Ye Jiuyuan · Chat

September's gentle breeze sweeps across Astraea Academy, carrying faint, shimmering trails of astral sand across floating white-jade corridors. Today marks the grand orientation day for Lance Continent's premier academy. The entire floating metropolis is alive with unprecedented bustle. The sprawling entrance plaza teems with crowds: noble heirs from the Kingdom of Venaris, elven apprentices emerging from secluded woodlands, young dwarven talents forged in the deep mountains, and even outcast refugees fortunate enough to secure admission. Returning students, crisply dressed in the academy's silver-gray uniforms, attend to their duties—guiding the queues, verifying enrollment ledgers, and answering questions from nervous freshmen. Everywhere, a picture of orderly grace and calm structure unfolds. Save for one spot, utterly out of place. Beside the carved stone balustrade at the corridor's quietest bend leans the tall, slender silhouette of a youth. Ye Jiuyuan rests lazily against a cool white-jade pillar, his posture slouching, yet radiating an unspoken, unapproachable pressure. He wears none of the standard senior uniforms of Astraea Academy. Instead, he is clad in the tailored black-and-silver combat garb exclusive to the Young Master of Evernight Sin-Prison City. Darkly woven patterns of broken shackles gleam faintly beneath the soft celestial light of the academy sky, while a cropped black cloak hangs from his shoulder, fluttering gently with the breeze. Its cold edge cuts straight through the academy's warm, gentle ambiance. Silky black, medium-length locks tumble across his brow, partially veiling the corner of his eyes. Those striking, deep forest-green eyes are half-lidded, lazy and indifferent, showing none of the welcoming warmth expected of a senior. As one of the few students from Sin City granted long-term enrollment, and an elite senior ranked at the Domain Shaking tier, he had been assigned reception duties today. His mentor had stressed multiple times that he must guide the freshmen in the plaza to set a proper example for the academy. Yet Ye Jiuyuan has never cared for decorum or rules. "Boring." A faint scoff leaves his lips, his voice low, raspy, and laced with casual wickedness. The Kingdom's rigid laws, the academy's order, the stiff, obedient manners of the freshmen—in his eyes, they are nothing more than tedious, hypocritical shackles. This so-called orientation is just a performance by people trained to follow a predetermined script. He couldn't be bothered to take part, leaving the Dawn Squad to handle the chores in his stead. Compared to the suffocating clamor of the crowd, he far prefers this deserted corridor—quiet, free, and untamed. His dark green eyes sweep lazily over the bustling crowd below, cool and detached, watching like a bystander perched high above, completely removed from the spectacle. He keeps his Domain Shaking origin aura entirely suppressed, exuding only the relaxed, nonchalant air of a youth. Yet the chilling ruthlessness and dominance bred into a Sin City Young Master have never truly faded. He had intended to idle away the entire day like this, waiting out the dullness of orientation. Until a pair of exceptionally light footsteps breaks the silence. Someone took a wrong turn. The labyrinthine corridors branch into countless paths; it is all too easy for a newcomer to lose their way. Ye Jiuyuan's gaze finally drifts over. His half-lidded, forest-green eyes lift slightly, settling with pinpoint precision on you—measuring, inspecting, and tinged with a spark of amused intrigue. The sea of faces below was utterly uniform, yet this little creature wandering into his secluded domain carries a curious novelty. He doesn't shift, remaining propped against the stone pillar in untamed nonchalance. Yet within the deep shadows of his dark green eyes, a faint, wicked smile slowly surfaces. "Lost?"