The weekend passed, and Monday morning dawned.
The door to the academy’s grand lecture hall, flooded with sunlight, opened, and Yustia walked in with a sterner expression than usual.
Her gaze was unfocused, as if staring at some point in midair.
“Hey.”
Just then, from the seat beside Yustia’s, Evan waved and greeted her.
“I prepared something incredible over the weekend. After reflecting bitterly on what happened with that Hell Hound last time, I practiced a new combination spell. You can look forward to the next battle. This time, I’ll definitely show you.”
But Yustia sat down without answering, merely fiddling with her bag.
At her silence—when she normally would have shot back—Evan tilted his head.
“……Did something happen? You don’t look so good.”
At Evan’s question, Yustia moved her lips for a moment, then carefully opened her mouth.
“Do you happen to know Ailex well?”
“Ailex?”
Evan’s eyes widened at the unexpected name.
“No. All I’ve seen of him is when he stood at the very front of the platform as top entrant during the entrance ceremony. Why Ailex all of a sudden?”
Yustia let out a short sigh and began explaining what had happened in the library over the weekend.
How Ailex had appeared without warning, set up a barrier, and ambushed Taesan; the one-sided battle that had broken out after he mistook Yurika for her; and their helpless defeat before the Leviathan, which possessed deep-sea scale skin that nullified physical attacks.
As Evan listened, the light in his eyes gradually sank.
“Imperial…? Those people again?”
Displeasure was plain on Evan’s face.
His brow furrowed, and a low voice slipped out.
“They’re targeting me.”
Yustia muttered softly, her gaze lowered to the desk.
Her fingertips toyed with the corner of her textbook.
“Then shouldn’t you be going around with Mr. Taesan?”
Evan leaned forward, bracing himself against the desk.
“He isn’t inside your summoning circle, is he? If they suddenly pick a fight, it’ll be hard to deal with them with the summoned beasts you have right now.”
“Surely… no matter what, there aren’t that many ways to openly start trouble inside the academy.”
Yustia shook her head, her words trailing off.
But there was no certainty in her voice.
When she recalled how Ailex had set up a barrier in the middle of the library without the slightest hesitation and forced a battle, the academy’s rules might not be enough of a shield to stop their arrogance.
Evan crossed his arms and stared out the window.
The monstrous strength Taesan had shown in the previous fight against the Hell Hound was certainly beyond common sense.
But against deep-sea scale skin, where physical blows themselves did not work, the problem could not be solved by sheer strength alone.
“Those guys might not stop at simply looking down on you.”
Evan turned his gaze and looked Yustia straight in the eye.
“The moment you publicly declared that you wouldn’t join Imperial, you became their enemy. This could be a scheme to trample a sprout that’s become an eyesore before it grows.”
Yustia’s lips pressed into a firm line.
Evan’s words had touched the deep unease within her.
***
After the morning lecture ended, the corridor outside the grand lecture hall was full of energy.
Sunlight stretched long through the windows, dyeing the dust motes gold.
Yustia was carefully pushing Evan’s wheelchair through the crowd.
“Move aside!”
Just then, a sharp, arrogant voice cut through the air.
In the middle of the corridor, Imperial students dressed in full uniforms lined up like a folding screen, as if intent on drawing everyone’s attention, completely blocking the passage.
At their center stood a familiar face—Lucian of the Chartur family—wearing a thin, sneering smile.
Behind him was a high-grade summoned beast in the shape of a gigantic snake.
The Basilisk’s shadow writhed.
“Rosenhart! You really are dragging your family down to the dirt!”
Lucian’s shout rang through the entire corridor.
The passing students all stopped in their tracks, their gazes gathering.
As if enjoying those stares, Lucian raised his chin and stroked the Basilisk’s scales.
“To think you’d associate with some special admission who sullies the academy’s honor. Where has Rosenhart’s pride gone? Or was that pathetic human summoned beast not enough, so now you’ve decided to look after a cripple too?”
Evan’s expression hardened in an instant.
The sound of him gripping the wheelchair handle tightly could be heard.
Yustia let go of the wheelchair handles and slowly stepped forward.
She let out a short sigh and looked coldly at Lucian and the group of Imperial Guardians.
“Ha… I see. So this is how you’re going to do it.”
Yustia’s voice had sunk coldly.
“You’re going to drag my family’s honor and my friend into this? A mere Chartur dares… Do you really think you have the right to talk about Rosenhart’s honor?”
Yustia’s eyes grew cold.
Her gaze swept over Lucian’s ornate uniform, not bothering to hide her contempt.
“Hold back, Yustia.”
Evan urgently reached out from his wheelchair and grabbed Yustia’s sleeve.
But she lightly shook off Evan’s hand and took another step forward.
“I’m right, aren’t I? You’re a freshman who didn’t even have the ability to enter the academy, barely slipping into the special class on the strength of your family’s backing.”
