It was an even harder place to endure because of the magic-restraining device fastened around her neck.

Of course, thanks to that, she had been able to cross the border and make it all the way to the capital of Babilon without anyone discovering that she was a mage.

‘The Duke Zebbert really is here, so... I should look around the area first.’

Muttering to herself, the woman quickly slipped out of the Academy and buried herself in the crowd.

‘You’re the seventh. You can’t escape.’

Her green eyes flashed.

She was the mage called the Mage King’s “second.”

*****

To be honest, the opening ceremony...

“Yaaawn.”

...was terribly boring.

‘Headmaster Odelly talks as much as His Majesty the Emperor.’

A real headmaster really was something else.

I wiped the tears gathered at the corners of my eyes and set my luggage down to one side.

The moment I flopped onto the dorm bed, Sortie, who had been sitting across from me and staring at me this whole time, finally opened her mouth.

“Rubian, I was going to ask if you didn’t sleep well, but... actually, I think I need to say what I’ve been wanting to say this whole time first. You really...”

Her familiar sky-blue twin braids tilted slightly.

“You must have had an incredible summer....”

“Hngh. I look kind of ridiculous, don’t I?”

In the end, I buried my face in both hands.

“No, it’s not ridiculous, exactly... it’s more like...”

The eyes looking at me sparkled like glass marbles.

As if she couldn’t hold it in anymore, Sortie suddenly sprang to her feet and came to sit pressed right beside me.

“You look like a completely different person! At first, I seriously almost didn’t recognize you.”

I stared at the reflection of myself in her clear eyes.

Hair that had somehow grown long enough to curve around my jaw.

Cheeks that had filled out just a little and gone round.

Blue eyes like the southern sea, and... just like Dad.

Which was to say, just like Dad and my older brothers...

Black hair.

“Ruby! Want to go look around the harbor with Mom? What do you think?”

It had all started with Mom’s sweet whisper.

“Oh... who are you?”

“Daughter, that’s too cruel.”

“Wow! This time it’s blue!”

“I took a little inspiration from the southern sea.”

“Woooow!”

Near the end of summer, I had gone on a vacation with my family to southern Babilon.

It was all because of Grandpa’s miraculous logic that if I was going to be away for ten days for the autumn camp, then the family also needed to go on a ten-day camp together.

‘There weren’t any tracking mages around anyway... and it was fun.’

And because of that, I got to see it!

The first sea of my life!

“Me too! Me too, me too! I want a disguise ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) too!”

“Hm? You want to dye your hair?”

“I’ve wanted to try it too!”

I pestered Mom while staring at her deep blue hair. There was something about a vacation spot that made people bolder!

“Ah. If Leviathan finds out, I’ll get scolded.”

“Then... wouldn’t it be fine if he doesn’t find out? It’ll go back when I wash it anyway....”

Mom narrowed her eyes thinly.

“Whose child are you? What a very smart girl. Good, follow me!”

“Yes, Captain.”

And so, that was why...

“That’s what happened....”

Sortie, looking sorry for me, bent her brows helplessly and toyed with the tip of my hair.

“And that’s why the color won’t go back....”

“Mhm. Asha said it was because she mixed in some strange kind of sustaining magic. Not because my hair is especially magic-friendly... just because it’s a little thin, so it took even better.”

The dye Mom used originally was weak against rainwater and moisture.

So Asha had specially made a longer-lasting version just for Mom, and that was where everything went wrong....

If you washed with the special shampoo, the color would come out, and it had even been upgraded into a mild product gentle enough for children to use, but...

not for me.

‘It must have fused with my magic and caused something weird.’

Ugh. And that’s how I ended up looking like a crow.

Seeing as nullification magic didn’t work on it either, the color must have already completely seeped into my hair.

“Still... the color is fading a little at a time....”

The black had gotten a little lighter than it was at first.

At least it wasn’t some totally outrageous color, so that was a relief.

“But it really suits you.... More than anything, you look like Duke Zebbert! That’s so neat!”

“Huh, really?”

Now that was nice to hear.

‘Dad would probably like hearing that even more.’

The look on Dad’s face when he first saw my hair came back to me.

“Who are you?”

“I’m your daughter.”

“......”

Dad had gone silent for about a hundred years.

Even Dad, who usually didn’t notice these things very well, had apparently been shocked by my dramatic transformation.

“Good heavens. Where is Rosetta Zebbert? What on earth did she do to the child’s hair...”

“Dad, but look.”

Squatting in front of the big mirror and admiring myself, I said,

“Don’t I kind of look like you?”

“......”

At that moment, Dad went silent for another hundred years.

I gazed at the two of us reflected in the mirror and admired it with pure sincerity.

“Wow, it’s just the hair color, but we look exactly alike.”

“...Hm. Where did my beloved Rose go?”

After that, Dad didn’t say anything else. Which was why Mom, who had been hiding behind the wardrobe, was able to come out safely too....

Other things happened too, here and there, but anyway, it was a chaotic summer!

‘Do other families spend their vacations this noisily too?’

