Sylvia manifested a magic circle; the mana it contained slowly took its form as the entire class watched her in thrill and excitement.
She was a potential candidate to be the next Archmage, causing her fellow debutantes to anticipate what magic she’d be conjuring.
“…”
Weaving her own magic with her immense mana, she far surpassed any professor at that moment.
“Huh?”
However, Epherene, watching her right, slowly began to grow suspicious of her actions.
She could tell.
Sylvia’s magic circle was so misaligned she couldn’t help but notice it.
Whoooong!
A huge gust of wind blew up as her mana condensed and disrupted space itself, seemingly charging up for an explosion. It swept away the surrounding pavement and even caused the hems of Epherene’s robe to be sucked in.
“…”
Deculein looked at Sylvia silently while her magic repeated amplification due to its inability to manifest as a phenomenon.
Crack…
The magical sphere scorched the ground, its cohesion and contraction causing it to burn densely. At this rate, he knew it would eventually end in a catastrophic explosion.
Hence, he broke her magic circuit.
…
Her magic disintegrated as the class sank in silence, Sylvia’s failure turning them speechless.
“I failed.”
Although she should be the most affected by it, she remained indifferent. However, as she looked up at Deculein, she couldn’t stop herself from wavering a little.
“I am still lacking.”
His gaze on her felt gelid. Looking down at her, he shook his head.
Sylvia bit her lip.
“It’s unfair.”
“What is?”
“You say that I’m talented but refuse to teach me, then proceed to teach the ones who are flawed and lacking.”
Several debutantes’ shoulders shook, seemingly out of guilt.
“It doesn’t make sense. You should be watching those who excel even closer and more intently.”
‘He is my muse. It’s fortunate that I met him, considering I’m more suited to his teachings than anyone else in this tower…’
She had faith that she would grow further under him.
Deculein looked at Sylvia, who refused to avert her eyes from him in turn.
“No. It is fair.”
“It’s unfair.”
“That would be what your talent is.”
For a moment, the air around them grew heavier and thicker.
“Isn’t a genius’s suffering also superior to the hardships of someone mediocre?”
Kim Woojin once heard the struggles of a genius who went to study abroad as a scholar. Despite being more talented than him, he complained that he wasn’t drawing as well as he used to and that the people’s standards for him were too high.
“That’s not it. You, who does not need instruction, do not know the struggles of those who cannot grow without it.”
He never cared even a bit about the hardships and what kind of slump the geniuses went through.
After all, those who progressed based on hard work and efforts alone found whining geniuses detestable.
Deculein was most likely of the same thought.
“You’re not in the academy anymore, Sylvia. Your complaints won’t be accepted here.”
“…”
“If you can’t stand it, feel free to give up.”
Sylvia looked down.
“If you don’t want to give up, then prove yourself worthy of your talents.”
Every word he spoke were like blades, each and every last one of them piercing through her chest and making her feel like he was crushing her heart down to its smallest fragment.
“The magical agglomeration you just intentionally caused was dangerous. If it exploded, there would have been casualties. You get ten penalty points.”
No ordinary professor could give that many in one go.
“Wow, ten points… That’s crazy…”
The eyes of everyone in the classroom widened in astonishment, and Epherene even muttered involuntarily.
At that moment, Deculein’s gaze met hers.
“Epherene. Using slang in class.”
“Oh, no, wait! No! No!”
“Added, one penalty point.”
“Nooooooo—!”
* * *
At the end of University Tower’s semester, both the undergraduate students and faculty members became busy.
It was around that time that professors started a project or evaluated performance. For the students, that served as their window of tests(finals or promotion) or write a thesis due to the sudden increase in scouting from territories, countries, companies, and adventurers.
In the winter, there were many missions such as monster wave support and firepower support. Hence, the summer at the end of the first semester was the most important period in a wizard’s career.
“One hundred seventeen people asked for counseling with you this week alone, Professor Louina,” said Jenkin, Louina’s assistant professor and direct student who was with her at the Kingdom’s University Tower.
117 people.
That was 39 times the number of people that approached Deculein.
