Interlude
“Hi there. So what’s today’s menu?”
“Stew. There’s plenty for second helpings too.”
In the early afternoon at the magic institute, inside the large cafeteria on the school grounds, the cheerful chatter of students filled the air. It was an enormous facility meant to support the stomachs of some six hundred aspiring wizards. Students in refreshing blue and white uniforms sat where they liked, enjoying their meals while talking with their school friends.
Sitting at one of these tables was a young girl who was heartily—or crudely, if one chose not to mince words—gulping down a bowl of stew. This girl with dark blue hair was named Mewi Freya, and she had no issue with eating alone. She simply enjoyed her food while thinking about how the flavor was slightly different than the meals back at home.
Some time had passed since Mewi’s enrollment at the magic institute. If necessary, she would exchange one or two words with other students, but she had no idea how to close the distance between herself and other people. Having lived alone most of her life with nobody but her older sister by her side, she’d never felt the need to get closer to anyone.
“Oh? Mewi, you’re having lunch too!”
“I am...”
That didn’t mean she refused to let people try to get closer to her, though. As a result, she’d been able to form and maintain connections with some of the more whimsical students.
“I’ll be taking the seat across from you!”
“Do what you want...”
This endlessly cheerful girl—Cindy Loveaut—was one of her few acquaintances. From an outside perspective, they looked like they were in this vague relationship of being more than acquaintances and less than friends.
Cindy was holding a tray containing a bowl filled to the brim with stew, and she took a seat at Mewi’s table. Cindy had a loud voice—she always spoke at an exceptional volume. And with that loud voice, she was able to get along with anyone. Mewi had been unable to escape this girl who called out to everyone in sight.
“Thanks for the food!” Cindy shouted cheerfully—her voice projected very well.
She started eating, and in contrast to her voice, her mannerisms were very refined. Mewi could tell the difference between Cindy’s etiquette and her own lack of it. Mewi knew nothing about culture or manners or anything of the like. Up until now, she’d never had the leisure of worrying about such things.
However, her situation had changed a little. There hadn’t been any problems yet while living with Beryl, but now that she was experiencing the communal life in the magic institute, she was starting to get vaguely anxious—she felt like, if she wanted to grow, she couldn’t stay the same. However, just being conscious of manners and culture wasn’t enough to acquire such skills. Beryl had been relatively lax about this, so she hadn’t shown much progress.
“Today’s cafeteria food is as good as ever, isn’t it?!”
For better or worse, nobody around Mewi was particularly strict about this. It’d been that way all her life. Only in this new environment had she started to compare herself to others, but no one was taking a strong stance to correct her, which had led to the current status quo.
“Ah, Mewi, you got some stew on you!” Cindy said, quickly pulling out a handkerchief and wiping Mewi’s stained sleeve.
“Mm...”
Due to Mewi’s petite stature and young age, the few acquaintances she had at school treated her like a little sister. Even her thorny personality was a minor matter when they viewed it as the rebellious behavior of a growing girl. Students from all walks of life attended the magic institute, but fortunately, Mewi was surrounded by a congregation of people with strangely generous personalities.
“Yo, Cindy, Mewi.”
“Good day, everyone.”
“Mind if we join you?”
“Ooh! It’s Nesia, Fredra, and Lumite!”
“Whatever...”
While Cindy and Mewi enjoyed a lively meal—well, one of them was lively and the other was subdued—the three other students who attended their sword magic lectures joined them at the table. Unlike Mewi, they didn’t have small social circles or anything. Lumite in particular was the son of a viscount, so he’d had plenty of acquaintances before even attending the institute.
Still, as fellow students of the sword magic course—which was quite the novelty—they happened to get along pretty well. During lunch or on the walk back to the dorms after classes were over, these five gathered naturally.
Mewi didn’t consider time spent with them as particularly welcome, nor did she think poorly of it. She’d spent the majority of her life in solitude, so she was often bewildered by such socializing, but it was also a fresh and stimulating experience.
