All the high-rank mages were at the Delcan Ruins, so the seat-glued “the second,” left alone in the palace, had probably been the one to move.

She must’ve crossed the border wearing a magic-restraining device too.

If that was the case, then she probably wasn’t planning to move as loudly and openly as “the fourth” had.

What do I do...

Tomorrow was the presentation and observation day rolled into one.

Which meant it was the day this flimsy little identity-hiding act of mine would come to an end.

So I had to decide.

Should I face this head-on, or hide again?

As I stood there thinking, my eyes drifted toward the Central Library in the distance.

The capital was the worst possible ground for a mage.

But I know one place that isn’t.

In that case...

it wasn’t like I had no options at all.

And there was something I needed to start trying soon anyway, if I wanted to solve this mark problem.

All right. Tonight, I’m sneaking into the Rare Books Archive again.

As I bent back down to gather more acorns, I wondered where Khalid was right now.

It had been nice when I could use the communication circuit freely, even when he blatantly ignored me.

Honestly, I missed it a little.

“Ugh, there are so many ginkgo trees around here.”

I pinched my nose at the foul smell slowly rising through the air.

Seriously, Khalid, where is my friend?

He wasn’t skipping out on the infirmary again, was he?

*****

Khalid was looking up at the sky.

He had just escaped the art class he had been forced to attend now that he could no longer use the infirmary as an excuse.

The aesthetics professor, who had rushed at him the instant he saw him and declared that he had to paint his portrait, had been especially annoying.

I’m not even going to enroll here, so why are they trying to make me a student ID first?

Something about needing to preserve him first, or whatever it was.

He had no idea what that was supposed to mean.

Anyway, all the attention being poured on him genuinely irritated and exhausted him.

Maybe he simply was not used to it.

More importantly... why hasn’t Allen contacted me?

Clicking his tongue softly, Khalid lifted a hand to shade his eyes from the sun.

I sent him because they said the high-rank mages were swarming the Delcan Ruins.

Maybe there just hasn’t been any movement.

But even when there was nothing to report, Allen usually sent word to say so.

Normally, they used the hawk Khalid controlled as a message bird, but this was the capital, where there was barely any ambient magic at all, so they had planned to use an ordinary message bird instead to cut down on magic use.

Is that why he’s late?

Khalid absently rubbed the bracelet on his wrist.

No matter how much magic he had inside him, if the environment around him did not support it, things became annoyingly difficult.

He could not get a good sense for how much to release and where to stop.

“That’s probably because you still can’t control your magic perfectly. Tiny body and all.”

Rubian, who was even smaller than he was, rose onto her toes and lightly tapped the crown of his head.

It was a strange moment—pleasant and insulting to his pride at the same time...

“Maybe the magic around you was acting as a kind of buffer without you even realizing it? Absorbing it when there was too much, adding a little when there was too little!”

“It’s annoying not being able to use magic however I want.”

“So you finally understand how I feel. Let this be your chance to be reborn as a humble child.”

The only real outcome of that conversation had been the deeply moved expression on her face.

Still, Rubian had warned him to use magic only within the narrowest range possible without taking off the bracelet.

With a control tool on him, he was not likely to lose control.

At least I can still send the squirrel around and give Rubian magic.

With a dissatisfied expression, Khalid nudged the ground with the tip of his shoe.

His shadow stretched long across the earth.

When I’m bigger...

Would he be able to use magic however he pleased then, with nothing holding him back?

If he were bigger and stronger than he was now—

then maybe he would be able to protect Rubian more surely.

Khalid clenched «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» his fist tight.

For the first time, he found himself wishing time would hurry up and pass.

As he walked out of the back garden, he spotted a familiar head in the distance.

“...Ruby?”

What was she doing here?

Khalid quickened his pace. Large hazel trees and ginkgo trees lined the winding path.

Rubian was crouched behind one of the large trees, staring fixedly ahead.

“What are you watching like that?”

The moment he touched her shoulder, Rubian jolted and grabbed his arm.

“Ah! You scared me. Shhhh!”

She tugged him down, and Khalid awkwardly ended up hiding behind the tree with her.

“What are you doing?”

“Wait a second. It should be about time.”

“...?”

