novelraw Chapter 27
Chapter 27
Chapter 27
Movements
“Hwuaaang-! Hwang!”
Professor, teacher, students.
Everyone had left the training arena, and only Kiena, Hei, Banshi, and I remained.
At that moment, Kiena burst into the tears she had been holding back.
Kiena
–Remaining Points: –1,400
Since the Summoning subject had secured last place in the weekly spar, 5,000 points were deducted as a form of penalty.
Just like me, the 5,000 points she had received under the professor’s name to celebrate her admission into 1st Class were all she had.
After learning that every facility required points to use, Kiena hadn’t gone to the library she loved so much, using only the cafeteria.
So now she stood before us in a negative balance.
“Kiena! I’ll send you points, so stop crying!”
Hei said it to comfort her as much as possible, but…
“It’s useless. Once you’re in the negative, point transfers between students get blocked. To escape the negative, the only way is to earn results in your subjects.”
Banshi delivered a blow as sharp as a death sentence.
Still, to think Mob had such a function too.
If I were to compare the negative-point state, it was like being trapped in a sealed room with water filling up to your chin.
I glared at Banshi, putting strength into my eyes.
‘Did you really have to say it like that?’
My gaze conveyed that intention clearly.
‘……I apologize.’
In her mind, she probably simply meant to inform us, but the problem was that Kiena, unlike Banshi or me, was still much younger.
So she was very likely to misunderstand the meaning behind Banshi’s words.
“Huk…! Hik!”
Meanwhile, Kiena was forcing herself to stop crying while glaring at Banshi.
See that?
She was taking it the wrong way.
“Let’s just go eat.”
“You eat! Acting all high and mighty because you got your points back thanks to Artel! Who are you making fun of right now?”
Banshi tried to change the atmosphere, but it only backfired.
“Ugh, shut it and just follow me.”
Banshi grabbed the scruff of Kiena’s neck, forced her to stand, and dragged her toward the cafeteria.
Kiena was barely in the early 150cm range.
While Banshi stood around 165cm, far taller than Kiena.
The sight of Kiena being dragged along looked just like a bratty younger sister who’d done something wrong, being dragged off by her older sister.
“Why is she suddenly like that? Saying we should eat. Even if it is dinner time, it really doesn’t feel like the mood for food…”
Hei whispered to me after seeing Banshi behave with unclear intentions.
I thought the same, but… Banshi was an adult mage who had lived for 250 years, wasn’t she?
There must’ve been a reason for her behavior.
At the very least, I knew she wasn’t the type of mage who acted without thinking.
“Let’s just follow her.”
I said nothing more and simply trailed behind the two.
“Let gooo! I’m not hungry! You go eat alooone!”
Even in the hallway, Kiena honked like a goose, trying to escape Banshi’s grasp.
Her appearance was just like a stray cat that had somehow ended up in a stranger’s arms and was desperately clawing and flailing to escape.
“What’s this tiny thing being so loud for? I can’t just burn your tongue off either.”
After many twists and turns, we finally arrived in front of the cafeteria.
Just as Banshi tried to drag Kiena through the wide-open entrance, the door suddenly manifested the flame-barrier spell I had shown during the magic duel, repelling only Kiena.
It had no lethality—just a simple reflection spell.
“Eek!”
“If you try to use facilities without points, this is what happens. I brought you here to show you.”
Unlike the startled Kiena, Banshi spoke from inside the cafeteria with a calm and gentle expression.
‘Her teaching style is seriously extreme.’
She could’ve explained it a bit more kindly—did she really have to go that far?
It made me almost feel like Banshi disliked Kiena.
Then Banshi stepped inside alone.
“Hwuaaaang-!”
Kiena, even more overwhelmed by misery, poured out a sorrowful cry.
Before long, Banshi returned from deep inside the cafeteria, carrying two plates piled high with food.
Since we often ate together, I knew the foods Banshi preferred.
But the plates she brought this time weren’t filled with anything she normally liked.
They were all dishes Kiena enjoyed.
Banshi handed the plates to Kiena.
“……What is this?”
Kiena asked with heavy suspicion, but in her eyes, I could see a faint glimmer of hope and excitement.
“From now on, just eat like this. There’s no rule saying you must eat inside the cafeteria.”
“…….”
But Kiena only stared quietly at the plates and didn’t take them.
It seemed like it was a matter of pride.
Plus, hadn’t Kiena picked a fight with Banshi first?
Running around claiming that suddenly acting nice after taking all her points must surely be a ploy to mooch off her.
So no wonder she hesitated to accept.
It looked like it was time for me to step in.
I accepted the plates from Banshi and handed them to Kiena.
“Banshi brought these for you, Kiena. She even used points twice.”
Since she had gone inside once and had to go in again now, Banshi had spent points consecutively when she didn’t have to.
All for Kiena.
“…….”
“…….”
Both stayed silent, as if embarrassed or shy.
“Kiena, go wait in the garden. We’ll bring ours soon.”
Kiena hesitated, then reluctantly accepted the plates and headed toward the 1st Class garden.
