The Academy Regressor is Obsessed

The entrance ceremony of Luminus Academy takes the form of a banquet. It was different from the typical entrance ceremony where colorful flowers fly through the air, grand music plays, and the new students’ families come to congratulate them. It was more static and focused solely on the current students and new students.

So on the day of the entrance ceremony, there are almost no outsiders on the Academy grounds. Occasionally, there were cases of overly enthusiastic parents or family members waiting until the end of the entrance ceremony, but even those were extremely rare. Compared to the day of the entrance exam, when people were swarming even at dawn, this was a drop in the bucket.

‘It’s nice and quiet.’

Grace exhaled deeply as she walked through the Academy grounds in such an early dawn. The streets were dark as if life had not yet stirred. Although the season had turned to spring, it was still cold when the sun hadn’t risen. Her breath frosted in the air, and her bones ached from the cold air.

For a typical noble lady, the dawn scenery would be unpleasant enough to show clear discomfort. It was quiet as if something might appear, and the occasional sounds of birds and insects created an eerie atmosphere. But there was no change in Grace’s expression. She habitually tapped the sword at her waist and took out a memo from her chest.

[Waterway under Dufade Blacksmith. Terrorism timed with the entrance ceremony.]

A memo written as soon as she realized she had regressed.

Grace stuffed the paper into her pocket and changed her hair color to blue through an artifact. She also subtly distorted her face and gave the illusion that the aura emanating from her body felt like that of a magician. She briefly checked her reflection in a mirror, then moved her steps towards the entrance leading down to the waterway.

‘Too many things have already changed from the previous round.’

Grace thought while tapping her scabbard.

There were many discrepancies between the ‘past’ she had experienced and the present.

Such as Asel, famous as a spell-hater and magician hunter, becoming a magician; the berserk state of magical beasts appearing now when it should have appeared much later; demon worshippers who should still be building their power running rampant; the labyrinth that should have been conquered long ago still standing intact, and so on.

The list of differences was endless. Of course, there were a few things that were the same. Grace had delved into that side and secured a few useful items in advance. But the problem was that there were more differences than similarities. Things that should be in certain places weren’t there, and things that shouldn’t be there were present.

It was too much to be called the butterfly effect, as Grace hadn’t done anything significant yet. Clearing out a few criminal organizations in advance and showing prominence at a young age couldn’t cause such large ripples.

Surely… surely there must be something she didn’t know.

Thinking this as she moved her steps, she arrived at the entrance leading to the waterway.

There were no guards watching the entrance. Since entering the waterway itself wasn’t particularly prohibited, this was natural if anything.

Grace briefly checked the map drawn on the back of the memo, then opened the door while chewing a piece of dried fruit. Soon she began descending the damp stairs.

There was no stench. As the Academy thoroughly managed it, the waterway here was in much better condition than those in most large cities. In the first place, it was harder for it to get dirty because it was plastered with all sorts of magic. It was even possible for alert magic to activate, automatically tracking and restraining anyone who engaged in suspicious activities inside.

This was magic Grace didn’t particularly need to worry about. She had no intention of causing a disturbance here.

Not for now.

She walks towards her destination after descending into the waterway. Water elementals float on the clean water. They splashed around freely, then all fled to the elemental realm upon sensing Grace’s aura. Grace frowned at this sight.

‘There are elementals. That means no part of the waterway is polluted.’

Considering that the terrorism was supposed to happen nearby, this didn’t make sense. Water elementals tend to frolic only in clean and pure water. For the polluted elemental rampage terrorism that was supposed to occur during the entrance ceremony to happen, the water in the waterway shouldn’t be clean.

‘…Has this changed too?’

Separate from her doubts, her body continued moving forward. Like that, she arrived at the waterway directly beneath Dufade Blacksmith. All that greeted her was the cleanly flowing water and the quiet echo of her own footsteps.

“…Hah.”

There was nothing unusual. Grace let out a hollow laugh and pulled back the hood she had been wearing.

Based on her experience, when something that happened in the previous round didn’t occur, it usually came back in the form of something else. This was why Grace had hoped that at least the events at the Academy would be exactly the same as before.

But her expectations were blatantly betrayed.

At this point, it was impossible to prepare in advance or eliminate the threat. She would have to deal with it improvisationally somehow.

“……”

Grace’s face darkened.

She started to miss Asel.

The entrance ceremony starts at 10 AM and ends before evening. So the night before the entrance ceremony, instead of forcing himself to stay awake until dawn, Asel went to bed early and woke up in the early morning. He forcibly lifted his heavy eyelids and lightly manifested magic to shake off fatigue.

He got up from bed, tidied up the bedding with telekinesis magic, then washed up in the bathroom. He blew away all the moisture with magic. Then he put on the uniform designated as the entrance ceremony attire and opened the window for ventilation.

From Asel’s room, opening the window provided a direct view of the training ground prepared behind the dormitory. It was a training ground made for knight department students to handle weapons. Straw dummies stood here and there, and equipment for physical training was gathered in one place.

Perhaps because there were only two physical-type new students staying in Wiesel so far. There was no one visible in the training ground. Ellen seemed to be sleeping, and he hadn’t seen Grace’s face yet as she still hadn’t moved in. According to Lacey, she was supposed to move in today due to personal circumstances. It seemed she was planning to come after the entrance ceremony ended.

‘What circumstances could make her come in so late?’

He was curious, but soon shook it off. It was right to quickly shake off curiosity about others’ personal affairs. Holding onto it would only cause unnecessary trouble.

