By Zephyria 
‘…Ah.’
Realizing it belatedly, I shook off his hand. I didn’t have Raymond Valentasia’s memories, so I was just dumbfounded that a stranger was suddenly acting friendly.
Frowning, the man smiled with a brazen face and took a step back.
I had no idea what he was thinking. Staring intently at him to figure out his intentions, I snapped.
“Who the hell are you?”
This man definitely said he was glad to meet me ‘again’. But it was strange. He knew my name, but he asked back as if it was the first time he was actually seeing me. I thought he was someone close to this body, but thinking about it, it was more likely that he had been investigating me behind the scenes.
“My name is… Ardian. Ardian.”
The man quietly revealed his name. However, that was all. The person who identified himself as Ardian seemed to have no intention of revealing anything other than his name.
“Until we meet again next time, I want you to remember the name Ardian. Can you do that?”
My answer to that was without the slightest hesitation.
“No.”
There was no reason to remember the name of a guy who wouldn’t even properly reveal his identity. I’m not kind enough to obediently respond just because I was asked.
Of course, there was also a wicked part of me that was curious about what kind of expression that pretty guy would make after being rejected.
A subtle silence followed for a moment.
He soon smiled silently, folding his eyes.
A face that showed not even a speck of agitation. He was definitely smiling, but it didn’t seem like he was smiling. He was a human with such a faint change in temperature that his face felt like an inanimate object.
Why was that?
For a moment, Gilbert’s face and Ardian’s face overlapped. The two seemed to have nothing in common, but still.
Just as an unpleasant feeling, for which I couldn’t understand the reason, was slowly rising, Ardian gave his answer to my rejection.
“Yeah, that’s okay too. It doesn’t matter. Either way, I’m going to make it so you can’t help but remember me from now on.”
“……?”
“I just came out for a moment to say hello today, so I’ll go back now. Then… let’s meet again soon, Raymond.”
Ardian, waving his hand briefly, passed me with his long, well-proportioned legs.
In the end, he just said what he wanted to say and left. I felt a little uneasy. What the hell was that?
I stared intently at Ardian’s back as he went up towards the mausoleum, and a moment later, the servants passed by him and came down. They quickly ran over, fussing over me, probably because they were afraid I might run away.
“Raymond! Why did you leave alone without saying anything?”
“Really. We were worried about where you had gone.”
It seemed like I couldn’t go back leisurely alone after all. Sighing softly at the servants who were complaining.
“By the way… wasn’t that person earlier, a prince?”
Gasping for breath, Herman glanced at Ardian and muttered. “Is he a prince?” I don’t know the answer to that question. But I thought there was a high probability.
Silver hair and golden eyes… The imperial bloodline I had glimpsed had such an appearance.
If so, it was somewhat understandable that Gilbert came to mind when I saw Ardian. The Albinus Imperial Family was said to have its roots in Gilbert.
‘…He said he’d see me again soon.’
What reason does he have for approaching me?
Why did he investigate me?
What connection is there between him and me?
Everything is a question.
‘Gilbert’s distant descendants, the people of the Albinus Dynasty.’
I held my forehead, lost in thought.
When I first opened my eyes, I was happy that I wouldn’t have to see that hateful bastard again. Yet, the name ‘Gilbert’ still lingered around me whenever I was about to forget it. As if telling me not to forget his existence.
‘You’re tormenting me even in death.’
It was truly unpleasant.
“Ray. What’s wrong?”
Then Herman looked at my face and worried. I was lost in thought, and when our eyes met, I turned away instead of answering.
As I went down the forest, the servants followed me, wanting to go together. After everyone left, only a nameless breeze lingered in the forest for a moment before leaving.
☠
The day after returning to the dormitory, Herman packed his bags, saying he would visit his family for a while. Since it was a foregone conclusion that there would be no classes this week anyway, quite a few students were going back to their families like Herman.
My body’s family, who had contacted me after a long time, also suggested that I return home… but I refused. Even though there were no classes, a notice had been posted that access to the Central Hall would be possible from this weekend.
Polargehen had predicted that he wouldn’t be able to enter until this Saturday, but it seemed that the restrictions were being lifted faster than expected.
