Then she answered more casually than I expected.
“I’m eighteen.”
‘Eighteen?’
“Yeah. I became an adult this year.”
At those words, I froze for a moment.
An adult.
Was eighteen considered adulthood in this world?
Perhaps Elysia found my reaction a little unexpected, because she tilted her head slightly.
“What’s wrong? Is that strange?”
‘No, it’s just… since you’re an academy student, I thought you’d be a little younger.’
Only then did Elysia seem to understand what I had been confused about.
“Ah, I guess the name could make it feel that way.”
I quietly nodded.
That was certainly true.
They wore uniforms, were divided into classes, had morning and afternoon lessons, and even had student organizations like the Seonghwi Council.
At a glance, it could feel like a school attended by young students.
But in reality, it was different.
The students who entered this place were already adults.
It was a place they entered after receiving basic education from their families, and after deciding, at least to some extent, on their status and future path.
A higher education institution where they learned swordsmanship, magic, magical engineering, familiar research, social etiquette, politics, and even administrative sense.
Rather than a school that simply taught children,
it was closer to a specialized educational institution where adults seriously prepared for their respective paths.
‘So this place is… less like an ordinary school and more like an institution of higher education.’
“Yeah. You can think of it that way.”
Elysia nodded.
“Before entering Excelia, most people learn as much as they can from their families.
Etiquette, basic culture, family history, and the fundamentals of swordsmanship or magic.
Scholarship students from commoner backgrounds also receive basic education at local preparatory institutions, guilds, churches, or private schools before coming here.”
As I listened to her, I thought back to the people around us.
The students here were certainly young.
But they were not entirely children.
Some had come as representatives of their families.
Some aimed to become knights, mages, researchers, or administrators.
Some already bore their own names and responsibilities to a certain degree.
Excelia Academy was a place where such people gathered to refine their talents and establish their positions.
‘Then did you learn swordsmanship even before enrolling, Elysia?’
“Yeah. As someone born into Valerion, taking up a sword was only natural from a very young age.”
Elysia spoke calmly.
But there was a faint weight within her voice.
“Of course, once you enter Excelia, what you learned from your family isn’t enough.
You learn alongside people from other families, with different methods and different talents. That’s what makes it difficult, too.”
‘…And that’s why it matters even more.’
“Yeah. The evaluations we receive here affect our future paths as well.”
I slowly curled my tail around myself.
I felt like I was beginning to understand.
Excelia Academy was not simply a place where people attended classes.
For nobles, it was a place to prove their family’s expectations and honor.
For commoners, it was a place of opportunity where they could surpass their status and limitations through their own ability.
And for Elysia,
it was a stage where, under the name of Valerion, she had to prove what kind of sword she could become.
‘Then the academy isn’t a place that teaches everything from the basics.’
“Yeah. It doesn’t teach completely from scratch.
Of course, each department has basic classes, but those are meant to bring everyone up to the same standard.
Excelia is closer to a place where students who have already become adults come to prove their future paths
and climb to a higher level.”
I quietly perked up my ears.
Now that I heard it, many things began to fall into place.
The fact that the Seonghwi Council was far too political to be a simple student council.
The fact that the Crown system was a way of evaluating students as future talents of the empire.
The fact that Elysia felt burdened because of the Valerion name.
The fact that Richard’s actions were not merely childish pranks, but matters that could lead to family honor and disciplinary issues.
All of it was because the students here were already treated as adults.
‘Then Elysia is already an adult too…’
I looked up at Elysia without thinking.
Sitting there in comfortable indoor clothes instead of her academy uniform, Elysia certainly was not a child.
Her blue-gold eyes still trembled uneasily at times, but within them was the sense of responsibility and maturity befitting the daughter of a ducal house.
And I…
I was currently a fox cub.
But inside, I was a man with memories of a previous life.
The moment my thoughts reached that point, my mind became strangely complicated.
Right now, my thoughts were only transmitted to Elysia very faintly.
I couldn’t speak properly, and what reached her was limited to emotions or brief intentions.
But what about when I regained my power someday?
My intent might be transmitted more clearly.
Or perhaps I might speak in a female form.
But the voice would undoubtedly be a woman’s voice.
In the appearance of that peerless beauty, with silver-pink hair and fox ears,
I would probably speak while giving off an elegant and mysterious air.
Inwardly, I broke out into a quiet cold sweat.
‘…Then when am I supposed to tell her I’m a man?’
That was the biggest problem.
I was a man.
I had been a man in the modern world, and even now, my self-perception was male.
Whether my body had become a fox, or whether I later became Hakua, that peerless beauty of a transformation, that fact would not change.
But when should I tell Elysia that?
Now?
No.
Even if I said it now, it would not be conveyed properly.
And even if I somehow managed to transmit it, I had no idea how much Elysia would understand.
Besides.
I had already made a huge mistake during the bath a few days ago.
