Editor 142

Three Springs (1)

“April 12, 1892”

“From Lillian Bennett”

“Teacher, how have you been?

I have now come to the capital as a first-year student of the Capital Defense Academy. I was not an outstanding student at Queen Isolde Girls’ School, so you must have been surprised!

I myself still feel dazed. It was a miraculous thing that I became the 979th class student of the Capital Defense Academy.

My father always said that if you are a girl, you only need to go to a girls’ school to learn sewing and housekeeping, and there was no need to go to a higher school. If monsters hadn’t appeared in our domain, he probably would have opposed my advancement to the end.

It’s something I can’t say to anyone, but honestly, I was even thankful to the spider monsters that crawled out from under the old tree’s shade.

It was under that very tree where I always prayed to the Goddess to let me attend school.

As if the Goddess had granted my wish, my ether sensitivity manifested on the day the monsters rampaged.

In a small town with no knights’ order and no ties to wizards, I alone had ether sensitivity!

Even though it was just a faint shimmer of ether at my fingertips, I could at least electrify a pair of pruning shears.

When I swung the golden ether-coated shears with all my might, the spiders with thin legs would leave behind tiny black crystals and then vanish with a puff.

My father could no longer stop me, seeing me wreathed in golden ether. He was the town constable reputed to be skilled with a sword, but he had no ether sensitivity.

I first became interested in the Capital Defense Academy and ether sensitivity through the newspaper. The papers I read to learn grammar were always dull, but that spring day three years ago was different.

“Magic of a New Era, Hope of a New Generation! ― 17-Year-Old Boy Defeats Monsters”

The newspaper article about Senior Aser catching monsters on that day is still scrapbooked on the very last page of my diary.

After reading that article, I found newspapers interesting. My reading skills improved a lot, too.

Professor Maria Gentile’s columns serialized in were so interesting! I waited for the affordable edition and bought it with my allowance.

was truly a kind book. Just by reading it, I was able to circulate ether—really!

I’m sure every student applying to the Capital Defense Academy has that book! It’s the best-selling book these days, with Brunneur and Karolingian editions now available.

Anyway, the blue affordable edition cover of became so tattered and faded, and its corners worn, because I flipped through it so many times.

My hunger for magic and ether only grew stronger, so I bought magazines and books with every allowance.

I also learned about the Third Prince, the steadfast red-haired swordsman, the brave indigo-haired warrior, and the courageous Angelium twins. The members of the “Golden 977th Class”!

Those seniors are now third years, but there is nothing more to learn in magic, and as swordsmen, they surpass even the knights’ guild members—how amazing is that!

They rescued an opera singer, solved the “remembered space” twice, and courageously confronted monsters in the far northern domain. I was not the only one who admired those boys and girls.

The entrance competition for the Capital Defense Academy grows fiercer every year, and when I took the exam, the acceptance ratio was 28:1.

And now I am wearing the same uniform as them.

Would you believe me if I said I liked this more than the muslin dress my nanny made for my society debut?

When the custom uniform box arrived, my father got angry again. He said the skirt was too short for a daughter from a respectable household. But what can I do? It’s not like my father can chase me all the way to the capital!

Even while leaving home for the entrance ceremony, honestly, I behaved like a girl in love for the first time. After all, the day to meet the prince called the reincarnation of the Conquering King and the gallant Senior Aser was coming.

To be able to call them my seniors—what a sweet thing!

When I said this, the attendant helping me move my luggage to the dorm the day before school started gave me a strange look. Was it because I acted too excited and country-bumpkin-like?

But the hope of seeing the seniors, even from a distance, was shattered the day after the entrance ceremony.

The seniors who had gone on fieldwork under the Southwest Defense Army’s orders were so active there that even after the new semester began, they could not return to school for a whole month.

“Monster Tiamat Appears in the Southwestern Sea!”

“Capital Defense Academy’s Golden Cadets Take Down Sea Serpent Tiamat: In-Depth”

“Paradigm Shift in Magic: Are Offensive Techniques the Sole Domain of Swordsmen?”

Magazines and newspapers piled up in the dormitory bedroom.

If there was an article about the seniors, I bought it and scrapbooked every one. (My housemate Gisela contributed a few, too!).

And finally, the opportunity came!

Today, because of a strike, all trains, carriages, and even the subway in Rundaine stopped running, so many attendants and staff could not come to work.

So, as the top first-year student, I got to deliver Professor Zebedee’s memo to Senior Aser’s lab, who had returned from the Southwest Defense Army camp last night!

I was so excited to visit the research lab I’d only heard of in rumors, but I couldn’t find it at all.

I heard the shortcut was to leave the first-year lecture hall, go past the wisteria-less wisteria arch, and cut through the woods… but somehow, the woods just continued. The trees grew denser, and even at midday the path was dark.

The small envelope in my arms began to feel heavier and heavier. I was disappointed in myself for not being able to deliver a letter within the school.

“The school is really big. I think I’m lost.” That’s what I was thinking.

