Chapter 11: Chapter 11. The First Day (4)

The graffiti on the walls.

At first glance, it looked like a jumble of random characters.

But a quick look was enough to tell me there was a pattern.

This is a kind of cipher.

For a start, it used simple substitution, replacing each character with another on a one-to-one basis.

But it didn’t stop there. The word order had been rearranged and meaningless characters inserted to conceal the original meaning.

That was why, at first glance, it looked like meaningless scribbles left by a mad person.

But these characters definitely mean something.

Someone who had lost their mind couldn’t have left such intricately encrypted sentences.

The student who had lived in Room 801 had been perfectly sane when they left these scrawls.

In that case…

I calmly deciphered the writing on the walls.

I pieced the scattered words together into proper sentences.

The result was as follows.

“I have discovered how to reach the source of magic.”

“But if they find out, they will not leave me be.”

“That is why I have decided to leave the academy.”

“They will not find me.”

“To the students who come after me: if you have the wisdom and courage, follow in my footsteps!”

An intriguing story.

If the graffiti was true, the former occupant of Room 801 had fled the academy, pretending to have gone mad and disappeared.

What on earth had that student discovered?

Interesting.

It felt much like coming across an intriguing mystery in a book.

If this had been a novel, I would have been eagerly turning the pages, my palms sweating.

Or perhaps I would have run straight to a bookshop to get the next volume.

There really is never a dull moment at the academy.

Every day on the Valencia estate had been peaceful.

Nothing major ever happened. One uneventful day followed another.

But this place was different. All sorts of things had kept happening ever since I boarded the boat to the island.

Not having enough time to read is a drawback… but this isn’t bad.

Interesting was better than boring.

In that respect, the academy easily earned a passing grade.

And there’s Uncle Kaisel’s promise. I’ll have to work hard.

He had promised to let me read one of the Six Forbidden Books if I finished my first year ranked first in the overall assessment.

Kaisel didn’t seem likely to lie about that. If I really did come first, he would let me read a forbidden book.

Those books were supposedly restricted to professors and above. Did he have some way around that?

He’ll figure it out. It’s not my concern.

All I had to do was trust Kaisel and keep working toward the top rank.

It certainly wasn’t impossible.

Well, first things first…

I looked around the room again and smiled wryly.

I should start by cleaning.

The room hadn’t been used in years, and a thick layer of dust had accumulated.

I would need to give it a good cleaning and air it out.

Once I’ve cleaned up Room 801… I can make it my own.

I had spent over ten years carefully arranging my study back home to suit my tastes.

Now that I could no longer return to it, I would simply have to arrange Room 801 as my new study.

Right. Time to clean.

I went out to ask the dormitory supervisor if I could borrow some cleaning supplies.

Room 706.

Kane Trigger was listening closely while doing a one-handed handstand.

“But is it really okay to send just Monark and his lackeys to the Outer Library?”

“We know which book it is now. No need for all of us to go. Let them handle it.”

“Yeah, fair enough.”

From the voices next door, it sounded as though Monark and his followers had been forced to go to the Outer Library because Eriol had already checked out the Central Library’s copy.

So everyone else just came to the dormitory.

Still upside down, Kane began doing push-ups.

As a member of the Trigger family, he had followed this routine since childhood.

Today… was fun.

A lot had happened on his first day as an official student of Ars Magna Academy.

Eriol, in particular, stood out.

He had taken the oath on behalf of the new students at the entrance ceremony, solved their supervising professor’s assignment in an instant in the classroom, and claimed the ominous top-floor dormitory room no one else would enter.

He really is an interesting guy.

The boy had intrigued him from their very first meeting.

Kane had been impressed by how calmly he faced the terrorists without so much as a change in expression. And Eriol’s boldness had continued to surprise him ever since.

The Trigger family had all sorts of eccentrics, but he had never met anyone quite like Eriol.

I can’t wait to see… what he does next.

He felt that meeting Eriol alone had made coming to the academy worthwhile.

If he stuck close to Eriol, he certainly wouldn’t be bored.

“Whew. That was a good bath.”

Just then, Karis came into the room with a towel draped over his shoulders.

“What are the communal baths like?”

“The facilities are nice and clean. Apparently, the island has hot springs. Perhaps that’s why the bathwater itself felt so good.”

“Really? I’d better get down there, then.”

The other students seemed to be arriving at the dormitory. He ought to get his bath in before it grew crowded.

Kane flipped lightly through the air, landed on the floor, and straightened up.

“You’re nimble, Kane.”

“You think?”

“It seems the Trigger family really does have exceptional athletic ability. I envy you.”

“Ha ha. No need for that.”

“Didn’t you say your goal was to study magic here and further develop your family’s assassination techniques? I think you’ll do well.”

“Thanks for saying so.”

Kane gave a small smile as he answered Karis.

That isn’t my real goal, though.

Studying magic at the academy to improve the Trigger family’s techniques was merely his stated reason for coming.

His true purpose… was something he couldn’t tell anyone yet.

Room 719.

Having returned from a bath on the dormitory’s first basement level, Senia Artian was changing into her pajamas.

Her new roommate, Milia, was fast asleep in her own bed. She had said she usually went to bed early, and she certainly had.

My first day as an academy student… I think I made it through all right.

To be honest, she had been very worried.

It was the first time in her life she had lived among people unconnected to the Artian family.

She had spent her entire life confined within the family. She had never attended school or made friends outside it.

So she had worried about whether she would get along with other people… but she seemed to have managed reasonably well.

It’s only because kind people like Eriol, Kane, Karis, and Milia reached out to me.

Without such friendly classmates, Senia would have been left floundering on the sidelines.

Thanks to her good fortune in meeting them, she had made it through her first day without any real trouble.

Come to think of it…

Senia pictured Eriol’s face.

Eriol had been the first person to speak to her at the dock.

In that sense, he was someone quite special.

Though it was really because I did something rude first…

Her face flushed with embarrassment every time she remembered it.

She had been terribly rude.

But… I was so happy to see it.

The Youngest Son of a Political Dynasty.

A series of novels about a protagonist struggling to break free of his family’s constraints.

Those books held a special meaning for Senia.

And so… she had been so delighted to find someone reading the newest volume that she had behaved rudely.

But Eriol didn’t get angry or offended. He even lent me the book.

Borrowing it hadn’t been what she wanted… but he really was a generous person.

His kindness had given Senia courage.

The courage to get along with others and build a life at the academy.

I’m not going back to the Artian family. Just as the protagonist of The Youngest Son of a Political Dynasty left his family to live independently, I’m going to cut my ties with the Artian family.

She had told Eriol and Kane that she had come to study magical swordsmanship, but that was only an excuse.

Senia had come to the academy to gain her independence from the Artian family.

She had no intention of returning to that place… where people weren’t treated as human beings.

I’m going to become a mage here.

With that resolve, Senia lay down in bed.

Looking forward to the academy life she was about to begin with Eriol.