Besides, Herman, who was annoyingly interested in me, was away. Now that I was free, I decided to go to the 6th floor of the Central Hall, which I had never been to before.
As I entered the lobby of the Central Hall, I was greeted by a quiet atmosphere, unlike usual. Of course, that didn’t mean that there was really no one in the building. Some students who hadn’t gone back to their families were reading books or talking in the lobby, spending their time in their own way.
I glanced around and went up the stairs. As I climbed the dizzying stairs to the 6th floor, as high as the building’s scale, a quiet, long corridor appeared. In front of it was a glass door with bookshelves visible.
‘…Longcrew Library?’
That’s what it said on the sign above the door. It seemed that the entire 6th floor was being used as a library.
‘What kind of books are there?’
With some interest, I opened the door and went inside. As the bell hanging on the door rang clearly.
“…Ah.”
Instantly, a sense of space far more vast than I had felt on the outside rushed in, making me feel overwhelmed for some reason. I let out a small exclamation and looked around inside for a moment.
‘The ceiling is incredibly high.’
The sense of space that made me feel this pressured was clearly due to the structure with an enormous ceiling height.
And the size of this space was a size that could never be achieved by using the entire 6th floor alone. In other words, Space Expansion Magic was cast here.
‘I don’t know who the caster is, but…’
It was clear that they were incredibly skilled.
A considerable amount of Mana would have been consumed to precisely expand and maintain such a space.
‘Is the caster in here?’
It would be a great gain if I could find out who they were. First of all, I slowly moved to look around inside. It was then.
“Student. Is this your first time at the Longcrew Library?”
Someone who had appeared without a sound suddenly grabbed my shoulder from behind. I frowned at the unpleasant feeling of having my Mana flow disturbed. When I turned my head slightly, a young man with jet-black hair and deep amber eyes was smiling brightly.
“Is something wrong? You seem sensitive.”
He deliberately twisted the flow of Mana to cut off Mana Detection, and yet he had such a brazen face.
He must have felt that I was spreading Mana Detection to find something and came to interfere.
As I stared at him silently, he chuckled and nodded. A long scar on his forehead was briefly revealed before disappearing back into his hair.
“Don’t glare at me like that. Banhalla. What brings you here? Are you looking for a book? Hmm, now that I look at your face, it’s familiar. Haven’t we met somewhere before?”
“……”
“Ah! Come to think of it, that face… Could you be that first-year student from Merzel Academy who uses Black Mana? The son of the Valentasia family, I heard.”
He muttered to himself, then widened his eyes as if he had remembered. He even looked up my picture and nodded in conviction.
“That’s right. You’re much cuter than in the picture.”
He was a talkative human who babbled to himself.
“If you don’t have anything else to say, I’ll be on my way.”
I was exhausted by the trivial story and turned around. I wondered if I had been nervous for nothing. Then the man chuckled behind me and grabbed me as I tried to leave.
By bringing up something that bothered me.
“I’m sorry for interfering earlier. But if you spread Mana like that, as if you’re secretly detecting something, I’ll come looking for you because I’ll wonder what’s going on. Just be careful about that.”
In other words, it was okay to take it as a warning not to do anything foolish. He might not have shown such hostility towards the student, but it sounded enough like that to me. In the first place, I hadn’t blatantly spread Mana, but he had keenly sensed it. He was definitely not someone to be taken lightly.
The man smiled and turned halfway around.
“My name is Cloud. You’re Raymond, right? I think there will be another day when we meet again. Of course, that’s closer to my wish.”
Perhaps because of his slender, long legs and well-balanced physique, even the slightest movement felt like a sculpture. In addition, his eyes with long tails were like a snake aiming for its prey, making me feel nervous in front of him for some reason.
“This Longcrew Library is the essence of Merzel Academy itself, where information accumulated over hundreds of years is concentrated. There are so many treasure-like books, so please be considerate so that the books are not damaged. Goodbye.”
With his last greeting, the man who identified himself as Cloud disappeared. Literally, he disappeared in the blink of an eye.
That was Space Transition Magic, which only a magician who had achieved considerable accomplishments could use.