The Black Dragon Attends Class Via Familiar
The day after we finished investigating the underground waterways, I headed to the lecture hall as usual.
Except every student I passed in the corridor gave me a second look.
"That's the one who lifted the lake, right?"
"I heard she blew the entire training ground away in mana control class."
"Erika Rubellion marked her as her exclusive combat partner, didn't she?"
Rumors were blending together. Accurate ones. Exaggerated ones. Ones that hadn't even happened yet. All of them circulating as if they were fact.
That last one was wrong, for the record. Erika had told me to fight beside her next time, but I had no memory of becoming anyone's exclusive partner. Not yet, at least.
I walked into the lecture hall under the weight of those stares. Conversation dipped for a moment. Before, it had gone quiet because a weird new student had walked in. Now it went quiet because a weirdly strong new student who somehow still looked unreliable had walked in.
Had my reputation improved? Probably.
I squared my shoulders for no good reason and strode toward my seat, tail swishing with more vigor than usual. Then I smacked that same tail against the corner of a desk.
"Ow."
A few soft laughs rose around me. Dignity died before I even reached my chair.
Someone was already at the seat beside mine. More precisely, someone was sitting on the desk. Round purple eyes. Tiny black wings. A body about the size of a cat. One of Noel’s black dragon familiars.
A notebook and writing tools sat neatly arranged in front of it. I looked down at the familiar. The familiar looked up at me.
"Why are you here?"
"Class."
Noel’s voice spilled out of the familiar.
"I thought familiar attendance wasn’t allowed."
"Changed it."
"The rules?"
"I negotiated."
That gloomy shut-in had negotiated with the faculty?
"How, exactly?"
"I’m sharing all my vision and senses. I can answer questions. I can cast magic."
"If you can do all that, you could just come in person."
"Don’t want to."
Blunt. She only ever showed this much initiative in the strangest places.
"So why the sudden obsession with attendance?"
Before Noel could answer, the professor entered. He looked at the familiar, then at the murmuring students.
"Before we begin, an announcement. Lady Nachtveil was unable to meet last year’s attendance requirements for health reasons."
The room went quiet.
"This year, given that she can share senses and operate magic remotely through her familiar, we have decided to recognize that method of attendance. I ask the rest of you to understand."
Health reasons. I looked at the familiar.
"You looked healthy enough to go head-to-head with Lady Lydia."
The familiar’s gaze slid away for a second. Then Noel’s voice came through again.
"Combat and going to school are different."
"How?"
"School is harder."
Not something to say with pride. The professor pretended not to hear and opened the attendance book. Accepting that compromise must have taken a lot of work.
Contrary to my expectation that she would just park the familiar and goof off, Noel participated diligently.
"What was the decisive factor that united the dragons—once divided into separate kingdoms—into the present empire?"
The professor had barely finished the question when Noel’s familiar raised a front paw.
"Demonic counterattack that exploited the cracks left by territorial disputes. They only united after suffering heavy losses."
Correct. The professor nodded and marked the attendance book. The familiar even moved a pen with its front paw to take notes. The handwriting was neater than mine. My pride took a small hit.
Which meant Noel’s actual body was lying in her room, seeing and hearing all of this. I looked down at the diligently writing familiar.
"You can move this well and you still have zero intention of coming yourself?"
"Yep."
"Not even a little?"
"None."
Iron wall.
"You’re really listening to the lecture."
"Yep."
"I thought you came to keep an eye on me."
"That’s true too."
Of course. The familiar’s tail twitched toward me. I scooted my chair a little farther away.
That was when the professor called my name.
"Cheongha. Please keep conversation with your neighbor to a minimum during class."
"Sorry."
I shut my mouth and opened my book. A moment later the familiar slipped under the desk and poked my tail. When I turned my head, it was already back in place, looking innocent. Even without her body present, her talent for disrupting class remained intact.
When the lecture ended, several students gathered around my seat.
"Can you really move water that freely?"
"I heard you blew monsters away with a gale?"
"How do you do the lightning?"
Questions poured in all at once. These were the same students who used to only stare from a distance. Now they came up first to ask about my abilities. It was a little flattering. Not bad.
"Water and wind are about catching the flow." I drew a line in the air with my finger. "You just decide the path the wind will take."
"That’s it?"
"You do need a bit of Azure Dragon sense for it."
I passed the explanation off naturally.
"And the lightning?"
The most painful question of all. The one ability I still couldn’t reproduce. I looked out the window. Not a cloud in the bright sky.
