The Dream's Chaos
I was dreaming.
That...?
The place I saw was the flower garden of the Phoenix family. The people there were none other than my mother and my younger sister Reina, along with ten-year-old me and fifteen-year-old Alcas.
Is it a dream...?
I realized it was a dream, yet strangely, even knowing that, I could not wake up or do anything. It felt as if I were watching some memory from a third-person perspective, powerless to intervene.
But then came the slap.
“Ghk...!”
It was no mere dream memory. There stood a ten-year-old version of myself, his cheek stinging from Alcas’s backhand, tumbling backward onto the ground.
Something was wrong. Even after that, Alcas—still the fifteen-year-old version of himself, fresh from returning to the family right after the academy vacation—mercilessly kicked the young me sprawled on the floor, muttering, “You disgusting bastard, you don’t even know what you’re doing!” The ten-year-old me, who had only taken the hits without resistance, blood spurting from his mouth, was helpless.
On one side, his mother rushed forward to stop it, only to be sent flying backward by the wind pressure from Alcas’s mana swing.
Mother...!!
I widened my eyes, ready to intervene right then, but it was useless. Of course. This was merely a dream I had realized was a dream.
Mother! Reina!
Seeing her mother fall, young Reina cried in terror. Alcas, declaring it noisy, strode over with a glare. The young me, desperate to save even his sister, lunged forward, grabbing Alcas’s ankle on the ground and barely holding him back. But Alcas, noticing that, sneered, “Still...!” and kicked the ten-year-old me in the head with his foot, then delivered a savage beating with his foot, leaving me battered on the floor.
The mother who had fallen soon let out a weak groan “Ugh...!” and regained her senses. Watching her son being beaten without mercy by Alcas, she called out in a pained voice mixed with groans, “Free...!” Yet even with her strength, she could not stop the prince’s atrocities.
On one side, the sobbing younger sister ran to the fallen mother and clung to her as she rose.
With that, the dream shattered like broken glass, fading away.
But in the final moment, as the dream world dissolved, the scene I watched helplessly from a third-party viewpoint was Reina, her face buried in her mother’s arms, suddenly lifting her head to stare with a spiteful smile at the ten-year-old older brother still being beaten and the fifteen-year-old Alcas who was now grinning maliciously, his eyes flickering with what looked like genuine amusement.
With eyes full of deep resentment...
With that, the dream finally ended.
Bam!
“What’s the matter, Free von Betelgeuse?”
“...”
Looking around, I realized I was still in the classroom, my head slumped on the desk after falling asleep during class.
“...Nothing.”
“Hmph, I hope you don’t disturb class too much.”
“Yes, sorry. I’ll be careful.”
Fortunately, the teacher simply accepted my apology and moved on.
But what truly mattered was not that.
...What kind of dream was that?
The dream had been far too vivid and realistic to dismiss as ordinary, leaving me deeply puzzled.
It was nothing like usual dreams. That one... was different.
No matter how I turned it over in my mind, I could not find a clear answer.
Yet one vague suspicion lingered.
...Could it have been a scene from another world or the past? Maybe something like that actually happened?
It was unclear. With so little information, I could only treat it as a dream, but the sensation was too much like reality—unrealistic yet uncomfortably familiar.
...I can’t figure it out. What could have caused me to suddenly have such a dream?
I had thought about it myself, but no satisfying explanation came to me.
I don’t know. Maybe I was just too tired lately.
It might have been that fatigue had been quietly accumulating.
After all, there had been so many varied things lately.
As time passed, the dream’s details faded from my memory, and the emotions tied to that moment gradually slipped away.
I might have wanted to believe it was simply an ordinary dream.
...I stayed up late last night practicing the technique, so I must have been sleep-deprived.
The cause was sitting in the same classroom, a bit behind me in the seat next to his.
After briefly glancing back, our eyes met—Aina, the long-haired girl with light blue hair and slightly yellow eyes.
Aina had been staring at me the whole time, the one who had caused the commotion in the classroom.
When our gazes locked, she naturally turned toward the blackboard in front as if I had never existed.
“...”
Thinking it was already too late to back out now.
* * *
Aina had partially succeeded in mastering the Magic Eye—the heat plate Free had taught him in just one day.
Although she had not perfected it, there was still some achievement.
During class, she thought to herself once.
...Magical Eye. Alias Magic Eye. Indeed, the more I learn about this magic, the more I realize how extraordinary it truly is.
Aina carried the same common thought as Free from before.
Then she secretly stared at Free’s back in the seat in front, the one she had just met eyes with.
