Clack, clack!

Urie's leather shoes echoed as he walked through the marbled tiles of the hallway. While on his way to the academy infirmary, he was growing increasingly exasperated.

“Little boy, would you like to kill a dragon?” the scruffy old man smiled eerily.

—Dragon...?

There were a lot of things already juggling through his mind, yet it seemed the old man planned to throw in another. Urie asked, “What's a dragon?”

“What's a—? Aaaghk!!!” the old man grabbed at his hair in disbelief, “—Keh! You know that statue in the middle of the city fountain? As well as the mural on the gate of the academy? It's that.”

A creature with a long tail, large horns, and sharp claws. The old man flapped his arms comically on his sides as having wings on its back meant that it could fly.

—That winged beast? That's a dragon? Does he know what it is?

Urie stood listless as mixed signals were being sent by his brain. The winged statue had been an itch that had long been bothering him, but the situation had his conscience telling him to first take responsibility for the trouble he had caused.

—Ah!? Wait, did he just ask me to...!

Urie's brows furrowed as he wondered why the old man would ask him such a question. Kill a dragon? It was unreasonable.

...Thinking about it again, could this maybe be part of the graduation exam? If he could get an idea, would he be able to procure a method of graduating early?

Urie felt it wouldn't hurt to inquire, “W-Where is it? The dragon?”

A creature similar to that winged statue; he also wanted to see it in person. It wasn't a bird, yet it could presumably fly. The thought of it tickled his fascination.

Although, if the dragon lived around the central area of Erden's Tower, then he might as well forget it. His brothers had warned him to steer clear of the area as more threatening magic creatures made that place their home.

But as Urie made the agreement with himself, the old man watching him deep in thought replied nonchalantly, “—Keh! The darned thing is in the middle of Arinndra's Forest.”

“Ah, it's not inside of Erden's Tower? Then... Wait, ah. Eh?” Urie's eyelashes bobbed repeatedly.

Arinndra's Forest, the forest past the northern wall. Like Erden's Tower, the more you approach the central area, the more likely you'll run into danger. It was the dwelling place of magic creatures and the source of the ferocious mana beasts.

—He wants me to go in there?! Is he right in the head!?

Forget Arrindra's Forest, even his older brothers didn't dare go near the tower's center area back when they were students. Urie turned around without a word and left the courtyard. Strands of white hair flew in the air as the scruffy old man was left with an incensed expression.

—Mother warned me about a senile old man loitering around the academy. Was that him?

The old man seemed to hold a certain amount of authority as both instructor Danny and the woman resembling Elicia followed his instructions. The woman, Urie recalled, Elicia addressed her as her aunt.

—Merea Perid? From the Perid House? Ah, then she must be mother's friend.

The previous head of the Perid had two children. The younger, who was a friend of his mother, and the older, who became the current head of the Perid House.

—If Merea is Elicia's aunt, then her father...

It appeared that Elicia's father, like Urie's, was the head of a named House. Perhaps, was the reason she kept staring at him because of this? Of course, once someone saw his hair, they would instantly know he was of the Loeth House.

“By the way, that bob-cut hair... Elicia must look up to her a lot,” Urie chuckled.

Elicia modeled her appearance after her aunt but her clumsy demeanor, Urie had no clue as to who she had gotten the influence from. Although when her aunt arrived she immediately turned meek.

“—Anyway, about the demonstration.”

Urie mulled over the earlier events and raised a lot of questions in his mind, most of them about the young girl with red hair. He stopped just before the door to the academy's infirmary, troubled by an urging jab at his nape among other things.

—Who was she? How could she use ice magic? Why was she at the fountain that night?

This was the first that his curiosity had ever been aimed at a person. His stomach churned and his palms started to sweat as he asked himself, “How should I approach the girl?”

While mulling over his thoughts, a hysterical voice rang from the infirmary, “Merea! What happened to my granddaughter!?”

Startled, Urie took a cautious peek and saw the red-haired girl unconscious on a patient's bed. Beside her was Elicia's aunt, Merea, who stood apologetic in front of a familiar old man.

“She's alright Vinney Head, it's just mana deficiency. Her display earlier was quite intense,” trying to calm him down, Urie's class instructor, Danny, spoke from the side. In his tone of voice, however, a tinge of excitement was mixed in which was caught by the old man.

“Ah?! You—!!” instead of calming down, the familiar, balding old man became even more incensed and confronted the instructor, pulling him up by the collar. “I heard it was one of your students that had caused this!” he snapped, “How could you let this happen!?”

