novelraw Chapter 94: Jasmine
Chapter 94: Jasmine
"Ahhh, why didn't you guys stop Professor Fischer?! I ran across two entire buildings for nothing!!"
In the classroom shortly after Fischer's departure, a breathless Milika — who had sprinted through two buildings — took one look at the empty lectern and knew he was already gone. Just like during her old private tutoring sessions, he looked forward to the end of class even more than his students did. He would never run overtime.
Milika puffed out her cheeks, disappointed at having missed Fischer. Then she turned and saw Isabel slumped across her desk, practically a mummy. Beside her, Jasmine was worriedly stroking her back. Milika tilted her head and asked Jasmine, puzzled.
"What happened to her, Jasmine?"
Before Jasmine could speak, Isabel lifted her head. A pitiable glimmer of moisture clung to the corners of her eyes.
"That professor is so strict! Why did we have to start real lectures on the very first day?! I was already exhausted — forcing myself to stay awake was bad enough, but I also had to focus on his teaching the whole time!"
Milika laughed awkwardly, as though the painful memories of her own long-ago math lessons came flooding back.
"Professor Fischer in class and Professor Fischer outside of class are two completely different people. He's a tiny bit strict, sure, but I guarantee you'll learn a ton — and I stake the intelligence I used studying math on it! Our literature class today was pretty nice, though. Lady Laofang introduced her latest poetry anthology and had us discuss it together. It was actually quite fun."
Laofang — the poet?
Jasmine tilted her head in complete unfamiliarity. Isabel, however, knew of the poetess's reputation.Her sister apparently wasn't fond of the woman and had given an unremarkable assessment, calling her "an opportunist who panders to ladies' unrealistic fantasies." As a result, Isabel's own first impression of this professor was instinctively unfavorable.
That said, Laofang was quite popular on campus. Rumor had it that when word spread she would be teaching at Saint-Nazareth University, many students had been far more excited than when Fischer arrived. Fischer's appointment had thrilled the faculty; the students, by contrast, hadn't really noticed.
"Jasmine, you don't have any classes at ten, right? Are you going swimming?"
Milika and Isabel both had classes at ten. As they gathered their things to head to their next classroom, they turned to Jasmine, still seated in her chair. They clearly knew their roommate well — they were aware of her frequent swimming habit.
Hearing Milika's question, she nodded shyly.
"Mm, I'm going to swim for a bit."
"All right, see you this afternoon then — we're heading out first."
"Mm, see you."
Watching Milika and Isabel leave, Jasmine sat in place and waved at their retreating backs. Only long after they had disappeared did she slowly let her hand drop. She opened her mouth, then lowered her head and stowed her books in a locker beneath the teaching building before setting off toward the natatorium.
Saint-Nazareth University had a dedicated gymnasium complex, and the natatorium was located there — roughly at the foot of the hill opposite the faculty office buildings. The actual distance, however, was quite far.
This girl's habit when walking was to press a hand over her chest and keep her head down, because her generous proportions sometimes blocked her view of her own feet. She would push the softness down slightly with her hand so that she could actually see her legs.
She watched every step of her path with meticulous care, murmuring "heave-ho, heave-ho" under her breath in tiny sounds only she could hear, each one synchronized with her footsteps.
But mid-stride, she suddenly glimpsed a pair of black leather shoes approaching her. She looked up — and was startled to find Professor Fischer, whose class she had just attended. The innate panic a student feels upon bumping into a teacher surged through her, rooting her legs to the spot. Her hands flailed briefly, then dropped to her sides.
"P-Professor Fischer, hello."
Jasmine greeted him first. Her small, timid voice — like that of a little animal — only became fully audible once Fischer drew close. He stared blankly at the blushing girl for a moment before recalling that she had sat in the front row — the student who had brought every book on his recommended reading list.
He had just returned from visiting the Centaur Xi Yate and was now on his way to find the Pioneer Party parliamentarian Tlander, to ask him to arrange a visit to the Pink Pavilion. His plan was more or less finalized; the only missing piece was playing the Tlander card. He hadn't expected to run into one of his own students along the way.
It was at this moment that his gaze inadvertently fell on her extraordinary figure, and he recalled having caught sight of this girl in the teaching building during his first visit to Saint-Nazareth University, when he had been meeting with Dean Kaine.
"Hello. You're in my class? What's your name?"
"Ah, yes... I — I'm Jasmine, f-first-year in the Magic Academy. I'm on my way to swim right now."
He had merely asked her name, yet in her fluster she blurted out everything in one breath — including where she was headed — spilling it all to Fischer.
Fischer blinked, then smiled and overlooked her bashfulness. He had other things to attend to, so he prepared to leave.
"I see. Good luck, then."
"Ah, okay... I'll do my best..."