Hmm. It’s not like I’ve ever been to one.

“Come to think of it, why didn’t the Duke come to the opening ceremony?”

Sortie asked innocently.

“Oh, he had to rush off to meet His Majesty the Emperor. Mom and Grandpa are staying in the North and guarding the house.”

Dad had looked almost like a criminal being dragged off to the execution grounds when he was heading to the Imperial Palace. Like everything was over.

‘Well... it was because of me that he came to the capital in the first place.’

I could still vividly remember Dad trying to throw the Emperor’s letter into the brazier the moment he received it.

But when the talk of the continental alliance came up, it seemed even he couldn’t ignore it completely.

“Still, Sir Leon and the other senior knights came! Didn’t you see them?”

“I did, but I thought they’d come to see Khalid off.”

Sortie pulled a cookie out of her bag, stuffed it into her mouth with a big bite, and shoved one into my hand too.

“So that’s why no one recognized you in the hall earlier. Well, that makes sense! You said you kept your face covered the whole time during the Spring Festival, right?”

Something about the situation was funny.

Her snickering laughter rang out brightly.

Since I wasn’t a regular enrolled student, there was no nameplate outside the dorm room, and I wasn’t given things with my name engraved on them either.

‘Hmm.’

Munching on the cookie, I stared up at the ceiling with mixed feelings.

A fundamental question suddenly came to me.

‘Why is it that I always...’

...end up hiding something?

Is it fate? Chomp chomp.

“But whatever!”

I laughed lightly.

“It’s only for ten days anyway!”

“Hehe. That’s true. And on the last night, our parents get to come watch too!”

Beaming, Sortie picked up one side of my hair and started braiding it. We had exchanged letters over the summer and started speaking casually to each other, and that had made us even closer.

We were chattering away about this and that when we heard a knock-knock at the door.

Sortie and I answered together, “Yes!” and the maid assigned to each room poked her head in.

“Lunch will be brought up soon, so I’ll help you get ready.”

“Oh, yes!”

Sortie hurriedly straightened the room around us.

“Since it’s the first day, you’ll eat in your room today, but starting tomorrow, you’ll have breakfast and dinner in your room, and lunch in the student dining hall with the other students!”

The maid, smiling brightly, gave us a wink.

“The Academy’s central dining hall was newly expanded this time, and it’s absolutely splendid.”

‘Oh, I guess the Academy has a lot of money.’

Thinking nothing much of it, I helped tidy the table.

Before long, the meal that was brought up was magnificent. No joke, I thought the legs of the table were going to buckle under it.

‘The Academy really must be loaded!’

As I chewed food that melted in my mouth, I thought blankly,

‘Come to think of it, those blankets earlier were incredible too.’

As a bedding enthusiast, I could swear those were the absolute finest of the fine. And they had spread that kind of thing all across the dorms?

‘This place is reeeally rich....’

At that moment, my fork stopped.

“Ruby? What is it? Is it that delicious?”

A certain suspicion came to me, but I quickly shook my head from side to side.

“No way!”

“Hm?”

“It’s nothing! Wow, this is really good! One more bowl, please!”

I speared a piece of meat and shoved it into my mouth, working my jaw hard. It was so tender it melted away, truly the finest taste under heaven!

But somehow, the sauce tasted a little like home...

‘No, no. It’s only ten days.’

No way!

*****

“Hah... a whole ten days.”

Leviathan ran a hand back through his hair. The sound of his shoes striking the Imperial Palace corridor was somewhat irritable.

“Your Grace, I have confirmed that everything has been prepared exactly as you instructed.”

His adjutant quickly caught up beside him and reported.

“Bedding replacement, dining hall expansion, additional cooks, changed food suppliers, reinspection of building safety, extra guards dispatched... ah.”

Even by his own standards, it was flawless work. Grinning, the adjutant added,

“I also arranged it so she could be roommates with Lady Camelan, just as you asked.”

“Uh, good work.”

A whole ten days.

His precious youngest daughter, not even fully grown yet, was going to leave home and stay in a rough, unfamiliar place for a full ten days!

‘Ruby’s picky about so many things.’

She was secretly picky about food, and openly picky about where she slept. What if she couldn’t eat properly, couldn’t sleep properly either, and the tiny bit of weight she had finally put on vanished again?

‘And she’s terribly shy too.’

If it were up to him, he wanted to keep her beside him all day and watch over her.

‘Damn this Imperial Palace. And that damn Emperor even more.’

Cursing inwardly, Leviathan climbed the stairs. Far ahead, he could see the doors to the Emperor’s audience chamber.

“Headmaster Odelly was grinning from ear to ear, saying that something like a roommate was no problem at all... ah, but Your Grace.”

“What.”

“Your expression is a little frightening. You are going to an audience... remember?”

You know that, right? Not into battle.

At his adjutant’s words, Leviathan clicked his tongue.

He couldn’t even attend the camp opening ceremony for his only daughter, and battle? Fine. Why not?

He was in a thoroughly foul mood.