Visible Only to Me
"What the hell? Showing affection from the very first day..."
"Did those two come to the Academy just to flirt?"
I knew it would turn out like this. I kept my head slightly lowered and slipped through the crowd of students, dodging their gossiping eyes. Each time I felt another pitying stare land on me, my steps quickened.
Damn it.
It wasn’t purely out of embarrassment that I avoided their gazes. Not that I was immune to feeling awkward—I didn’t exactly enjoy being looked at that way—but I wasn’t the type to lose sleep over other people’s opinions. Still, I had no desire to stand out at the Academy like this. Especially not on the first day…!
Luckily there were no classes today, but if I wanted to avoid walking into a classroom tomorrow under a barrage of sharp glances from my classmates, caution was the wiser choice. The professors probably wouldn’t care about student romances, yet there was no harm in playing it safe.
The one bright spot was how quickly I had escaped the scene. Neither my face nor the regressor’s was widely known yet, and we hadn’t lingered in one place for long. The odds that anyone who had witnessed our little “affectionate display” would remember me were extremely low. At most they might recall something like, There were a couple hugging in front of the auditorium on the first day of the entrance ceremony…
Even that memory wouldn’t last. People lose interest in trivial things faster than expected, so I figured it would be fine.
With the tedious entrance ceremony over and the regressor’s face confirmed, I could have returned to the dormitory. Before that, however, there were a few things I needed to verify.
First and foremost: the regressor’s movements. Since she would have the greatest impact on my Academy life, I had no choice but to pay close attention to her every action.
I settled into a café with a clear view of the women’s dormitory entrance and studied each person who entered or left, matching every face to a name.
Kwon Sung’s disciple… the daughter of the Southern Incarnation… that woman was a princess from which country again…?
These were the influential figures who would one day dominate the continent after graduation. Students already swarmed around them, desperate for even a single word, but they lay outside my sphere of interest.
My sole focus was the regressor and no one else.
Since I still hadn’t seen her emerge from the dormitory, it seemed she hadn’t returned immediately after ambushing me earlier. Or perhaps she had slipped inside before I arrived and left again. It was a pattern I had observed while watching her—disappearing somewhere the moment the entrance ceremony ended, then arriving late to the first class the next day. The perfect route to earn the professors’ disapproval.
Of course, it wasn’t impossible she was still inside, but I found it hard to picture the ever-busy regressor lounging around on her dorm bed. She was probably racing across the campus right now, feet on fire, determined to save the world.
Deciding there was no need to keep worrying about her, I cut off my interest in the regressor, finished the rest of my drink, and left the café.
A single fallen leaf rode the cold wind across my vision. The breeze felt strangely chilly against the perfectly clear, cloudless sky.
I tilted my head upward.
Countless jet-black magic circles completely filled the Academy’s blue sky.
A sight impossible to call ordinary. Simply looking at it made the chest tighten with dread, yet the people on the streets continued laughing and chatting as though nothing were there.
As if the circles were invisible to them.
Exactly. Those were the harbingers of the apocalypse—visible to no one but me. They were not yet complete, but even in their current state they could obliterate the Academy with ease. Should they finish forming, they would bring catastrophic death across the entire continent. Whether a calamity sent by the gods or a trial imposed by some greater existence, the regressor had a single name for it.
Ruin.
I put the slowly forming magic circles out of my mind and returned straight to the dormitory. Even though the omens were visible to me alone, there was nothing I could actually do about them. They weren’t going to activate immediately, and plenty of time remained, so ignoring them for now was fine.
Besides, even if I claimed to see something none of the countless geniuses at the Academy had noticed, who would believe me? I would be lucky if they only treated me as mentally unstable.
The regressor might believe me at once, but… I had no desire to become deeply entangled with that woman. If she ever learned I possessed some special ability, her obsession could easily cross into complete possession. Given everything I had seen of her personality, the chance seemed low, yet I still had to remain cautious in case she suddenly changed.
With those thoughts swirling in my head, I fell asleep. The next morning arrived.
Just as I had avoided being late to the entrance ceremony, I had no intention of being tardy on the first day of classes. I headed to my assigned room early and chose a seat toward the back. A few students had already arrived before me. If I had come too late I might have lost my preferred spot, but the early birds were usually the diligent, enthusiastic types. They wouldn’t fight for the back seats anyway.
