The next morning.
The intense afterglow of Lumina Felicium, which had raged the previous night as if it would swallow the training grounds whole, had fallen still, as though washed away by the cool dawn air.
But the scenery of the academy campus beyond the window frame had changed noticeably from yesterday.
From the direction of the main building came the distant clatter of carriage hooves and the murmur of people.
Lowell instinctively understood the source of that noise.
At last, the academy’s clock had begun to turn without pause.
The true main players were returning to the stage.
The academy’s academic schedule was a brutally harsh series of selections for new students.
Even first-years who had broken through the hellish entrance exam were not granted formal admission unless they overcame the great wall that followed immediately afterward: the class placement exam.
Cases like Lowell’s, who had entered without an exam through family background or special admission, were no exception.
Until every class assignment was completed and student numbers were issued, they were not recognized as official members of the academy and had to wait outside the boundary.
Only after passing through all those merciless gateways could they finally wear the title of Magica Academy student on their chest and set foot in the academy.
Lowell suddenly recalled the dangerous woman who had occupied his sofa last night.
Lumina Felicium.
The reason she had been able to come all the way here at that hour yesterday was because the class placement exam had ended.
Not as the owner of a trading company, but as a student.
The long and arduous class placement exams for the first-years must have all concluded yesterday.
The moment she was freed from the shackles of the exam, she had come running here as if she had been waiting for it, and tested him.
And behind that razor-edged selection process were the third-years.
During the new students’ exam period, they assisted the professors and accumulated practical scores, serving as a kind of teaching assistant.
Now that the fate of the first-years had been decided, the third-years, having finished acting as the professors’ hands and feet, were also making their grand returns to their respective academic buildings.
The dormitories, training halls, and cafeterias that had stood empty would soon be filled with the heat and noise exuded by thousands of students.
The campus, where only silence had lingered, was now ready to regain its original appearance—orderly, yet bustling.
But to Lowell, this noisy vitality was by no means a welcome sight.
If anything, it meant that a whole host of new worries had appeared.
The first thing that crossed Lowell’s mind was the returning third-years.
They were living witnesses who had personally experienced just how arrogant and unruly Lowell von Adrian had been in the past, as well as victims directly exposed to his notoriety.
There was no way they could know how much Lowell had changed during the short time they were away from the academy, so to them, Lowell was still either garbage not worth associating with, or someone to be stomped on in the name of justice if the opportunity arose.
In other words, thousands of loaded prejudices were now simply waiting to be fired at him all at once.
And if, on top of that, the first-year main characters—each possessing warped personalities and dangerous backgrounds like Lumina yesterday—joined in, the situation would spiral into the worst possible direction.
Lowell was already on the verge of his head bursting from trying to deal with his own course of action, which had completely deviated from the original work, as well as Celestia’s and Chloe’s. Now, a swarm of unpredictable variables that would render even his knowledge of the original useless was descending upon him.
Lowell pressed a hand to his throbbing temple and let out a deep sigh.
The bizarre conduct he had already shown in his duel with Chloe and his strange companionship with Celestia had put the knowledge of the original that Lowell possessed in jeopardy.
But soon, Lowell shook his head as if casting off those complicated thoughts. In truth, he was someone who acted faster than anyone.
If he thought back to when he first fell into this game world, the worries he was facing now were close to a luxury.
From the protagonist’s condition, which had changed so much that it felt alien compared to the original, to the inexplicably tangled connection with Celestia from the very beginning, and even the duel with Chloe that he had been forced to fight with his life on the line because of that connection.
Looking back on the days he had passed through, the situation had always been the worst, and not a single moment had been smooth.
And yet Lowell had somehow broken through every one of those seemingly impossible hardships head-on.
Yes. Nothing had been easy from the start.
So what if the situation got worse?
The fact remained that he was struggling to avoid the destruction already scheduled for him.
Lowell calmed his trembling hand and clenched his fist tightly.
