Emilia’s office was not large, but it was kept very tidy. The bookshelves were filled with various books and notes related to alchemy, and the air was filled with the faint, fresh scent of herbs.
Helos sat quietly on the sofa for guests, while Gavi stood behind her like a statue.
Emilia poured a glass of warm water for Helos, an apologetic smile on her face.
“I am sorry, Miss Olivia, for making you wait. Most of the students in our Comprehensive Research Academy are quite… free-spirited. They aren’t as punctual as those in other academies.”
“It is quite alright, teacher. This gives me a chance to familiarize myself with the environment in advance.”
Helos responded with an impeccable, ladylike posture, but she was complaining wildly inside.
‘Free-spirited? More like lazy! In my previous life, even college classes at 8:00 AM weren’t this sluggish!’
The two chatted briefly. Emilia mainly asked Helos about her past learning experiences, though she tactfully avoided the topic of mana.
Helos gave vague answers, mentioning that she had primarily self-studied alchemy at home.
***
As time passed, the noisy chatter of students gradually drifted in from the corridor.
Emilia glanced at the magic clock on the wall; the hands were almost pointing to 8:30 AM.
“Alright, it is about time.” She stood up. “Let’s go, Miss Olivia. I will take you to the classroom.”
Helos followed Emilia back to Room 307.
The classroom was now occupied by over a dozen students, both male and female. Most of them wore the same white gold-trimmed uniform as Helos, clearly marking them as first-year students.
When Emilia entered the room with Helos and Gavi, every gaze instantly focused on them.
“Alright, everyone, settle down.” Emilia clapped her hands, signaling for silence. “Before we begin our lesson, I would like to introduce a new classmate.”
She stepped aside, introducing Helos to the group.
“This is Miss Helos Olivia. Starting today, she will be joining our class as a transfer student. Everyone, please welcome her.”
A scattered round of applause broke out in the classroom.
The students’ eyes were fixed on Helos, their expressions filled with curiosity.
Helos took a deep breath, silently reciting the key points Lilith had taught her. She took a step forward, walking to the center of the podium to face the crowd.
First, she lightly lifted her skirt and performed an elegant curtsy. Her movements were smooth and natural, without any hint of awkwardness.
“Good day, everyone.”
Her voice was clear and pleasant, her tone steady, and her lips wore a perfect smile. “I am Helos Olivia, from Olivius City in the southern part of the Empire. I will be your new classmate starting today.”
“I have a deep personal interest in alchemy and monster ecology. I hope that in our future studies, we can progress and learn from one another.”
Her words were flawless. Whether it was her posture, voice, or phrasing, it was as perfect as a carefully rehearsed performance.
Lilith’s three years of devil training were showing incredible results at this moment.
For the first time, Helos was truly grateful to Lilith. If this had been her past self, she would have shrunk away and disappeared long ago.
The students below were clearly stunned by her perfect etiquette. The classroom was quiet for a moment before a small commotion erupted.
“Olivias? That surname… could it be—”
“Is she from the Duke’s house?”
“Heavens! Is she Lord Christ’s sister?”
Such a reaction was within Helos’s expectations. After all, the Olivias Family — any student attending this academy had heard the names of Duke Eisend and Christ.
A blond boy sitting in the front row, who seemed quite energetic, could not help but raise his hand and ask, “Um… Miss Olivia, are you the sister of Lord Christ from the Tower of Truth?”
‘Here it comes.’
Helos sighed inwardly. She knew this surname would bring trouble.
Keeping a polite smile on her face, she nodded slightly. “Yes, Christ is indeed my older brother.”
This answer instantly ignited the atmosphere in the classroom.
The students immediately began talking all at once.
“No wonder her poise is so good!”
“Then she must be a magic genius too, right?”
“Of course! How could someone from the Olivias Family not be a genius!”
Facing the suddenly enthusiastic gazes and inquiries, Helos could only maintain her smile while crying out in distress internally.
“Um… Miss Olivia.”
Another quiet-looking girl stood up, her face filled with admiration. “Are you an elemental magic genius just like Lord Christ?”
This question caused the smile on Helos’s face to stiffen slightly.
She remained silent for a moment. A faint, unnoticeable trace of disappointment flashed in her eyes, and her voice lowered slightly, yet remained clear.
“I am sorry, I am afraid I must disappoint you all.”
“I… cannot use magic.”
These words were like a ladle of cold water poured into a boiling pot of oil.
The entire classroom fell silent instantly.
The enthusiasm and admiration on the students’ faces froze, replaced by unbelievable shock and confusion.
Cannot use magic?
A member of the Olivias Family? Lord Christ’s sister? She couldn’t use magic?
It was as absurd as saying the sun rose from the west.
The atmosphere became somewhat awkward.
“Ahem.”
At the critical moment, the homeroom teacher, Emilia, stepped in to break the tension. She walked to Helos’s side, patted her shoulder, and smiled at the students.
“Alright, alright, don’t make things difficult for our new classmate. Although Miss Olivia does not use magic, our Comprehensive Research Academy does not focus on elemental magic anyway!”