Thanks to the fame she had built up in the kingdom and the rumors about her personality in the tower, wizards continued to ask for advice from her.
“…”
“… Professor?”
However, Louina herself was dazed.
She kept thinking about Deculein, whom she met just now.
“… It was blood.”
“… Huh?”
Deculein’s lips were stained with blood, and the air in his office was filled with its scent at a level that was impossible to achieve with just a small wound or a nosebleed.
“After all…”
It had to be hemoptysis.
Louina leaned back against the chair, letting out a sigh.
After discovering those pieces of evidence, she was almost convinced.
Deculein would die after five years.
“Professor?”
“… Huh? Oh, yeah. 117 people. I can take ten people a day.”
“Yes. Also, the authorized documents have been delivered.”
“Already? It’s only been three hours.”
Louina’s eyes widened in surprise. On the papers Jenkin handed over was the Executive Director’s [Authorized] stamp.
She was expecting it’d take at least 1-2 weeks for it to be approved.
Louina smiled bitterly and nodded.
“Things are working out well. Now that I have the budget, It’s time to bring all the old guys over.”
Louina officially handed her resignation letter to the Kingdom Tower. Although her most trusted student inherited her head professor position, many students still wanted to follow her.
“Yes. I’ve already contacted them.”
“Okay. You may go.”
After sending Jenkin away, Louina looked around her office quietly.
“It’s spacious.”
Her office on the 47th floor of the Imperial University Tower as a professor was about the same size as her office at the kingdom as the head professor.
That was how huge the difference between the kingdom and the empire was.
“Pfff. Five years… You should think of it as your karma.”
She muttered a bit cynically, but there was certain bitterness in her tone.
She let out a deep sigh.
Her vengeance towards Deculein was definitely a passion that burned her insides. It was what fueled her main objectives in life.
She didn’t think he would meet his end in such a state.
“My life and your life… are a mess.”
She had mixed feelings about it in many ways.
* * *
All classes finished at 6 PM.
After reaching a certain amount of penalty points, Epherene was dragged to the University Tower Administration Office.
“Hahaha! What? Professor Deculein gave you your final penalty point?!”
“….”
“Hahaha! I knew it! I knew the day would come when he would no longer be able to stand your audacity!”
Relin, the professor who claimed to be the tower’s leader, laughed hysterically as he handed cleaning equipment over to her, including a cleaning brush, a big mop, rubber gloves, detergent, and so on.
Epherere put them all in a wheeled basket.
“Get out, you scum! Today, you’ll be cleaning the 3rd and 4th floors! Hahaha!”
“… Okay.”
“Hahaha! Heheh! Haha! Hahaha! Hahahahaha! Hahaha!”
He laughed like an actual insane person. Did the wind blow in his lungs?
Pouting, Epherene exited the room.
“Whew…”
It didn’t matter if she used magic for cleaning.
However, the number of toilets was a problem. There were almost ten or more toilets on most tower floors, but there were as many as twenty each on the third and fourth floors.
“I knew my fortune this week was bad. I have to change tarot shops.”
Epherene started cleaning the bathroom from the third floor.
She initially tried to speed up her work by using [Psychokinesis] to handle the cleaning equipment, but that proved difficult. Hence, she mixed detergent in the spray caused by the [Water Snake] instead.
She carefully cleaned the toilets and tiles, as poop would splash out if she used too much force or fired her magic in certain angles.
“… Ugh.”
After cleaning the first comfort room, she finally came out of it.
“Ah.”
The moment she did, she saw Deculein in front of the professor’s elevator on the third floor. As always, he was dressed perfectly.
When he saw Epherene, he frowned, seemingly finding her dirty, which almost made her cry.
‘It’s because of you! You should’ve only given me 1 point!’
“Don’t you think ten penalty points at once were too much, professor? They said it’s the first time it happened in 10 years.”
“You only got two points.”
Deculein’s eyes seemed to be disappointed she couldn’t even do such basic math.
That caused her expression to resemble that of an angry bulldog.
“Not me. I meant Sylvia.”
He stared at her.
“… Epherene.”
“Yes.”
