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Chapter 60
“Are you done?”
“Yes. I-I just finished too.”
“I’m done as well. Let’s clean up and head out.”
“O-okay.”
Jaelyn put the cleaning tools she had used back into the box. Lionel also tidied up the mop and bucket he had been using, then asked her,
“Cutting it pretty close today. You don’t have classes this morning, right?”
“N-no classes, but I do have a meeting with the department chair.”
“Huh? The department chair?”
“Yes. With Lady Ines, the chair of the Department of Magical Engineering.”
“Really? Not even your advisor, but the chair herself wants to meet you? That’s unusual.”
Without realizing it, Lionel furrowed his brows slightly.
“Ah, at the start of the semester, she gave me a special request. I think it’s about that.”
“The chair asked you to do something?”
“She said she was interested in the thesis I want to write. Maybe she just wants to check on my progress.”
At Jaelyn’s words, Lionel narrowed his eyes. The chair of Magical Engineering taking an interest in one student’s thesis? That almost never happened.
“What kind of thesis are you writing that she’s so curious?”
Just as Jaelyn opened her mouth to answer, the outside grew noisy and a group of students entered through the control room door. They were the ones who had a morning class here.
“Ah! Hello, Senior Lionel!”
The first-years spotted Lionel and all greeted him at once. Their bright voices filled the hologram control room.
“Hey, hi.”
“Senior! Why is it so hard to see you around these days?”
One of the first-years stepped up to him. It was Rozia, the same freshman who had questioned Jaelyn’s skills during the committee meeting.
She seemed to be on friendly terms with Lionel. Sure enough, Lionel’s calm, low reply confirmed it.
“It’s been a while, Rozia.”
“Really! Even at the clubroom, it’s been impossible to see you. I’m so happy to run into you like this!”
Rozia tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, smiling shyly.
“Yeah.”
Lionel answered her smile with one of his own.
“But why are you here at this hour? I thought the control room was only used for first- and second-year classes.”
As she spoke curiously, Rozia’s gaze fell on the mop and bucket in Lionel’s hand. She suddenly seemed to realize something.
“Oh, you must’ve been here because of cleaning duty.”
“Yeah. Finished a bit later than usual today.”
“Senior, I’m really sorry. It’s all because of me that you’re being punished like this.”
“No. I broke the rules, so it’s only natural I get punished. Cleaning the control room isn’t much of a punishment compared to what I did.”
“Still…”
“Besides, thanks to this, Jaelyn got permission to use the holograms here anytime she wants. So it turned out well overall, don’t you think?”
Lionel glanced at Jaelyn standing beside him.
“Ah… right. It really worked out.”
Rozia covered her mouth with a laugh. But behind her hand, her lips weren’t smiling at all.
“Well then, have a good class. We should get going.”
Lionel’s gaze, which had lingered on Rozia, shifted over to Jaelyn.
“Let’s go, Jaelyn.”
We. Rozia didn’t like that one bit. Her eyes flicked over Jaelyn’s whole figure, quick enough that no one would notice. It irritated her.
“Sure. Go ahead. See you again at the clubroom, Senior.”
Just before Lionel’s eyes returned to her, Rozia quickly tore her gaze away from Jaelyn and smiled at him.
“Yeah.”
As Jaelyn and Lionel passed by her, Rozia subtly bumped Jaelyn’s box of cleaning supplies with her arm. It was a very deliberate move.
Caught off guard, Jaelyn dropped the box, and its contents scattered across the floor.
“Kya! Oh no, I’m so sorry, Senior!”
Rozia flustered, fidgeting as if she didn’t know what to do.
“I-it’s okay. I’ll pick them up.”
Jaelyn bent down to gather the rags, brushes, and disinfectant bottles.
“I’ll do it.”
Fixing his eyes on Rozia, Lionel set his bucket on the floor, handed the mop to Jaelyn, and crouched down.
Slowly kneeling on one knee, Lionel picked up the scattered tools one by one and placed them back into the box.
Taking the mop back from Jaelyn, he tucked the cleaning box under his arm.
Flustered, Jaelyn reached out.
“I-I’ll carry it.”
“No. I’ll do it.”
Holding the bucket with his free hand, Lionel gave Rozia a polite smile.
