"Apakah kamu tahu mengapa kukuhulkan Akademi Bintang?" tiba-tiba bertanya Cindralis, kepalanya berbalik untuk menghadap Asher bagi pertama kalinya dalam sekian lama, pertanyaannya sederhana di permuka, namun menggendung rasa berat yang tidak terjelaskan, seolah membungkus lapisan makna yang tak langsung terlihat.
Asher terdiam sejenak sambil menelusuri berbagai kemungkinan di pikirannya dengan hati-hati. Pasti seseorang di level Cindralis tak akan menciptakan Akademi Bintang hanya untuk hiburan atau kesenangan. Dengan usianya, kebijaksanaannya, dan kecerdikannya, Asher tak bisa mencegah dirinya mencurigai kemungkinan ekstrim—seperti rahasia mengekang murid berbakat atau mengikatnya dengan cara tak terlihat. Dengan begitu, ketika semuanya menjadi kekuatan dunia yang tak terduga, mereka pasti akan berdiri di bawah perintahnya seperti tentangan yang dikelolanya secara pribadi selama berabad-abad.
Tapi, sebaliknya, teori itu tak tahan di bawah permintaan karena jika ia benar-benar melakukannya, orang pasti sudah tahu sekarang. Sekalipun para legenda tak buta atau buta, dan mereka mungkin setajam dan seteliti Cindralis. Berarti, manipulasi besar-besar ini tak bisa tetap tersembunyi selamanya tanpa seseorang yang mengeksposnya.
Biasanya, Asher bosan berdiskusi dengan orang yang bukan temannya, karena ia membenci percakapan tanpa arti dan diskusi yang berbelit-belit. Tapi kata-kata Cindralis dan perbincangan ini anehnya menarik, susah untuk diabaikan.
Cukup saja menyebut nama saudaranya dan orang tuanya sudah cukup untuk menarik perhatiannya sepenuhnya, mengundang rasa penasaran yang tak sadar ia miliki.
Tapi setelah berpikir sejenak, Asher menyadari tak peduli apa pun alasannya, tak benar-benar penting, karena kebenarannya hanya akan keluar dari mulutnya. Jadi ia hanya bertanya, "Lalu?"
Dan matanya ungu bertemu dengan matanya hitamnya dengan sepenuh ketenangan..
Tapi ketimbang menjawab pertanyaannya langsung, Cindralis menjawab dengan pertanyaan lain, "Apakah kamu yakin Crymora adalah satu-satunya planet yang ada di alam semesta?"
Matanya lalu beralih ke jendela yang dilihatnya, namun kali ini, pandangannya meninggalkan Akademi Bintang sepenuhnya dan tertuju pada kota-kota jauh di luar tembok akademi, tempat beribu-ribu orang menjalani kehidupan sehari-hari di bawah perlindungan dan aturan diam-diamnya.
Dengan kata-katanya, Asher tak terlihat bereaksi, berusaha menjaga wajahnya tak terlihat apa-apa. Karena reaksi yang salah bisa memicu rantai pemikiran berbahaya di benak Cindralis.
Meskipun terlihat seperti berlebihan, monster tua seperti ini memang tajam dan observasi, mampu membongkar emosi hanya dari gercepannya. Jadi ia tak bereaksi, memandangnya sebagai pertanyaan retoris.
"Aku mendirikan Dimensi Terpisah dulu, tempat menampung orang-orang yang tak bisa bertahan di luar dan tak ingin tinggal di sana. Setelah beberapa abad, akhirnya kujadi mendirikan Akademi Bintang."
Cindralis mulai berbicara saat Asher tak membalas, dengan nada yang tenang dan konsisten seperti seseorang yang sedang menjelaskan proyek arsitektur sederhana, bukan penciptaan seluruh bidikan.
"Aku percaya kita bukan sendirian. Aku yakin ada sesuatu di luar sana, di luar planet ini, meskipun belum tahu apa. Aku tak bisa membayangkan sebuah fragmen bintang jatuh ke duniamu tanpa sebab. Apa yang membuat sebuah bintang hancur berkeping-keping? Dan entitas apa yang memiliki kekuatan untuk menghancurkan sesuatu yang begitu colossal?"
