By Zephyria 
Herman and Tom went to Zeon’s side, who was sitting in front of me, and slowly avoided the seat. The kids who had been showing interest in Cloud also felt that the atmosphere between the two was unusual and couldn’t come any closer.
They were glancing around with embarrassed expressions.
“In the first place, the mission you’re in charge of isn’t to hang out here right now, is it? That’s a clear dereliction of duty.”
“If you’re saying that because you think I’m just playing around, I’ll tell you that the range I can sense is quite wide. If something happens in the academy, I can go right away. You’re being unfair, you’re underestimating me too much?”
“Underestimating you? There’s no way. You’re a Class 1 Hunter from the Black Class who beat up a high-ranking Balkan.”
“Then?”
“I was worried about you. If someone like you gets scolded for dereliction of duty, wouldn’t that be a loss of face?”
“You’re even worried about my face and being kind.”
Cloud raised one corner of his mouth and smiled slyly, and Ardian also responded by smiling silently. However, Ardian seemed to be trying to hide his displeasure. Currently, Ardian felt much sharper than before when he clashed with Herman and had a war of nerves.
Was it because of that? Whether it was flowing out uncontrollably or on purpose, the pressure of the released Mana was also fluctuating violently. But since the opponent was Cloud, he didn’t shrink back from it and was fighting back in the same way, so the audience was colder than ever.
Does he hate it that much?
Even I felt it was excessive. Cloud seemed to suspect Ardian of being involved in the previous attack, so that was that… but why Ardian?
-Wow, are you jealous right now?
-What if I am?
At that moment, the conversation between the two a little while ago flashed through my head as if answering my suspicion.
‘…Hmm. Jealousy, huh.’
The dictionary definition of the word is something I know. But that’s it. It was a problem that didn’t quite resonate with me, so I didn’t know how to react in this awkward moment.
It felt like a difficult problem to me.
Anyway, apart from that, I was annoyed by the bickering next to me, so I wanted to tell them to go somewhere else to fight if they were going to fight. So, I was about to intervene between them when Professor Polargehen opened the door and came in.
“Class is starting. Everyone, take your seats.”
That one word broke the frozen atmosphere. The children were glad and quickly took their seats, and Cloud and Ardian, who had been glaring at each other, also turned their gazes away.
Polargehen seemed a little embarrassed to see Cloud in the middle, but he didn’t say anything and naturally moved on to the lesson. Thanks to him, the argument between the two, which seemed like it would never stop unless someone intervened, was stopped in its tracks.
“……”
I half-heartedly listened to the lesson coming from the podium and glanced at the seat next to me, which felt particularly quiet. A face that rarely revealed what he was thinking. I was looking at that face for a moment when Ardian, who had suddenly softened his expression, glanced back as if he had noticed my gaze.
Doesn’t this make it look like I was caught peeking?
Feeling quite embarrassed, I turned my eyes away without a word.
Later, when the class was over and it was time to return to the dormitory. I was heading to the dormitory when I felt presences following me and had to let out a deep sigh.
It was because of the unwanted goldfish droppings that had increased.
I stopped walking and turned around, and the eyes of the six people following me all looked at me at once. Herman and Zeon, Tom, Ardian, and even Corso, who came as my escort, were understandable, but I couldn’t understand why Cloud was following me all the way here.
It was uncomfortable. I was dying of discomfort.
I came to act as a spy, but with these goldfish droppings following me around, I couldn’t act as I pleased.
“You don’t have any business at the dormitory, do you?”
So I asked, and the answer that came back was brazen.
“I don’t, but I’m curious about the student’s room. Can I go see it?”
I didn’t like the way he was acting like a slippery eel.
“I don’t want to.”
“Ah, you’re so cold. Waaah, I’m so sad, you know?”
What sadness. At least make a sad face when you say that. I was about to glare at the guy who was grinning with his eyes wide open when Ardian suddenly intervened in the conversation again.
“He said he doesn’t want to, don’t make Ray uncomfortable.”
Of course, I was dumbfounded that Ardian, of all people, said that. In my opinion, Cloud and Ardian were the same. If they were competing to be brazen, those two were practically the same.
As the two humans continued their pointless war of nerves, the expressions of the shrimp being crushed in the whale fight were not good.
I shook my head once and turned away first. Then, the shrimp, who had been cautiously watching, quickly followed me. Cloud and Ardian also followed a few steps behind, and their argument continued until we arrived at the dormitory.
‘Haa.’
For some reason, it was a tiring day even though I hadn’t done anything.