To be precise, rather than a mistake, it was closer to something unavoidable that happened while Elysia was washing me and ended up seeing various things.
Even so, from my perspective, it was a problem.
If I suddenly said now, “Actually, I’m a man”?
…That would be the worst.
Truly the worst.
Just imagining it made my ears droop.
Seeing me like that, Elysia asked in puzzlement.
“Haku?”
‘It’s nothing.’
“Really?”
I hurriedly nodded.
I absolutely could not say it now.
No matter how I thought about it, this was something for much, much later.
After a truly long time had passed, after Elysia and I had grown much closer, and after I became able to properly explain who I was.
And once I could clearly say it with my own mouth, whether in Hakua’s form or my original handsome young man’s form.
That was when I should tell her.
If I clumsily conveyed it through resonance like now, it would only create bigger misunderstandings.
‘Yeah. This is for later. Much later.’
That was the conclusion I reached.
Elysia was still looking at me.
“What are you thinking about so deeply?”
After hesitating for a moment, I conveyed only the safest thought.
‘I was thinking the academy is more complicated than I expected.’
“That’s true.”
Elysia smiled faintly.
“I’m still not used to everything either. What I learned in my family and actual academy life are different.”
‘You said you learned a lot from your family.’
“I did. But facing things directly is different.
Classes, the Seonghwi Council, the Crown system… and familiars like you, Haku.”
At those last words, my ears twitched slightly.
‘There probably aren’t any other familiars like me.’
Elysia lightly covered her mouth as if holding back a laugh.
“Yeah. I don’t think there are.”
You’re not denying it.
For no particular reason, I rested my chin on the cushion.
Elysia picked up her pen again.
Then, as if something had just occurred to her, she added,
“And Haku, asking someone’s age isn’t that great of a discourtesy.
Of course, you have to be careful at social gatherings, but between us, it’s fine.”
‘Between us.’
Those words lingered strangely in my ears.
Between us.
Master and familiar.
A relationship that had only been registered, without a formal contract yet.
But our resonance level was 101, and our thoughts could pass between us little by little.
It was already too strange to call us a simple familiar and master.
And someday, I would have to tell this girl.
That I was not an ordinary fox.
That the original owner of this body might have been someone else.
And even that I had actually been a man.
The more I thought about it, the more my head hurt.
In the end, I lightly covered my face with my tail.
‘…Let’s only think this far today.’
“Are you sleepy?”
‘Yeah.’
“Then rest. Tomorrow, let’s continue searching in the library.”
Elysia rose from her seat and moved my cushion a little closer to the bed.
Then she lightly draped a thin cloth over my body.
The gesture was so natural that I could not say anything for a while.
It was a little frightening to realize I was growing used to being cared for as a small fox.
But at the same time,
it was not bad.
I closed my eyes beneath the cloth.
Excelia Academy was different from the school I had imagined.
The students here were already adults, and each had come here carrying their family, future path, and responsibilities.
If that was the case, then I could not keep acting forever like a fox cub who knew nothing.
My identity.
The contract.
And the fact that I was a man.
Someday, I would have to tell her everything.
But not yet.
For now, I felt it would be all right to learn a little more about this world by Elysia’s side.
Even after the room grew quiet, I could not fall asleep easily.
Elysia was organizing the notebook she had spread open on her desk.
The contents related to familiar contracts that we had confirmed in the library were written there in neat rows.
General familiar contracts.
Resonance level.
Mental connection.
Partial sharing of vitality.
A sentence stating that a contract with a high-ranking entity should be closer to mutual approval than obedience.
As I lay curled up on the cushion, a thought suddenly came to me.
‘Now that I think about it…’
If Elysia and I were to form a formal contract.
Wouldn’t the tangled flow of aura within Elysia naturally loosen, even if I did not consciously pour demonic power into her like I did now?
Right now, I was sending her very small amounts of power whenever necessary.
When Elysia held her sword, when her breathing went awry, when the aura inside her body tried to collide with itself.
Each time, I carefully stirred my demonic power.
But that was, in the end, nothing more than a stopgap measure.
I was merely nudging the tangled flow inside Elysia from the outside.
Like opening a small waterway beside a river that had taken the wrong course.
But if a formal contract stabilized the resonance between us further,
my demonic power might become not a force shoved into her, but a path Elysia could follow on her own.
Slowly.
Naturally.
As time passed.
‘Even if I don’t keep sending it into her, the contract itself might become a path.’
Of course, the opposite could also be dangerous.
My power was neither mana nor aura.
It was demonic power.
And not the power of an ordinary fox, but the power welling up from within the body of an ancient nine-tailed fox.
If we were connected incorrectly, it might burden Elysia.
Or perhaps ancient memories sleeping within me, or something whose identity I still did not know, might flow through the resonance.
At that thought, I lowered my ears slightly.
‘I really shouldn’t decide this recklessly.’
It was not a problem I could solve by worrying about it alone.