"Did you really do this?" The first-floor dormitory manager looked at my room and was also surprised.
"Is it hard to handle?"
"As long as it's not something disgusting, it's fine. Snow is even easier."
She went into the room and started looking around.
"Hmm, there's not a single bit of mana at all. How did you do that?"
"I don't know," I said, acting innocent.
If I said anything I knew right now, I was afraid the teacher who liked experiments would come looking for me.
"...oh, I recognize you now. You're Igor Snowy, right? Then I can understand."
...huh? Do you mean you know about me and the secret behind this body?
"Could you please tell me what's going on?"
"My authority only gives me half of it. What I know is that you're leaking a slightly different kind of mana."
"But you said there's no mana."
"That's why I said it's a bit different."
Hearing what she said, I started realizing a few things weren't simple.
Do they really know what's happening with my body and only allow high-ranking people to know without making it public?
"Actually, if possible, you should go talk privately with the Principal. He's willing to tell you a few things."
"I-Is that all?"
"Yeah, that's all."
Damn, I thought there was some secret that had to be hidden?? Turns out getting information is this easy??
"Then thank you."
"Go outside for a bit so I can handle the inside."
So I left my room, and while waiting I went to the central entrance area of the dormitory.
Until I saw a familiar figure by the girls' dormitory.
"Ah... hello," Mint greeted me shyly.
"Hi, what are you doing out here?" I noticed her pajama outfit.
"Well... I-I was thinking of buying a cup of coffee?"
...oi oi oi, you're only 11 years old, why suddenly want to become a programmer?
"I was planning to create a new magic card but I'm having trouble, so I decided to stay up all night."
"...I advise you to sleep early, or you'll get a stroke for real."
"Yeah, thanks for the reminder," she nodded then looked like she didn't care much.
She's ignoring what I said!
But she's also starting to get used to not stuttering anymore, good for her.
"T-Then I'll go now."
"Yeah, be careful."
She then went to the coffee machine, bought one, and came back to me.
"I-I'm back."
"...yeah."
I completely forgot that the vending machines or coffee machines are right here. Now I feel super awkward...
"It's done."
The sound of the door opening came from my room. She came out with a completely calm expression.
"Ah, sorry to trouble you," I said, then went in to check the room.
Indeed, the room was now spotlessly clean, even the dust particles I was too lazy to clean had disappeared.
She really put her heart into it.
"Here, the Emergency Contact," she handed me the card, so I took it right away.
"I advise you not to repeat things like this. We only clean up students' mistakes once, so if there's a next time you should clean it yourself."
"I can't thank you enough."
Then the first-floor dormitory manager left. I waved at Mint and went into the room.
After that I summoned Felia and Elara. Felia was disappointed because there was no more snow, while Elara was even worse off having to rebuild her nest.
And Ghost Girl? Idk, she was still stuck in the frozen state and quite hostile toward me so I left her in the card.
"Well, another day more tiring than I expected?" I got on the bed, buried my face in the pillow and let out a long breath.
Honestly, even though school life compared to my previous job is like heaven and earth, both have the common point of not being able to take afternoon naps.
I'm the type that if I can be lazy I definitely will be, but right now it's the preparation stage so I can't be lazy.
"Oh life," I grabbed the necklace around my neck and looked at the crystal ball on it.
I feel like I keep completely forgetting important things like asking the teacher about my identity or what kind of main character Aelith is.
It must be because of Lucas. That guy is both annoying and always distracts my thoughts. I should definitely interact with him less (Lucas: what the hell did I do?).
"Anyway, put that aside for now. What do I study tomorrow?" I sat up and looked at the timetable.
Tomorrow only morning classes: 2 periods of alchemy with Miss Meil and 2 periods of magic with Miss Lucy. The last period is the weekly summary as well as some announcements for us students.
In general it's quite light. I'll learn a lot of useful things, especially from alchemy.
So I hugged Felia, pulled up the blanket and closed my eyes.
***
"..."
Rook, the homeroom teacher of Charlemagne class, class 6, was currently drinking tea in the middle of the night.
"Roooook~"
"What is it, Lord Mirlen?"
"I'm sooooo bored."
"Best not to come up with some crazy schemes to mess with other people."
"What you just said is no different from killing 90% of the fun already."
"If instead of using this short amount of time just to find ways to prank me, why don't you do your duty as a principal properly?"
"Oh come on, the reason I became Principal and gave Juris the title The Sage is so he can handle all the boring work for me and let me have fun~"
"Why don't you just die?"
A few veins popped up on Rook's forehead, even though he was quite patient.
"Master!"
A high-pitched female voice rang out as she kicked open Mirlen's wooden door.
It was a girl wearing a cheongsam, brown hair tied into two long braids, her monkey tail swaying back and forth.
Most noticeable was the golden circlet she wore right in the middle of her forehead.
"What is it, Wukong?" Rook took another sip of tea without glancing over.
