somewhere — deep in the pit of his stomach — he realized the boy who used to hide behind cracked glasses and secondhand clothes was dead.
And something far more dangerous was waking up.
---
The masked man offered a gloved hand.
Elian stared at it.
This was it.
One step.
One choice.
And he would never be able to go back.
He heard Mina whisper:
"Whatever you choose... I'll stay with you."
Her voice was so small, so fierce.
Elian squeezed his eyes shut.
And took the hand.
The crowd gasped.
Mina ran after him, clinging to his side.
Behind them, Saint Eden Academy roared with confusion, rage, jealousy, and awe.
In front of them, the sleek Jesko waited, purring like a beast eager to devour the future.
The doors swung open.
Elian ducked inside.
The world of suffering he knew was ending.
The world of knives hidden behind silk curtains was just beginning.
---
As the car pulled away, Elian didn't look back.
He couldn't.
Because he knew:
If he looked back, he would never survive what lay ahead.
And if he ever wanted to truly be free — if he ever wanted to protect the one person who still believed in him —
he would have to become something more terrifying than any of the monsters who had ever hunted him.
He would have to become...
a king without mercy.
---