"Elline."
"…"
"Elline."
No answer.
I had finally arrived at the Alpha Class dormitory and tried to wake her, but Elline just kept breathing without so much as a twitch.
*Is she asleep?*
That seemed unlikely—the hands wrapped around my arm were gripping tight, and I hadn't felt her body go slack at all.
Slowly, I gave her a gentle shake.
"...Mmm."
Elline suddenly flinched and trembled.
"Elline, we're here."
"Oh."
I could feel her heartbeat, which had been so quiet, tick up ever so slightly.
*She really was asleep.*
"Were you tired?"
"No, I'm fine."
Elline quickly climbed down from my back, and the warmth that had been there vanished, leaving a chill in its place.
She did her best to smooth down her disheveled hair with practiced composure, though she stole a glance my way.
"…Thank you."
"Don't mention it. Go inside and get some rest."
Elline nodded at my words and walked toward the dormitory.
Just before she turned the corner, she looked back at me.
"You should head back too."
"I know."
Only after Elline had watched me for a moment and reluctantly gone inside did I turn and make my way to my own dormitory.
*When I get back…*
There was still some time left, so I figured I'd read a bit more.
I thought back to the passages I hadn't been able to get through yesterday and today—both days spent on practical training with Elline.
Parts I'd been genuinely curious about. Parts that had sparked something in me.
Thinking about going back to read them… there was some laziness in it, but also, somehow, a flutter of anticipation.
*Anticipation.*
It was a feeling I hadn't had in a long time.
When had I lost interest in magic?
When I enrolled at the academy and encountered it as an academic discipline?
When I witnessed talents so far beyond my own, right before my eyes?
The first time my father showed any interest in me—and it turned out to be the magic, not me?
I wasn't sure.
There was a time when it made my heart race, when I'd taught myself from books and found it more fun than anything else.
But at some point, my heart stopped pounding for it. The interest just faded.
And once the interest faded, I naturally let go of studying.
And once I let go, even the smallest thing I didn't understand would send me running from it.
All I'd thought about was that as long as I didn't fail out, I could graduate.
Yeah. That's how it had been.
But somewhere along the way, learning had started to feel fun again.
—
The weekend passed, and a perfectly refreshing Monday arrived.
That was sarcasm, of course.
Why were there only two days in a weekend when there were five whole days of classes?
Still a mystery—but since nothing would change no matter how much a mere student like me thought about it, I just swallowed my frustration and sat through the lectures.
"And with that, we'll conclude the morning session."
As always, the professor's closing words brought the lecture to an end.
"Oh, right—I almost forgot to mention. I made an announcement last week, didn't I?"
The students who had started rising from their seats all turned at once, and the professor cleared her throat as she looked at them.
"Next week, most of the faculty, myself included, will be traveling north and west on assignment. As a result, the practical training session originally scheduled for next week has been moved up to this week."
A schedule change due to faculty travel.
It wasn't a common occurrence, but it had happened a couple of times before, so it didn't cause much of a stir.
"The notice will be posted again on the dormitory and academy bulletin boards, so please make sure to check it and avoid any confusion."
With Professor Ruila's final words, the students filed out of the classroom all at once.
—
Just as she'd said, the afternoon had been changed to a practical session.
I made my way toward the west training grounds, where the class was being held.
Three days in a row now.
The day before yesterday, yesterday, and now today.
Seeing the same familiar scenery three times in a row wasn't exactly a pleasant feeling.
Would it be a joint session or individual practice?
There were so many different kinds of practical training that it all came down to the professor's discretion.
Please, just let it be something manageable.
—
"Rutess!"
A voice from somewhere in the distance.
I stopped and turned, and there were two students standing there.
The kind I only knew by face and name—nothing more.
Vender and… Kael, was it?
"Hey, you're heading to class right now, aren't you?"
The one who approached first was Vender, wearing that easy, friendly smile of his.
"Yeah."
"Right. Actually, there's something I wanted to talk to you about—do you have a minute?"
"Is it urgent?"
"Not exactly. It's just something important I wanted to bring up."
"It's not a confession, is it?"
I made a face, and Vender let out a snort of laughter.
"As if. Kael, hand that over."
Kael, who'd been standing behind him, came forward and held out a box.
