Chương 51: “Their First Meeting”

The rest of Saturday passed quietly. Arthur and the others made their way to one of the adventurer's guild service points near the Tower's base, where healers tended to immediate injuries. Liana had exhausted her mana and was running on fumes at this point even after already having rest. After they were done, Serena left first. She gave Arthur a nod and walked off without elaborating further. Eryndis disappeared shortly after, slipping away without Arthur and Liana's notice.

So, the two walked back to the academy dormitories together. The afternoon sun sat low and warm over Summit's rooftops, and the streets were busy with the usual weekend crowd of climbers, adventurers, and merchants.

"I'm going to train for a bit," Arthur said when they reached the fork where his dormitory building split from hers. Liana adjusted the strap of her bag.

"I have a lot of homework to do."

"From who?"

"Archmage Elena." Arthur winced." Ugh. Studying… Good luck!" Liana sighed.

"Thanks. I'll need it." Arthur spent the remaining hours at one of the training buildings, running through exercises, light sparring with other people, and sword practice until the late evening. His body was healed, but there was a looseness that bothered him. He repeated them until the movements felt a bit more proper, and then repeated them until he felt like his old self. Without his notice, this was, in fact, the discrepancy due to sudden stat growth.

By the time he stopped, the building was mostly empty and he had gotten his movement and rhythm back. Sunday morning, they brought their gear to the academy smith. The smithy sat in a stone building near the southern edge of campus, and it was, in all honesty, a place for commoners and low-ranking nobles. The equipment it serviced was cheap, and the academy subsidized the work through its point system, allowing students to trade in academy points for low-ranking artifacts or modestly better equipment.

However, for the most part, for basic equipment like theirs, repair was generally free. The academy's economy was structured so that the real earnings came from Floor 10 and above, where the Tower opened into the World floors. That was where climbers could harvest materials worth actual money and points: monster parts, rare plants, and ores that would otherwise be rare outside the Tower. Most new students hadn't gotten anywhere close to Floor 10 yet.

And it was expected Professor Griffin would cover a brief discussion of the World floors in their next mandatory class. For now, the details were secondhand, picked up from veteran climbers in taverns, guild halls, and books. They collected their repaired gear that afternoon and went their separate ways again. Arthur returned to the training buildings. Liana returned to her desk and Archmage Elena's stack of reading. Today's evening, however, was different.

Serena had sent a letter through the academy staff, telling Arthur and Liana that she was taking them to dinner, informing them to get adequately dressed. When they arrived at the restaurant, Arthur understood why. The restaurant was relatively high-class, with arched windows overlooking the lamplit street below. The interior was all dark wood, white tablecloths, and candles in brass holders.

A host in a vest led them to a corner table where Serena was already seated, her red hair adorned in gems and her usual scowl looked like it had softened due to the dress she was wearing. Arthur looked around with open fascination. He'd never eaten somewhere like this. The silverware alone looked more expensive than most of what he owned.

"Arthur," Liana whispered sharply, nudging his arm.

"Stop staring."

"But look at that chandelier. Is that real crystal?"

"Sit down." He sat, but his eyes kept wandering.

"What is that?" Arthur asked, leaning slightly toward the neighboring table. Liana grabbed his sleeve and pulled him back.

"You're making us look like naive country bumpkins…!"

"But… that's the truth…" Serena watched the exchange, saying nothing. She was clearly amused at her two new friends, and rather than letting them spend a long time staring at the menu, she told the waiter their order without consulting either of them. The food, when it came, was excellent. Arthur ate with enthusiasm, and cared little for table manners. Liana kept her head down and pretended she didn't know him. It was a good evening. The next day, Monday arrived, and with it, the return of classes.

Since Arthur and Liana shared most of the same schedule, with only a few electives differing between them, they met outside the dormitories that morning, both in their academy uniforms, and walked toward the main academic building together. The campus was its usual weekday bustle: students crossing the courtyards, staff carrying stacks of papers, and the distant sound of plenty of people training in one of the outdoor arenas. However, there was something very different today.

