Episode 98. Roommate (2)
The Oscar Tunio I actually met was exactly as I had seen him through the transparent ceiling.
He liked to joke around and had a cheerful personality, and as expected of a commoner and a third-grade magic cadet, he wasn’t the type to show off.
“Luden, when did you gain mana?”
“Me two years ago. You?”
“Four years ago, I was working with my father, and I started feeling dizzy and lightheaded. Then I found out that it was my mana that had manifested. How did you manifest it?”
“I was traveling, and it suddenly occurred to me on the ship.”
“You mean you were on the sea? That was a close call! Some people die when the manifestation process goes wrong.”
Rubin said that such cases were rare, even if he knew of them. If time had passed without him getting involved with Chloe, Rubin’s body might have gone through an uneasy process as well.
“Listen, the kid I met at the lake market… … .”
Oscar listed off all the cases he knew of.
Acquired manifestation of mana.
This was a conversation that could only be had among the wizards of Samhwi.
For wizards like Won-Hwi and Mo-Hwi, the concept of mana being manifested while living did not exist. To them, mana was something they had in their bodies since birth.
Whether mana is acquired or innate has been a central theme in the power landscape of the wizarding world.
The reason why the Samhwi are ignored and excluded in wizarding society is not because of anything else, but simply because most Samhwi wizards possess acquired mana.
It was in the same context that the Ielos family, despite being the third generation, was treated as a prestigious magical family within the empire.
They only passed down their lineage to those with innate mana, and like other sects, they adhered to pure-bloodism.
“That’s why, when the children of the Ielos family reach marriageable age, they spend a lot of money searching the empire to find noble families with the Samhwi Mana.”
“If it’s Ielos… I saw it at the magic shop.”
“Really? Oh, right. You can see it. I forgot that you’re a noble.”
Rubin and Oscar walked down the hallway, chatting about this and that.
Each of their shoulders had a key bug sitting on them. If Rubin’s key was a dragonfly, Oscar’s was a stag beetle.
The sight of a noble and a commoner talking as if they were friends who had known each other for a long time. It was natural that the other students would have thought that Rubin and Oscar were a special pair.
That’s why students passing by glanced at the two people’s necklaces. Rubin’s necklace had a blue pendant symbolizing nobility, while Oscar’s necklace had a red pendant symbolizing commoners.
“Luden, do you know what’s going to happen in two months?”
As Oscar spoke, looking down at the necklace, Rubin thought he might be referring to the ‘necklace ritual’.
“As far as I know, there is a ritual where the necklaces of commoners and nobles are gathered together and melted down.”
“Oh, that’s not what I meant.”
“then?”
“Of course, there is a sacred ceremony that day. It is a ceremony that symbolizes the principle of this school that ‘nobles and commoners are equal under the three heads.’ However, what I am talking about is the event that took place before that ceremony.”
“What is that?”
“It’s a banquet to celebrate the birth of new students for the new semester.”
“Ah, a banquet.”
“‘Ah, a banquet’! It doesn’t matter to you? Aha, is this what it means to be a noble?”
Rubin shrugged. The very word banquet was tiresome enough to make him feel tired.
As Oscar said, the time is two months later. The venue is the ‘Serenade Hall’, a tower dedicated to school events, where the entrance ceremony banquet is held.
Rubin had hoped for a simple tea party, but it wasn’t like that. Laughing, talking, and eating were the job of the outside guests, and the students had another homework assignment that day.
Dancing with your partner in a banquet hall right in front of the VIPs.
“You may know how to dance like a nobleman, but I don’t. So I have to learn how to dance from the dormitory head for two months without moving.”
“The guidebook says it doesn’t matter if it’s not a noble dance.”
“Of course… there will be some commoners who will be complacent after seeing that phrase. But they don’t know that they are blowing the best opportunity of their lives.”
“The best opportunity of your life?”
“Heh, I’m going to ask the noble lady to dance.”
It was a common tradition for a male magical student to ask a female magical student to dance and receive permission.
The opposite was not in principle impossible, but such cases were few and far between throughout history.
From the perspective of a female magic student, if there was no partner, there was no such thing, so she didn’t apply first in that way.
Besides, even though everyone was equal as magic cadets, it was inevitable that nobles would dance with nobles and commoners with commoners. Moreover, this was before the necklaces indicating status were melted down.
“On this day, if I can catch the eye of the noble lady… it’s not a dream to rise in status.”
It seemed like Oscar had no future in mind where he would develop his magical skills and become famous in the world.
“Roommate, you won’t be able to see me for two months while I learn noble dancing anyway. Phew… Dancing is the first thing you learn at magic school.”
Rubin had been to many noble balls before his return, so he knew Oscar’s dream was absurd, but he let it slide because the expectations seemed too high.
‘It’s not just Oscar who’s looking forward to the banquet.’
I could tell just by listening to the conversations the kids were having as I walked down the hallway. Most of it was about a banquet that was going to be held in two months.
“I heard there are a lot of distinguished guests coming to this banquet?”
“Is it because of the Ielos family?”
“Eric Elos… I wonder who he’s going to ask to dance.”
“This time, the Delrin family is also admitted.”
“Then we know the answer. The Ielos family will ask the Delin family to dance.”
Among the families that students talked about, Witherspoon was not one of them. If it had been known that Witherspoon’s youngest daughter would be coming as an exchange student, all the attention would have been drawn to that.
‘Considering the aftermath, Chloe might only show up during class.’
Rubin was fine with it.
