The professor turned back toward the blackboard.
“Let us continue the lesson. The most common reason a battle line collapses may be a powerful attack from the outside, but it is also a small disturbance from within.”
It was a strangely fitting remark.
A few students in the classroom awkwardly averted their gazes.
I closed my eyes and thought.
‘Good point. We even had a practical example just now.’
Then I quietly settled my demonic power again.
Elysia’s breathing had grown a little rougher than before.
She looked calm on the outside, but the aura within her was still wavering with displeasure and tension.
I let out my energy very thinly, just enough that it truly wouldn’t be noticed.
Silver-pink demonic power seeped through her golden hair.
Elysia’s shoulders lowered slightly.
She blinked for a moment.
But this time, too, she said nothing.
Only the hand she had been taking notes with grew calm again.
‘That’s it. That’s how you do it.’
Satisfied, I curled up.
My first class at the academy.
From the very start, I got hit by an eraser, got marked by an annoying noble, and was even treated like a victim by the professor.
I let out a small sigh.
But the student in front of me heard it and murmured quietly.
“It sighed.”
“So cute……”
I closed my eyes.
I decided I really would think about nothing now.
And so the first class ended.
After announcing the assignment, the professor gathered his materials and left the classroom.
As soon as the heavy atmosphere eased, the classroom began to stir again.
While preparing for the next class, the students kept glancing this way.
To be exact, at Elysia, and at me, curled up obediently on top of her head.
“Haku, are you all right?”
Elysia asked in a small voice.
I gave the tip of my tail a slight flick.
“Kiing.”
I’m fine.
I really was fine.
It wasn’t as if a few pieces of eraser could hurt this body,
and I didn’t have a delicate enough personality to be wounded by it.
Of course, it hadn’t put me in a good mood.
‘Was his name Richard?’
I half-opened my eyes and looked toward the back of the classroom.
That fellow was preparing for the next class as if nothing had happened.
He closed his textbook, checked the strap of his sword belt, and even exchanged a few brief words with the students around him. He looked perfectly calm.
Too calm.
‘Strange.’
Judging from his attitude earlier, he wasn’t the type to let things go.
Proud, and the sort who hated backing down in front of others.
Someone like that had been reprimanded by the professor and had even apologized to a baby fox.
And yet he was just letting it pass quietly?
‘There’s no way.’
I watched Richard for a moment, then turned my head back.
For now, Elysia came first.
The next class was combat training.
The students left the classroom and began moving to the training hall.
Even as we walked down the corridor, gazes continued to follow us.
They seemed a little more used to it than at first,
but the sight of a young lady walking around with a baby fox perched on her head was apparently still not exactly ordinary.
“Is it going to stay like that even during combat training?”
“No way.”
“But it hasn’t fallen off even once so far.”
“Does Young Lady Valerion have good balance, or is the familiar just good at holding on?”
Both.
To be precise, I was adjusting my balance on my own.
Elysia’s body bobbed up and down with each step she took,
but the movement was more consistent than I had expected. The center of her waist and shoulders didn’t waver, and her steps were light.
However, the flow of her aura was still tangled.
It felt as if she were swinging a fine sword while it was still in its sheath.
‘She definitely has talent.’
From atop Elysia’s head, I quietly narrowed my eyes.
The power accumulated inside her body was unable to escape in one direction and kept colliding here and there.
Because of that, there was a subtle waste in her movements.
But perhaps thanks to the demonic power I had been feeding into her little by little since earlier, that tangling was less severe than usual.
Elysia seemed to sense it as well.
When we arrived at the training hall, she looked down at her own hand for a moment.
“……That’s strange.”
I twitched my ears slightly.
‘Did she notice?’
“My body feels a little lighter.”
Elysia murmured as if to herself.
I pretended not to know.
“Kiing.”
I know nothing.
I’m just an ordinary ball of fur sitting on her head.
The training hall was spacious.
Before the full-fledged training class began, the students stopped by the changing room beside the hall
and put on protective gear for training.
Of course, I couldn’t follow her into the changing room,
so I obediently waited outside for Elysia.
A little while later, the students came out one by one in their protective gear.
Elysia also appeared, neatly dressed in her training gear.
As soon as she came out, I went straight to her and climbed familiarly onto her head.
Together, we entered the training hall.
The floor was made of solid magic stone, and wooden swords for sparring and spare training gear were arranged here and there.
Defensive barriers were engraved along the walls, and magical formulas that absorbed impact glimmered faintly near the ceiling.
The students naturally lined up.
Elysia stood among them as well.
Of course, I was still on top of her head.
“……She’s going to train like that?”
“Won’t it fall?”
The students’ gazes gathered again.
I buried myself deeper among Elysia’s golden hair.
‘Please, just train.’
Just then, the instructor in charge of combat training entered.
She was different from the professor from the theory class earlier.
She was a tall woman with a sharp impression, her short black hair tied back and her cold eyes particularly striking.
She swept her gaze over the students, then, as if it were only natural, stopped on top of Elysia’s head.
“Valerion.”
“Yes, Instructor.”
