71 – Bloody entrance ceremony (6)

After leaving the realm of Eternia, the winter wind blew fiercely.

Silverin stopped the carriage. The paladins who were guarding the surroundings also stood up one after another. Everyone looked puzzled as they suddenly stopped without warning in the middle of a snowy forest road.

Silverin opened the carriage door and came out stretching.

“Keuk. Ah, it’s disbanded here.”

Paladins looked at each other with bewildered faces.

The dispatch leader approached her, puzzled.

“Silverin-sama, what do you mean by that…”

“I don’t know what to say? You guys and I are splitting up here.”

I couldn’t figure out what the whim was. What else is going against planting?

The farther he got away from Eternia, the sharper and erratic Silverin’s temper became. On this winter’s day, I’m told to serve green grapes, and I can’t sleep unless it’s a fur blanket. The requirements were also terribly demanding. The Paladins did their best to please Silverin, but it only got worse.

Upon receiving the unilateral notification, the dispatcher expressed disapproval.

“Then the saints…”

“I’ll go on my own. I have a place to stop by.”

“It is our duty to escort Silverin-nim until he arrives at the Chengdu. Wherever he goes, we will accompany him.”

“Say it right. Who’s protecting whom? I’m sick of it. I’m probably protecting you guys.”

“That, that’s…”

Even the Paladins knew that Silverin did not need an escort. The escort is to match the assortment. However, even from the church’s point of view, it was impossible to just notify the archmage to know the distance and cross over. It was to accompany him out of respect for the Archmage, but when he said it like this, he couldn’t answer.

Silverin crossed her arms and looked down at the dispatch leader.

“What are you doing? Aren’t you going?”

“…”

There was anger in Silverin’s eyes. Soon after, her magical powers began to run amok as if the reins had been released.

“We also received a mission…”

“If you arrive a day or two late, the world will perish? You leech-like bugs. Get out of here, get out of here. Do you guys know the meaning of the entrance ceremony? Is it like a children’s party? Do you know how it feels to not even be able to attend the entrance ceremony for your one and only student? I want to burn everything I see on the screen, so if you don’t want to be killed by a dog, turn it off.”

Silverin’s hair began to float little by little. Reacting to the mana, fire gradually rose from the ground. The pure white snow melted quickly, and steam rose from the ground.

Transcendental magical power to the extent that the frozen land of midwinter ripens in an instant according to the change of mood. They were different in scale from the wizards they had faced in their lifetime. Even the paladins who had been training between life and death for decades choked in fear.

Sweat broke out on the commander’s back. It seemed impossible to accompany them more than this.

With a wink, he ordered his adjutant to withdraw. Paladins quickly realigned their ranks.

“I’m sorry for the rudeness in many ways. We’ll take the first step and fix the eyes that lead to the saints.”

Only then did Silverin’s magic begin to calm down.

Without further delay, the paladins left Silverin’s carriage and left ahead.

Silverine watched them until they were gone, then took off her shoes and tossed them into the carriage.

After that, I took off all accessories except for the necklace and put them in a jewelry box.

One of the ladies-in-waiting who saw her in the back row carriage quickly grabbed Silverine’s towel and joined her.

“…let’s go.”

Silverin walked barefoot off the road and into the woods.

The forest road she was advancing eventually entered a canyon. A knife wind blew. Even though she was barefoot and wearing a thin dress, Silverin did not feel any chill.

After a long walk through the canyon, an abandoned ruin appeared. Silverin walked to the center of the ruins. There was a large hexagonal bathtub. The water in the tub was frozen solid.

Silverine didn’t care about this and untied the shoulder straps of her dress. Soon after, the clothes slid down, revealing a thin, pure white body with no threads.

She looked down into the tub for a moment, and the ice cracked open, followed by heat and bubbles rising from the bottom of the water.

Silverin held the vial of Damian’s blood in one hand and immediately dipped herself into it.

After taking a bath after a long time, it felt like all the accumulated fatigue had been blown away.

bath of purification.

And beyond this ruins was the Altar of the Stars.

A place where ancient magic, said to have ceased hundreds of years ago, is secretly handed down. The eyes of the church had to be avoided. Although they serve the same God, their methods are completely different from those of the Order.

It was the place he had come to receive Damian’s oracle.

In order to enter it, you had to purify yourself in the bath.

Silverin held up the glass bottle with both hands and looked at it happily. Then, after lightly kissing her, she put it on her cheek and felt the pulse for a moment.

“…I wish you would have come too.”

***

Someone came up behind Rupert, who was taking a deep breath by himself.

He looked back in surprise at the strangely cool energy.

Zion stood behind him. With your hand on the scabbard.

“…what, what?”

“Don’t you have anything to say to me?”

“What’s the story?”

“Combat Department representative, isn’t that your seat?”

Rupert narrowed his eyes and spoke deftly.

“…Now stop admitting it. I won this position. I won it proudly after beating you at the top of Mount Grace.”

“Would you like to prove it now?”

Shion pushed the sword up with his thumb. The blue blade of the sword was revealed. Shion was truly a woman who would wield a sword without hesitation even in the middle of the entrance ceremony.

Rupert was startled and immediately lowered his tail.

“Oh no wait, I know, I know. Calm down. It’s just a strange rumor going around.”

“…”

“Gail Varianne is in second place, but he refused because he didn’t want to be the representative unless he was the top. Victor, who was next in line, also refused for the same reason. That’s why I came out. They’re just like you, they’re kids with dirty egos and big personalities. You’ve seen it too. is it?”

