“Sorry, sorry. I might have the wrong room.”
Although his vision was swimming, Lynn forced himself to head toward the door.
Before leaving, he caught a glimpse of the room number out of the corner of his eye.
C-201.
Strange.
Lynn gradually slowed his pace and pulled out the room key Dean Emil had given him.
The number C-201 was clearly engraved on it.
“I’m not in the wrong place…”
Lynn murmured softly.
“Could it be…”
“Are you my new roommate!?”
As Sophie listened to Lynn’s self-muttering, her eyes suddenly lit up as if she had just remembered something.
The moment she moved into this room, Sophie had realized she might have a roommate.
After all, there would be no need for two beds if only one person was staying here.
To be honest, she didn’t really enjoy interacting with others.
However, Lynn and Lady Livia were exceptions.
Lynn was her savior, and Lady Livia…
‘She’s the woman who will become my wife in the future!’
Even though she didn’t seem to like Sophie very much right now, Sophie believed that as long as she stayed by Lynn’s side and learned from him, Lady Livia would eventually have a change of heart!
And it just so happened that Lynn had become her roommate.
Wouldn’t this allow her to learn even more from him!
Sophie was an expert at learning from others’ strengths to compensate for her own weaknesses.
If she wanted to, she could even stay by Lynn’s side all night to listen for snoring or teeth-grinding!
Seeing Sophie’s excitement, a series of dark lines began to creep across Lynn’s face.
They didn’t call Dean Emil a notorious old schemer for nothing.
He always managed to drop a massive surprise on you in the most unexpected places…
“Right, Lynn. Last time you said you would wait for me to finish making the cake. Why were you gone by the time I came out?”
Sophie finally remembered how Lynn had stood her up.
She crossed her arms, her tone laced with a hint of complaint.
“I waited for you in the cold wind that day for an en — tire afternoon.”
“I almost caught a cold.”
At this point, Sophie pouted and gave Lynn an unhappy look.
Lynn scratched his head awkwardly.
He couldn’t exactly say he had been dragged into a dark room and “educated” by a witch…
“Sorry, something came up that day. I’ll definitely make it up to you next time.”
“It’s always ‘next time’…”
Sophie put her hands on her hips, looking somewhat angry.
“Fine, I’ll let you off this time, but you have to come with me to buy some pretty dresses later!”
Sophie lightly tapped the tip of Lynn’s nose with her finger.
The scene of her shopping with Lady Livia last time was still vivid in her mind.
Sophie felt that Lady Livia was only angry because she hadn’t bought her a pretty dress!
So, she had to bring Lynn along this time to help her pick one out.
After all, Lynn surely understood Livia’s preferences better than she did.
Lady Livia would surely be happy once she wore the dress he helped pick!
“Yeah,” Lynn nodded weakly.
“I will.”
He wasn’t sure if it was just an illusion.
That feeling of exhaustion… it seemed to be getting heavier.
It was strange.
This situation should have gradually eased as the mana in his body recovered, shouldn’t it?
Lynn shook his head, trying his best to stay conscious.
“I need to go to the library. I’m heading out now.”
After speaking, Lynn forced himself to walk toward the library.
“Okay, see you later.”
Sophie waved.
After saying goodbye to Lynn, she planned to go back to her bed and lie down for a while.
“Hehe~”
At the thought of Lady Livia wearing a cute little dress, Sophie couldn’t help but reveal a proud smile.
Just as she was about to step back into the room, her peripheral vision caught Lynn’s swaying back.
He looked as if he were drunk.
‘It’s broad daylight. Why is Lynn so drunk?’
Sophie wondered.
The moment before she closed the door, she suddenly realized she hadn’t smelled any alcohol on him just now.
‘Lynn… Is he not feeling well?’
At that thought, Sophie’s right eyelid twitched for no reason.
She felt like something wasn’t quite right with Lynn…
Could something have happened to him?
A wave of inexplicable panic began to spread in her heart.
‘No, I have to go check on him!’
Starklai Magic Academy, Grimoire Storage Room.
