With our exams over and the results announced, my second year at the academy came to a close.
While everyone in my grade apparently moved on to the next year, there were a handful of older students who withdrew from the academy—specifically, the guys who had attacked me. Even if they were acting on the orders of someone higher up, assailing a younger girl was unacceptable. Judging by their expulsion, the academy thought so as well. The expelled students didn’t try to fight the decision either. And by that, I mean their houses didn’t try to fight the expulsions. The boys had been disowned, naturally.
Though the culprits had been punished for their crime, the one who gave the orders got off scot-free. Marquess Bilbroza, head of the noble faction, was a bit too big of a fish for a sole child like myself to fry. But I made sure to remember his name. I was going to pay him back one day!
Going into summer break, I didn’t leave much behind in the dorm. I brought my spare clothes and everything else back with me. I wasn’t sure about the other students, but Sheila had talked about getting me a new uniform, so I couldn’t leave the old one here. She said the old one would be incinerated. If you can believe it, even in this world, there was a black market for student uniforms. We had to thoroughly dispose of uniforms so they wouldn’t end up in one of those places.
With my bags packed, I headed to the gate to meet up with Loks and Colny. We would all be heading to the Aspozat residence in the same carriage. When I got there, I saw a whole crowd of students doing the same thing. We didn’t have to wait long before we headed off to the Aspozat residence, where Sheila was waiting to greet us.
“Welcome back, you three.”
“We’re back, mother.”
“Oh, I’m so glad to be back, mother!”
“It’s good to see you, Sheila.”
Sheila’s wide smile was stunningly beautiful as ever.
It was still the middle of the morning, and we had a few days before we were scheduled to return to Peylon. We would, of course, be going by portal.
Still in our uniforms, Sheila took us to the inner drawing room, to begin the grade-reporting ritual.
“The two of you did very well. I can tell you worked hard.”
“Thank you very much.”
Loks and Colny both looked pleased with themselves, glad to hear their mother’s praise.
Ah, it’s my turn.
My final grades earned Sheila’s approval. Thank goodness.
“There was a lot of effort involved! Gonsuke’s effort.”
“Gonsuke?” Sheila echoed like it was a foreign word. “Ah, the black greatbear. That’s right, you mentioned that your mystic-jockeying scores last year were purely from written and oral exams.”
Yeeep.
But thanks to Gonsuke, I could now score on the practical exams! Having extra credit from the festival made things so much easier.
“This is enough for me to go to Peylon again this summer, right?”
I thought it was a simple question, but Sheila’s smile faltered.
Umm. Huh?
After a bit of deliberation, she said ruefully, “About that. I don’t believe that will be feasible this year.”
“Hm?!”
Why not?!
It wasn’t just me. Loks and Colny were both taken aback.
“As you three know, signs of a forest overflow have begun to appear.” Sheila gave us all a mournful look. “In light of that, they’re limiting who can approach the domain, and the forest in particular.”
Are you kidding me?!
Last year, a monster was caught in a layer of the forest it shouldn’t have been in. Monsters appearing in lower layers than typical was considered an indicator of an overflow. The person who’d slain said out of place monster was me, completely oblivious to the implications at the time.
“Mother, can’t we go just once?”
“That’s entirely up to those in Peylon.”
Not going to Peylon left Colny pretty glum. And who could blame her?! I wanted to go too!
They said they were limiting who could enter the forest, but both of us were capable hunters. If there were signs of an overflow, I thought we might be able to help out a little bit. Was that still not enough?
However, Thand was the only Aspozat going to Peylon. With Ville and Loks remaining in the royal capital, Colny didn’t have as much room to protest.
Being unable to argue made her all the more stressed, and what better way to relieve stress than with exercise? The only problem with that idea was that the royal capital had next to no places where a woman could move her body. Dancing was about the only option.
Colny knew how to dance since she had made her social debut, but that didn’t do us any good when there weren’t any balls hosted in the royal capital during the summer. That’s because it was so darn hot.
The Aspozat residence here was equipped with an institute magic tool made to control heat and humidity. What I’m saying is that it had air conditioning. So at least we could spend our time here in relative comfort.
However, none of the ball venues had cooling at all. They were all closed during the summer on account of the heat. In fact, the buildings as a whole were completely shut down during the season.
But even air conditioning couldn’t make exercising inside any more appealing.
“If we want to get some exercise outside, I don’t know what we can do besides taking a stroll,” I said. “But it’s just unbearable out there.”
Putting up a barrier then lowering the inside temperature was possible. I had used magic to manage temperatures during the alchemy exam, and there was a set spell on account of its difficult and tedious nature. However, we weren’t supposed to use magic in the royal capital.
“But magic tools are fair game, right?”
I couldn’t quite see the logic behind banning magic while permitting magic tools, but those were the rules, and I couldn’t change them. Besides, we were going to take that rule and turn it to our advantage.
Making advanced magic tools was beyond most people who weren’t specialists. Actually, maybe that’s why magic tools were allowed inside the royal capital. While tools couldn’t be sold until their safety had been verified, you only needed to apply for an inspection if you planned to sell what you made. Had we found a legal loophole? They must’ve assumed nobody would make a complicated magic tool only for them to keep it to themself.
So why not make a magic tool that could keep us cool outside? With something like that, we could stay comfortable while enjoying a stroll around the city. Nearly two years had passed since I first started living in the royal capital, but there were still so many places I hadn’t gone yet. If I was going to head out, I wanted to see somewhere new.
Seeing as I wasn’t going to be going anywhere anytime soon, I figured we might as well make the best of it. Hence my decision to get cracking on the cooling tool. The summer sun really beat down on the royal capital. Though parasols weren’t used in Ozeria, hats were. So why not make the cooler take the form of a hat?
I started by making the hat reflect heatwaves, so it wouldn’t absorb so much warmth. Next, I enchanted the hat to reduce heat and humidity in a cone beneath it. I set the temperature to about, oh say, twenty-five celsius, and fifty percent seemed like a good number for humidity. Even in summer, nobles didn’t care for showing much skin, so these were probably suitable settings.
Though on second thought, the royal capital isn’t very humid, is it? Maybe I don’t need to mess with that. But there’s no harm having the spell there, so in you go.
“Lera?” Colny entered my room, catching me messing around. “Oh my, did you make something?”
“Yeah, this is a magic hat. With this, you can be comfortable even in the burning sun.”
“Truly?”
Ooh, she sounds excited.
I was right—the heat was stopping her from getting out and about. Since the humidity wasn’t too high, unlike Japan from my previous life, taking shelter in the shade made a big difference. But it was still hot, and the sun was harsh.
Chatting with Colny, I kept working.
“All right, that should do it.” Test piece number one was complete.