Prologue: Conditions for a Leave of Absence
The Arcadia Imperial Ether Academy—commonly known as Ether Academy.
It was the most storied and prestigious institution of learning on the continent, a gathering place for imperial royalty, the scions of high nobility, and exceptional commoners alike. Within its grand halls, they mastered swordsmanship and magic, politics and diplomacy—the very elite destined to shoulder the empire's future.
And right in the center of that illustrious sanctuary...
Nox Adrian von Grolent was seriously contemplating whether he ought to bite his tongue and hurl himself out the third-floor window.
Cast your mind back precisely one year.
It was grade announcement day at the end of the academic year, inside the Academic Affairs Office on the third floor of Ether Academy's main building. Beneath neatly brushed bangs of pure snow-white hair, a pair of sapphire-blue eyes stared at a single sheet of paper in sheer, paralyzed disbelief.
"......What... is this?"
Nox's gaze was deadlocked on a single line inked across the parchment.
Team Roster: Elena Arcadia de Solear / Calien Blake von Arbein / Nox Adrian von Grolent
The fingertips clutching the parchment trembled ever so faintly.
"Professor. May I ask you a brief question?"
Nox looked up. Sitting across from him, sipping tea with an infuriatingly placid expression, was an elderly, white-haired professor.
"What is it?"
"Just what kind of... gem of a metric did you rely on to concoct this cursed team roster...?"
"Strict grade ranking, of course. Are the three of you not the co-valedictorians of your year?"
He was right. There was not a single flaw in that reasoning. Logically speaking, it was flawless.
Except for one tiny detail, you old fossil.
"Professor, do you happen to know what takes place when you shove a lion, a snow leopard, and a seal into the exact same cage?"
"Did you not take Beastman Ethnology yourself? Answer the question."
You absolute stubborn boomer...!
Nox snapped his mouth shut. There was no need to answer aloud. The conclusion was glaringly obvious.
I am going to get eaten alive.
The Dean of Ether Academy stared with trembling eyes at the mountainous stack of incident reports piled upon his mahogany desk. Every single one had been logged over the course of the past year.
Filing Date: Month ○, Day ○
Incident Summary: Her Imperial Highness the Princess and Her Grace the Grand Duchess drew steel over who would present first during their group assignment defense.
Damages: Catastrophic structural collapse of the third-floor hallway wall in Lecture Hall B.
Filing Date: Month ○, Day ○
Incident Summary: When Her Imperial Highness offered Young Master Grolent a cup of tea during a group study session, Her Grace retaliated that evening by having two hundred crates of the northern frontier's finest tea leaves delivered straight to the young master's dormitory room.
Damages: Dormitory corridor rendered completely impassable to foot traffic.
Filing Date: Month ○, Day ○
Incident Summary: During a team strategy meeting, Her Grace sat in the chair next to Young Master Grolent. Her Imperial Highness promptly hoisted the young master, chair and all, and slammed him down beside herself.
Damages: Total destruction of three chairs; Young Master Grolent fainted on site from psychological shock.
The Dean set the paperwork down in silence and pinched the bridge of his nose, shutting his eyes tight. The three names inscribed across those incident sheets floated vividly behind his eyelids.
[First Imperial Princess, Elena Arcadia de Solear.]
[Heiress to the Northern Grand Duchy, Calien Blake von Arbein.]
[Young Master of the Ducal House, Nox Adrian von Grolent.]
He had genuinely believed grouping the top three co-valedictorians together would generate brilliant academic synergy. He had foolishly put his faith in the professor's recommendation.
What in heaven's name was this disaster?
This was no group project. It was a vicious territorial dispute between a lioness and a snow leopard. A brutal, claw-flashing war between apex predators, with a plump, helpless little morsel trapped directly in the middle.
It was carnage.
And the contested territory stranded between their jaws—or rather, the prey caught in their crosshairs...
Had finally made a desperate run for it.
"I am officially taking a leave of absence!"
Exactly one week before the start of the new term.
Nox marched into the Academic Affairs Office and slammed down a single completed application.
The academic registrar's eyes widened into saucers.
"Y-Young Master of the Grolent Ducal family? Right before your final year of study?!"
Nox offered a serene, radiant smile. It was the smile of a grizzled soldier who had dragged himself back from the jagged trenches of war.
"Yes. Due to medical reasons."
It wasn't even a lie. If he lingered here a single second longer, he was going to drop dead of heart failure.
Thump. The official administrative seal struck the parchment. With that single stroke, he had achieved legal, untouchable student-on-leave status. As Nox stepped through Ether Academy's towering wrought-iron gates, he drew in a breath so deep it filled the very bottom of his lungs.
A crisp autumn breeze billowed past, swirling golden ginkgo leaves into the sky. It smelled of sweet, untainted freedom.
Beneath the illustrious Sun's Throne, the frailest young master of one of the empire's three great ducal houses...
Had successfully pulled off his great escape.
And just like that, Nox Adrian von Grolent's peaceful, secluded life on leave began—
—Like hell it did!
Two days later, two emergency bulletins rocked the entire Arcadia Empire from coast to frozen border.
Sitting peacefully by the window of his countryside villa, sipping his morning tea while skimming through the daily paper...
Nox gripped the broadsheet with trembling hands and ripped it clean in half.