Gale and Victor were the ones who had been defeated in a head-to-head confrontation with Shion the other day. It was quite predictable that he would refuse to stand on the podium because he would not understand being under someone because of his pride.

However, Zion was not talking about them.

She frowned and shook her head.

“I’m not talking about losers.”

“…What? Loser? What are you talking about? You’re the chief and Gail’s second. That’s all I’ve heard?”

Rupert’s eyes widened as he quietly chewed on Shion’s words.

“Ah…no way, no way, is that rumor true? That there’s someone who competed with you on the mountaintop?”

“Tell me everything you know.”

“Hey, hey, calm down. I’ve only heard rumors. I don’t know anything. You’ve seen it yourself, don’t you know better?”

Rupert didn’t know what to do. Shion, who had lost steam, sighed lightly.

“No, more than that, I’d be really pissed if I heard that Gale was a ‘loser’.”

“It’s not my job.”

“Why are you so anxious about not being able to kill each other? Is it some kind of homophobia? Gail is the same venomous breed as you. There are rumors that he will challenge you again soon.”

“Ask me to come any time.”

Feeling no longer worth talking to, Shion left.

***

Cecil walked to the back row of the campus banquet where the entrance ceremony was to be held. In the back, the crowd was still moving in disarray.

And, as her friend told her, she was able to find a masked ‘Candy’ in the farthest corner.

He stood blankly, holding his palm up, catching the powder of light that fell like snow.

It was the appearance of an ordinary boy who was mesmerized by the mysterious sight.

Seeing that, Cecile let out a blank laugh.

Even after searching like that, I couldn’t find any clue as if it had evaporated, but it even collapsed when it suddenly appeared so casually.

Why is the person who should be the main character of the entrance ceremony standing in the most remote corner as if he has nothing to do with it?

She cautiously approached Candyi, fearing that he would run away if he attacked her.

“… what are you doing here alone don’t you have any friends?”

He slowly turned his head to Cecile.

“… .”

Cecile looked at each other for a moment before opening her mouth.

“Are you still not talking?”

“… long time no see.”

The corners of Cecile’s mouth rose slightly.

“I know that? Are the Planteras staring at you scary? They don’t see you as a freshman because you’re wearing a mask. I think I need to take it off quickly.”

he responded nonchalantly.

“They saw me as Plantera, not as a person. So I just passed.”

“Ehh, how long are you going to wear that old-fashioned mask?”

“You don’t know luxury goods.”

“Luxury? Who made it? Name your father-in-law. I know it well because I’m the ‘chief’ of the Faculty of Magic.”

Cecil emphasized the word senior.

He pretended to be worried for a moment before replying deftly.

“I heard you’re famous. Er… Jebet?”

“funny. yes, i guess you are really special Do you like that mask that much?”

“yes. If you use this, you won’t be attracted to miscellaneous merchants.”

Cecile smiled with a blush on her cheeks.

“Kuhk, that’s right. You seem to be the most mischievous merchant, but who is going to seduce you?”

He responded calmly like a wooden stone.

“… The sorcerer is twisted.”

“Since you talk a lot, you really seem like a different person. Is there candy in it? I can’t. give it to me it.”

Cecile abruptly held out her hand.

“… ?”

“Mysterious candy.”

“… If you rob all the goods, what will a common trader like me eat for a living?”

“hurry.”

He said after rummaging through his pockets for a while.

“… It’s all sold out, so I don’t have it now.”

Cecile kept getting excited.

I thought there was a high chance that we wouldn’t meet, and even if we did, we wouldn’t be able to have a normal conversation like this. However, I broke all expectations and had a conversation with him calmly.

“Considering that you don’t have friends, talking around isn’t bad. You’re cute, so I’ll accept you as Candy.”

“… .”

“By the way, what did you do with the frostwind bomb I gave you?”

“I wrote it in the right place.”

“How about using it? Is it useful?”

“yes.”

Cecile opened her flounder eyes and said,

“… You eat ‘all chief’, am I contributing?”

“… … .”

He stared blankly at Cecile. It was a look that said, “How do you know?”

With Cecil’s intelligence, finding out who the real chief was was a piece of cake.

Cecile grinned and pressed herself closer to him. Then, he tapped the nose of the mask with his index finger.

“Don’t be fooled. ‘I’m embarrassed’ is written all over your face. You owe me.”

“……I’m not the chief.”

***

Someone approached Lilith, who was sitting alone and sobbing.

It was her friend Matthias.

Mathias was startled by the tears and wiped Lilith’s back.

“Lilith, what’s going on? Why are you crying all of a sudden?”

Lilith wiped away the tears with her forearm and pushed Mathias’s hand away from her back.

“It’s nothing. What’s going on?”

“What’s wrong. Can you tell me?”

“It has nothing to do with you. Why are you here?”

Mathias sighed and said.

“The masked guy you mentioned. I think he’s here.”

“…what?”

“He was at the back of the banquet hall. He’s the only one wearing a mask. Could it be because of him?”

Lilith wiped the tears again with the palm of her hand. Then, leaving Mathias alone, he ran out to the back of the banquet hall.

She searched the banquet hall intently as if she were looking for her ex-lover.

And in the middle of the busily moving people, I could really see the man.

My heart sank.

dark red hair. wooden mask. It’s not fake. It was the man, no doubt.

Lilith struggled through the crowd to reach him.

I only found it when I got so close.

A man wearing a mask.

And next to him was Cecil, smiling brightly.

Lilith dropped the handkerchief she was holding.