After dealing with the final sorcerer, Lucian leapt up onto the second floor of the Church.
He walked over to Sellen and looked at the massive destruction left behind by Comet Azur, feeling a bit embarrassed despite himself.
"Teacher… with such a huge commotion, is it really okay?"
Sellen waved her hand dismissively, casually shifting her posture as she crossed her legs, settling into an unhurried, relaxed pose.
"It's fine, it's fine."
"I already interfered with the surveillance sorcery they use to monitor this church."
"The Church is far from the other Academy buildings. They won't notice anything unusual."
"And I already held back just now. Otherwise, this entire church would've been punched straight through, that would've definitely drawn attention."
Lucian spread his hands.
Well, if Sellen said it was fine, then it was probably fine.
"But, Teacher," he added, "wouldn't it have been easier to just destroy the surveillance magic entirely?"
"If you broke it completely, wouldn't they have no way of knowing we were here at all?"
Sellen shook her head and looked at him.
"Ah, apprentice, you don't understand."
"Even though we're sneaking in, they absolutely must know we've arrived."
"They know intruders have entered their territory, yet they can't find us."
"They can do nothing, forced to watch as the danger creeps closer, as the sorcerers around them are picked off one by one."
"That," she said softly, "is the best kind of torment for those cowardly fools who love hiding behind surveillance."
Lucian blinked.
What kind of classic horror-movie logic was this?
Sellen really did have a bit of a sadistic streak.
Since she clearly enjoyed it, Lucian decided not to argue and simply go along with her plan.
Still, there was one thing bothering him.
Recalling how that sorcerer had instantly seen through his disguise earlier, Lucian brought it up.
"Teacher, there's something I don't quite understand."
Sellen turned her head toward him.
"What is it? Go on."
Lucian replayed the scene in his mind—his route and appearance should've been flawless, and explained:
"I entered through the side door. Given the church's layout, anyone would normally assume an enemy would come from the front."
"And I didn't act strangely at all."
"But that sorcerer immediately realized I wasn't from the Academy."
"I can't figure out how they knew."
"Is there some kind of identification magic? Or a mark that Academy sorcerers share?"
Sellen blinked, then gave him a once-over from head to toe—and quickly spotted the problem.
She placed a hand on her ankle and slowly lifted the hem of her skirt, revealing a smooth, bare foot.
Extending the leg she had crossed, she gently waved her foot in front of Lucian.
"Apprentice… haven't you noticed?"
"All the sorcerers in the Academy walk barefoot."
Lucian stared at the foot she extended toward him, stunned.
"What… it was because of that?"
"All my careful acting and disguise, ruined by something like this?"
An inexplicable sense of defeat welled up inside him.
He had planned his route perfectly, disguised himself convincingly—
And yet he'd been exposed for such an absurd reason.
Sellen seemed to tire of holding her leg up and simply rested that foot on Lucian's thigh.
Lucian lowered his gaze to the foot placed there.
Only now did he realize—Sellen had been walking barefoot all this time, yet there wasn't the slightest trace of dust.
No—looking closer, it wasn't just clean.
It was immaculately spotless.
Not a hint of dirt, not even the faintest sign of wear or calluses—nothing one would expect from bare feet walking across stone and soil.
The arch of her foot curved elegantly, her slender toes curling slightly, catching on the hem of Lucian's robe.
It looked like too smooth, luminous, with faint veins barely visible beneath the skin. That description doesn't feel like an exaggeration in the slightest.
This body of Sellen's hadn't been active in the Academy for long, and most of the time she'd been carried by Lucian rather than walking herself.
But before that, this body had been moving around a cellar beneath Limgrave.
By all logic, it shouldn't have been this clean.
Lucian couldn't help his curiosity.
"Teacher… why don't your feet get dirty or dusty, even when you walk barefoot?"
Sellen pressed her foot down slightly.
Even through the fabric of his sorcerer's robe, Lucian could clearly feel the pressure.
"Want to learn?" she said lightly. "I can teach you."
Lucian looked up at her, then asked another question he'd been holding back.
"Teacher… why does the Academy even have such a strange custom?"
That question gave Sellen pause.
She'd always done the same herself—but now that she thought about it, she realized she'd never actually known why.
Or perhaps there was no written rule at all.
It was simply something everyone did.
After a brief moment of thought, Sellen put on a serious expression, clearly having just improvised a perfectly "reasonable" explanation, and spoke to Lucian:
"Ahem. Disciple, you must understand—for sorcerers, the precision of magical control is extremely important."
