Chapter 5
I had to come up with some kind of excuse. That had been nothing more than a fluke; I, the inferior student Rene, was absolutely not the same person as the great Evan Friesna.
“Th-this is….”
But when I actually opened my mouth, no voice came out, as though my throat had hardened. What did noble dignity matter? I simply couldn't think of a plausible excuse that could dress up this complete mess as ‘logical’ and ‘reasonable.’
“……”
While I stammered, the freshman had already strode right up to me. The freshman's expressionless face was literally dripping with coldness, as though covered in a thin layer of ice.
“Gasp.”
Just as I felt the freshman's chilly gaze, a hand slowly slid onto my shoulder. Sharp silver eyes fixed on mine as if to see straight through me. An inscrutable sigh escaped between tightly pressed red lips, and the hand gripping my shoulder tightened slightly.
It was a situation that literally squeezed the breath from my lungs.
Swept up in instinctive terror, I squeezed both eyes shut.
The sigh hovering by my ears finally stopped, and a voice slightly higher than usual slipped into my tightly closed ears.
“I told you not to push yourself too hard!”
“……What?”
“Are you feeling all right? Does your head hurt?”
When I opened my eyes hazily, I saw a face filled with concern. It was far too earnest an expression to be feigned….
What kind of reaction was that? As I stared blankly up at the freshman's face, frozen like an idiot, I saw a tightly clenched fist suddenly rise.
“Eek….”
Was the freshman going to hit me? Reflexively, I hunched my shoulders and raised my arms.
But despite the clumsy guard I had thrown up with all my strength, the fist sliced through the air, brushed past my arms, and slammed heavily into the exact center of my forehead.
“Ow….”
It hurt. Though not enough to call it ‘terrible.’
As I lifted my eyes while clutching my throbbing forehead, the freshman lowered their head and rubbed their own forehead with a thoroughly exasperated look.
“I told you not to go all-out until the ability test. How many times do I have to tell you that your body can’t handle it?”
‘Your body can’t handle it….’
In other words, did the freshman already know about the destructive power in Rene's body?
On a hunch, I stirred the mana inside my body, and sure enough, nearly half of it had vanished from that single fireball just now.
In that instant, my brilliant mind recalled the name of a certain unusual constitution.
‘Aha, this body has no limiter.’
Its formal academic name was Infinitas Aterum.
An ultra-rare constitution that manifested in one out of every 30,000 children born with mana.
It was said that, because it had no mana storage limit—in other words, no limiter—it could theoretically pour out an amount of mana approaching infinity.
Of course, its mana recovery speed wasn't infinitely fast either, so in the end, it was supposedly only slightly stronger than ordinary mages.
‘So the feeling that this vessel is different is because of this constitution.’
Given how vanishingly rare it was, this was also my first time seeing the possessor of such a constitution in person.
I awkwardly nodded and looked up at the freshman.
“Sorry. I’ll be careful.”
In a situation like this, the best course was to honestly admit fault and move on. There was no benefit in needlessly provoking the freshman.
‘So their relationship really is….’
Moreover, now that I thought about it, there was more than one suspicious detail.
A freshman scammer who could have come from anywhere and a girl born with a constitution so rare that she could be counted among the rarest in the entire Empire. No matter how I looked at it, this was far beyond something that could be dismissed as a simple coincidence.
It felt as though the connections behind everything that had happened so far were gradually coming to light, including why the freshman had hidden the comatose Rene in their room.
“Phew, I’m sorry too. Still, I shouldn't have hit you.”
With a sigh, the freshman apologized sincerely, then carefully took the wand from my hand. The freshman stopped in front of another lane set up beside us and aimed the wand at the exact center of the target.
“It might not help much, but I’ll show you once anyway. Try focusing on the flow of mana inside my body.”
Beneath the freshman's pale skin, light-blue mana began writhing visibly before my eyes.
‘Now the freshman is doing something amazing as casually as breathing.’
I wasn't surprised anymore. Of course. For that bastard, amplifying the mana inside their own body until other people could see straight through to it must have been easier than eating cold porridge, no doubt.
The freshman gave me one last sidelong glance, then pressed their lips tightly together and fixed their gaze on the target. They lightly flicked the wand and recited the spell in a firm, decisive voice without a hint of hesitation.
“Ignis!”
What emerged from the tip of the wand was a perfectly smooth sphere without a speck of dust on it—utterly flawless.
‘……What an infuriating bastard.’
As expected, the freshman's fireballs were irritatingly perfect and beautiful.
Beautiful enough to make me feel a little… jealous before I even realized it.
※※
‘I’m finally free!’
At lunchtime, the suffocatingly uncomfortable one-on-one tutoring session with the freshman had finally come to an end.
“Rene, if you don't mind, how about having lunch with me….”
“It's fine. I have something to do in my room.”
I flatly rejected the freshman's shameless offer and left the training grounds. Fortunately, the freshman didn't seem inclined to cling to me and follow. They scratched the back of their head with an awkward expression, then abruptly turned around and left the training grounds in the opposite direction from me.
‘I really should go see the vice principal.’
