In the late evening, in the female dormitory stairwell…

Smiling, Cycelia waves her hand to Tisha and Neela to bid them farewell as she follows Straf further up. She picks up the pace and quickly catches up to him as he's lazily climbing the stairs.

「…The Academy sure turned into a ghost town again, huh?」

Cycelia remarks, peeking over her shoulder down at the dark steps behind her.

「Hm?… Well… What did you expect? Everyone was probably waiting two months for this.」

He replies, shrugging his shoulders after a quick glance at her.

「Me too! I wanted to take a look around the town with you, but there just was no time!」

She clenches her dainty hands, pouting a little as they climb up to their hallway.

「Well… There's always the next term…」

Straf says, briefly waiting with his hands in his pockets for her to join his side on the way to their room. When she does so, they continue onward down the hall.

「…Though I don't know if I'd want to do this again. I'm honestly kind of tired of magic school arcs. This isn't exactly a new thought, but it sure took on a new twist. Call it a deconstruction.」

He adds, once again shrugging his shoulders while he waits for Cycelia to unlock the door to their room.

「Eheheh… I'm not surprised, you must be the most overworked person in the entire Academy. 」

She lets out a soft laugh, smiling at him while fiddling with the lock. The key slips in, and she opens the door with a loud clack of its lock. They enter, and Straf lazily throws the door shut behind them. As usual, Cycelia sits down and slips her shoes off, while Straf jumps into his bed with his back and rests his head on his arms up on the pillow, then stares pensively at the ceiling.

「Ah… I should return the lamp tomorrow…」

She says, looking at the unlit oil lamp sitting on the table amidst the decorative clutter.

「I don't think they want it back, Lia. Might as well keep it as a souvenir.」

「You think?…」

Cycelia asks, tilting her head at the lamp.

「I'm certain. All the nerds here are too scared to steal anything, so everyone collectively sighs in relief when something mysteriously goes missing from the storage and clears some space.」

Straf glances at her with his bored eyes, quickly turning them back to the ceiling.

「…We should return the uniforms tomorrow, though.」

She notes, tugging gently at her green blazer's collar.

「The term's not over yet, is it? We have time.」

「That may be so, but…」

Cycelia nods while the sky outside begins to darken significantly, and her voice trails off.

「…Those two months passed really quick, didn't they?」

She asks after a brief pause, idly swinging her feet off her bed while looking at Straf.

「Hm… Meh.」

He shrugs after giving her remark only a second of thought.

「I know, it probably doesn't feel like that to you… You had a lot on your mind and you were busy every day, after all, but… I had a lot of fun, even despite everything that had happened…」

Cycelia shrugs her shoulders as well, speaking softly just above the silence in the room.

「Well, I'd hope that's the case… It seems like everything in the fucking world took the contrived path of least probability to prevent that from happening.」

Straf glances at her, then sighs at the ceiling.

「…Right. And I wouldn't be able to just have fun like this if not for you, so… Thank you, Straf.」

She nods, and smiles gently at him. Straf's brows raise lightly in mild surprise.

「…Well, you were beat to it by a little bit… I suppose I shouldn't be surprised to hear that from you, considering it's you after all.」

He smirking a little as he looks at her with a side-glance.

「Huh? What is that supposed to mean?」

Confused, Cycelia blinks her emerald eyes rapidly.

「Nothing, Lia… I wasn't doing it for thank-yous or standing ovations. Knowing that you had fun is its own reward, and I mean that even if that line is a cliche.」

「I know you weren't expecting anything in return, but… I think you earned a treat anyway.」

She nods, and shrugs her shoulders, warmly smiling again.

「Yeah? And what would that be?」

Straf's brows faintly furrow as his face gains an incredulous and an innocently mocking expression.

「I don't know yet…」

Cycelia quietly replies, pouting a little towards the window.

「Are you just trying to copy the melting ice queen?」

He asks, smirking again with an amused huff from his nose.

「Who?」

「Your blondie friend. I can get my own spaghetti, Lia.」

Straf says, spreading his hands before returning them behind his head.

「No, I'm not!… I just want to properly thank you, Straf.」

She clenches her dainty hands, briefly pouting at him before it disappears.

「You don't need to, Lia… In a way, I already received more than enough from you.」

He shrugs, and lets out a prolonged sigh with a very faint smile directed at the ceiling.

「…How so?」

「You help me direct my boredom, Lia. I have my hands too full to fly off the hinge entirely.」

「Huh?」

「Don't think too hard about it. I'm just saying just like you think things would have been worse for you if I weren't here, I suppose that goes the same for me.」

Straf replies, and turns his eyes towards the window as less and less light pours in through it.

