SRS 29

“Time’s up, everyone! Great work today. Hands up, please!”

Professor Shinbi clapped cheerfully. Groans of despair filled the classroom.

“I’m not done writing yet!”

“Professor, please, just one more minute!”

“Ah…”

“I’ve burned out completely. There’s nothing left in my head now.”

The moment class had begun, Professor Shinbi had entered the room, handed out test papers without a second of mercy, and made everyone take a one-hour quiz. Because of that, Yohan had completely forgotten Mikael’s strange behavior and focused only on the test. Now he leaned back in his chair and looked down at his paper.

At least I finished everything.

There were a few questions he couldn’t remember and about six that confused him, but fortunately, there wasn’t a single one he’d left blank.

He couldn’t be sure of a perfect score, but since this quiz wouldn’t count toward their final grades, he felt relieved. A wind spirit swept through the room and collected everyone’s test papers.

Clap!

Professor Shinbi summoned a high grade earth spirit and handed it the stack.

“Please grade these for me!”

At the bright command, the earth spirit nodded. Yohan thought only Professor Shinbi would use such a powerful spirit for something like this and quietly waited for the results.

15 minutes later, the grading was done.

“All right, the scores are ready! I’ll announce the rankings starting from the back!”

“What?”

“You’re announcing them?”

“You didn’t say anything about that!”

“Urgh…”

The students protested loudly at the unexpected public ranking. One complaint turned to 2, then 3, and soon the classroom buzzed with chaos. Professor Shinbi clapped again, and a water spirit appeared, dumping puddles of water over the heads of the louder students.

Yohan straightened in his seat as he watched his drenched classmates sputtering in dismay.

To do something like that so casually… No matter how kind or gentle the professor looked, Shinbi was still a Fantasiademia professor.

“Okay then, starting from 50th place!”

Having nipped the rebellion, Professor Shinbi began announcing names. With each one, faces around the room changed, some groaned, some smiled in relief. The ranks rose quickly until she reached the top fifteen.

“Fifteenth place, Nora Delaine! Congratulations, only 22 wrong!”

Even at that level, the number of mistakes didn’t drop below 10. There had been 100 questions and not much time to study, after all.

“Yohan Herse, tenth place! Well done! You got 14 wrong!”

Yohan had placed tenth. Out of fifty students in the second-period Spirit Studies class, that wasn’t bad at all. Pleased, he looked at Mikael from the corner of his eye, he still hadn’t been named. Since Mikael had repeated the first-year several times, he must have taken Spirit Studies more than once. His score was bound to be high.

“And first place goes to Mikael! A perfect score!”

As expected, Professor Shinbi called Mikael’s name last, delighted by his perfect marks.

“A perfect score?”

“Of course it’s him. He’s the forever first-year. He’s taken this class so many times, no wonder.”

Some were impressed, some admiring, others envious or mocking. Yohan frowned. He was concerned and he looked toward Mikael, but the white-haired man didn’t seem to care what anyone said. His face was blank with boredom as he lazily flipped through his book.

Now that he thought about it, Mikael only showed emotion when dealing with him. Otherwise, he always looked like that. Yohan found himself quietly watching him with thoughtful eyes.

“All right, I’ll hand back your papers so you can see which ones you missed. That’s it for today’s class! Great work! Next time, we’ll cover pages 121 through 240!”

Professor Shinbi ended the class with an overwhelming announcement of the next lesson’s scope. The lecture had finished five minutes early, and the exhausted students quickly came back to life, hurrying out of the room in a noisy rush.

Yohan stayed behind, checking which problems he’d missed. Mikael hadn’t gotten up either. He sat flipping through his test paper, covered in circles from top to bottom, and looked at Yohan with a blank expression.

By the time the dismissal bell rang, the two of them were the only ones left. They finally looked at each other.

“…Mikael. I want to talk about what you did earlier.”

Yohan broke the silence first. Since they were alone, Mikael didn’t avoid the topic this time and nodded slightly to say, go ahead and ask.

“Why did you do that?”

“I told you. There was a bad smell.”

“I mean, what does that…”

It was the same answer again. Nothing had changed. Yohan sighed in frustration.

