“They told them to keep an eye on you from the Church’s headquarters?”
Emeric’s sudden words threw my thoughts into chaos.
The Church headquarters… Isn’t that the core of the Sun’s Order? There’s no reason for them to take interest in me.
“Why?” I asked, and Emeric offered a tentative guess.
“It’s just my personal opinion, but perhaps they heard the rumors about you and got curious.”
“Rumors?”
“You survived the breath of the strange bird. You also distinguished yourself during the Demonic Realm training; they must have heard of it as well.”
How long has it been since that incident, and they’re still bringing it up? I’m sick of it.
“It does sound plausible, but if that were the case, they would’ve acted sooner. Why take interest only now? It seems quite unnatural.”
“Of course, Hersel, it’s not like I haven’t thought the same. But beyond that, I can’t think of any other reason.”Emeric’s reasoning made sense. Fine, let’s try to think positively. It’s unlikely that the Sun’s Order’s core entity, the final mastermind, ‘The Eye of Eternity,’ is involved. It must just be a regular high-ranking old man at the Church headquarters, suffering from dementia, who suddenly recalled the strange bird incident and took an interest in me. That has to be it.
But as always, reality was far from comforting.
“Moreover, they said to keep an eye on Leana Rel Derevian as well.”
“That’s something you should’ve mentioned from the start.”
If it were just about me, that would be one thing, but watching over Leana as well? It was clear that Gillem, one of the Reincarnators, was involved. That pervert had his eye on Leana for a while now.
I wondered why they were making such a move at this point, but the answer came to me quickly.
It was likely because of me, Hersel Ben Tenest, the eldest son and supposed fiancé who wasn’t originally meant to exist.
In fact, I had subtly anticipated this when I decided to step into the Frost Heart. It was something that could’ve happened at any moment. What I thought would pass quietly finally came to the surface.
But given how shocking the news was at the start, there was something I couldn’t quite process.
“By the way, how do you know all this, Senior?” I asked, and Emeric chuckled awkwardly.
“It wasn’t hard to find out. Don’t worry about it and focus on figuring out how to respond.”
Did he happen to overhear it by chance? No, I doubt they would casually mention such matters in passing. It was obvious that he had intentionally spied on them, but I didn’t think he’d answer even if I asked. And since he seemed to be helping, it was better not to criticize him.
“Anyway, thanks for letting me know.”
“Well, I’ve delivered the message, so I’ll be off.”
Emeric left, looking satisfied. I wasn’t sure why he was helping me, but I decided to let it slide as something good.
Yet, for some reason, I found myself looking at his back with an uneasy feeling.
– Come to think of it, that guy doesn’t seem entirely normal either. Could he be planning something?
* * *
The next day, after hearing Emeric’s words, I walked down the hallway towards the lecture hall.
Was it just my imagination? I wasn’t sure if I was being overly sensitive, but I felt eyes on me from time to time.
Well, I just ignored it with the attitude of ‘let them look all they want.’ People like me, who live without any faults, have nothing to worry about.
Today was the first class at the Adele Hall’s Department of Magic. Feeling a sense of anticipation, I continued walking until the lecture hall came into view.
Then, I bumped into Dorosian.
“Hm? I thought you’d skip class, but you’re here,” I commented, replacing a greeting with surprise. Dorosian replied with a sullen expression.
“You… don’t you think you’ve been a bit too casual with me lately?”
“Disappointed to hear that. I thought we’d built a bit of a rapport,” I replied, feigning disappointment.
Dorosian simply responded with a flat “Really?” and entered the lecture hall. I followed behind her.
Voices could be heard, coming from our classmates who had arrived earlier. They glanced at Dorosian and me before quickly averting their gaze. I ignored their reactions and kept walking.
I scanned for a suitable seat and made my way over, inadvertently passing Dorosian. She stood still, simply observing the other students.
I asked bluntly, “Are you planning to skip class?”
Dorosian didn’t say much, so I just shrugged and sat down. A few seconds later, she settled into a seat not too far from mine, blurting out an unnecessary comment.
“The view from the back is actually pretty good.”
“…What’s your angle?”
“Nothing much. I just felt like messing up your class today.”
“Oh, really?”
I had already prepared for this class by reviewing the Syllabus with Bellman, so she could try all she wanted.
As I took out my textbook, Professor Gomon entered the room. He scanned my face with a sly expression before greeting the students.
“Nice to meet you all. My name is Gomon Gel Afran. Just call me Professor Gomon.”
With his brief introduction over, the lesson began. It was the first day of the second semester, so there was nothing particularly intense.
“Today’s lecture will cover the Awakening of Senses. I’ll be explaining the basics.”
After Professor Gomon announced the topic, a female student raised a question.
“Excuse me? Didn’t we already learn this at the end of the first semester?”
“There are newcomers this semester. We have to cover the basics. For those of you who were here from the start at Adele Hall, consider it a review.”
The woman nodded in understanding, and Professor Gomon opened his book with a satisfied smile.
It was all information I already knew, and the basics weren’t worth paying much attention to.
“The Awakening of Senses is closely related to the nervous system. Our ability to see, for example, is thanks to the optic nerve. Each sensory organ is connected by nerves. Severe damage could cause blindness or deafness.”
