A Joyful Entrance Ceremony
There was one thing I had never really done in my life: hug someone.
My father was a first-class hunter, so he was always out on the front lines, wiping out monsters. I rarely even got the chance to see him, and when he did look at me, he never reacted at all. He would just check my injuries and head back to the front.
My mother was always around in person, but she was buried under political and administrative work. With my father absent from the family seat because of the front, she had effectively inherited the role of head of the household and taken on all the duties that came with it.
So even asking her for something, or throwing a childish fit, felt unbearably selfish when every minute of her rest was a luxury.
My older brother was always at the top of the rankings at the academy, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, and my older sister was busy living in social circles so she could one day inherit Mother’s position as head of the house.
The only memory I had of being held by someone in my mind was once when I was very young.
We had money. More support than we knew what to do with.
But I decided years ago that none of it mattered, and I’d lived alone since then.
It was obvious that everyone had only approached me because of my family, Melitton.
Our house specialized in Mana Circulation, a style built for long battles that grew stronger the longer one fought. Someone like me, who couldn’t regulate mana properly and exhausted himself quickly, was hardly worth any expectations.
So I cut ties with everyone except those I had a truly close connection with, and threw myself into training.
My ranking, which had been in the upper tier, shot straight to first place.
And that was when I asked my mother for something for the very first time.
“Mom...”
“Hm? Riae, do you have something you want to tell me?”
“Can I... hug you once?”
“Oh my, what a thing for a child to say... Of course you can hug me.”
My mother’s embrace back then was so warm.
It was a sensation I never wanted to lose again.
“Was that really all it took to keep you from saying anything to me? You should have told me sooner. I’m on Riae’s side, you know?”
As if she couldn’t help herself, Mother soothed me gently.
After that, when I went to sleep, I always hugged my blanket or a stuffed toy.
Since I had hardly ever been held, I knew better than anyone how precious another person’s arms could be.
“I’m sorry... sob... I’m sorry...”
But Paran was so lonely that he had curled in on himself and was moving toward the corner of the room.
It reminded me of our first meeting, when he had been trembling and curled up the moment another person was near him.
A wounded heart that reacted instantly even when someone merely came close.
I wanted to hold that wounded heart tight.
Paran looked like he was in too much pain now, and...
“Please help me... please...”
The voice squeezed through that blocked throat and the tears spilling over his face hurt just to hear.
And then the last thread of reason I’d been clinging to, the one that had been hesitating because of what I’d remembered a moment ago, snapped clean in two.
- Hug
“Ah...?”
I pulled the boy who had been curled up in on himself straight into my arms.
“Ri... Riae...?”
Paran slowly lifted his head, tears still falling quietly, and our eyes met.
“Paran, are you all right?”
At that moment, he burst into tears again and buried himself deep in my arms.
“Y-yes...”
“That’s a relief...”
And so Paran settled fully into my embrace.
* * *
There is always some turning point that changes a person’s life.
Even something as small as a student who had never been good at studying suddenly starting to work hard so they could go to the same place as a friend can become one of those turning points.
And for me now...
“Haa... Riae good...”
The me who had been terrified of people to the point of madness was tucked into someone’s arms, bathing in warmth.
“Hee~ Does that feel good?”
“Yes... gooood...”
Han Riae tightened her hold around me again, as if I were a spoiled child, and looked at me with affectionate eyes.
How could an embrace be this warm?
After losing my memories, I had rejected everyone who came near me and endured the pain alone in miserable isolation. To me, this feeling was so soft and so comforting that it almost made me lose my senses.
“It’s good... hee...”
Without my noticing, my mouth kept repeating the same simple syllables over and over again.
It was just so good.
Han Riae’s arms carried a sweet, gentle scent of yuzu.
“Haha, that tickles, Paran.”
“Mm... Riae smell good...”
“Paran, are you feeling calmer now?”
Han Riae looked down at me softly from where I was held in her arms and asked.
“Yes... I’m a lot calmer now.”
“Really? Then... the entrance ceremony is about to start, so let’s go.”
“No... I want to stay with Riae...”
