CHAPTER – 11.1
At the Teacher’s cabin
A quiet hum filled the dim room, broken only by the faint flicker of holographic displays. Sitting alone, a woman lifted a porcelain mug to her red-painted lips. The blue glow from the interface cast a blueish hue over her face, refining her features, giving her almost a heavenly stillness.
Her gaze drifted towards the empty doorway, lingering there, as though expecting someone who would never arrive.
Then, her shoulders loosened, as though gravity suddenly remembered her, she laid her head to the table, exhaling into the silence.
A soft bell chime cut through the stillness. A sound only she heard in that empty room.
She straightened, expression wiped clean, then reached into the drawer, A slim injector gleamed under the cold light, without hesitation, she pressed it against the side of her neck. A sharp hiss. The sound of skin being pricked.
Steadying her breath. She tapped her bracelet. It lit up the moment she finished.
A new hologram opened. A figure shaped by shadow appeared, his face smothered in artificial darkness. Only a jewel shone through the letter E, unmistakable in that darkness.
“Noir. Status report.”
“Progress is stable. We’ve secured multiple test subjects. The shell facility remains unflagged.”
Her reply came smooth and toneless, like a scalpel sliding into flesh.
As she spoke, her body shifted subtly, an illusion melting. Black hair bled into deep crimson. Blue eyes glazed into violet. Pale skin warmed into a polished bronze sheen. The transformation settled like a snake shedding into a new skin.
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She lifted her mug again, fingertips brushing the faint lipstick imprint she’d left earlier.
“Five first years have been selected. Four have already received our ***** Serum in place of the grail of light. Tomorrow, the final subject will be administered.”
A pause. A ripple through the hologram.
“Excellent. Continue with the proposed plan as fast as you can. The time draws near.”
As he said that, his voice vanished, screen dissolving into darkness, only that pendant twinkling like a star before fading.
In that empty room again, she stared at her reflection in the hologram screens that floated around her.
The woman, Noir, as the shadowed man had called her, rolled her shoulders back, loosening muscles stiff with stillness. A faint sigh escaped her lips as she rose from her chair.
Walking towards a small indoor plant placed beside the bookshelf. She stared and caressed its leaves. The mug remained in her other hand. Until she shifted her grip, encasing the porcelain mug in her palm. The fingers tightened, her soft skin brushing against the hard material.
Crack.
The mug snapped like a brittle bone. She kept pressing, grinding the shards as if they were made of Styrofoam, until they were nothing more than pale dust. Every piece reduced, every fragment erased.
Yet not a single scratch marked her hands.
She poured the powdered remains into the plant’s soil, patting the surface gently, almost tenderly, like burying something small and fragile.
Then she turned back to the desk.
Her fingers brushed her ID card. Picking it up, she walked towards the door. She tapped it against the receiver. A soft chime echoed, and a holographic window flickered into view. The face displayed was familiar yet distant from the woman standing now: black hair, blue eyes, and porcelain skin.
Just beside the profile photo, her name read: Natalia Sanchez.
A second later, the doors slid open.
And as she walked past the door, her true form peeled away. Crimson bled into raven black. Violet softened into icy blue. Bronze skin paled into cold porcelain once again.
She was no longer, Noir. Only Natalia remained.
She walked down the silent corridor, heels striking like a heartbeat in a dungeon. Every footstep in that starless word echoed with a truth only she knew:
The word believed she was Natalia.
The world was wrong.
