I reached for the nearest wall lamp — only the main living room had an overhead light — and felt the tiny trickle of mana pulled out from my fingers, powering the lamp and lighting it up.
Again, there was nobody else here.
I stepped to the bed where Mia had prepared my sleeping clothes for the night. The ominous feeling had gone as soon as I turned on the light. Was it my paranoia from the darkness?
Letting the towel fall on the floor, I picked up the panties first, stepping into it and fitting it around my hips when I felt a gush of air brush my nape.
I turned around in an instant. The windows and doors were closed. I was alone.
As I wore my nightdress, one thought ran incessantly in my mind: that gush of air felt like someone breathing down my neck.
But I should be safe here, in my own dormitory. The admin staff informed me this entire area was spelled, so only trusted people by me were allowed to come in.
Unless someone was powerful enough to disregard Aerahelm’s protection spells?
Thinking like this could go to shit very fast. Aerahelm was the best magical fort in the Kingdom, and if someone could do something like that —
Focus on the facts and reality, ignore distractions and thoughts not even worth thinking about, and don’t mess things up. Easy, right?
Chapter Fourteen
The following days went a little calmer than my first day. Claude still tried to bother me every time he could, but it was all in jest. He genuinely seemed like he was trying his best to behave. Because of his proximity, Kathel and Mera didn’t, or maybe couldn’t, mess with me if they were planning on it. They settled on sending me glares or haughty looks, even though I didn’t do anything to them. I ignored it.
I had barely seen the other men, except for necessary ones like Professor Strom. My free time was spent in the library, and sometimes Dahlia came with me. I saw the green-haired librarian once. If it was in the afternoon, my knights came along too, watching over me as their job.
My progress in learning the principles of teleportation magic was abysmal, but I was getting there.
One of the funniest, or most shocking things I discovered during my Arithmetic class — mathematics was crucial for spellcasting, too. I'd assumed the class taught practical life skills, like maintaining household accounts or familiarity with economics. That was more of a side effect, apparently.
In line with that, Rune-making was closer to geometry than art. At least, that was how it appeared, because we were only at the theoretical lessons. No actual drafting yet.
Now I understood why these classes existed in the first year of magical education: these are the literal foundations of magic and spellcasting.
This all worked out for me. I was better at math and numbers than I was with art, and if Rune-making was essential to teleportation, like Vincent explained, then I really did have a fighting chance to master this thing.
The progress might be slow, but at least it was consistent. I had hope! I could do this!
I closed the teleportation book after I read the general overview of this type of magic. Teleportation, by its definition, involved transporting one entity from one location to another using magic. Now, it wasn’t explicitly said it had to be in the same realm, because why would one even consider transporting to a different realm?
That was where the “conspiracy theory” the green-haired librarian alluded to: some people believe itwaspossible to go from one realm to another, because how else would the Demon Lord, implied to come from a different world, able to summon monsters that weren’t of this world?
Only one answer — teleportation. Or at least a variation of it. Because when you think about it, summoning was just a different kind of teleportation, right?
One more reason to meet the Demon Lord myself and demand a cordial conversation.
When I returned the book to its rightful spot on the shelf, I caught a glimpse of my librarian again, standing at a corner with an open book in his hand. He might pretend to read, but I was sure I found him staring at me when I hid my eyes under my hair to watch him instead.
Oddly enough, I didn’t find it uncomfortable at all.
I left the library with about thirty minutes to spare for my first class of the day, External Magic.
The special classes were held in another, different building, and I wanted the extra time to find the correct room. There weren’t many people here since these classes weren’t mandatory to graduate successfully, although it would be beneficial if you wanted to specialize. In fact, I was alone in this hallway, and I was pretty sure I had followed the directions —
A muscular set of arms circled me from behind and grabbed me inside the wrong room before I could react. My scream died against his palm as he locked the door shut.
Whoever this man was, he knew I didn’t have my bodyguards at this time of the day. Thinking the school was safe even in the bright mornings was naïve and stupid of me and —
“I’m sorry for scaring you, sunshine, but this is the only way I’ll get to talk to you,” Amos’s rough voice was music to my ears. He turned me around, and I found him in the academy’s regular uniform,andhe still looked appealing.