Who is this guy? How did he come up with magic of this level on his own?
As the niece of the northern grand duke, she had no choice but to pay special attention to the boy in the same class who had done such a thing. After all, at such a young age, a first-year middle school student had created magic that defied belief.
His full name is... Free von Betelgeuse, right?
When she heard the middle name and surname, Aina guessed.
That he was merely a student from another country.
Betelgeuse. Betelgeuse.... I think I’ve heard that name somewhere.
The Betelgeuse surname belonged to a quite famous and prestigious family that high-ranking nobles in other empires would hear at least a couple of times.
It was also the only place in the empire where family names and surnames differed, and the Phoenix family had some knowledge in other empires through trade.
...Ah, I remember. It was definitely the... Phoenix family of the Arhen Empire.
The Phoenix family.
The place that used the phoenix crest as its family seal.
There had been times when carriages bearing that emblem were imported from far north.
...That guy was the son of that family.
Aina was interested in magic. That was why she had to be.
About that mysterious kid Free.
The interest and curiosity had been satisfied.
It was the reason for the infinite interest that had bloomed since this incident.
*
Lunch time.
“Hey!”
“...?”
There was someone who suddenly spoke to Free.
With a rough voice that carried a somewhat fierce tone.
Standing beside him, who had been quietly sitting in the classroom seat, was none other than the male student with red hair—Rekas.
The male student who had clashed with Aina on the first day of enrollment, causing a small trouble and commotion on the way to school.
“You are clearly...”
“Rekas.”
“...Your name?”
“Cut the small talk and get to the point. You.”
The words he spat next were none other than.
“Let’s have a magic duel.”
It was a challenge for a duel.
Under the pretext of a duel. In this Orwen’s Sephirion Academy, students could challenge each other to magic duels for conflicts in magical opinions or to damage the opponent’s honor, with the foundation and rules in place.
The loser of the magic duel had to officially apologize to the winning side in any way and follow one request that the winner wanted.
If it was not unethical or against morals or school rules, the academy would review the content first and approve it.
By planting the idea of magic duels between students from the beginning in their heads, the policy of Sephirion Academy was to have general students resolve troubles through conversation rather than duels when there were opinion conflicts.
But sometimes, there were those who challenged the opponent to a magic duel under the pretext of damaging the opponent’s honor rather than a magical opinion conflict.
“Why should I do that?”
“...”
However, refusing was also a student’s freedom.
If they did not set such limits, fights would break out everywhere under the pretext of damaging each other’s honor every day.
Adolescent male students had even more such cases.
And Free was not the kind of personality who would quietly follow someone’s wishes unless it was an unavoidable situation or circumstance.
The reason was closely related to his past life. In his past life, he had directly experienced the past where a noble person forcibly bound him with conditions and justifications he could not refuse and tried to use him to his liking.
It was not something that a young child like this would have the slightest desire to be swayed by.
However.
“I knew you would say that. You coward.”
Was it a provocation? To Free, it gave no emotion at all.
Free said.
“If there’s nothing more to see, step aside. You’re blocking the way.”
To him, who was about to stand up from his seat and head to the corridor.
The male student named Rekas in front of him, with red hair, finally presented an unacceptable condition.
“...Although it might be something that cannot happen, if you win the magic duel with me, I will lend you one magic book you want. Of course, one of the magic books I have. The period is one week.”
“...”
Really, Free thought that things that were different from his intentions often happened.
And.
To Free, who had strong magical knowledge and curiosity, that proposal was an irresistible attractive condition.
“...Good. I’ll do it. The magic duel with you.”
“Hmph...! Come out with me.”
Rekas, who spoke, turned his back first and left the classroom door.
The students who were still many around him stopped their steps toward the cafeteria and looked back and forth at the classroom door in front of which Free and the guy named Rekas who had gone out were.
Then, seeing Free, who stood up from his seat and quietly followed behind, they nodded their heads.
When he completely left the classroom, the students who remained in the classroom exchanged glances with each other with a strange silence.
Then,
Without saying anything to each other, with smiles on their lips and eyes shining, they nodded their heads and left the classroom without hiding their excited emotions.
“...”
Seeing many students leaving the classroom door in a row and following the direction of the two.
The only student who remained in his seat until the end was only Aina.
However.
Creak,
She too.
Slid...
Although she pretended not to be interested, her gaze was clearly fixed toward the classroom door in front where the other students had gone out.
“...”
Aina, who pulled the chair back and slowly stood up from her seat quietly, also followed behind without saying anything.