This Is Anonymous Again?
This Is Anonymous Again?
The entire floor, just for my room? ...Not bad. I'll concede it's acceptable.
I was currently at the Märchen Academy dormitory, having taken a break from drafting the next Agora Board problem.
Official use of the dormitories didn't begin for another three days, but an announcement had gone out that we could move our luggage in early, so I had stopped by.
Meanwhile, Becky, who had run into me in the hallway and tagged along, tilted her head.
"Hey, Plan. You're Room 401, you know. That means only that corner room over there is yours."
"......Mere one room is mine."
I muttered it, as if I couldn't quite believe it.
"Exactly. I mean, is there any student who actually gets a whole dorm floor to themselves?"
I examined the slip of paper I'd been given again. All it said was Room 401. Becky was right.
I narrowed my eyes. I would barely be satisfied even with an entire floor, and now I was expected to live in a single room.
I wondered what the interior furnishings would be like. Making a mental note to thoroughly sanitize the doorknob later, I used Telekinesis to turn the handle.
At the same time, beside me, Becky grabbed the handle of Room 402 and pulled it open. Our eyes met in midair.
"So you're next door to me."
"Yep. I'm 402."
"Don't make a racket."
"......Out of nowhere?"
The conversation ended there. I inspected the interior of Room 401.
A clean, spacious room. But that was all. The furniture — merely functional, flat and uninspired — was, as expected, far from satisfactory to me.
However, I had two days of leeway. I judged that spending mana as I pleased just for today would be perfectly acceptable.
The small chair, the utterly bland desk, the full-length mirror with its plain wooden frame — I changed every last piece.
Destruction, Reinforcement, Manipulation, Transmutation... With no regard for category, I activated spell after spell.
The furniture shattered and fused, rose up and was simultaneously sheared away. Repeatedly decomposed and reassembled, they shifted form according to my will.
By the time I had exhausted my full mana reserves through the iterations, the furnishings had roughly taken on the appearance of those I'd used in my old world.
A mirror with an antique frame, a broadened desk, a chair inlaid with my preferred patterns... Compared to the start, it was a remarkable transformation.
"Huh...? What the—! Why is only your room this nice, Plan?!"
I had explicitly told her not to make a racket. Becky had barged into my room out of nowhere and was shouting.
I stared at her in silence, my expression demanding an explanation. Looking sheepish, she continued.
"I've never had my own room before. I got curious whether everyone else's looked the same, so I came to check. But your room is especially nice."
Becky thought back to her own dormitory room.
She'd excitedly hauled in every bit of luggage she had, but compared to Plan's room, her own felt like nothing more than a garbage heap crammed with assorted junk.
Was there any reason Plan alone would have been given a better room? Becky could think of only one.
Maybe he really was a non-standard grade, beyond even A-grade. Becky's suspicion grew even more solid.
"Obviously. Get out."
The cold eviction order fell. But Becky's gaze had drifted to the Trivia in Plan's hand.
The memo was covered in countless inscribed geometries and curves. Looking at it instinctively stirred a mage's curiosity.
"What's that?"
"Isn't it obvious by looking? It's a problem I'm going to post on the Agora Board."
Frankly, it would be stranger to look at it and actually know what it was. Becky barely swallowed the words rising to her throat. That wasn't the important thing right now.
"......You're posting a problem? Deliberately? Are you going to mess with Trixie again?"
"I'm not specifically targeting anyone. It doesn't matter who solves it, so long as they have the skill."
"So you're doing it anonymously again?"
"Indeed."
"Even if you reveal your identity, definitely leave my name out of it. I can't handle that, man...."
This time, my gaze shifted toward Becky.
She was holding a handful of various papers, and among them was one with a yellow tint that stood out conspicuously.
"What is that."
"This? A club application. You can get a Mask at the research building too."
"A club, is it... A place for playing games."
"Playing games? Hmm, it'd be more accurate to call it a place for fun learning, right?"
Becky's eyes, which had been muttering absently, soon went round.
"What's with that look, like you've never heard of them? When people think of Märchen Academy's Magic Department, clubs are the first thing that comes to mind!"
"I have, in fact, never heard of them."
"Magic is a discipline that shines brightest when researched freely. People with similar interests gather in clubs to research together."
Becky thrust the club application forward so Plan could get a good look.
Summoning Club 'Birth', Magic Journalism & Promotion Club 'Witch', Exploration Club 'Windmill'....
Every densely packed line of text on the application was a brief description and name of a club. Becky went on, her voice bright with excitement.
"Look at this. Since the student body is so big, there are this many clubs. Freshmen normally can't do club activities, but if you're A-grade, you can."
The one Becky had checked was the ice element research club 'Frozen'. Chattering excitedly, she suddenly asked Plan.
