'Alchemy is pretty interesting.'
Ophelia sighed as she closed her book when the class ended, and the professor left the room.
While the process of transmutation interested her the most, she wasn't able to do it, as that required mana.
However, the creation of potions was interesting enough and far more effective than what she had originally thought.
"How was it?" Ellen, who was still writing something in her notebook, said as she turned her head toward Ophelia. "Your first class, I mean."
"Well, it was pretty interesting, I guess."
Ophelia replied as she scratched her cheek.
While she had learned about many things inside the Depths, alchemy was one of the most unknown things to her, so seeing it in person was really interesting for her.
"It really is right?!"
Ellen jumped up, grabbing her shoulders and looking into her eyes with her own sparkling gaze.
"Seraphir doesn't understand how interesting it is, as she is a weird magic fanatic, but I'm sure that you realize how useful alchemy actually is!"
"..It does seem useful, I guess..?"
Ophelia. who only saw Ellen's calm side until now, was surprised by her sudden enthusiasm when they started talking about alchemy.
"It seems like you are just as much of an alchemy enthusiast, Ellen."
"No way! You can't compare our enthusiasm towards our favorite branches of mana crafts!" she leaned forward, putting a hand to the side of her face to whisper something. "Sera is a craaazy fanatic."
Laughing, Ophelia nodded.
"If she's as crazy as you say, then I would love to meet her."
After all, meeting new people was kind of fun.
Especially after hundreds of years of solitude.
***
***
The next class was a class about combat and depths theory.
Unfortunately, Zenith didn't tell her who the professor of this class was, so she had no time to mentally prepare herself.
Using a book that Zenith gave her, she spent much of her time trying to memorize the faces of all the professors and roughly gauging their personalities.
In the far distance of the training center, she spotted a girl with black hair, crossing her legs and arms, patiently staring at the entrance and looking at them.
"That's Seraphir." Ellen whispered into Ophelia's ear before grabbing her hand, and pulling Ophelia with her. "Let's go to her."
The attention of the girl was now focused on them both.
"You're new here."
The girl stated as a matter of fact, as Ophelia sat down right between Ellen and the girl. whose name seemed to be Seraphir.
Contrary to Ellen, she didn't have any special racial features, so Ophelia just assumed that she was a human.
"Yes, my name is Ophelia."
Ophelia cracked a gentle smile as she introduced herself.
"Come on! Say your last name! Say your last name!"
Giggling, Ellen, who sat behind her, encouraged her to tell Seraphir her last name.
While Ophelia still felt uncomfortable telling people her new last name, she gave in, sighing as she did so.
"Yes, yes. I'm Ophelia Voidwalker. What's your name?"
Not responding, Seraphir just stared at her with a look of surprise, as she mechanically turned her head to Ellen.
"She's the sister of Mr.Voidwalker!"
Ellen's voice sounded amused as she talked to Seraphir.
"...I see."
Reaching out a hand, Seraphir flashed a smile. That seemed like she practiced it a thousand times.
"My name is Seraphir Leviathan. It's nice to meet you, Ophelia." She paused, looking away for a split second. "If it's alright for me to call you that."
'Leviathan? So she's a devil, huh?'
Nodding her head, Ophelia grabbed Seraphir's hand, giving her a firm handshake.
"Of course it is. I would also like to call you Seraphir."
"That would be fine with me."
Sighing, Ellen rolled her eyes as she flicked a small ball of wind against Seraphir's head.
"Come on, Sera. Why are you so stiff?"
Seraphir sounded irritated and the air surrounding her grew colder, giving off a chilly feeling.
"I was just under the impression that the person of someone I respect, would also deserve my respect, Ellen."
Her voice grew sharp as she said Ellen's name.
"Boring devil heirs." Ellen laughed, shooting another wind ball at Seraphir.
"You little..."
Conjuring some thin ice needles, she shot them toward Ellen, who redirected them by manipulating the surrounding air.
"Miss Seraphir seems to be angry."
Ellen ridiculed Seraphir, as she stuck her bottom lip out.
"Do you want me to call your mommy?"
"I'll beat you up!"
A fight broke out between the two of them.
While Seraphir seemed to be ticked off by Ellen's remarks, Ellen just kept laughing while simultaneously blocking Seraphir's attack.
However, Ophelia didn't think that it was a serious fight, as Seraphir still smiled while attacking Ellen.
As she sits right in between them, she just sat still on that spot with a stiff smile, waiting for the professor to enter the training center.
Click—!
With a clack of the entrance door, their little fight stopped, and they both turned their head toward the entering professor.
"..brother?"
Ophelia now knew why Zenith didn't tell her who the professor of this class was.
It was him.
"Are ya finally teaching us something new, teach?" A red-haired boy yelled toward Zenith, who had just entered the training center.
Ophelia expected Zenith to respond with a blank glare, but instead, Zenith formed a faint smile, releasing a short laughter.
"Yes, as I promised, Mr. Beelzebub."
"I've already told you to just call me Raum."
The boy responded with rolling eyes.
"That would be quite disrespectful, no?"
