Chapter 6–Special
After classes, the Merlin Institute Academy felt like a different world.
Lanterns flickered to life along the stone paths as students spilled out of the buildings, voices rising in a jumble of laughter, gossip, and half‑finished homework complaints. Mai walked beside Okama, cradling a purring Puss in her arms, the cat’s tail twitching in time with every distant explosion from the alchemy labs.
“Do you think they’ll ever stop blowing things up?” she asked, glancing toward the faint plume of purple smoke curling over one of the towers.
“Not until they run out of ingredients,” Okama replied. His voice was flat, but the corner of his mouth twitched. “So… never.”
They joined the queue at the dining hall, a vaulted room packed with long tables, floating candles, and the constant clatter of cutlery. Nobles compared wands and whispered about family estates. Commoners traded rumours about dungeons and guilds. Somewhere in the middle of it all, Mai and Okama squeezed into their usual seats.
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Mai poked suspiciously at something that claimed to be stew. Puss sniffed it once, then turned her head away in disdain.
“At least the bread’s safe,” Okama said, sliding his roll onto Mai’s plate and pretending not to notice her surprised smile.
After dinner came the quieter part of the evening: study hour. The common room buzzed with low conversation, the rustle of pages, and the occasional shouted question about mana theory. Mai spread her books across a small table; Okama sat opposite, sharpening his sword with slow, careful strokes while pretending to read a tactics manual.
“Tomorrow,” Mai said suddenly, “let’s practise in the inner courtyard. Just us. No teachers, no dummies that explode.”
Okama looked up, meeting her eyes. “Yeah. I’d like that.”
Far away, in the tundra, Miss Aiko stood alone by a window, staring out at the distant lights of the city and the dark line of the forest beyond. Her friends and family laughed and talked behind her, but she hardly heard them.
“So,” she murmured to herself, fingers tightening around a stack of plates, “Yuuno, Mai, Okama, everyone… where did they send you?”