Jaelin rose awkwardly from her seat and answered in a voice so small it seemed she might crawl into a hole.
“H-here!”
But the man who had been calling Jaelin’s name loud enough to make the cafeteria ring did not seem to hear her, for he shouted even louder.
“Jaelin Brittson!! Is there no Jaelin Brittson here?”
A few students grumbled at the man, telling him to be quiet.
“Sorry, sorry. I’m looking for someone.”
The man, smoothly laughing off the students’ complaints, was about to call Jaelin’s name again.
Jaelin, who did not have the courage to raise her voice, quickly ran up to the man before he could call her name any louder.
“Oh! You’re Jaelin? Sorry, sorry. I’m really late, aren’t I?”
“It’s all right. I-I just got here too.”
“Really? That’s a relief. Sit down, quickly. Since I’m late, I’ll buy the drinks.”
The man, about to move toward the cafeteria counter, turned back to look at Jaelin.
“What’s your preference?”
At the sudden question, cut off at both ends, Jaelin could only ask back.
“Wh-what?”
“What kind of drink do you like? Coffee? Black tea? Orange juice? Milk?”
“Anything is fine with me.”
“Ah, got it. Then I’ll get coffee. After all, in the morning, you’ve got to give your brain a good smack with coffee, right? Espresso? Latte? Cappuccino? What shall we go with?”
It seemed her answer had not really been needed, for the man hummed to himself and went off to the counter.
A short while later, the tray in the man’s hands when he returned held two cups along with a mountain of bread piled high.
Flustered, Jaelin stammered.
“Wh-what is all this?”
“I haven’t had breakfast yet. You haven’t either, right? It’s so early, there’s no way you’ve eaten. You eat too. Let’s just eat first and then start. Coming here in a rush without eating anything the moment I woke up, I feel like I’m going to die of hunger.”
The man, who had poured out his words without pausing for breath, tore off a piece of bread from the tray and shoved it into his mouth.
“Eat up. The bread here is really good.”
Even while busy eating, he did not forget to urge Jaelin to have some bread. The man, his mouth full of bread, mumbled.
“By the way, why are you using formal speech? Aren’t you a fourth-year?”
“Yes. I am a fourth-year.”
“Why formal speech between people in the same year? Just speak casually. Of course, I’ll be older than you since I slipped up on the entrance exam several times, but I’m not that much of a stickler. By the way, why are you so tiny? You need to eat more.”
With the conversation topics bouncing all over the place, Jaelin could not gather her wits.
Jaelin gave up on replying and took a bite of one of the breads on the tray.
As the man had said, the bread was delicious. The sweet cream, packed so full it seemed about to burst, melted softly in her mouth.
“Oh, right. We haven’t even introduced ourselves yet. I’m Stefan Pantea. Same magical design major as you.”
Stefan, roughly brushing the bread crumbs off his hands, held out his hand to shake Jaelin’s.
The ornate rings on Stefan’s long fingers and the bracelets on his wrist sparkled and gleamed.
“I’m Jaelin Brittson.”
“Hey, casual speech! You can’t keep using formal speech.”
“I-I’m Jaelin Brittson.”
The casual speech she rarely used felt awkward. As Jaelin sat still, fidgeting her fingers in awkwardness, Stefan, having swallowed the bread in his mouth, lifted his chin slightly and spoke with a haughty face.
“Ahem, you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking. The Pantea Department Store, Pantea General Goods, Pantea Trading—they’re all my family’s. I am the young master of the Pantea household, you see.”
“I-I see.”
His manner of speaking, so full of swagger, might have come across as utterly obnoxious, but strangely, it did not at all.
For one thing, the way he spoke with bread crumbs all over his mouth was utterly devoid of any dignity, and for another, the way he had boasted so grandly made it feel more like a joke.
Stefan had assumed Jaelin would naturally know about Pantea, but unfortunately, it was a name she had never even heard.
Not noticing Jaelin’s lukewarm expression, Stefan leaned close to her and lowered his voice to a whisper.
“Well, the noble lords here don’t look too kindly on commerce, calling it vulgar, but what are they going to do about it? Not all nobles are rolling in money, you know. I’d much rather have lots of money. They say there’s no hierarchy at the Academy, but if you look closely, that’s not really true either. There are plenty of nobles who pretend to get along on the surface but don’t genuinely mingle with anyone outside their own rank.”
Jaelin nodded and listened intently to Stefan’s words.
Just then, the cafeteria door opened and a group of people entered. Stefan, glancing toward the door, let out a light whistle.
