EP.160 Fall, new semester (3)
“Welcome, Miss Chloe.”
“Hello!”
“You may speak in peace, Miss Chloe. If you have any inconveniences about living at the Central Academic Building, please feel free to call us at any time.”
The maid bows her head slightly and takes a step back.
The restrained movements resemble elaborate dolls.
“How about taking a short walk? In the meantime, I will try to organize my luggage neatly.”
“Well, it’s okay for me to do it…”
“It’s part of our job. Please leave the packing up to us, and feel free to take a look around the campus.”
Even if they say that, it’s hard to refuse.
Chloe immediately nodded and took a step forward. Chloe walks down the hallway of the Central Academic Building with an ecstatic expression on her face. Something, something… It’s a very strange feeling.
Living with assistance from maids?
In this dazzling place?
‘This is a completely noble girl…’
These are things you only see in novels you enjoy reading. Daughters of noble families who always live with the help of wonderful servants. I feel like I am a character in such a novel.
“···gulp.”
Chloe swallowed her dry saliva for no reason.
You shouldn’t get excited. I need to live like a calm, well-behaved model student… Even as I think about this, my steps become more cheerful when I think of the scene in the room I peeked through the maids earlier.
‘You’re crazy, you’re crazy…!’
More fun than ever.
Ten years of living in fear in the back alleys, and another year or two of living trapped in a dull black magic tower… Spring has finally come to his life after enduring a long winter.
Aplia, the land of dreams and hope.
Chloe decides to bury her bones in Aplia. Unfortunately, there was no one by Chloe’s side to point out that this was a very foolish choice.
* * *
“Uh, Belnoa.”
The lobby of the Central Academic Building.
Belnoir, who had left the packing to the maids and was killing time sitting on the sofa, tilted his head at the appearance of an unexpected person.
“Professor Rania? “What’s going on here…”
A woman with flowing gray hair.
At first glance, she looks like a student, but she has her hands in her pants pockets and is looking down at herself.
“No, it’s nothing special.”
At those words, Belnoa’s spine stood on end.
‘It’s nothing special, it’s nothing special…’
Every time a sentence like that came out of Professor Rania’s mouth, Belnoir had to experience a nightmare. He is a professor who has a different way of thinking from the criminal. The ‘nothing that wasn’t a big deal’ that she was talking about was very likely to be a big deal.
‘What happened again this time?’
While Belnoir was very nervous… Rania continued talking.
“Your childhood friend, Chloe.”
“···yes?”
“Do you know where she is?”
“Oh, you mean Chloe?”
Belnoir answered the question without thinking much.
“He said he would take a quick look around Aplia while he was packing up his things. “It’s probably nearby.”
“Hmm.”
Rania touched the corner of her mouth.
“Well, if you walk around, you’ll probably come across one. thanks for letting me know.”
“…By the way, why are you looking for Chloe?”
“I have something to check regarding class.”
Check.
Belnoir slowly nodded, feeling an eerie feeling for some reason at that word. Rania waved her hand and walked away.
“See you soon, Belnoa.”
“Yes, Professor.”
Belnoa looked at the back of Rania leaving the Central Academy building for a long time… then turned his head. Well, what if the two meet face to face?
‘I’m a professor and a student.’
It is fate that we will meet anyway.
Would anything grand happen if it were to happen a day or two earlier? First of all, Professor Rania also knows the extent of it. There would be no way to make excessive demands on Chloe, who had just entered Aplia.
“······.”
Belnoir was silent for a moment.
What comes to mind is all the adversity, hardships, and trials that I have experienced over the past semester. If you think about them… a very natural question arises.
“hmm···.”
Belnoa looked into space with empty eyes and muttered.
“Do you know the extent?”
This question is too late.
The water had already spilled.
2.
Pure white hair flutters in the blowing autumn wind. The weather is moderately cool, and the rays of sunlight are extremely pleasant.
“Hmph, huh.”
Chloe hums a song as she walks around the campus. She dances lightly. Those steps are nothing short of cheerful. Chloe took a quick look around her as she walked.
‘Central Library!’
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I have always heard that good students should be friendly with the library. Issuing a student ID card will take three days at the earliest, so you won’t be able to tour the inside of the library right now, but you can at least look at the exterior and picture the inside.
A book filled with magic.
Students sitting at the table with a burning passion for learning.
You too will soon be able to become one of them. Chloe thinks back to the young girls she saw in the novel who attended the prestigious academy.
‘Smart, dignified… people who are more sincere about their studies than anyone else. That’s why beautiful ladies!’
You too can become like them.
Chloe calms her pounding heart and wanders around the campus. Every time he encounters Aplia’s students, his eyes shine and he looks at them, sometimes receiving questioning looks.
Still good.
Little things are probably good things.
“Hiyaa…”
Chloe walks away with an exclamation.
