35. First Day of School
35. First Day of School
"Nice to meet you."
The moment I was dragged out of the illusion, the first thing I saw was—
"I'm Adelia Baros, affiliated with the Black Magic Tower, a special professor at the academy, and the homeroom teacher of the class Miss Eliarnes is in."
—the Black Wizard who had cast the Illusion Magic, standing alone in a pure-white space.
With black hair that seemed to drink in even light, and eyes redder and stickier than blood folded into a coy smile, she was a match for a succubus's allure.
"How was my welcome? Did you enjoy it? You don't need to worry about the other students. I gave the ones who failed right away a much easier illusion to experience. Heh heh."
Adelia giggled and took a step closer.
"Oh, and if you're worried about the students you were with rather than yourself, it's fine all the same. They're also having a conversation with 'me,' just like you, Miss Eliarnes."
A sigh escaped me on its own.
So my homeroom teacher was a lunatic Black Wizard who slapped Illusion Magic on new students without any explanation.
No matter how much the world has changed, isn't making a Black Wizard the damn homeroom teacher for kids a bit much?
"By the way, Miss Eliarnes, you really hate me, don't you?"
"Yes."
"If you say no with that look on your face... Oh my? Did you just answer 'yes'?"
"Yes."
"Goodness... you're an incredibly... incredibly honest student, aren't you?"
"Thank you."
"Oh... you're really stiff, unlike your appearance. Well, fine. Getting close to my students is my job as your homeroom teacher, Adelia Baros. I'll work hard at it."
She clenched both fists and raised them in front of her chest. The gesture didn't suit her appearance at all, and it didn't even make me laugh.
"Now then, I'll be giving merit points to the five students who overcame the first illusion, including you, Miss Eliarnes. Fifteen points. How to use them is simple. If you receive demerits, you can offset them with merit points. That's it. How about it? Fifteen points is an enormous amount—enough to even hold off the disciplinary committee. Nice, right?"
I wonder how many demerits I'd get for punching a professor.
Then again, I don't even know if I could land a hit on the professor in front of me right now.
Even though we were clearly facing each other, I couldn't feel the distance. Nor could I feel the gap.
That was proof she stood in a Realm overwhelmingly above mine.
And the place we'd been walking through was an illusion within an illusion. Even if I broke out of that illusion, in the end I was in a position to be dragged into yet another one.
Meaning if I tried anything stupid, this place might not be the end of the illusions.
This was why I hated Illusion Magic.
It's already unsettling that my real body moves without my knowledge, and when I break out of an illusion and try to kill the caster, it's often just another illusion, or they've already run off.
On top of that, if you stay inside Illusion Magic too long, the boundary blurs until you can't even tell real from fake.
Because of that, four hundred years ago there were plenty of martial practitioners who got devoured by Luxrina's Authority and ended up smearing shit on the walls.
"In addition, I'll take questions from you, Miss Eliarnes, for exactly ten minutes from now. You may ask anything you're curious about. Of course, I won't be able to answer the difficult ones. Please understand that it's not that I won't answer—it's that I can't."
Not that she won't answer, but that she can't.
That means she's even bound by a contract under a Geas.
Did she make a contract with at least a high-ranking Demon?
"Do you take questions from the other students the same way?"
"Of course. I'm a homeroom teacher who treats everyone equally."
Questions. Questions.
What should I ask?
The things I want to know are piled up like a mountain.
But if I ask about them, I'd have to reveal part of my hand, so I can't.
"What Circle are you?"
"Oh my. Starting off strong, aren't you? Heh heh heh. Since this is something I can't fully reveal, I'll only say I'm above the 7th Circle."
"Is this Illusion Magic your Unique Magic?"
"What do you mean, 'your'? From now on, as a student of Karelai Academy—and of Signia Class, no less—you should be calling me Professor."
Adelia's lips twitched upward.
Her lilting voice seemed to tickle me from the inside, while her red eyes pinned me in place as if they were binding every inch of my body.
Disgusting.
"...Is this Illusion Magic your Unique Magic?"
"Hmm hmm, you could say it is, and you could say it isn't. It could be a Unique Magic completed at the 6th Circle. In that case, since I'm above the 7th Circle, I wouldn't consider it Unique Magic."
