The eve festival concluded in great success, and almost as soon as the sun rose the next day, a grand wedding—the main event—was held.
When Leo and Iona appeared wearing traditional beastkin wedding attire, garments densely embroidered with all manner of splendid golden patterns, thunderous applause poured out across the venue.
Everyone gathered there was sincerely celebrating the marriage of the two.
Of course, there were not a few beastkin who had not welcomed the marriage, but at least for this occasion, even they seemed to choose to quietly enjoy the ceremony itself without voicing any particular complaints.
From the specially invited seats, Ludger watched closely as his former students held their wedding.
Traditional beastkin weddings were far from anything that humans would find culturally unacceptable.
If anything, they felt so solemn and sacred that it made the onlooker feel almost burdened.
From what he had heard, a beastkin tribal wedding was a ceremony that celebrated the birth of a new warrior, and thus an extremely holy process.
At the very least, there was no doubt that, to them, the child who would one day be born was a being more precious than anything else.
That fact sat very well with him.
Yes. Children who are born should, by all rights, be blessed.
No one could know what they would become in the future. Was it right to arbitrarily decide that some should be blessed, while others should not even be allowed ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ to be born?
Absolutely not. Every child needed to be blessed at the moment of birth.
Because they had taken their first step into this world.
‘Of course, they’ve only just held the ceremony, and having children is a matter for later. Thinking that far ahead might be jumping to conclusions.’
When he glanced to the side, Aidan and Selina were clapping with faces full of emotion.
Even Tacy, who usually did not get along well with Leo, was applauding with a proud smile, at least for this moment.
“Everyone! Thank you for coming today!”
The Great Chieftain, Tellaron, stepped forward himself and raised a cup filled to the brim with alcohol.
“In celebration of my daughter’s marriage, let us all eat and drink to our hearts’ content today!”
Waaaaah!!
Rather than the wedding congratulations, this seemed to be the main event the beastkin had truly been waiting for, as they gathered in groups, tearing into meat and drinking heavily.
Aidan was called away here and there, and Tacy followed after him to look after him.
In the end, Ludger and Selina were left behind. They exchanged glances and, wearing slightly awkward expressions, lightly clinked their cups together.
“Professor Ludger, where are you planning to go after this?”
At Selina’s question, Ludger, who had been sipping his drink, fell into brief contemplation.
Where would he go? He had already met most of the people who readily came to mind. Yet there were still far more people he had not seen.
He considered continuing to roam the continent in search of them, but Ludger realized that he no longer needed to do that.
Because he had now gained enough courage and motivation to move forward.
“I plan to stop wandering.”
At those words, Selina’s expression first filled with confusion, then quickly brightened as she understood.
“Then that means......?”
“I should probably start looking for work. I can’t keep drifting around like this forever, living idly.”
“A-are you coming back to Seorn?!”
“That seems the most likely option.”
No—truthfully, aside from returning to Seorn, he had never seriously considered any other path.
At that, Selina bounced in place with visible excitement.
“Wow! Then when will you come back? Ah—but the entrance ceremony has already started, so there probably aren’t any open positions for instructors right now.......”
“You don’t need to worry about that.”
Ludger himself was not particularly concerned about that point.
If Elisa was still holding the position of Headmaster at Seorn, she would surely have anticipated his return and made preparations in advance.
Just then, Leo and Iona approached them.
Having gone around offering thanks here and there, the newlyweds now came to greet the teacher who had taught them.
“Professor Ludger. So this is where you were.”
“Leo. Congratulations on your marriage. And you too, Iona. You make a fine pair.”
“Thank you so much for coming today.”
“I’m the one who should be thanking you for welcoming an uninvited guest like me. Here—have a drink.”
When Ludger offered the alcohol, Leo naturally accepted it with the empty cup he was holding.
In their tradition, the newlywed couple received drinks offered by guests and relatives as a sign of celebration.
Perhaps because of that, Leo was already somewhat drunk, his face flushed red.
Knowing this, Ludger poured only a small amount.
“A lot of time has passed since that day.”
“......Yes.”
Leo knew exactly which day Ludger meant.
The time when he had been entangled with the Liberation Army and forced to carry out their orders.
The ones who had saved Leo then were his friend Aidan, and his teacher, Ludger.
“How are your mother and younger sister doing?”
“They’re both doing so well it’s almost a problem.”
“Good. That’s all that matters. Don’t forget how precious family is, and keep living with that in mind. That’s all the advice I can give you.”
Leo stared at Ludger with a slightly dazed expression and asked,
“And what about you, Professor? What are you planning to do now?”
“Me?”
Ludger answered with a faint chuckle.
“I’ve had my fill of vacation. It’s time I went back to my main line of work.”
* * *
Clear, pleasant weather.
Within the grounds of Seorn, students dressed in uniform gathered in small groups, chatting animatedly among themselves.
All of them learning magic, making friends, and living out their youth while holding lofty dreams for the future.
“Give me a break.”
A girl who watched that scene with clear displeasure twisted her lips sharply upward.
Hermoa Entiro.
Youth? Future? Friendship?
There was no such thing. What existed at Seorn was nothing but fierce, endless competition for a single spot.
And yet they didn’t even realize it, chattering happily about friends and the like.
Did they really think they could survive more than four years at Seorn with such a soft mindset?
Hermoa shook her head.
She was different from those naïve fools. She would thoroughly absorb magical knowledge and raise her own value.
Then, after becoming an outstanding mage and stepping out into society, she would live a comfortable, easy life while earning an enormous salary.
That was one of the grand life plans held by this year’s new student, Hermoa Entiro.
‘Still, I can’t tell if Seorn is really all that amazing, unlike the rumors.’
Seorn’s reputation in the world was extremely high—high enough to be called the industry’s number one.