Right now, I had to act independently rather than using Chloe. That would actually be better if I attracted less attention.
Thud thud.
The two continued to look around the dormitory. Oscar was just wandering around out of curiosity, but Rubin was analyzing and memorizing the inside of the dormitory as the imperial command had wanted.
The place the two eventually discovered was connected to the inner balcony. There was a sign that said ‘Rest Area’, but it looked like a training ground.
“What is this place?”
The place was filled with machines. They looked like amusement rides to kill time, but they weren’t really like that. They were all for increasing mana.
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Like the throwing and catching of a mana ball in a dorm room, most of the equipment here needed someone to match it.
Of course, Rubin wasn’t interested in that.
“Okay, go ahead. I’ll take a look at these.”
Oscar, who was staying in the break room while Rubin went to look around other places alone, was brimming with confidence. He didn’t seem to care about signs that said, ‘Dangerous if operated without sufficient mana’, and was trying to operate the mana devices one by one.
Either way, Rubin continued to wander around the Rhapsody Hall. For him, both of his goals had not yet been fulfilled.
‘There must be something more.’
There will be more places with magical architecture, such as two rooms designed with ‘spatial connection’.
It was the most chaotic time of the year when the magic cadets were moving in one by one, so I had to move around as much as possible.
furthermore.
‘Where is Per Lorenzini?’
I was concerned that I hadn’t found Per yet. I checked all the boys’ visits. Per’s name wasn’t on them anywhere.
‘Is the timing off? Or will I be admitted later?’
Rubin, who was walking with such thoughts, suddenly stopped in his tracks. There was something. It was near the top of the triangular building structure.
A dark and eerie hallway. On the wall was a magically glowing sign that read, “No Trespassing.”
Rubin smiled slightly. This was exactly what he was looking for. He stopped walking again as he passed the ‘No Trespassing’ sign.
‘This time, the eyes that see sound?’
It was one of the magical tools invented by the disappeared great wizard Glayton. It was once a magical tool that had a huge impact, but Glayton personally improved it and now it has become a security device that can be seen anywhere in major facilities on the continent.
On an iron pedestal hangs a single eye the size of a human head. The eye is unusual in that the positions of the black and white spheres are reversed.
The ‘Eye of Sound’ is, as its name suggests, made to react to sound. When a sound is made, it is recorded on the magic tool as if it were a stain on glass.
‘If I hadn’t noticed, I would have been in big trouble.’
The magic tool seemed to be watching the target going down the hallway. That also meant that there was something at the end of the hallway where Rubin was standing.
The ‘Eye of Sound’ is certainly an excellent security tool, but it’s a different story if the person standing in front of it is an assassin.
The reason why suspicious assassinations continue to occur despite the fact that it is installed in every major continental facility. It is because there is a method of destruction in the Assassination Sword.
Rubin looked around, then immediately unleashed the female spell ‘Shadow Humming’.
‘Even if it seems very quiet, every place has subtle sounds flowing through it.’
Surrendering to the flow of sound so subtle that humans cannot hear it. That was ‘shadow humming.’
The moment Rubin passed by, Madougu found the sound, but did not perceive it as anything unusual. It had just seemed like part of the sound that had been floating around the place until just now.
‘Huh?’
But the problem occurred next.
‘What is this?’
Rubin, who had safely passed through the boundary of the magic tool with ‘Shadow Humming’, stopped moving again.
Across the hallway, there was a wolf. Covered in silver fur, the wolf looked at Rubin with calm eyes. There was no sense of hostility.
But it was clear that taking even one step further would result in an outpouring of hostility.
‘I’ve been sensing strange beasts in the dorm for a while now… I finally understand.’
It was clear that there must be something beyond where the wolf was standing guard. Perhaps the wolf was just the weakest beast guarding the entrance.
Rubin decided not to push any further. He could have taken out the wolf and gone ahead to check, but that wasn’t a good idea.
Rubin turned and walked back into the shadows of the hallway, passing through the ‘sound-seeing eye’ in the same way.
‘I’ll have to consider the beasts next time I move. It’ll be more troublesome than I thought.’
With that thought in mind, I returned to the ‘break room’ where Oscar was.
“Oh, that’s ridiculous!”
“Why don’t you go somewhere else to complain? Okay, is there a next challenger? By the way, please come in knowing that there is a bet.”
Oscar was having a blast in the break room.
He was pulling in other students to make a bet on ‘removing the restraints’. The method was simple, but it was a bet that required basic mana.
Once both people place their left arms on the table, the mana device binds their left arms with leather belts.
As you delicately draw the Mana Whisik in that state, the leather belt that restrains the left arm will come off one by one.
In the twenty minutes that he had been away from Rubin, Oscar had already defeated about ten opponents, and the coins he had won were strewn all over the table.
“Oscar.”
“Oh, Luden! You’re here? Am I going to become rich like this?”
“I have something to say… … .”
“What? Wait, I’ll make some money off this poor challenger.”
Thud. Thud. Thud.
At that moment, all the students in the break room felt the echo of the hallway. Rubin shrugged.
“I was going to tell you, but I guess it wasn’t necessary.”
“What are you talking about, Luden? Hey! There’s a bear behind you… a bear with a chicken sitting on its head?”
“I was trying to tell you that the dorm supervisor is a bloodsucker.”
It was already too late. I saw a person walking briskly with glaring eyes from across the hallway.
He was a man with long, flowing hair and a sharp expression. He pushed the bear aside and shouted.
“What kind of idiot is he! He’s a freshman and he’s betting money!”
