...Still, Is She Somewhat Pretty?
...Still, Is She Somewhat Pretty?
The first day of orientation.
For the students, it was a time brimming with excitement, but for the professors, it was a season drowning in a mountain of tasks.
And so, Violet was wound as tightly as ever.
The dark circles beneath her keen eyes attested to the sheer volume of her workload.
That carefully suppressed sharpness was now teetering on the verge of an explosion, and the culprit stood right in front of her.
"What is your name?"
"Plan."
Plan.
A new student with striking black hair and red eyes.
'It's definitely him.'
Violet had realized during orientation that her projection magic had been interfered with.
And her Qi Sense, as a mage, was telling her that the male student standing before her was the perpetrator.
"You arbitrarily interfered during orientation, didn't you?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"'I don't know what you're talking about'?"
"......Ah, right. I do not know what you are talking about."
Yet the accused's attitude was opaque at best.
He deflected Violet's questions with a demeanor so odd it almost seemed deliberate.
'He's lying now, too?'
However, Violet was not one to simply swallow it.
Her Qi Sense had been wrong only a handful of times in her entire career.
So trusting her own senses over a student's words was only natural.
"Do you not grasp the severity of this? Not only did you interfere with the orientation, but now you're playing dumb on top of it?"
"I truly do not know what you mean, Professor."
The boy's expression, insisting he knew nothing, snapped the last thread of Violet's patience.
She barely suppressed the urge to shout, stopped only because another professor's voice suddenly reached her.
"Professor Violet!"
Turning her head, she saw Professor Audrey walking toward her from the far end of the hallway.
A neat suit with her blonde hair tied up in a round bun. An appearance contrasting Violet in many ways, who wore a voluminous robe and conical hat.
Come to think of it, they had agreed to have lunch today. The promise surfaced in her mind only now.
As Audrey drew closer, she looked back and forth between Violet and Plan. She had no idea why they were standing idle in the hallway.
"Professor Violet. It's about time we had lunch."
"Ah... I had something to discuss with this student for a moment."
"Ah, I see."
With a look of understanding, Audrey folded her arms and leaned against the hallway wall. It meant she would wait until the conversation was over.
Then, shifting her eyes to study the student's face, she chimed in.
"It seems the student couldn't understand something."
Violet shook her head.
"No, it's not that simple. This is a challenge to my authority."
"......A challenge to your authority?"
Audrey tilted her head and pressed further.
She was accustomed to Violet being irritable, but seeing her this worked up was rare, and so curiosity naturally bloomed.
"What on earth did he do to make you say that?"
"......"
Violet only bit her lower lip and did not open her mouth.
She didn't even spare a glance at Audrey, the one who had asked the question. Her glare remained fixed on the student.
"Student, you explain. What did you do?"
That was Violet's single remark.
"I don't know what you mean."
By this point, Audrey was more curious about what had happened with Violet than about today's lunch menu.
"Violet. What on earth is this about?"
"Professor Audrey."
"Yes."
"What happened to all the students who tried to interfere with a professor's magic?"
"A student interfering with a professor's magic... they received severe disciplinary action. No. Wait a moment."
Audrey, who had been mulling over Violet's words, widened her eyes.
"You're saying that kid did it?"
"Yes."
Why was she looking at her like that? Violet felt displeased.
But Audrey shook her head.
"That doesn't make any sense."
"Professor Audrey. Do you know this student?"
"Yes. I do. One moment, this way..."
Leaving Plan standing awkwardly in the hallway, Audrey led Violet to a corner.
"You're talking about that student Plan, right?"
"Yes."
"I don't know exactly what happened... but that kid doesn't have the caliber to interfere with someone else's magic."
He doesn't have the skills for that?
That can't be. He brazenly interfered with Violet's magic and cut off her projection momentarily.
"You seem to know that student in detail, Professor Audrey."
"Yes. I do. He came to ask me questions he didn't understand on the freshman student council day."
"Questions?"
Audrey nodded toward Violet, who narrowed her eyes.
"Yes. At first, I thought, 'asking questions on the freshman welcome day — just how commendable can you be?' That's what I thought."
"Yes, yes."
"The textbook he brought was Basic Magic Theory. He couldn't even understand that and fell asleep, so to say he interfered with your magic is preposterous, isn't it?"
Violet's eyes gradually widened as she listened.
'How can that be?'
If Audrey's words were true, it made no sense whatsoever that he could have interfered with Violet's magic.
"And besides, take a look at this."
Perhaps because Violet's expression was still unconvinced.
Audrey rustled through the bundle of documents tucked under her arm and showed her something.
From the data containing student information, Audrey found Plan's name and grade and showed it to Violet.
[ F ]
"......!"
Plan's grade was the lowest: F.
'Did I mistake it?'
Now that things had come to this, Violet couldn't help but question whether her own Qi Sense had been wrong.
'Interference' is predicated far too obviously on the premise of understanding the target.
Is it not obvious? It is impossible to interfere with something you do not understand.
The classification of the projection spell, the amount of mana Violet was outputting.
For an F-grade freshman to comprehend all of it and interfere was near impossible. No, it was completely impossible.
Audrey poked Violet's side with her elbow.
"And if you're really that curious, you can just watch him again at the test tomorrow. It's your responsibility anyway, isn't it, Professor Violet?"
"Mm... yes."
Violet nodded. Audrey was not wrong.
What she had felt was an exceedingly pure mana. A sensation as smooth as flowing water, which she hadn't even thought to guard against beforehand.
