Chapter 35: I’m Afraid Classmate Ishta Will Be Left With Psychological Trauma
Crack.
The little bear cookie in Ishta’s hand was unconsciously snapped in two.
Ba… Batman?
Every person’s spiritual symbol stored a vast array of memories, and what could be seen through the Eye of Secrets were often the darkest, most painful fragments buried deep in one’s mind.
Therefore, they were also the truest reflections of a person’s heart.
As a professional psychological measurer, Ishta had no shortage of experience using the Eye of Secrets.
There were those whose families were annihilated by enemies when they were children, and they could only hide under the bed, eyes wide open, watching their parents die, swearing bloody vengeance.
There were once teenage prodigies who had fallen from grace overnight, with fiancées who came to cancel the engagement, setting a three-year challenge.
There were men betrayed and framed by their fiancées, thrown in jail, only to find a secret passage, a treasure map, and a ring inhabited by a powerful soul within the prison.
There were also those who were exiled to the borderlands from the start; expelled from the hero’s party; treated as mere stand-ins for a rich young lady’s idealized overseas lover, vowing to make her regret it; even a seventy-year-old janitor being fancied by an overbearing duke…
Over the years, Ishta had seen nearly every kind of scene imaginable — one could say she had vast knowledge and experience.
However—
What she saw this time through the Eye of Secrets in Rast’s memories truly exceeded her expectations.
As the owner of the Eye of Secrets, she could browse the memory fragments from a god’s perspective, and quickly grasped the entirety of Rast’s memory segment.
He walked in darkness, yet yearned for the light.
He strayed beyond the law, yet maintained the city’s order in his own way.
Facing conspiracies set by criminals, he would rather sacrifice his reputation than let people lose faith in justice.
He was a silent guardian, a vigilant protector.
He was also the Dark Knight.
Ishta fell silent.
She had always believed that so-called heroes did not exist in this world.
“Friend of Justice” and such were merely fiction conjured up in fairy tales and delusions by authors.
Even those priests who looked upright on the outside surely hid secrets unfit for the light.
That was why she delighted in peering into others.
Piercing the glamorous façade of hypocrites, exposing their filthy and ugly hearts under the sun… this was precisely the joy Ishta found in prying.
But now, in this moment—
Before such a vision of justice, one that still watched over the light even while engulfed in the deepest night, her belief wavered.
That concept of Batman — crude, childish, a little cringey.
But it was also that very childish and pure sense of justice that made Ishta’s act of voyeurism seem so pathetic in comparison.
Compared to the youth in the interrogation room, she was the one who was hypocritical and grotesque — a clown projecting darkness onto others.
Her spiritual energy had already been drained when she activated the Eye of Secrets earlier, and now even the willpower that had always supported her began to falter, plunging her into a daze.
And just in that moment of Ishta’s disorientation—
She was horrified to find that within her spiritual vision, the pitch-black kitten symbolizing Rast’s spirit had suddenly turned to look at her.
Then, it opened its gaping, blood-stained maw once again.
“Gulu gulu gulu…”
The cries of Ishta’s spiritual projection were swallowed by countless tentacles.
…
“Dean Silver, I didn’t expect you to be here already.”
“You came without notifying the Nightworld outpost? If not for my instincts sensing abnormal spatial fluctuations nearby, even I wouldn’t have known about this.”
Shiltina pushed open the door.
With both hands gently lifting her skirt, she gave a flawless curtsy of noble etiquette.
“That spatial trace was deliberately left for you to see. But you noticed it faster than I expected — seems like this Nightworld trip has been fruitful for you.”
An elegant yet lazy voice echoed within the room, though its owner, referred to by Shiltina as Dean Silver, was not human.
It was a snow-white creature, resembling both a fox and a large cat at first glance. Its silvery-white fur reminded one of snow-covered mountains in the far north.
At the moment, it was lounging lazily on the room’s sofa, with a large bag of dried fish snacks on the armrest, and a tablet computer placed in front of it.
Oddly enough, though it remained idle and unmoving, the tablet’s screen kept changing on its own, and from time to time, a dried fish would float out of the bag and slowly drop into its mouth.
As if an invisible hand was manipulating everything in the air.
Noticing Shiltina’s entrance, Dean Silver remained lying on the sofa, greeting her merely by lifting its fluffy white tail: “Little Tina, almost fourth tier now?”
“Mm.” Shiltina sat gracefully across from the sofa. “It’s all thanks to your excellent guidance, Dean.”
“Alright, alright. If you could channel even half of that respect-for-teacher-and-the-virtues attitude into dealing with your own stubbornness and your attitude toward your father, I wouldn’t have to worry so much all the time.”
Dean Silver sighed and flicked its tail. “Forget it, let’s not get into that.”
“I came to you this time about the one you mentioned before — the Night Traveler lost in the echoes of history.”
Shiltina’s eyes flickered slightly. “Rast came out from the Nightworld passage?”
“Mm, a few hours after you, just when you were meditating and cultivating.”
“Per your request as one of the Twelve Round Table Seats, the school didn’t follow the standard thirty-day quarantine-detection-monitoring protocol, but instead dispatched Psychological Measurer Ishta Julian to perform a direct risk assessment on Rast.”
Shiltina’s brows slightly furrowed. “That Nightblade was Ishta of the ‘Eye of Secrets’?”
“Out of all the psychological measurers in the academy, why did they send her specifically?”
Clearly, as fellow students of Starfall University, Shiltina had heard about Ishta’s peculiarities.
“This wasn’t my doing — the school made the decision independently.” Dean Silver popped a dried fish into its mouth.
It glanced at Shiltina. “What? Worried he’ll suffer?”
“But once the risk assessment procedure begins, it can’t be stopped. All you can do is hope that this guy called Rast has nothing to hide and can withstand the ‘Eye of Secrets’.”
“That little girl Ishta may have a few weird habits, but she’s never wrongly accused a good person.”
As it spoke, Dean Silver used its tiny paw to pick up the tablet from the table. The screen was displaying a real-time feed of the psychological assessment.
But then, Dean Silver froze mid-motion.
On screen, Rast sat casually in the interrogation room, looking relaxed and idle.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the one-way mirror—
The lead examiner of the risk assessment, the one who had struck fear into countless Starfall University students — Ishta Julian — was now slumped powerlessly in her chair.
Her gaze was vacant as she stared at the ceiling, her twin tails drooping lifelessly over her shoulders. Her expression dazed and hollow, as if her soul had left her.
That face, once cold as frost, now wore an expression akin to ahegao.
“Dean Silver, you’ve misunderstood me.”
Shiltina’s voice rang out softly. “I’m not worried about Rast.”
“I’m worried about Classmate Ishta’s safety.”
“I fear Rast may have left her with some psychological trauma, and she might never be able to use the Nightblade again. If that happens, the academy would lose an excellent psychological measurer.”