Hwaryeong, who had been paying close attention to the direction where a certain man sat and eavesdropping, suddenly burst into laughter.
“Pfft!”
“...Hwaryeong? Why are you laughing?”
When Isil, who was standing beside her, asked quietly with a puzzled look at her sudden laughter, Hwaryeong turned her head slightly and waved it off as if it were nothing.
Then, for some reason, she murmured softly in an amused tone.
“Hehe, so he wasn’t as frivolous a man as I thought.”
“...?”
At this distance, if she had been an ordinary human, Jin Frach’s words would have been drowned out by the noise of the others. But she was of the beastfolk.
And not just any beastfolk, but a specialist who had received systematic training to hone her senses since childhood.
To Hwaryeong’s ears, every single word spoken by Jin Frach and Rin Edenborough, who sat beside him, had been audible from beginning to end without so much as a syllable missed.
Including the moment when he finally could not hold back and snapped at Rin Edenborough with the true feelings he had been hiding.
“Hmm, it’s getting noisy. I expected as much, but it seems there are students dissatisfied with the selection of representative students for each faculty.”
Tap, tap.
In front of Hwaryeong, Headmaster Den Brown tapped his foot a couple of times and waved his hand as if troubled.
“If it’s this loud, my words won’t carry properly... Professor Ran.”
“Yes.”
Headmaster Den Brown glanced around briefly before beckoning Professor Ran from among the many professors standing behind him.
“Professor Ran, could you use your magic now?”
At Headmaster Den Brown’s request, Professor Ran looked at him with slight concern.
“I think it may still be too stimulating for the first-years. Will that be all right?”
“Well, I believe experiencing it in advance will be a good experience. Those students are now students of Academia, after all. Wouldn’t it be good for them to experience magic at some point in their lives?”
“If that is your decision, Headmaster, then understood.”
Seeing Professor Ran nod to Headmaster Den Brown, the other professors quickly covered both ears with their hands.
Then Professor Jan spoke to the representative students, who were staring blankly, unable to understand what was happening.
“Students? You should hurry and cover your ears as well.”
“Pardon?”
“Professor Ran’s magic makes the eardrums ring quite strongly. In particular, Student Hwaryeong, since you’re of the beastfolk and have sensitive hearing, I recommend you cover your ears tightly.”
Though the students found Professor Jan’s casual tone strange, they assumed there must be a reason and began covering their ears one by one.
“Mm, then I shall begin.”
Professor Ran confirmed that everyone around him had covered their ears, then drew a blackened rod from his robes.
The rod, seemingly made of wood, looked at first glance like an ordinary stick one might commonly find lying around in the mountains. Yet it gave off a scent like charcoal, as if it had been burned by something.
“...They are still first-years, so lightly.”
Swish!
Professor Ran slashed the rod he had drawn from top to bottom, as if imitating lightning striking down from the sky, and the magic was activated.
Flash!
Kwarururung!
A thunderbolt.
Lightning and thunder that punished a sinner who had incurred the wrath of the heavens were recreated by a gesture of Professor Ran’s hand.
“Aaah!”
“Uwaaah!”
“Guh!”
As a thunderclap that shook the earth swept violently through the auditorium along with a brilliant flash, several of the students sitting in their chairs screamed in surprise and collapsed.
“Tsk, tsk. Even from the Combat Faculty, a few of them were startled enough to fall over. It was only a bit of light and thunder, yet they’re far too timid.”
“Don’t be too harsh, Professor Jugin. It’s only natural for humans to be more startled when something unexpected happens, isn’t it?”
“Hah... It gives me a headache wondering how we’re supposed to raise those brats into useful talent, Professor Jan.”
“Turning even clumsy students into people who can pull their own weight—that is our job.”
The professors’ voices could be heard as they chatted among themselves, as if this scene were quite familiar to them.
Once the momentary flash and thunder ended, Hwaryeong relaxed the body she had reflexively tensed in preparation for an attack, then touched her ears with her hands to check them.
“...Mm, fortunately, it’s weaker than real lightning and thunder.”
“Of course, Student Hwaryeong. The magic I just used was a simplified reproduction, unlike real weather phenomena that occur in nature.”