Dengan tenang, seolah ia hanya menyentuh permuka sebuah rahasia yang seharusnya tak menyangkutnya, namun kata-katanya menggendung berat makna.
"Pernah kujelajahi ujung dunia ketika kubvers terbang meninggalkan planet ini, tapi aku terhalang, seolah ada sesuatu yang menghalangi. Apakah itu melindungi dunia dari apa yang ada di luar? Aku tidak tahu. Dan bila ada halangan itu, bagaimana sebuah fragmen bintang bisa mencapai Crymora? Atau, mungkin halangan itu baru muncul setelah kebangkitan Crymora secara keseluruhan? Jika halangan sudah ada sebelum bintang jatuh, apakah berarti ia menembus pelindung planet itu sendiri?"
Ia menarik napas pelan seolah mengingat pengembaraan masa lalunya yang selalu berakhir pada kegagalan yang menjengkelkan.
"Pada level ini, aku sudah mencapai puncak bakatku, di ambang maksimal, seutuhnya prima, tapi tak bisa menembus atau membuka lubang itu, tak bisa beralih bentuk atau teleportasi melewatinya."
Untuk pertama kalinya, rasa ketidakpuasan tersembunyi di balik ketenangannya terasa.
Beat jantung Asher tak bisa tidak sedikit lebih cepat. Ia tak akan berpura-pura, sebelumnya ia juga pernah memikirkan hal yang sama, meskipun tak setajam atau setropis Cindralis. Ide itu tetap menggelegar di ujung pikirannya seperti bayangan.
"Tapi," bisiknya dengan hati-hati, "bukankah membuka lubang itu sekaligus mengundang apa pun yang kamu anggap ada di luar sana? Dan bila mereka di atas Peringkat Kehidupan Crownstar, apakah kamu tidak sedang mengundang kebinangan bagi kita semua?"
Cindralis tertarik sejenak mendengar pertanyaannya, pandangannya yang jauh terkesiap, puitis, tengok ke kebinggunnya.
"Kata-katamu benar, dan kuduga tentang itu," jawabnya sekaligus mengangguk kecil. "Tapi bukankah orang yang bisa membuka lubang itu, sekaligus mampu menutupnya kembali?" Bisiknya puitis dan penuh keyakinan.
Asher tak bisa tidak setuju. Dari sudut pandang logis, masuk akal. Tapi kamu tak bisa berkata-katanya hal hal penting seperti ini dengan ringan, karena satu kesalahan bisa berarti kehancuran total.
"Do you know why I created the Star Academy?" Cindralis suddenly asked, her head turning as she faced Asher for the first time in a while, her question straightforward and simple on the surface, yet carrying an inexplicable weight beneath it, as though it concealed layers of meaning that were not immediately visible.
Asher stayed silent for a moment as his thoughts ran through various reasons with cautious precision. Someone on Cindralis’ level surely wouldn’t open the Star Academy for fun or idle entertainment, and with her age, wisdom, and cunningness, Asher couldn’t help but suspect extreme possibilities, like secretly enslaving talented students or binding them through unseen means, so that when they all became world powerhouses, they would inevitably stand beneath her command like an army she had cultivated personally over centuries.
But at the same time, such a theory didn’t hold together under scrutiny, because if she had done such a thing, obviously people would have known by now, after all, other powerhouses weren’t dumb or ignorant, and they were also probably just as cunning and perceptive, as Cindralis herself, meaning such a grand manipulation could not remain hidden forever without someone exposing it.
Normally, Asher would have gotten tired of conversations with people he wasn’t exactly friends or acquaintances with, as he disliked meaningless dialogue and roundabout discussions, but he found Cindralis’ words and overall discussion strangely engaging and difficult to ignore.
Just her mentioning his siblings and parents was enough to hold his attention completely, pulling at threads of curiosity he didn’t even realize he had.
But thinking for a moment longer, Asher realized that no matter whatever reason he came up with, it didn’t truly matter, because the truth would only come from her mouth, so he simply asked, "Why?" His purple eyes meeting her black ones with utter calmness..
But instead of answering Asher’s question directly, she answered with a question of her own, "Do you believe Crymora is the only planet in existence?" she asked, her eyes shifting towards the window yet again, but this time, her vision left the Star Academy entirely and was now focused on the distant towns and cities outside the Academy walls where countless people lived their ordinary lives under her silent protection and rule.