(From here on, I will record the conversation as it was, to convey the urgency!).

My legs tangled from anxiety, and I stumbled on the ground.

At that moment.

Unluckily, a bicycle loaded with baggage was speeding straight toward me as I fell.

Screeech!

Whump. Thud!

What happened?

Who was this ruffian riding a bicycle loaded with luggage at full speed on the school’s forest path?

I fell forward, ruined my uniform, and scraped my knee.

Tears welled up suddenly, but I am now a Capital Defense Academy student. I couldn’t show such a sight, so I barely held it in.

Thud.

A pair of dirty boots with worn-out toes appeared before my eyes. I quickly looked up.

Only then could I see the person who had swerved the bike to avoid hitting me.

The bicycle had crashed into a tree on the roadside, its handlebar bent, and the chain had come off.

A young man, much taller and broader-shouldered than me, lightly held the bike with a large wooden box in one hand… and offered his other empty hand to me.

“Are you okay? Can you get up?”

I was so dumbfounded I couldn’t speak.

The man, even with what looked like a heavy box and bicycle on his shoulder, looked as comfortable as if he was holding a piece of paper.

His boots were caked with mud, his clothes were rags, his blond hair was a tangled mess, and his beard was thick—I was a little scared of this young man.

That forest path is usually deserted. Meeting a sword-bearing vagabond in an empty school with no attendants or staff made my limbs tremble.

Just then, a weak voice came from behind the young man.

“You ran ahead even though I told you to go slowly, and now you’ve fallen over. Really.”

“Whoa, don’t glare at me like that, young master. I had unavoidable circumstances, you know. But all the cargo is safe!”

…A servant and a student? Bodyguard and young master?

The man called “young master” was dressed far more neatly, even at a glance.

“Still saying that? Did you enjoy your roleplay?”

“Thanks to my quick thinking, we escaped the street parade, and instead of a thank you, I get scolded. If you’d been alone, you’d have been heckled as a noble young master!”

“Do you have the right to say that? No one asked you to, but you got carried away and played the wandering vagabond, and now you want credit.”

I couldn’t quite understand their English banter, but realizing I wasn’t alone in the dark woods with a sword-bearing ragamuffin gave me relief. As I relaxed, I started to hiccup.

Hic, hic.

“Oh dear. Are you okay? You fell, didn’t you? Does it hurt a lot? Oh, you’re bleeding from your forehead and knee. You need treatment.”

The young man with jewel-like teal eyes sparkled brightly, and although his speech was rough, he was strangely gentle. His gaze was fierce, but looking straight at him, he didn’t seem so bad.

I stupidly gave a silly answer.

“I-I-I’m… o-okay…”

Only then did the second young man, who had just noticed me, step forward.

He had a very delicate appearance. My father would have found him unsatisfactory for not being manly enough.

His faded, fine brown hair cast a shadow over his forehead, his high cheekbones and pale, elegant cheeks gave a delicate impression. The dark circles under his eyes added to his air of fatigue.

He was as tall as the blond youth, but so thin that his clothes hung loosely, giving no sense of intimidation.

But isn’t it strange?

Even though he looked as if he might sway in the gentle May breeze, I couldn’t avoid him as he slowly approached me.

Contrary to his delicate appearance, his expression as he examined my wound was businesslike and devoid of emotion.

I felt goosebumps rise inside my sleeve.

“You don’t look okay. Are you a first-year?”

“The kid’s crying. Hurry up and treat her.”

“I was going to even if you didn’t nag, so hush.”

The young man who had parked the bike on the roadside slowly took a wand out of his jacket.

“A wizard?!”

I’m not a kid… but I couldn’t even protest and just stood there breathing stupidly.

Swoooosh—

The branches and leaves of the forest shook violently. It wasn’t the wind, but the overflowing ether.

What enveloped me in layers, feeling hot and vivid like freshly forged metal from the smithy, were the magic circles of “Mitigation” and “Hemostasis.”

At last, his thin lips coldly uttered an incantation.

“Let the leakage of life be stopped.”

The light was so bright it hurt my eyes. I know the two magic circles “Mitigation” and “Hemostasis.” And I also know the incantation that Professor Zebedee, the royal court magician, composed at age twenty.

“Let the leakage of life be stopped.”

It was the incantation said to have healed a hundred wounded soldiers at once on the battlefield during the reign of Queen Carmela of the previous dynasty.

Only a disciple can inherit a master’s incantation. And Professor Zebedee’s disciple, in the past, now, and probably in the future, will only ever be one person.

Cleio Aser, the youngest ever level 5 wizard in history and the youngest living wizard to hold the title of knight.

A strange feeling of resentment and sorrow welled up in me, and I burst out crying.

‘What! He looks nothing like the newspaper illustrations!’

Only then did I remember the lesson you gave me at school: never believe everything that’s written.

So I write you this letter. Please stay healthy.”

“With respect and gratitude, Lillian Bennett.”