At the ti when the freshn were bustling with a representative battle near the entrance ceremony, on the main road nearby.
Kasha, who had fled from the scene where the representative battle was taking place, was wandering around the Academy grounds, trying to calm herself down.
Ceylon.
That man, out of everyone, had called her na first.
The reason.
Because he was the one who looked at her not as a Hanahan mutant, but as Kasha, a person in her own right.
The mont she realized that fact.
Her heart started to race like crazy.
It beca difficult to control the muscles in her face.
It seed that a aningless laugh would slip out if she tried to respond to Ceylon’s words.
She couldn’t possibly be near that man.
That’s why Kasha ran away, and she was troubled.
‘Why on earth am I acting like this…’
It was an entirely unfamiliar and alien feeling.
Perhaps a feeling she had never experienced since her ego had been established.
Was it also sothing she disliked?
She wasn’t sure.
That’s why she was confused.
Eventually, Kasha reached a building on the Academy campus, tucked away in a shadowy corner.
She suddenly looked around.
There was a window there, and through the window, she could see soone’s figure.
It was a woman.
She was extrely excited, showing her emotions all over her face.
She was one of the human masses that Kasha Hanahan despised.
-Pathetic face.
-Wonder what makes her have such a pathetic face.
-It must be for so worthless reason.
If it were the usual Kasha Hanahan, she might have felt that sentint internally.
That’s the kind of person Kasha Hanahan was.
Kasha Hanahan looked at everything in the world with a cynical eye.
Everything in the world was detestable and contemptible to her.
If there was anything Kasha Hanahan despised the most, it was herself.
Every ti she despised soone, she asked herself.
-What about you?
-What makes you so great that you can look down on them?
The answer to her questioning was always the sa.
-Nothing at all.
-A pathetic girl filled with dissatisfaction, not acknowledged by anyone.
Thus, the character of Kasha Hanahan was twisted.
A person who held contempt for everything in the world, including herself.
Since when had she beco like this?
-I’ve been like this from the start.
-A screwed-up person like , so that’s why they don’t acknowledge either.
Kasha blad it all on herself.
That wasn’t true at all.
It wasn’t that Kasha Hanahan had always been a pessimistic and twisted person.
It was so distant past that Kasha Hanahan couldn’t rember.
Back then, she presented a look quite different from now.
She wasn’t vivacious, but she was a character far from the concept of cynicism.
Unlike now, where she approached human relationships with an extrely closed-off attitude, she was a person who, albeit clumsy in relationships, was proactive.
Back when Kasha Hanahan was not yet the mutant of the Hanahan family.
In other words, when Kasha’s family still regarded her as a mber of the family, as Kasha.
Back then, Kasha could have worn an expression similar to the woman now beyond the window.
“…!”
Then, as Kasha gazed at the woman beyond the window, she stepped back in surprise.
She realized belatedly.
The woman reflected in the window was none other than Kasha Hanahan herself.
‘Was that really …?’
Kasha stood in front of the window again, her face expressing disbelief.
It was true.
The woman with the pathetic face was none other than herself.
She looked at herself absently as she was reflected in the window.
Originally, Kasha didn’t like to see her reflection.
Her reflection in the mirror always looked just like her contemptuous family.
But now, her reflection in the window-
“…”
She touched her own face.
It was the appearance she had wished for.
The expression she wished her family, who despised her, would show her when they looked at her.
Suddenly, Kasha thought.
If I show such an expression in front of those people, will they also show the sa expression?
“Ah…”
As soon as Kasha thought of her family, the expression of Kasha in the window changed.
Standing there was her usual self.
A contemptible girl who looked down on everything, cynical in all matters.
That pathetic girl seed to resemble soone.
Yes.
It was those people.
The people who ignored and despised .
“Ha…”
It was a foolish thought.
To think that just because I had worn such an expression a mont ago, those people would show the sa expression.
Above all.
It was an impossible thing from the beginning.
She couldn’t wear such an expression when looking at those people.
She didn’t want to.
At all.
How did she wear that expression in the first place?
Kasha tried to make that expression again, but it didn’t work well.