I didn’t want to be apart from Han Riae.
Even if I was being selfish, I did not want to let go now.
“We’re not going to be apart. Come on, let’s go together.”
Han Riae quickly let her troubled expression fade, took my hand, and stood up from the sofa.
“Paran, I’ll guide you, so hold onto my clothes tightly, all right?”
“Yes...”
Riae led me forward.
My steps were probably very slow because of how small my body was, but she walked beside me, matching her pace to mine.
I held tightly onto her sleeve and followed slowly behind her.
It felt completely different from when I had been keeping my distance from everyone before.
Even when people passed close by, I could feel little spasms of panic rising now and then.
But with Han Riae, not once did I flinch.
My fear of people, and the attacks it brought with it, seemed not to react to Han Riae at all.
Instead, being near her made me feel warm.
I clutched her sleeve and quietly made my way to the main lobby of Sielm Academy.
* * *
The entrance ceremony at Sielm Academy was less a ceremony than a reception for the new students, to the point that calling it an entrance ceremony at all almost felt too stiff.
It seemed like a natural choice for Sielm, where they placed so much importance on student interaction, free communication, and the combat growth that came from both.
The silver chandelier hanging from the impossibly high ceiling bathed the vast banquet hall in gold.
Thanks to that perfect level of light, not too bright and not too dim, the already luxurious interior looked even more impressive.
At the center of each table sat decorations like lovely vases filled with flowers, and around them were foods representing the various cultures of the continent’s different regions.
“Why do we even have to take Basic Mana Theory? We’ve been cramming that crap back at our academy forever, haven’t we?”
“Yeah, but the professors here and the professors there are on completely different levels. Where else are you going to find a place like Sielm, where every professor is a former first-class hunter? They’ll teach us something extra no matter what.”
Everyone had ditched their uniforms for casual clothes and was sipping brand-name liquor that cost hundreds of thousands of won a bottle while chatting away.
“The Meaning of Large Magic Circle Patterns? Professor Han Seohwa... if I remember right, she used to be an active first-class hunter on the northwestern front?”
“She officially retired last time. Something about injuries, I heard.”
The students were already talking with the people next to them, trying to find subjects that suited their own paths.
What subjects would you focus on?
I heard a hunter who became a teacher recently was like this.
These days, that clan’s growth is really standing out.
The northwest front sounds grim lately.
And so on...
There were plenty of petty efforts to build connections, as well as personal and confidential stories.
But there were also plenty of other topics.
World affairs, political business, and other specialized conversations were not uncommon either.
Honestly, that made sense.
The students of Sielm Academy were those who occupied the largest stretch of land on the continent and devoted that enormous territory entirely to hunter training.
Sielm students.
The most highly evaluated and most frequently discussed people of their age group across the whole continent.
The highest praise such people could receive was the title of Sielm student.
The same went for most of the first-class hunters now, and for most of the second-class hunters preparing to become first-class hunters; it would not be an exaggeration to say that half of them carried the title of Sielm graduate.
Just being from Sielm was enough to earn respect from others, and there were many people who lived with a quiet pride simply because they were Sielm alumni.
“Basic Mana Theory too... wait, does Basic Mana Theory include Mana Circulation as well?”
“Just take every basic course you can get your hands on. There’s nothing here you can afford to leave out. If you really can’t manage it, then take them all during your free semester.”
Of course, many students were not discussing anything so specialized at all and were merely talking about their courses.
Most of those people lacked technical knowledge and fought on pure skill alone.
Sielm was a prestigious academy that had stood for two hundred years.
But in truth, there had been a few times when it had closed its gates.
There were even years when no students were accepted because of the great wars that broke out in between.
Officially, there were three ways to enter Sielm.
The first was admission through examination.
The entrance exam was announced across the entire continent, and every promising young talent who existed on the continent took part.
Most of them were children of distinguished families or once-in-a-half-century geniuses.
Because of that, the difficulty of the exam was hellish, and only a tiny handful dared challenge it.
Even so, it was still one of Sielm’s official admission routes, so the competition rate was absurdly high.