"The weather’s not right today."
"What kind of weather do you need?"
"A little more… lightning-y weather."
Even as I said it, I knew how pathetic the explanation was. But the students nodded. Apparently if I said anything about the weather now, they just believed me. That was its own kind of pressure.
After they left and I started packing my books, someone stopped in front of me. Lydia. A large lunch bag hung from her hand.
"Cheongha, let’s have lunch together."
"Sure."
The size of that bag made me a little nervous. It looked like it held three days’ worth of food, not one meal.
Behind her, Erika stood with her arms crossed.
"When does the investigation end?"
"Asking me won’t help. I don’t know."
"When it’s over, show me your power again."
"Is that all you’ve been thinking about?"
"Yep."
No hesitation. Erika planted a hand on my desk.
"That thing underground—when you swept the cursed familiars with water. I want to see it again."
"That only worked because Lady Lydia was there with me."
"You still moved the water."
Her red eyes shone with anticipation. Apparently her real reason for joining the investigation had been closer to seeing my new technique than dealing with demons.
"Only after Cheongha has fully recovered, and only in a safe practice field," Lydia said firmly. "And only when the supervising professor is present."
"We can just ask Selene."
"Why are the two of you deciding my practice schedule?"
Erika and Lydia looked at me at the same time. I averted my eyes. Practice was necessary if I wanted to understand my power. That didn’t mean I planned to use Erika as a target.
The familiar beside me pulled out a small crystal orb and pointed it at the three of us.
"Why are you filming?"
"Records."
"Of what?"
"Training material for Magical Dragon underwater form."
Even Noel was excited. Without any input from me, a practice schedule and a filming plan were being locked in at the same time.
Then someone else stopped in front of us. Kyle. The original protagonist I hadn’t seen in a while still wore that easygoing, good-natured face.
"You feeling okay?"
"I’m fine now."
"Good to hear."
Ordinary concern. Lately, though, every time this guy spoke to me I got wary for no clear reason. The original harem master. The one who was supposed to get tangled up with the heroines kept seeking me out instead.
"I heard about what happened at the lake."
Of course that was where this was going. The magic circle found at the bottom of the lake had been disclosed to the students as the cause of the practical-class accident.
"How did you find the magic circle at the bottom of the lake?"
Kyle’s voice was light. His eyes weren’t smiling. A tiny difference. On a normal day I might not have noticed. But I had already spun the lie too large. I couldn’t back down here.
"I saw the flow."
"What flow?"
"Sky or water—everything flows in the end."
Even I didn’t know what that meant. Kyle, however, looked thoughtful and serious.
"So do you know where something will happen next?"
"Not that far."
This time I answered honestly. Kyle’s eyes said he didn’t believe me. Why did he believe the lies and not the truth?
"Are you going to investigate the Spire?"
Kyle asked. The lines on the metal plate we found underground led to the academy’s Central Spire. That fact still hadn’t been shared outside the investigation team. I looked at him.
"How do you know about that?"
The smile vanished from Lydia’s face as well.
"Kyle. Information about the Spire has only been shared with those involved in the investigation."
Her voice was still soft. But she had already half-stepped between me and Kyle. Kyle’s expression hardened for the briefest instant. Truly brief.
"I overheard the professors talking."
He answered with a smile, but it was suspicious. Lydia smiled again too, though her eyes weren’t smiling at all. This guy was hiding something as well. Maybe he knew circumstances outside the original story that I didn’t. In that case I should stop dodging and ask properly next time.
But why did he keep approaching me? Don’t tell me this harem master was actually trying to romance me.
I took half a step back. The familiar climbed onto the desk. Purple eyes stared straight at Kyle. Kyle looked at the familiar. A short silence passed.
"Let’s talk again later."
Kyle withdrew first.
"Why later?"
He didn’t answer my question. He just waved and left the lecture hall.
"Cheongha, you shouldn’t associate with suspicious people like that," Lydia said with a worried face.
The original main heroine was treating the original protagonist like a bad influence. The Lydia route wasn’t just ruined—it looked like it had been banned from entry entirely.
While I watched Kyle’s retreating back, Noel’s familiar pushed a sheet of paper onto my desk.
Consent to wear the improved Magical Dragon costume for training and recording purposes.
I crumpled the paper and shoved it back at the familiar.
"I’m not wearing it."
"Verbal consent works too."
"I’m not consenting at all."
"I’ll ask again next class."
Who on earth had authorized familiar attendance? Someday I was definitely going to file a complaint with whoever was in charge.