“Classmate Nal, your family should have already taken care of all the enrollment formalities, right?”
Charles maintained a polite smile. “Are you planning to head to the hangar first to park your Magitech Knight, then settle into the dorm? If you’re not familiar with the campus, I can show you the way. The welcome banquet for freshmen starts at 5:30 p.m., and the academy is huge—it’s easy to get lost and be late if you go alone.”
As an institution that accepted students from dozens, even hundreds of cities across several nations, the enrollment process was indeed cumbersome.
Ordinary commoners or lower nobles still had to go to the administration office to fill out detailed forms, collect uniforms, get their student IDs, and be assigned dorms and classes.
By the time all that was done, finding their dorm and familiarizing themselves with the campus, it was completely normal for freshmen to be late to the opening banquet.
After all, the Magic Academy—occupying the entire core district of a self-sufficient magical city that doubled as a research hub and neutral autonomous zone—was practically the size of a mid-to-small city itself.
“No need,” Ye Xu shook his head, having no intention of getting too close to this senior.
“My sister already told me everything I need to know before I arrived. I’ve memorized the campus map.”
Charles noticed the distance Ye Xu was keeping but didn’t push.
Of course, Ye Xu wasn’t lying.
Lady Nal, who had accompanied young master Simar here for four years, had long since briefed him on every possible detail.
Even without that, he still had Night God.
—The autonomous magi-spirit machine with the most comprehensive capabilities among the Nine Eternal Night Knights had already scanned and recorded the entire campus layout the moment Ye Xu reached the gates. It analyzed crowd flow and existing intelligence to label every area, then projected the map directly onto his retina.
Getting lost and being late? Impossible.
“Alright then, please be careful.”
Charles made one last friendly gesture. “If you ever need help in the future, feel free to come find me at Year 2, Class 7.”
“Mm, sure, definitely.”
Ye Xu nodded somewhat perfunctorily, then ordered the Magitech Knight behind him to lift him up and headed straight toward the campus hangar.
For the first time in a long while, he began to properly take in the campus scenery.
Even though it was a school in another world, teaching completely different knowledge in a completely different atmosphere, stepping into such an environment again after so many years still stirred a faint nostalgia in Ye Xu’s heart.
Wide roads were lined with lush greenery; boys and girls in bright uniforms hurried back and forth.
From time to time, students on patrol or training duty piloted old training-model Magitech Knights past the roadside.
—Of course, when they caught sight of the sleek, eye-catching new machine beneath Ye Xu, every single one of them revealed undisguised envy.
[Mother, we have arrived at the Magic Academy hangar.]
Even though he had deliberately slowed down, the Magitech Knight’s stride was still astonishing.
In just ten minutes, a massive, imposing hangar made of steel and concrete—belching thick black smoke from its roof—appeared before him.
The instant Ye Xu and his machine entered the hangar zone, they immediately drew the attention of the maintenance staff.
“Hey, hey, look at that!”
“What the hell is that thing? Let me see…”
“Holy shit! That frame, that armament loadout…”
“I-Isn’t that a Radiant Sun Type-14?!”
“Which family’s young master enrolled here?!”
As the facility responsible for training and maintenance support, the hangar staff were uniformly managed by instructors and consisted mostly of students from various years.
These were the ones who had no desire to become knights and instead poured their passion into magitech engineering and alchemy research related to Magitech Knight construction.
A tanned senior wearing overalls, squatting by the hangar gate wiping sweat, nearly dropped his jaw when he spotted Ye Xu approaching.
In an instant—like locusts descending on ripe crops—countless students poured out of the hangar and swarmed around Ye Xu’s machine.
“Damn! Feel this texture, listen to that magitech engine growl…”
“It really is a Radiant Sun Type-14!”
Before Ye Xu could even speak, the students—eyes shining with pure, stupid adoration, as if gazing upon a priceless treasure or the love of their life—began gently caressing the armor.
Yet the moment their oil-stained fingers left smudges on the pristine surface, they panicked as though they had committed a grave sin, frantically wiping the marks away with the cleanest cloth they could find until the armor gleamed like a mirror again.
“Uh…”
Ye Xu had genuinely never seen anything like this.
In the past, even when adults marveled at his creations, they were restrained—partly because they didn’t want to leave a bad impression on the creator himself. Their reactions were never as over-the-top as these students.
For a moment, all he felt was second-hand embarrassment.
Just then, a tall figure—at least 1.70 m—strode out from the depths of the hangar.
“What the hell are you lot doing?!”
The voice was mature and alluring, yet at this moment it roared like a lioness from the east bank, leaving no room for impure thoughts.
The next second, the crowd of students parted like the Red Sea, making way for the newcomer.
—She was a curvaceous, sexy girl with healthy wheat-colored skin and short brown hair.
“Holy fuck! It really is a Radiant Sun Type-14?!”
Yet the instant she saw the scene, her expression turned into the exact same infatuated look as the others—only slightly less intense.
“Heehee~~”
Realizing a big fish had swum right into her net, the already very attractive beauty rubbed her hands together, put on a slightly sleazy grin, and sidled up to Ye Xu.
Judging her to be one of the hangar supervisors, Ye Xu ordered the Magitech Knight to set him down.
“Hello, I’m Ye Laixi · Nal.”
“A freshman enrolling today.”
The moment the words left his mouth, understanding flashed in her eyes.
“Ohhh~~ So you’re that Ye Laixi · Nal!”
Clearly, she too came from the nobility of the Ross Kingdom or a neighboring country and recognized his identity immediately.
Then she sized him up like he was some rare animal.
“Not bad, not bad. The person’s pretty, but the machine is even prettier.”
“Well, it does suit the little brother of that freak Earl Nal.”
After that brief appraisal, she turned back to him, pulled off her thick rubber gloves, and formally introduced herself:
“Hi, I’m Irina · Watt.”
“Daughter of Marquis Watt of the Ross Kingdom.”
He hadn’t expected someone of such high status, but feeling the complete lack of malice in her gaze, Ye Xu relaxed for the first time in a while and smiled, extending his hand to shake hers.
—More accurately, every ounce of her “lust” seemed to be directed solely at the Magitech Knight behind him.
For some reason, though, Ye Xu inexplicably sensed an emotion from her that felt suspiciously like… lust.
Since he genuinely couldn’t comprehend how anyone could feel that way toward a hunk of steel, he deliberately ignored it.
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