The first meeting with the senior was so bad that it could hardly be called anything else, but by the time the conversation ended, the first meeting seemed to be nothing but a good memory.
The senior was a wizard who deserved the title of "senior."
- The library is a meaningful plan. Leave the top floor empty. I'll fill one side of the bookshelf.
Of course, he offered to lend a hand to the junior's plan.
- The artifact for constructing a Magic Realm is dangerous. However, it has many uses and shouldn't just be destroyed. The spatial isolation will certainly help the tower you plan to build.
He advised on the uses of the artifact, which I hadn't thought about specifically.
I also agreed with his perspective.
Spatial isolation.
The magic that even the academy professors couldn't penetrate was not common, and it would surely be useful in protecting the tower in the future.
The problem was that I didn't know magical engineering...
- Go see Professor Felina. I'll give her a heads-up. She's trustworthy.
He declared that he would arrange a meeting with Professor Felina first.
This declaration was not limited to the artifact.
Professor Felina likely had some preconceived notions about me, whether good or bad, and he was saying he would help resolve those.
Moreover,
- I see that you handle mana quite well. You should learn the Magic Prison. I'll teach it to you when I have time.
He readily offered to teach me the Magic Prison, his own technique.
- Chenbi... I understand. I'll keep an eye on you. If you don't meet my standards, there's nothing I can do, but if you do, I'll guide you.
He agreed to my near-plea.
He wasn't just a grumpy person.
His consideration was even more meticulous than that of ordinary people with intact thought processes, and the wisdom in his eyes was as vivid as madness.
We shared various stories, and while I gained a lot from the senior, I also gave a lot in return, but it would be too much to list all the conversations we had.
However, the biggest gain, in my opinion, was the connection with the senior.
It wasn't because of the senior's social authority, his power as a wizard, or the things he possessed.
It was simply the person of the senior himself.
He himself was a great gain.
Anyway,
- Then, go in.
- Yes, Principal. Please go in.
We exchanged pleasantries, not as seniors and juniors who had a heart-to-heart, but as the principal and a student, putting on a facade.
The next morning after meeting the senior,
Knock knock knock!
The sound of knocking echoed throughout the room.
"Ugh."
I lifted my heavy eyelids and stretched my stiff body at the sudden noise.
The booming voice followed.
"Friend! Wake up! It's morning!"
It was Damian.
After the trials of the Chamber of Ordeals ended,
This had been a daily routine every morning.
I hadn't left my room for a week, engrossed in reading the Vision of Red Fire, but Damian knocked on my door every day.
However, it seemed that Chenbi's voice was also heard today.
"Damian, Damian. Aster might still be sleeping. If you keep knocking like that..."
"It's fine! Just wake him up!"
...Yeah, if someone is sleeping, you wake them up. That's true.
"But... Aster isn't feeling well. If you wake him up like this..."
That's right.
I had been locked in my room, claiming to be unwell, so this was a normal reaction.
But,
"No! He's not sick! I know!"
...Perceptive guy.
Damian's insight into magic was astonishing.
He might not know the exact extent of my achievements, but he must have gauged my capabilities to some degree.
'Of course, he doesn't know that I dealt with the presentation...'
From a general perspective, he didn't think I had been harmed by the golems.
So, he must have been knocking on the door every day.
"Phew."
I wanted to sleep a bit more, but I had to get up from the bed.
After the conversation with the senior, I returned to my room and found that my sleep time was woefully short.
Of course, a day or two of reduced sleep wouldn't cause physical fatigue, but mental fatigue was a different story.
The conversation with the senior was quite tiring for me.
Anyway,
"Wait. I'll take a quick shower and come out."
I answered from inside the room and went to the shower.
"Look! He's awake!"
"...Oh, yeah. That's right."
The only bad thing about being at the academy was Damian's change.
He goes to bed late at night and wakes up early in the morning.
Objectively, it could be seen as a positive change, but not for me.
He knocks on my door every morning.
Even when I was in the dorm room <807>, if my roommate wasn't Pola, I would have been quite embarrassed.
Of course, Pola glared fiercely, but...
'He has a point, so I can't say anything.'
He should be grateful that I don't sing at midnight.
If I really wanted to, I could burst out with dozens of light spells while singing.
In a way, Pola might have been the biggest beneficiary of mastering the Chamber of Ordeals.
With me moved to the temporary dorm, her mornings must have become much more peaceful.
After a quick shower, I used magic to evaporate the water from my body.
I didn't use fire magic.
'It might burn.'