I glanced at the group clustered near the front. The hero—Hestia—had arrived early, and several other students had gathered around her, chatting. I quietly listened in.
“I was curious about your primary weapon.”
“Ah, I specialize in magic, so I mainly use a staff… Lady Hestia, do you always train with the Holy Sword?”
“That is correct.”
“……”
“……”
“Um… then, do you perhaps have a preferred brand of cosmetics?”
“I have never worn makeup, so I would not know.”
“I… I see…”
Why were they using such stiff honorifics when they were all first-years? Was the hero’s presence that intimidating when seen through a student’s eyes? Well, the weight of the title “hero” was no small thing, so I could understand. If Hestia spoke casually first, the atmosphere might relax, but she had probably said she preferred polite speech and left it at that. The other students, finding it uncomfortable to be addressed formally by the hero, were simply following her lead. Eventually some would grow comfortable enough to drop the honorifics, but it was still the beginning of the term; the awkwardness was unavoidable.
Just looking at the students surrounding her told me how burdensome they found the situation. Their mouths smiled, but their eyes clearly had no idea how to treat her. As for Hestia herself… her expressionless face made it impossible to tell. That was also why the students couldn’t easily end the conversation—they had no way of knowing whether she was satisfied or not. Such was the fate of those who tried to form connections with the hero without thinking deeply.
Losing interest in the hero’s shockingly poor social skills, I turned my gaze out the window. A large group of students was approaching from the dormitory direction. That seemed to be the perfect arrival time, so I decided I would aim for the same schedule from now on. If I arrived too early I might eventually have to give up my unobtrusive back seat, but the students were surprisingly passionate. Unless there was a special reason, they rarely chose the rear rows.
This was information I had gathered by analyzing previous rounds, so it was reliable. Except for the very occasional person who sat beside me, of course. Most students forgot I existed unless I did something noticeable… but the few who did choose the seat next to me clearly recognized me and approached on purpose. It was a little frightening, yet since they were the exceptions, I could simply respond normally if anyone sat beside me and showed interest. They probably wouldn’t sense anything strange.
While entertaining such idle thoughts, I tuned back into the conversation between the hero and the students clustered around her.
“Lady Hestia, are you… interested in romance at all?”
“Romance… you say? I have never considered it, so I do not know.”
“I-is that so…?”
They were still trying their best. I glanced at the hero and thought our eyes met for the briefest instant, but I quickly closed mine and pretended to be tired. Even then the others kept struggling to continue the conversation, only for her short, formal replies to cut every attempt short. Their painfully awkward exchange finally ended when the professor entered the room.
The first day consisted mostly of simple self-introductions and an overview of the coming curriculum. I had heard it all several times before, so boredom was inevitable. Just as I had done during the entrance ceremony, I let the explanation wash over me with one ear in and one ear out. Before I knew it the first day’s schedule had ended without any particular incidents.
Oh, right. The regressor never appeared, not even by the time the orientation finished. During the short breaks I had checked her classroom, but she was nowhere to be seen. When she was absent in the morning I assumed she had simply overslept, but the fact that she remained missing until the afternoon orientation ended suggested she had deliberately skipped. That was slightly unexpected.
As far as I remembered, across all previous rounds she had been late on the first day but had never completely skipped it. I was curious about the reason, yet there was no way I could know what the regressor was thinking.
Another notable event was that the students who were desperate to stand out had started arguing from day one—talking about settling matters of life and death outside the Academy, engaging in a battle of nerves until a professor stepped in to mediate. There had been a few minor incidents, but they had all occurred in previous rounds as well, so none of it particularly moved me. The professors, on the other hand, were probably tearing their hair out over the sudden flood of trouble on the very first day.
Back in the dormitory, I carefully retrieved the item I had hidden in the closet. A dark robe. It resembled the attire mages usually wore, but I was not a proper mage. This outfit existed solely to conceal my identity. I would not need it immediately, but the time would come when I would walk the Academy wearing this black robe, hiding who I was.
I gave the robe a cursory inspection and returned it to the closet. Outside the window the sun had already begun to set. I hadn’t noticed while half-listening to the professors, but the orientation had lasted longer than expected. Still, normal classes would begin tomorrow, so I would have more free time than today.
I flopped onto the rather stiff bed.
Let’s stay inconspicuous this round as well. Just get by comfortably.
With that thought, I slowly closed my eyes.