"What's this?"
"Cookies. You know the place—Sainbringam…"
Sainbringam. Famous for their confections.
A guy handing me a neatly wrapped box was a little odd, but curiosity won out and I took it.
I opened it slowly, and with a soft click, a rich, deep scent of chocolate and butter drifted out.
"Oh."
"Want to talk while we eat?"
…I had no idea what this was about, but.
If it got weird, I could always leave.
"Sure, why not."
"Then let's head over there—standing around feels a bit awkward."
Vender spoke without a moment's hesitation, as if the whole thing had been scripted, and smoothly began guiding me along.
A narrow alley between the many training grounds on the west side. A quiet spot where almost no one passed.
"Go ahead, try one."
Crunch.
I bit into a cookie, and just as Sainbringam's reputation promised, a sweetness I'd never quite tasted before spread across my tongue.
It had been so long since I'd had anything this refined that my body practically lit up with delight, as if to say, *Oh, our lord is finally being treated well.*
"These are good."
"Eat them all."
"Really?"
"Of course—I bought them for you."
Grateful for Vender's generosity, I reached for a second cookie.
*…Would Elline like these?*
I'd never seen her go out of her way for sweets, but there was nothing quite like a snack after a long study session.
I'd have to save some and give them to her later.
I was thinking that as I ate, when Vender casually settled in beside me.
"Look, I'll get straight to the point."
"What is it?"
"Want to enter the Spring Festival Tournament with us?"
Crunch.
"The Spring Festival Tournament?"
"Yeah. You heard, right? The Second Prince is coming to watch in person this time. I really want to compete."
Vender draped an arm around my shoulder with easy familiarity.
"If we make an impression on the imperial family… who knows? Maybe after graduation, the Prince might call on us."
"That's a bit of a stretch, don't you think?"
I chewed my cookie without much expression.
Getting noticed at a festival tournament and then being summoned after graduation—did that even make sense?
I'd never had much interest in the Spring Festival Tournament to begin with, so I let their pitch go in one ear and out the other.
"It's not a stretch. You know the Magic Corps just got expanded, right? That was all the Second Prince pushing for it. And on top of that…"
Vender pressed on earnestly.
"Is that so."
Couldn't care less.
Still, his pitch kept going, and when it showed no sign of ending, I cut him off.
"Vender."
"Yeah?"
"If what you're saying is true, then a lot of people are going to enter just to get noticed by the imperial family. Going in as an all-Beta team—wouldn't that be rough?"
I laid it out plainly.
Beta Class had plenty of students, and even within Beta, there were real differences. There were high achievers gunning for Alpha, but there were also those who'd completely given up on studying.
Vender and Kael were firmly in the latter camp.
As far as I could remember, these two weren't particularly good students, and more to the point, they weren't exactly known for their conduct either.
The type to drink and rack up a disciplinary notice or two.
Their chances were probably zero.
With Sereen—that lunatic—and Tirion both competing, their lineup wouldn't even make it past the first round.
"Come on, why would it be rough?"
But Vender still hadn't read the room, apparently, because he was still smiling, and he leaned in closer as he spoke.
"We have Elline."
Crunch—
I stopped mid-bite.
Then slowly turned my head.
The sweetness was gone.
"Elline?"
"Yeah."
"Elline said she'd join?"
"Not exactly, but if you're in, she'll come too, right?"
I set the cookie down.
"Why?"
"Why? Because you and Elline are together, so naturally she'd…"
…
I stood up.
The cookie I'd just eaten began to churn in my stomach.
"You're planning to ride on Elline's coattails?"
Vender's eyebrow twitched, then he smoothed it over with his practiced smile.
"Ride on her coattails? What kind of way is that to put it?"
He gave my shoulder a good-natured pat.
"We'll pull our own weight too—it's a team competition, after all."
A team competition.
The Spring Festival Tournament was a team competition.
From what I remembered, a five-person team battle-royale format.
Which was exactly why my head went cold.
"If Elline takes the front and draws fire, we'll work hard to support from the sides…"
Vender launched into what sounded like a prepared speech, but I wasn't really listening.
In a battle-royale format, the strongest team always draws the most concentrated attention.
If Elline entered, she'd be the primary target.
