CH 3

No matter how I feel, Fitzsimmons Academy was also very beautiful on the sixth March. I was looking down at the courtyard planted with flowers and trees of all four seasons with no emotion at all when I found a familiar figure there.

Keran Illestia sat among the fallen leaves of various colors. Perhaps because of his noble appearance and posture, the wooden bench with rotting corners looked like a sofa covered in velvet cloth.

He, too, had eyes as hopeless as mine, and I wondered what he was doing over there if he was only going to look like that.

On the other hand, I thought it was a face I hadn’t seen in a long time.

Keran Ilestia often put on a face as if he was tired of living or bored to death, perhaps because he had lived a perfect life.

As he had the position of student council president, he skillfully mixed business-like manners and warmness when dealing with students, but everyone knew that it was not sincere.

There were a few cases where the kind who read a lot of romance novels rushed to try to melt his frozen heart. Kids who have fallen into the illusion that they are the only ones who realize his mask-like kindness and the ones that can save him.

If it weren’t for a dozen people who thought so, it might have worked. Clichés exist for a reason.

Anyway, since that wasn’t the case, Illestia was still living a boring life. Well, that was certainly the case until he met Rosemary Blossom. Again, I wondered what her virtuosic talent was.

It was boredom that I hadn’t seen from him since Blossom transferred. I’ve gone through Blossom’s transfers five times, so it’s safe to assume I haven’t seen him look like that in five years.

I searched the bag on my shoulder and tore the corner of the magic science textbook. ‘What are you doing there?’ I scribbled out a few letters and threw them out the window.

The light note flew like a petal and landed badly, without even getting close to him. Fortunately, Illestia managed to see it.

Before Blossom transferred, I and Illestia had very occasional silly conversations. Because he was quite close with Kyle, and Kyle and I were childhood friends.

After checking the contents of the note, Illestia looked up and found me. He put his hands to his mouth and said something, but I couldn’t hear him because of the distance.

I raised both of my hands and put them to my ears. Ilestia then cleared his throat once and raised his voice.

“I’m waiting!”

What are you waiting for? I thought about writing another note, but I had torn off too many corners to wrap the gum I already chewed, so there was no corner to tear anymore in the magic science textbook.

I said goodbye to Illestia, who started to look dazed again and left.

***

In the magic science classroom, Kyle saved me a seat and called me as soon as I opened the back door. Professor Houston tended to ask questions of the people in his sight, so I preferred to sit in a corner if possible.

Before I sat down on the chair, I quickly took out the magic tool that makes fart sounds from under the cushion. This is my sixth time doing it, and Kyle Villard never gets tired of it.

“You’re sharp, Ariel Dalton.”

“I’m sick of you, Kyle Villard.”

Kyle giggled and laughed at my sincerity.

“Illestia was spacing out in the courtyard earlier.”

I gave up after copying some of the complex mathematical formulas Professor Houston drew on the blackboard which looked almost like a work of art. And when I glanced at Kyle’s notebook, it looked perfect as if he had copied and pasted it. Annoyingly talented.

“It’s that bastard’s hobby.”

“He said he was waiting for someone.”

Kyle’s pen stopped. He looked at me with a very strange expression.

“Who?”

“How would I know? You’re the one who’s close to him, not me.”

‘That’s right. That’s why you should make some friends.’ Kyle lamented as if I was pathetic. I secretly changed some symbols of his formula while Kyle looked away to criticize me. Kyle has been doing well for 10 years, so it would be okay to screw him for a year.

“Villard, you seem to understand perfectly our lesson based on your noise, come out and explain it.”

Professor Houston found Kyle singing a song about my lack of social skills. In an instant, Kyle quickly became sullen like Lilu, my cat who had been ordered to clean up and headed to the teacher’s platform. 

Perfect. I blew Bree’s finger curse in the blind spot of Professor Houston to him to my heart’s content.

Looking at Kyle’s face who was making a surprisingly smooth explanation, considering he was called to the front unexpectedly, I suddenly remembered a letter that I failed to send a few days ago. Which was the future but also the past.

At that time, Kyle was punished for beating Illestia. It was said that the force he used was almost as if he was trying to kill him. Illestia only survived because he was a trained warrior.

If it had happened outside the academy, it would have been a major incident that would have been taken straight to Illestia and been enough to get him executed.

Even though he was a foreigner, Kyle was only an aristocrat from the small country of Milua, the second son of a count family to be exact. While Keran Illestia was the crown prince of the Great Illestia Empire.

However, since the academy does not belong to any country’s territory, it was difficult to apply the laws of Illestia or Milua, the victim’s wounds were not very deep, and Kyle was strongly demanding leniency, so it ended at the disciplinary level.

What the hell happened when I left the academy? I felt a strong need to talk to Kyle.

Rosemary Blossom will be transferred later this afternoon. Kyle and the five men were going to be busy with her so I didn’t have much of a chance.

