At that moment, the faint sound of a key being inserted into the lock came from outside. It had to be Kefi opening the door!
“Ah! Found it! I found it! I’m coming out right now!”
When Mia heard the noise, her heart nearly leaped out of her chest. She hurriedly raised her voice and shouted toward the door, trying to stop Kefi from entering.
However, Kefi clearly didn’t listen to her excuse.
With a soft click, the lock turned! ‘It’s over! Everything will be ruined!’
Mia’s mind went blank. If Kefi saw Teacher Sefina wearing an ill-fitting student uniform, her face still flushed, and sitting on her bed while breathing unevenly…
The scene would be impossible to explain! Just explaining why Teacher Sefina was here in a student uniform would be an impossible task!
But at that critical moment, Sefina, who had regained some composure after the magic crest settled, sprang into action.
Her petite body bounced off the bed like a startled rabbit. Her burgundy eyes quickly scanned the room before locking onto the gap under Mia’s bed.
Without a moment of hesitation, she scrambled on all fours and slid right under, completely disregarding her usual cold and elegant image.
“Hey!” Seeing this, Mia reacted immediately. She lunged toward the door, trying to use her body to block Kefi’s potential line of sight toward the bottom of the bed.
She prayed fervently in her heart: ‘Don’t see it, don’t see it, please don’t see anything!’
Sefina curled up in the dark, dusty space under the bed. Her small body pressed tightly against the cold floor, and she didn’t even dare to breathe too loudly.
Her nose was filled with the scent of dust and wood, making her feel slightly uncomfortable, but she felt far more overwhelmed by a sense of utter humiliation.
‘Ugh—’
‘I could die of embarrassment!’ she wailed internally. She had just been in that state in front of Mia… and now she was hiding under a student’s bed like she had been caught in an affair…
‘Agh! This damn magic crest! This damn situation! I can’t take this!’ She closed her eyes in shame and frustration, feeling her cheeks burning with an incredible heat.
“Mia? What are you doing?”
Kefi pushed the door open and saw Mia standing there rather abruptly. Seeing the unnatural flush on Mia’s face, Kefi couldn’t help but ask in confusion.
“No—nothing!” Mia waved her hands frantically, forcing a smile that looked incredibly stiff due to her guilt. “Wh—why did you come in?”
Kefi sighed helplessly and said in an annoyed tone, “I’ve been waiting for you for way too long! Do you know class is about to start? Why are you taking so long just to grab a textbook?”
As she spoke, she instinctively glanced into the room, seemingly trying to see what Mia was actually doing.
Mia’s heart jumped into her throat again. She subconsciously shifted her body to the side, trying to completely block Kefi’s view while her brain worked at high speed to concoct an excuse.
“I… my stomach felt a bit funny! Right, a stomachache! I might have eaten too much lately, so I stayed in the restroom for a while…”
As she spoke, she rubbed her stomach for effect, putting on a pained expression.
“I told you a long time ago to eat fewer snacks,” Kefi said, rubbing her forehead. Her tone carried a bit of reproach, but it was mostly out of concern.
However, her gaze suddenly paused. She tilted her head to listen and spoke with a hint of uncertainty.
“But speaking of which… before I opened the door, I thought I heard a rustling sound in your room… What was that?”
That sentence exploded like a bomb in the minds of both Mia and Sefina, who was still under the bed, making them both shiver.
‘Oh, no! It must have been the sound of Teacher Sefina rushing under the bed!’
Under the bed, Sefina instantly held her breath.
Every muscle in her body tensed up, and she didn’t even dare to move a fingertip for fear that the friction of her clothes or accidentally bumping into something would make the slightest noise.
In the darkness under the bed, she could only hear her own heart beating like a drum.
‘This is bad…’
Fine beads of cold sweat broke out on Mia’s forehead. Forcing herself to stay calm, she immediately raised her voice, using an exaggerated tone to try and change the subject.
“What noise? Kefi, you must be hearing things! Didn’t you say class was starting? Let’s go! We’re really going to be late if we don’t leave now!”
As she spoke, she reached out without giving Kefi a choice, grabbing her arm tightly and half-pushing, half-dragging her out of the room.
“But…” Kefi seemed to want to say something, a trace of suspicion still lingering in her eyes.
“No buts! Hurry, hurry! We’ll be marked down if we’re late!”
Mia gave her no chance to think. She pulled her out of the room and slammed the door shut, sealing the room off from the outside.
“Kefi, Kefi, hurry, run!” She pulled Kefi along, almost jogging toward the stairs.
Kefi was a bit dazed by Mia’s sudden urgency, but seeing that time was indeed running out, she could only temporarily suppress her doubts and run toward the teaching building with her.
Listening to the sound of the two girls’ footsteps and voices fading into the distance until they disappeared completely, Sefina’s tensed nerves finally relaxed.
She let out a long sigh of relief in the dark space under the bed, feeling her back soaked with cold sweat.
‘That was close… I wasn’t exposed.’
A sense of relief at having survived the ordeal surged through her, but it was followed by a deeper sense of exhaustion and wretchedness.
Sefina carefully crawled out from under the bed. Her originally smooth, long blue hair was now a bit messy, with a few strands sticking to her sweaty forehead and cheeks.
The ends of her hair and her clothes were covered in dust from the floor.
She was already disheveled from dealing with the magic crest, and after this ordeal, she looked even more pathetic. Where was the cold, rigorous image of the teacher she usually maintained?
‘Sigh—!’
Looking at her current state, Sefina couldn’t help but sigh heavily in her heart.
If it weren’t for this damn magic crest, none of this would have happened. She wouldn’t have fallen to this point, hiding under a student’s bed like some kind of pervert!
‘It’s all the fault of this damn magic crest! It’s all because of that wretched woman, Ophidoro!’
A nameless fire mixed with humiliation and helplessness surged in her heart.
In her anger, Sefina instinctively stomped her foot, but the movement was too big, straining her still-weak body and making her frown in pain.
Sefina patted the dust off her body and carefully straightened her messy clothes and student uniform, trying to regain some dignity.
However, her mind involuntarily replayed everything that had just happened. Although Mia didn’t openly know about the magic crest, she had likely guessed some of it…
She had guessed that Sefina would inexplicably… inexplicably “lose control.”
This time, Mia hadn’t pressed for answers, likely because she saw Sefina’s embarrassment…
Mia probably wouldn’t dig deeper into the issue later.
‘But… just the thought of seeing her again is so embarrassing.’
‘Sigh…’
Sefina raised a hand to her forehead, feeling a deep sense of powerlessness and shame. Having a student see her in her most vulnerable and pathetic state was truly a terrible feeling.
‘Forget it,’ she forced herself to calm down, taking a few deep breaths. ‘These little interludes end here.’
After all, the main purpose of sneaking into the dormitory had not yet been accomplished.
Sefina’s gaze turned toward the silent corridor and the tightly closed dormitory doors. her eyes became sharp once again.
The investigation into the Seventh Seat could not be delayed any longer. She had to find clues as soon as possible; otherwise, the next thing waiting for her might not just be embarrassment, but true danger.