“What is that creature on your head?”
“It is my familiar. Its name is Haku.”
The instructor looked at me for a moment.
I blinked obediently.
“Kiing.”
The instructor’s eyebrow rose ever so slightly.
“If it falls during training, it will be dangerous.”
“I will be careful.”
“This is not a matter of you being careful. Can the familiar endure it?”
The students’ gazes turned to me again.
Instead of answering, I flicked my tail once.
Then, matching the slight movement of Elysia’s head, I naturally shifted my center of gravity.
The instructor’s eyes narrowed.
“……It has good balance.”
‘Very good, actually.’
I answered only inwardly.
After thinking for a moment, the instructor nodded.
“Fine. I will allow it for now.
However, Valerion, if your familiar falls or interferes with training, you will set it down immediately.”
“Yes.”
And so combat training began.
First came basic footwork.
The students stood at set intervals and moved forward and backward in time with the instructor’s commands.
It looked simple, but for a swordsman, it was the most fundamental movement.
“One.”
The students stepped forward.
“Two.”
Their centers of gravity shifted.
“Three.”
The movement continued into a sword-drawing posture.
Elysia moved as well.
And in that instant, I felt it clearly.
‘As expected, she’s changed.’
Elysia’s movements were smoother than before.
They weren’t perfect.
There was still unnecessary strength in her shoulders, and the flow of her aura still caught here and there.
But at the very least, that feeling of the power inside her colliding with itself and dragging her down had diminished.
Perhaps Elysia herself felt it too, because during the second movement, she blinked very briefly.
“……”
But she did not stop.
She continued into the third and fourth movements.
I naturally kept my balance atop her head.
When Elysia moved forward, I shifted my center slightly backward, and when she turned her body, I distributed my weight through my ears and tail.
Thanks to that, my body was so stable that it seemed almost fixed in place rather than shaking.
The students around us gradually began whispering.
“It’s not falling.”
“How is it holding on like that?”
“Doesn’t Young Lady Valerion’s movement look a little different today too?”
“Right? It’s much smoother than usual.”
Elysia’s ears reddened slightly.
It wasn’t that she was unused to praise, but this kind of attention seemed to be something else.
I lightly pressed down on her hair with my front paw.
‘Focus.’
I didn’t know whether my intent got through, but Elysia’s breathing steadied again.
She drew her sword.
It was a training sword.
But her posture was serious.
The tip of the sword did not waver.
The instructor’s gaze also turned toward Elysia.
“Valerion.”
“Yes.”
“Do it again. That movement just now, from the third step.”
“Understood.”
Elysia steadied her breath.
Then she moved again.
Her foot pressed against the floor, her waist followed, her shoulder opened, and the sword advanced.
This time, it was a little better.
‘Yes. That’s the way.’
I released an extremely thin thread of demonic power.
I wasn’t forcibly correcting her.
It was merely like opening a small path beside a blocked flow.
Elysia’s body responded on its own.
The sword moved forward more naturally.
Whoosh.
The training sword cut through the air.
The sound was not loud.
But it was clean.
The instructor’s eyes widened by the slightest degree.
“……Remember that sensation just now.”
“Yes?”
“That movement just now was the best you have shown so far.”
Elysia stood blankly for a moment, then immediately bowed her head.
“Yes. I will remember it.”
A low stir spread among the students.
I closed my eyes in satisfaction.
‘Good. She responds faster than I expected.’
Elysia was not a dull child.
Rather, she was too sensitive.
Even a slight change in the power within her, and she noticed it immediately.
The problem was that she simply didn’t know how to handle that power.
In that case, there was a way.
Slowly, bit by bit.
I just had to make her realize it herself.
It was then.
I felt a prickling gaze from behind.
I did not turn my head.
I knew without looking.
It was Richard.
His gaze was fixed not on Elysia, but on me.
It was different from before.
It was not simple mischief or displeasure.
Suspicion.
And irritation.
‘He has some sense, at least.’
I muttered inwardly.
Richard had probably sensed it too.
That Elysia’s movements were different from usual.
And that this change had begun, of all times, on the day I climbed onto her head.
Of course, he wouldn’t be able to figure out the exact reason.
No, it would be troublesome if he did.
I closed my eyes again and curled up like an obedient baby fox.
‘I didn’t do anything.’
As I was thinking that, Elysia raised her sword again.
This time, her breathing deepened a little more.
She had realized it herself.
Her body right now was different from usual.
It was lighter than usual, and her sword moved a little better.
And she did not want to lose that sensation.
Elysia’s gaze became serious.
From atop her head, I quietly perked up my ears.
‘Good.’
I was starting to look forward to it a little.
What kind of sword this child would wield once she truly blossomed.
And how much more twisted Richard’s insides would become when he saw it.
‘……No, that last part is just a bonus.’
I yawned softly.
At that moment, a student in the row beside us murmured.
“It’s trying to sleep in the middle of training……”
“What incredible nerve.”
With my eyes closed, I let all their words pass me by.
Living quietly had already become impossible.
In that case, I should at least live comfortably.