CHAPTER 5
THE COGS HAVE STARTED TURNING
“Hah! Hup!” The wooden sword cut through the air as she swung it down. While all the other students were in third period, Leticiel was practicing her swings in comfortable pants.
At the sword training grounds, Leticiel practiced the martial arts her father had drilled into her in her previous life. She had been there since the start of first period.
Leticiel was a genius when it came to sorcery, but she couldn’t win in a fight unless she could handle hand-to-hand combat as well. That was why she willingly practiced at the training grounds and went on long runs.
Since she was in the body of a sheltered young lady, she had gotten out of breath after just a few practice swings at first. Now that she had started to build muscle, she was able to train for a longer time.
It had been about a month since she had started living as Drossell. She had been enjoying every fulfilling day since then.
At home, she avoided contact with others as much as possible, mostly limiting herself to the kitchen, the library, and the garden. The only person allowed in her room was her personal butler, Ruvik. She had deliberately adjusted her schedule so as not to meet with her family. She didn’t know how they were doing, but they were probably doing the same things as usual.
At the academy, she spent her mornings buried in books in the Great Library or practicing her swordsmanship in the training hall. In the afternoon, she holed herself up in her research lab to immerse herself in her research. Then, after classes had ended, she taught sorcery to Zeke and Mirandalette at the magic training hall. After a month of practice, they were both starting to blossom as sorcerers, just as Leticiel had expected.
Mirandalette didn’t stand out in any particular attributes, but she was reliably adept in all of them. On the other hand, Zeke was skilled at using magic and sorcery for different purposes and was particularly skilled in casting void spells.
Her research into magic formulas was also proceeding smoothly, and she was almost finished rewriting all of the basic spells. It seemed like most magic spells were basic or low-level spells, which was why it had taken her so long. She’d also been developing new spells alongside her revisions of the old ones.
Although she reported all of her research findings to the headmaster, Lucas, her work was still treated as top secret and only Lucas, Zeke, Mirandalette, Raven, and Mr. Baltrana (Mr. Piccari), who had sneakily joined the group, knew about it.
Over the past month, Leticiel had completely stopped attending classes. Since she read everything she could get her hands on in the Great Library and spent her days off in the manor’s library at home, the academy’s classes were too easy for her, like child’s play.
Yes, she had finally come to the same conclusion as Zeke.
Because of this, she rarely saw her classmates and was no longer subject to the widespread slander she had once received. It was certainly an improvement.
She was afraid that her teachers would be angry about her skipping, but on the contrary, she had many teachers coming to visit her in her research lab, bringing small gifts or snacks with them.
Could it be? Was it safe to assume that they…liked her?
“Is third period almost over?” Gripping her wooden sword with both hands, she stretched as much as she possibly could. There was no clock in the training hall, but since she couldn’t hear any sounds coming from the other side of the wall, she supposed that class was still in session.
While the magic training grounds were outdoors, the sword training ground was indoors. Similar to the magic training grounds, it was divided into a number of booths. During third period, a class was held in the booth next to hers.
Leticiel put the wooden sword she had been using back where it was, changed her clothes in the changing area at one end of the booth, and hurried off to the cafeteria.
Though she no longer attended class, she always made sure to eat lunch with her friends. After all, it would be lonely to eat all alone when she had friends she could eat with instead.
She arrived at the cafeteria before the end of the third period. Since class was still in session, there weren’t any other students around.
A handsome boy with black hair was gazing absentmindedly out of the window, basking in the soft sunlight at a six-person table in a sunny spot, not paying any mind to his surroundings. Zeke, a fellow skipper like Leticiel, always reserved a good spot for their group.
“Hello, Zeke,” she greeted.
“Huh? Miss Drossell? You’re early today.” Zeke blinked in surprise when Leticiel entered his sight. She supposed that was only natural. For most days over the past month, she had been so engrossed in her work that she had lost track of time, and he had come looking for her so they could go to the cafeteria together. “It’s not like you to come to the cafeteria before the bell rings,” he commented.
“I just happened to lose my focus early today. Those days do exist.” Sitting down across from him, they began to chat in the empty cafeteria.
According to Zeke, he had devoted himself to studying mathematical formulas in his research lab this morning. He’d been planning to go to the machine room, but a last-minute inspection had caused him to change his plans.
Just as Leticiel was about to doze off in the warm sunshine, the bell rang and the last member of their friend group came rushing into the cafeteria.
“Good morning, Miss Drossell!”
“Good morning, Miss Mira. You seem to be at 100% energy capacity, as usual.”
“Huh?”
Leticiel giggled at the way Mirandalette’s eyes widened in bewilderment.