“I heard joining the Mutual Aid Society gives you free access to the practice rooms at the Training Ground?”
“That’s not all. There’s also special tutoring from upperclassmen twice a week!”
“Really? Don’t those practice rooms require Academy Points to apply for?”
“The Mutual Aid Society must have connections… I heard that transfer student, Irina, is pretty impressive and has a good relationship with those in charge.”
“How about we go check it out too?”
The snippets of discussion drifted faintly into Freya’s ears.
She sat in her usual corner, slowly eating her lunch.
Lyra sat opposite her, focused intently on wrestling with a steak, completely oblivious to the surrounding gossip.
Anke rushed over with a tray and sat down heavily, her brown eyes shining with the look of ‘I have big news to share.’
“Freya — “
She lowered her voice.
“Did you hear? Irina’s Mutual Aid Society recruited nearly 100 people this morning alone!”
Freya didn’t look up. “Mhm.”
“And do you know how they’re recruiting?” Anke’s voice dropped even lower. “They promise that members who join the Mutual Aid Society get priority access to the practice rooms at the Training Ground, plus one-on-one tutoring from upperclassmen. Those rooms are supposed to be requested using Academy Points, but she has a way to bypass it!”
Freya’s movements paused. She looked up and met Anke’s gaze.
“Bypass?”
“Yes.” Anke nodded. “Some say the Crown Prince helped her set it up.”
The air grew still for a moment.
Lyra’s fork fell onto her plate with a *clatter*. She looked up, her red eyes narrowing. “That Blondie?”
Anke nodded.
Lyra’s lips pressed into a thin line. She remembered how the people handing out flyers earlier had avoided Freya, and she recalled their “pretending she didn’t exist” attitude.
Those people belonged to that pink-haired woman. And that pink-haired woman had the Blondie helping her.
‘That Blondie — the Crown Prince — the person who once tried to get close to the Boss, but was rejected. Now he’s helping someone else deal with the Boss.’
Lyra suddenly felt the steak in her mouth didn’t taste as good anymore. She put down her fork and looked at Freya.
Freya was still eating her lunch, her movements elegant and her expression calm as usual. It was as if the discussions, the exclusion targeting her, and the schemes hidden in the dark had nothing to do with her.
But Lyra noticed that her eyelashes were cast slightly lower than usual.
—
The afternoon classes ended in peace.
By the time Freya and Lyra walked out of the teaching building, the sky was already stained with the colors of dusk. On the way back to the dormitory, they had to pass through the main square.
The members of the Mutual Aid Society were still there.
There were even more of them than in the morning. Over a dozen students surrounded several joined long tables piled with even more flyers and registration forms. People were constantly walking up, filling out forms, and then receiving a brand-new Society Armband.
It had a light pink background, a white flower, and a golden stamen. The armband was identical to the ones those people had been wearing that morning.
Lyra’s gaze fell on the armbands, her brow furrowing tightly.
“Boss — ” she whispered. “That flower, I feel like I’ve seen it somewhere.”
Freya paused her steps. “Where?”
Lyra tilted her head and thought for a moment before shaking it. “I can’t remember. But I’ve definitely seen it.” She paused, then added, “It wasn’t the good kind of seeing it. It was… the kind that makes me feel uncomfortable.”
Freya looked at her. Lyra’s expression was serious; those red eyes lacked their usual silliness, replaced by a nearly primal alertness. Just as she had said before, the animals in the mountains could distinguish between what was dangerous and what was not.
“Forget it if you can’t remember,” Freya said.
Lyra nodded, but her brow didn’t relax. She felt that the pattern was very important — important enough to make the hair all over her body stand on end.
—
Back at the dormitory, Lyra dove into the *Monster Bestiary*, flipping through it rapidly.
Freya sat at her desk, opening the *Starry Sky Legacy*, but she didn’t read it. Her gaze fell on the vase of flowers.
The wildflowers had already begun to wilt, the edges of the petals curling slightly, but they were still carefully arranged in the bottle with that crooked bow still attached.
She watched them for a while. Then, she reached out and gently brushed one of the blossoms. The petals were soft.
She withdrew her hand and continued reading. But that extremely faint curve at the corner of her lips appeared once again for a fleeting moment.
—
Late at night.
Lyra lay on her floor mat, staring at the *Monster Bestiary* for a long time, but she still couldn’t find the pattern. She rubbed her eyes and let out a yawn, ready to give up.
Just as she closed the book, her gaze swept over a line of small print on the back cover.
‘The illustrations in this book are used under authorization from the Royal Library; reproduction without permission is prohibited.’
Royal Library.
Lyra’s movements stopped. ‘The Royal Library… Royal…’
She suddenly remembered her thought from the morning. She had seen that pattern. It wasn’t in a book. It was at —
She bolted upright, her red eyes wide.
“Boss!”
Freya turned her head.
Lyra pointed at the *Monster Bestiary*, her voice somewhat urgent. “That flower! That pattern! I’ve seen it!”