The three of us left reentered the cafeteria.
“Is this like… big-sisterly kindness?”
Hei, who had a hearty appetite, immediately went off to pick the dishes she wanted as soon as she stepped inside.
Since it was just me and Banshi now, and no other students were around, I asked comfortably.
To be honest, considering their age difference, Banshi was practically an ancestor to Kiena, but instead of something so distant, the word “older sister,” which felt more familial, seemed more fitting—so that’s what I chose.
“Well… not exactly, but they’re your friends, aren’t they, Archis-nim? I don’t see any reason for us to keep getting along uncomfortably.”
Once we were alone, she returned to formal speech.
“That's an answer I liked.”
I hoped that, through this incident, Kiena would grow closer to Banshi as well.
Banshi hadn’t shown it outwardly, but I could tell she had acted with that intention.
And so we settled under the shade of a tree in the garden.
I had only ever passed by here while walking through the corridors, and this was my first time coming out to eat like this.
‘It looks a little bigger than the Class 0 tree.’
Class 1 had a garden just like Class 0, but the size of the tree was slightly different.
It was a bit taller, and its branches were so dense that when you sat beneath them, you couldn’t see the sky at all.
“Do you think I can get first place in the Summoning subject…? The teacher doesn’t even assign homework often, and the other students all seem smarter and more talented than me…”
While we were finishing our meal, Kiena murmured as she fell back into her gloomy thoughts.
It was something spoken out of a heavy heart, so I fully understood how she felt.
“Should I help you?”
But unexpectedly, it was Banshi who first reached out with warmth.
How did a Conjurer-type like Banshi plan to help a Summoner like Kiena?
Even I, an Archmage, could only watch over her.
“You’re a Conjurer, right? How are you going to help?” Hei asked the same doubt I had.
“That’s right. So I can’t directly help you the way I would if I were teaching summoning magic, but there is a way I know that could still help. What do you think?”
“…Is that really true?”
Kiena no longer glared at Banshi.
Her eyes were pure and gentle, like someone who had just gained a reliable older sister.
And right now, in her desperate situation, Banshi’s words felt like a single ray of hope for her.
For Kiena, the most important thing right now was simply recovering her negative points.
“Would I lie to you in a situation like this?”
As she answered, Banshi subtly glanced at me.
Her eyes clearly said, ‘It’s not because I like her—I’m doing this because she’s a friend of Archis-nim.’
Still, I was relieved.
Even I had no plan whatsoever to raise Kiena’s points to the top five, but now Banshi had stepped in.
“…What do I have to do?”
Showing interest now, Kiena asked.
“First, tomorrow you and I are going down to the lower world together. I know a place with a useful summoning magic book.”
“There are… plenty of books in the library though?”
“That’s because it’s a book the library doesn’t have. But it’s not a forbidden book. It’s just an old text that the school never stored.”
“Really…?”
“But going outside? There’s such a thing?” Hei asked again.
The fact that Hei asked that meant she had never seen any Class 0 student go out, nor had she gone out herself.
“From Class 1 onward, you need points to use any facility except during vacation. That applies on weekends too, when there are no classes.”
This was exactly why the outing system existed from Class 1 upward, even though Class 0 didn’t have it.
If a student’s points were in a dangerous state during the semester, they could use the outing system to avoid spending any points over the weekend.
A few hundred points could easily make or break their ranking, so it was quite a useful system that gave students a slim hope of promotion. As I thought that, I heard Banshi speak.
“Outings are always one night, two days. You leave Friday night and return to the school within the designated time. But you can’t go every week. You only get to go twice per semester.”
Of course.
Schools in this era were practically desperate to expel students.
“We should be able to apply right now, I think.”
“How do you do it?”
“Through Mob—send the application form to your assigned teacher. First, take out your Mob.”
Hearing that, Kiena immediately activated her Mob. Then Banshi moved close beside her to explain how to apply.
The process was simple.
Bring up the outing application stored in the Mob, fill it out, and send it to the teacher for approval.
But this function was never something my master had planned when he developed Mob, so it clearly wasn’t originally part of its system.
‘No mistake. Mob has been tampered with.’
If so, the biggest concern was who had manipulated it.
“Oh? The teacher replied already. They said to come to the main gate by 10.”
Apparently the Class 1 main gate had a portal to the lower world.
“Let’s go together later.”
With that, Banshi picked up Kiena’s empty plate and started heading to the cafeteria to return the dishes.
“Hei, I’ll put yours away too. Give it here.”
“Hm? Really? Thanks.”
I could tell she was doing it to be alone with me.
On the short walk toward the cafeteria, I asked Banshi:
“What book are you planning to show her? A book that’s not in the school, not a forbidden text, yet simply old… I have no idea what that could be.”
It was the part I had been most curious about.
“They were books from the library of the fallen Emmet Family. Didn’t the Emmet Family like collecting books?”
“True… they did. But the Emmet Family burned down completely, didn’t they? You’re saying the main house library survived? Even the books inside?”
“Well…”
At my question, she hesitated for a moment.