“Ooh. The prince has arrived.”
“Th-the prince?”
Casual speech still felt unfamiliar, so formal speech slipped out again. Jaelin hurriedly asked again.
“Ah, no. Does even a prince attend here……?”
“A prince does attend, but right now it’s not the literal prince—look over there. You’ll see what I mean.”
Stefan leaned toward Jaelin and pointed somewhere.
Where Stefan’s fingertip pointed, Lionel—the one she had seen in the corridor earlier—was standing.
“It’s not a prince—it’s Lionel…… S-Senior.”
Stefan looked at Jaelin with a startled face.
“Huh? How do you already know Lionel when the semester hasn’t even started? Well, Lionel is kind of famous. Is Lionel famous outside the Academy too? Is it stranger not to know him?”
Even without Jaelin answering, Stefan was asking and answering his own questions.
Just then, Lionel’s gaze, as he moved with his group to sit at an empty table, briefly tangled with Jaelin’s.
Lionel curved his eyes faintly and gave a light nod that only Jaelin could recognize.
After Lionel passed by, Stefan looked around with a startled face. After confirming no one was at the nearby tables, he grimaced and shuddered.
“What was that……? Did he eat something bad this morning? Why is he sending me weird signals? And what was that creepy eye-smile? Eeeek!”
Stefan briskly rubbed his goosebump-covered arms.
“Anyway, he’s a noble among nobles. Completely out of this world. Good family, good skills, and his face is just killer. What would it feel like to have all of that? Must be exhausting to live. Right?”
“St-Stefan, you’re handsome and rich too. Maybe it’s similar……?”
Stefan dropped the bread he was holding and his eyes went wide.
“Huh! Jaelin, you have quite an eye. Well, I suppose I am rather good-looking. And rich. My skills are…… a little, just a tiny bit lacking……!”
Stefan flicked his silver hair back and raised his head proudly. His utterly self-absorbed face looked poised to pierce through the atmosphere and soar into the sky.
At that sight, Jaelin thought she should have just kept quiet.
“Anyway, from fourth year, you absolutely have to complete a mock class where multiple majors participate and collaborate. If you get into the same group as Lionel, first place in that class is guaranteed. Of course, the problem is that nobody wants to be in the same group as the magical design major.”
“Wh-why doesn’t anyone want to be with our major?”
“It’s a mock class where you beat up monsters—who would want to be with our major? We have no stamina, so we’re always frail and ailing, and we’re not like mages who can deal critical hits with high attack power. And is writing formulas easy? Even if you stay up all night designing and building a magical tool, it malfunctions in actual combat more often than not.”
“I-I see.”
“And even if you make a good formula, magic stones aren’t efficient. To be able to kill monsters, you’d need a constant supply of top-grade magic stones, and those don’t come cheap, so there’s a limit.”
Still, it was all right. Jaelin was happy just with the fact that she could take classes with Lionel. Even if they were not in the same group, if they took the same class, she would be able to keep seeing Lionel.
Stefan also gave her a heap of useful tips—the required courses fourth-years had to take, the liberal arts classes where you could easily earn credits, and how to register for courses.
“All right, that wraps up the course registration guide!”
“Th-thank you for helping me today.”
“It was nothing. Now, the really important thing is left.”
“Hmm? Wh-what do you mean, the really important thing?”
The reason Stefan and Jaelin had met today was, of course, for course registration.
But hearing that something more important remained, Jaelin could not help but be bewildered.
“It’s a bit awkward to talk about here, so let’s get up first. I’ll give you a rough explanation of the Academy’s geography as we walk.”
Jaelin rose from her seat, following Stefan. Before leaving, she looked around the cafeteria hoping to catch one more glimpse of Lionel’s face, but Lionel had already left the cafeteria.
Pushing aside her regret, Jaelin followed Stefan out.
Stefan led Jaelin around various parts of the Academy.
The Academy was enormous. Each major had different buildings and facilities, and there were diverse auxiliary facilities and conveniences for students to use.
The Pelodian Academy was closer to a small town than a school.
It felt like a miracle that she had run into Lionel twice by chance in such a vast place.
Since a single day was not enough to introduce every facility at the Academy, Stefan picked out only the places Jaelin would likely frequent and showed her those.
The library, filled with various major-related books and old tomes, the hologram arena where mock monster training took place, and the Magical Engineering Building where the magical design major was housed were the main ones.
And the last place Stefan showed her was the Student Union Building, where the various club rooms were gathered.