Freya looked at her. “Where?”
Lyra’s throat bobbed. “At…”
Her voice suddenly dropped, carrying a trace of imperceptible unease. “On the Queen.”
Freya’s fingers paused slightly. “Are you sure?”
Lyra nodded vigorously. “Didn’t we go to the Imperial Palace that day? The time the Blondie took us there. I saw it; that Queen, on her clothes, there was that flower pattern.” She paused, her red eyes filled with sincerity. “It was exactly the same.”
Silence filled the room. It was very quiet, with only the sound of the night wind blowing outside the window.
Freya lowered her gaze. She thought of the armbands of Irina’s Mutual Aid Society, the white flower, and the golden stamen.
The Queen. Irina. And those commoner students who had been bought off.
A single thread slowly emerged in her mind. Irina wasn’t acting alone. There was someone behind her. And that person was much higher up than she had imagined.
The corners of Freya’s lips curled up slightly. The curve was faint, yet colder than ever before.
“I see,” she said.
Her voice was as calm as usual. But looking into her eyes, Lyra suddenly felt as if something inside them was waking up.
—
In the distance, inside the Moonlight Hall.
Vanessa reclined on a soft couch, holding a letter in her hand. The paper was very thin, and the handwriting on it was elegant and neat.
‘The Mutual Aid Society recruited 123 people today. The white-haired girl beside the target seems to have noticed the armband pattern. Please instruct us on the next move, Your Highness.’
The smile at the corners of her lips deepened slowly. She brought the letter close to a candle flame and watched it burn away piece by piece.
As the ashes drifted down, she murmured to herself, “She noticed?”
The night wind blew in from the window, swirling the ashes and scattering them into the darkness. She closed her eyes.
‘Then let them notice. There are some things where the more you notice, the easier it is to make a mistake.’
The night was still long.
Over the next few days, contrary to Freya’s expectations, life was so peaceful that it almost made one forget the hidden undercurrents.
Irina’s Mutual Aid Society continued to hand out flyers and recruit new members in the square every day. The white flower on the armbands appeared more and more frequently throughout the campus.
But besides that, there were no major moves. No provocations. No targeting. Even Irina herself rarely appeared in Freya’s sight.
Occasionally, when they met in the Academy Canteen or the hallway, she would only give a gentle nod in greeting and then quietly walk away, like a normal transfer student who truly just wanted to get along with everyone.
This instead caused Freya to fall into deep thought.
She sat in her usual window seat in the Library with the *Starry Sky Legacy* spread out before her, but her gaze didn’t fall on the pages. Outside the window, the sunlight was perfect, and the autumn sky was as clear as if it had been washed.
Lyra lay on the floor by her feet, holding the already dog-eared *Monster Bestiary*, intently studying something.
It was too quiet. Abnormally quiet.
Freya’s fingertips lightly tapped the page of the book.
‘The Irina of my previous life would never have stayed idle like this. She liked to strike while the iron was hot, quickly spreading her net when the opponent had yet to react.’
But now, the Mutual Aid Society had been established for nearly one week, and the number of members had reportedly surpassed 200, accounting for almost half of the commoner students. This scale was already enough to do many things.
Yet, she did nothing. She only had those people wear the white flower armbands and walk around the campus, silently declaring a certain presence.
Freya lowered her eyes.
‘Is it that Irina hasn’t decided on her next move yet, or — what is she waiting for? Or rather, who is she waiting for?’
Whoever was standing behind her — the one who wore the same pattern Lyra had seen in the Imperial Palace — what kind of instructions had they given her?
Freya’s tapping stopped. She closed her eyes.
The sunlight filtered through the gaps in her eyelashes, casting fragmented golden spots on her eyelids. No matter what Irina was waiting for, one thing was certain — she was very patient. More patient than in the previous life.
This in itself was the greatest anomaly.
—
One week slipped by in surface-level tranquility.
This morning’s class was Magic Theory History, a mandatory theory course taught by Professor Brick.
Professor Brick was an old scholar nearly sixty years of age with white hair. He lectured in a slow, methodical manner and loved to intersperse various ancient magical anecdotes into his lessons. The students’ evaluations of his class were polarized — some found it dry and tedious, while others found it uniquely charming.
Freya belonged to the latter.
She arrived at the classroom early and sat in her usual window seat, opening her notebook as she waited for Professor Brick’s signature slow, lingering footsteps to echo through the hallway.
Lyra lay on the desk beside her, her eyelids already starting to fight. The morning sunlight was warm and cozy, perfect for sleeping. She let out a yawn and buried her face in the crook of her arm, planning to squeeze in a quick nap before the professor arrived.
Footsteps came from the hallway.
It wasn’t Professor Brick’s sluggish rhythm that made it seem like he was thinking about every step. Instead, it was a steadier, more powerful pace.
The classroom door was pushed open.
The person who walked in wasn’t the white-haired old scholar. It was a tall middle-aged man dressed in a black robe.
It was Horn, the Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts.