The Midnight Shortcut
The central corridor of the Aethelgard Academy was supposed to be empty at midnight.
E.g. ：Urban Nightmares: Billionaire Tech Titan's Wheelchair Disaster Sparks Corporate Betrayal Thriller.
- 1、The Midnight Shortcut
- 2、The Guardian of the Veil
- 3、The Impossible Transformation
- 4、The Secret Debt
- 5、The Burden of the Key
- 6、A Legacy of Lies
Leo, a first-year student with nothing but a heavy trunk and a map, just wanted to find his room.
He didn't know that the academy’s rules were written in blood for a reason.
The Guardian of the Veil
A black cat sat perfectly still in the center of the path.
Its eyes weren't yellow or green; they were a dull, dead gray that seemed to track Leo’s heartbeat.
Leo reached out to pet it, thinking it was a stray from the village.
The upperclassmen lurking in the alcoves gasped, their hands instinctively moving to their wands.
They knew something Leo didn't.
The Impossible Transformation
The cat’s spine cracked audibly, an unsettling sound that echoed off the stone pillars.
The black fur peeled away like shadow-matter dissolving in moonlight.
Where the cat had been, a man in robes older than the academy itself now stood.
His skin looked like cured leather and his fingers were stained with ink.
He didn't look like a teacher; he looked like a prison warden.
The Secret Debt
The upperclassmen watched in stunned silence, unable to intervene.
The old man didn't look at them, focusing entirely on the terrified boy.
He produced a rusted iron key from his sleeve.
The metal was cold enough to frost the air around them.
"Your father failed to finish his work," the man whispered.
"The debt has been transferred to your bloodline."