I suggested to Kyle, who was coming back after his fancy explanation that we have lunch together. Taking out the fart-sound maker magic tool I had tucked under his cushion, Kyle readily accepted.

***

Lunchtime at Fitzsimmons Academy was flexible according to each person’s schedule. This was possible because the magic dolls were in charge of both cooking and serving.

For students, the recruitment of magic dolls was also welcome. The lack of ups and downs in the quality and quantity of cooking was very important to teenagers in their prime.

To have lunch with me, Kyle had to postpone his training in the sports team he was participating in, so he disappeared as soon as the magic science class was over, leaving only words to meet him at the restaurant.

The Griffon cricket club, which is played in the air by riding a griffon, consisted of only 11 players without reserve players. It probably won’t be easy to excuse himself from training.

So I walked as slowly as I could towards the cafeteria. Normally, I would have rushed to the central bulletin board to check today’s menu, but I already knew today’s menu as well as next week’s menu, so I didn’t have to.

Today’s side dish was the slime pudding that all Fitzsimmons students were crazy about. Usually, it is sold at the snack bar or in small quantities, but there were times when it is serve as a side dish for students’ welfare.

The crowd gathered in front of the cafeteria proved the popularity of slime pudding. Still, I managed to see the younger twin of Nadon’s twins, as a member of the student council, leading the students who were moving around to line up properly.

This academy is using magic to the point where it’s nugatory now, so why don’t they use magic to do things like this?

Kyle hadn’t arrived yet, so there was no need to line up. I glanced around the line so that I wouldn’t disturb Edgar Ramos, looking for a decent seat.

As I passed Ramos, he barely greeted me with a glance.

“Hi, Dalton. I’m glad you don’t seem to have the heart to join this fight.”

“Don’t worry, Ramos. I’m waiting for Kyle Villard.”

Then, he looked at me with surprised eyes. It was as if he had heard something totally unexpected.

“What’s wrong?”

When I asked, Ramos looked like he had a lot to say, but then shook his head. It was because the first-year students started to scuffle in the middle of the line.

***

“Did you know slime pudding is made with real slime?”

“You spout nonsense every time you open your mouth.”

“No, it’s true. You’re the daughter of a guild master, so why don’t you know that?”

Kyle put on a very serious expression. Losing my appetite, I put down my dessert spoon and glared at him.

Then, taking advantage of that, Kyle poured my half-eaten pudding into his mouth.

“You don’t want to eat it anymore, do you? I’ll eat for you.”

“You already ate it, you asshole. You did it on purpose, didn’t you?”

I wanted to give Kyle, who’s acting innocent a good beating. The students around us who heard our conversation and returned after throwing away their precious slime pudding seemed to be wanting to do the same.

“So, what important business do you have to spend your lunch break with this child?”

To divert my anger, Kyle throws a question.

“I’m disappointed, Kyle Villard. Do we only eat when we have business with each other?”

“If you only wanted to have a meal together, not because you have something important to say, you should have confessed earlier. Could it be that today is the day that you’ll confess to me?”

“It’s because you are like that that you were cursed last year.”

Last year, in the first semester of the 4th grade, which was 6 years ago for me, Kyle was cursed by a junior who was taking the ‘Dark Magic and Witchcraft’ class.

The reason was that a very close friend of hers had a crush on Kyle (Kyle was quite popular), and he played with her heart.

In the eyes of Ariel Dalton, a Kyle Villard expert who has been studying in the field for 19 years, he didn’t seem to want to play with his junior’s feelings. In the first place, he probably wouldn’t even know whether his junior had a crush on him or not.

He was originally a person who has no shame when it comes to his pranks and had a narrow personal space and would be the type to commit a crime. Even when he was in Milua, there were many people of all ages, men and women, who felt vain about his attitude.

It’s a shameful fact and a secret that I can’t tell Kyle even if I die, but I also felt like that before.

Using experience as a foundation, now I have the confidence that I will not be shaken even if the world perishes and only I remain standing in my birthday suit.

Kyle and I left the restaurant with a pair of sundae ice cream from the canteen and as a result, I didn’t have the chance to talk about Rosemary Blossom again just like my past 5 time travels.

I wasn’t worried that if Kyle didn’t remember anything, he’d call me crazy as Bree did (he calls me ‘Crazy Ari’ when I do something nice, so I was not scared of getting treated like a madman by Kyle. Rather, I’m used to it.)

However, it was impossible to speak on that subject, at all.

It wasn’t a mental problem. It was a physical problem. The same sensation I felt at the first graduation party dominated my body. When Blossom listed words like “flags” which made no sense, I couldn’t move as if I had been tied with a rope.

It was as if I was someone who couldn’t say such a thing. When I tried to speak, my head hurt as if it would break, my lips didn’t come apart as if they were glued together, and only one thought penetrated my brain.

Ariel Dalton is set to not cross the ‘4th wall’.

What the hell is the 4th wall?