And so the familiar resonance class continued.
After that, several students checked their resonance levels in turn,
and the professor gave each of them simple advice suited to their familiars and spirits.
But the atmosphere in the classroom had already changed.
Whenever it was not their turn, the students kept glancing toward Elysia.
More precisely, at me, curled up on top of Elysia’s head.
Resonance level: 86.
The first day of the contract.
A rare silver-pink baby fox.
No matter how one thought about it, it was not a combination that could pass quietly.
Fortunately, however, the class itself ended without any further trouble.
The professor left them with a final warning not to handle their familiars and spirits recklessly,
and the students began gathering their belongings.
All of the classes scheduled for that day were over.
Outside the window, the afternoon light had begun to tilt. The academy’s day was drawing to a close.
And yet, strangely, I could not feel at ease.
There was one reason.
Richard had been far too quiet.
Ever since the combat training, he had stopped openly picking fights.
It was the same during the familiar class.
Normally, he would have made at least one sarcastic remark, but he had simply sat quietly in his seat.
Too quietly.
‘There’s no way that guy would just let this go.’
From atop Elysia’s head, I narrowed my eyes.
Types like Richard were simple.
They were proud, and if they felt they had been slighted, they would always try to pay it back.
Especially if they had lost face in front of many people, as he had today.
He had thrown an eraser.
He had fired magic.
In the mock duel, he had lost to Elysia.
On top of that, he probably believed I had laughed at him during the process.
‘Well, one time, I did do it on purpose.’
In any case, from Richard’s perspective, it must have been an unbearable day.
That was why it felt even stranger.
Because he was too quiet.
After putting away her class materials, Elysia rose from her seat.
“Let’s go, Haku.”
Instead of answering, I flicked my tail slightly.
Elysia left the lecture building and walked toward the dormitory.
Since all classes had ended, there were many students in the hallway.
A few still whispered when they saw me,
but perhaps they had grown more used to me than in the morning, because none of them openly followed us.
The problem began after the number of people gradually decreased.
When Elysia passed through the large corridor and entered a quiet gallery,
footsteps sounded from behind.
Tap.
Tap.
Footsteps that seemed deliberately made to be heard.
I pricked up my ears.
Elysia also stopped.
She slowly turned around.
At the opposite end of the gallery.
Richard was standing there.
Alone.
The relaxed smile he had worn during the day was gone from his face.
Instead, suppressed displeasure and a sharply honed pride were clearly visible in his eyes.
“Valerion.”
Elysia spoke calmly.
“Richard. What is it?”
“What is it?”
Richard laughed shortly.
“You’re asking because you don’t know?”
‘As expected, he’s making this troublesome.’
I quietly lowered my body atop Elysia’s head.
There were no other students in the gallery.
The light outside the windows had tilted, and long shadows stretched across the floor.
No professors, no students, no familiars.
There truly was no one here except Richard, Elysia, and me.
Richard slowly placed his hand on the hilt of his sword.
Elysia’s expression hardened.
“Richard. What are you doing?”
“I’m just trying to confirm something.”
“Confirm what?”
“Whether you really defeated me today.”
He drew his sword.
It was not a training sword.
It was a practice sword with a blunted edge, but if it struck properly, it could still injure someone badly enough.
Elysia immediately placed her hand on her own sword as well.
“Unauthorized duels after class are forbidden.”
“A duel?”
Richard laughed.
“This isn’t a duel. Our swords just happen to be clashing by coincidence.”
‘Isn’t that a duel?’
Before his words had even finished, Richard moved.
Fast.
Elysia drew her sword at once and blocked.
Clang!
The sound of metal rang through the gallery.
I lowered myself atop Elysia’s head.
Richard’s attacks were rougher than they had been in the earlier mock duel.
In the training hall, the instructor’s eyes had been on him, and the students had been watching. But now it was different.
No one was watching.
That fact made Richard’s sword even sharper.
“Richard!”
Elysia shouted in a low voice.
“Stop!”
“Stop?”
Richard bared his teeth as he swung his sword.
“Do you know what you did all day today?”
Elysia could not answer.
She was too busy blocking.
Richard’s sword came down from above, then continued sideways.
Rather than proper swordsmanship, it was an attack driven by emotion.
But it was not as though he lacked basic skill,
so it was not something Elysia could completely dismiss.
‘Clang!’
The swords collided again.
Elysia’s body was pushed backward.
On top of her head, I tightened my jaw as if gritting my teeth.
‘Here comes the nonsense.’
Richard said,
“Because of you, I became a laughingstock in the classroom.”
‘Clang!’
“Because of that one fox, I was reprimanded by the professor.”
‘Scrape!’