☠
Merdelfia, the central street of Adelmaide, the capital of the Valhalla Empire. Merdelfia Street, where Merzel Academy was built, is a bustling area, so the lights never go out even at night.
A scene where small lights on the street are densely gathered.
Looking down at that scene from the highest point of the academy, the roof of the Spire, could be said to be quite romantic.
And the shadow that is actually enjoying that romance is scanning the street with amber eyes that shine brightly in the moonlight. The identity of the shadow sitting on the roof of the Spire and looking down with dignity is Cloud Ravendi.
Soon, Cloud blinked his eyes once and sent a message in his mind.
【Raculus, it’s me.】
Currently, he was trying to communicate with Raculus through the Magic ‘Remote Sense,’ which allows communication without using spoken language. Contact through Remote Sense Magic was safer than Video Orbs, which were at risk of being eavesdropped on or tracked, so it was often used when secret conversations needed to take place.
Not long after, a reply came from Raculus.
【Yes. How are things going?】
【So-so. There was nothing particularly strange.】
【They wouldn’t reveal their tail from the beginning.】
A small snort was mixed in from Raculus’s side. It was sarcasm that came from the bottom of her heart. Cloud had to smile bitterly because he was one of the few people who knew her past and her unfortunate circumstances.
【That’s right. I’ll contact you again if I find out anything.】
And currently… Raculus, who was constantly moving her hideout so that the Imperial Family couldn’t catch her, was reminiscing while talking to Cloud.
‘The Imperial Family is definitely related to the extinction of the Long-lived Race.’
In addition, there would also be a connection with the Fiends. The reason for suspecting this was that the Long-lived Race had an incredibly long lifespan of an average of five hundred years.
Currently, Raculus’s age was also 368 years old.
Her apparent age was in her early to mid-thirties, but she had actually lived for well over three hundred years.
In other words, she was….
She was a living specimen of the entire history of the Valhalla Empire itself.
In Genesis Era 1302, 200 years after Mephisto’s death, Imryu, a member of the same Long-lived Race and Raculus’s teacher, referred to Mephisto’s legacy, which was called the pinnacle of Magic, and first organized the Verbal Magic system, bringing ‘great development’ to human society, and she was with him.
While being unreasonably checked by the Old Empire, she directly felt the fear in her skin when the Long-lived Race, who were suddenly attacked by Fiends, were exterminated.
After the Niflheim War broke out in Genesis Era 1402, she walked through the battlefield with her own feet, made contributions that could not be denied, and after the Valhalla Empire was born, she watched with her own eyes as Albinus, the Emperor of the Old Empire, continued to hold the position of Emperor under the pretext that he had made the greatest contribution.
After receiving the title of Marquess, she directly established Merzel Academy with the superficial support and help of the Valhalla Empire.
From the moment it was revealed that she was a member of the Long-lived Race, she began to receive assassination threats again from an unknown being with the ‘Imperial Mark,’ and she has lived through all the moments of history.
And because Raculus knew all that history, she was certain that Albinus was always at the center of major events in the world, and that there were also strange movements of Fiends.
Raculus, who had been looking at the sky, lowered her eyes.
‘When I think about it, it’s an unusually unified dynasty.’
People have different desires and different thoughts, so when the head changes, even a well-functioning dynasty collapses and the direction of policy changes.
Clearly, that was the case for most dynasties before the Valhalla Empire.
However, the Albinus dynasty of the Valhalla Empire, which had continued since the Old Empire, acted as if… all the Kings were the same person. Ideology, thoughts, policy direction, goals, everything flowed from the previous generation to the current generation, and no prominent figures ever appeared in the process.
The Crown Prince, who succeeded to the next Imperial throne, was always as skilled as if he had inherited everything from the previous Emperor ‘from the moment he ascended to the Imperial throne,’ so there was no room for anyone to criticize him.
Of course, Raculus thought that it was highly likely that it was a coincidence. The first son, who inherited the Imperial throne after the sudden death of the former Emperor Hohenheim this time, seemed to be not so good.
As she was lost in thought, her thoughts jumped to unnecessary paths.
Raculus, who had come back to the surface, replied.
【Yes. Take care of yourself and please continue to help me in the future. I don’t know why that little brat Ardian is approaching the child of the Valentasia family… so keep a close eye on him.】
【Yes. Don’t worry.】
Soon, the Remote Sense Magic that had been exchanged between Cloud and Raculus was cut off. Cloud, who got up from his seat, gave a final glance at Merdelfia Street before going down below the roof of the Spire, and Raculus also disappeared in a flash with Space Transition to move her location again.