It’s completely different from what I pictured through lines in newspapers. I am confident that I can start here.
A perfect life.
Live the academy life of your dreams.
It is truly an academy full of dreams and hopes. The smile on Chloe’s face cannot be erased. At that moment, Chloe was happily thinking about where she should go this time.
Again.
Footsteps sounded.
Again, the sound of shoe heels hitting the block resounds softly. Each time, the sound gradually gets closer. Again, Chloe’s nerves frayed.
The stars sing.
Your intuition warns you.
Run without looking back. Run away. That’s the only way to survive. However, Chloe is not yet used to star intuition. Chloe tilts her head and looks back without thinking. What on earth is there?
“ah.”
And Chloe realized it right away.
Why did the stars sing of despair?
“oh.”
Someone exclaims admiration towards themselves.
she smiles An infinitely beautiful, yet infinitely eerie smile. She moves her lips slowly.
“found.”
A word made up of three syllables.
That one word lingers in my ears for a moment.
“···Inhale!”
Chloe takes a breath.
Reflexively, she twirled her body.
There is only one thought on Chloe’s mind.
‘Run away!’
It’s in school anyway, so I don’t make the obvious inference that I have to run away and have to face it someday. First of all, we need to get out of this situation. Chloe makes that decision and immediately puts her thoughts into action.
It is a life lived in the back alleys.
Even though he had to be protected by Belnoa, it was an environment where he had no choice but to improve his escape skills. And now was the time to make full use of that escape skill.
widely.
This is the moment when Chloe tries to show off her jumping skills.
“hi.”
My shoulder was grabbed.
“Where are you going in such a hurry?”
Someone whispers in my ear.
That is a very kind voice. It is soft and sweet, so there is no doubt that it is a beautiful voice that breaks down the boundaries of the listener.
But, why?
Chloe feels an eerie feeling in that voice.
“Uh, uhuh…”
Chloe turned her head and looked back.
‘There must have been quite a distance…?’
How on earth? I can not know.
Chloe looked at the woman who had narrowed the distance by dozens of steps in the blink of an eye with trembling eyes. It’s like meeting her for the first time. She is a person who came like the wind.
“hmm.”
She smiled at Chloe.
“This is the second time.”
Gray hair flowing down.
Half-open bluish eyes.
A very interesting creature… a woman looking at herself with eyes as if she were looking at an experimental subject.
Rania van Trias.
She said, holding Chloe’s shoulder tightly.
“Shall we talk for a moment?”
Academy life full of dreams and hopes.
Disaster whispers in the ear of the little girl who dreamed of it. There is no such thing. They said they came up with the wrong street number.
“Yes, yes…”
Chloe hiccuped and nodded repeatedly.
On her first day at Aplia, Chloe senses that something is definitely wrong.
3.
With just over a week left until the second semester starts, Aplia is more noisy than ever. Rumors about an unknown girl who had transferred to Aplia may have played a role, but there was one incident that attracted more attention.
「Battle magic and duel (squarrel) schedule.」
It’s because of a piece of paper attached to the academic notice.
Due to the Department of Combat Magic’s unique emphasis on practical combat, there is a unique system called duels.
‘duel.’
A 1:1 fight that separates the winner from the loser.
Unlike other departments, the Department of Combat Magic places a high value on the points obtained from duels when determining the top student. It’s like a kind of competition for rankings.
Challenge the chief to a duel.
And, win.
That alone means that the position of chief can be taken away. A place that values the strength of practice over theory. For a department that trains practical class battle-mages, these are quite unconventional conditions.
However, now half of the year has passed.
At best, no student used the established system.
This means that there was a small sparring, but there was never a duel. The reason is simple. Not only does the sparring show a glimpse of the ranking, but the person who held the position of chief is very unique.
The head of the combat magic department is Belnoa.
No one could defeat him.
Belnoir’s strength has already surpassed that of a student.
Therefore, there was not a single student who got involved in an unwinnable fight, even accepting the penalty for losing the duel. At least, that was the case until yesterday.
“challenger.”
Today, someone broke the long silence and threw a duel. Students look at the name of the challenger written on the academic notice. The name of a person who was already somewhat expected was written there.
“Lark Van Grace.”
Deputy Head of the Combat Magic Department.
The Archduke of the North challenged the Nightmare of Dusk to a duel. It is natural that students’ attention is focused. Among the murmuring students, someone spoke.
“That’s it.”
Lark said while touching the bachelor’s notice.
“It won’t be easy this time, Belnoa.”
I will take away the chief position.
Belnoa nodded at Lark who declared that. It’s a gesture that tells you to do it if you can. At that gesture that is close to provocation… the students’ murmuring becomes a little louder.
The gauntlet was thrown.
All that remains is to determine the winners and losers.
A week before the start of the second semester, Aplia Academy was regaining its original enthusiasm.
