Seiya and Shia, walking down the academy corridor, suddenly stopped at the same time.
“…… Huh?”
“Ah, Brother, you felt it too?”
“Well, when it moves that clearly.”
Seiya nodded in agreement, and Shia continued, “As I thought.”
In contrast to the two of them, their friends following behind were tilting their heads in confusion.
“Hey, Shia. Don’t just understand each other. Tell us what happened.”
“Umm… well. Wouldn’t it be faster to go there than to explain it with words?”
“That’s true.”
Seiya nodded in agreement with Shia’s words.
Although it wasn’t that the two of them were bad at expressing themselves, their friends knew that they had a slight difficulty in conveying things through words. This was especially true for events that were more about feeling or intuition, which they struggled to communicate effectively. Upon sensing this, those around them decided to follow in the direction the two had started walking.
Seiya and Shia headed towards a training ground, one of the facilities prepared at the academy. The training grounds in the academy were designed so that students from lower grades could observe them from outside the barrier.
“Ah, there they are.”
Seiya, who had been peering into several training grounds, stopped in front of one and said that, looking at the people there other than Shia.
Inside the training ground, several students seemed to be practicing magic. However, simply practicing magic in the training ground wasn’t a particularly unusual sight, so the friends were still tilting their heads.
“They look like seniors… but what’s so special about this?”
They couldn’t connect Seiya and Shia’s previous reactions with the training happening here, so they didn’t understand the meaning behind it.
Shia then added an explanation to her bewildered friends. “Among the people training there, there’s a spirit user.”
“…… Huh?”
After a slight pause, the friends tilted their heads again, this time with a completely different kind of bewilderment. Their expressions showed surprise rather than simple confusion.
Seiya, who had somewhat anticipated this kind of reaction, continued with a slight wry smile. “I think you all will understand once you get this close… Ah, there. That’s one of the seniors.”
Everyone’s gaze was drawn to where Seiya pointed. Indeed, it was confirmed that one senior was using something that looked like Spirit Arts.
“They seem pretty skilled.”
“Yeah.”
Seiya nodded leisurely at Shia’s remark.
However, the friends around them were far from being so relaxed.
“No, wait a minute. You guys figured out that senior was using Spirit Arts from that far away!?”
This was the reaction of everyone except Seiya and Shia, but the two of them simply nodded.
“Well, that’s sort of it… although, to be precise, maybe not quite?”
“Right. It’s not like we saw through the art itself… or maybe not?”
As the two of them said this, tilting their heads in the latter part of their explanation, their friends looked even more confused.
Seeing their friends looking utterly perplexed, Seiya and Shia exchanged glances before continuing their explanation.
“So, it’s like… not the art itself, but more like sensing the presence of the spirits moving…”
“Spirits that obey the user’s commands move in a distinctive way…”
As the two of them tried to make themselves understood, some of their friends sighed in resignation.
“Okay, we get it. Even if you explain it in more detail, we still won’t understand.”
“Right. So, for now, you sensed the presence of spirits, as usual. Is that okay?”
It was an extremely rough conclusion, but it was a better answer than before, so Seiya and Shia nodded.
Their friends already knew that Seiya and Shia, who were elves (tentative), had an unusual sensitivity to spirits. Therefore, while they might be surprised, that was the extent of their reaction. In the past, there were those who argued against it, claiming it was impossible, but they had naturally filtered themselves out. Seiya and Shia, who had no intention of forcibly maintaining relationships with people who were inherently skeptical, were essentially left alone as those individuals drifted away. This was Seiya and Shia’s perception, but in reality, it was Seiya and Shia who had stopped approaching, gradually losing contact. The friends who remained were aware of this but left it as is, thinking it was fine for now.
The friends were only curious about Seiya and Shia’s reactions; if they understood the reason, the mock battles themselves were of little consequence. If it had been a battle involving renowned individuals within the academy, they might have been somewhat interested, but that was not the case. It was only natural for voices to rise saying it was time to head back.
However, someone who would not allow that stood before them.
“Hey, wait a minute.”
It was one of the people who had been watching the same mock battle from a spot a little distance away from Seiya and the others.
“What is it, Senior?”
When such situations arose, it was an unwritten rule within Seiya and Shia’s group that they would not step forward, and someone more accustomed to such interactions would handle it. This was a behavioral pattern they had naturally acquired through their time acting together.
When their polite friend spoke, even if the other party was confrontational, it usually de-escalated the situation. However, this time, it did not go that way.
“You sensed the movement of spirits from far away? Why are you so easily convinced by such lies, you fools?”
“They probably haven’t even properly attended the Spirit Arts lectures anyway,” the words of another man who followed with a mocking tone made Seiya and Shia wear expressions of confusion.
In Seiya and Shia’s year, they had already learned the basics of Spirit Arts. Therefore, they understood that the seniors before them were saying these things to belittle them. However, what was unusual about the situation, even before anger, was that they didn’t seem to know Seiya and Shia. Rumors about the two of them had spread throughout the academy. Since they didn’t hide their most prominent physical characteristic, their long ears, they should have been recognized immediately by ordinary people.
While their accommodating friend was contemplating how to respond, the two, emboldened, continued their words as if to say, “See? We told you so.” To summarize their intentions, they were essentially saying, “Just because you’re elves, don’t believe everything about Spirit Arts.” While that in itself was understandable, what was truly unbelievable to everyone present was realizing that these two individuals seemed to genuinely not know who Seiya and Shia were. Three years had already passed since Seiya and Shia started attending the academy. During that time, news about the rare elf twins had spread throughout the academy, which was common knowledge to their friends.
Perhaps their reactions were unexpected, the two seniors became even more agitated and were about to continue. However, another voice was heard from a different direction.
“What are you doing?”
Seeing the person who had newly appeared, Seiya and Shia inwardly sighed, thinking this was going to be troublesome.
Seiya and Shia are not as well-known as their older siblings and Miku. Rather, it is the other siblings who are exceptionally famous, while the two of them are known by an unbelievably large number of academy students, beyond what would be considered normal.
“I hope this ends here…”
