Lucian’s final words followed him all the way to the end of the corridor.
“I heard you ran into Miss Armand on the stairs.”
Minjun replayed that sentence in his head. Once. Twice. The third time, he stopped.
*Heard.*
It meant he had gathered information. Not some rumor that had passively drifted into his ears, but something he had received as a report from someone or confirmed through a channel. The crown prince personally mentioning a rumor about a staircase encounter involving an academy freshman meant that rumor was not mere gossip.
Minjun stopped for a moment in front of the corridor window.
The afternoon sunlight had begun to slant. Beyond the window, he could see a few students in the courtyard. Faces whose names he did not know. Faces he had not yet determined were within Esther’s sphere of influence or not.
‘Lucian is keeping an eye on Chloe Armand.’
That fact had already been confirmed in this conversation. Lucian had brought up Chloe’s name first. He had mentioned the rumor about the staircase encounter. He knew the version of that rumor that included Chloe’s name.
‘Why?’
He had no knowledge from the original work. Minjun could not remember what role Lucian von Reisen had played in the original. He knew he was the crown prince. Beyond that was blank.
‘An unknown variable is watching Chloe.’
Minjun started walking again.
At the end of the corridor, the stairs appeared. They led downward. As Minjun descended, he reviewed how he should have answered Lucian’s final question.
He had not answered. The chapter had cut off there. The moment Lucian brought it up, the bell signaling the end of class had rung, and Minjun had used that opening to rise from his seat. Lucian had not stopped him. He likely had no reason to. Simply throwing out the question would have been enough.
‘People at the executive level don’t want answers. They want reactions.’
Minjun stopped at the bottom of the stairs.
Had he reacted? He had tried not to. He had maintained the Isabelle persona. He had not changed his expression. He had not quickened his steps.
‘That must have been reaction enough.’
Whether it had been enough or not would depend on how Lucian moved next.
---
Sylvia Lane was standing at the end of the corridor.
It was just as Minjun finished coming down the stairs. Sylvia was looking toward the window. Perhaps she heard Minjun approaching, because she turned her head.
There was a way Sylvia’s neckline lengthened when she turned her head. Something visible only from that angle. The line that ran from the neck revealed beneath her short hair down to her shoulder. The collar of her uniform opened at the neck, and the window light flowed along the curve of her throat. Depending on the angle at which the light fell, the depth of that line changed. Sylvia was not conscious of it. Minjun was. The fact that he was conscious of it was the problem.
“Miss Esther.”
Sylvia spoke first.
Minjun did not stop walking. He naturally slowed his pace in front of Sylvia.
“Miss Lane.”
“Do you have time after class?”
Minjun looked at Sylvia.
Sylvia Lane. A student who wore glasses. Her hair was short. Her expression was always calculating. It had been that way since Minjun first met her. Sylvia was an observer. And she was someone who accurately stated what she observed.
‘She said Miss Esther would not harm Miss Armand.’
Those words came back to him.
When Sylvia had said that, Minjun had thought it was an accurate observation. He still thought so. But having an accurate observer beside him was a problem.
“I do.”
Minjun said.
Sylvia nodded.
“Shall we go toward the library? It’s relatively quiet.”
---
The library was on the second floor of the main building. There were not many students at this hour. Since class had only just ended, most of them were moving toward the dining hall or the dormitories.
Sylvia chose a table by the window. It had two seats facing each other. Sylvia sat first. Minjun sat across from her.
Sylvia took a notebook out of her bag. Her wrist emerged from the end of her sleeve. It was slender. As she placed the notebook down on the table, the inside of her wrist was briefly exposed. It was an angle where he felt he could see where her pulse beat. Minjun knew his gaze had stopped there. He knew, and yet he did not stop. It was already too late to stop.
‘This is definitely the aftereffect of overwork. My concentration has dropped.’
Minjun looked at the notebook. Nothing was written on the cover. It was a new notebook.
“I wanted to speak with you about the group assignments for practical class.”
Sylvia said.
Minjun waited.
“According to what I confirmed, the group assignments will be announced tomorrow morning. The professor will assign them arbitrarily. It will not be based on student choice.”
“I see.”
“I said I would make sure Miss Esther and Miss Armand were not placed in the same group. I found a way.”
Minjun looked at Sylvia.
“What way?”
