Iris looked at me for a moment, then moved the corners of her mouth ever so faintly.
Was that a smile?
“I’ll take that to mean you won’t answer.”
‘Why is your understanding so accurate?’
I despaired inwardly.
Deceiving this girl was far harder than I’d thought.
Elysia spoke cautiously.
“Lady Iris. That question is difficult to answer right now.”
“I know. That is why I won’t ask further.”
Iris withdrew cleanly.
But her face looked as though that had already been enough.
It seemed she had gained something from that brief silence alone.
I became certain once again.
Iris Asteria was truly dangerous.
Not in the sense that she meant to harm me.
But in the sense that she was someone who could read answers from silence, even when I said nothing at all.
Just then, the bell announcing the start of class rang from the end of the corridor.
Iris gathered her documents again and bowed her head.
“Then I will coordinate the formal schedule through the Star Radiance Council and the Department of Special Familiar Studies.
Since it is exam period, we will ensure it does not burden Haku or Student Elysia.”
“Understood.”
Elysia answered.
Iris looked at me one last time.
“Haku.”
I reluctantly looked at her.
“I do not intend to immediately uncover what you are.”
Those words were a little unexpected.
Iris continued calmly.
“I simply want to prevent, at the very least, an incorrect classification before people begin misinterpreting the phenomena occurring around you.”
I blinked.
“An attunement level of 101 will certainly draw people in.
Simple curiosity, cuteness, worship, fear, utility. Many interpretations will attach themselves to it.”
Her turquoise eyes turned quietly toward me.
“Some of them will be harmful to you.”
At those words, I couldn’t react for a moment.
Iris was a researcher.
She was deeply curious, and she tried to classify me.
But what she had just said wasn’t simple curiosity alone.
She wanted to prevent mistaken interpretations.
That had a slightly different meaning.
After hearing those words, Elysia’s expression softened a little as well.
“……Does that mean it could help protect Haku?”
“It could.”
Iris answered honestly.
“Of course, I am curious as well. I won’t deny that.”
That, if anything, made her more trustworthy.
“But I have no intention of treating Haku as a test subject.”
I looked at Iris.
She was still cold and composed.
But she didn’t seem to be lying.
I gave a very small nod.
This time, it was less gratitude than acknowledgment.
Seeing my reaction, Iris quietly bowed her head.
“Then I will be going before I am late to class.”
Her silver-blue hair swayed, and Iris walked toward the opposite end of the corridor.
Even after her figure disappeared, Elysia stood there for a while.
“Haku.”
‘Hm?’
“Lady Iris…… doesn’t seem as bad a person as I thought.”
I thought about it for a moment.
She wasn’t a bad person.
I agreed with that too.
‘But even if she’s a good person, she’s a troublesome one.’
I nodded slightly, then immediately rubbed my face with my forepaw.
Seeing that, Elysia let out a small laugh.
“Right. She is troublesome.”
I nodded with all my heart.
And so, thanks to the Star Radiance Council’s swift response, the attunement level 101 incident seemed to pass without causing a major commotion.
But it was not completely over.
The Star Radiance Council suppressed the rumors.
The faculty put the records on hold.
The students began focusing on the Crown Exam again.
But Iris Asteria alone did not miss the meaning hidden behind that number.
And I vaguely sensed it.
That attunement level 101 was not the end, but the beginning.
What I was in this world.
Why my attunement with Elysia was so deep.
Why the spirits treated me with such respect.
All those questions were now slowly beginning to rise to the surface.
A few days later, the results of the Crown Exam were announced.
From the morning onward, the academy was strangely restless.
Normally, rumors of all kinds would have been circulating—
the Haku badge contest,
preparations for the Star Radiance Festival, attunement level 101, and so on—but that day was different.
The attention of every student was fixed on a single central bulletin board.
The results of the first Crown Exam.
The first official evaluation, combining the basic lessons, practical skills, duels, aura control,
familiar attunement, professor evaluations, conduct, and self-control from the first month after enrollment.
Those results were being announced today.
Elysia spoke less than usual.
Outwardly, she looked calm, but I could feel that her fingertips had grown slightly cold.
I quietly lifted my head from Elysia’s arms.
‘It’ll be all right.’
That was what I wanted to say, but I was still a baby fox who couldn’t speak.
So instead, I tapped her wrist with my forepaw.
Elysia looked down at me.
She stared at me for a moment, then smiled faintly.
When we arrived at the central bulletin board, students were already gathered densely around it.
Some cheered, some lowered their heads,
and some stared blankly as they checked their names again.
A single Crown did not decide everything.
But to the students, their first Crown was undoubtedly special.
It was the first moment their position within the academy was officially revealed.
Elysia slowly approached the bulletin board.
The students recognized her and gradually made way.
“It’s Lady Valerion.”
“She must be here to check her results.”
“Haku’s here too.”
Those gazes gathered on Elysia and me.
I sighed inwardly.