It took Lynn a long time to finally find the magic book he wanted in a dusty corner.
He slapped the thick layer of dust off the cover.
The dust swirled into the air, making him cough repeatedly.
The title hidden beneath the dust was gradually revealed.
Advanced Control Magic Theory
There was a reason this book was left to gather dust, even in a place like Starklai Magic Academy where many experts gathered.
To put it another way, there was a reason all control-type magic was unpopular.
Except for Chess Masters, all normal mages needed to draw the corresponding magic circuits in front of them by chanting.
Specifically, a small magic circle would appear in the mage’s hand before the spell was cast.
The moment the magic circle was formed, the spell was ready to be released.
Therefore, the wind-up time for casting magic was already quite long.
In a battle between mages of similar strength, victory or defeat was often decided by who could better optimize their magic circuits to reduce the casting time.
From this perspective, if control-type magic was released while the opponent was still in their wind-up animation to delay their movement, it shouldn’t be completely useless.
The problem was that control magic also required a very long chant, and the duration of the control was generally not that long.
In a duel between mages, this situation often occurred:
One side would activate a control spell the moment before the opponent released an attack, delaying them.
However, before they could even form the circuit for the next attack spell, the control duration would end.
This allowed the opponent to counterattack, leaving the first caster looking like a fool who had wasted their effort.
Thus, the only use for control-type magic was to be engraved onto a Chess Piece.
Relying on the Chess Piece’s trait of requiring no chanting, the spell would undergo a qualitative change in strength.
If one control spell couldn’t stop the opponent, then throw two.
As long as there were enough Chess Pieces, one could theoretically create a seamless chain of control, keeping the opponent locked forever.
This was why Lynn was so obsessed with control-type Chess Pieces.
Lynn rested for a moment before sitting down at an empty table with the thick Advanced Control Magic Theory.
He opened the book, intending to find a few suitable control spells.
However, as he stared at the dense text on the pages, he felt the exhaustion grow even more severe.
His eyelids were fighting to stay open, and the words before him seemed to start dancing.
‘No… No, I can’t rest yet…’
Lynn tried to pull himself together.
But his head was already starting to drop uncontrollably.
Just the moment before Lynn closed his eyes…
Click.
The crisp sound of a clock echoed suddenly.
Immediately after, the movement of everything in the surroundings began to slow down and decelerate until it stopped completely.
Livia walked slowly from the door to Lynn’s side with her hands behind her back.
Looking at Lynn’s exhausted appearance, her heart couldn’t help but ache.
“Why… why push yourself so hard, Mr. Lynn?”
Livia gently brushed Lynn’s bangs aside and stroked his cheek.
“I know that to protect me, Mr. Lynn must be hiding some secrets he doesn’t want me to know.”
“But I don’t want Mr. Lynn to carry these burdens alone…”
“Even if the world collapses, Livia wants to face it together with Mr. Lynn.”
“So, please allow Livia to be a little reckless just this once, okay?”
With that, Livia placed her hand on Lynn’s forehead.
“SPIRITS OF MEMORY, PLEASE READ MR. LYNN’S MEMORIES FOR ME…”
As Livia chanted, a magic circle gradually formed in the palm of her hand.
She would be able to read Mr. Lynn’s memories soon.
For some reason, Livia felt an unprecedented sense of excitement and anticipation.
She wanted to… get to know Lynn deeply.
To know his secrets.
To know everything about him.
However, just before the magic circle was fully formed, a soft and ethereal voice suddenly echoed in Livia’s ear.
“Little girl, isn’t it a bit much to peek into someone’s privacy like that?”
Livia looked toward the source of the voice and found a petite dragon girl.
Livia was slightly stunned.
How was she able to ignore the rules and move within the Time-Stop Domain she had created?
Before she could figure it out, the unique body fragrance of the dragon girl drifted into Livia’s nose.
Livia’s nostrils flared, and she quickly realized something was wrong.
Wait…
Why did Mr. Lynn have this same scent on him?!