Chapter 234: White Bishop

Chapter 234: White Bishop



"Why are we in the library, Riley?" Rose asked, her voice laced with curiosity.

The academy's library, despite its sheer size and the flow of students passing through, maintained an almost sacred hush.

Tall shelves lined with ancient texts and spell tomes stretched high above, casting soft shadows under the warm lights.

Just like the last time I came here, everywhere you look was filled with books.

I glanced over at Rose, shrugging lightly.

"I just wanted to check on something," I replied, keeping my tone casual.

Rose raised a brow, clearly skeptical. She seemed to pick up on the fact that I wasn't exactly lying, but also wasn't telling her the whole truth either.

Still, she only shrugged.

"Well, as long as you keep your promise, I don't mind a little detour."

"Of course,"

It had taken longer than expected to calm Snow's little anger down earlier, so I'd half expected Rose might have wandered off on her own somewhere across the academy. But as luck would have it, finding her turned out to be surprisingly easy.

In fact, it almost seemed too easy as if she'd been waiting for me.

The moment I stepped out of the dorm, she was right there-sitting on a random bench, calmly watching the sunrise as if it was the most natural thing in the world for her to be on my usual route whenever I trained for a morning exercise...

The whole scene felt almost... too coincidental, to be natural.

I half expected Rose to ask more questions, considering I'd randomly dragged her out here with barely an explanation.

But it seemed the promise I'd made her was more than enough to keep her interested.

For context, I'd told her I'd grant her any one request, within reasonable limits, of course.

Knowing Rose, she'd probably come up with something absurdly specific or outlandishly quirky.

But I made sure to clarify that "reasonable" meant no ridiculous demands.

Still, with Rose, I probably should've thought twice about making such an open-ended offer... Now, I might just have to brace myself for the unexpected.

But I could handle that-after all, keeping her by my side for this was worth a little risk and I had a feeling enticing her with something involving a request from me, was the only way to make her quietly follow along with my request without any questions which seems to be the right action so far.

Anyway, for now, I needed to focus.

Strangely, I felt... nothing.

No mana spikes, no subtle shifts in the atmosphere, not even that prickling sense of instinctual danger.

By now, the gate to the dungeon should have opened, especially considering the scale of the creatures supposedly lurking inside.

The dungeon portal was bound to be massive-enough to make it impossible to miss once it activated.

Yet, despite amplifying my mana sense to its limits and sharpening my physical senses with my aura, I came up empty.

Not a single hint of its presence lingered in the air, which felt all the more unsettling. Rose, my key asset for today's plan, didn't seem to pick up on anything unusual either.

It would've been ideal if I could just tell her the real reason we were here, but doing that would only lead to more questions and probably some pretty heavy suspicion.

After all, how could I possibly know about a hidden dungeon opening up without any official notice?

The moment I hinted at it, Rose might suspect me of having some kind of advanced foresight, or worse, some bizarre source of inside information.

As much as we'd grown close over the past year, trust has its limits-especially when it comes to secrets as loaded as this one.

Keeping everything natural and coincidental felt like the only way to avoid complicating things further.

I glanced down at my watch, noting the time.

"D-Do you want to die?? O-of course not! They're just for personal reasons..." She stammered, then paused, eyes widening as if she'd said too much. "Besides, how'd you even

know about my feelings for-" Realizing what she was about to confess, she slapped a hand

over her mouth, her expression pure, mortified horror.

I couldn't help but chuckle, her reaction was priceless.

For a certified tsundere heroine, she wasn't exactly nailing the aloof, unbothered look she was

probably going for.

She glared even harder, her cheeks flushed, a suspicious glimmer of moisture in her eyes.

It was clear she was teetering on the edge, seconds away from a full-blown explosion.

As tempting as it was to keep pushing, I decided to cut her some slack. I had more pressing

matters to deal with.

"So," she said with forced calm, though the heat in her cheeks was still evident, "you're both here to... study?" Her skepticism was clear as she eyed me, one brow arched.

"Something like that." I shrugged, hoping to sound nonchalant.

Honestly, her reaction was understandable.

There wasn't an exam in sight, and the last place anyone would expect to find me was here,

buried in shelves of dusty old books.

Even less so with Rose, of all people.

Who was a generational genius, who probably has no need for any books aside from

recreational purposes.

Ignoring Janica's piercing, suspicious gaze, I let my thoughts drift back to the game

scenarios, searching through every memory I had of the possible events and choices. Why is she even here? I wondered, surprised and unsettled.

This dungeon break-the bishop's domain-was meant to be an isolated, hidden scenario

strictly tied to Alice's path.

No other main heroine was supposed to get involved unless the protagonist specifically

brought them along.

But here was Janica, who had no business being in this scenario if things were following the

standard storyline.

Did my presence had somehow stirred things up and dragged her into it... or is it because the main protagonist actually somehow intervened.....?

Before I could untangle that thought, I got my answer, as a familiar voice interrupted my

musing.

"Janica, there you are!" Lucas appeared, relief quickly turning to surprise as he took in the

scene before him. "I know you told me to wait outside, but you were taking so long I started to worry" His voice abruptly cut off when he saw me.

He stared, eyes widening in clear disbelief as if he'd stumbled into some surreal scene.

His gaze flitted from Janica, her cheeks still flushed and eyes damp, back to me, a storm of questions gathering in his eyes.

"What did you do?" he demanded, his golden eyes narrowing as a frown took shape on his

face.