"Is there something fun?! Is there someone demanding to destroy the world or rule the world?!" Old Mirlen stood up, his face full of enthusiastic light.
This childish old man...
"While I was patrolling, I sensed an aura that doesn't belong to the academy, meaning there's an intruder!!!"
"Calm down. Here's a banana."
"Ah, thank you master," she walked over and sat on Rook's lap, took the banana from his hand and ate it.
"...I forgot to ask, how old is she? I won't accept a relationship with such a big age gap," Mirlen raised an eyebrow.
"She's a monster from a card, and age doesn't apply to them."
"Besides, even if you're really serious about the age issue, she's definitely still older than me," Rook took another sip of tea.
"Really?"
"Yeah, she's 436 years older than me."
Ah, classic trope.
"She's younger than I thought," Mirlen said with an innocent look.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"Anyway, so who infiltrated?" Mirlen asked.
"I don't know! But the two of them went to the old dormitory to do something, entered some room and did something in there—"
"You're making me feel confused with that untrustworthy way of speaking," Rook said.
"So what were they wearing?" Mirlen asked while still smiling.
"Both wore robes but different colors. One used poop color and the other used pink with a Hello Kitty label on it too."
...that unique?
"Ah, I know who they are already. Jeez, so that old guy finally found out?" Mirlen spun his chair around continuously.
"Found out what?"
"If I say it you probably won't know, but the goal of that group is to find a way to open a new type of summoning. It's called Alchemist summon."
"...is it bad?"
"Of course it's bad! The Alchemist summon or anything related to alchemy is tied to the entity Truth, and everyone knows that touching Truth means touching the law of equivalent exchange."
"...wait, you mean"
"Yep, there's a very high chance that guy will sacrifice something very huge just to make Alchemist summon a reality. He doesn't necessarily have to possess something to do it."
"Then it's really dangerous. So the reason for those two intruders is because there's a way to open that summoning method there?"
"Yep."
"Then why is it there?" Rook looked straight at Mirlen.
"...well, you know... I was a bit bored?"
"I knew it. Letting you live only brings suffering to every living being. Wukong, come with me to deliver him so he won't have a next life to reincarnate," Rook put on a kasaya and took out a card to summon a golden staff.
"AY AY AY, CALM DOWN!" Mirlen raised both hands and stepped back, his face pleading.
It's unbelievable that the one keeping humanity alive until now is such an irresponsible old man.
Rook didn't understand why he accepted the old man's proposal to teach the kids, because if he hadn't accepted, he could have attacked this old man without mercy already.
After all the old man won't die. In the end the person standing in front of Rook is only an avatar.
"Actually thanks to that I can check a few things," Mirlen said while his face was swollen from being hit.
"Don't tell me you plan to kidnap someone for research? I knew you don't deserve to live."
"Listen to me explain first."
Suddenly old Mirlen became completely serious.
Rook put away his weapon and looked again.
"Do you remember the student who was specially admitted to the academy?"
"You mean Igor Snowy? What about him?"
"I have a little clue about his identity... I just want to make sure a bit."
"Hey."
Rook slammed the table right in front of Mirlen.
"You better not put that kid in any danger. I may not like this job but if it involves a child's life I won't hesitate to kill you."
"Don't worry about that. I may have no morals, but I know how excellent the people I hire are, and you just proved I was right," Mirlen smiled.
"...tsk, whatever. Let's go, Wukong," Rook immediately turned his back and left. Wukong followed.
Only Mirlen was left sitting there. Then he took out a letter from the desk drawer.
On it clearly stated the sender. Although he might never meet that person, there were a few things that made him never forget.
[Hello, this is the first time I'm speaking with you
Although I'm not clear about your relationship with my ancestors, I know you always help those with that bloodline
So I hope you will accept my grandchild. Although it has no blood relation to me, it is a special child
I won't live much longer so I hope you will let it study at your academy. Please protect it
Its name is Igor Snowy. Please seriously consider my request
Sender, Altoria]
"...haha, and here I thought only the Riviant family still had that bloodline left. Who would have thought there was still one more person, and that person is about to die of old age too."
He looked up at the ceiling and could only smile bitterly.
"As expected, I'm a terrible master, aren't I?"
His life had many mistakes, far too many mistakes.
Many people hated him because of that. He could understand.
After all he also hated himself, for trapping his disciple in a birdcage and just standing there watching.
So he freed his disciple, let her leave, let all the responsibilities weighing on her disappear.
The kingdom was shattered, disappeared along with history, but he had no regrets.
His disciple was free, got to love the person she truly loved, got to die beside the one who loved her. That was enough.
His disciple's bloodline might have been diluted to the point of no longer being related, but he didn't care.
Because he had once promised that gluttonous little girl that he would protect her descendants so she wouldn't have to worry about anything anymore.
Let him alone bear the suffering.
Because he deserved it.