“You should worry about yourself. Sylvia is the only debutante who truly understands me. She’s not someone you have to worry about.” He said, his voice seemingly finding her worries ridiculous.
“…”
Epherene grew silent.
She had no rebuttal against his words. Sylvia was indeed the only one who got a perfect score on the midterm exam.
Ding—
The elevator arrived.
As Deculein got in it, Epherene muttered.
“… I tried really hard not to get those two points.”
Epherene started cleaning the comfort rooms again.
From the employee restroom on the 3rd floor, the restaurant restroom, the public restroom, and the disabled-exclusive restroom, she went up to the wizard restroom on the 4th floor…
“Dedede~ Deculein, you fool~ you~ fool~ the world’s~ Biggest~ asshole~” She sang, treating those words as her work song.
Tak—
The wheel of her bucket got caught in someone’s heel.
“…?”
Raising her gaze to look at who it was, immediately identifying the person.
Sylvia.
Epherene turned to her right and tried to pass by her, but Sylvia blocked her way. She turned to her left afterward, but she blocked her path again.
Epherene’s eyes narrowed.
“What are you doing? Get out of my way. I’ll push you into the bucket.”
“Arrogant Epherene. What are you humming?”
“I could call it a work song.”
“…”
She noticed Sylvia’s expression a bit too late, which seemed a bit angry. Unusual dark circles also formed around her eyes.
“You don’t know how blessed you are because of your stupidity, arrogant Ephrene.”
“… Girl. I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
“Nepotism. You’re so stupid you don’t even know how to use nepotism.”
From six to nine today, Sylvia unconsciously imagined to herself, while receiving the ‘Rodran’s Personality Training,’ which was her punishment for her previous behavior.
It was a terrifying future wherein Epherene overtook her as Deculein’s disciple.
“Arrogant nepotism.”
“Whew. I don’t know what’s with you and nepotism today, but I just met Professor Deculein, you know?”
No matter how hard she thought about it, Sylvia just couldn’t understand why the hell he chose her…
“Do you like the professor?” Epherene asked.
“You’re nuts.” Sylvia unconsciously said. Immediately after, her face heated up. Shocked by the words that blurted out of herself, she covered her mouth with both hands.
“Pffft. I guess you do?”
“No, no. I don’t. He’s my muse.”
“I don’t know what that is, but do you want to know what the professor said about you?”
“… About me?”
“Yeah. He said…”
Flicking her chin, she recalled Deculein’s words while Sylvia focused her attention on her lips, pretending to be uninterested.
After a short while, she continued softly.
“Deculein said the only one who understands him is you.”
“…!”
Sylvia let out a choking sound, followed by indefinite silence.
“I don’t know why you made such a strange rebellion today, but doesn’t that mean that he trusts you that much?”
She still didn’t say anything and had become as stiff as a stone statue.
“… Hello?”
Epherene tapped her. Her lips trembled at that point, but words remained trapped within them.
“I gave you good information, so will you buy dinner tonight?” She cautiously asked.
“…”
Sylvia only rolled her eyes and glared at her.
Licking her lips, she continued. “If you do, then I’ll pretend I didn’t hear the words that just came out of your mouth.”
Surprised, Sylvia finally nodded. Her melancholic mood had disappeared.
*****
[Pig Flower], a famous restaurant on the continent
Epherene arrived at her regular restaurant with Sylvia.
“Come on, Epherene. Here you go!”
The shopkeeper put the Roahawk Roast Set on their table.
Sizzle— Sizzle—
Epherene looked at the beautiful figure on the stone slab, already drooling. Or was she salivating?
Anyway.
“You brought a friend with you today.”
“I’m not her friend.” Sylvia corrected him with a narrow gaze.
The old man shrugged. “Really? What are you two, then?”
“…”
Sylvia pondered about it for a moment, then pointed her finger at Epherene.
“She’s my slave.”
Her words startled Epherene.
“What? Why are you talking nonsense? It’s been 300 years since slavery was abolished.”
“Hahaha. You are a delightful noblewoman. Enjoy it. Epherene, you too.” The old man smiled and left.
Epherene immediately put on gloves and grabbed the Roahawk’s bones.