In the end, she decided to rely on her mory.
To rember why she had made such an expression.
Then imdiately, one person ca to mind.
Ceylon.
One of a few n whom even Kasha, who despised all human beings, had to acknowledge.
The man who had rembered her first out of everyone.
Thus, the mont she was regarded not as a Hanahan mutant but as Kasha herself.
“Ah…”
Kasha beyond the window was already wearing that expression.
“…”
Kasha then stood still for a long while, looking at the window.
Looking at her own reflection with a strange expression.
Suddenly, she thought.
Would that man also wear such an expression when looking at ?
“…Eh?”
Just that way, Kasha wondered how she could make that man wear such an expression.
“Ah-…!”
She beca aware as if waking from a dream.
She rembered belatedly about running away after rejecting his calling.
Kasha in the window wore another type of unfamiliar expression.
It was filled with anxiety.
“What should I do…”
Kasha could not stand still as she unconsciously brought to mind the man who, seeing her like this, wore the sa expression as those people she despised.
When she ca to, Kasha was sprinting at full speed.
‘Please…’
Let it not be too late.
That the man had not beco disappointed in her.
Finally, Kasha was on the main road.
“…!”
Suddenly, her steps halted.
The Kasha who had been wearing a different face thinking about him had returned to her original appearance in an instant.
It was all because she had encountered a certain person.
The chilly dark blue colored his long hair, emanating a chill as if to frost soone’s back.
The sharp and cold eyes of the austere figure seed to freeze one in place.
In many ways, he was a figure that resembled Kasha.
It was loine Hanahan, Kasha’s older brother.
“…”
Approaching from the opposite side, he spotted Kasha and ca to a halt, facing her directly.
Even though Kasha was right in front of loine, he was not looking at her.
This was not the deanor of an upperclassman addressing a junior who had secured the second place in the entrance exam.
And it certainly wasn’t the manner of an older brother towards a younger sister who had taken second place in the sa exam.
“…”
Kasha withdrew her gaze from loine and started walking again.
As she passed by loine, it seed as if their encounter would pass without incident, but then—
“Withdraw from the academy.”
loine said to Kasha in a low voice without turning his back.
“…”
Kasha stopped in her tracks.
The approval of those people was the reason why she had entered the academy.
She wanted to prove herself as the best by topping the entrance test and earn their recognition.
But she had failed.
And now, loine, one of those people, told Kasha he had once again been disappointed in her, even though he had never held expectations to begin with.
If she had been a typical Hanahan desperate for their approval, loine’s words would have felt like the ground collapsing beneath her.
And she would have obediently followed loine’s words.
Thud—
So Kasha felt no emotion toward loine’s words.
Ignoring him, she continued on her way.
She no longer sought the interest or approval of those people.
Her footsteps faded away without a response.
It was only then that loine, who hadn’t cast a second glance at Kasha even when she was directly ahead, finally directed his gaze towards her.
“…”
But it was too late.
By the ti he turned around to look at Kasha, she had already vanished from loine’s sight.
loine stared for a while in the direction where Kasha had disappeared.
Then, he recalled the image of Kasha that he had just encountered.
Her changed appearance.
Her altered behavior.
loine continued walking, not in the direction he originally intended, but in the direction Kasha had gone.
Before long, he arrived at a venue where the representative tournant was taking place and spotted a man in the street.
“The representative of the freshn from the swordsmanship departnt…”
The youngest son of the noble Hanahan family, the root of cryomancy, and the proprietor of the Blue Magic Tower.
loine Hanahan, the genius magician who already held a status comparable to that of the academy’s faculty in the magic departnt, despite still being a student.
Upon arriving at the location, he showed little to no interest in Kasha.
Instead, he rely committed to mory the man’s face and na, then left without any hesitation.
***
The sun, which had been illuminating the sky a brilliant blue at its zenith, was ending at the horizon, coloring the vast premises of the academy orange as the representative tournant drew to a close.
As soon as the tournant was over, the freshn scattered, each heading their own way.
The steps of the magic departnt first-years were exceedingly heavy.
Conversely, the steps of the swordsmanship departnt first-years were extrely light.
