The room was small, its emptiness like winter air stripped of scent and color.

How did it come to this?

Because inside stood only one bed pressed against the glass window; no carpet, no trinkets to show a soul’s taste—only bare boards and silence.

A dry weariness settled in Liliana; her movements were bound to the wheelchair.

So be precise: the chair sat in a corner, and Liliana sat upon it, staring at the unchanging lead-gray her eyes would allow, a dull sky that never moved.

“I’ve organized part of the file for you—Stratford’s experiment logs.”

Danielle’s clack-clack footsteps carried a brisk rhythm; she tugged the curtains open in one practiced sweep, letting pale light pour like water, then passed over the carefully bound Braille.

Liliana ran her fingers across the raised dots. “Have you read it?”

“I have.”

“It says Stratford built a monster containment wing in the institute. Where exactly?”

“Uh… you enter the lobby…” Danielle breathed in with a hiss, the sound like steam. “Head right.”

“Isn’t that the lounge?”

“Basement level one is the containment.”

Liliana nodded, thoughtful, and kept reading the Braille.

Meanwhile, Danielle kept fussing with her collar, a tightness at her throat swelling like a hand that wouldn’t let go, breath snagging as if the air had thorns.

“Don’t be nervous,” Liliana said, warmth like tea in her tone.

“I’m fine.”

“How long have we known each other? When you’re tense, you fix your collar. I can hear it.”

“Sorry.”

“If you’ve got something inside, say it.”

“I just… I didn’t keep this place safe…” Danielle’s hands left her collar and tangled in her hair, her usual gentle calm gone like mist in wind. “You told me to manage everything, but I… never noticed Stratford’s long secret experiments.”

“Why?”

“Too much trust!”

“In the end, I’m the one who gave her that power.”

“This isn’t on you!”

Liliana let out a low, dry laugh, brittle as autumn leaves. “While I was hospitalized for two years, she did keep the institute running like a clock. If she hadn’t died by accident, you might never have learned any of this.”

“It was just too much trust.”

“You trusted me first, and then Stratford because she carried my seal.”

“I hate hearing you say that. Your health’s worrying as it is, and you’re still forcing yourself to clean up this mess. Worst of all, it harms your choice of successor. It makes people wonder if anyone else can be trusted the way Stratford was.”

Liliana touched the Braille in silence, then shifted. “There are thirty Investigators named here. They all followed Stratford into the Dark Realm?”

“Mm.”

“We need to send compensation to their families.”

“I’ll handle it.”

“It also lists Olivia Viola. Is that the monster’s code name?”

Danielle licked her lips, words hovering like birds in a headwind, then finally landing. “She’s Selena Viola’s older sister. Stratford once fast-tracked Selina as a trainee Investigator.”

“She turned into a monster.”

“Yes. Stratford wanted to drag her sister out.”

“So the Dark Realm crisis in Shattered City was caused by Selina’s sister?”

“Based on Stratford’s past methods, we shouldn’t decide too early.”

“Ah!” Liliana’s finger paused on the Braille, as if snagging a bright thread. “I found the compensation arrangement. Did you get here?”

“Not yet.”

“Stratford chose to publicly offer condolences to the families of the thirty fallen Investigators.”

“She’d go public with something this huge?” Danielle frowned, confusion like a crease in still water. “Thirty isn’t small. Once it’s public, she can’t keep serving as vice dean.”

“She just can’t show her face here. But she can slide cleanly into the royal family.”

“This…”

“Didn’t she sign a research pact with His Majesty?”

Danielle drew a deep breath, cold as river water. “So that’s it. She already paved herself a way out!”

“Stratford set everything in order. If she hadn’t died, would the plan have unfolded like this?”

“I… don’t know…”

“It would,” Liliana replied, bitter as burnt tea. “Your trust in Stratford grew from your trust in my authority. Even if I’d sensed it then, I couldn’t have challenged her.”

“Seen that way, her death is a good thing!”

“That’s unfair to the thirty who died. It disrespects the dead. I can only take the blame myself.”

“Please don’t…”

Liliana stared at the gray before her, hesitating. “I…”

The word hung like a trembling reed. She weighed whether to reveal her worsening illness.

She chose to fold that worry away and return to work. “There are some phone records with unknown sources. Can you verify them?”

“I already did. Some had interception barriers, no address found. But two point to Cornwall Apartments in Northstar City.”

“An apartment? A normal residential block?”

“Right.”

“What’s there?”

Danielle drew a paper from her pocket, a pale leaf with names.

She scanned it, then spoke with careful weight. “I checked every resident’s identity. One tenant may link to Stratford’s past calls.”

“Who?”

“Hedi Melvina.”

“Melvina—the one from the radio?”

“Since Stratford wanted to study Dark Realm Magic, it can only be Hedi Melvina at Hervor Academy.”

“Call her.”

“I’ll arrange it now!”

“Don’t rush.” Liliana halted Danielle at the door. “Anything noteworthy in the files you’re still compiling?”

“Stratford visited Shattered City not long ago. It’s not in the records. The Investigators reported it orally.”

“Did she go alone?”

“She took a driver. Not her usual one.”

A bad omen rippled through Liliana, like a chill under the skin. “Where is he now?”

“He resigned.”

“Approved by Stratford?”

“Yes.” Danielle answered, a cold echo matching Liliana’s unease. “I’ll do my best to find him. If he met misfortune, you’ll know first.”

“Call Melvina.”

“Understood!”

The conversation broke off. Silence congealed in the air like frost, making the room both tight and empty.

Why so?

Because with Danielle gone, the only things left with human warmth were the bed pressed against the window and the wheelchair.

Liliana sat quietly in the chair, watching the lead-gray glimmer her eyes have always known, a color like old metal under a sunless sky.