If one lived with others long enough, especially with their parents, they would know that not all footsteps sounded the same. They could tell angry footsteps from gloomy ones, and giddy footsteps from dull ones. It was like developing a perfect pitch but for steps.

I had a fine specimen of that perfect pitch right next to me today.

Traipsing along—traipsing, I mean it—my side with the black box camera in her hand was Lumine Ador. The same girl who would make a killing as a statue performer was almost hopping off the ground.

Her face had not changed much, but her actions definitely did. To be honest, in her place, I would be the same.

We were off to meet the three stooges of grad school and finally get our film developed.

It had been a week since Lumine stepped out of her room. I gave her the camera after that incident, it was her turn to ‘collect her eclipses.’ It sounded funny now that I thought about it again.

My attendance list for my first month as professor couldn’t be perfect, but my student could almost hop along the school grounds, that alone was enough.

That said, I did have another thing on my mind now.

Two days back, with the inauguration of the Black Rose Club, we also performed a Status Check for everyone.

And some people were looking at it as if they did not expect what they saw. The worst of them all was Prince Ier.

No trait.

Every stat at Low.

Level 2.

Prince Ier placed too much value on the stats and found himself stuck. It would happen to anyone. It reminded me of when I had first seen my stats 8 years ago.

I was at level 1 with every stat at Low (low), but there was a difference between the second son of a count and the second son of the emperor.

At that time, I survived thanks to my trait. But I didn’t think anyone needed a trait.

People gave the status check and the Teal Tablet too much credit.

In my eyes, its function was pretty straightforward. It told me what I could sacrifice and what I could possibly gain.

Simple as that.

But to tell that to students who seemed to be thinking of the status as an end-all was a little tough.

“Professor…”

I snapped out of my thoughts at a call. Lumine tugged at my sleeves and pointed at the building ahead. In the northern depths of the academy was a research center for the grad students.

It was neatly tucked away in the middle of a group of trees. Lumine and I entered the building and were greeted by dozens of grad students with more bags under their eyes than one would see in a flea market.

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Funnily enough, the grad students who looked more like zombies and undead than humans had a giant smiles on their faces. A lot of them were giddily laughing and smiling.

Lumine, too, was seriously creeped out by this dissonance in their physical and mental states.

“Professor… purification…”

“No, no, stop! They are normal humans.”

I barely held back Lumine from ending the laughing undead.

After walking into the facility, going through the green walls, and asking for directions a few times, we found ourselves in front of the Record Room.

The door creaked open. The three stooges that had sold me the camera sat around a pile of papers, constantly moving their hands. What was this? Some kind of Civil Servant work experience?

They were in the same weird clothing that they had worn the first time.

“Oh… aren’t you the rich professor?” The witch-dressed girl noticed me and then saw Lumine and the camera in her hands.

“Is she your daughter?” One of them asked.

“Do I look like someone who has a daughter?”

“Not really. Too young.”

They were not crass enough to call me old. I made my over to the students and pulled a seat next to them. The students didn’t mind my familiar actions at all.

“Need help?”

“Will you?” Asked the dwarf. “If it won’t trouble you, can you look at those experiment records? Just verify the numbers please.”

Lumine seemed surprised at the sudden turn of events. Well, if you saw someone in need of a hand, you should extend it.

“Right,” I said, picking some of the papers up. The students got back to making their documents while vetting their words with many books around them.

Homunculus. Chimera. All kinds of ancient and modern tomes on alchemy and biological magic were splayed around them.

The experiment records themselves were about the reaction of some classified subjects to different kinds of Rune-Engraved stones. From the amount of mana inputted to the type of reaction.

Huh…

This was interesting.

Chimeras were a rather fascinating subject. It was something I heavily disliked, but I couldn’t not be interested. Chimerism in Humans had caused a lot of problems over time, but it could also be used to get rid of some diseases.

A double-edged sword. It wasn’t uncommon to succeed with a new type of chimera. The classified subject must be one of those.

Probably a small rabbit that has horns or a rat that can spew fire.

“By the way, she filled the camera. Do you mind developing the images and giving us a new film?”

“Sure,” said the witch. “Once we’re doing with this. It’ll be 50 silver for all of it.”

Fifty!?

Damn them. I take it back, don’t help such money suckers.

***

It took a while, but Lumine and I returned from the research facility and were headed back to the Black Rose.

They said that the images should be done developing in a day and would bring it to us.

I got to see a lot of interesting things about the academy. Knowing that there were some major advancements with the Chimeras and that this was the reason why Professor Denadis was in a particularly good mood was helpful.

Of course, Lumine did not get the same benefits, so I decided to let her eat whatever she wanted.

I brought Lumine some Ice Cream, the only thing she seemed interested in, while she took pictures of the delicacy with her re-filled camera.

After she started biting on the ice cream, I decided to ask her a question.

“Are you getting along with the others now?”

Lumine looked at me.

She hesitated a bit but nodded.

“Better than before…”

She knew about the plants better than anyone else. Since all the students started taking care of them, in the evening, she had the chance to talk more.

“Tell me about a few things.”

Lumine mulled over her words and spoke of the events of her day in just a line or two.

Her routine at Dawn still continued, and I still accompanied her.

It was good to see her getting acquainted with the other students, but I couldn’t be complacent. If the Lunar Sect had truly been as strict as her letters said, then it would only be a matter of time before they took objection against her current openness.

At that time, I would need to make them shut up.

“Also…” Lumine muttered. “Dahlia’s class came for a fight.”

My ears perked at those words.

“Who did? Dahlia class?”

Lumine nodded.

“Students.”

This… was surprising. No. For a fight…

Against our class?

Strange as it was, wasn’t this something I could use?