Chapter 18: The First Summer Vacation – Heading to the Arhen Empire
“Arhen Empire’s exchange student, Free von Betelgeuse. His admission score was perfect in every subject except History of the Orwen Empire… So that’s why he never placed first.”
“What are you staring at?”
“Wah! You startled me! When did you arrive here?!”
“Heh heh, I came because there was a mid-term evaluation for first-years.”
Sephirion Academy’s evaluation hall. The young professor Lacrong suddenly appeared behind him—the figure was none other than the senior instructor he had seen in the audience seats earlier. An elderly man with a grizzled beard approaching old age, Duangke.
“…No classes for second-years?”
“It’s the first-years’ mid-term evaluation, so I sent them to self-study. For the juniors, it’s only right to be quiet on such days, isn’t it, senior? Heh heh!”
“…”
To Lacrong, a new teacher, this was the first time he had heard such a story.
His senior instructor Duangke suddenly interrupted in the middle.
“By the way, how is it? What about the kid’s ability?”
“That kid… You mean the exchange student Free von Betelgeuse?”
“That’s right.”
“…Now that I think about it, you came here to check his evaluation score.”
“Then why bother coming all the way here?”
“…”
“What’s with that look? You seem rather displeased.”
“No.”
“Hmph. Manage your eyes better.”
“…Yes.”
The senior instructor Duangke telling the junior teacher to manage even trivial things.
The junior teacher Lacrong flipped through the document listing Free’s information and spoke.
In front of them, students were casting magic at round targets placed a few meters away.
And among them was Free.
“As you can see… It’s a score close to perfect.”
“Hmm, as expected? A hundred percent. His magic control is excellent.”
“It’s even more impressive that he hits moving targets. Not only the accuracy of magic, but also the speed to hit the target—including casting speed—is all done with silent casting in about one second…”
“Oh? When I saw it last time, I thought his silent casting was a bit fast. It really was. The method to measure speed precisely is probably using that Magic Timer.”
“Yes. The results showed he casts magic between 0.95 and 1.25 seconds. The average casting speed of students who entered Sephirion Academy is around 2 to 3 seconds. Most of the upper-tier students who are faster than that are barely around 2 seconds even if they are the fastest. When those other kids cast silent casting once, Free casts almost 2 or 3 silent casting spells in that time.”
“Whoa, amazing. Is that perhaps a secret technique from the family he belongs to?”
“I think so. If not, it’s impossible to show such level of silent casting.”
“Why on earth was such an outstanding kid sent to our Orwen Empire, a faraway foreign country?”
“I’m also wondering about that… From checking his personal information just now, he is the fourth son of the Phoenix family he belongs to.”
“No way, a kid with such talent not being the successor of that family?”
“That’s right.”
“Hah, unbelievable. I can’t believe it.”
“I think so too.”
“So he came to study at the middle school department of Sephirion Academy.”
Now those two had learned all the truth.
After Free’s mid-term evaluation was over, he returned to his class.
While walking the hallway, he accidentally spotted Aina coming toward him.
“Aina.”
He tried to greet her as an acquaintance, but for some reason Aina avoided his gaze to the side.
Free, who had raised his hand to greet her, froze at that strange attitude.
By now Aina had already lowered her head beside him, not showing her face, and passed by.
Free stood there puzzled, not understanding what was happening.
He noticed that Aina’s lowered head made her cheeks blush slightly.
***
The first semester mid-term evaluations for first-years were all over.
In the process, there was also an evaluation test to check if they could handle at least a few attributes.
But Free easily passed it with all five attributes, perfect in every subject.
The fact that Lacrong and Duangke, who were in charge of the evaluation, couldn’t help but admire it was a bonus.
“Finally the first summer vacation…”
Free had planned to return to his own family for a short time during the first summer vacation.
I can see my mother and Reina after a long time.
The long-awaited names. The two people he missed.
Thinking about seeing his mother, the second wife of the Phoenix family, Lady Lena, and his cute younger sister Reina, he felt a strange thrill in his chest without realizing it.
Free, packing his luggage, holding a luggage bag in one hand, walking out through the academy gate.
Since many students from the family he lived in were returning home on the first day, the crowd was quite bustling.
In the midst of that, knock knock.
Someone tapped his back with fingers.
It was Aina with light sky-blue hair and soft pale-yellow eyes.
“…Aina?”
“……”
When he turned around with a puzzled look at Aina’s sudden appearance, she hesitated for a moment as if about to say something.
“…? What’s the matter.”
While he was hesitating, he asked again first. Aina, hearing that, got flustered and stopped the hesitant action.
Then, with a somewhat determined look, she secretly grabbed the collar of his clothes with one hand and said.
“…I want to go with you.”
“What?”
Instantly, Free’s expression became one of astonishment at hearing that.
*
[City near Sephirion Middle Academy.]
Free walking around the city during daytime looking for a carriage heading to the Arhen Empire.
Behind Free’s back was Aina von Frost in school uniform, neatly folding both hands in front of her skirt hem, slightly tilting her head forward and following quietly.
“……”
“……”
The man and woman walking without saying a word.
Free soon stopped walking and looked back at Aina behind him.
Then, Aina who stopped in place looked at Free and asked.
“Really going to follow?”
“……”
…Nod.
With a sigh, Free said.
“…I don’t know what you’re thinking. If I ask the reason, you don’t answer.”
“……”
She was telling him to listen.
Aina who hadn’t said the reason all the way here.
I can’t figure out why she’s like that at all.
It’s so unpredictable.
Aina had told him several times to go back, but it was useless.
She was an immovable point.
“Hey, Aina. Now I can’t back down. Are you really going to follow?”
“…Yes.”
He barely got an answer.
Near Free’s front, there was a carriage driver and a double-horse carriage heading to Arhen Empire.
“…Okay. Even if you regret it later, I don’t know.”
“Yes.”
This time, an immediate answer came.
Free looked at her with a strange expression for a moment.
He paid the money to the person standing in front of the carriage and got on the double-horse carriage.
Aina also took money from her skirt pocket without any other luggage and handed it to the driver.
“Wait, where’s your luggage?”
“……”
He saw her get on the carriage without noticing midway and asked. But she arranged the skirt part at her hip with one hand and sat quietly on the opposite side.
With both hands placed neatly on her knees again. With a bold look, she told Free sitting on the opposite side.
“None.”
“……”
He thought he had acquired some troublesome luggage.
*
Clop clop.
The sound of horse hooves walking inside the carriage.
The double-horse carriage that had already departed was on its way to another destination along the way to the Arhen Empire.
“In half an hour, we’ll have to switch carriages again. Buy at least the minimum daily necessities in advance at the city where you arrive then. You have enough money, right?”
“Yes. I have a lot of money. I brought a lot of gold coins.”
“…I see.”
While answering like that, Aina took out a bunch of Orwen Empire gold coins from her pocket and showed them in her hand.
…She has more money than me.
He sat in the carriage with his arms crossed, feeling such a thought.
He turned his gaze out the window again.
Aina sitting quietly on the opposite side kept staring at his exposed side face.
“What? I thought your actions were strange from the beginning. Lately, you keep staring at my face intently.”
“……”
Free wasn’t the kind who couldn’t notice the direct stare.
To the atmosphere where she was trying to probe him with questions.
Aina suddenly said bluntly.
“…Smiling face.”
“?”
“Smiling face. Show it to me. Once more.”
“What…?”
Free, taken aback by the words right in front of him.
“…What do you mean? Suddenly asking me to show my smiling face.”
“Just. It’s not a big reason. So just show it once more.”
“…If it’s not a big reason, I don’t want to do it even more.”
“Still show it. In return, I’ll give you something good.”
“Something good?”
“Yes. This.”
Whoosh!
Suddenly, Aina took out her own light sky-blue grimoire from her hand.
Then she opened the book from the grimoire and took out a magic book with a bright light inside the pages.
“……”
Free, watching the action with arms crossed on the opposite side.
Aina summoned the grimoire that had summoned the magic book and erased it, then handed the magic book with both hands.
“Give this… to me?”
“Yes. I’ll give it to you.”
──So, smile.
It seemed like she said it again.
It felt like that.
“……”
Swoosh.
Finally, after hesitating for a moment while receiving the magic book he was about to hand over, he opened the first page.
It had a brown cover.
It was written as the title of the book.
How to Apply Attributes to the Body Ⅰ
Simply put.
The content of the book was about ‘Attribute Body Magic’ that mixes the properties of attribute magic possessed in some part of one’s body and applies and manifests it.
For example, by floating fire attribute under the feet, you can explode with the explosive power of the fire power and rush forward instantly.
Or, by creating wind behind the body, you can shoot it continuously in a short breath, turning directions at long distances.
It was an advanced magic technique that not only emits cold air on the body, but also generates fire power at the same time when emitting cold air to prevent body temperature drop.
Aina, sitting in front of him, had said that if she smiles, she’ll give it.
After a moment of deep thought, Free’s choice was.
Whoop!
He showed a cheerful smile once.
The problem was that he used the facial muscles that he didn’t usually use much, forcing a cheerful smile, and during the smile, a slight facial twitch like cheek trembling appeared.
And seeing Aina burst out laughing at that face.
“…Ahahaha ha ha ha ha ha!”
“……”
Now, Aina was lying down in the carriage holding her stomach, laughing loudly with tears in her eyes.
Free felt an indescribable sense of embarrassment and shame for the first time in his life, lowered his head deeply from his seat, and couldn’t raise his newly reddened face at all.
Meanwhile, their carriage was rapidly approaching the first stop on the way to the Arhen Empire, with the sound of horse hooves clattering on the paved road.