“And in the training hall, you were flailing around trying to protect that fox,
then suddenly beat me with some strange movement.”
Elysia’s eyes wavered.
“That was because you aimed at Haku first.”
“Haku, Haku.”
Richard gave a twisted smile.
“You sure do lovingly call the name of some familiar you picked up off the street.”
Elysia’s sword wavered for an instant.
I could feel her emotions rising.
A small anger.
Suppressed displeasure.
And worry directed toward me.
Richard did not miss that opening and pressed forward with his sword.
“The young lady of House Valerion humiliated me in front of everyone because of a mere fox.”
‘No.’
I quietly opened my eyes.
‘You humiliated yourself.’
The one who had thrown the eraser in the classroom was Richard.
The one who had fired magic in the training hall was Richard.
The one whose sword had faltered because he was distracted by me during the mock duel was Richard.
After doing all of that, he was now blaming Elysia.
He felt uncomfortable.
He felt ashamed.
His pride had been wounded.
In the end, that was all.
Even though he was the one who had harmed others,
when he disliked the result, he pushed all the responsibility onto Elysia.
‘I really don’t like this.’
A very faint heat rose deep inside my chest.
It was a little different from foxfire.
A quiet but distinct anger.
I suppressed that emotion.
I could not step in directly here.
Defeating Richard would be easy.
But that would not be Elysia’s fight.
Right now, Richard was looking down on Elysia.
He believed Elysia had only won by chance because of me.
So.
‘You have to win again.’
I lowered myself atop Elysia’s head.
Richard’s sword drew near again.
This time, too, its trajectory was strange.
It pretended to aim for Elysia’s shoulder, then brushed past above.
It was a movement aimed at me.
Elysia gritted her teeth and raised her sword to block.
‘Clang!’
The impact traveled all the way up to my head.
Elysia’s breathing grew uneven.
“Haku has nothing to do with this.”
She spoke in a low voice.
“You’re angry because of me, aren’t you?”
“That’s right. Because of you.”
Richard clenched his teeth.
“Because you looked down on me.”
“I never looked down on you.”
“Then what was that, using that fox to laugh at me!”
‘I was never used.’
I was truly wronged.
But Elysia did not make excuses.
She adjusted her grip on her sword.
“Haku wasn’t laughing at you.”
“He wasn’t?”
“If that’s how you felt, it’s because you know you did something shameful yourself.”
For an instant, Richard’s face stiffened.
It had struck home.
And hitting where it hurt was the easiest way to make a person angry.
“Valerion!”
Richard rushed in violently.
His sword fell diagonally.
Elysia blocked it.
But she was pushed back by force.
Elysia’s aura had not yet been fully organized.
During today’s training, she had briefly grasped the sensation, but that did not mean it immediately became skill.
Moreover, she was fighting while protecting me.
That restricted her movements all the more.
‘This won’t do.’
I quietly drew in a breath.
Through Elysia’s hair, I let a very thin stream of spirit power flow into her.
It was like before, but a little different.
This time, my emotions were mixed in.
A very slight anger.
Displeasure toward one who had crossed the line.
And the wish that this child would no longer be pushed back.
A silver-pink energy flowed along the nape of Elysia’s neck.
Her shoulders.
Her arms.
Her wrists.
All the way to the fingertips gripping the sword.
Elysia’s body trembled ever so slightly.
“……?”
She caught her breath for an instant.
She must have felt it.
A sensation similar to the one during the mock duel, but a little hotter.
However, this was not anger that would swallow her.
It was a spark that gave direction to the flow.
‘Elysia.’
I did not speak aloud.
But the thread of resonance trembled ever so faintly.
‘Don’t just block.’
Elysia’s eyes changed.
Richard swung his sword again.
The same attack as before.
It seemed to be striking down from above, only to twist its trajectory at the end and try to graze me.
This time, Elysia did not step back.
One step.
She moved forward.
Before Richard’s sword had fully descended, Elysia’s sword slid to the side.
‘Scrape!’
Blade pushed against blade.
She had not blocked it.
She had deflected it.
Richard’s strength spilled into empty air.
“What—”
Before he could finish speaking, Elysia’s foot moved.
Her left foot stepped inward.
Her waist turned.
The tension in her shoulders loosened,
and the sword moved not as something forced by her hand, but riding the flow of her entire body.
I clearly felt that moment.
The aura tangled inside Elysia briefly connected into a single strand.
Rough, but straight.
There was anger mixed in, but she was not being swept away by it.
She placed her emotions upon her sword.
She was not dragged along by them.
She used them of her own will.
‘Yes.’
I narrowed my eyes.
‘That’s it.’
Elysia’s sword drove in shortly.