“Better move carefully next time.”
“Sorry. I wasn’t watching where I was going and bumped it by accident.”
Before she could even finish, Lionel was already walking away.
Jaelyn glanced back at Rozia, dipped her head slightly, then hurried after him.
As soon as the two left, Rozia’s smile crumbled, her face hardening. Her clenched fists dug so deep that her nails left sharp pain in her palms.
That day was mock-monster combat class. The moment Jaelyn entered the classroom, she spotted Adrian already seated at a table.
Unlike the past few days, when he had barely shown up on time or skipped entirely, today he had arrived well in advance.
No one else from their team was there yet, except Adrian.
“H-how is it? Is it working well?”
The instant she saw him, Jaelyn practically flew to his desk, forgetting even to greet him as she blurted out what she was curious about.
Adrian, not the type to care much about formalities, didn’t seem bothered. He simply tapped his foot and gave a slight nod.
Since wearing the magical device Jaelyn and Stephan had created together, Adrian hadn’t felt any discomfort at all.
Plopping herself down in the seat next to him, Jaelyn looked up at him, eyes shining.
Her eager green eyes seemed almost ready to pierce straight through him.
Overwhelmed by the intensity of her gaze, Adrian leaned back a little. But Jaelyn leaned in even closer, doubling the distance he had tried to create.
“C-can I take a quick look?”
“Go ahead.”
Last time, because of cleaning duty, she hadn’t had the chance to see Stephan’s finished work.
Jaelyn immediately grabbed Adrian’s outstretched hand to examine the magic device fixed to his finger.
Startled by the sudden touch, Adrian flinched, visibly displeased.
“Hey! Do you always grab people’s hands without warning like that?”
He snapped, but Jaelyn paid no mind, already too absorbed in the device.
She drew his hand closer to her eyes to study it in detail.
“S-sorry. Just for a moment.”
Her small hands, half the size of his, clutched his large palm, fiddling lightly.
The delicate movements tickled between his fingers, sending a strange tingling up the back of his neck.
He wanted to pull his hand away immediately, but Jaelyn’s focused, serious eyes made it hard to.
Annoyed, Adrian furrowed his brows, trying to ignore the sensations.
Jaelyn, oblivious, continued studying. Just as Adrian said, the device was working well. She could even feel a chill seeping into her own fingers.
Though the design engraved on the magic stone’s base wasn’t visible, the metallic ring bore every rune she had drawn, perfectly etched in.
The intricate array, made up of complex runes, was smaller than her pinky nail.
When she had watched Stephan carve the array into the stone, she had already been impressed. Now, looking again, she couldn’t help but marvel.
Fueled by academic curiosity, she turned his palm over to carefully examine the back as well.
When she finally lifted her head, her face was much closer to Adrian’s than was appropriate.
“Is the temperature okay? It feels kind of cold.”
Unable to stand it any longer, Adrian used his free hand to gently push her forehead back with a single finger.
Even as she was nudged away, Jaelyn’s eyes stayed fixed on him.
“W-what?”
“You’re too close.”
“O-oh! S-sorry.”
She quickly leaned back.
“It’s fine. Not cold at all. It feels just right.”
“Mm. If it gets too cold, let me know. I think I could adjust it.”
Adrian gave a nonchalant nod.
“You done looking now?”
“Mm. Th-thanks.”
“Then let go of my hand already.”
“Ah! S-sorry.”
Snapping back to herself, Jaelyn released him.
Adrian rubbed the spot she had touched, finally shaking off the odd sensation.
“Stephan said a stone this size should last two or three weeks. That right?”
“Uh… I-I guess?”
“It looks about the same size as the academy’s community stones. Those last decades without issue. Why does this one only last a few weeks?”
“Ah, that’s probably because the mana consumption depends on the efficiency of the array.”
The community devices used in the academy had been designed by Felodian Winona, the academy’s founder.
The ones in use today were simply copies of her original blueprint, and their efficiency was strangely high.
Scholars had studied them for ages and discovered that community devices functioned on an incredibly small amount of mana.
Winona had embedded a mana-amplifying formula into her design.
But that amplification array had since been lost to time.
Whether it had simply faded away after so long or had been deliberately erased for some reason, no one could say.