“How did you all do on the test for Fundamental Magic I?” Lumite asked.
“I did so-so!” Cindy answered. “It really reminded me that I’m just better at moving my body!”
“I did okay...” Mewi said.
Everyone enjoyed their stew while chatting away. One way or another, their conversation was pretty much entirely focused on magic or the courses they were taking. They were passionate when it came to both studying and playing, but the magic institute was a rather special environment. Unlike normal students, their interests leaned a little more toward their studies. Mewi found that this made it easier to chat with them. After all, she wouldn’t really know how to respond if they talked about their hobbies.
“I did pretty good this time around,” Nesia said. “The same went for the rest of you, huh?”
“So did I,” Fredra agreed. “I suppose it really is important to train the body.”
Unlike Mewi and Cindy, these two were pretty confident about their results. Mewi could understand that a little—she felt a clear sense of understanding toward magic that she hadn’t had before enrolling in the institute. But that could also be because Mewi hadn’t received any proper education before this.
“The sword magic lessons are making a surprising amount of sense now too.”
“I believe that’s because of Mr. Beryl. I find he’s rather good at teaching.”
“You’re telling me! The Liberion’s instructor is amazing!”
“Hmph...”
The topic moved on from magic to Beryl, which provoked a slight twitch from Mewi. Beryl couldn’t use magic, so all he was capable of teaching in the sword magic course were the movements and knowledge required for swordsmanship.
Still, even if that was all he was teaching, to these young students who were in an emotional stage of their lives, his lessons seemed to provide more excitement than the average course. The five students taking the sword magic course showed genuine motivation for learning swordsmanship—this had trickled down to their magic classes that had nothing to do with swordsmanship, and it seemed to have a positive effect.
That effect didn’t necessarily apply to just anyone, of course. These five in particular had considerable potential dormant within them.
Had Ficelle been the only one teaching them, things probably wouldn’t have looked so promising, and even if they had, it would’ve taken far longer for their talent to blossom. Beryl was aware he had some talent for teaching others how to use a sword—in the realm of swordplay and all matters related to swordsmanship, he was an excellent teacher. Whether he was an equally excellent parent or adult was a different matter, of course.
Everyone was finishing their stew just as lunch was about to end. The conversation began to die down when Cindy then broached another topic.
“Oh yeah, I’ve been wondering this for a while now!”
“What...?” Mewi asked.
“Mewi, are you personally acquainted with Mr. Beryl?”
“Wh-Why...?”
Mewi jolted a little at the unexpected question. The others didn’t know that, for documentation purposes, Beryl and Mewi were father and daughter. Beryl and Ficelle had also dodged the topic, deeming it unnecessary to explain. Mewi herself didn’t want to talk about it, so she didn’t feel it was necessary to tell anyone.
“Hm? You are?” Lumite asked.
It seemed Cindy had been the only one to guess any part of this. The other students were somewhat shocked by her question.
Mewi was stumped. Should she tell them the truth? Setting aside her relationship with Beryl for the moment, she had no intention of unveiling her entire past. This was information pretty much only Lucy, Allucia, and Ficelle knew. Even her teacher, Kinera, had no idea what Mewi had done in the past and what she’d gone through.
Admitting to her relationship with Beryl meant touching upon that past a little, so Mewi wasn’t sure what to do. It wasn’t like she didn’t trust them, but even with her lack of social skills, she could tell this wasn’t a very welcome topic.
“Well...I guess I am...” Mewi said.
“Thought so!” Cindy exclaimed.
In the end, Mewi admitted only to being acquaintances with Beryl. To this day, she still had no idea how to interact with this assertive friend of hers. Still, she understood that Cindy wasn’t just treating her as a curiosity. This was a bit of relief. Mewi couldn’t bring herself to hate her.
“Hmm, is that so?” Lumite muttered. “Cindy, how could you tell?”