「…I know the exams are over and the last of the lectures are practically just a formality, but aren't you going to head to sleep?」

He adds, and turns his gaze back to her. She briefly glances outside, then her emerald eyes meet his.

「Yes… I suppose I will. I'll pack tomorrow evening.」

She nods at Straf with a happy smile, and begins skittering underneath her blanket.

「…It's still hard to believe it's already over. I remember the entry exam as if it were yesterday.」

Cycelia remarks, then pulls the blanket over most of her face, leaving only her green eyes peeking out.

「Yeah…」

Straf nods idly at the ceiling, feebly agreeing with her statement.

「…Goodnight, Straf.」

She says, and closes her eyes as she wiggles into a more comfortable position.

「Goodnight, Lia…」

Straf replies with a quick glance, and gazes at the pitch-black ceiling again, lying in his bed completely silent for a few minutes.

《Half a year already, huh?… I wonder if this is what Lily meant…》

He thinks, then sits up on his bed, taking on his meditative pose in the darkness…

…

The next morning, by the noticeboard at the ground floor of the girls' dormitory.

「Neela, Tisha, did we pass?…」

Cycelia waves her hand, approaching them with Straf while they stare at the new scoreboard attached to the wooden noticeboard on the wall.

「We're trying to figure that out right now…」

With her fists on her hips, Tisha glances at her before returning her blue eyes back to the scoreboard.

「Ah. I'm at the bottom again…」

Neela comments with a glum tone.

「Heh. And I'm above you again-」

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Tisha scoffs with a smug grin directed at the noticeboard.

「By three points! Why are you so smug!? You're tied with 6 other people!」

Neela exclaims, clenching her fists with a dismayed and indignant grimace on her face.

「So what?… Where's Lia though? I don't see her in the center anymore…」

Tisha replies, then glances at Cycelia's focused face while she reads through the scoreboard with them.

「Ah. I'm right here… Just above you, Tisha.」

Cycelia says, pointing at her name.

「…By ten points.」

Neela adds, side-glancing at Tisha with her arms crossed and mouth aslant.

「…So? I barely paid attention in the old man's class. It's boring and he talks too much for too long…」

Tisha scoffs again, trying to appear nonchalant and unfazed by Cycelia casually rising above her.

「…And look at that, he's tied for the top. He couldn't slack off even if his life depended on it.」

She adds, looking at the top of the scoreboard as she crosses her arms with a smug smirk.

「Who?- Ah, Damian?… I can see why he's the professors' favorite.」

Neela asks, then nods as she looks at the name Tisha is reading. Damian has tied for the perfect full score with only 4 other students, among them are Aurelius from a different class, and two other names none of the girls recognize. Tisha turns towards the main hallway, and the two wordlessly follow her as the apparent leader.

「Tisha, Neela, when are you leaving? Tomorrow, right?」

Cycelia asks as her curious eyes jump between them.

「Yeeaaaah… My carriage should be here tomorrow at noon, so if you want to-」

Tisha nods her golden head while looking straight ahead.

「Ah, mine too.」

Neela chimes in, cutting her off with her brows gently raised.

「Really? Well, guess Neela and I are going to leave at the same time, then… If you want to say byes and such, I'll be waiting for my ride back home by the gate.」

The northern princess raises her brows in mild surprise at Neela, then shrugs and turns her gaze forward again as speaks.

「I think mine will arrive at noon as well, so… We might be leaving at the same time. Why don't we all just meet there around noon?」

Cycelia asks while they navigate around the sparse student traffic in the halls. Most of the attending students are unlikely to attend the last few rounds of lectures without a good reason.

「Sure, I don't mind…」

Tisha shrugs, and a brief silence begins while they walk towards Professor Reise's last few lectures for the term.

「…Do you think Damian will come?-」

「I don't care! I gave him a good opportunity and he's stupid if he turns it down!…」

Neela asks, but Tisha immediately cuts her off, stomping ahead of them. Neela and Cycelia briefly exchange troubled glances, and quietly follow her hasty stomps.

A few minutes later, they notice lazily Damian approach them with his hands in his pockets. He pulls one out only to cover his yawning mouth. They wait for him at the junction.

「Mornin'…」

Damian nods at them, slurring heavily.

「What, couldn't sleep?」

Tisha asks with her arms crossed.

「The opposite… The term is basically over, so I don't really care if I miss the extra class or two.」

He replies with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders, rubbing the back of his neck as he tries to shake the groggy feeling off his eyes.

「And here I was, praising you for being such a serious student just a few moments ago…」

She scoffs at him with a snide smirk.

「Hey! I get tired too! I'm allowed to take a break from time to time, am I not!?」

Damiana asks, spreading his arms in exasperation as his eyes glance at her for a few seconds before then making their way to Neela, and finally jumping to Straf and Cycelia.