When he turned slightly to look at her, her round cheeks were puffed up with anticipation.

The only thing in the direction Rubian was watching was the winding path ahead.

It was a walking trail students used often.

There did seem to be an unusual amount of fallen leaves piled up in the middle of it, though...

“What exactly are you—”

Just then, a burst of laughter rang out.

“Ah, finally! Tomorrow’s the last day!”

“Seriously, hasn’t this been so boring?”

It was a group of boys.

Judging by the color of their ribbon ties, they seemed to be camp participants.

What...?

For a second, Khalid felt his heart drop.

She was... waiting for boys? 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

It felt as though his mind had gone completely white.

“Hey, Haben! Give me the ball!”

At that moment, the boy called Haben snatched his friend’s ball and tore off at full speed.

“Ha ha ha! Catch me if you can!”

Rubian’s eyes sparkled even more brightly as she watched.

Then, the moment Haben, charging along like an untamed colt, stepped on the pile of leaves in the middle of the path—

Squish.

“Aaaagh! What is this?!”

“What are you doing?”

“I don’t know! I stepped on something weird!”

“Something weird? Wait a second. Haben, you...”

His friends pinched their noses shut.

“You smell like poop!”

Rubian clapped a hand over her mouth and laughed.

That was what he got for stepping into smashed ginkgo fruit.

“It’s not poop! Ugh, what is this?!”

As Haben flailed around trying to shake the sticky pulp off his shoes, he finally went skidding.

Burst ginkgo fruit smeared all over him from head to toe.

“Hahaha! Haben reeks! He smells like poop!”

“It’s not poop! I said it’s not pooooop!”

His friends ran off shrieking and laughing, and Haben scrambled to his feet and vanished after them in a panic.

“Ah, that was satisfying!”

Only then did Rubian stand up and dust off her hands.

“You... picked up ginkgo fruit and made a trap?”

“Yep. Pretty amazing, right?”

Looking at her puffed-up, thoroughly pleased face, Khalid felt his heart, which had plummeted earlier, settle back into place.

“He picked on Jerdin again during craft time.”

“Jer...din?”

Thud.

His heart dropped all over again.

Who was that now...?

“Bad Haben. You deserved to get laughed at too!”

Rubian punched the air a few times.

“But what are you doing here? Isn’t it class time?”

“It ended early.”

Khalid answered, trying to hide how gloomy he felt.

It had bothered him from the beginning, but today more than ever, the fact that he had not ended up in the same class as Rubian felt unfair and infuriating.

He truly had no idea why he kept having such petty thoughts lately.

Am I not fit to be a knight?

He felt a little down.

“Really? Then this is perfect timing!”

“Why?”

Rubian broke into a bright grin.

“Tonight... let’s sneak out for a walk. Just the two of us. To the Rare Books Archive.”

“...”

Just the two of us.

Sneak out.

A walk.

He heard nothing else. Only those words struck him with full force.

The gloom that had weighed him down vanished so quickly it almost felt absurd.

Could a person’s mood really be allowed to turn this lightly, as if it were made of paper?

Khalid thought about it seriously for a moment, then quickly accepted it.

Well, it’s Rubian.

For him, that simply felt natural.

*****

That evening,

I headed back to the Rare Books Archive with Khalid.

Thanks to Professor Yuliope, I could get the key to the Rare Books Archive whenever I wanted now, but it was after closing time, so I still needed Khalid’s help.

“Thank you, squirrel!”

I gave it two acorns I had gathered during the day.

The squirrel’s black eyes glittered with delight.

“But why the Rare Books Archive again all of a sudden? Is there something else you want to look into?”

Khalid asked as we walked between the bookshelves.

Unlike last time, his movements were a little more relaxed.

Professor Yuliope had already gone home for the day, after all.

“There’s something I want to test with the magic circle on that stele.”

“Something you want to test?”

“Just come with me first.”

Whispering softly, I kept walking.

The huge tree standing there looked just as fresh as ever.

Maybe it was some kind of evergreen, because even in the middle of autumn, its leaves were still unbelievably green.

The stele hidden behind it.

I ran my fingers over the magic circle engraved there once more.

Hmm...

For some reason, I felt like I could do this.

I plucked out a couple strands of my hair.