Noir didn't answer out loud.

Her steps never faltered, paws padding softly over cracked stone as she kept following the scent, but her voice reached Noel alone, quieter than before.

'No, dad,' she said. 'That's not what I'm saying.'

Noel kept walking.

He didn't slow, didn't stop, didn't turn his head. From the outside, nothing changed. He stayed a step behind Noir, hands relaxed at his sides, gaze forward, exactly as he had been moments before.

'His smell is just… too similar,' Noir continued. 'Close enough that it bothers me. That's why I never let him touch me. It never felt right.'

A pause.

'And I didn't tell you,' she added, the words carrying a faint weight, 'because I know how important your friendship with Roberto is. I didn't want to put doubt where there didn't need to be any.'

Noel said nothing.

Ahead of them, the street narrowed, buildings pressing closer together. Behind him, he could feel eyes.

Elyra noticed.

She always did.

Elena noticed too, more subtly, her gaze lingering on Noel a fraction longer than usual. They didn't hear the conversation, didn't know the words being exchanged, but they knew him. They knew when his thoughts turned inward, when something shifted beneath the surface.

Neither of them asked.

They trusted him enough to wait.

Laziel, on the other hand, was still riding the edge of adrenaline and disbelief, muttering to himself as he scanned rooftops and corners, far too shaken by the earlier fights to notice anything as quiet as a mental exchange.

Noel's silence stretched.

'Are you sure you're not implying something else?' he asked Noir at last, carefully, mentally. 'You know how serious this is.'

The memory surfaced uninvited.

Noctis's voice. Calm. Unyielding.

Don't trust blindly. Not even those close to you.

Elyra had been there. Elena. Selene. Charlotte. Noir herself.

And him.

'You remember what Noctis told us,' Noel continued. 'You know we have to be careful. If something feels off, I need to know. You should've told me.'

Noir's ears dipped slightly as she walked, her posture changing just enough for someone attentive to notice.

Guilt.

'I didn't want to hurt you,' she replied. 'That's all.'

Noel exhaled slowly.

He didn't answer right away.

He kept moving, matching her pace, letting the silence stretch between them as the streets closed in and the scent grew stronger.

Noir kept walking, but the change was subtle and unmistakable.

Her pace slowed by a fraction. Her head lowered, ears no longer alert but angled back, as if the weight of the conversation pressed physically against her. The confident line she'd followed moments ago softened, her body language turning inward.

Elyra noticed immediately.

Her steps halted, boots scraping lightly against stone as she turned toward Noel, eyes sharp and protective all at once.

"Noel," she said, voice calm but edged with something firmer, "what did you do to Noir?"

The question landed heavier than it sounded.

For a split second, Noel was caught off guard.

Then something unexpected settled in his chest—warmth.

It felt absurdly familiar.

Like a father being called out by the mother because he'd unknowingly upset their child. Protective, instinctive, immediate. Elyra wasn't angry at him for himself—she was standing up for Noir.

And strangely enough… Noel didn't dislike it.

If anything, it reassured him. Not because he was being scolded, but because it meant Noir wasn't alone in that moment, and because Elyra had noticed before he did.

"…Sorry," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "It's important. I'll explain later."

Elyra studied him for a moment longer, then nodded once. She didn't push. Trust went both ways.

Noel turned his attention back inward.

'Noir,' he said gently, 'I'm sorry if I sounded harsh. I wasn't trying to scold you.'

She didn't respond right away.

'I just need you to tell me these things,' he continued. 'Even if they're uncomfortable. Especially then.'

Noir hesitated.

'Would you have believed me?' she asked quietly. 'You care a lot about Roberto. I know that.'

Noel's thoughts slowed.

'Do you really think Roberto could be part of the Circle?' he asked. 'We've seen the Pillars. The Second is a woman. The First… he was unstable. Violent, mentally ill. Do you honestly think Roberto could be someone like that? Someone who'd leave Nicolas on the edge of death, with his core shattered, just months away from dying?'

Noir fell silent.

Then she asked something that cut deeper.

'What do you actually know about Roberto, dad?'

Noel frowned slightly.

'Not just from this life,' Noir pressed. 'From the novel. Do you remember anything about him?'

The answer came too easily.

No.

Roberto had never appeared.

And that… was strange.

He was in Class S now. Strong. Skilled. The kind of ally Marcus—or any of the others—should have known. Should have relied on. Yet somehow, Roberto had slipped through the cracks of the story Noel remembered.

'Doesn't that bother you?' Noir asked softly.

It did.

Noel replayed conversations in his mind. Roberto's stories about his family. The way details never quite lined up. How he'd ended up in Class S almost by accident. There had always been gaps. Things glossed over.

He wanted to believe there was a harmless reason. Distance. Shame. A family he didn't want to talk about.

He wanted to believe that.

But doubt didn't need proof to exist.

It only needed space.

And now, it had it.

Noir stopped so abruptly that everyone behind her did as well.

Her body went rigid, ears snapping forward as she lifted her head. The invisible trail she'd been following ended here.

'This is it,' her voice echoed in their minds. 'We've arrived.'

Noel's thoughts about Roberto were cut short, forced aside by the shift in the air. Whatever doubts had taken root stayed with him, quiet and unresolved, but there was no room to dwell on them now.

He looked up.

At first glance, it was just a house.

Two stories tall. Stone walls weathered by time. A structure that might have once belonged to a family, to a merchant, to someone who had lived an ordinary life before the island fell silent.

Then he saw the chains.

They weren't wrapped around it.

They were part of it.

Thick metal links pierced through the stone itself, embedded deep into the walls, stretching from one side of the structure to the other. Some vanished into the ground. Others climbed upward, disappearing into the roof. The metal was dark, stained, faintly pulsing with the same oppressive mana they'd felt throughout the island.

The Circle's influence was unmistakable.

Elena's breath hitched softly beside him. Laziel swallowed, grip tightening on his staff. Even Elyra's expression hardened, her eyes tracing the unnatural lines carved into the building.

Noel stepped forward.

The doubt in his mind didn't vanish. It simply shifted, changing shape, settling deeper. Whatever was happening here—whatever had happened to this place—it mirrored that same corruption. Subtle. Invasive. Working its way in until there was no clear line between what belonged and what didn't.

He didn't have time to think about Roberto now.

But something had changed.

He raised a hand slightly, shadows responding without any command.

"Let's go in," Noel said.

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