Magicapita

The ride back home was silent as Cæ found himself sitting next to a pensive, thoughtful Serulia who seemed to be engrossed in their earlier exchange. Cæ, on the other hand, simply looked out the window, gazing at the passing buildings with a serious gaze.

The air was a little gloomy, partly because they didn't want to have intimate yet serious conversations in the presence of the magetants of the Vritra Family.

Additionally, Cæ had already moved from the conversation itself, pondering how he ought to distribute his time from this point on. His magicademics could not be compromised, but unfortunately, so were a lot of things.

The Magic Contest required a few hours of training every day, while his research into Project Heart-healing required about as much. Normally, the project would not have been a priority, for it was very much in the market research and conceptualization, but now that it had become part of an agreement with the Vritra Family, he had no choice but to take it more seriously when it came to his time management.

Now that he had brought other parties into the agreement, he couldn't back out of the progress trajectory, lest he disappoint his newfound investor. What was especially irksome was that his delegation of time to the project had been based on the assumption that there was no pressure for this project, but that change made him even more pressured about every minute of his time.

His magicademics took six hours of his day from morning to afternoon, for magic training was more resource-intensive than virtually any other university program in the world. That left eighteen hours with which he needed to use most efficiently.

He couldn't let himself be extremely sleep-deprived, but at the same time, that left only ten hours.

Since magicademics and the Magic Contest would become progressively more and more important as the exams and the Magic Festival approached, he had decided to save more time in the latter half of the year for them.

'Three hours of research for Heart-healing until the midpoint of this year. That should be enough time to flesh out my ideas into an actual plan and begin looking for potential business partners.' Cæ's serious eyes sharpened. 'Three hours for the Magic Contest, one hour for Trinity Housings, one hour for magicademics, one hour for Student Council duties, and one hour for miscellaneous activities.'

It just barely added up to twenty-four hours a day. Cæ couldn't help but curse at himself for not taking time as seriously for much of his life as he did now. Twenty-four hours a day were hardly anything, as far as he was concerned. Ideally, he wished he had at least double.

His current timetable was unlikely to actually pan out exactly the way that he hoped. It was impossible to micro-manage time this way, like he was an automaton, especially when he had things that he hadn't accounted for, such as the training for his testimony in court, which he had no doubt that the Vritra Family was going to hammer into him.

Another thing was the threat to his life that was undoubtedly going to eat into his time due to all the problems that came from it. The precautions were undoubtedly becoming tedious and irritating to deal with, he knew that.

'For some reason, each year becomes more and more hectic.'

Last magicademic year, he had to deal with his deals with his secret partnership with the Headmistress, Trinity Housings, and the talent acquisition program in the slums. This year, he had to deal with another business project, the Magic Contest, the criminal trial, and the risks to his life associated with it.

It was overwhelming.

"We have arrived, Young Miss."

Cæ's mind returned to the real world as he found himself gazing at the campus of the Elendir Institute of Magic before him.

"Let us go, it is quite late," Serulia told him with a soft tone of voice as the two of them stepped out of the luxury car.

THUD

Cæ closed the door as he gazed at the dark sky of night. The sound of cars hung in the air while the strong, chill winds of winter brushed past them. He heaved a deep breath, turning to Serulia, who stood near him on the pavement outside the magicademy.

Her light blue eyes had never left him.

She gazed at him with an intent longing.

Cæ held the gaze for a few seconds before heaving a deep breath and closing his eyes.

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"Good night, Serulia."

"…Good night."

He walked past her as he entered the gates of the magicademy, showing them his magicademy-issued identity card before heading to his dorm room. The chill in the air tingled at his nerves as he enjoyed the winds, sauntering with a hint of exhaustion in his loose gait.

He glanced at the document containing a copy of the drafted agreement that Lord Leonul had given him, heaving a deep breath.

To say that it had been a tiring day was an understatement.

Despite the fact that he had slept in the afternoon, he already felt sleepy and drowsy; his eyelids drooped, feeling heavy. The moment he reached his dorm room, he shut himself in, stripping and changing his clothes into shorts before completely crashing into his bed.

The moment he got comfortable, he fell asleep.

When he opened his eyes, he was back in a nostalgic, familiar environment. He found himself in a rough bed with a tough, inhospitable fabric quite different from the luxury fabrics that the Elendir Institute of Magic made use of for its dorm room, gazing at a ceiling discolored from rainwater seepage.

