Chapter 69

* * *

A boy with freckles gazed at an overwhelmingly large painting.

He stood in the lobby where the "Clyde Art Exhibition" was taking place.

The boy earnestly admired the paintings, which, though rough and bold, and not sophisticated, were filled with affection and love.

His cheeks were flushed.

"Perhaps the term 'noble' refers to a class that can enjoy art leisurely?"

"What are you talking about? Were you in the art club?"

The freckled boy, Delv, shook his head.

"I mean, it feels good to see such heartfelt paintings at school."

His long-time friend, Jude, reacted with a frown.

"Seeing you enjoy the student council president's painting, you must be in the art club... Hey, let's hurry to the library. It's really hard to find a seat these days."

Delv followed Jude with a dark expression, as if the brief moment of ease and happiness had been a lie.

"Ah! All the seats are taken!"

Jude roughly ran his fingers through his hair and groaned.

"Phew. I have to study. If my grades drop, it'll be a big problem. My older brother passed the Royal Wizard exam, so I need to show some results too."

It would be troublesome for Delv if his grades dropped as well.

But he couldn't muster the will to study.

Because magic was boring.

Delv's magical talent was average, but thanks to the countless tutors his parents had hired since his childhood, he managed to get into Valhalla.

But that was it. He didn't have any extraordinary abilities beyond that.

"Does going to a magic school mean you have to become a wizard?"

Jude, who was already on edge due to the exam period, felt his patience snap at Delv's weak words.

"Then you shouldn't have applied to this school in the first place. This is a quota system. How would someone who desperately wanted to get into Valhalla feel hearing that?"

Delv dislikes studying magic but loves art.

He was also good at making things, often earning admiration from those around him.

But Delv was a noble, a wizard, and the heir to his family.

Art was something commoners or those without a family to inherit did.

Jude, who had always found Delv's dreamy nature annoying but tried to understand him as a pure friend, couldn't contain his frustration this time.

"Do you realize we're in our fourth year? Next year, you'll graduate, marry your fiancée, and start your formal training as the family heir. Do you even realize that?"

"..."

"Please, look at reality. How long do you plan to avoid your duties and responsibilities?"

Jude sighed deeply, as if he was fed up, and turned around.

"Let's study separately today. Seeing you stresses me out."

"Jude..."

Despite Delv's hesitant call, Jude left his seat coldly.

"Am I the one who's strange?"

He felt like he was wearing clothes that didn't fit him.

Being a noble and a wizard didn't suit him at all.

What others did naturally was incredibly difficult for him.

"Maybe the world where I belong exists somewhere else?"

There was nothing in this world that he could do well.

Nothing.

"Delv?"

While standing there, feeling abandoned by the world, someone called his name in a deep, gentle baritone that made him feel like tears might well up.

Delv turned around with slightly reddened eyes.

It was Damian, a classmate who, despite his commoner status, seemed too perfect to be true, living in a different world from the dim-witted Delv.

"Ah, Damian."

"Are you coming from the library?"

Delv said awkwardly.

"Yeah, but all the seats were taken."

"Seats are really competitive these days. I just failed to get one too."

Damian smiled as if he had found a shared experience, his attitude casual and warm.

Surprisingly, it was quite comforting.

Even more surprisingly, Damian made a suggestion.

"But the library on the second floor at the end should be empty. Professor Felix told me. Do you want to go together?"

Delv nodded in a daze and followed Damian to the second-floor faculty library.

Walking side by side, the stark contrast between himself and Damian became painfully clear.

Damian seemed more noble than the nobles.

'If Damian had been our family's eldest son, my parents would have been very happy.'

Delv suddenly wondered.

"Damian, do you like magic?"

It was a silly question.

Of course, he would. This guy was a genius who had never missed being second in his class.

But the answer was unexpected.

"Hmm, not really."

Delv was taken aback and blurted out another question without thinking.

"Then what do you like?"

"Um... sports? I also like cooking. And making toys."

That was really unexpected.

"Making toys?"

"Why? Are you interested?"

"I like making things too! I love drawing and sculpting!"

Delv, who was usually reserved, got excited and then blushed, closing his mouth.

Damian chuckled and fished a toy soldier the size of his palm out of his pocket.

"I made this."

"Wow...! It's so well-made. You could sell it right away."

He meant it sincerely.

"Ha-ha! If I can't find a job after graduation, making and selling toys might be fun. I could become a toy craftsman."

"Amazing... I don't know what I should do."

Delv's gaze fell to the floor.

"I don't have any skills. The only thing I'm good at and like is art, but that's not a career for a noble."

But I want to.

I love art, which can create emerald skies, blue leaves, and angels I've never seen.

I have no interest in anything else.

Reality only makes me suffer.

So,

I wish reality would just disappear.

Delv's eyes momentarily glinted with a dark, sticky thought.

Just as he was about to sink into those thoughts, Damian's voice pulled him back to reality.

"I'm not a noble, so this might be rude, but isn't the most important thing yourself?"

"Me...?"

"People often talk as if there's a right answer to life. But if there really was one, it would have been proven in countless history books, and we would all live the same life. But we don't, right?"

"Right... I think so too."

"Sometimes I feel like I'm a cog in a clock tower, a small cog that moves to show the time someone wants."

Delv felt an eerie sense of empathy.

A cog to move the family. He was a cog.

"Damian, I didn't know you felt that way too..."

"Ha-ha. I'm a commoner. Being forced to live the life a noble wants is my daily life. But I don't want to live that way."

At that moment, Damian's smile felt different.

There was a chilling tension, but his eyes were dazzlingly resolute.

"I will live the life I want. Even if it destroys me."

"…!"

"Delv. The only person who has the right to destroy you is yourself. If you think that way, you'll feel more free from the reality that binds you."

For the first time, he felt understood.

For the first time, he felt that he wasn't the one who was strange, but maybe the world was.

His heart swelled.

It throbbed so hard he wanted to grab a chisel or a brush and pour out this emotion, this feeling.

It felt like a ray of saving light had been poured into the dark reality.

"Oops. I forgot to check the lab. Delv, I'm sorry, but let's study together next time."

"Ah, yeah."

Feeling disappointed, Delv watched as Damian gave him a troubled smile and handed him the toy soldier.

"Though it's embarrassing to call it a trade, consider this a token of my encouragement."

"...Yeah! Thanks, Damian."

"See you later."

Delv nodded with a very excited expression.

He held the toy very, very precious in both hands.

Flash!

For a moment, the toy soldier's eyes flashed red and then turned black again.

* * *

"No way, I can't believe it!!"

The social dance professor alternated between praise and amazement at my possessed dance moves.

"By my teaching career, I have never seen such perfect and beautiful dance lines! How much have you practiced, Terese student?!"

"More than you can imagine, Professor."

I hadn't practiced at all, more than you can imagine.

"Ah... This isn't just practice. Only innate talent can create such a dance. I've been teaching a genius...!"

"It's all thanks to your teaching, Professor. I haven't done anything."

"To be so humble. It's hard to believe such talent has been hidden in a magic school all this time. You could sweep the social scene!"

I maintained a humble posture but was so embarrassed that I wanted to run away.

The professor gave me a grade with a very satisfied expression.

<Social Dance>: A+

The results were good from the first exam.