Objectively speaking, these two didn't have the ability to actually support her.
*No.*
It didn't even matter. That was beside the point.
These idiots were just banking on a name and building a lineup around it.
"Vender."
"Yeah?"
The cookie in my hand crumbled with a soft crunch.
"I think we're done here. I'm not entering."
"…What?"
Vender let out a short, hollow laugh, and Kael, who'd been standing behind him, straightened up.
"So what you're saying is—you two have nothing to offer, and you want to leech off Elline from behind."
"Leech?"
The smile on Vender's face slowly disappeared.
"Hey, Rutess, do you even know what you're—"
"I know exactly what I'm saying. You two spent every lecture with your heads down sleeping, spent your time drinking, got written up more than once—and now you want to enter a tournament, so you come crawling to me with cookies and try to butter me up."
"…"
Kael's expression twisted at the same time.
Not that it mattered.
The fact that these two had so casually planned to use Elline was what had set my blood boiling.
"Rutess."
"What."
"You think dating Elline makes you something special?"
The mask came off. Vender dropped the act and showed his real face, and Kael rose to his feet right behind him.
"Wake up, idiot. You're nothing. Why do you think we even talked to you? Obviously it was because of Elline."
"And?"
I looked at them evenly.
"Don't get too big for your boots, Rutess. You're going to get seriously hurt."
"Go ahead."
"…"
Vender let out a short sigh and looked up at the sky.
"Fine. Guess you need to get hit before you'll listen."
Creak—
My body grew sluggish, and a familiar sensation crept over me, like something winding tight around my limbs.
Binding magic.
"You know where we are, right? The west side."
Where magic use was permitted to a degree.
I turned my head. Kael had both hands raised, beginning to cast.
"Ha."
An involuntary sigh escaped me.
Now it was violence.
"Rutess. You could've just walked away easy, you know?"
Vender shook out his hands like he had no choice, rose from his seat, and began loosening up his knuckles.
"You and your girlfriend could've just entered together, held hands, gone on a little date while you're at it…"
"Vender."
"Yeah?"
"Just because a door's open doesn't mean you can walk through it."
At my words, Vender smiled, then gave a small shake of his head as if there was nothing left to say.
"Right. What's the point of talking to someone who doesn't know his place."
He smiled as he stepped forward and flicked my cheek lightly.
"After you get beaten up, you'll go running to Elline to tattle, won't you? 'Waaah, they hit me.'"
With the binding in place, this was going to be one-sided.
Vender clenched his fist at his leisure.
Thwap—
"Wh…?"
I caught his right hand without thinking, and Vender stared back and forth between me and his own hand in bewilderment.
"How did you—"
The confusion in his eyes—*I was bound, so how are you moving?*
Didn't matter.
Crack!
"…AAAGH!!!"
Before he could even process his shock, Vender's hand bent the wrong way, and he crumpled to the ground clutching it.
"What the—Kael! The binding—the binding was—!"
Vender writhed in pain and looked to Kael, but Kael was just as lost, staring at me without any idea what had happened.
"I—I cast it…?"
"Shut up! Then how is he moving—!!!"
I left Vender's desperate screaming behind me and calmly dusted off my shoulder.
"I got caught by it once before, from some lunatic. I'm the type who makes sure it doesn't happen twice."
"Ugh…ugh…"
That's what I said, but honestly, Kael's binding magic was so sloppy it hadn't taken much to break.
Vender, still reeling, clutched his bent hand and began to crawl.
The sight of it was so pathetic that even the anger that had been rising in me went cold.
"Don't let me see your faces again. Don't even say hello."
"You…you crazy…bastard…"
I ignored him, turned, and walked away. Something crunched underfoot.
On the ground, the cookies they'd given me had spilled out of the box and were scattered everywhere.
*…*
I calmly stuck my fingers into my mouth and pressed down on the back of my throat.
My eyes watered slightly, and a wave of nausea rose from my stomach.
Splatter—
Everything I'd just eaten came back up and hit the ground.
I spat out the last of it until my mouth was clean, and my stomach finally felt clear.
I didn't look back as I walked out of the alley.
"…What a waste of time."
I stepped out of the alley, steadied myself, and began walking slowly toward the training grounds.