A light floral scent hung in the air, tickling his nose while the warmth of the soft, supple skin of a woman pressed against him.

"Normally, I would criticize you for sabotaging your chances for a relationship, but you did well this time." Lilia's voice drew his attention as he shifted his gaze to his side, finding her head perched on his chest. "She's clearly traumatized, even if she doesn't realize it. Her attachment to you is her mind attaching itself to the thing that gave it psychological comfort and warmth when it was in a state of deep terror and despair. If you accepted her confession, I would have smacked you when you inevitably dreamed of me. Thankfully…"

She smiled at him with a hint of pride in her sea-green eyes.

"You're a good person, Cæ."

He snorted at her words. "Give me a break."

"I'm being sincere," she protested. "I don't think most men would be able to resist a hottie like her for the reasons that you did."

"The reason that I did is simply because I don't want her to regain her memories of my pure magic," Cæ insisted. "Maintaining some distance is the best way to go about it."

"That was part of the reason, yes, but you did believe every word you said," she insisted. "And you did this despite the fact that you're attracted to her."

"I am not."

"Please, don't even bother trying to lie to a figment of your imagination, you're basically talking to your subconscious mind, you know?"

Cæ heaved a resigned sigh.

He couldn't deny what he knew was absolutely true. Serulia was beautiful in every sense of the word. Her light blue eyes sparkled in the sunlight, while her soft, dark skin was eye-drawing, and her body was hardly less magnetic in its ability to draw his gaze.

"The good news is that it might not be over," she remarked with a hint of excitement in her eyes. "She's willing to fight for you. Do you know how rare that is? Don't be a fool and try to fight back."

"I'm not fighting against anything," he remarked with a calm tone. "I'm going to be spending a lot of time with her from this point on. For the Magic Contest and for the criminal trial. I don't have the energy or the time to fight back against anything."

"You need to move on from me and give her a chance," Lilia insisted. "You might actually find happiness with her. On top of that, her family might be of some help to you in your goal to 'destroy the world order.'"

She said with a hint of derision, like she couldn't believe a word he was saying.

He didn't blame her for that. It was not something that was easy to believe; sometimes, he wasn't sure how much he himself believed it. All he knew was that he was irreversibly drawn to dedicate everything towards achieving that goal and more.

"No."

His response was unyielding.

"A relationship to me was… the only source of salvation in what was a pretty miserable existence. It was the only thing that made it worth continuing. If I hadn't met you, I may never have found any happiness in my life. I don't want to defile my memories of that intimacy with an emotionless parasitic relationship."

She heaved a deep breath. "…I understand that. I'm not asking you to use her, that would be wrong. I'm asking you to give yourself and her a chance to build something together. Something real."

He gazed deep into her eyes, closing his eyes.

"I… I don't think I'm ready for something like that. As long as I fulfill my ambition, I will be content."

She sharpened her eyes at him pointedly. "You're lying and you know it. You sensed it with that kiss, didn't you?"

His expression softened at the memory of the kiss with Serulia. It had come out of nowhere, beyond his anticipation, and yet, he didn't pull away.

He leaned into it.

Lilia leaned closer, pressing her lips into his for several seconds, before pulling away.

His expression was dark.

"…It doesn't compare to the real thing, does it?" Her smile was melancholic. "You know I'm not real. You know I'm a figment of your imagination. This touch. This intimacy… It's fake. No more real than pumping yourself up with drugs. Compared to the real touch and warmth of an actual person who has affection and care for you, this fake illusion is meaningless, and you know it."

"…"

He couldn't even bring himself to come up with anything to say.

"You think that conjuring me in your head after I'm dead is a symbol of love?" She shook her head. "It's not. It's a symbol of a broken man who has nothing, so his mind needs to latch on to figments of his past conjured by his subconscious mind."

"Harsh," Cæ replied with a small smile cracking at the edge of his mouth. "At least I got your personality right. So it is 'a broken man with a pretty good imagination.'"

She shook her head with an exasperated sigh. "It's time to wake up. Think about what I said when you go to magicademy today. She's going to try to approach you for something, consider whether you want to be miserable or happy when you make your decision."

Before he could even respond, the dream faded.

He opened his eyes, finding himself in his bedroom in the magicademy, heaving a soft sigh as he turned to the window. The light of dawn illuminated his room while a faint chill hung in the air.

He didn't understand how such a short dream could possibly account for eight hours of sleep.

"Maybe I forgot the rest," he muttered, getting out of bed as he got ready for yet another day of magicademy.