When they turned into a corridor on the second floor, Arthur heard a familiar voice.

"I-I'm sorry...! Sorry!" Arthur slowed his pace. Ahead, a small crowd had begun to gather at the corner of the corridor. Students were clustering along the walls, nearly all whispering and watching the scene. Arthur struggled to push through to the front, and found that one of his classmates, a commoner girl he had regularly interacted with, was on her knees. Her hands were pressed flat against the stone floor, her forehead nearly touching the ground, shaking.

Standing above her was a woman Arthur had never seen up close. Golden-blonde hair fell past her shoulders. She stood with a folded fan held loosely in one hand. and her posture was straight with her chin tilted upward. Her uniform was the same as every other student's, but for some reason, it looked different on her. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. And her eyes were red. A deep, sharp crimson.

"Is Celestia von Reingarde up to no good again?" someone behind Arthur murmured. He'd heard the name before, in fact, everyone within the academy had. Though Arthur didn't actively chase gossip, her name had always been spoken about around the academy; he'd heard that she had turned a commoner into her personal servant. That she'd been buying slaves in bulk and keeping them in a building somewhere in the city.

That she had broken one of the academy's most talented professors, though the details of that particular rumor changed depending on who was telling it. Since it had nothing to do with Arthur, he had never went out of his way to confirm any of it. But today, with his classmate was on the floor, trembling and apologizing over and over, and the blonde woman standing there with that fan and those crimson eyes, looking down on her as if she was an ant. It was clear that Celestia was in the wrong.

Arthur stepped forward, but Liana's hand caught his arm.

"Arthur—" However, he shrugged her off and kept walking. He crossed the gap and stopped between Celestia and the kneeling girl. Celestia's crimson gaze moved from the girl to him, and for some reason, it had an air of disgust to it. Arthur stared back at her; his good-natured self who couldn't stand for injustice, so he spoke out, "That's enough. She's already apologized." He looked back at his classmate, who was staring up at him with wide, tear-streaked eyes, and offered his hand.

"Come on. Get up." The girl hesitated, glancing fearfully past Arthur, looking at Celestia. However, Arthur's gaze didn't waver as he simply kept his hand out, waiting. After a few seconds, she finally took it. He pulled her gently to her feet, and she immediately ducked behind him. Only then did Arthur turn to face Celestia fully. Though, the latter hadn't moved at all, simply observing the charade in front of her.

"I don't care about your name or your family," Arthur said, "but making someone grovel in a hallway isn't something I'll just walk past." Celestia's fan tapped once against her palm. * After the discussion with her parents, they dropped Celestia back at her office. Her father held the carriage door open for her while her mother leaned out the window, already listing out several other places she wanted to visit.

"We'll be at the Grand Vermillion," Duchess Evelyn announced, adjusting her gloves.

"Apparently it's the finest hotel in Summit. If you need us, send a letter there."

"We'll head back to the territory tomorrow," Duke Armond added.

"We will try not to cause too much trouble." Celestia raised an eyebrow. The Duke simply smiled and closed the carriage door. She watched the Reingarde carriage roll off down the lamplit street, her mother's voice could still be heard through the window as she debated between seafood or steak for dinner. Her father's low, amused responses faded with distance. Celestia turned back to the office and went inside. The rest of Saturday and Sunday passed without incident.

Anna appeared at the office several times over the weekend, both times carrying Sir Ozymandias in his cage. The pug was howling each time, his bulging eyes fixed on Celestia as if she were personally responsible for every indignity he had ever suffered. Anna, for her part, looked far too excited about whatever she had planned.

"I-I'll bring him back soon!" Anna called as she hurried past Celestia's desk with the rattling cage, heading toward her makeshift lab in the adjacent building. Sir Ozymandias's howls faded down the hallway, though his final, drawn-out"AWOOOO" echoed long after Anna had disappeared from sight. Alongside that, it seemed like Paimon had been slacking on her maid duties, thought not on purpose. Celestia called Paimon in that evening.