“You can grab a bone like this and eat it. It’s very tasty, you know? You should eat it too.”
Sylvia looked at her as if finding the notion ridiculous. Disliking her method of eating, she looked for a knife and fork.
“…”
But perhaps because of her company, who ate like a caveman, there were no cutleries at all. She made a set herself using magic.
Yum, yum, yum, yum—
As she savored her meal, Epherene looked at Sylvia, noticing that she decided to eat the meat using a fork and knife.
She laughed softly.
“What do you think? Delicious, right?”
Sylvia replied dryly. “I can’t taste any food.”
“…”
Epherene stopped moving abruptly, her lips glistening due to the meat oil on them.
“… Really?”
“Yeah.”
“But you seemed to enjoy the fish I cooked back then.”
“I was hungry then. I am not hungry now.”
She nodded. Recalling her memories, she realized Sylvia didn’t say ‘delicious’ at the time.
“Since you were born?”
“No. I lost it while growing up.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
Epherene shut her mouth and returned her focus on the dish before her. After a short while, however, she glanced at Sylvia, who only ate in small bites.
Since she was eating even a Roahawk like that, she thought it was most likely true that she didn’t have any sense of taste.
“Still, this is very good for nutrition and stamina. You can call it a complete food. While you’re eating it, you’ll feel your mana rising.”
“…”
Sylvia didn’t respond. Epherene laughed bitterly at her silence.
10 minutes later.
“…”
Epherene stared blankly at Sylvia’s plate, having already finished hers so cleanly only bones were left in the aftermath. On the other hand, Sylvia still had a lot of leftovers.
“…”
Noticing her behavior, she said, “You can have it.”
“… Huh? Oh, it’s fine, don’t worry…”
“Eat.”
Learned that refusing twice wasn’t polite, she conceded.
“Okay. Thanks.”
As she ate her leftover meat, Epherene thought their first meeting at the tower was the worst, just like their families’ relationship with each other, but…
Sylvia didn’t seem all that bad.
After all, as promised, she paid for their dinner.
* * *
Tick— tock—
Sylvia’s evenings were usually busy due to her magic review sessions, but tonight their mansion was filled with only the sound of the clock’s hands moving.
‘Only Sylvia understands me.’
She recalled Epherene’s words in Deculein’s voice.
‘… Understands me.’
It was a shame she couldn’t hear it in person, but imagining it was still enough for her.
Her heart, which felt like a needle had stabbed it, was healed in an instant, and her suffocated mind was now at ease.
‘Only Sylvia…’
However, while she smiled silently in happiness, she eventually became sad.
He let her go because she understood him and because he wanted for them to meet again in a higher place…
“The ”
Sylvia took out the a gift from Deculein, then put the handkerchief he had given her on its back.
“This is your cloak.”
She then plopped down on her bed, the so-called cloaked in her arms.
It was a quiet night in the moonlight.
The cute doll was tucked with her in her blanket, and her familiar was by the side of her bed. At that moment, she thought there was nothing for her to be afraid of no matter where she went. It was as if the world itself was protecting her.
‘Only Sylvia understands me.’
In her sense of fullness, she once again recalled his voice.
Sylvia slept peacefully.
*****
“Something like that happened? Deculein, that damn bastard.”
Glitheon of Iliade received an official notice from the University Tower in the lord’s office, which stated that Deculein had imposed ten penalty points on Sylvia.
“Shall we make an official complaint?” His butler asked.
Glitheon shook his head. “No.”
10 points.
Neither Glitheon himself, his father, his grandfather, his great-grandfather, nor anyone in Iliade had ever experienced such a disgrace in the tower.
“It’s okay.”
If he did it 20 years ago, he would have accepted it as a declaration of war.
But now, it didn’t matter.
He didn’t care.
“Leave it.”
Glitheon even laughed.
He didn’t even think of it as a humiliation.
After all, he knew that the emotions piling up in his daughter one after another would one day become firewood that would ignite the dazzling flames of Iliade.
“If the child did something wrong, shouldn’t she receive a penalty?”
Glitheon burned the official letter of the tower. What used to be a document quickly turned to ashes that scattered away with the wind.
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