“Perhaps in the future, when you encounter difficult problems, you will need to ask her for guidance.”
She skillfully shifted the topic, easing the awkwardness.
“Now then, Miss Olivia, why don’t you take that empty seat in the first row?”
Helos gave Emilia a grateful look and quickly walked over to sit in the empty seat by the window in the first row.
As she sat down, Helos caught a glimpse of a flash of light through the small window above the classroom door.
Gavi was actually peeping at her from outside, even wiping the corners of her eyes as if dabbing away tears.
Even though Gavi, as a puppet golem, had no facial expressions, Helos could not help but sigh in her heart.
Sitting next to Helos was a girl who looked quite timid. She was petite, had brown hair cut to her ears, and wore a pair of thick, black-framed glasses that almost covered half her face.
She seemed afraid to communicate with others, keeping her head down and fiddling with her quill.
It was only when Helos sat down that she seemed to gather a great deal of courage. She leaned in slightly and spoke in a voice as tiny as a mosquito’s hum.
“H-hello… My name is Liana. Miss Olivia… p-please take care of me.”
Her voice was soft and sweet, though laced with nervousness.
Looking at her timid appearance, the bit of disappointment Helos felt from her inability to use magic dissipated quite a bit.
She gave Liana a friendly smile.
“Hello, Liana. I am Helos. We are classmates now, so please take care of me as well.”
And so, after experiencing those initial small waves, Helos’s life at the Royal Magic Academy officially began.
***
Upon the scorched earth.
Julius stood silently before the ruins of a village that had been completely burned to the ground.
The air was thick with the pungent smell of char and the heavy scent of blood. Beneath his feet were charred wooden beams and collapsed stone walls.
Several mutilated corpses lay scattered among the ruins, having long since lost the warmth of life.
This had originally been a border village where humans and Demonkind lived together. Though remote and impoverished, it had been peaceful. Now, however, only death and despair remained.
Beside him, over a dozen surviving villagers gathered.
Most were the elderly, women, and children, each wearing a look of grief and hollow eyes. Children huddled in their mothers’ arms, letting out suppressed sobs.
This village had been completely destroyed by a group of fanatical chaos cultists and the chaos magical beasts they had summoned.
By the time the saint knight squad led by Julius followed the trail and arrived, the battle had long ended.
They only managed to save these few survivors and kill nine chaos cultists who had not yet departed, along with several chaos magical beasts that were scavenging the corpses.
Most of the residents in the village had died brutal deaths. Their flesh had become nourishment for those twisted monsters; their souls had likely become sacrifices offered by the chaos cultists to their evil god.
Julius looked at the hellish tragedy before him, his expression unchanging. Only his hand, gripping the Holy Sword “Daybreak,” was so tight that his knuckles had turned white.
Three years of border warfare had long since accustomed him to death and cruelty. His heart had become as cold and hard as the armor he wore.
Just then, his companion — a young saint knight named Marcus — suddenly cried out in surprise, “Captain! Look at this!”
Marcus had searched the charred corpse of a chaos cultist and found a tattered scroll. The scroll seemed to be written in some kind of blood, and most of the script was blurred.
Julius took the scroll and carefully identified the twisted characters.
Although the content was chaotic and the sentences lacked logic, based on his three years of experience dealing with the chaos cult, he and Marcus extracted several recurring keywords:
[Saintess… Empire… Awakening…]
“Saintess?” Marcus looked at the words, feeling confused. “Could the target of these cultists be some Saintess in the Imperial Capital? Like the eldest daughter of the house of Duke Olivias?”
He knew that Julius had once served as a guard for Eleanor Olivias, and he had heard the news that Eleanor had been consecrated as an official Saintess.
In an instant, the image of Eleanor’s gentle yet firm face flashed through Julius’s mind. He remembered that abyss cultists had once tried to harm Eleanor, so Marcus’s guess was not impossible.
But…
Julius’s brow furrowed deeply.
He knew that this “Saintess” likely did not refer to the Saintess consecrated by the Church. Before he left the Holy Capital, the Pope had summoned him in secret to show him a fragment of an Oracle.
In that fragment, a “Saintess” was also mentioned. But that Saintess was linked to words like “Calamity,” “The End,” and “Chaos.”
The Pope called her — [The Calamity Saintess].
The Oracle predicted that when the Calamity Saintess fully awakened within the Empire, it would mark the day the “Great Cataclysm” officially descended upon the continent.
Julius looked at the scroll in his hand and then thought of the Pope’s Oracle. A terrifying suspicion gradually took shape in his heart.
He looked up, his cold black eyes flashing with an unprecedentedly solemn light.
He spoke to Marcus in a heavy voice, “Marcus, I’ll leave things here to you. Settle the survivors and continue to purge the remaining chaos cultists at the border.”
“Captain, what about you?”
“I must go to the Empire immediately,” Julius said with iron determination. “If what this scroll says is true, those chaos cultists have likely already infiltrated deep into the Empire.”
“They… are likely planning some massive operation within the Empire.”
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