Episode 97. Roommate (1)
Rubin followed the Keybug into the street. The street was crowded with children who looked like new magic cadets to anyone who saw them.
“Hey, are you a caterpillar?”
“Isn’t that ladybug really cute?”
Rubin’s keybug took the form of a winged dragonfly, but not all keybugs were like that.
The magic student’s key bug passing by Rubin was a spider. The spider had spun a web between the student’s thumb and index finger, and was showing him which direction to go on the web.
Regardless of their appearance, the key bugs were all made of gold and gave off a soft glow around them.
‘I guess this is an annual event.’
Capotini residents leaned out of their windows and watched with glee as the procession of new students made their way to their dormitories, chattering loudly.
Pipipiping.
As Rubin boarded the gondola, the key bug made a sound again. The key bug and the gondola’s mana stone synchronized, and they soon headed toward their destination.
The gondola that had been moving steadily arrived at this location.
It was the Rhapsody Hall. It was the building you would see if you moored the gondola on the north shore of the lake and walked up the first set of stairs.
The Rhapsody Hall was the third building from the left among the fifteen magic towers of the magic school.
The students who had been receiving the same directions from the Keybug up until now began to diverge in directions starting from inside Rhapsody Hall. As soon as they passed the main entrance, some went left, some went right, and some headed for the stairs on the second floor.
‘This is the central entrance… The hallway on the left is about this wide… The hallway on the right is like this… … .’
Rubin deliberately walked slowly and observed his surroundings. Although he gradually learned the detailed composition of the building, he was able to grasp the general structure.
The Rhapsody Hall was in the shape of a triangular pyramid. Most of the towers were cylindrical, but there were some that had a different shape, and the Rhapsody Hall was one of them.
On the central staircase leading from the first to the second floor, the word ‘Rhapsody’ was written in large, fluorescent letters.
“What is it? I heard it’s a strange building.”
“I was expecting it too, but there’s nothing?”
I heard some voices nearby.
Rubin saw it that way too. It didn’t seem like an exquisite composition of magical architecture.
Whistle, whistle.
Rubin followed the key bug up to the third floor. After climbing the stairs, he went to the left.
A long hallway appeared. There were doors at regular intervals along both walls of the hallway. Beyond those doors were the cadets’ rooms.
Rubin stood in front of the door.
Single room per person. That’s what the notice said. But there was something a little strange about it.
-The space for students in the dormitory is ‘conceptually’ one person per room.
Conceptually? It’s a single room, but does that mean it might not be a single room?
At that moment, Rubin’s key bug flew towards the doorknob. As it folded its wings, its golden body became even darker.
Then it went into the keyhole.
Crunch.
The door lock was released. Rubin turned the handle to open the door.
‘It’s ordinary.’
If there’s anything unusual about it, it’s that it’s too spacious.
This width would have been impossible with the spacing between the doors in the hallway.
‘It means that space expansion magic has been applied.’
Spatial expansion magic. It was one of the magical construction techniques. Spatial expansion was to expand a limited space, and by using this, the space could be used three or four times wider.
The basic layout of the room was simple. There was a desk, a sofa, a bookshelf, and a closet. Inside the closet and on the desk, all the entrance preparation materials that I had purchased from the magic shop were properly placed.
Thud thud.
Rubin’s footsteps echoed through the spacious room. Is this the end? Can it be said that the magical architecture was added only to expand the space?
at that time.
I heard something tapping near my ear. I turned my head and saw a small lark tapping on the window.
“Tina.”
“How is it, do you like the room? Wow! It’s so spacious!”
“It’s spacious, but… Rosenthaler probably wouldn’t have expected something like this.”
Rubin opened the window and let Tina in, then wrote something down. He was organizing information about the Rhapsody Hall to be delivered to the Imperial Command.
Meanwhile, Tina flapped her wings and wandered around the spacious interior.
“Right now, Kuze is busy moving the luggage… … .”
“Tina.”
Rubin interrupted Tina’s words for a moment. His calm eyes turned sharp.
There was something. Something was being detected in the wide-spread smoke that was used to guard the surroundings.
“Hey, roommate!”
A voice suddenly interrupted. Startled, Tina flapped her wings and quickly hid inside the closet.
“Can’t you hear? Over here, over here!”
There was no one around. But Amyeon still sensed someone in the same space.
Suddenly, a thought crossed Rubin’s mind.
‘It’s the ceiling.’
Rubin tilted his head back and looked up at the ceiling. The ceiling was incredibly high compared to the area around it. It must have been hundreds of meters high.
“Are you surprised?”
“… … .”
It’s a ceiling, but it’s not a ceiling.
Mirror? I saw a room with the same structure and the same layout. So it looked like there was a large mirror hanging on the high ceiling, but it wasn’t a mirror.
It was literally another room. Someone in the other room was sitting on the couch, looking up with their head thrown back like Rubin.
From Rubin’s perspective, it was like looking down on yourself from the other side.
“Hey, roommate! I’ve been waiting for you to come home.”
“… … .”
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“It’s too far away, I can’t see your face well. My neck hurts because I keep doing this.”