The principal, the vice principal, and Ms. Justina.
Of the three fifth-tier mages who represented Luminous, the one I chose after much deliberation was, as expected, the vice principal, Mr. Verkis.
He had longstanding ties to the Friesna family and was a veteran mage specializing in transformation magic.
I judged that he was the only person who would believe me even after hearing about this utterly nonsensical situation I was in.
‘And if it’s him… he might even be able to help me see my original body again.’
The freshman's unknown magic had trapped my soul inside Rene's body. In my mind, I already understood that reality perfectly.
But deep in my heart, a desperate cry that wanted to deny this horrible reality still rang out without pause.
That I wasn't the one who had fallen into a coma, that I had merely been caught in transformation magic for an instant and only my outward appearance had changed, and that no such absurd magic capable of transferring a soul into another body could exist in this world.
Even so, I didn't think I could shake off this fervent hope until I saw ‘my body’ with my own two eyes.
It was after I left the training grounds and reached the vicinity of the main building.
“Huh?”
In the middle of the vast athletic field sat a conspicuously parked black luxury carriage, surrounded without a gap by members of the Raven Knights.
‘……Father?’
Thump, thump—my heart began pounding violently. Without realizing it, I stood there with my mouth hanging open and my eyes wide. Gooseflesh swept over my entire body, and a thrilling sensation mingling surprise and joy seemed to awaken every cell in me.
‘He really didn’t abandon me!’
Of course, I couldn't be certain that the person who had stepped out of that black carriage was Father. It could have been Mother or my older sister, or, however unlikely, even my uncle.
But whoever it was, what mattered most right now was that someone from my family—someone who knew ‘me’ better than anyone—had personally traveled all the way to Luminous to resolve this horrible incident.
I hurried forward, my eyes shining. I ran into the main building, then turned not toward the vice principal's office but toward the principal's office. Along the third-floor corridor leading to the principal's office, a familiar perfume scent spread softly through the hall.
‘This scent…!’
A warm yet elegant fragrance that blended the sharp scent of bergamot with sweet vanilla to perfection.
‘Big Sis!’
Yes, it was unmistakably the distinctive scent of my older sister, Erica Friesna. She had clearly heard about her beloved younger brother's accident and rushed all the way to Luminous overnight.
If my older sister, an elite mage who was a powerful figure in the Ministry of Magic and was considered a leading candidate to become the next sixth-tier mage, lent her full support, she would surely be an enormous help in uncovering the freshman's ugly secret.
As I ran toward the principal's office, calming my pounding heart, I caught sight of my sister's familiar long silver hair as she emerged from the office with her head bowed. Feeling as though I had encountered my savior, I threw both arms into the air and shouted for my sister.
“Khek, cough….”
But… for some reason, my voice wouldn't come out properly.
Suddenly, my airway clamped shut, as though my neck bones were being crushed. My feet dangled in the air and flailed.
I instinctively reached for the back of my neck and barely managed to turn my head. Someone with a rigid expression was aiming a wand at me.
‘That damned egg… bastard….’
It was my sister's bodyguard—the man I always called Egg while rubbing his shiny bald head.
“Oh my?”
Only then did my sister notice me and let out a soft exclamation. With the light click-clack of her heels, her signature perfume swept across the tip of my nose in an instant.
“How dare this little brat approach the young lady without permission….”
Smack-!
A sharp cracking sound rang throughout the corridor. The invisible pressure that had been constricting my neck like a chain vanished as smoothly as if it had never existed. Losing my balance, I tumbled heavily to the floor.
“Even so, you used that kind of magic on such a small child?”
Smack-! This time, a dull, fleshy smack rang out.
Even with his cheek stinging, Egg immediately straightened and bowed his head. A voice filled with sincere remorse came from him.
“I’m sorry, young lady.”
“Don’t apologize to me. Apologize to that child.”
“……I’m sorry, student.”
Egg immediately turned stiffly and bent at the waist at a perfect ninety-degree angle. I already knew it, but he really had no flexibility whatsoever. That man.
“I-I’m fine.”
I barely got myself upright, clutching my aching nape. My sister, who had cautiously extended a hand toward me, widened her eyes slightly, apparently startled to see me stand on my own despite staggering.
“Are you all right?”
As expected, she was kind and gentle in a way Egg couldn't even begin to compare with. That was my sister.
I obediently nodded to indicate I was fine and straightened my disheveled posture. Looking around, I saw students who had been startled by the sudden commotion gradually turning their attention toward us.
“Sis… no, Secretary Erica, I have something to tell you.”
Naturally, I couldn't say something like ‘I’m Evan!’ here.
The other students probably still didn't know that I had fallen into a coma. There was absolutely nothing to gain by causing a needless commotion.
“How do you know my name…?”
My sister tilted her head, her eyes widening into round circles. But she soon returned to a stern expression, suggesting she had vaguely realized this wasn't a simple mishap.
I nodded and took another step toward my sister. Then I leaned close to her ear and whispered in a voice only she could hear.
“This concerns Evan Friesna, your younger brother.”
To tell her everything honestly, we first needed to be alone.