Book 1 Chapter 706
706.
Kal enjoyed a warm spring weekend with a relaxed expression, sitting under a parasol in the clock tower dormitory garden.
“It’s peaceful.”
“It is. I thought I’d be stuck on the mountain with the class president this weekend.”
Iliana nodded in agreement, sipping milk tea from the garden’s outdoor cafe.
Enjoying the weekend like this made her feel happy.
Seeing them, Nella asked with a puzzled expression.
“Other magic department students are busy preparing for their magic department lectures tomorrow. You two seem so relaxed?”
Chelsea, sitting nearby, chuckled at the question.
“I don’t need to prepare.”
Chelsea, one of the top honors students in the third-year magic department along with Chloe and Abad, was brimming with confidence.
Kal was confident for a different reason.
“Hmph. Professor Ren’s class is something you can’t prepare for, no matter how much you try.”
Iliana nodded in agreement, chiming in.
“Right, right. It’s all about willpower.”
“I don’t think that’s it.”
Taid interjected, but Iliana didn’t listen.
The five people currently enjoying snacks at the outdoor cafe were classmates in their first year.
They had been best friends since their first year and remained so even as they moved up in grades.
The five were spending their time playing a board game that was recently popular on campus.
Chelsea, about to roll the dice in her hand, looked at the clock tower and mumbled.
“It’s almost lunchtime.”
“It is. What should we eat?”
“Chelsea, since you brought up lunch, you decide the menu.”
At that, Chelsea fell into thought while rolling the dice.
A giant troll-shaped piece on the game board moved according to the dice roll, approaching Kal’s wizard figurine.
It then attempted to strike Kal’s figurine with a large club.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Kal smiled dismissively and used a card to block the attack.
The game the five were playing was a kind of labyrinth escape game where they had to avoid a pursuer and escape the maze.
Her attack thwarted, Chelsea frowned and said.
“Want a sandwich?”
“I ate one for breakfast, so no.”
Iliana flatly refused.
Meanwhile, Kal’s figurine escaped.
Chelsea rolled the dice again.
The troll then targeted Iliana, who was closer.
“Ah! Don’t come! Don’t come!”
Iliana shrieked.
Just as the wooden game board rumbled and the giant club was about to finish off Iliana’s figurine.
Iliana took out a card.
“Ah! Why do you have that!”
Chelsea made an angry face, and Iliana burst into laughter.
Although Lumen was a place where the world’s greatest talents gathered, their ways of spending weekends were not so different from other young people.
In fact, such ordinary relaxation was a culture highly emphasized at Lumen.
Chelsea, with a sulky expression, chose a menu.
“Let’s eat Southern desert cuisine.”
“No, I’ve eaten too much of it and I’m tired of it.”
Iliana refused again.
“How about Shan Empire cuisine?”
“Hmm? That sounds good?”
“Ah. I’m not too fond of that one.”
Kal objected this time as Iliana showed interest.
After that, every time Chelsea suggested a menu, Kal and Iliana shot it down.
Chelsea, with a contorted face, said.
“Then you guys pick the menu.”
“Geez, can’t you even decide something like that?”
“Right. An honor student who doesn’t even need to prepare.”
“You guys said you didn’t like everything I suggested!”
“Alright! Next time I won’t complain.”
“Let’s just eat anything. Anything at all.”
Hearing their words, Chelsea clenched her fist.
Veins bulged in her small fist.
“How about traditional food from the southern region of Rodren?”
At Chelsea’s words, Kal and Iliana looked at each other and simultaneously shook their heads.
“We’re really not in the mood for that today.”
“Yeah. Something else!”
CRASH-!
Chelsea launched herself into the air and delivered a dropkick to both their faces.
The table overturned, and Kal and Iliana rolled on the floor.
Nella and Taid, having foreseen the situation, safely protected the cafe’s tableware and retreated.
Chelsea grumbled, stomping on the two.
“You guys decide! You decide!”
Kal and Iliana’s screams echoed.
“I knew it would come to this.”
Taid sighed and apologized to the cafe staff, handing over the tableware.
Nella crouched down to tidy up the overturned board game.
Then she let out a hollow laugh.
Chelsea’s troll was beating Kal and Iliana’s figurines with its club.
***
“By the way, is Leo very busy?”
Nella, who had come to the restaurant for lunch, asked Kal with a puzzled expression.
Kal nodded, rubbing a cold potion bottle on his face in response.
“Yeah. He said he’s a bit busy because he has some things to think about over the weekend.”
Hearing that, Taid scowled.
“Leo being busy makes me uneasy for some reason.”
“Huh? Why?”
Iliana tilted her head, a fork in her mouth.
They were currently at a traditional restaurant in the southern region of Rodren.
Watching Iliana hum as she ate, Chelsea clenched her fist tightly.
Taid sighed, looking at the carefree Iliana.
“Because I suspect he might have something up his sleeve.”
Nella rested her chin on her hand at Taid’s words.
“It is a bit concerning, I admit. Leo sometimes acts impulsively.”
If asked if Leo was an honor student, everyone would nod.
He wasn’t at the top of every subject.
However, in practical exams,
that is, evaluations related to heroic potential, Leo was overwhelming.
Based on that overwhelming skill, he became the youngest student council president and rose to the position of hero in the shortest period in Lumen’s history.
If Leo wasn’t an honor student, who would be?
The problem was that Leo wasn’t a perfect honor student.
Leo also broke school rules.
Of course, he was never caught, so he was never punished.
