All classes for the first-year Kizen students' first day were over.
Before leaving the school, the first-year professors gathered in the professor's lounge and talked about the new students while having tea.
"Meilyn Villenne was more than I expected. She brewed the Shanif Poison from day one!"
"Their blood is just great, don't you think? All seven of their children are excellent!"
"How about that official successor of the Ivory Tower?"
"Ah, Serene? Is there anything I need to say? No wonder she was acting so confident in the Ivory tower."
"Let's not forget about Chatelle Maerre. There's a prejudice that half-giant blood lacks magical ability compared to their physical, but this guy is evenly outstanding."
"But professor, you can't steal our Chatelle from us, alright?"
"Hoho, look at the way you speak. Are you already pretending that she's your student?"
"You do know that pre-contacting during the student protection period is against the rules, right?"
The professors exchanged jokes and engaged in some war of nerves, telling the stories of the new students.
"Hey, Professor Bahil."
Professor Bahil, sipping the tea with his eyes closed, nodded to sign that he was listening.
"You also had a lesson with Class A today, didn't you? How was it?"
"What do you mean?"
"Hey now. Don't play dumb with me. I'm talking about that No.1 Special Admission that Nefthis personally chose."
"In my class, he lost 10:1 to his opponent. I still don't know if he has great talent."
"…Hm, that's surprising. Still, he's the so-called No.1 Special Admission. Wasn't there anything special about him?"
It was a persistent question, but Bahil smiled softly.
"He had good physical strength. He stood with nine exhausts in the first class."
"Oh, nine times?"
"Physical strength is an important attribute, but it's a bit vague to be the No.1 Special Admission."
Click.
At that moment, the door to the professor's lounge opened. Aaron, a professor of Summoning, walked in with his disheveled hair and dragged his slippers.
He slightly bowed down to the professors and went to pick up his coat hanging from his hanger, as if not caring what other professors were talking about.
"That reminds me."
Bahil began to talk.
"You also had a class in Class A today, Aaron."
Everyone's eyes turned to Aaron. Aaron grabbed his coat with an expressionless face.
"So what?"
"How was the No.1 Special Admission for you?"
Immediately, all the professors in the lounge looked at Aaron with their eyes shining.
A silent pressure was telling him to spit it out already.
Aaron sighed quietly, and he answered in his unique drowsy voice.
"An insensitive man of mediocrity. He had some creativity in making his own, original defective products."
While the other professors exchanged their thoughts loudly, only Bahil had the corners of his lips massively raised.
'Did he just… put up a smokescreen?'
Bahil, who often acted with Aaron on the site, knew his tendency better than anyone. If he really didn't like the student, he wouldn't talk in a roundabout way like that.
Insensitive man of mediocrity.
Creativity in making defective products.
In a way, that was the greatest compliment Aaron could give.
'...This is getting more and more appealing.'
A boy chosen by Nefthis and marked by that picky Aaron.
Bahil felt that his thoughts about Simon came closer and stronger with conviction.
"Right, Aaron."
If so, then the war had already begun.
"The thing you said last year. A declaration that you will no longer have direct disciples. Can I consider that it's still valid?"
Aaron, who was about to step out of the room, froze.
The other professors also stopped talking and looked at Aaron.
Suddenly, there was a strained atmosphere in the lounge.
"…P-Professor Bahil."
The female professor sitting next to Bahil stopped him with a small voice, but Bahil waited for an answer with a smile on his face. As Aaron's mouth was about to open…
Click!
"Hallo hallo everyone!"
A girl with silver hair walked up to the room out of nowhere.
"Nefthis!"
When she appeared, the professors of Kaizen, who were said to be bossing the continent around, simultaneously bent their backs and greeted her formally.
"Welcome."
Bahil, who greeted her like a gentleman, was the first to approach her. Then. he pulled something out of his arms and held it out.
It was chocolate ice cream.
Bahil was the only person who carried ice cream in a subspace that'd been enchanted with freezing magic in case he met Nefthis in this Kizen.
"Agh, honestly! I keep telling you not to treat me like a child!"
Even though she said that, she took the ice cream from Bahil's hand.
"It's a virtue of a gentleman to prepare snacks for the Lady."
"Hmph. What a smooth talker."
Nefthis took a bite of the ice cream. Soon, her cheeks flushed, and the expression on her face became soft, like that of a small girl.
And some professors who saw her bit the insides of their cheeks. They couldn't bear the blasphemous thoughts of feeling that the great witch of death was cute.
"Please sit here, Nefthis."
A professor quickly prepared her a seat. Nefthis grabbed the armrests of the slightly bigger chair and climbed onto it while groaning.
"Heave-ho! How were the first-year students on the first day?"
She asked while eating her ice cream and the professors scrambled to report what they felt.
Rather than the verified special admission students such as Serene or Chatelle, students with excellent grades such as Meilyn and Hector from Class A, or Kaez from Class B were often brought up.
Nefthis nodded and listened to their story.
"Mm, alright, alright! Just tell me if there are any problems. Since today is the first day, go home early and rest."
"Understood!"
"Nefthis."
It was then. Aaron, who had been quiet all along, opened his mouth.
"I want to talk to you personally for a while."
The other professors widened their eyes.
Of course, counseling with Nefthis was allowed if you were at the level of a professor in Kizen, but it wasn't common to have such a bold request for individual counseling.
"Yeah, sure."
Nefthis smiled and came down from her seat. Aaron bowed his head once and followed her outside.
'He's so straightforward, as usual…'
After Nefthis left, Bahil sat back down and crossed his legs, a smile being brought to his mouth.