Just as mana is sensed through the five senses, the nervous system is crucial in magic.
“But even a blind mage can manifest visualization magic. How do you think that happens, when the optic nerve is completely deteriorated?”
However, even with damage, it doesn’t greatly impact magic.
The reason is…
“Because the mana pathways remain intact. Even if the nerves are damaged, mana within the body can still be transmitted to the eyes.”
Once senses are awakened, mana itself creates new pathways in the nerves solely for magical manifestation.
“The nerves may get severed, but they’ll recover quickly, so there’s no need to worry.”
The following explanations covered the principles of sense awakening. It wasn’t a hands-on class, so I only half-listened.
But aside from me and Dorosian, the rest of the students scribbled notes vigorously. I could even hear small murmurs here and there.
“Is it a habit? Why are they writing when it’s just a review?”
“What’s wrong with that? Refreshing what you’ve learned isn’t a bad thing.”
It made sense for Ricks and Gravel since this was new for them, but even the Adele Hall students, who already knew it, were taking the class earnestly.
Despite the diligent atmosphere, Dorosian only looked at the students with a vacant expression.
“They all live such boring lives.”
Her voice was dripping with boredom.
“It’s different from Schlaphe Hall,” I responded.
Perhaps it wasn’t the answer she was expecting. Despite my effort to respond, Dorosian remained silent. I wondered if she was reminiscing about the past.
The Grice family is a renowned magical lineage. Due to the family’s educational policy, its descendants face constant competition. Maybe she was seeing her former self, studying endlessly with her sisters, in these students.
Dorosian remained quiet for a while. Not wanting to intrude on her thoughts, I casually flipped through the pages of the textbook to review what we’d be learning.
“By the way, did you feel anything strange while coming down the stairs today?”
Hearing her voice, I turned my head. Dorosian, resting her chin on her hand, was looking in my direction.
“Strange? How so?”
“Actually, I have a habit of counting the steps when I go down the stairs. Just as a way to pass the time.”
“…You must be really bored.”
“Yeah, I was. But today was a little different. The number of steps was off.”
Sensing something, I asked cautiously, “Are you saying the stairs got longer?”
“Who knows? It was only three steps more, but still. If it increased, then it increased.”
“You sure you didn’t miscount?”
“Hmm, maybe. Could be.”
“So, you didn’t bother to double-check?”
“Right. Because that would mean climbing all the way back up again, and I didn’t want to waste the effort of coming down.”
It made sense. Unless someone was obsessive, most people wouldn’t go that far.
“So, how about this—want to count together after class?” Dorosian proposed.
I squinted my eyes halfway and echoed the words she had said to me before entering the lecture hall.
“You… don’t you think you’ve been a bit too casual with me lately?”
Dorosian smirked, as if amused.
Just then, Professor Gomon pointed at us. It seemed he had heard us talking from across the room.
“It’s the first day, but you two should at least try to focus.”
Dorosian retorted, “I’ve already awakened all five senses.”
“Mm, maybe so, but Hersel hasn’t, right?”
I replied this time, “When awakening a new sense, the internal body undergoes certain phenomena—vascular expansion and contraction, significant energy consumption, accompanied by mild headaches. The reason for this is that it takes immense energy to form mana channels within the nerves, and the body mutates to adapt to the changed internal environment.”
The Adele Hall students stared at me with their mouths agape.
Seeing their enthusiasm for revisiting this material, I summarized it in my head and explained it in a simpler way to help them understand.
When I was about to elaborate on the last topic of the day, Professor Gomon stopped me.
“No, that’s enough, kid. Just let them nap if they want.”
He said this with a tone of irritation before resuming the lesson.
* * *
After class, Dorosian and I reached the stairs in question. Even if I didn’t want to, there wasn’t much choice.
The staircase lay between the dormitory and the lecture hall. Since it was rumored to have some hidden mechanism, it was worth checking out.
Dorosian, ascending the stairs, spoke.
“Usually there are 150 steps. But when I counted today, there were 153.”
I lowered my gaze, inspecting each step, as it was uncomfortable to look up at her swaying figure.
We reached the landing near the entrance while counting the steps. Dorosian announced her count.
“159… Did I miscount?”
Her voice was filled with self-doubt.
But it wasn’t a mistake. It matched my count exactly.
“I got 159 steps too.”
“What could it be? Maybe it was always 159 steps, and I just miscounted before?”
“How about counting again on the way down?”
I began descending, counting each step once more. Behind me, I could hear Dorosian muttering under her breath.
“13, 14…”
This time, she was determined not to make a single mistake, vocalizing each number clearly.
“158, 159? 160… 168, 169, 170?”
The number of steps had visibly increased.
Dorosian ran her hand along the wall, intrigued.
“Could it be that the steps increase when you use the staircase? Fascinating.”
She seemed excited, but this was definitely not a good sign.
This staircase was once a prison designed to trap intruders long ago.
There were only two reasons it would be activated: it was malfunctioning due to age, or someone had triggered it intentionally. It certainly wasn’t the former, as this phenomenon wasn’t supposed to occur at this point in time. The odds were high that someone had caused it intentionally.
Turning to her with a serious tone, I warned, “This doesn’t feel right. We’d better use a different staircase from now on.”
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