"Hey, Plan. You're not interested in clubs? If you happen to be into the ice element, you could join with me...."
"I have no interest."
I did agree, to some extent, that magic shone brightest when freely explored.
But clubs felt rather childish to me. Perhaps if it felt more like training a few disciples, I might feel differently.
"Ah, o-okay. Sure."
The reply came back quick and frosty.
Becky scratched her head awkwardly for no reason, then showed Plan a different paper — this one blue.
"Oh, right, did you check this yet? The outline for how the exploration assignment will proceed came out."
"Not yet."
"......Aren't you a little too laid-back? That scary Professor Violet is in charge of it."
I took the paper Becky was holding and examined the outline of the upcoming exploration assignment.
[ Exploration Assignment Outline Overview ]
▶Intended to cultivate students' spirit of adventure and their ability to respond to various crisis situations. Accordingly, students will be organized into squads to explore a designated dungeon, after which their results will be compared.
▶Squad size: 3 members each.
▶Special note: Open Scroll.
"A dungeon...."
I narrowed my eyes.
Dungeons had existed in my previous world as well. A separate space strewn with all manner of magical beasts and distorted mana flows.
If the dungeon mentioned in this outline was the same as the dungeons of my old world — or even similar — that alone posed a degree of trouble for me.
[ Intended to cultivate ability to respond to various crisis situations. ]
That line in the outline was the crux of it. Responding swiftly to various crises would necessarily demand a great deal of mana.
Seeing my expression, Becky cautiously spoke up.
"It's a problem, right? Exploration assignments are normally upperclassmen territory. But they say Professor Violet just decided we'd do it anyway. Because she's completely willful!"
I finished scrutinizing the outline carefully, then asked.
"What is an Open Scroll."
"Ah, that. It means we're allowed to bring magic scrolls. In terms of a written exam, it's the same as an open-book test."
"......Bringing scrolls is permitted?"
"Yeah. They probably attached that condition because we're freshmen. I guess it means they really only intend to evaluate our practical response ability."
I rubbed my chin for a moment.
Then, shortly, I let out a quiet laugh — Pfft.
"What? Why are you suddenly laughing?"
"No need for you to know. Now, get out."
Becky hadn't expected an answer in the first place. Just as she was about to leave Plan's room, another thing she'd meant to say suddenly came to mind.
"Hey, Plan."
Becky hesitated, unable to easily finish her sentence. But it was something she'd been wanting to say for a while, so she gathered her courage.
"If I come across a spell I don't know, would it be okay to ask you about it?"
"If I have time to spare, I'll teach you."
"Thanks."
The response came back quick and frosty again, but thankfully the content was positive. Becky hurried out of Room 401.
Back in her own room, Becky began cleaning for no real reason. After seeing Plan's room, her own had looked far too shabby.
Even as she polished her already-clean desk with a cloth again, her mind suddenly wandered back to Plan's words and she mulled them over.
"If I have time to spare, I'll teach you...."
Come to think of it, it was a slightly strange thing to say.
Even Becky herself didn't yet know what kind of magic she might end up asking about in the future.
It might be a question born from a doubt during a lecture, or someday it might be about a difficult problem posted on the Agora Board.
And yet, what was with that attitude — as if he could teach her anything, so long as he simply had the spare time?
"......Seriously, what is he."
She thought it over for a moment, then went back to wiping down her desk.
◈
The quality of the evening meals served at the Märchen Academy dining hall was excellent. At least, that was how Aria Fontaine felt.
She had secured an A-grade, so every meal from now on was free. On top of that, she was now receiving a scholarship, so the Fontaine family would surely be proud of her as well.
After loading her tray generously with appetizing salad, she moved her steps.
"Aria!"
From a table a little distance away, a girl with bright blonde hair raised her hand. It was Hailey Lumian.
A daughter of a noble house. A-grade. The two, having much in common, had quickly become close.
Hailey was already seated together with many other female students, but the seat across from her was empty. Aria sat down there as though it were the most natural thing.
Come to think of it, at a corner off to the other side, Trixie was sitting alone, quietly eating.
Her figure was cold and serene, like a lake in winter. With her remarkably elegant blue-tinged appearance, Trixie had been surrounded by other students up through the freshman welcome.
But that surrounding circle, unable to endure her frostiness, had completely fallen away. And so now, no one even tried to approach Trixie's side.
Hailey smiled brightly toward Aria.
"You're here, Aria? What kept you?"
"I unpacked my things at the dorm, and I spent the rest of the time just looking at Trivia. The exploration squads are being formed in two days, right? I was wondering if there was even a scrap of information."
"Ah~ Right. I only saw it full of talk about how important it is to get good squadmates. I'm planning to just pray I get picked well."