"This, too, is a form of training."
"You must keep your magic in a continuously condensed state, so that dust and filth on the ground cannot cling to your feet."
"As for why we do this…"
Sellen bit her lip lightly, her mind racing, before she swiftly arrived at what she clearly considered a flawless justification.
"…Because this kind of training is the safest."
"Think about it—if you fail, at worst your feet just get a little dirty."
"But if you succeed, the improvement in magical control is extremely significant."
Lucian listened, feeling that something about it sounded odd—but oddly enough, it also felt somewhat plausible.
Well, whatever.He'd just do as she said.
Lucian took off his shoes as well, storing them in his spatial disc, and began learning this technique from Sellen—
The technique of walking barefoot without ever dirtying one's feet.
—
Meanwhile, elsewhere within the academy.
The leaders of the Academy once again gathered together, staring at the surveillance image that had become increasingly distorted due to interference.
To begin with, the image quality was already terrible.Now it was nothing but a smeared blur.
It was like watching a 144p video with an extra layer of mosaic slapped on top.
The picture was completely unusable, so all they could do was listen to the audio.
Unfortunately, the audio was no better.
Aside from a single shout of "Enemy attack!", there was only one other sentence that came through clearly:
"This guy isn't a sorcerer at all!"
…What did that mean?
The intruder was clearly using sorceries—and not poorly, at that.
In any case, the Academy sorcerers now understood one thing for certain:
The intruder had already entered Raya Lucaria.
They didn't know who he was, but his strength was terrifying—and he seemed intent on slaughtering sorcerers without mercy.
So far, there had been no reports of survivors.
It was horrifying.
For a moment, they suspected that the witch Sellen had returned for revenge.
But based on the voice that came through the surveillance, it didn't quite sound like her.
Immediately, they ordered all sorcerers to go on full alert.
At the same time, they instructed the group that had previously gone out as reinforcements to use sorcery to destroy the waterwheels leading up into the Academy classrooms.
This time, surely—surely... he wouldn't be able to get back up again.
—
After a short period of instruction, Lucian had successfully mastered the art of walking barefoot without getting his feet dirty.
Though it didn't feel especially useful, at least it was applicable right now.
As for whether it truly helped refine magical control…
Lucian was skeptical.
But since his teacher said she had genuinely practiced this way herself, he decided to accept it at face value.
He looked out toward the Academy.
To reach the main classroom areas of Raya Lucaria, one would normally have to proceed forward and ride a massive waterwheel up from below.
Once up there, there was only a single corridor leading onward—
And it was packed with sorcerers.
Trying to sneak through that route would be practically impossible.
Fortunately, Lucian could simply carry Sellen across the rooftops.
In the normal course of gameplay, one would need to clear that entire area first, then climb up to the rooftops, eventually reaching the upper levels near the Church.
What Lucian was doing now was essentially skipping all of those steps, exploring the area in reverse.
From the rooftops, they could reach nearly every part of the Academy.
All they needed now was for Sellen to guide the way.
And so, Lucian carried Sellen as they traversed the rooftops, leaping from building to building, steadily approaching the Academy's teaching district.
Along the way, they witnessed the destruction of the Academy's massive waterwheel.
As the enormous mechanism collapsed from the sky, Lucian clutched his chest and ground his teeth.
That hurt to watch.
These were future assets.
Future territory.
His future domain.
How much time, manpower, and resources would it take to rebuild all that later?
Sellen, meanwhile, had fully adapted to moving together with Lucian.
She was no longer flustered like before.
In fact, she even climbed down on her own and began running and jumping across the rooftops herself, her eyes filled with curiosity.
She carefully experienced this strange sensation, something she had never once known as a sorcerer.
"Oh! So the roof above the Church is this high."
"Huh? You can go straight from here to the classroom district? On the ground, that's such a long way around."
"I know the Academy inside and out, but this is my first time running across the rooftops."
"And I never imagined they'd place bird-shaped marionette soldiers up here too.They're useless, and they didn't even bother installing proper surveillance on them. Are they idiots?"
Lucian listened as Sellen rambled about her memories of the Academy, carrying her along as they moved.
Before they realized it, the two of them had already arrived atop one of the Academy's classroom buildings.
Sellen pointed at the structure beneath their feet and said to Lucian:
"Disciple, the top floor of this building houses the Twin Sages' classroom."
"Let's start here."
—
[T/N: This chapter originally included the classic "smooth like jade" description, so I took it upon myself to 'dilute' them for everyone's sake. Praise me! ]