“I mean, I just kinda thought Mr. Beryl and Mewi act differently toward one another than they do with the rest of us!”
“You’re quite observant...” Fredra remarked.
The unexpected change of topic had pulled all five students into the conversation, at least somewhat. Mewi wasn’t aware of her attitude changing when she interacted with others—she’d meant to act the same with Beryl as she did with Cindy, Lumite, Nesia, and Fredra. However, with her abundance of personal connections, Cindy was somewhat more sensitive to such subtleties.
“Mewi is personally acquainted with Liberion’s instructor?” Nesia muttered. “That’s kind of a shock.”
“Right?! So how did you meet him?!” Cindy asked, fully of interest.
Mewi wasn’t quite sure how to handle the situation. A fleeting thought crossed her mind: why not just tell them everything? However, she didn’t know what kind of relationship she would be building with these students in the long term. It was possible they were all going to go their separate ways after graduating, but they might also remain in contact. Due to her age—and especially due to her lack of social experience—Mewi couldn’t really predict how revealing everything now would affect her future.
However, right as Mewi was about to speak, Cindy’s loud voice cut her off.
“Oh! Sorry! I didn’t mean to pry! No matter the circumstances, you’re still Mewi! Ha ha ha ha!”
“Hmph...”
Cindy had observed the minute changes to Mewi’s expression and she’d judged that this wasn’t a happy topic. She had then made sure that those around them didn’t develop a bad impression of Mewi, and she’d even turned any negative attention toward herself, just in case.
“You’re right,” Fredra said. “Whatever the case may be, Mewi is still a friend and rival.”
“Rival? You’ll have to start by putting on some muscle first, Fredra,” Lumite pointed out calmly.
“E-Erk...”
Compared to the others, Fredra had an overwhelming lack of endurance. She ran out of breath even faster than Mewi, who’d spent most of her life malnourished. It was only reasonable for Lumite to tease her when he excelled at both the military and literary arts.
“Friends...” Mewi repeated without really thinking about it.
“That’s right! Aren’t we friends?!” Cindy exclaimed loudly.
Mewi didn’t reply. She didn’t even look at Cindy. Friends. Mewi had never had anyone around her who could be classified as such. All she’d ever known was her kind sister, those who’d pushed her around, and the busybody who was far older than she was.
“But I’m hard to deal with...” Mewi mumbled shyly.
“That’s totally fine,” Nesia told her. “It’s way easier to get along with you than some toadies.”
“That’s right!” Cindy agreed. “It gives you individuality too!”
“You could do with being a bit quieter, Cindy...” Nesia said.
Due to Nesia’s build and personality, people often feared him. Mewi was far smaller than him, younger, she didn’t speak much, and she interacted with him bashfully—despite all these things, he didn’t have a bad impression of her.
Cindy was the same with everyone. As long as nothing absolutely horrible was done to her, she wouldn’t push people away or come to hate them. Inside her head, Mewi had long been part of her circle of friends.
Fredra was a fundamentally serious girl but was sometimes quite careless. She was like Cindy in the sense that she seemed to make good impressions on everyone around her. Fredra had a lot more pride, though. She’d chosen the sword magic course because of her admiration of Ficelle, and she saw Mewi as a friend who worked hard toward reaching the same goal.
Lumite was friendly with basically everyone—his behavior somewhat akin to noblesse oblige. Mewi was his junior at the institute, and he considered her to be a fellow friend taking the same course.
Each of them saw her in a somewhat different way, but they were all better friends than Mewi had imagined.
“Thanks...” Mewi murmured.
“Whoa, Mewi just said thanks! It might rain tomorrow.”
“Hmph!”
“Ow! You ass! Don’t kick me!”
“That was your fault, Nesia.”
“Lumite’s right. You should watch what you say.”
And just like that, lunchtime at the magic institute came to an end with the students raising a fuss that was appropriate for their ages.
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