Hermoa knew that, which was why she had come here, but now that she was actually here, there wasn’t a single thing that impressed her.
‘At least the Headmaster I saw during the speech was somewhat impressive.’
The other instructors she had seen during orientation had not appealed to her at all.
Would the quality of the teachers improve as the grade level went up?
At least for now, Hermoa felt irritated by the fact that there was not a single instructor who could teach a class that satisfied her.
‘These students aren’t much better either. To think there’s no one fit to teach a genius girl like me. In the end, is Seorn nothing but an empty husk with an inflated reputation?’
Lost in such thoughts as she walked across the campus, Hermoa suddenly stopped without realizing it.
Because of the man walking toward her from the opposite direction.
His steps were confident, his posture flawless down to the smallest detail.
Above all, what captured her attention was his appearance.
A face as beautiful as a sculpture, and on top of that, hair grown long in a way uncommon for men. Yet rather than feeling out of place, it suited him perfectly.
‘Who is he?’
What truly unsettled Hermoa was not the man’s outward appearance.
It was the unique sense of mana flowing from him, prickling sharply against her skin.
‘It’s... even higher than the Headmaster’s?’
No sooner had that thought crossed her mind than the man approaching from the opposite side stopped and looked at her.
“Hm?”
After glancing at Hermoa, the man gathered all the mana that had been leaking from his body.
Hermoa gasped in shock as the mana that had made her entire body prickle vanished in an instant.
‘W-what is this guy?!’
Just moments ago, he had possessed mana so overwhelming it felt suffocating. Now it was difficult to sense even a trace of it.
Was that even possible?
Releasing enormous amounts of mana without restraint was something any high-ranking mage could do.
But suppressing it so completely that it could not be sensed at all was impossible without extraordinary ability.
And Hermoa, in particular, possessed a constitution that reacted extremely sensitively to mana through her skin.
Her sensitivity to mana was such that even Seorn’s instructors could not dare to fully measure it.
“What’s your name?”
At that moment, the man—Ludger Cherish—asked her name.
“H-Hermoa Entiro.”
Without realizing it, Hermoa shrank back and answered.
Only afterward did she realize that she had folded first, and her pride took a considerable hit.
‘Wait a second. He doesn’t know who I am? I may not look it, but I’m fairly well-known.’
It might sound arrogant, but Hermoa really was fairly famous among this year’s freshmen.
At first, it had been for good reasons, and later, for bad ones due to her poor social skills.
Either way, she was still a student whom the instructors were keeping a close eye on.
That was why she felt indignant at Ludger’s apparent failure to recognize her.
“You have quite an unusual constitution.”
“......!”
Hermoa, who had been about to protest, flinched as Ludger’s words pierced straight through her.
‘D-don’t tell me... does he know about my constitution right now?!’
This was her secret, something she had told no one.
She possessed a unique sense that allowed her to feel mana through her skin, and because of it, Hermoa had achieved a level of magical accomplishment far beyond her peers.
And yet, someone she was seeing for the first time had noticed it immediately, in passing.
‘No. He might just be fishing. There’s no way he could tell just by looking. Even the Headmaster didn’t know.’
As Hermoa thought that and looked up at Ludger—
Ludger, seeing someone he missed reflected in her defiant gaze, let out a faint chuckle.
“It’s time to go to class now. You’re late, so get moving.”
“.......”
Instead of answering, Hermoa gave a small bow of her head.
Then, clutching her books to her chest, she passed by Ludger and quickly left.
Ludger briefly watched her retreating figure, then resumed walking.
A short while later, he arrived at a place marked by an ornate door—the Headmaster’s office.
“Headmaster. It’s me.”
“If you just say ‘it’s me,’ how am I supposed to know who it is?”
Despite her words, Elisa lightly opened the door.
Ludger naturally stepped inside and sat down in the chair prepared across from her.
“It’s been a while. Both you, Headmaster, and this place.”
“Nothing’s changed since then, has it?”
“Yes. To a surprising degree. You’re exactly the same as you were back then too, Headmaster.”
At the implication that she had not aged at all, Elisa smiled, resting a hand against her cheek.
“Even if you’re just saying that, thank you.”
Though she said that, Elisa truly looked no different from how she had three years ago.
Like Selina, it almost seemed as if she did not age at all.
A phenomenon often seen in high-ranking mages born with immense mana.
It was widely known that those blessed with powerful mana tended to suffer fewer minor illnesses and experienced delayed aging.
“Still, I was truly surprised when I heard the report that you were coming back, Mr. Ludger.”
“Weren’t you hoping that I would?”
“I was. But unlike back then, you’ve grown far beyond what I can handle now, haven’t you?”
Elisa, too, had seen Ludger use 8th-Circle magic.
Yes. He had become the first human to ever reach the 8th Circle.
And such a Ludger was coming back as a Seorn instructor?
It almost felt like she should hand over the Headmaster’s position immediately.
“I’ll pass on any burdensome positions. I’d like to live as I did before.”
“As Planning Director as well?”
“That position is starting to feel like a burden to me too, so I’ll accept the sentiment only.”
Elisa smiled softly at that, then spoke with a slightly troubled expression.
“As you know, admissions are already finished, and everyone’s classes and positions have all been decided. Even if you come back, Professor Ludger, there won’t be a class you can teach right away.”
With no way of knowing when Ludger would return, she could not have kept a teaching position vacant indefinitely.
If he had returned even a month earlier, this awkward situation would never have arisen.
“Still, it’s not like there’s no solution. As it happens, there’s a position left that suits you perfectly.”
“A position?”
Judging by Elisa’s expression, there was a hint of mischief there.
As if she had anticipated this situation in advance.
Ludger, too, felt a flicker of interest. Just what kind of position had the Headmaster kept for him?
“Do you know about the Special Class?”