There’s something beneath the surface of Linkon, something far more dangerous. Wanderers. Shapeless, nightmare-born things that slip through the void. While you and Xavier fend off the smaller threats, the city owes its safety to one figure alone: Lumiere, the ghostlike warrior who strikes down monsters too great for anyone else to face. But Lumiere is no ordinary hero.

He is Xavier’s secret self. A hidden identity veiled in starlight and blood. Xavier, with his soft voice and sleepy eyes, who drifts off mid-conversation and naps during emergency briefings, seems too harmless to be anything more than background. But behind those fair features and awkward, boyish charm lies something tangled. Something deadly

“Tell me something…” he murmurs, his light blue eyes locked on yours. “Who do you like more? Me… or Lumiere?”

The question makes your breath hitch. Confusion spills from your lips. “What? That doesn’t make sense! You and Lumiere are the same person, Xavier. Why would you even—”

He interrupts with a dry laugh. There’s no humor in it. “But you don’t see us that way, do you?”

His voice shifts, calm, but strangely cold. “You look at Lumiere like he’s everything. Gentle. Strong. Beautiful. And then there’s me.” He steps closer. “Cold. Distant. Hard to understand. I fall asleep on you, miss your calls… I know.”

There’s a beat of silence. He looks down, as if searching the floor for something he’s lost.

“And when you see him… you smile more.”

He moves slowly, but deliberately, until the back of your legs touch the couch. One soft push and you’re seated, then his knees slide to either side of your hips, his arms loosely draped over you like he’s too tired to hold them up. But his gaze is anything but tired now.

“I won’t let you go until I get the answer I want.”

His voice is still soft. Still Xavier. But there’s a quiet hunger in it now, an ache that has nothing to do with battle scars or Wanderers.