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Chapter 4 - Chapter 3 – The One Who Watches

I had stopped sleeping.

Not by choice, but because every time I closed my eyes, they came.

Eyes without bodies. Whispers without mouths. A presence that didn't breathe but pressed into my skin like wet cloth. And among them, a single sentence kept echoing.

> "You are not theirs."

And then a system panel appeared above me again—brief, broken, like static in the stars.

---

[SYSTEM NOTICE: Core Access Breach Detected]

Subject: Kael Virdane

Class: Null (Rewritten)

Update: Trait Acquired – [Whisper Sensitivity]

Rank: Unknown

Effect: Enables perception of pre-systemic entities

---

I screamed when I woke. My mother came immediately, calming me with herbal tea and lullabies from the southern forests. She didn't ask questions. She never did.

But I could tell she knew.

The next morning, the house was on edge.

Servants whispered. Guards shifted. Father did not appear for the morning council. And a strange visitor came by skycarriage—a man dressed in obsidian armor, flanked by two soldiers with symbol-less cloaks.

My older brother Sylend watched them from the upper balcony. His Solar Knight class shimmered in the light.

---

[SYSTEM STATUS: SYLEND VIRDAINE]

Race: High Human

Class: Solar Knight – Lv. 38

HP: 842 / 842

MP: 412 / 420

Strength: 52

Agility: 34

Charisma: 21

Traits: [Radiant Strike], [Solar Mantle], [Commanding Presence]

---

He looked down at me for a moment. Not cruel. Not kind. Just... measuring.

> "The null child reacts to celestial anomalies," the obsidian man said to the council. "You know what that implies."

He wasn't talking to me. He wasn't even talking about me, not really.

They were talking about something else.

Something behind me.

That night, the dream came again. Only this time, I was not alone. A second presence floated beside me, silent and vast.

> "We remember the ones who were erased."

And below that voice, the system trembled.

---

[SYSTEM GLITCH DETECTED]

Core Threat Level: Elevated

Subject: Kael Virdane

Evolution Path Unstable

Warning: External force observing system-bound world

---

I woke with tears, clutching my blanket.

Something ancient was watching. And it had started whispering my name.

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