At Ikerite Academy, one of the campus landmarks stood on the edge of the Magitek Departnt:
The Old Liberal Arts Building, a red-brick structure in Gothic Revival style.
Once, this historic building had been the workshop where Magitek artisans brought their wildest ideas to life. Renovated decades ago, it was now a shared facility that provided technical support from the Magitek Departnt to students of other faculties.
Lan Qi had only been here once before, when he first enrolled, to collect his student wristband. Back then, he had never gone higher than the ground floor.
- First floor: Public Magitek Service Center.
- Second floor: Professor Polao’s New Magitek Creative Workshop.
- Third floor: The Student Managent Committee.
Today, the wind outside was particularly noisy.
After finishing their only morning class, Lan Qi and Huperion walked the academy roads straight to the Old Liberal Arts Building, climbed the staircase, and arrived at the third floor.
The corridor beyond the stairwell opened wide and bright.
Delicate chandeliers hung from the ceiling, scattering soft light across the hallway. The reddish-brown carved wooden walls, patterned with golden inlay, gave the place a solemn, almost sacred stillness.
A soft carpet stretched the entire length of the hall, leading straight to the door at its farthest end—the entrance to the Committee chamber.
From a row of tall windows to their right, Lan Qi and Huperion could glimpse the academy’s lawns, lined with trees, dotted with students hurrying across campus.
Finally, they stood before the large double doors, lacquered in deep crimson.
“Huperion, are you ready?”
“Mm.”
She nodded. Lan Qi raised his hand and knocked twice.
“Co in.”
A calm, warm male voice answered.
Lan Qi pushed open the heavy mahogany door. A faint blend of coffee and candle wax drifted out, welcoming them into a spacious chamber spanning more than a hundred square ters. Inside were only three people.
Behind the main desk sat a handso young man, posture upright, eyes bright as stars, with the scholarly air of one both knowledgeable and confident.
The dark wooden table before him glead like polished glass. Behind him, a vast window was half-veiled by crimson curtains, glowing like a theater backdrop in the sunlight.
By the table stood a gentle-faced woman, holding a stack of files in her arms, ready to shelve them along the tall bookcases that lined the right wall.
On the left side of the room lay a rest area: leather sofas with a matching coffee table, all richly appointed.
One of those sofas was already occupied by a silver-grey-haired young man in tinted glasses, lounging casually.
“May I ask, have you two encountered any trouble at the academy?”
The man at the desk—the Committee Chairman—looked toward them, smiling with friendly confidence.
It was clear he recognized the pair who had caused quite a stir upon entering the academy.
Yet he treated them with neither awe nor prejudice, simply greeting them as he would any other students.
“Hello. We were wondering… is the Committee still recruiting mbers?”
Lan Qi imdiately liked this man’s deanor.
Not only did he show no hostility toward Huperion, but the look he gave Lan Qi was calm and unremarkable—not the startled curiosity others usually carried.
Indeed, just as Vivian had said, the Chairman was a man of vision.
He nodded in understanding and gestured for them to take seats in the lounge area so they could talk in detail.
Soon, the Chairman himself sat beside the silver-grey-haired youth, while Lan Qi and Huperion settled across from them.
The woman who had been shelving docunts soon returned with a tray and porcelain cups, pouring fresh coffee for each of them.
“I am Monast, Chairman of the Student Managent Committee. This is Vice-Chairwoman Athena,”
he said, nodding toward the gentle woman.
“And this is Frey, a freshman from the Knight’s Departnt who has just joined us.”
Monast extended a hand toward the silver-haired youth in sunglasses.
Lan Qi and Huperion exchanged a glance. They rembered him vaguely—Frey.
During the entrance exams, the second round had been a joint trial between the Knight’s Departnt and the Sage’s Departnt, only splitting in the third round.
This oddball of the Knight’s Departnt had cleared the second round even faster than Lan Qi.
Where Lan Qi had used law to “arrest” the corrupt couple, Frey had chosen to mortgage everything and endure the deadly cold of the blizzard head-on with sheer physical resilience.
They had wondered which team had managed to recruit him. Now they had their answer—he had joined the Committee.
“At present, the Committee is facing a severe shortage of mbers. With the previous class graduating, only Frey here has joined us, at the recomndation of the Knight’s Dean. Athena and I expected that we would have to handle many affairs ourselves this term until new mbers ca along. But with your arrival… it seems fortune favors us.”
Monast sighed softly, fatigue slipping through his otherwise composed face. He took a light sip of coffee, then set the cup down, smiling gently at them.
Even their re willingness to co here had already lightened his burden.
Lan Qi nodded. The aning was clear: they were welco here.
“I have already heard of your abilities. If you do not mind the workload and troubleso affairs of the Committee, then I would be honored to invite you both—Lan Qi Wilfort and Huperion Aransal—to join us.”
“...”
Silence lingered.
A breeze slipped through the half-open window, tugging at the curtains, carrying fresh air into the chamber. It rustled the books, lifted the papers, and stirred the quiet with a faint whisper.
The Chairman and Vice-Chairwoman’s attitudes remained warm. Even Frey’s gaze, though unreadable, carried no trace of disdain—he looked at them as he would at any peers.
Lan Qi and Huperion locked eyes, and both nodded.
“I would be glad to join the Committee.”
“So would I.”
“Then let formally welco you both. Leave the paperwork with the school to . There is also a secretary from the Alchemy Departnt, a second-year, though she is usually busy with the press club and only occasionally attends etings. You will et her eventually.”
Both nodded solemnly.
Yet from the heaviness in Monast’s gaze, it was clear:
He already had an urgent matter in mind.
“In fact, there is a task at hand—pressing and unavoidable. Originally, I was hesitant to send Frey alone, intending to accompany him myself after clearing my current workload. But with the three of you working together, I can entrust it to you without worry.”
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