“Don’t get close to Abel, Yohan.”

“…What?”

A completely unexpected name came out of Mikael’s mouth.

Abel? Abel Serdium?

It took Yohan a moment to recall the upperclassman’s face, and when he did, he froze in shock.

How did Mikael even know I met Abel?

It couldn’t have been from sensing demonic energy. After meeting Abel, Yohan had gone to the headmaster’s office, then into the vault. The divine energy in those places should’ve wiped away any trace of demonic energy long before. So how could Mikael possibly know?

“…How do you know I met that senior?”

Unable to hide his surprise, Yohan asked. Mikael rested his chin on his hand and looked at him.

“You came back covered in his energy and his scent.”

“What?”

Yohan frowned, realizing he needed to rephrase his question.

“How do you even know that senior’s scent?”

“…Yohan. Do you really think I’m a real first-year just because they call me the forever first-year? I spent a year with Abel too, so of course I know.”

“…Most people don’t remember someone’s scent just by spending a year together.”

Yohan muttered under his breath. He didn’t even know what Mikael’s scent was like, nor Suhyeok’s or Kylus’s. Unless you lived glued to someone, it wasn’t something you could recognize.

“Why not? I know yours.”

Mikael looked genuinely confused, he seemed to think that Yohan were the strange one. Yohan opened his mouth, lost for words, then rubbed his temple in disbelief.

“…Maybe that’s just because you’re weird, Mikael.”

No wonder he’d sniffed him so much earlier. His sense of smell must really be that good.

Realizing one more odd thing about Mikael, Yohan decided to let the scent issue go and watched him instead.

They hadn’t known each other long, but it was the first time Mikael had shown this kind of hostility toward anyone. It was also the first time he’d warned Yohan not to get close to someone. There had to be something between Mikael and Abel that Yohan didn’t know.

“Are you and that senior on bad terms?”

“Not exactly. We just don’t get along.”

“…?”

“Don’t you feel the same way?”

He asked like he was seeking agreement.

Not get along…

Was he talking about Abel being a demon? Yohan hesitated. In terms of race, he and Abel were completely incompatible. But…

“That might make sense for me, but what about you?”

Yohan was a priest, but Mikael wasn’t. Though he sometimes exuded a slightly holy aura, he couldn’t use divine power, nor did he possess it. So why talk about incompatibility? Yohan looked at him with confusion, and the student’s blue-gray eyes, tinged with light, met his calmly.

“Good question. Why do you think?”

“…What?”

The sudden riddle threw Yohan off. When he didn’t immediately answer, Mikael let out a soft laugh and closed his eyes.

“I’m tired today. Don’t you feel it too?”

His voice grew lighter, like a breeze. The tone signaled that he was ending the conversation. Yohan grew frustrated. He was the one who had started this, yet he ended it with a ambiguous comment and no explanation. What kind of conversation even was that?

“Mikael, you…”

Yohan began, unable to hold back the questions that had been building inside him.

“If I tell you, then you’ll have to tell me too.”

“……”

“Would that be fine? No matter what I ask?”

He spoke softly with his eyes still closed. Yohan almost asked, What would you ask me? but bit his tongue.

If Mikael questioned him, Yohan would have to answer. Even if he only wanted to know who Mikael really was.

That was Fantasiademia’s rule. If you wanted to uncover what someone was hiding, you had to be ready to expose yourself completely in return.

Yohan bit his lip and thought.

Could I tell him about Cheplen?

Since falling into the Nameless Realm, he had never once spoken of Cheplen. He still wasn’t ready to bring up that name here.

If he did, he would have to face everything he’d buried, their past, the betrayal, the pain left behind by the demon’s heart.

After coming to this world, Yohan had wanted to forgive Cheplen. But that had been before he learned about the resurrection school. Would he still feel the same after living here?

If he mentioned Cheplen too carelessly, wouldn’t that shake something inside him that he couldn’t repair?

Unable to predict the answer, Yohan admitted it to himself. He wasn’t ready to speak about Cheplen yet.

After a long silence, he looked at Mikael’s lowered lashes for a moment, then stood up from his seat.

“…I’ll go first.”

Just as Mikael wanted, the conversation ended there.