‘Thud!’
It was not the edge, but the back of the blade.
And not a vital point, but the inside of Richard’s arm.
Precisely between the wrist gripping the sword and the elbow.
The strength left Richard’s hand.
His sword wavered.
But Elysia did not stop.
A second movement.
With the tip of her sword, she lightly struck below the hilt of Richard’s sword.
‘Clatter!’
Richard’s sword fell to the floor.
In the very next instant, the tip of Elysia’s sword stopped in front of his throat.
It did not touch.
But it was enough.
If it moved just a little farther, it would be over.
It was a perfect victory.
The gallery fell silent.
Richard stood frozen, panting.
His eyes were filled with disbelief.
Elysia was also breathing hard.
But the tip of her sword did not waver.
From atop her head, I quietly exhaled.
‘Well done.’
This time as well, I had opened the path for her.
But the one who moved had been Elysia.
Not cutting Richard, avoiding his vital points,
and stopping the tip of her sword had all been her decisions.
Richard clenched his teeth.
“……Coward.”
Elysia’s brow moved ever so slightly.
“What?”
“That fox did something, didn’t it?”
Richard’s gaze turned toward me.
“Right? There’s no way you could have beaten me on your own.”
‘You’re still saying that?’
I no longer held back.
Just a little.
Truly, just a tiny bit.
I lifted my head.
And looked at Richard.
At that moment, the blood drained from Richard’s face.
I did nothing.
I did not kindle foxfire, nor did I reveal my tails.
I did not spread any pressure.
I merely met his eyes.
The eyes of a silver-pink baby fox.
On the surface, the eyes of a small, round animal.
But deep within them, for a fleeting moment, something else was reflected.
Old and ancient moonlight.
The darkness of the forest.
The gaze of a beast that had crossed countless years.
Richard’s throat stiffened.
Instinctively, he took one step back.
“You……”
I cried softly.
“Yip.”
It must have sounded like a noise with no particular meaning.
But Richard flinched.
I looked down at Richard with only one eye open.
‘Don’t do any more.’
That was enough.
I buried my face back into Elysia’s hair.
Elysia was silent for a moment, then lowered her sword.
“Richard.”
Her voice was calm.
But firmer than before.
“I’ll end today’s matter here.”
“……”
“But if you target Haku again,
or attack like this outside of class, I’ll report it to the professor.”
Richard could not answer.
Elysia paused for a beat, then continued.
“And let me make one thing clear.”
She looked straight at Richard.
“I didn’t beat you because of Haku.”
Richard’s expression twisted.
Elysia sheathed her sword.
“You lost because you were paying attention to Haku instead of looking at me.”
A brief silence settled over the corridor.
Those words were similar to what the instructor had said during the day.
The moment you become conscious of something other than your opponent, your sword is already too late.
Richard’s face flushed red, then turned pale again.
He picked up the sword that had fallen to the floor.
“……Just you wait.”
It was an old and obvious line.
But within it, there still remained a pride that had not yet been broken.
Richard did not attack again.
He shoved his sword roughly back in, glared once at Elysia, then disappeared toward the other end of the corridor.
His footsteps grew distant.
Click.
Click.
Before long, they could no longer be heard at all.
Only then did the tension leave Elysia’s shoulders.
“……Haa.”
She let out a long breath.
The hand gripping her sword was trembling ever so slightly.
I raised myself up atop her head.
‘Are you all right?’
Elysia looked down at her own hand for a moment.
Her emotions flowed faintly into me.
Anger.
Tension.
Relief.
And confusion.
The last emotion, in particular, was strong.
How her body had just moved—
it seemed even she did not fully understand it.
“Haku.”
Elysia called softly.
I twitched my ears.
“Just now, too…… you helped me, didn’t you?”
I did not answer.
More precisely, I could not answer.
“Kkiing.”
I don’t know.
I’m just a little fox who was sitting on your head.
Elysia tried to look up at me, then smiled faintly.
It was a tired smile.
“You’re pretending not to know again.”
‘Don’t notice that.’
I swayed my tail slightly.
Elysia did not press any further.
Instead, she carefully raised her hand and stroked my back once.
“Still, thank you.”
Her touch trembled a little more than before.
I stayed still for a moment, then touched the back of her hand with the tip of my tail.
It’s all right.
You did well.
I didn’t know whether that meaning had gotten through.
But Elysia’s emotions softened ever so slightly.
I let out a small sigh inwardly.
‘This thing called resonance is more troublesome than I thought.’
Now, even without words, things are conveyed to some extent.
Not perfectly.
But faintly, at least, they reach her.
That was dangerous.
At the same time, it wasn’t bad.
Elysia started walking again.