Asel turned his gaze from the training ground to the clock. There were still about three hours left until the entrance ceremony. There was plenty of time to prepare leisurely. Thinking this, he brought a glass of cold water and looked out the window again.

At that moment, he saw a woman with red hair entering the training ground.

It was Grace. She was wearing gym clothes and leggings that generously exposed her stomach and armpits, with her hair tied tightly back. Then she lightly stretched her body and started running around the training ground. Her face was expressionless, but conversely, she seemed deep in thought. Asel observed her while sipping his water.

“Phew……”

After running exactly ten laps around the training ground, Grace wiped her sweat and started strength training. Even at a glance, she was lifting considerable weight. Every time she put down the equipment on the floor, a heavy sound echoed.

‘I’d lose if we fought barehanded.’

While Asel was having this idle thought, Grace finished her strength training and brought a blunt sword from the corner to start striking at a dummy. At first, she swung the sword without any aura, then gradually raised her aura as she continued her training.

After a while, Grace’s eyes narrowed for a moment. She infused part of the raised aura into the sword and swung it towards the dummy’s neck.

Slash!

Even though it was a blunt sword, the blade she swung cut off the dummy’s head without any resistance. The straw head rolled on the ground. Grace, who was standing still and controlling her energy, let out an “Ah” sound as she looked at the pile of straw.

“I shouldn’t have cut this, should I? Don’t tell me I have to compensate for it?”

She muttered like that, then turned her body while wiping the sweat from her forehead. Then she picked up the water bottle she had placed on the ground and drank while looking up at the sky.

“……”
“……”

Their gazes met like that. Grace froze in the posture of drinking water, and Asel smiled and waved his hand.

“Hello.”
“Cough…! Cough cough!!”

Grace spat out the water she was drinking. As if she had choked, she coughed several times while pounding her chest. In sync with this, water droplets splashed in all directions from her sweat-soaked top. Her large, almost violent breasts also shook violently.

Asel averted his gaze slightly at this sight.

He felt like something terrible would happen if he kept looking.

Since it seemed awkward to have a conversation in the dormitory, Asel went down to the training ground before Grace could regain her composure.

Fortunately, Grace quickly came to her senses. Her disrupted breathing also returned to normal, and it seemed her distracting thoughts had disappeared as she was consistently smiling. Asel sat on a bench with her and chatted.

She pushed her hair that was blocking her side vision behind her ear and asked in a shy voice.

“I-it’s been a while, Asel. Have you been well?”
“So-so. How about you?”
“I… was busy, but it wasn’t bad!”
“When did you move into the dormitory? I didn’t see you yesterday.”
“At dawn! I came right after finishing my business. I didn’t need a carriage since I had nothing to bring. I came in quietly.”

Grace chuckled and neatly placed her hands on her knees.

The cold and chilly atmosphere she had shown at dawn was nowhere to be seen. Like a girl who had just discovered love, she kept glancing at Asel and bursting into laughter, fidgeting her body. As if just looking at him was enough.

Then, suddenly remembering something, she opened her eyes wide and chewed her lips. She looked like she had something to say but was wondering if she should say it. After a while, she seemed to make up her mind and opened her mouth.

“Um… Asel. You know what I said before.”
“…? What did you say?”
“A-about calling you a magician. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it that way. I was just surprised…”
“Ah.”

I wondered what she was talking about, but it seems she’s referring to what happened in the tent.

Asel had forgotten about it until Grace brought it up. If they had fought while sincerely criticizing each other, it would have remained in his memory, but at that time, they had parted quite beautifully without any of that. There was no need to hold onto the other person’s slip of the tongue and seek revenge.

“It’s fine. Don’t feel too guilty about it since I’m not bothered.”
“R-really? That’s a relief.”

Grace put her hand on her chest and let out a sigh of relief. Asel smiled faintly as he looked at her, then realizing that Grace was getting closer and closer, he blurted out without thinking.

“You’re a bit closer than before. Do you have something secret to say?”
“…! S-sorry! I didn’t realize!”

Grace was startled and returned to her original position. She made an “ugh” sound and rolled her eyes around.

She had resolved to bury unnecessary emotions and memories in the past through her conversation with Asel in the tent, but as she talked with him anew like this, old habits started to creep up.

She wanted to burrow into Asel’s arms right away, smell his scent, leave marks on his neck and shoulders, and deeply engrave tooth marks where everyone could see. She wanted to mark his entire body to show that this man was hers.

The reason she unconsciously approached him was because such thoughts were sleeping in a place even Grace herself didn’t realize. Once she became aware of it, her desire flared up even more. But she squeezed out nonexistent patience to suppress her desire.

‘I must endure…! Asel and I are just friends for now…!’

She cast this self-hypnosis on herself and watched Asel’s reaction. Asel showed an embarrassed expression at her reaction, which was more intense than he expected.

“…I didn’t mean I disliked it.”
“N-no, it’s okay. You said it because it was burdensome, right? I must smell of sweat too. I’m fine!”
“…Really? Your face doesn’t look very fine though.”
“I just got a bit feverish! It’ll go down soon!”

Grace said that and started taking deep breaths to calm her mind. After a while, her desire subsided somewhat. She opened her closed eyes and exhaled deeply one last time.

“Ah, so you two were here.”

At that moment, Lacey, who had been inside the dormitory, approached the two. She continued speaking before Asel could open his mouth.

“The Chancellor is looking for both of you.”
“…The Chancellor, you say?”
“Yes.”

Lacey nodded.

“He said he has something to tell you before the entrance ceremony regarding the top rank.”