房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

"Ah! Sorry! I don\'t know how could I forget to introduce myself in the first place! Hello again, mister. My name is Patishi. Fourteen years old. Personal attendant of the first prince Horeo Marets Bellcephora. Nice to meet you."

The brown-haired girl gasped before hurriedly taking a step back and curtsying splendidly towards the pleasantly surprised boy.

"Hello, Miss Patishi. I am Zoemi. Fifteen years old, I guess. Personal attendant of lady Kierul Berra Helterose. Let\'s get along."

Zoemi responded by putting his right hand to his heart and bowing his head around two inches.

"Let\'s go deliver the food to our hungry masters~"

"Yes~!"

The boy added and the girl cheered out happily as they both took their respective trays and exit the kitchen.

In the door, they passed a brownish-black-haired attendant with grayish-blue eyes who seemed to be still half-asleep and in the middle of the stretching.

"...with the layout of the Academy? I still have some trouble memorizing it and get a little lost on my way here. Normally I would get in the kitchen before sunrise!"

"Is that so? Then you will not mind if I go with you most of the way? There actually is a shortcut to the girls\' part of the dormitory if we go the other way, but it doesn\'t really make that much of a difference overall~"

Zoemi and Patishi passed him while chatting and the young man caught only a small portion of it...

"...?!"

But it wasn\'t the words or voice but rather the profile of the black-haired boy passing him that made the young man grind to a halt, suddenly wide awake.

The young man in question was Geroizen Tencelion, the attendant of young lady Burushi Kallerontte – the very person who trained together with Zoemi for almost two years when they were young, way before Zoemi\'s memory loss.

Since then Zoemi grew up and his voice changed a lot but just the glimpse of him caused Geroizen\'s inside to churn.

"Zo...!?"

"...kind of jealous about standard attribute magicians, my variant doesn\'t give me any physical boost, if I was a shadow magician just like you I could at copy the enchantments from my master and be more useful for him..."

Geroizen rushed to the halway after the pair that left and already started calling out Zoemi\'s name but then he heard the brown-haired girl at his side sigh and sulk at the black-ahired boy, which made the brownish-black-haired attendant close his mouth and bite his lips.

|...so, this guy is a shadow magician... ugh, of course... who am I kidding, why would Zoemi show up in the Academy of all places after so many years...|

Geroizen scolded himself in his mind and shook his head to get back into the correct mindset. He even smacked his face with both hands before returning to the kitchen while disappointed in himself for mistaking a shadow magician for a martial artist like Zoemi.

…after all, most people were under the wrong assumption that Zoemi was a shadow or darkness magician, only a few including Geroizen knew the truth, but funnily enough, it was precisely because of that such misunderstanding could happen in the first place...

"I think that the ability to detect poison without tasting the food is much more useful for a royalty than some enchantments."

Meanwhile, Patishi and Zoemi continued their talk.

"Oh, and I am not a shadow magician but a martial artist instead~"

The black-haired boy added casually.

"Eeehh?! Wha...?! I thought for sure that you were a darkness magician!"

Patishi gasped in disbelief and stopped for a second while staring at Zoemi in disbelief.

"Yeah, I know. With hair and eyes like that it really is easy to get mistaken for a shadow or darkness magician. Not to mention that completely black eyes and hair are features that normally never happen for martial artists."

Zoemi nodded with understanding and laughed it off.

"It\'s so cool~! I never talked with a martial artist! I have seen a few acting as bodyguards for some very important people that visited the royal palace though! Is it true that marital artists can instantly drain magician\'s mana and get them into a state of mana depletion?"

The brown-haired girl\'s eyes shone with interest and she gasped in excitement while catching up to the black-haired boy.

"Yeah, easily... Although it depends on how much mana a magician has and how high the star level of the law of Aquarius of the martial artist using it is."

Zoemi snickered confidently before realizing that he was acting overconfident and curbing himself back with some facts.

"Whoa...! Martial artists are so strong!"

Patishi cheered out in amazement.

"It\'s not like the law of Aquarius guarantees a win in case a fight breaks out though. That star power has a definite range limit after all."

Zoemi shook his head and pointed out in a serious voice...

"Although just like with everything, this shortcoming can be worked around like this~"

"EH?! AH?! EEEEHHHHH?!"