But breaking minor rules wasn’t the issue.
Leo’s problem was the impulsive accidents he caused.
And they were large-scale accidents.
As if to prove his power to influence entire departmental schedules,
he had caused accidents that were akin to disaster for the students.
A prime example was the sudden planning of the Hero Festival last year.
It was a major accident that occurred immediately after the vice-president Hark, who was the de facto decision-maker of the student council at the time, transferred his authority to Elena.
That incident was still deeply ingrained in the minds of all grades except the first-years.
“Hey, Chelsea, Kal, Iliana. You three went on a mission with Leo recently, right? Did you notice anything suspicious there?”
The three shook their heads at the question.
“We were busy with the mission.”
Chelsea’s answer made Taid scratch his head vigorously.
“Ah, I really have a bad feeling about this.”
“Aren’t you being a little too sensitive?”
Chelsea said, poking her food with a fork.
“You think so?”
Taid tilted his head.
“Right, right. The class president isn’t a troublemaker, after all.”
Iliana responded nonchalantly.
At that moment, Nella stared intently at Kal.
“Kal?”
At her words, all eyes turned to Kal.
Taid gasped, seeing Kal stop eating with a serious expression.
“Hey, why are you acting so anxious?”
“No, there weren’t any suspicious signs from Leo.”
“Then isn’t that enough?”
“But this morning, when I went to the student council room, Senior Elena’s demeanor was a bit off.”
“Why is Senior Elena acting like that?”
“How should I put it, she seemed strangely irritable?”
“Hasn’t that capricious witch been making things difficult for everyone with her irritability before? I think you’re overreacting.”
Iliana said casually.
At that moment, the gazes of the other four turned to behind Iliana.
“…….”
Iliana, after a moment of silence, asked with a tearful face.
“Is she behind me now?”
The four nodded.
“Who is the witch we are talking about?”
“Hiiick?!”
Iliana screamed at Elena’s soft voice in her ear.
Elena, placing her hands gently on Iliana’s shoulders, smiled.
“Oh, don’t be so scared. I know my nickname is witch, and many juniors call me that. It’s not a big mistake.”
“Ahahaha. Right? Senior Elena, you truly have a heart as vast as the sea.”
Iliana said, rubbing her hands diligently.
Elena added to her reaction.
“Yes, as long as you’re not caught, it’s not a big mistake.”
“…….”
Iliana’s face turned ashen.
A moment later.
Elena, sitting on Iliana, who was bent over and serving as a human chair, took a graceful sip of the dessert tea and said.
“It’s true that Leo has something up his sleeve.”
At that, Chelsea looked puzzled.
“What is it?”
“If I knew, would I be so irritable?”
Elena, with a sullen expression, poured sugar into her tea.
Kal, knowing she ate sweets when stressed, scratched his head.
Nella looked puzzled, seeing Elena like that.
“But you knew last year that Leo was planning the Hero Festival, Senior Elena.”
“That’s because I needed to cooperate, so he told me in advance.”
Flicking her spoon to dissolve the sugar, Elena narrowed her eyes.
“This human is clearly planning to drag me into the abyss of chaos too.”
At Elena’s words, the other students’ faces became serious.
As the current student council president, Elena knew Leo’s affairs best.
Therefore, her words carried great credibility.
“Can’t you stop Leo?”
Taid asked desperately. Elena scoffed.
“Leo is the student council president, what can I do?”
Although Elena was known as the Queen of Lumen and a witch.
She was powerless against Leo.
“If he tells me to do it, I have to do it.”
Seeing Elena pout her lips, the third-years held their heads.
***
That evening.
The beginning of the problem was truly petty.
Rumors that Leo, the student council president, was plotting something spread rapidly throughout the clock tower dormitory.
“The student council president is a very heroic person. What could be wrong? Big sister.”
Perena Hergin asked with a puzzled expression.
Eliza scoffed at her younger sister’s question.
“Perena, my advice is not to trust that person too much. He’s a man with a dark heart.”
Seeing Eliza express her distrust of Leo, Perena, who looked like she didn’t understand, opened her locker in the dormitory.
And her face stiffened.
“Wh-what!”
Seeing Perena let out a scream of shock, Eliza looked puzzled.
“Why?”
“My snacks are gone!”
The snacks she had prepared to enjoy with her beloved elder sister after a long time were all gone.
“Are you sure you didn’t misplace them?”
“There’s no way! I’ll never forgive whoever did this……”
Perena’s face turned fierce.
At that moment.
Complaints filled with injustice echoed from various parts of the Summoning Department dormitory.
The common reaction was that all snacks had disappeared.
The incident wasn’t confined to the Summoning Department dormitory.
“What is this!”
A scream erupted from the Magic Department dormitory.
“Who drew on the wall!”
“Who folded my magic formula explanation paper into origami!”
“Huh? This isn’t the grimoire I was reading?”
Hearing the bewildered and angry voices of the magic department students, Elena, who was doing homework in her room, narrowed her eyes.
She then went out to the lounge.
Elena’s eyes briefly flickered with light as she looked at the dormitory lounge, which had become a cauldron of chaos.
She threw the quill pen in her hand towards the desk.
THWACK-!
A fairy approaching the ink bottle right in front of Elena’s homework made eye contact with Elena.
The fairy, wearing a stamp around its neck, quickly opened the window and fled.
She ran quickly and opened the window, but the fairy was nowhere to be seen.
‘……That fairy. It was definitely Leo’s familiar?’