Ch. 126
Volume 2
Chapter 50 : The Visit
“Congratulations, Muen Campbell.”
In the Student Council Room, Veir had gone off to busy herself with something again, so Selicia personally brewed coffee for Muen once more.
“In the span of a single month, you went from three points to eighty. That is something unheard of in the entire history of the academy. It would not be an exaggeration to say that you have made history.”
“Thank you.”
Muen took the coffee from Selicia’s hand, then watched as she dropped sugar cubes into it one by one.
By the time the coffee had become almost syrupy, she finally took a small sip and revealed a faintly pleased expression.
She still liked coffee with an absurd amount of sugar in it.
Muen smiled slightly and took a sip as well. It was bitter, but fragrant and pleasantly refreshing.
“But calling it history is a bit too much. Compared to me, Ariel’s hundred points are what really count as making history.”
For a subject like Fundamentals of Magic, getting a perfect score was probably about as difficult as getting full marks in language arts had been in Muen’s previous life.
So no matter how he thought about it, Ariel’s hundred should have been the kind of score that left jaws on the floor.
That was exactly how it had been in the original story.
The teachers, the students, even Selicia herself—everyone had been astonished by that perfect score.
It was a very typical protagonist moment, one that stunned the entire audience.
And yet, for some reason, Muen felt that there had been very little discussion of that hundred-point score in reality.
Instead, the topic most heatedly discussed among the students had been which rooftop had the strongest wind.
But after the academy’s teachers installed ten-meter-high wire fencing around every rooftop at lightning speed, that topic vanished as well.
In its place, people started discussing which river on campus had the clearest water.
Fortunately, anyone capable of entering this academy was hardly likely to drown in the one-meter-deep streams and artificial lakes on campus.
So up to now, the only real result had been a few biting comments in the Newspaper Society’s paper from gamblers who simply refused to give up.
“Ariel scored a hundred?”
Selicia sounded as though this was the first she had heard of it.
She lightly brushed aside her silver-white hair, admiration flickering in her eyes.
“That is quite impressive.”
“…That is all?”
“Hmm?”
“I thought you would praise her a little more.”
Muen was somewhat puzzled. In the original story, Selicia had been lavish in her praise of that achievement.
“Ariel’s hundred points are indeed surprising.”
Selicia’s cool gaze swept across Muen.
“But if you can even score eighty, then no matter how high anyone else scores, it no longer feels all that surprising.”
“Are you praising me?”
The corner of Muen’s mouth twitched.
“Take it as praise if you like.”
Selicia opened the documents in front of her and began processing them.
“You came to visit me all of a sudden. Surely it was not specifically to show off your grades to me.”
“Heh, of course not.”
Muen laughed a little nervously.
“I came to…”
Before he could finish, he saw a card tossed down in front of him.
Selicia held her pen as it flew across the papers, writing without even raising her head, as though she had long since guessed what he wanted.
“Go to the campus infirmary. Show them this, and someone will naturally take you to see Aemon.”
“Thank you.”
Muen accepted the card with a grateful expression and was about to take his leave when Selicia stopped him.
“Remember, do not stay too long.”
Selicia gave the reminder:
“He is still very weak.”
“Weak?”
Muen frowned.
“But it has already been a month. Even if he had suffered serious injuries, with the academy’s medical standards, he should have recovered long ago, should he not?”
“His injuries healed a long time ago. But the potion he drank was meant to stimulate the bloodline and latent potential within the body. Normally, an ordinary person would only need a week or two of rest to recover after drinking it. The problem is that his body had already been depleted too severely beforehand, so when the potion forcibly drew out his potential, it nearly damaged his foundation. He is still recuperating now.”
“I see…”
Muen recalled what Aemon had looked like at the time.
He had gone from being so gaunt that a gust of wind might have toppled him straight into transforming into such a terrifying werewolf.
If the potion had not been replenishing his energy, then the strain it placed on the body truly was hard to imagine.
But in the end, the potion had only been a trigger. As for the real reason…
A trace of anger flashed through Muen’s eyes.
“Selicia, those people…”
“A few days ago, three upperclassmen left the academy.”
Selicia said:
“The reason given was that they used improper means to harm a fellow student. The announcement has already been posted on the academy bulletin board. Did you not see it?”
“Ah… thank you.”
Muen froze for a moment.
During this period, all his thoughts had been focused on the exams. How could he possibly have had the leisure to check the bulletin board?
“You do not need to thank me for this. Did I not say so before? Teaching bad students a lesson is the duty of the student council.”
Selicia continued turning the pages of her documents, seeming utterly unconcerned by such a minor matter.
“And besides, those fellows were indeed especially vile. After all, using violence against someone completely incapable of resisting is something even the former you—that scum you used to be—could not have done.”
“Are you praising me again?”
Muen’s lips twitched once more.
“Take it as such.”
“…”
“That reminds me. Have you found the person who gave Aemon the potion?”
Muen remembered that matter.
Because at the time, Aemon himself had said that a mysterious woman had beguiled him into drinking the potion.
Muen did not know what intentions that woman had harbored, but the fact remained that he had nearly lost his life because of the potion’s effects.
There was no way he could simply not ask about it.
“As for that…”
Selicia lifted her head.
Her cool eyes, like two ancient wells of unfathomable depth, made Muen feel a chill spread through his entire body.
“I am sorry, but I cannot disclose that for the time being.”
“Cannot disclose it?”
Muen could not help frowning.
If this matter had merely involved a conflict between students, then no matter what, it should not have prompted Selicia to say the words cannot disclose.
There was clearly something more behind it.
But Muen gave up on pressing further.
With Selicia’s temperament, if she had said as much, then no matter how much he asked, he would never get a real answer.
All he could do was trust her.
…
…
After Muen left, Selicia finally set down her pen.
Looking at the documents and materials before her, all marked and circled in red to highlight the important points, she could not help rubbing her temples.
A rare trace of weariness appeared on her cool and detached face.
“An evolution potion… It truly does make one think of unpleasant things.”
She turned her head to look out the window.
Dark clouds blanketed the sky, and with them, her mood also grew heavy.
“I only hope that nothing unexpected happens during this Open Day.”
…
…
In the warm hospital room, Aemon listened to the news the nurse had just brought back from outside and fell into profound shock.
“He succeeded…”
“Young Master Muen… he actually succeeded?”
No.
That was not right.
Of course he had succeeded.
Because of the look in Young Master Muen’s eyes back then—those burning, blazing eyes like living flame.
Anyone who saw them would believe that he possessed the power to turn the impossible into the possible.
“It is just…”
“How am I supposed to face him?”
“I… almost killed the young master…”
The memory of transforming into a werewolf had already become somewhat vague, but Aemon still dimly remembered it.
Back then, he really had seemed to want to kill Young Master Muen.
Looking at his still emaciated hand, he seemed to see again the image of that very hand wrapped around Young Master Muen’s throat.
At once, Aemon was swallowed by intense self-reproach and disgust.
The young master must hate me now.
He would surely abandon me again, just as before.
Because…
Creak.
At that moment, the door opened.
That familiar, mellow voice of his, like a gentle breeze, drifted into the room.
“Good afternoon, Aemon. Have you eaten yet?”