「…That woke you up yet?」

「Well… I guess.」

Tisha asks, and Damian turns his eyes away when he realizes that he has been expertly played.

「Let's go then…」

「Yeah…」

Tisha continues onward, setting out ahead of everyone. Damian is quick to join her side, walking beside her with his hands in his pockets. Despite the unusual proximity and a break from their normal formation, perhaps afforded by the decreased traffic in the halls, the atmosphere between the two is tangibly awkward, and they remain silent all the way to the classroom…

…

Ten minutes later, in Professor Reise's class…

The diminutive old man opens a long, black metal lockbox on the teacher's desk, and pulls an object out of its cushioned interior.

「In an effort to reward the few students that chose the pursuit of knowledge in spite of the term drawing to its conclusion… Behold!」

Professor Reise holds up a quite ordinary-looking magnifying glass, causing the quarter of remaining students in the class to look at each other with unimpressed faces.

「Now, now… I know what you're thinking!「This is just a magnifying glass!」you might say!… Well, you couldn't be more wrong! This is actually a-!」

The professor declares, and a very faint smug smirk appears on his weathered and wrinkled face.

Krrrrrrrk!

The sound of a chair's legs scraping against the floor overpower the old man's voice, and bring everyone's attention to Straf as he jumps out of his seat.

「What the fuck is that doing here!?」

He exclaims, pointing at the『Introspective Magnifying Glass』with his jaw dropped in shock. The girls stare at him with their brows furrowed, while Damian's eyes jump between him and the glass. The tiny professor begins to chuckle a little, wiggling his finger at Straf with an amused grin on his old face.

「I see there is no hiding anything from Straf!… He quickly noticed its true nature! This, my students… Is a magical artifact!」

Professor Reise declares, turning his pointing finger to the magnifying glass as he lowers it to his head-level.

「I want to pique your interest for the next term… What are magical artifacts, you may ask? I'm sure you've heard of them, but how are they different from magic devices?…」

Reise asks a rhetorical question, pacing around in front of the blackboard with a self-satisfied grin while Straf continues staring at the magnifying glass in utter disbelief.

「…The difference is simple. Even if we don't know how a certain magic device may work, say… Vampire lamps, perhaps?… We still know their principles…」

He says as he stops in the dead center, and turns to face the students' desks. He holds the magnifying glass up again, glancing at it every few seconds.

「…This, however, is a complete mystery. It doesn't obey any rules of magic we understand, hence, it's an artifact, not a mere magic device.」

The old man explains, and looks at his hand through the glass, clenching it a few times.

「This one in particular allows you to see through your own body… And only your own body. I am sorry for your loss, gentlemen…」

Professor Reise says, eliciting some stifled chuckling out of the male students. He then turns his eyes to Straf, who blinks at the old man, still standing up.

「…As for why it's here… Well, it's a funny story. The Academy's acquisitions board received a certain letter not too long ago…」

The professor lets out a brief, stifled giggle as he spreads his hands, shaking his head a little with an amused grin…

…

A few months ago, in a certain store full of trinkets…

A group of robed men enter the dim and small shop, approaching the man and the woman at the counter.

「…We came for the item. We're from the Academy of Magic.」

A serious-faced man declares, glancing at them both while the rest remains silent behind him. The man behind the counter exchanges a quick glance with the woman.

「Do you have the money?…」

He asks as he looks at each of the robed men.

「Naturally. May we see the item?」

The serious man nods, then asks as his wary eyes jump between the two.

「…Show us the money first. We really have it, but we want proof you're not some sort of criminals.」

The male shopkeeper replies with a stern but polite tone. The robed man visibly hesitates for a few moments, but then turns his head around to the one over his shoulder.

「Show them.」

He nods his head at the shopkeepers, and the man he spoke to takes a step forward. He pulls out a fat brown coin sack from his wide sleeve, and sets it down on their counter with a metallic clatter emanating from the bag. The man and the woman look at the sack, and the man points his finger at it, wordlessly asking if he can open it. The grim Academy man nods, and the shopkeepers open the sack, peering inside.

「Wow…」

Wide-eyed, the male shopkeeper utters out, then stares at the equally shocked woman.

「Count it, then show us the item.」

The serious man in the robe demands, nodding his head at the sack full of gold coins again.

「…Mila, you count, I'll go get it!」

「Got it!…」

The woman nods her head and spills the coins out onto the counter, quickly counting through them…

…

「…And so, they only paid fifty coins for the thing! Hahaha!… Needless to say, you cannot put a price on something like this, but the Academy would easily pay thousands…」

Professor Reise concludes his story, and covers his mouth with his fist as a brief laughter slips out of him.

「…Are you fucking shitting me!?!」

Straf screams, clutching at his head with his brows raised in shocked disbelief…