房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

"Lord Vereq? He is an influential man but I doubt that even he could just get the other nobles to change their stance on this matter."

"Is that so...? Such a shame that this place doesn't have anyone better than him..."

"...!"

Horeo shook his head in denial and Ehmi frowned and kicked her legs up with an annoyed expression – but not Zoemi – after all, he knew that the headmaster that the two were talking about wasn't the actual person pulling the strings... he was just a puppet – a corpse puppet to be exact.

|I should have gone to see Aspy since the beginning!|

"Oh? Zoemi?"

The black-haired attendant stood up with a determined expression, making the platinum-haired girl tilt her head and look up at him curiously.

"My lady, my prince- I remembered that I have something very important to do. Thank you for clearing up so many questions I had."

Zoemi bowed towards both Ehmi and Horeo and declared even though in actuality their so-called explanation made him start questioning so many more things than before.

"Zoemi, I just want you to..."

"My prince."

Horeo straightened his back and started talking but Zoemi stopped him with a polite bow.

"I promise to not do anything reckless."

The attendant declared, because he really wasn't going to do anything reckless as long as Aspakeony would listen to him and bring more of her corpse puppets to guard the academy.

"Also, if that isn't too personal a question for you to be comfortable to answer..."

Zoemi raised his head and curiously looked between the first prince and the young lady of the Victureo family.

"The two of you seem very well acquainted, but I never heard about you two being close...?"

He asked partially to try and take the attention off of himself and partially because he simply was curious about the reason.

"Oh, that."

Horeo nodded and shrugged his shoulders while exchanging smirks with Ehmi.

"Simple – before our first prince here got engaged with your current master, the Victureo family tried to present me as a candidate for the position of the fiancee – we even met a few times while he was, like, four, or five, and I was around six or seven, I guess...?"

The platinum-haired girl furrowed her brows trying to recall and both her hair and eyes started giving off a soft pinkish glow.

"Those plans have fallen through tough for some reason – but I am kind of glad they did – we are a horrible match for each other."

Horeo nodded and grinned at the girl with the platinum hair with a pink tint to it.

"We are simply too similar – honestly - both in terms of personality and power."

Ehmi agreed with a similar expression.

"Ah! And speaking of which!"

That made Zoemi realize something important he forgot to ask before.

"What is your attribute, my lady?"

The boy asked curiously, intently gazing at the girl's short hair.

"Oh, it's obviously..."

"It's time. I wield a time attribute."

Horeo smirked and waved his hand but Ehmi didn't allow him to steal her moment and declared with pride as the pink glint disappeared from her hair and eyes.

"We can talk about it more later – you said you had something important to do, right?"

The platinum-haired girl shrugged and waved her hand benevolently, allowing the black-haired attendant to leave, acting as if she owned the room even though Horeo was right next to her.

"You are right, my lady – thank you and goodbye, my prince."

Zoemi flinched and nodded to her and then to the gold-haired prince and indeed hurriedly left the room.

"..."

After that Horeo furrowed his brows and looked at the platinum-haired girl who was also about to leave.

"Huh... Ehmi, I just had the weirdest feeling – could you believe that I was actually going to say that your attribute was fire? We really didn't see each other a long time!"

The first prince scoffed at himself and shook his head with an embarrassed expression.

"Yeah, that's wild – anyway, bye-bye."

Ehmi shrugged her shoulders without even the slightest bit of interest and walked out of the room.

"So weird... wasn't she always extremely talkative?"

Horeo furrowed his brows and scratched his head – he always thought that he had a great memory, but there definitely was more than just a few details about the platinum-haired girl that didn't match...

------

Zoemi was waiting in front of the door to the headmaster's office – but no matter how many times he knocked and called, no one answered him.

It could mean that even Aspakeony herself wasn't inside but it could also mean that she was sleeping – with that in mind, the black-haired boy decided to have a closer look at the door itself...

After all, he already knew that the gray-haired necromancer had put a barrier around her office that prevented anyone from coming in without her permission – but then what was exactly making it work...?

Zoemi closed his eyes and focused on the world of dancing shadows – and just as he expected, the seal itself was casting a shadow too!

He reached out to it, feeling its mana becoming his own almost instantly – but he hurriedly pulled away – trying to open it was one thing, but straight up breaking it would definitely make the cooperation between him and Aspakeony a little bit more difficult.

Not to mention that Zoemi simply didn't want to break Aspakeony's stuff...

But then again... if it wasn't breaking it...

Thanks to leeching into it, Zoemi was able to learn what makes the seal work – it was rather simple honestly – but its simplicity was most likely the reason why it was actually working so well.

The seal could have been opened only with the use of the death attribute mana.

"..."

Zoemi hesitated for a little bit and then quickly look around to check whether anyone was watching him – but luckily for him the hallway was empty...

...so he closed his eyes and focused on the shadow of a spell he checked out when the necromancer was sitting in his lap...

He reached out for it, simply focusing on constructing it without actually casting it – since to cast it he would require to have a dead body as a target.

It was worth a try – after all his shadow mana was able to imitate mana of other attributes – why wouldn't it work in this situation...

*click*

"!!!"

Even with that in mind, Zoemi was definitely taken by surprise when his theory turned out to be correct as the dry sound was followed by the office's door opening...

"Pardon the intrusion..."

The black-haired boy snuck inside with an apologetic whisper – but only silence responded to him.

"...Aspakeony...?"

He called out a little bit louder and approached the closet.

"..are you here...?"

Zoemi spoke cautiously, reaching out for the drawer and opening it slowly...

"..."

But the drawer contained only the pillows and plushies of various shapes and sizes.

"Yo, nice to see you all again~"

Not even knowing why he had said it out loud, the black-haired boy raised his hand and greeted the plushies.

"So... Our cute necromancer is absent, huh... wonder where she went...?"

Zoemi sighed, switching to speaking out loud.

"None of you guys would happen to be connected with her or anything...?"

He asked looking between all the clearly handmade plushies – but none of them showed any reaction – after a quick check-up, the black-haired boy confirmed that none of it was magical in any way too – after all, if they were, they would have their own shadows – which they didn't.

"Oh well... I will just leave her a note and talk to her after she shows up again..."

Zoemi sighed and walked towards the neat desk, reaching out for the paper, ink, and quill....