Against the old man's overbearing nature, the instructor's timid personality surfaced; he trembled like an herbivore being threatened by an apex predator. Merea tried to speak in the instructor's defense but couldn't intervene as Sacha, the old man with a receding hairline, continued to complain.

The commotion Sacha kept stirring up made it hard for the young girl, who had already awoken a moment earlier, to get up from the bed. And even harder for the young boy, hesitating outside the door, to enter the room.

—Ah... Grandfather, this is too embarrassing. Why is he here?

The old man in an uproar was Urie's grandfather, Sacha Vinney. He was Rivelle's father, and the current head of the Vinney House.

“Sacha, you stinky boy! Simmer down!” a sudden shout startled everyone and caused eyes to fall unto an ashen-haired young boy. The other crazy old man from earlier had come into the room with an annoyed face, pushing Urie in front of him.

“—Keh! It was this little boy that did it. He couldn't regulate his mana so he spilled unconsciously— a typical bedwetter. I'll be putting him in my care,” the scruffy old man declared.

—L-Little boy!? Bedwetter?!

Urie and the three people surrounding the bed heard this and expressed a myriad of emotions. The one on Urie and Sacha's faces in particular, being the most expressive as their eyes twitched repeatedly. Both for different reasons.

Merea spoke with a sharp tongue, “Ya! Old ma—headmaster, have some sense of decency and forget about corrupting that child.”

Danny stuttered while still being held up by the collar, “He-Headmaster, wh-what about his attendance in my class?” He also wasn't good at dealing with the headmaster.

“Keh! He would still attend your classes. Only, my lessons would take precedence. Also, throw that little girl in as well.” The scruffy old man who was actually the headmaster pointed his scrawny finger towards the bed.

The red-haired girl squinted her eyes open as she was curious as to who the headmaster was referring to, but quickly closed them in fright. She put a little more strength to the hands pressing her stomach when she realized the scruffy old man had been pointing at her.

Danny nervously exclaimed, “V-Vinney Head?!” as wind suddenly lashed around the room and a vibrant green hue began to emit around Sacha's body. Losing all decorum, Sacha dropped Danny and dashed towards the headmaster with incredible speed.

Sacha cried, “Ah, you senile old freak! Don't you dare place your eyes on my grandchildren!”

His face looked ferocious as he stabbed two fingers at the headmaster's pair of indolent yellow eyes, but before he could reach them, a pale wrinkled hand appeared from within the headmaster's sleeves and loudly planted itself onto Sacha's face.

In the blink of an eye, Sacha was laying down on the ground unconscious; the whites in his eyes showing while his mouth had started to foam. Urie, who was watching quietly, was used to this appearance of his grandfather as various duels with his father ended up as such. However,

—Grandfather is an active scout at the northern wall. Even father couldn't beat him this easily...

His thoughts drifted back to the scruffy old man's ludicrous question, "Would you like to kill a dragon?"

“—Keh! Merea, place this idiot on a bed.” the headmaster snorted.

Merea, who was rooting for his grandfather, clicked her tongue but still followed instructions as she and Danny heaved the huge man towards a vacant bed. The scruffy old man knowingly turned towards Urie and smiled eerily, “What do you think now little boy? Keheh.”

“Little— Why ask me? If you're so strong, why don't you kill the dragon yourself?” Urie was perplexed, not knowing why this crazy old man would keep making the request.

“Keh! I would if I could—!” the scruffy old man held back words with a click of his tongue and crossed his baggy sleeves with a frown, “I need your help little boy. Come on, you'll also be helping that little girl over there.”

—Little girl? Ah, her?

Urie turned to the girl lying on the patient's bed. Curious at the sudden mention, the young girl opened a single eye to peek at them, but opened both in surprise when her gaze had been caught by theirs.

“Little girl. If I had to take a guess, you're from the 'outside', aren't you?” the old man's eyebrow was raised and he began rubbing his chin, “I'll help you get back if you agree to help me.”

The girl sat up properly but looked down at the ground in silence. Neither confirming nor disagreeing, the scruffy old man took her silence as a sign of affirmation, and shifted to Urie like a merchant selling a deal.

“Come on little boy, agreeing to help me, you would also be helping this little girl—”

“Stop calling me a little boy!”

“Stop calling me a little girl!”

The two children lost tolerance and yelled simultaneously. This time, it was the old man's turn to be surprised.

“Keh—! Then I take it that both of you agree?” The old man's eerie smile resumed and pushed for them to accept. The string of well-placed sentences implied his ample experience in tricking children.

—I'm not so sure about this...

Urie turned to the girl and although both of them shared unease, they silently came to an understanding.