"No, it wouldn't be. I permitted you to call me by my last name."
"Seriously." Zenith sighed, massaging his forehead. "You sometimes remind me of Ibrahim."
He hadn't entered the room, but Ophelia could already see his incoming headache, judging by his behavior.
Still, he had a smile on his face, so she didn't think that it was that bad,
Moreover. he seemed like he would enjoy his job as a professor.
"However..."
As Zenith arrived at the center of the training center, his expression returned to his usual stoic one.
He turned his head toward Ophelia as he flashed her a gentle smile.
"´..we have a new student here, so I think a little combat evaluation would be necessary."
'What?'
Ophelia deadpanned, looking at Zenith with a dead stare, questioning his words.
He had just fought with her a week ago, so she couldn't see any reason why he would want to evaluate her skills once again.
"Oh, we have a new student?"
"It's that girl right there, isn't it?"
"She looks like Mr.Voidwalker."
"Is that his secret love child?"
Immediately, murmurs began to spread around the audience as the students theorized who she was.
Joining a class during a year was something that rarely happened, and in addition to her already weird joining circumstances, she possessed an uncannily similar appearance to their professor, which provoked great curiosity among the students.
"Quiet."
Zenith's voice was harsh and cold, silencing the entire class with a single word, as his expression momentarily hardened.
"Scary~"
Ellen whispered, barely audible to anyone but herself.
However, she wasn't the only one who heard it, as Zenith's gaze slowly moved to Ellen.
Ellen shuddered, as she realized that he was looking at her, seemingly recalling some unpleasant memories, as she adverted her gaze.
"I've heard that, Miss Elderwood."
"Ugh."
Sighing, Zenith focused his attention right back on Ophelia, gesturing to her that she should come to him.
"Anyway," Among the silence, Zenith started speaking again. "Please come down to the arena, Ophelia."
***
***
"Are you ready, Ophelia?"
Zenith asked, readying a steel sword that he pulled out of his own created dimension.
Seeing that ticked Ophelia off, as he was literally copying her technique, and using it as if it was his own.
Cracking a strained smile, she narrowed her eyes, spreading ether all around her body.
"Ready as I'll ever be, faker."
"Then come at me with all you've got."
Swish—!
There was nothing left to be said, as Ophelia dashed at a speed that was almost impossible to track with the eyes.
Opening her hand, she generated an enchanted detonation sword inside her hand.
While she wasn't in her dimension right now — just like Zenith just did — she could still limitedly generate items from the generations into reality.
At least as long as she focused on pumping mana into it to keep it from disappearing, it would work.
"Too predictable."
With an unimpressed voice, Zenith sidestepped her lunge, striking her hand with the pommel of the sword, forcing her to let go of her own weapon.
"Argh!"
Feeling the pain inside her hand, Ophelia quickly canceled her attack, pulling her hand back.
However, landing the first hit wasn't her intention from the start.
Using the detonation enchantment of her sword, she wanted to let it explode when it came close to Zenith.
"That won't work on me twice."
Before Ophelia could even detonate her sword, Zenith used the steel sword to cut her detonation sword in pieces, precisely destroying every enchantment that was imposed on the sword.
Gritting her teeth, Ophelia's expression hardened when her plan failed.
She knew that her only way of landing a decisive hit was by taking advantage of the fact that he wasn't trying to seriously injure her, thus giving her the chance to try some riskier plans.
"Forgot?"
With a calm expression, Zenith raised his left hand, tapping on his temple, as he looked at her with a blank expression.
To her, it seemed like he wasn't taking the spar seriously in any way.
His body language was relaxed and, while he didn't seem to show any of his feelings on his face, Ophelia could feel him mocking her in his mind.
Frankly, it pissed her off.
"Reactive adaptation. You already did it once. It won't work twice."
Rolling her eyes, Ophelia showed an annoyed smile, looking at her sadistic brother with an expression of irritation.
Was he trying to humiliate her in front of the class..?
During the time she spent with Zenith, Ophelia realized something.
'He is a fucking sadist.'
Even though it seemed like he didn't know it himself, every time Ophelia struggled with something or hurt herself by accident, Zenith showed an expression of pure amusement and bliss.
While it certainly didn't seem sexual, she knew that his undetected sadism influenced some of his choices.
Although he still reached his hand out to her, offering his help with his usual gentle smile, his eyes didn't quite reflect his emotional state.
"Please try to not sound so condescending, Mr. sadist,"
Ophelia flashed a sweet smile at Zenith, who just silently stared at her with an expression of disbelief.
"...I'm a what?"
"Exactly as I said. Are you perhaps deaf? Should I get you a doctor? Let me spell it out for you." Innocently giggling, Ophelia tilted her head to the side. "You are a perverted sadist. S. A. D. I. S. T."
"I am no sadist."
"Correction: you think that you are no sadist." Conjuring another sword, she used it to point at Zenith, looking at him with a serious expression. "Plot twist: you are wrong."
"I am.."
Sighing, Zenith responded with an obviously strained smile. It seemed like he was beginning to get irritated.
"...I am no sadist."
"That's something only a sadist would say."