My head might have been completely singed off.
I needed to control the magic to just evaporate the water, but I still found it difficult to control fire magic.
So, when I opened the door and went out...
"It's been a while!"
"Ah, Aster... Are you okay?"
The two greeted me.
Damian, as always, was cheerful, and Chenbi, for some reason, seemed...
'Chenbi, this guy has gained weight?'
His face was full of worry, but his cheeks were puffy, and his skin was very smooth.
It's not easy to gain weight in just a week...
Did he notice my gaze?
Chenbi smiled awkwardly.
"Hehe. Friends gave me some elixirs. I gained some weight."
"Friends?"
I looked at Chenbi with a doubtful eye.
Chenbi had approached me because he had no friends.
But, he had made friends in just a week? Friends who even gave him elixirs?
"Anyway, are you feeling better? You didn't seem well... "
"Just a bit tired. But, friends?"
Chenbi scratched his head awkwardly in response to my question.
"Actually... Ah, let's go downstairs and talk. I have a lot to tell you."
"Let's go! I'm hungry!"
It seemed that a lot had happened to Chenbi in the past week.
I moved with the two to the temporary dorm's basement cafeteria.
* * *
After finishing the meal, we moved to the cafeteria set up in the temporary dorm.
On the short walk to the cafeteria,
"Chenbi! Where are you going? Want to practice magic together later?"
"Ah, yeah. I think it'll be fine in the evening."
"Okay. I'll let the others know."
"Chenbi, good morning! My mother is coming later, let's go together. Clear your schedule."
"Ah, yeah."
Several... not countless, but a few students greeted Chenbi warmly.
Damian was no exception.
Of course, his reactions were quite different from Chenbi's.
"Damian, my father is coming later, do you want to go together?"
"No! I'm going to play today!"
"Damian, thank you for the Chamber of Ordeals..."
"Yeah! I'm also grateful!"
A number of students, far more than Chenbi, approached Damian, but he mostly responded without really listening to them.
Yet, the students didn't show any signs of being upset.
Seeing this, I suddenly thought,
'Was it a month, not a week?'
Why not?
Like the story where someone meets a sage in the mountains, receives teachings for years, and comes out to find decades have passed...
The scene before me was a dramatic change.
A month at the academy.
During that time, the three of us were truly just three.
No one approached us, and we didn't approach anyone.
Anyway, admiring the unfamiliar scene, we arrived at the cafeteria.
The interior was incomparable to the cafeteria in the first-year student dining hall.
It was originally a guesthouse for visiting dignitaries to the academy, and it lived up to its name.
"The drinks you ordered are ready."
When the server brought the drinks, Chenbi, who was sitting, spoke awkwardly.
"First, thank you, Aster."
"...?"
With Damian sipping his parfait in the background, Chenbi continued, putting on a serious tone.
"Thank you for saving me in the Chamber of Ordeals, and for the bracelet... Thanks to the information you gave me about the bracelet, I was able to make friends."
After we parted ways.
Contrary to my expectation that he would be busy taking care of himself, Chenbi had wandered around the Chamber of Ordeals.
I don't know what he was thinking, but he apparently went around looking for children and spreading the information about the bracelet I had told him.
The bracelet acted as a tracking device for the golems, so just removing it would allow one to survive.
"The elixirs were also gifts from those friends, and... Thanks to you, my family's situation has improved. The parents of the children said they would help."
Of course, it wasn't a particularly great elixir.
It was a low-grade elixir, easily obtainable with money and not very expensive.
But for Chenbi, who had never even dreamed of such things, it was a significant gift.
'...So that's how it happened.'
I nodded, listening to Chenbi's story.
But,
"You don't need to thank me."
"Huh?"
"I didn't tell you to do it, and you were the one who went around despite your injuries. This change is something you created."
This was purely the luck Chenbi had created.
If Chenbi hadn't been selfless and had been busy taking care of himself as I had thought, this luck wouldn't have happened.
In a way, it was a courageous act.
When I saved Chenbi, he was as frightened as any other student, if not more so.
If he had been a bit more calm and looked at the situation more rationally, he might have been able to avoid danger without my help.
But he was in a state of mind where even rational judgment was impossible.
'Not everyone can do that in such a situation.'
Some might call it foolish.
Now that things had turned out well, it was fortunate, but generally, people who live like that don't live long.
And,
The reason the number of students greeting Damian had increased was similar to Chenbi's.
'...Using plant magic to bind the golems?'
I looked at Damian, who had already finished one parfait and was ordering another.