It wasn't 6th Circle magic.
Magic of that level couldn't create something like this.
The only thing that could do this was—
Luxrina's Authority.
"Is it an Authority?"
"Oh ho ho. I'm afraid I can't answer that."
Meaning she's under a Geas regarding the Demon she contracted with.
If she'd contracted with a Legion Commander, there wouldn't be a Geas about their Authority. Those bastards don't hide themselves by placing Restrictions over trivial things like this.
So did she contract with an ordinary high-ranking Demon? But she's too strong for that.
It seems like she contracted with a Demon at a Realm of at least the 7th Circle or higher, but if she's above the 7th Circle, there's no need for that.
At that Realm, she could kill a high-ranking Demon—not easily, but she could.
What the hell is it?
I can't figure it out.
This wasn't an information gap left because I'd been dead for four hundred years.
It was just that this woman was bizarre beyond all reason.
"It's scary when you glare at me like that."
"My eyes are naturally like this."
"They weren't like that at all in the illusion. Especially when you looked at Miss Eurasia, you were so gentle..."
"...I was?"
I look at Eurasia gently?
Maybe because she's like a little sister and we're close.
Or maybe because she's admirable.
"Oh my, you didn't know?"
How would I know?
"Couldn't you look at me that way too?"
"No."
"How firm."
As if she'd expected that, Adelia giggled and rummaged through her pocket, then handed me a piece of candy.
"Would you like some?"
"I don't like candy."
"It's peppermint."
"...Ha."
I glared at Adelia, who was wearing a strange smile.
"That was an extremely unpleasant, offensive, and suspicious thing to say. Did I hear you correctly?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I said it was a coincidence, would you?"
This Black Wizard was telling me to ask something. Was she actually insane?
"I didn't know an academy professor—a special professor, no less—would enjoy voyeurism."
"My eyes are simply too good. I can't help seeing things even when I don't want to. And then I found someone who caught my interest, so I looked a little more closely."
"Do you enjoy women?"
"As long as the taste is good."
"I'm a minor."
"Only three years left."
"You don't need to be equal about things like this."
"I'm a homeroom teacher who is this equal to everyone and free of prejudice."
"Still, please refrain when I'm bathing or going to the bathroom. It's embarrassing."
"Isn't voyeurism about watching those things in the first place? It'd be a problem if I closed my eyes at the important moments."
"Indeed, you have impressive convictions. Then, can you guess what color panties I'm wearing today?"
"White?"
"White with sky-blue stripes."
Adelia's eyes went wide.
"Miss Eliarnes, you're quite mature."
"Are sky-blue striped panties mature?"
"Oh my... Ahahaha! You slipped out of that one so slickly. I heard a rumor you hadn't left your house in seven years. Where did you learn such social maneuvering?"
"I learned it from books."
"House Eustetia must have a great many books."
"It's House Eustetia, after all."
Clicking my tongue, I sank into a chair that had appeared at some point. Adelia also sat gracefully in a chair and nodded.
"At this point, there's a question I'd like to hear from you, Miss Eliarnes. Aren't you going to ask it?"
A question she wanted me to ask?
"Oh my. You were acting so slick just a moment ago, but pretending not to know with such an innocent face won't fool me."
"I have no questions."
I propped my chin on the armrest and glared at Adelia.
"Let me out already. I wandered around for so long that I'm hungry—"
"A snake."
At the same time, Adelia spoke.
"You met a snake, didn't you?"
A soft smile spread across Adelia's face.
I narrowed my brow and glared at that smile.
"What snake?"
"I told you, didn't I? My eyes are so good that I can see everything, even the things that should be kept secret."
"And yet you couldn't guess my panty color?"
"Because you're a minor next to your guardian."
Guardian—so she meant Sara.
At this point, I'm more curious about Sara's Realm than that Black Wizard's intentions...
"Ha."
I shook my head and set aside the idle thoughts for a moment.
The fact that I ate peppermint candy was something she could have figured out just by watching me at the academy a few times.
But the snake.
The fact that I'd met a Black Wizard who'd been devoured by a snake was information she could only have known if she'd truly been watching me.