A boy with green hair and green eyes. The lively boy across from me laid down on the sofa. Only then did he feel more comfortable facing me, and his expression became much more relaxed.
“While you were gone, I was reading the manual here. I think you can close the gap between the two rooms… Should I try that now?”
The green-haired boy didn’t wait for an answer, even though he was asking for consent. He seemed to be manipulating something with one hand, and he quickly reduced the distance between the two rooms.
Wheww.
As if the space of the boy across from him was falling, it fell over Rubin’s head and stopped dead in its tracks.
Now that their faces were close enough to be distinguishable, the green-haired boy laughed with his mouth wide open.
“Roommate! My name is Oscar Tunio.”
I extended my hand to shake hands, but that didn’t mean we could touch each other. ‘Spatial Access’ only illuminated the rooms from one to the other.
“I am Luden Poinen.”
“You, judging by your necklace, you’re of noble birth? But you know… all wizards are equal in this school, right?”
“Yeah, I don’t care about that.”
“What the heck, you were such an open-minded young master! Phew, thank goodness. Your expression was so cold like an elf’s, I thought you were going to ask me to change rooms again!”
According to what Oscar later told us, there was a hierarchy to the Capotini dormitory assignments.
Since the students are 7 commoners and 3 nobles, it is allowed for commoners to be roommates, but nobles cannot do so.
“Perhaps a noble and a commoner would live in a room together without even seeing each other’s faces?”
Oscar spoke again to Rubin, who did not understand what he meant.
“Look, like this!”
Oscar has re-imagined the ‘transparent ceiling’.
Clang!
A black veil was drawn over Rubin’s eyes, covering Oscar’s room.
“Luden! Can I unfold it?”
“Okay, let’s just cover it up when necessary.”
Eventually, the veil of the transparent ceiling was lifted again, revealing Oscar’s bright face once again.
This time, Oscar was holding something like a thick ball of yarn in his hand. He held it out toward Rubin and asked,
“Do you know what this is?”
“A ball of fur?”
“No, it’s called a managu (球).”
“Managu?”
While fiddling with the mana ball with one hand, Oscar began to recite the guidebook next to him.
“Spatial access means that there is no physical contact between rooms, but during this renovation, Principal Keegan tried something new… it is written in the guide.”
“If it’s a new attempt… … .”
“The purpose of this mana ball is to throw a ball beyond one’s own space, increasing mana while also promoting harmony between friends… something or other, but I think I understand it!”
Throwing it? As Rubin pondered the concept, a playful expression appeared on Oscar’s face. He was about to check the use of Managu right away.
First, Oscar manipulated the transparent ceiling again. He widened the distance between the two rooms, separating them by about a hundred meters.
Then he concentrated his mana into the ball.
“Throw it?”
The color of the ball became darker than before. Oscar, lying down, threw it towards Rubin.
Swoosh.
The ball quickly moved away from Oscar and headed towards the edge of the room. As it crossed the edge, the transparent ceiling appeared as if it was creating ripples on the surface of the water.
Managu, who had crossed the boundary through the ripples, quickly fell towards Rubin.
Pot!
The hand that caught the ball was cold.
‘Mana is being released on its own.’
As I held the mana ball filled with mana, the mana in my body also changed. I felt the mana particles being released quickly as if they were evaporating. The third ring also became infinitely lighter.
This time it was Rubin’s turn, he threw a mana ball at Oscar.
Managu proceeded without any problems, but compared to the speed that Oscar had shown, it was infinitely slow. He barely managed to pass through the boundary of the transparent ceiling.
Oscar simply received the slowly falling mana ball.
‘I only threw it once, but more than half of my mana was used up.’
However, this only applied to Rubin. Oscar, who received the ball, threw another ball without any trouble.
The color of the second thrown mana ball was much darker than before.
Swoosh.
This time, Oscar’s Managu easily passed through the boundary and rushed towards Rubin.
Pfft!
Again, my hands were cold. In terms of speed and power, Rubin was incomparable. This had nothing to do with physical strength. It was a significant difference in mana.
It seemed that the mana requirement increased with each passing time. Rubin tried to throw it again, but he didn’t have enough mana to meet Oscar’s increased standards.
“I’m done here.”
“How about it? If I keep doing it, my mana will be trained, right?”
Oscar smiling innocently.
Rubin looked at the boy through the transparent ceiling. He wasn’t just a cheerful roommate. It was clear that he had tremendous talent as a wizard.
‘Oscar Tounio… He said that this year’s freshmen class was the best ever, and it looks like he wasn’t wrong.’
Rosenthaler said that, according to sources, the level of Capotini’s freshmen class is the highest in its long history.
Even in terms of talent, it was said that it was far superior to the time when current principal Keegan and famous magician Benitez entered the school.
‘I want to see how talented that kid is.’
The opportunity came sooner than expected. Oscar offered to follow Rubin out of the room to find Per Lorenzini.
“Now I’m going to take a look around the dormitory.”
“Really? You’ll get bored if you go alone. It’s also dangerous. On the first day of the semester like today, you absolutely have to show off your strength! Wait, I’ll go over there.”