Fischer waved and started to walk away. Jasmine's belated answer didn't reach him until he was already in the distance. She opened her mouth, glanced back at herself, and realized she had no idea what she'd even been saying. 'How embarrassing...'
Yet as she watched Fischer's retreating figure, it struck her that what Milika had said was true: Fischer in class and Fischer outside of class were practically two different people. Or perhaps, when it came to certain things, his earnestness simply made him seem different?
Jasmine tapped her head, silently committing their conversation to memory, then resumed her previous pace toward the natatorium.
Just past ten in the morning, the natatorium was completely deserted. The attendant had only just clocked in and had gone off to eat breakfast, but apparently knowing a certain student would come to swim, had left a set of keys on the desk — the keys to the locker where Jasmine kept her swimming gear.
Jasmine had several swimsuits, and she sometimes stored one here so she wouldn't have to go back to the dormitory to fetch it.
"Heave-ho, heave-ho..."
She murmured to herself as she changed into her swimsuit. Standing before the mirror in the changing room, she examined her reflection. This was the largest swimsuit available at the campus store, and yet the chest area was still uncomfortably tight. She fretted a little, gripping with both hands the fabric that struggled to contain the enormity beneath, as if doing so gave her some relief.
The black-haired girl wore no goggles and had nothing resembling a swim cap. Gentle ripples drifted across the vast, empty pool. Jasmine quietly crouched at the water's edge. The moment her fingertips touched the surface, she slowly closed her eyes. There, where no one could see, her swimsuit-clad body emitted a faint blue glow. In the instant that glow flickered to life, she toppled forward into the pool — yet she melted into the water as though she were part of it, without raising a single splash.
The girl closed her eyes in bliss and sank into the depths. In that instant, the pool seemed to lose its bottom entirely, letting her drift downward at gravity's mercy — deeper and deeper, ever deeper, past the reach of sunlight, into absolute silence, as though she were the only person in the world.
Amid that boundless descent, she slowly opened her eyes. Those irises, pitch-black in the open air, now blazed with an azure light beneath the water, as if they held the life force of an entire ocean.
Around her, the scene was no longer the shallow university pool but some lightless expanse within a vast sea. She gazed quietly into the phantom depths. A second or two later, she began to sing softly on the ocean floor — a melody carried on frequencies beyond human hearing, spreading outward through the water, reaching farther and farther, rousing something indescribable from its slumber.
"My Attendant Sea Beast, awaken."
In the darkness, a pair of azure pupils — each larger than an island — snapped open. A body as boundless and towering as a mountain range stirred at the girl's song. At some point she had been entirely enveloped by the colossal creature, its form stretching beyond sight in every direction.
But Jasmine showed no trace of alarm. Instead, a small smile played across her face as she extended her hand. In that moment, a massive tail — like a whale's — unfurled behind her, and across her features materialized a spectral headdress that shimmered with the brilliant light of the sea.
"Jasmine..."
The titanic beast lowered its head, allowing Jasmine's palm to rest upon its forehead. Then its enormous eye descended to meet her gaze on a level plane, and a voice like a great bell resonated through the water, speaking in an extraordinarily ancient language.
"Xianghun, I've made it to the mainland. There are so many humans up there, so many buildings — even more people than at the bottom of the sea. I was having fun exploring for a while, so I didn't call you before now. Hehe."
The beast regarded the girl in wordless exasperation, its colossal azure eye blinking slowly, each blink pushing out enormous waves.
"You should stay focused. Remember to fulfill the task the Matriarch entrusted to you. The most important thing is to find Lady Muxi and bring her home."
"Don't worry, Xianghun. I've already learned the human language. I'll go look for Auntie Muxi soon, and deliver Mother's letter to that human while I'm at it. But I'm curious — why does Mother send that human a letter every year?"
"...The Matriarch made a pact with that human. She lent him her weapon to aid his campaigns. He promised to return it when he turned thirty-five. This is already his thirty-fourth birthday. Next year is when the promise comes due."
"I see. All right, I'll deliver it soon. Once the letter is sent and I've found Auntie Muxi, I'll come straight back!"
"Mm. I am awake now. If you need help, just call for me. Later, I'll have the Crab Tribe send some things up to you. Operating in human territory, you'll probably need some items for trade."
"Mm-hmm..."
Jasmine smiled softly. Then, beyond her control, her body began to rise — shooting upward from the lightless abyss of the deep ocean. The enormous whale tail behind her and the spectral blue crown vanished at some indeterminate moment. By the time she broke the surface and reappeared in the university pool, she had fully reverted to her human form.
She exhaled, then raised her hand. There, between her fingers, webbing was slowly retracting. Ripples of pale blue radiance spread outward from her body like gentle waves, transforming every last trace of her back into a human guise.
She smiled quietly and whispered into the empty air.
"Thank you, Lord Ramastia."
Somewhere beneath the water, a few tiny bubbles rose to the surface — as if in answer to the girl's gratitude.