'But Nefthis won't tell you that easily, Aaron.'
All classes for the first day of school in Kizen were over.
Simon, Rick, and the whole of Class A moved to the dormitory under the guidance of the minion.
But a small problem occurred.
Because they took the three hours of summoning class to the end, Class A arrived late at the dormitory and most of the rooms were full.
The capacity of the dormitory rooms was 3 people per room.
Simon and Rick decided to share the same room, but the students who came in earlier occupied more than two slots.
"I-I'm sorry. Even on the 2nd floor, there's no room with two empty slots."
The dormitory manager kept on bowing her head. Simon waved dismissively since she was sweating profusely and apologizing even though it wasn't her fault.
"You don't have to apologize, manager."
Simon was a little uncomfortable that an older person was treating him respectfully.
Of course, within Kizen, the rank of students was higher than the minions. Besides, most of the students were prominent nobles. It was natural for the minions to keep their low profile.
Rick folded his arms like he was used to this kind of situation.
"There wouldn't be a room with two vacant slots on the 3rd and 4th floors too, right?"
"...Yeah. The other floors must be in a similar situation."
The manager showed them the list on the 2nd floor. Some rooms had one slot left, but they were also far apart.
Simon and Rick looked at each other.
"So, what's the plan, Simon?"
"Let's decide after checking the other floors just in case."
At that moment, when the two were exchanging their opinions…
"Outta my way!"
Wham! There was a bumping sound and the manager collided with the luggage bag, falling to the floor.
The brown-haired student who was pulling the cart frowned.
"Ah, what the hell are you doing? I told you to get out of the way!"
"I-I'm sorry!"
As she fell, she quickly bowed her head, and the friend who was accompanying him giggled and laughed. The brown-haired student frowned as he touched the luggage.
"Ah, dammit. This part is dented because of you. How are you going to pay for this?"
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"
"I'm sorry my ass. Come after me."
As she was raising her body, head bowed like a criminal,
"I'm sorry, but…"
Simon came forward.
"I'm talking to her right now, you see."
"...What?"
The manager's eyes widened to a circle and the brown-haired student scoffed.
"And it was pretty obvious that you bumped into her on purpose."
Rick sneered and stood next to Simon.
"…These bastards must be out of their minds. Who the fuck are you guys to interfere?"
"Hey, hey, wait!"
The friend next to him hurriedly tapped his shoulder. He then whispered,
"It's him! The No.1 Special Admission who took the oath as the student representative in the hall!"
"...Huh?"
The student's expression, examining Simon's face carefully, turned pale.
His eyes trembled, as if there was an earthquake, and he panicked. He looked at the innocent manager and said,
"H-Hmph! Please be careful next time! Let's go!"
Watching them leave the place like they were running, Rick grabbed his sides and laughed. Simon also smiled and offered his hand to the fallen manager.
"Are you alright?"
She blushed, taking Simon's hand and standing up.
"...T-Thank you for your help."
"Don't worry about it. I just did the right thing."
"My name is Lena! If you're planning to check upstairs, I'll guide you. Maybe I can help."
"Ah, please. Thank you!"
The three of them went upstairs together. She moved quickly, getting information from the other managers and headed straight to the 4th floor.
"They said there's one room with two empty slots on the 4th floor!"
Lena spoke as she ran. Simon and Rick were running close behind her.
"There's an empty room?"
"Yes! How lucky! Room 409 was originally used as a four-person room, so it's a good large room with a great view, and close to the main stairway! I never imagined that there would be two empty slots there."
Soon, the three of them arrived at the door of Room 409.
Lena checked the name tag attached on the room and,
"Ah…"
Her face suddenly darkened.
"What's wrong?"
She turned, looked at the two of them, and said with a sheepish face,
"L-Let's just go somewhere else. Room 412 and 413 have one slot, but they're side by side so—"
"Is there a problem with this room?"
At Simon's question, she nodded grimly. She then pointed to the name tag on the door.
"…Kajann Edvalt. He's a student from last year."
Rick's eyes widened at those words.
"No way! This is a first-year dormitory, isn't it? The second-years arrive next month."
"Kajann is a repeater. As far as I know, he was delayed because he caused a big problem and he's starting from the first year again."
"Hm."
It was too strange for Rick to accept.
Kizen was a place where they had no hesitation kicking out students.
Usually, if they caused problems or they failed, they'd be boldly expelled from school. But repeating? It was a rare case.
Simon asked again,
"What caused his repeating?"
"I'm just a dormitory employee, so I don't know the specific reason. However, rumors of him spread among the management for causing troubles... There were many cases of bruises on the faces of students in the same room or appeals to change rooms."
There was a reason why two slots were vacant in this room. Rick, slightly frightened, glanced at Simon.
"Simon. Let us just go to another roo—"
"I'll just go and say hello for a moment. That would be fine, right?"
After saying that, Simon knocked on the door and went inside. Rick freaked out and followed after Simon.
As the manager said, it was originally a room for 4, so it was quite spacious. There was a bunk bed and two single beds as well as a personal desk and a wardrobe.
Kizen's buildings, mountains, and valleys could be seen from the window. Indeed, it deserved to be called an ideal spot like Lena mentioned.
And on one side of the wall, there was already a person lying on top of the bunk bed with all his luggage unpacked. He was covering his whole body with a white blanket.
"Wait, Simon!"
Rick lowered his voice and said,
"You heard what Lena said! He must be temperamental!"
Simon took a deep breath and opened his mouth.