“EEK…!”
That is, apart from Phibian, who had fled from Ceylon with lighter steps than anyone else, thanks to her wind magic, as soon as their conversation ended.
“Idiot~”
“Hey, top scorer.”
Adryn and Mizu were about to approach Ceylon right after he finished speaking with Phibian.
“Ceylon~”
Adella tried to rush forward, overtaking the two to get to Ceylon.
Click.
The steps of all three ca to a halt at the sa ti.
Soone approached Ceylon right after he finished his chat with Phibian, moving with the sprightly step of a wolf that has spotted its prey.
It was Kasha Hanahan.
Adryn and Mizu diverted their gaze from Kasha to Adella.
“What gives?”
As Adella responded to their looks, Adryn and Mizu spoke up one after the other.
“You’re not going?”
“You seed to be in such a rush. Why the stop?”
What happens if you intrude upon them now?
Go ahead and check it out for us.
With a pale face, Adella vigorously shook her head from side to side.
It was a remarkable sight.
Adella, who had been bold and ungiving within the sights of all those spectators during the representative tournant, was now actively being cautious.
Kasha with a serious and determined look was circling around Ceylon.
“Uh!”
Soon after, Ceylon noticed the three standing distant and still, and approached them with Kasha beside him.
“Uh?”
Their expressions shifted the mont they saw Kasha’s face, which, contrary to their worries, seed surprisingly gentle.
It was right at that mont when the three won hesitated before approaching Ceylon—
“…”
Kasha looked at them sharply with cold, piercing eyes, utterly different from those directed at Ceylon.
“””…!”””
Following their instincts, all three fled the scene in a dash.
“Uh, uh!? Everyone!?”
Ceylon’s futile attempt to reach out and grab them only waved through empty air.
‘You’ve got to be kidding .’
Now, Ceylon was left alone with Kasha once more.
“…”
Feeling an intense stare, he turned his head.
Just a few steps away, Kasha calmly watched him with a look of cool determination.
Ceylon cautiously started to speak.
“Do you have any business with …”
Kasha shook her head sideway.
“Not particularly.”
“Is, is that so…?”
Then why follow at all?
Ceylon didn’t dare articulate the thought.
‘If anyone knows why this person is doing this.’
Ceylon was still utterly clueless.
Why Kasha continued to loiter around him was beyond his comprehension.
“But then, you—”
At that mont, Kasha questioned.
“Do you want anything from ?”
“Uh- Yes, nothing at all…?”
“Is that so.”
With that, Kasha closed her mouth and resud simply looking at Ceylon.
Ceylon made an effort to look away from Kasha and stared straight ahead.
He walked on.
Thud, thud.
Thud, thud.
With each step Ceylon took, two sets of footsteps followed.
‘What in the world…’
Kasha naturally followed Ceylon as though it were to be expected.
Ceylon felt bewildered, but he tried his best to act calm and natural.
‘Even if you get caught by Kasha, as long as you keep your wits, you’ll live,’ he mused.
As he walked on, Ceylon muttered to himself but not truly to himself.
“Ah~ It’s getting late, maybe it’s about ti to head back to the dormitory~? I’ve heard that the academy has separate dorm buildings for each grade and ‘gender.’ I wonder what the dormitory I’ll be staying in is like. I’m curious~”
That trivial self-talk could be interpreted as follows.
Whoosh.
Whoosh!
He wasn’t signaling Phibian.
It was a sound to chase away wild animals.
‘Since I ntioned I’m headed to the n’s dormitory, she won’t follow anymore, right?’
Ceylon thought so as he moved forward.
Thud, thud.
Thud, thud.
Thud, thud.
Thud, thud.
***
Shortly after.
The freshn n’s dormitory building entered Ceylon’s field of vision.
“Oh~ There it is, the freshn n’s dormitory.”
Announcing his destination clearly to himself, not really to himself, Ceylon continued to press forward.
Thud, thud.
Thud, thud.
‘Goodness, how far is she going to follow !?’
Kasha trailed behind Ceylon effortlessly, not showing any sign of hesitation.
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