"I've heard from Martha that your maid work has been less than ideal," Celestia said, not looking up from the contract she was reviewing.

"For now, Jade's training schedule is more important. You can drop your other duties until it's finished." Paimon stood with her hands clasped, her posture stiff.

"I-I'd like to keep doing both, my lady. I-I want to get used to all of the work…" Behind Paimon, standing near the doorway, Martha gave a slow, approving nod. Celestia looked at Paimon's passion-filled gaze for a moment, then returned to her contract.

"Fine. But if Jade reports that your training is suffering, the maid work goes. Is that understood?"

"Yes, my lady." As for Celestia herself, the weekend was productive. She signed off on acquisition orders, reviewed ledgers Martha had flagged, and drafted letters to three separate craftsmen in Summit's artisan district. She'd commissioned a new set of armor and several experimental artifacts. Sunday was split between training and checking in on Anna's progress. Celestia knew that just a few days worth of research wasn't enough, but it was heartening to see that Anna was extremely motivated.

According to her, the timeline for a reliable emergency supply was still months out, optimistically. Monday morning, Celestia and Anna took the carriage to Summit Academy together. Anna had loaded herself down with a crate of lab equipment, rattling with every bump in the road. Glass vials clinked against each other throughout the ride.

"I-I packed them carefully!" Anna said, catching Celestia's glance.

"They won't break. Probably." Anna was a student first and researcher second, which meant that unless her schedule permitted trips to the main office, her work happened at the dormitory lab. Hence the crate. They parted as Celestia was dropped off, Anna waved a goodbye as the carriage continued toward the dormitory. Celestia headed towards the building where her History elective was held.

The morning air was cool as the students walked through the courtyards in the usual Monday blues, some rushing and others dragging their feet. Celestia walked at her own pace, fan tucked in her hand, her mind elsewhere. The second arc of the original story had been nagging at her since the weekend. In the original novel, the second arc centered on Arthur and his growing party. He joined a specific club at the academy, one that became the social hub for most of the plot-relevant characters going forward.

The question was, was Celestia going to join it too? But joining that club carried its own risks. The closer she was to the protagonist, the more likely she was to get dragged into life-threatening events she couldn't control. There was a difference between staying relevant and jumping in front of a moving train.

'I'll decide later,' she thought, turning a corner. Something bumped her. A girl walked straight into Celestia's shoulder, and the impact sent a few books tumbling from the girl's arms, scattering across the floor. The girl was already on her knees, scrambling to collect the fallen books. She wore large, round-rimmed spectacles.

"Sorry!" she blurted out, grabbing two books at once and hugging them to her chest, still frantically trying to pick up another. Celestia glanced down at the mess. One of the books had slid to a stop near her feet, so she bent down, picked it up, and held it out to give to the girl. The girl reached for it, still looking at the floor.

"Thank you, I'm so sorry, I wasn't looking where I was—" However, as soon as she raised her head, the rest of the sentence died in her throat. Behind those round spectacles, the girl's eyes went wide as she registered who the woman she bumped into was.. Color visibly drained from her face.

"S-sorry…!" The word came out louder this time, sharp with panic. The girl bowed her head so fast her spectacles nearly flew off. Celestia sighed. She had simply planned to set the book down next to the girl and leave. But before she noticed, the surrounding students had stopped walking. They lined both sides of the corridor, gathering into a crowd. Some had their hands over their mouths. Others were already whispering to each other.

'When did they…?' The girl on the ground must have noticed too, because her shaking doubled. She pressed her forehead toward the floor, her voice cracking as it climbed in volume.

"I-I'm sorry...! Sorry!" Celestia's grip tightened on the fan in her other hand as she understood what was happening.

'You're kidding me.' She turned her head slightly and saw him. A blonde-haired boy pushing through the crowd. Her eyes met his, and a wave of disgust washed over Celestia. The original story's scene was playing out, his moment to shine against the esteemed villainess of the academy.