Jared, who was now to live with Hannelore on weekends thanks to her enjoyment, visited the academy the next day to meet Crysta.
He stopped by the staff room to ask Kirsi if there were any requests from the Mage Association, but since there weren’t any yet, he headed to the classroom.
As class had not yet started, students were chatting in the hallway. Some were at their desks, preparing for class, but as soon as they saw Jared, they all began whispering amongst themselves.
Receiving gazes filled with curiosity, suspicion, and jealousy, he surmised that the news about him being a Court Mage Candidate had already spread among the students.
Along with yesterday’s engagement with Olivier, he couldn’t help but wonder who was gathering and spreading information. He sincerely wished he could deliver a few thank-you punches to the mastermind.
He spotted Crysta chatting with some girl students in the classroom and waved. She waved back, noticing him, and after exchanging words with her friends, she approached.
“Good morning, Murphy!”
“Good morning. Sorry about yesterday. Something urgent came up, and I couldn’t even contact you.”
“It’s fine, it’s fine! I heard from Teacher Kirsi that you were taken by Olivier’s envoy, so I figured you probably wouldn’t be back.”
“How does that person know the details…?”
He remembered seeing her grappling with paperwork when he left the staff room yesterday, and he wondered how Trane had contacted her and found out she’d gone to the Alway Ducal Family’s separate residence.
“Haha… maybe because it’s Teacher Kirsi?”
“It’s absurd how that one sentence makes sense. Anyway, I’ll make it up to you for breaking our promise.”
“Oh, really? Then maybe I can have you treat me to something sweet at the cafeteria during lunch break?”
“I don’t mind, but weren’t you worried about your weight the other day?”
“I was, but I’ve given up! I’ve decided that it’s better for girls to have a little meat on them.”
Seeing Crysta’s dry laughter and somewhat enlightened expression, he guessed her diet had failed. She might be resigned now, but he suspected she’d be agonizing over her weight again in a few days.
She was a busy girl, her expressions changing rapidly.
It had been worth attending the academy just to become friends with Crysta, who remained the class’s mood maker, unchanged since they first met.
“Speaking of girls… it suits you when Crysta says it.”
“What do you mean?”
Seeing Crysta tilt her head in confusion, he truly thought of her as a girl. In contrast, he recalled Olivier, who had claimed to be a girl herself yesterday—and nodded, thinking it didn’t quite work.
If she knew, she’d likely fly into a rage and cause a scene. Remembering Olivier, who unhesitatingly adopted an undignified attitude when emotional, he also recalled the tea party where Hannelore had thoroughly exhausted him.
It had been fun.
Though he was tired and there were many awkward moments, he had spent time feeling genuinely happy for the first time in a long while.
Olivier, who had chosen him as her fiancé for her mother’s sake, had no intention of marrying him, and Jared, even if he were willing to marry, did not wish to. Still, he didn’t want to dim Hannelore’s smile, and perhaps going along with Olivier’s concern for her mother wouldn’t be so bad.
“It’s nothing. I just found the gazes today annoying.”
“I suppose. Your engagement to Olivier alone was enough to be a topic of gossip for the students, but the next rumor is about you being a Court Mage Candidate.”
“I kind of figured, but it’s still obvious… You don’t suppose the Mage Association leaked the information, do you?”
Or perhaps it was a teacher, but he couldn’t just suspect anyone arbitrarily and had to give up for now. He waited for Crysta’s words, a bitter smile on his face, vowing to find the mole someday.
“Hmm, I don’t think the association would gain anything by leaking information about you, Murphy. It’s probably a student.”
“On what grounds?”
“No grounds, but teachers wouldn’t leak students’ personal information to harm them, and if they did, they’d be fired. This is the Royal Academy, you know. How many noble students do you think there are?”
“That’s true, I suppose.”
Jared was technically a noble himself, but even an ordinary student would be fired without recourse if they were found to have intentionally leaked personal information. Especially in Jared’s case, the academy might overlook it, but the Mage Association certainly wouldn’t.
The information might have value, but the risks seemed far greater.
Thinking about it that way, it was likely students who were obtaining and spreading the information, just as Crysta said.
“Well, it’s fine.”
“It’s fine?”
“If it continues, I’ll find them eventually. Besides, I have more pressing matters right now.”
“You’re busy with your engagement to Olivier and being a Court Mage Candidate, aren’t you?”
“Something like that. I might not be able to come to the academy as often, but if anything comes up, don’t hesitate to contact me.”
“Thanks. But I’d rather not contact the Daum Barony.”
He was reminded that Crysta was a commoner.
Jared, who didn’t care about differences in social standing, often forgot, but he always made her feel awkward about it. Despite regretting it multiple times, Jared, who had a weak sense of his own noble status, struggled to learn.