...and then his copy, which the black-haired boy created without chanting the name of the star power, added while walking on the opposite side of Patishi while tickling the girl\'s chin and causing her to cry out in shock and then get wide-eyed and gasp in even greater shock when she realized what was going on.

"This for example is the effect of the law of Gemini. Very useful in right circumstances~"

"Fu-nyaaaahn~"

The original Zoemi bosted cheekily while Patishi let out a cute dreamy voice as Zoemi\'s copy continued to tickle her chin with one hand and started patting her head with the other.

Neither one of them realized that it was rather unusual that they were acting so familiar with each other despite this supposedly being their first meeting. It was just being like this felt natural.

Still, the attendant\'s duties should not be delayed and the two parted ways with Patishi going to the male dormitory part while Zoemi carried Kierul\'s breakfast to the female part.

As he approached the room the door to the room was opened by his copy that disappeared immediately upon the original entering the bedroom.

"Mornin\'. Something of note happened or...?"

The red-haired girl mumbled sleepily while buttoning up her shirt by the closet while her attendant put the tray with food down on the desk.

"I made friends with the cute attendant of the first prince."

Zoemi boasted while making sure that the floral-pattern handkerchief covering his injury was fastened properly.

"Eeeeh? Nice. But just so you know, you don\'t have to act all proper. Actually, as long as it\'s not the first or the second prince, you are free to mess with them to your heart\'s content."

"...!"

Kierul let out an intrigued voice as she sat down to enjoy the meal and announced benevolently to Zoemi\'s surprise while picking up the cutlery.

"...wait... really...?"

The black-haired boy squinted his eyes suspiciously and asked suspiciously as if expecting the red-haired girl to be messing with him.

"Yeah. I mean, I am not going to take any bullshit unless it\'s from someone with actual power to back up their actions so you can do the same. Besides, I know how much you love messing with people and it would be cruel to just make you act like a goody-two-shoes all the time~"

Kierul leaned back against the backrest of her chair and grinned at her silently ecstatic attendant.

"Since the Helterose family is in decline and I will benevolently take the title of the family head when the time comes anyway, both of us should be able to enjoy the time in the Academy... try to hold back your inner slut even a little bit though."

She added casually and began eating.

Soon enough Kierul finished her meal and Zoemi took the empty dishes back to the kitchen before returning and escorting his master to the classroom...

*WHAM*

"YOUNG LADY ESPIIIIIINEEEE~!"

"!!!"

...that he entered by slamming the door open and knocking it out of its hinges while cheering loudly and throwing his arms up, startling every student already inside...

"...huh...? Tsk. She\'s not even here yet..."

"?!?!"

With no verbal response, Zoemi looked down to check the faces of shocked first-years and clicked his tongue while frowning when he realized that Miriette wasn\'t even there.

The black-haired attendant picked up the door and placed it back in hinges shaking his head in disbelief and kept it open for his master to enter.

"Alright baby girl, I\'ll pick you up for lunch, I kind of feel like checking the cafeteria\'s food, are you okay with that?"

When Kierul entered, Zoemi tapped her shoulder and winked at her on his way out.

"I like the idea. Lord Victureo should be eating there too so make sure to secure the spot next to him for me."

The red-haired girl grinned back to her attendant with approval and commanded before letting him go.

"Now then... Oh? Isn\'t that Senria? Haven\'t seen you in a while, how you\'ve been?"

"K-Kierul...?! Y-you\'re alive?!"

The red-haired girl walked towards one of the free seats but stopped by the green-haired girl and called out to her causing the clearly terrified girl to gasp in a high-pitched voice.

"Of course. I had to lay low for a while considering that some group is targeting my family, but since I became a student here the headmistress\'s protection extends over me so I came out of hiding~! Aren\'t you happy for me?"

"O-of c-course...!"

Kierul shrugged her shoulders with a confident expression making the other girl tremble.

"Hmm? You say that but it seems like you aren\'t quite happy to see me?"

"...!"

The red-haired girl added and the green-haired girl couldn\'t even look up at her face.

"I see how it is... Well, you will make up for it anyway~!"

"?!?!"

Kierul didn\'t get mad, instead, she just laughed and moved to the empty seat leaving Senria on the brink of a mental breakdown.