The corridor was much brighter than the office. Harvey instinctively raised a hand to shield his eyes as soon as he stepped out.
He wasn’t quite used to it for a moment.
Standing inside the Magic Academy’s teaching building, staring at the wide corridor, he still felt a bit dazed.
Back in the office, he hadn’t immediately agreed to Cedric.
Even though he’d almost accepted Cedric’s offer on the spot—to become his disciple.
In the end, Harvey had said in a low voice.
“Please let me go back and think it over.”
At the moment he’d nearly given in, Lavia’s face had appeared in his mind.
Right. He couldn’t make a decision like this on his own.
He was the Eldest Miss’s personal slave.
Thinking about it, Harvey actually didn’t feel sad about that. Instead, a trace of relief surfaced.
Relief that he’d managed to leave himself some room when faced with temptation.
Cedric hadn’t seemed surprised.
The pale, dark-circled magic instructor smiled at him and said, “There’s no rush to decide something like this.”
“Come find me once you’ve thought it through. There’s no hurry.”
His words were perfectly sound and radiated goodwill.
But precisely because it was all so natural, Harvey couldn’t shake a faint, indescribable unease.
Too smooth.
So smooth it felt unreal.
Would anyone really show him kindness for no reason?
Harvey didn’t want to think of the gentle mage as a bad person, but he couldn’t stop his own wandering thoughts.
A chance to sense mana.
The possibility of becoming a mentor’s disciple.
A genuine foothold at the threshold of the magical world.
Every single one of these things was a temptation for someone desperate to change his circumstances.
Yet he feared they were sugarcoated poison.
Harvey walked toward the exit with his head down, unconsciously twisting his sleeve between his fingertips.
Something he’d long hoped for—suddenly appearing in front of him so easily—made it hard to feel simple joy right away.
In his daze, he reached the plaza outside the teaching building.
Just ahead were the dozen or so steps.
The sunlight outside the building was even brighter than inside.
A wide fountain square spread out before Harvey.
The fountain hadn’t been running when he entered earlier, so he hadn’t noticed it.
Now the white stone fountain at the center was shooting a high column of water, and sunlight caught in the fine mist, reflecting a hazy, glowing light.
There were no water sources or power devices nearby.
‘Ah, is it magic?’
Harvey looked up at the elegantly designed fountain ornament.
Too bad he couldn’t sense mana—he imagined the students around him could feel the flow perfectly.
Quite a few students were still lingering in the plaza.
They gathered around the fountain in small groups, occasionally letting out suppressed laughter and jeers, as if watching some kind of entertainment.
Harvey paused slightly, still thinking about Cedric’s matter. He intended to ignore it.
But the next moment, a melodious guitar drifted over on the breeze.
He blinked and looked up instinctively.
On a small patch of open ground in front of the fountain, a male student had appeared, dressed with particular care. He held a wooden stringed instrument in his arms, his collar neatly folded, his hair obviously groomed. He was strumming and singing heartfelt lyrics toward a certain direction.
The words were so direct they were barely veiled.
Even the onlookers nearby could barely suppress their laughter.
After listening for a moment, Harvey couldn’t help raising an eyebrow.
‘…They’re this relaxed?’
On the very first day of school, someone was serenading like this?
Though the behavior was just a talent showcase, not an outright confession, it was still quite bold.
You could tell from the shy, sneaking glances of the female students.
He had no interest in such romantic games favored by noble students, nor did he plan to stop and watch.
Right now, he’d rather find Lavia first.
She’d said before leaving the classroom that she would wait for him outside.
But Harvey had walked all the way from the office and still hadn’t seen her.
He wondered if something had held her up, or if she’d already gone back.
With that thought, Harvey stopped looking around and intended to bypass the fountain plaza and leave.
But just as he was about to move—
The water column that had been shooting high under the sun let out an extremely light yet extremely crisp sound.
Crack.
Like something had been frozen solid in an instant.
Harvey looked up instinctively.
The soaring fountain column turned into a huge, glittering mass of ice in the blink of an eye. Frosty white cold rapidly spread through the air, and even the sunlight seemed to grow brittle from the chill.
The next second, the unsupported ice pillar suddenly shattered.
Countless sharp, needle-like shards of ice shot in all directions, carrying cold light and a sound of shattering.
“Ahh!”
Screams erupted at almost the same time.
The students who’d been gathered around the fountain panicked. Some scrambled back, others instinctively raised their hands to cast spells.
Those quick enough had already formed translucent magic shields in front of them, barely blocking the flying ice.
Harvey wasn’t far away.
He looked up, watching a single ice needle flying straight toward him with chilling intent. His mind went blank for a moment.
Too fast.
Too fast for him to even react properly.
‘Am I going to get hit?’
Before his consciousness could act, his left hand lifted inexplicably.
Like some instinct carved deep into his body.
Beneath his palm, the air suddenly warped.
A wisp of extremely faint, extremely thin death aura began to seep from his palm.
Like threads about to emerge from the dark depths, carrying a bone-deep chill, silently encroaching on a corner of reality.
Harvey’s pupils shrank slightly.
And just as that aura was about to take form—
“Harvey!”
A sharp, tense cry suddenly rang out.
Harvey snapped back to his senses, his gaze snapping sideways.
In front of him, the air chilled sharply. A large, transparent, sharp-edged mass of ice appeared out of nowhere, quickly condensing into a thick, solid ice wall in front of him!
Crack!
Almost at the same time, the incoming ice needle slammed into the ice barrier, shattering into countless tiny shards that scattered everywhere.
The cold air rushed at his face.
Harvey took a half step back instinctively, and the hint of death aura that had yet to fully spread dissipated with that shout.
Behind the ice, he saw a familiar figure.
Water-blue hair lifted slightly in the sunlight, and the hem of her pure white apprentice robe swayed in the sudden wind.
Lavia stood there, her face paler than usual. Those blue eyes were fixed on him, churning with undisguised tension and anger.
Only after seeing him standing unharmed behind the ice wall did the worry she’d been holding seem to settle a little.
“Are you okay?!”
“Are you okay?!”
Coming back to themselves, their first reactions were to ask the same question.
Lavia hurried over, and when she saw the worry on Harvey’s face, she couldn’t help a small laugh.
“I’m a mage, you don’t need to worry about me. You, on the other hand—you just stood there and didn’t run.” The latter part was said with a hint of anger as she put her hands on her hips and scolded him.
Harvey scratched his head. “No… sorry, I was spacing out.”
“You idiot—”
With such an honest answer, Lavia couldn’t even vent her frustration.
Harvey felt even more guilty.
He’d promised the Head Maid he wouldn’t cause trouble for the Eldest Miss.
But…
He really hadn’t felt that those ice crystals were dangerous?
He had the feeling he could have crushed them with a single squeeze.