I didn't think Stella was an informant.
Same goes for Sara.
Tap tap—I drummed my fingers on the armrest of the chair and sank into thought.
I couldn't tell whether she really knew or was just fishing.
As if reading my gaze, Adelia giggled.
"How about trusting your homeroom teacher a little more? We'll be seeing each other every day for the next three years."
Trust my ass.
"How much do you know?"
"I know that you skewered a man's neck with a tanghulu stick and stuffed him into a drum."
"That's all."
"But I don't know what happened after that. What happened to the body? Did the snake eat it?"
"If your eyes are so good, why couldn't you see?"
"I have a weak stomach. I was raised rather delicately, so I tend to avoid disgusting things like snakes."
"I've heard that somewhere before."
"It seemed like a very good excuse. Heh heh heh."
We're talking about completely different things, yet the conversation continues. If it's going to be like this, why bother talking around it?
"That sounds like you just stood by and watched while Stella nearly died."
"Because I saw that you were following right behind her."
"Couldn't you have handled it before she got a hole in her thigh?"
"I can't answer that."
A Geas.
But that in itself was an answer.
First, Adelia Baros and that snake couldn't touch each other. They couldn't interfere in each other's affairs either.
And yet that Black Wizard was targeting Stella.
Stella. Stella Verheigen.
Verheigen. Black Wizard.
They weren't trying to kill her—they were trying to abduct her.
Did Stella have something?
A sacrifice? A price? Or her body itself?
Was there something in the Verheigen bloodline?
If so, why are they only now trying to abduct her?
They would have had plenty of time.
She'd been running around the Demon World with skills like that, and the fact that she was still alive meant they hadn't needed her until then.
Why?
"There isn't much time left now."
"Did you set it at ten minutes because you were thinking about the conversation leaking 'outside'?"
"Heh heh. It's because the other students are waiting 'outside.' You were the last one, Miss Eliarnes."
Outside. It seemed she'd created this space out of concern about possible eavesdropping, or about information leaking to the Demon who was her master.
"Why did you arrange this meeting?"
This wasn't a place for simple Q&A.
It was a place to give me information and let me know how strong the other side was.
And it was also a place to tell me she was always watching, so she could help if it came down to it.
Why was she giving me information?
To get the Eustetia Knight Order moving?
To get Nameless moving?
It didn't seem like either.
Then had she arranged this to warn me it was dangerous, in case I went after that snake alone?
Bullshit.
The woman in front of me was a Black Wizard.
There had to be another reason.
"Because you're pretty, Miss Eliarnes."
She didn't seem inclined to tell me yet.
"I'm not interested."
"You're so firm about it that I'm terribly upset."
"I said it specifically to upset you."
"Still, I'm the homeroom teacher you'll see every day from now on. Shouldn't you be a little friendlier? What if I get mean-spirited and start picking on you?"
"I don't think a special professor of Karelai Academy would do something so petty."
Adelia giggled and rose from her seat.
"If you put it that way, I'll have to do even better if I don't want to become a petty person."
"I'll still be the same."
"I'll try harder."
I sighed and rose from my seat as well.
"By the way, why did you come in person? Didn't you send a duplicate to the other students?"
Adelia's eyes widened.
"You noticed, did you?"
"I've read a lot of books, so I have a fair bit of knowledge."
"The reason is... the same. I wanted to see the pretty Miss Eliarnes in person. Now, time's up, so—"
"Just one last question. How many demerits do I get if I hit a professor?"
"Oh my, oh my? First of all, under Karelai Academy rules, it's thirty points."
"Thirty points per hit?"
"Per hit? Ahahahaha! I wonder? I don't know that much myself. If you need it, I could look into it. Shall I?"
"There's no need to go that far. I don't think I'll be able to save up thirty points."
A beaming smile spread across Adelia's face.
"Yes. Then, congratulations on becoming a student of Signia Class at Karelai Academy—and my student."
Adelia snapped her fingers.
"With this, my welcome is over."
The light of the world went out.
"Please, do be careful. A snake is a terribly cunning creature, and it carries a most dreadful venom."
The damn welcome was finally over.