Chapter 36: The Dispute

Before heading to school in the morning, Lucas knocked on the study door—a small meeting requested by his father.

“Come in.”

The calm, authoritative voice of the head of the household came from behind the door.

He sighed and pushed the door open.

What awaited him would be an interrogation.

Fragments of that day flashed through his mind.

All painful memories.

He hadn’t been able to catch up to An.

She had vanished into the crowd.

From that day on, An stopped talking to him.

At first, during class, she would deliberately avoid his gaze.

Then, during breaks, she would hide somewhere he couldn’t find her.

Finally, after school, she would quickly pack her bag and go home.

Now, even their usual time together after school no longer existed.

He wanted to talk things out with An, to walk up to her like before and comfort her.

But he didn’t dare—he was afraid that if he made a mistake, his moon would shatter, and he would lose even the right to stay by her side, comfort her, and be her friend.

An was deliberately avoiding him.

Lucas knew.

But he was even more aware that what she was avoiding, what she was running from, was his magical aptitude.

Lucas deeply regretted touching that crystal ball that day.

It was like a mirror, making the girl who longed for magic feel utterly ashamed—to the point where she couldn’t even face her friend.

Worse still, when he came out of the magic testing room that day… he had run down the hallway… and some friends saw him.

They told Lucas’s parents about his unusual behavior.

That was why his father had called him here.

…

His father stood by the window, tapping his fingers lightly on the desk.

His mother sat on one side of the bench, looking at him with concern.

Their eyes were full of misguided care and sympathy, but it disgusted Lucas—as if he had been up to no good at school, slacking off.

“Lucas… I heard you took a magic test…”

He got straight to the point.

“…”

Faced with undeniable facts, Lucas knew that sometimes silence was the best response.

“Lucas… are you interested in magic?”

When they learned that their excellent child had magical aptitude and even showed interest in such a “dead-end” field, his parents became alarmed.

“Yes…”

Lucas had to admit it.

“Haven’t we planned everything before? You were supposed to study engineering in the future.”

“And now you’re wasting time on some irrelevant magic test…”

Seeing his silent child, the man felt a surge of unexplained anger.

“Are you even listening? Why are you changing your mind now!?”

The man’s tone grew increasingly agitated, his words coming faster until spittle formed at the corners of his mouth.

“Lucas… your father only wants what’s best for you.”

His mother gently stroked the man’s arm, trying to ease the tension between father and son.

“Magic… is indeed a mysterious and interesting subject…”

“But you’ve visited your father’s factory many times, and you’ve seen uncles and aunts operating machinery.”

The woman sighed.

“You should understand that no matter how powerful magic is… it’s just an aid to machinery… it’s not the trend of the future.”

“In Novalis, only by studying engineering can you have a future.”

It was the same again.

That same arbitrary and arrogant judgment.

Lucas snorted coldly in his heart.

He too had once scorned the role of magic.

But since meeting An, she had opened up a whole new world to him.

The thick magic book made him realize the unfathomable depth of magic, and also his own arrogance, prejudice, and ignorance.

He had always listened to his parents.

He had always considered them respectable elders.

He had always followed their arrangements.

He never talked back to them.

But today, in everyone’s impression, the obedient Lucas, for the first time, felt a sense of discontent.

Lucas quietly observed the couple’s expressions.

So confident… so matter-of-fact…

They seemed to think this was just another ordinary conversation, that a few words would make their good son obey them like a dog.

For the first time, he wanted to argue back, to shout loudly—”You’re wrong!” “You’re mistaken!”

He wanted to yell, to see shock on his parents’ self-righteous faces, to make them fear that things were slipping out of their control.

But after thinking for a moment, Lucas gritted his teeth and took a softer approach.

“Dad… Mom… Actually… magic isn’t as bad as you think.”

“Here we go again.”

Unsurprisingly, he was met with the middle-aged man’s criticism.

“What’s wrong with you lately? Magic this, magic that, all day long?”

“It seems I need to ask your teacher—to find out what you’re really up to at school.”

A blatant threat.

“I’m very interested in magic… I’ve been considering a career in it.”

Lucas had no choice but to “admit” to something he hadn’t really thought about.

He knew his father’s stubborn nature well…

If he angered him, he might actually investigate something…

And even drag An into it.

“Hmph—you’re just a kid. You don’t understand anything.”

“We go to all this trouble… isn’t it for your own good?”

The man had a look on his face that Lucas found unbearable—a look of “I knew it.”

“Let me put it bluntly.”

“As long as you finish school and inherit my factory, even if you laze around and do nothing all day, it’s better than learning your lousy spells.”

His father didn’t get to finish.

“Alright…” Lucas sighed, his tone full of indescribable helplessness.

“I’ll think it over carefully. For now… I’m going to school.”

Without his usual farewell, the boy turned, slung his backpack over his shoulder, and left the room.

Lucas silently resisted with his silence and his back.

He succeeded.

Only two pairs of stunned and uneasy eyes remained in the room.

……

To avoid his parents’ questioning, Lucas arrived at school early.

But the classroom was almost empty…

Only a few people were sitting inside.

“Morning, Lucas!”

A group member greeted him enthusiastically when he saw him.

“Morning.”

He dealt with social interactions as usual.

As usual, he turned his head toward the back row by the window—that was An’s seat.

No one was there.

Just as he was staring blankly, something hit him.

“Take this.”

It was a broom.

‘This is…?’

Lucas took it in confusion, but after a brief thought, he understood.

Today was his group’s turn for duty—cleaning the grade’s hallways.

“How are we dividing it? Where am I sweeping?”

“Hmm… the first and second floors of our teaching building are already taken care of. You go to the third floor!”

The boy nodded.

……

Scrape—

The iron dustpan dragged across the floor, making a harsh, dissonant sound.

Lucas shook the broom and swept the dust from the corner into the dustpan.

After cleaning that spot, he moved to another area, gathered the dust together, and swept it into the dustpan.

Such boring work.

He mechanically repeated the motions like a precise machine.

Clank—

The sound of the dustpan hitting the floor.

The boy’s hand suddenly stopped.

It wasn’t that he was dissatisfied with the boring work, but he thought he had just heard a sobbing sound.

Was it an illusion?

Lucas put the broom aside and walked softly, trying not to make any noise.

Like a hunting dog, he began to carefully trace the source of the sound.

No… it couldn’t be wrong.

As he approached the room at the end of the corridor, the intermittent crying became clearer.

Sob—

It was a girl’s crying, coming from behind the door.

Lucas stopped.

That voice was all too familiar to him.

It was An.

The An who smiled brightly when they first met.

The An who pretended to be strong in front of others even when isolated.

The An who, despite how the world treated her, was still gentle and kind.

She was crying behind that door.

……