At some point, Professor Ran had put the blackened rod back into his robes and approached her to check whether anything was wrong.
“Are you all right? For humans’ level of hearing, that amount of thunder causes no issues, but this is my first time using my magic when a member of the beastfolk was nearby.”
“...There is no problem, Professor Ran. In my case, I received training to hone my senses, so I have also thoroughly learned how to dull my senses as much as how to sharpen them.”
“Hmm, I see. In that case, that is a relief.”
Judging from Hwaryeong’s confident expression that she was fine, Professor Ran nodded and returned to the place where he had originally been standing.
As Professor Ran returned to his place, Headmaster Den Brown gestured a couple of times in thanks for his efforts, then opened his mouth toward the now-quiet students in the auditorium.
“Now we can resume the proceedings. Then, we shall continue with the entrance ceremony—”
“Excuse me!!”
“Mm?”
A voice rang out, stopping Headmaster Den Brown, who had been about to resume the entrance ceremony with an expression that seemed pleased by the quieted auditorium.
A brown-haired female student, perhaps having collapsed and then gotten back up, had dust on the lower part of her uniform and was glaring at Headmaster Den Brown with a huffing expression.
“What is it, Student Rin Edenborough?”
“You knew my name... No, that’s not the important part.”
“Of course I know the personal information of every student who has enrolled. That is part of my duty as headmaster.”
“What kind of rude behavior was that?! Even if this is not a formal occasion like a banquet, shouldn’t there still be limits?”
“What complaint do you have?”
“Yes!!”
Rin Edenborough felt the gazes of every student in the auditorium focus on her voice and realized her mistake. She exhaled to preserve her dignity and calmed her anger.
For a noble, venting anger exactly as one felt it was one of the greatest taboos.
Such vulgar behavior was like the whining of an uneducated child.
If she, who had received harsh etiquette training since childhood, were to do such a thing, her father back in the territory would surely be disappointed.
Having thought that far, Rin Edenborough put a faint smile across her face and spoke modestly.
“Ahem. I apologize for raising my voice, Headmaster Den Brown. If I may ask, could you explain why you committed such a rude act toward us?”
At her words, the students who were not nobles widened their eyes, looking as though they did not understand why she had suddenly smiled after getting angry, while the students of noble birth nodded with faces that said this was precisely how a noble ought to behave.
Seeing those contrasting reactions, Rin Edenborough felt confident, thinking the surrounding students had confirmed that her “protest” did not deviate from noble etiquette, and looked at Headmaster Den Brown, who wore a puzzled expression.
“A rude act? What do you mean?”
“The flash and roar that rang out from the platform just now. Were those not all done under your instruction, Headmaster?”
“Ah, that was simply because the students here were too noisy, so I asked Professor Ran to do it. How does something that is part of your education become a rude act?”
“Pardon?”
At Headmaster Den Brown’s attitude as he explained himself with words she had not expected at all, Rin Edenborough was momentarily at a loss for words.
What is this? The people I’ve met until now would apologize or back down on their own if I gave them this much of a warning.
“And it seems Miss Rin Edenborough is laboring under some misconception.”
“...What misconception do you mean?”
“The misconception that you, a mere student, can lodge a protest with me, the headmaster, in this manner without following proper procedure and have it amount to anything. From the moment all of you enrolled in Academia as students, you are to obey the commands of us professors and the headmaster. So even if I truly had committed a rude act toward you, it would not be a particularly great problem. Of course, I would never do something that foolish.”
“...Hah.”
At Headmaster Den Brown’s words, so arrogant they were almost overbearing, Rin Edenborough had no time to maintain her dignity. Her mouth fell open, and she stared at him in disbelief.
But what was even more absurd was that the professors standing behind Headmaster Den Brown were all nodding from top to bottom as if he were completely right.
“Therefore, let us first conclude Academia’s entrance ceremony. Originally, this should not have taken so long, but it seems this year’s students require a great deal of attention.”
Clap, clap.
With those few words, Headmaster Den Brown made Rin Edenborough sit back down and brought the situation to an end, then began continuing the entrance ceremony once more.