“It would be difficult to request it directly from the professor. However, there are criteria for assigning groups. They are often divided by attribute. Either students with the same attribute are placed in the same group, or different attributes are mixed together. It is usually one of those two methods.”
“Which method is being used for this class?”
“I could not confirm that.”
Sylvia answered honestly.
Minjun briefly examined that honesty. Sylvia said she did not know what she did not know. That, too, was a characteristic of an accurate observer.
“If I can know Miss Esther’s attribute, it will be possible to predict the group assignments.”
Sylvia said.
Minjun had expected those words to come.
‘Attribute.’
Lucian had asked the same question. This was the second time today.
“The Esther family does not publicly circulate information about attributes.”
Minjun said.
It was the same answer he had given Lucian. Sylvia heard it. She fell silent for a moment.
“I understand.”
Sylvia said.
She did not ask further. That bothered Minjun even more. Sylvia had not given up. She would try to confirm it through another method.
‘What happens if Sylvia figures out the attribute?’
She would learn it was the light attribute. She would learn it was the same attribute as Chloe’s. Minjun found it difficult to predict what calculation Sylvia would make after that.
“You said Chloe Armand was afraid.”
Minjun said.
Sylvia stopped.
“Does that fear affect class?”
Sylvia looked back at him. Her gaze was briefly different. It was as if she were recalculating something.
“It does.”
Sylvia said.
“How?”
“Chloe’s concentration drops when Miss Esther is in the same space.”
Minjun heard those words.
*Her concentration drops.*
*In other words, even if I do nothing, Isabelle’s very existence itself affects Chloe.*
Beyond the window, the afternoon was tilting away. Shadows lengthened across the grass. Before Sylvia rose from her seat, she placed a book on the table.
《Basic Magic Self-Diagnosis — A Guide for Beginners》
“It will be of use.”
Sylvia said, then turned away. In the motion of turning, her wrist slipped back into her sleeve. Just before it disappeared, the inside of it showed once more. Her footsteps receded toward the library exit.
Minjun looked at the book cover. The corners were worn. It was a book someone had read long ago. She had found it in advance for this conversation.
Minjun put the book into his bag and rose from his seat.
---
On the way back to the dormitory, he saw Chloe Armand.
It was on the path crossing the courtyard. Chloe was alone. She emerged from around the corner of a building. She did not seem to have noticed Minjun. She was walking with her head lowered.
The evening light slanted into the courtyard. It settled over Chloe’s short blond hair. The light took on an orange hue atop her hair. The strap of her school bag pressed down on one shoulder. Her opposite shoulder rose slightly in response to that weight. The line continuing beneath the shoulder seam followed that movement. That rhythm, repeated with each step. Chloe was not conscious of it. With her head lowered, the back of her neckline was revealed. The line that ran from the ends of her bob into the inside of her collar. The evening light rested on that line, then changed with her steps.
Minjun did not stop walking.
Chloe did not raise her head either. The two of them crossed paths in the courtyard. He could not confirm whether Chloe had recognized Minjun or not. He did not turn back to check.
*Her concentration drops.*
Sylvia’s words echoed again.
Minjun climbed the stairs in front of the dormitory building.
---
The room was quiet. Through the window, he could see the evening sky. There were no clouds. The sky was in the middle of changing from deep blue to orange.
Minjun placed his bag on the desk.
He took out the book.
《Basic Magic Self-Diagnosis — A Guide for Beginners》
He opened the first page.
There was a table of contents.
Chapter 1. Basic Concepts of Magic Affinity
Chapter 2. Attribute Classification and Characteristics
Chapter 3. Self-Diagnosis Methods — Sensation
He flipped to Chapter 2.
There was an entry for the light attribute. The explanation was two paragraphs long. Minjun read it. Then stopped.
*Those who possess the light attribute may produce a resonance reaction with others who possess the same attribute. Especially in the early stages of awakening, the reaction may manifest without the person themselves being aware of it.*
Chloe Armand had the light attribute.
Minjun closed the book.
Outside the window, the orange glow was completely disappearing. The evening sky darkened. The moment in the courtyard earlier, when light had settled over Chloe’s shoulder, came back to him. The fact that the color of that light had been orange. Whether it had been evening sunlight or something else, there was no way to confirm now.
‘If I don’t know, then I don’t know.’
Minjun put the book into the desk drawer.
The group assignments would be announced tomorrow. He had to confirm that first.