Even if hundreds of prejudices and unpredictable main characters came crashing down on him, what he had to do was clear.
Just as he had done until now, he would simply do what he could, silently and with brutal perfection.
Lowell pulled himself away from the window frame and stretched lightly.
There was tension in the air like the eve of a storm, but for that very reason, his daily routine had to remain firm.
As Lowell ran across the academy campus, cutting through the morning air, another now-familiar shadow had joined him at his side.
Chloe, who had once looked at him as if he were an insect, was now matching his stride as if it were only natural and sweating alongside him.
When training ended and he entered the lecture hall, he sat beside Celestia, who waited there with her violet eyes shining, and attended class together with her.
The time spent exchanging flawless notes and sharp magical insights was the most productive moment for Lowell.
When the day’s schedule ended, a meal personally prepared by Celestia or Chloe awaited him, and Lowell never forgot to express his sincere gratitude for their efforts each time he put the food into his mouth.
After finishing his meal, Lowell caught his breath for a moment, then walked down the corridor to help Professor Glayton with his research.
On the way to the Bartholomew Training Grounds, an unnatural air lingered in the passage that would normally have been quiet.
Someone was leaning against the window along the long corridor.
It was a completely different appearance from the one she had shown last night, when she had lain barefoot on his sofa with a languid smile. Now, she was neatly dressed in the academy uniform.
The woman waiting for Lowell with her black hair tidily arranged slowly turned her head.
“Good afternoon, Senior Lowell.”
Her eyes, not concealing the crimson hue from last night, narrowed like those of a cat that had found its prey.
It was their first meeting with her not as the owner of the Chronos Lumina Trading Company, but as Lumina, a first-year student.
Lowell stopped walking.
He had certainly expected their next meeting to be a formal business occasion, but once again, as if mocking that expectation, she appeared right in the middle of his daily life.
“Surely... you haven’t already forgotten me, have you?”
As if savoring the bewilderment in Lowell’s eyes, Lumina approached without hesitation and naturally linked her arm with his.
At the sweet yet chilling fragrance that slipped in all at once, Lowell’s thoughts stopped for a moment.
The languid predator he had seen in the darkness of the training grounds last night was nowhere to be found. Right now, she wore only the mask of an ordinary, affable junior.
“Lumina, what is this—”
“........You know Lowell?”
At that moment, a voice laced with cold frost cut in from beside him.
It was Celestia, who had been walking with him as neatly composed as ever.
Her violet eyes were fixed on the unfamiliar first-year’s linked arm, trembling ever so slightly.
She was trying to maintain her usual cool-headedness, but her expression clearly showed her bewilderment at the fact that this sudden intruder had encroached upon Lowell.
Just as Lowell opened his mouth to explain the situation, Lumina beat him to it.
She pulled Lowell’s arm even more tightly toward herself, pressing close, and gave Celestia a radiant smile—one that nevertheless contained a clear provocation.
“Oh my... I wondered who you were. You must be the famous Senior Celestia.”
“......You didn’t answer my question. What is your relationship with Lowell?”
Celestia’s voice sank even lower.
The students passing nearby sensed the ominous atmosphere and began stopping one by one.
Lumina leisurely rested her head lightly against Lowell’s shoulder and delivered an answer no different from a bomb.
“Relationship... That sounds a little stiff. Hmm, we’re the sort of people who spent last night together?”
A chilly silence settled over the corridor.
The shocking remark that came from Lumina’s mouth silenced the surrounding students’ murmurs in an instant.
The statement that they had spent a night together was not something that could be taken lightly within the academy—no, within noble society.
“...???”
Celestia, who was usually as cold as ice, looked visibly flustered as she turned her gaze to Lowell.
As if she would not even give Lowell the chance to offer some shabby explanation, Lumina held his arm tightly and narrowed her eyes like a cat steeped in triumph.
Between the warmth of Lumina against his arm and Celestia’s burning gaze, Lowell felt with his entire body that the academy’s second act had begun far more spicily than expected.