If the first method was one of finding a seed that was already in the process of blooming, then the second was a method of discovering a seed that had not yet bloomed.
Even if they were not from a prestigious family and had not received a high-level education, Sielm would judge them solely by their potential, perform a thorough evaluation, and use the academy itself to bring that unbloomed seed to life.
Of course, that route was less competitive than the first, but because it judged only the raw bud, the odds of being selected were still extremely slim.
And then there was the third...
“Hey, what was that kid who got in through special admission this time? Something about mana erosion?”
“And apparently he’s got blue hair... you know, the hair color that disappeared a hundred years ago...”
“What? Really? Isn’t that the incurable disease that kills you the moment it sets in? How is he even alive? And what’s with the blue hair?”
“No idea. That’s probably why he qualified for special admission.”
Lim Paran’s special admission was the one and only example.
“But is that really important enough to count as special admission?”
“Hey, shut up for once.”
The group that had been talking for a while lowered their voices and started up again.
There was one common topic shared by the first and second groups.
Sielm’s first special admission student.
Between the tables in the banquet hall, the words special admission kept popping up again and again.
Being a student recommended by Sielm was essentially the same as the second route, but there was a reason the ugly label special admission had been attached to it.
That reason was that, now, the recommendation came from nothing more than the will of the academy’s original founder, who had become a star in the heavens and watched over the continent.
That special admission system carried a weight entirely different from the usual recommendation system.
And the fact that Sielm’s first special admission student had appeared was more than enough to become a topic of conversation for the incoming class.
The fact that someone with blue hair, a hair color that had vanished a hundred years ago, had appeared was another major point of discussion.
Opinions would likely vary widely...
But most of the reactions were negative.
A recommendation system selected students with clear justification and real potential.
Special admission, however, was decided solely by the will of the original founder, with nothing else to back it up. For students who had not seen the special-admission student’s abilities with their own eyes, suspicion was the only natural response.
And just as the talk of special admission was growing more heated, the doors suddenly swung open.
- Hiiing
A soft vibration traveled through the doors, and through the wide opening stepped a student with light yellow-blond hair.
Her golden hair caught the gold cast by the silver chandelier and reflected it back as though it were her own. Her eyes, a seductive and enchanting crimson, seized the attention of every student in the banquet hall.
Even the teal coat draped over her shoulders seemed to carry an air of luxury, and her smooth, graceful steps made it look as though she were walking on clouds.
Riae Melitton.
The other great topic of conversation after the special-admission student.
Among the many figures in Sielm’s 173rd class, she was evaluated as one of the most gifted.
The high output of mana she had never before shown in the Melitton family.
Movements rated capable of taking on a fifth-tier monster alone.
One of the standout prospects in Sielm’s 173rd class.
And then everyone was stunned by the way she treated the blue-haired boy who came in behind her, clutching her sleeve.
“Paran, could you wait over there for just a little while?”
“No... I want to stay with Riae...”
“Ahaha... what am I supposed to do with you...”
Most people who knew Riae Melitton would have been utterly shocked by that scene.
Perfect figure, beautiful face, overwhelming talent. Those were the titles attached to Riae Melitton.
If one thing was missing, it was...
That she was extremely sensitive and very prickly.
For years now, she had not allowed anyone to touch her at all, keeping everyone at arm’s length.
And if anyone dared speak to her, she would toss out a few sharp words and end the conversation right there.
“Please go away. Having you around is no different from running with weights tied to my ankles.”
After that, there was even an account of her single-handedly taking down a sixth-class monster and quietly disappearing from her party.
There were countless other stories too, including one where she had ignored a man who confessed to her without even so much as reacting.
For anyone who knew that background, the scene before them should have been impossible.
Not only was she being unfailingly kind and gentle to the boy beside her, she was also helpless against his request and smiling shyly.
It felt like watching a tiger that normally ignored everything in sight scoop up a tiny puppy and hold it close with surprising tenderness.
“Whoa... what the hell...”
“This...”
“How is this real?”
“That really is blue hair...”
The negative opinion surrounding the special-admission student changed in an instant.
Into a blue life-form melting the frozen walls of ice...
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