Now that she thought about it, none of those sensations were something she could have felt from an average freshman.
...Something still nagged at the back of her mind, but she had no solid proof yet.
In the end, Violet scratched her head sheepishly and approached Plan.
"You may go. Though I'll still be keeping an eye on you."
With that brief remark, she placed a piece of candy in his hand.
Whether it was an apology for holding him up over nothing, or a notification that she had marked him as a target, her intent was ambiguous.
Plan bowed his head, shoved the candy in his pocket, and left the hallway.
'...She really is like a witch.'
The conical hat. The candy. The dark circles.
Plan's sentiment amounted to just that.
◈
'I'll need to be careful.'
The difference in level between a student and a professor was as vast as heaven and earth.
Being marked by a superior is never a good thing. Even more so when you're on the student's side of the student-professor dynamic.
'Ariel.'
'I am sorry, Professor Kaplan. I did it because I didn't know better.'
'I haven't even said anything yet.'
'I am truly sorry, Professor. I did it because I didn't know better.'
A memory from the past suddenly surfaced.
It felt like just yesterday I was wrangling assistants, but now I wake up and I'm the student.
Still, since I once spent time at an academy myself, I was able to improvise in a situation like the one just now.
I roughly imitated the mannerisms of a disciple I remembered, and to think it would actually work. The whole time I was doing it, it felt unbearably uncomfortable, like forcing myself into clothes that didn't fit.
I wonder what my disciples are up to by now.
"First, the test."
Anyway, what I needed to focus on most right now was the grade test tomorrow.
For now, that was the top priority and the point requiring the most attention.
The test: what field of magic, in what way would it be examined.
Honestly, things like that were secondary. Magic theory and the like were already in my head.
However, what I needed right now was—
'A way to implement that theory.'
The current magical power and body I possess are quite lacking, no, entirely insufficient to implement those theories.
Just as a person merely dreaming is no more than a dreamer, a mage with only theories is no more than a fraud.
Where to train this body that will grow from now on.
Are scrolls allowed? If they are, where can I obtain them... and so on, there are many things to consider.
Just as I was pondering such things, a familiar back of the head appeared at the base of a tree.
That red hair, no matter how I looked at it, was Becky.
Hard-looking bread in one hand. Milk in the other.
Setting aside what the food was, she looked utterly pitiful eating alone like a rain-soaked mouse.
"Good timing."
I turned my steps toward her.
◈
—That girl is a total beggar.
Those were the words that reached my ears the moment I left the lecture hall.
Just from those words alone, Becky could tell who had been speaking about Plan.
Aria Fontaine.
She had a long history of despising Becky. Ever since they were very young, Aria had ostracized her for being a commoner.
Becky thought she would never have to see her again after graduating from the Basic Magic Institution, but they ended up running into each other again at Märchen Academy.
It's hateful. Resentful. Infuriating. Annoying.
......But what could I do.
I took a bite of the hard bread.
Silently attending the academy was the only thing I could do.
If I snap back, the loss would be entirely Becky's.
—And she only talks to the guys. Her intentions are so obvious.
That statement was unfair too.
I only ended up hanging out with the guys because you all ostracized me.
—She even showed up to the freshman welcome party doused in perfume. Trying to hide how poor she is.
...Alright, that one is true.
But it was only perfume so I wouldn't smell like a nuisance to others.
That was really all my simple intention was.
'Is the scent weird?'
I suddenly pressed my sleeve to my nose and sniffed.
To be honest, I couldn't really distinguish whether it was good or bad. With the money at her disposal, this was just the cheapest one she could get.
—Everyone hates her. Because she doesn't know her place.
But that remark was something I truly wanted to deny with everything I had.
If there's one thing I know perfectly well, it's my place.
And it's precisely because I understand my place all too well that I'm alone like this even during lunch, isn't it?
"Cough, cough..."
The bread, always hard, was especially tough today. My throat clogged up, and I pounded my chest.
Drinking the milk in my other hand, Becky replayed the conversation she had overheard next.
—But I'm not a noble either.
Plan had definitely said that.
Recalling those words made me blink unconsciously again. Just what was that about?
He's not a noble?
I saw the grand mansion where Plan lives, saw the head maid who calls him "Young Master." And he's not a noble?
After Plan had said that.
I heard the sounds of Aria and the other girls leaving the hall, so Becky had scurried away quickly too.
So, why did he say that?
Chewing another bite of bread, Becky thought through various possibilities.
Then one thought flickered like a spark.
"For my sake?"
What if he said that to take my side?
"...No, that's ridiculous."
Even to herself, she shook her head at the absurdity. She plunged back into contemplation.
Thinking of this, thinking of that, suddenly his family crest came to mind.
'A blazing sword.'
No matter how I thought about it, it seemed like a crest of a knight family.
Well, a boy from a knight family attending the Magic Department would naturally want to hide it.
Yes, that's it.
'But still, maybe...'
Was there just a little, just the tiniest bit, a reason to take my side?
Taking another sip of milk, Becky felt a complex mix of emotions and pulled out the hand mirror from her chest.
Reflected in the tarnished mirror was a girl with red hair.
Red hair and pink eyes.
The more similar the color of one's hair and eyes, the more it was considered a symbol of commoner status, so no matter how you looked at her, she was unmistakably a commoner.
'...Still, am I at least somewhat pretty?'
The instant I thought that.
"You have a moment?"
Plan suddenly appeared so out of nowhere that—
Pfft—!
Becky, startled out of her wits, spat the milk into the air.