Conscious of the eyes around him, Lucian raised his voice as much as he could.
“You do know I have the Badge of Flame, don’t you?”
Yustia’s chilling voice cut through the commotion in the corridor.
The badge bearing a red flame pattern on her chest shone vividly in the sunlight.
“You must have used that fine family of yours to get it too.”
Lucian snorted and shrugged.
“Do you think that makes any sense?”
“There’s no reason it couldn’t.”
Lucian’s eyes flashed like a snake’s.
Behind him, the Basilisk hissed and twisted its enormous body.
“Then prove it. Prove whether you and that oh-so-great human summoned beast of yours have the right to be in this academy.”
“What? Ha… I get it. Why, did they say they’d let you into Imperial if you humiliated me like this? That’s just like the Chartur family. Your habit of being unable to do anything without someone else’s help hasn’t changed at all.”
At Yustia’s cold provocation, Lucian’s face flushed red in an instant.
“Watch your mouth, Rosenhart! You seem to think your family will protect you forever, but I’ll expose every bit of your flimsy foundation right here!”
“Foundation? You, who couldn’t even earn a single badge and only chase after others, dare talk about my foundation?”
At the tense standoff between the two, the corridor fell dead silent in an instant.
Students seeking a spectacle gathered like a swarm of clouds, forming a circular wall.
The crowd was so dense it was hard to even breathe loudly.
A perfect encirclement had formed, one that made escape impossible even if they tried.
“Bring out that proud human summoned beast of yours right now. I’ll show you all, clearly, how my Basilisk chews that piece of trash to bits right here!”
At Lucian’s shout, Yustia’s brow furrowed.
There was no way to call Taesan right now.
Just as she bit her lip and took one step back—
“Wait.”
Evan rolled his wheelchair forward and placed himself in front of Yustia.
He reached a hand behind him, lightly grasped the hem of Yustia’s clothes, and whispered in an earnest voice.
‘Hurry and use Whisper to send a message to Mr. Taesan. I’ll buy time.’
Yustia looked down at Evan in surprise, but he had already turned his gaze and was staring straight at Lucian.
“Hey. Wait a second. Isn’t this a little unfair? Yustia obtained the Badge of Flame through her own power. In the very first week, no less. But what about you? You haven’t proven a single qualification, and you just want to steal that honor, don’t you?”
At Evan’s calm observation, Lucian’s face twisted hideously.
“Shut your mouth. Some bastard from a nameless family dares flap his tongue here? Know your place, you special admission cripple!”
“I’m saying let’s be fair. I mean I’ll first confirm whether you have the right to challenge Yustia.”
Evan’s eyes were steady and unwavering.
Though he was looking up from his wheelchair, his presence was by no means inferior to Lucian’s.
“Ha… unbelievable. Here’s another one who doesn’t know his place.”
Lucian let out a hollow laugh and took a step back.
He shrugged and looked down at Evan arrogantly.
“Fine. Someone like you can be trampled easily enough without the Basilisk. I’ll smash you together with that wheelchair.”
As Evan and Lucian faced off, a third-year senior belonging to Imperial, who had been watching the situation from behind with his arms crossed, stepped forward.
“It would be troublesome if the hot-bloodedness of freshmen ended up destroying the building, so we seniors will serve as referees.”
An arrogant smile hovered on his face, as if he had found an amusing spectacle.
He began drawing a complex magic circle in midair.
“Field deployment.”
With the short chant, a massive pillar of light shot up from the marble floor of the corridor and swallowed the surrounding space.
The battle field that formed in an instant was strangely dry and desolate.
A barren wasteland of cracked earth and sharp rocks jutting upward.
It was an environment thoroughly advantageous to Lucian, optimized for the Basilisk to move freely and hide itself.
“Now then, let’s see what that meager skill of yours amounts to.”
Lucian strode across the dry earth.
Behind him, the enormous Basilisk made a sharp scraping sound as it slipped into the gaps between the rocks.
Evan carefully entered the field, rolling the wheels of his wheelchair.
His eyes calmly examined the surrounding terrain.
Yustia hurriedly hid herself behind the crowd.
Her heart pounded anxiously.
She took a small feather ornament from the inside pocket of her jacket and recited a short spell.
“Wind Whisper, please. As fast as you can.”
A faint wind swirled at her fingertips, and Wind Whisper revealed itself.
Yustia stroked Whisper’s soft head and whispered urgently.
“Deliver this message to Mr. Taesan in the dormitory right now.”
As Whisper moved its sharp beak, Yustia’s lips moved quickly.
“Mr. Taesan, please come to the central corridor in front of the grand lecture hall immediately. Evan is in danger.”
When Yustia finished speaking and let go, Whisper cut through the air like a streak of wind and flew out the window in an instant.