Jared lived his life solely as a mage. Though he owed his grandparents a great deal, he saw no need to live like a noble, as he wouldn’t inherit the family estate anyway.
Moreover, baronies were the lowest rank among nobles, so the difference from commoners wasn’t that significant. Merchant families with thriving businesses likely lived better and held more power.
Still, for Crysta, who had no experience interacting with nobles, it seemed to be a point of discomfort.
“Then, if you need anything, use Lars. He has a way of entering and leaving our house unnoticed, and he’s already familiar with my grandfathers. The other day, he was having a friendly meal with them when I returned from a monster subjugation, I was so surprised…”
“I’m surprised hearing that story. Lars is Lars, but Baron Daum is also Baron Daum.”
He laughed about his friend, who wasn’t present.
Lars was a fellow student at the Royal Academy, but his origins and everything else were completely unknown. Like Jared, he rarely attended classes, though he wasn’t receiving requests from the Mage Association. In fact, Jared and the others didn’t even know if Lars was a mage or not.
However, they got along well as friends.
Thinking of his friend, who could only be described as eccentric and unpredictable, he worried about what he was doing and where he was.
It was at that moment—
“Oh, isn’t that Jared!”
He heard a familiar voice and turned to see Lars, whom they had just been discussing, waving and approaching.
“What is it, Lars? Did you decide to grace the academy with your presence today?”
“I felt like I was being called. More importantly, I can’t believe you’re saying that to me.”
“We were just talking about you, Lars.”
“Oh, about me? Surely not bad-mouthing me, right?”
“If I were, I’d be telling you directly, face-to-face.”
“That’s true. Jared and I first met when… I was hit on the head and told not to cause trouble for people, you idiot. Ah, nostalgic.”
Lars, a slender boy with blonde hair reaching his jaw, narrowed his blue eyes nostalgically.
Jared’s and Lars’s, as well as Crysta’s, first meetings dated back to the entrance ceremony. Jared, already known as the eldest son unable to inherit the family estate, faced curious and condescending stares. Only two students were different.
One was trying to sell him a suspicious-looking pot, and the other was politely declining with a strained smile. Lars and Crysta, needless to say.
Jared, frustrated by the stares of those around him, had hit Lars on the head to vent his pent-up anger, as Lars was trying to push his wares onto Crysta without noticing her discomfort. The surrounding students looked utterly astonished, though Jared still didn’t understand why. He found it incomprehensible that no one else seemed to care about Crysta’s predicament.
As a result of that exchange, they somehow became close friends and Lars became attached to him. Lars, as an apology for his pushy sales tactics, gifted Crysta a pot and also recognized her as a close friend.
Though it was still a somewhat incomprehensible encounter, looking back, it was certainly nostalgic. It had been worth enrolling in the academy just to meet these two people he could truly call his friends. It had been worth hitting Lars on the head.
“Speaking of which, my friend, I heard you’re engaged. Truly celebratory! However, I cannot accept that she is ten years your senior. Make her a consort, not your main wife!”
“You say such terrifying things so casually!”
“It’s fine. Even if she were eavesdropping, if she gets angry over something like this, she has that much lesser character. There’s no need to mind. Surely there is someone more suited to be Jared’s main wife!”
“Who?”
“My sister.”
“Oh, I really don’t want to become your brother-in-law!”
“You say quite dreadful things, don’t you!”
Friends with whom one can have such trivial conversations are precious. Within the academy, there’s an atmosphere of tension due to factionalism and competitive consciousness.
One of the reasons Jared avoided the academy as much as possible was his dislike of that atmosphere.
Lars was still his eccentric self, and Crysta watched Jared and Lars’s exchange with a gentle smile. He wished for such moments to continue forever.
“Hey! Jared Murphy!”
However, Jared’s wish was not to be granted.
“What, no way… Here comes trouble.”
Jared sighed in exasperation as he saw a group of boys enter the classroom with angry expressions.
“That’s Laurentz Herring and his cronies, isn’t it? What do you want with us?”
“Things seem to be getting quite interesting, don’t they? The Court Mage Candidate, without me?”
Laurentz, a tall boy with brown hair grown to his jaw, and three boys and girls behind him glared at them.
“P-please, Murphy and Lars, don’t pick fights in the classroom…”
“Don’t worry, we won’t do anything so foolish.”
Laurentz, the eldest son of the Herring Count Family and an Earth Elemental Mage, viewed Jared, an Earth Attribute Mage, as a rival and frequently provoked him.
He had been secretly relieved yesterday when Laurentz hadn’t attacked him using the engagement with Olivier as an excuse, but it seemed he was extremely displeased about Jared becoming a Court Mage Candidate.
“By forming ties with a ducal family, you’ve managed to curry favor with the Mage Association, haven’t you? However, I will never allow you to become a Court Mage!”