"It'd be really great if I ended up in the same squad as you, Hailey."
"Oh my, look at you."
As if to say she didn't dislike the idea, Hailey let out a light laugh, "Hohoho."
"But Aria, you know this assignment is open-scroll, right?"
"Yeah, I saw. Honestly, open-scroll or not, it doesn't matter. I mean, what's the point of using scrolls to cast higher-level magic? Even if we try to apply it, how far do you think we can really go? They're mostly spells we don't even know."
"I know, right. And why are we even doing an exploration assignment in the first place, when that's something upperclassmen handle...."
"Hailey, you're saying all that but you'll still do great, won't you? I know you."
"No way, not at all."
Hailey gave a soft, affectionate eye-smile.
After that, the two of them chatted about which students had received A-grades, who it would be good to be paired with in a squad, and so on.
Then, as if remembering something, Aria spoke up.
"......Plan. I just hope I don't end up in the same squad as that guy."
At those words, Hailey's eyes flickered.
"Oh my, Aria, do you hate Plan too?"
"Who would like that guy? His way of talking is arrogant, and he got his A-grade by suspiciously retaking the exam."
Hailey blinked at that.
Plan's manner of speaking was arrogant? Ever since he was young, he'd always been a guy who treated everyone around him warmly. At least, as far as Hailey knew.
"Well, that's true. The professor did say there was no cheating, but it's still really strange for someone admitted as an F-grade to suddenly get an A."
Aria's eyes went round.
"F-grade? F-grade? Plan got admitted as an F-grade?"
"Yeah. I guess you didn't know."
"I had no idea. Now that you mention it, I heard he even confessed to you once, Hailey. Whatever happened with that?"
Since it was a somewhat sensitive topic, the surrounding female students began to subtly eye Hailey for her reaction, but Hailey answered without so much as blinking.
"It's just... I wasn't really interested, so I turned him down. If I were going to date someone, I wanted it to be a guy who's good at magic."
"That's true for everyone. But for a commoner, he really, really doesn't know his place. He should just stick with his own kind and fool around with some commoner wench, right? Don't you agree?"
At Aria's words, the other female students burst out laughing.
Only one person, Hailey, tilted her head.
"Plan... a commoner?"
"Yeah. Plan is a commoner, right?"
Hailey nodded at Aria's words. Aria continued speaking while laughing with the surrounding girls.
"For a commoner, the way he talked back while looking me straight in the eye — he's out of his mind."
"But why would Plan be a commoner?"
"Because his name has no family name, so he's a commoner. Why, Hailey?"
The gazes directed at her held pure curiosity. Hailey gave an awkward smile.
"Ah.... Ah, right. Yeah. That's right."
But in one corner of her mind, a question bloomed.
Had Plan concealed his status? Why in the world?
The name Yudit was highly renowned. If he simply revealed that simple fact, at the very least, no student would openly treat him with disrespect right in front of him.
"Oh! I've got it!"
But at that moment, the movement of Aria's fork came to an abrupt halt.
"Hailey, Plan still likes you, doesn't he?"
"What?"
"No, think about it. He still likes you, so he pulled some suspicious stunt and clawed his way to an A-grade, right? To somehow change your mind."
"Oh come on.... W-well, you think so?"
But it was just then. Another female student, who had finished her meal first and had been fiddling with her Trivia, called out.
"Looks like a problem went up on the Agora Board!"
Every hand that had been moving cutlery stopped. As if on cue, everyone pulled up the Trivia's topic board page.
The student's words were true. At the very top was a post that had transcribed the problem newly written on the Agora Board.
"Insane, what is this difficulty."
"I already have no idea what I'm looking at."
At least one exclamation burst from each of the students who checked the problem. Even at a glance, the content was clearly beyond anything they, as freshmen, could approach.
"Still, I can at least tell the category. It's dealing with elements."
"This is obviously Harmonization, just from the look of it."
"Isn't it Illusion?"
"......Even we're supposedly A-grade, and opinions are this split."
Everyone clicked their tongues and put away their Trivia. Looking at something like this in the middle of a meal genuinely felt like it would give them indigestion.
"My stomach's gotten queasy."
"We're all mages, so why is there such a gap... I can seriously feel the wall."
It was then that Aria discovered something else within the problem.
"Come to think of it, is this one anonymous again?"
Anonymous. Now that she mentioned it, it was.
The female students' heads all turned in unison. Their gazes went toward Trixie, sitting alone at a table off in the corner.
Trixie's expression was not good. She was scribbling something onto her plate as if her fork were a pen.
She kept at it for a long while.
Scribbling and scribbling again, letting out a few sighs.
BANG—!
She slammed her fist down on the table.