At her words, Asher didn’t visibly react as he tried to keep his face as expressionless as possible, because the wrong reaction might set off a dangerous chain of thoughts in Cindralis’ mind. Although it might seem as though he was overreacting, these old monsters were simply too sharp and observant, capable of dissecting emotions from the smallest twitch. So he didn’t react, and simply treated it as a rhetorical question.
"I built the Separate Dimension first, housing people here who couldn’t survive in the outside world and didn’t want to stay there anymore. After a few centuries, I later decided to build the Star Academy," Cindralis began to speak as she saw Asher didn’t reply, her tone calm and steady like someone recounting a simple architectural project rather than the creation of an entire plane.
"I believe we aren’t alone. I believe that there is something out there, beyond our planet, and I don’t know what it is. I don’t simply believe a fragment of a Star fell into our world for no reason. What caused a Star to break into fragments? What kind of being possessed such power to shatter something so colossal?" she spoke in a calm state as though she was only touching upon the surface of a secret that shouldn’t even concern her, yet her words carried quiet gravity.
She paused again before she continued, "I once flew to the edge of the world as I tried to leave the planet entirely, but I was restricted, as though some form of barrier was stopping me. Was it protecting the world from whatever was out there? I didn’t know. And if that barrier was in place, how did the Star Fragment reach Crymora? Or did the barrier only appear after the awakening of Crymora as a whole? If the barrier was already in place before the Star Fragment fell, does that mean it tore through the planetary barrier itself?" she exhaled slowly as though reminiscing about old escapades of the past that had all ended in frustrating failure.
"At my current level, I’ve reached the height at which my talent can take me, I’m at my peak, at my absolute prime, yet even I couldn’t shatter that barrier, or even puncture a hole through it, neither could I phase through it or teleport beyond it," she continued, and for the first time, there was a faint trace of dissatisfaction hidden beneath her composure.
Asher’s heart couldn’t help but beat a little faster within his chest, because he wouldn’t lie to himself, he had already had the same thought before, although not nearly as far-reaching or profound as Cindralis’, but still the idea had existed quietly in the back of his mind like a shadow.
"But wouldn’t puncturing a hole through simply invite whatever you think is out there, and if they are above the Crownstar Life Rank, aren’t you simply inviting everyone’s doom?" he asked in a hushed tone, the implications of such an action far too terrifying to ignore.
Cindralis stayed silent for a moment at Asher’s question, her gaze distant, thoughtful. "Your words are true, and I have thought about that," she answered with a small nod as she continued staring ahead, "but someone who is able to puncture, who is able to open this hole, should also be able to seal it back, no?" she asked, her logic perfectly sound in a pragmatic and confident way.
Asher couldn’t help but agree with the logic, because from a purely rational standpoint it made sense, but one couldn’t be more delicate and careful with matters like these, since a single mistake could mean annihilation. But at the same time, he was simply too weak right now to worry about such grand, world-ending possibilities, as they were problems for beings far above him.
"All these are the reasons I built the Star Academy, to find a disciple who can eclipse me and everyone else in power and talent, someone who can stand before whatever might come from beyond. And as for my own selfish desire? To help me open up a hole in the barrier for me to explore whatever is out there myself, because there might be a ceiling waiting to be broken, there might be a rank above the Crownstar Life Rank waiting for me to reach. And at the same time, training future powerhouses who can hold the sky when it falls," she stated without hiding her own desire, because she wasn’t a saint or some goddess of light and justice, she was simply human at her core despite her overwhelming strength.
Humans were always ambitious, always yearning for more, and it wasn’t wrong to have such desires. Besides, she wasn’t only thinking of herself, she was also thinking about Crymora as a whole, about its survival, its future, and the threats that might descend upon it one day without warning.
’I see...’ Asher thought to himself, his thoughts spinning rapidly as countless connections formed within his mind, and he immediately fell into his thinking mode, analyzing every word she had spoken with quiet intensity.
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AUTHOR’S NOTE: Another two Chapters will be coming in about five or so hours, sponsored by Fate_Pen’s Magic Castle. Would have typed them too and released the five of them at a go, but I’m at work.
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