It seemed checking quietly was out of the question after all.
Elysia stopped in front of the bulletin board.
Then she began searching for her name.
Department of Magic Knights, First Year, Class A.
Below that, the students’ names and their first Crown ranks were listed in order.
Elysia’s gaze slowly moved downward.
And at a certain point, it stopped.
I also straightened myself in Elysia’s arms and looked at the bulletin board.
There, it was clearly written.
Elysia von Valerion — Double Crown
Wait.
I blinked.
It was the same when I looked again.
It wasn’t a Single Crown.
It was a Double Crown.
‘……Huh?’
It was higher than expected.
Of course, Elysia had worked hard.
She had endured until the end in the swordsmanship practical, and she had completed her aura control with stability.
In the mock duel as well, she had not overextended herself and had shown the best judgment she was capable of.
And on top of that, the familiar attunement evaluation.
Since an absurd number like an attunement level of 101 had come out, it would have been difficult for the faculty to simply overlook it.
But even so, a Double Crown on the first exam?
I looked up at Elysia.
Elysia couldn’t say a word.
Her eyes were slightly widened in surprise, and she simply stared at the rank written beside her name.
The surrounding students soon noticed it as well.
“Double Crown?”
“Lady Valerion got that on the first exam?”
“As expected of a Valerion……”
“No, but didn’t they say her aura control was unstable in the beginning?”
“Still, I heard her duel evaluation and familiar attunement were amazing.”
“Is it because of Haku’s attunement?”
At those words, I slightly folded my ears.
Now they were talking about me again.
But this time, it was hard to deny it completely.
The greatest reason Elysia had received this result was her own effort.
But it was also true that I had been by her side.
I had gradually eased the flow of her aura,
and the familiar attunement evaluation had surpassed the academy’s standards.
All of it had combined to produce the result known as a Double Crown.
Elysia slowly inhaled.
Then she murmured very softly.
“……Double Crown.”
Her voice sounded as if she couldn’t believe it.
I carefully wagged my tail in her arms.
‘You did well.’
Perhaps Elysia felt my movement, because she looked down at me.
At first, her face was blank.
Then, soon after, the corners of her eyes reddened slightly.
“Haku.”
“I…… got a Double Crown.”
I nodded with all my might.
I know.
I saw.
And I know how hard you worked for it.
Elysia couldn’t continue speaking for a while.
Whether she was happy, surprised, or relieved, I couldn’t tell exactly.
It was probably all of them.
The pressure of the Valerion name.
The anxiety of her tangled aura.
The doubt over whether she truly had the right to hold a sword.
All of those things may have become just a little lighter in this moment.
Just then, a familiar voice came from beside us.
“Congratulations, Lady Valerion.”
It was Cecilia.
The Star Radiance Council president was standing beside the bulletin board before we knew it.
Her silver-brown hair was neatly tied, and her gaze was calm.
As always, she looked utterly composed.
Elysia hurriedly bowed her head.
“President Cecilia.”
Cecilia smiled gently.
“A Double Crown on the first Crown Exam is an excellent result.
I heard your familiar attunement and crisis response evaluations were especially high.”
I flinched for an instant.
Of course that topic wouldn’t be left out.
Cecilia’s gaze turned to me.
“Of course, Haku’s presence must have had no small influence as well.”
I tilted my head, pretending not to know anything.
I’m just a fox.
I know nothing.
Seeing my reaction, Cecilia smiled ever so faintly.
“……I will not record it today.”
Thank goodness.
Truly, thank goodness.
Beside her, Leonhardt Graham nodded.
“A Double Crown as the first evaluation among first-years in the Department of Magic Knights is uncommon.
There will be even more eyes on you from now on.”
At those words, Elysia’s expression stiffened slightly.
But Leonhardt soon added,
“However, there is no need to feel too burdened.
This result is not proof of completion, but closer to an acknowledgment of potential.”
Those words were fairly good.
I inwardly raised my evaluation of Leonhardt a little.
A sensible senior.
Definitely.
Oscar Wald was nearby as well.
He spoke briefly.
“The matter with Richard is being handled separately. Today, focus on your results.”
His tone made it hard to tell whether that was congratulation or a report, but it seemed like consideration in its own way.
Elysia quietly bowed her head.
“Thank you.”
Mariette, naturally, was holding a pen.
She was writing something while looking at Elysia and me, then flinched when she felt my gaze.
I narrowed my eyes.
Don’t write it down.
Mariette hesitated for a moment, then said quietly,
“Haku, meaningful tail wagging after confirming Double Crown result…… will be kept only as a personal note, not an official record……”
Don’t even make it a personal note.
I flattened my ears.
Elysia finally couldn’t hold back and let out a small laugh.
That laugh was gentle, as though the tension of the past few days had melted away.
After classes ended that day, Elysia was a little quieter than usual.
But that silence was not an anxious silence.
It was the silence of slowly accepting something.