Early the next morning, when Setis Anna pushed open the classroom door, only Mila was inside, dozing off with her head on a desk.
“Wake up. We have work to do.”
Mila jolted upright. After seeing who it was, she rubbed her eyes and glanced at the clock on the wall, her voice tinged with disbelief. “Setis, it’s only six-thirty... The anniversary celebration doesn’t even start until eight...”
“The refreshments need to be prepared in advance. Didn’t we discuss this yesterday?”
As Setis spoke, she had already walked to the storage rack to check the stock of tea canisters. She still wore her hair in a high ponytail today, and her movements were even crisper than usual. She mentally noted each type of tea that needed replenishing before turning to check the oven temperature.
Watching her back, Mila’s sleepiness vanished, replaced by a subtle curiosity. Before long, Thor and the other students responsible for the refreshment area began to arrive one after another. Each person’s expression upon entering was roughly the same—first a glance at the clock, then at the already busy Setis, followed by a wise decision to keep their mouths shut and get to work.
The classroom gradually grew lively. The aroma of cookies and puffs wafted from the ovens, mingling with the rich, mellow scent of black tea being steeped in hot water. Setis moved back and forth between the tables, checking the arrangement of the tea sets and adjusting the angles of the refreshment platters, occasionally reaching out to straighten a crooked cup. Her expression remained as cold as ever, but her hands never stopped moving.
Mila nudged Thor with her elbow and lowered her voice. “Don’t you think Setis is being particularly—what’s the word?”
“Driven?” Thor suggested, adjusting his glasses.
“More than that,” another girl whispered, leaning in. “Have you noticed? Every time she passes the door, she glances outside.”
“It’s not just the door,” another boy joined in. “When she went to the window to grab a tea canister just now, she peeked out at least three times.”
The group exchanged a knowing look.
“She’s waiting for that Mr. Li, isn’t she?”
“Definitely. Did you see her yesterday—”
“Ahem!”
Setis had appeared behind them at some point. The group froze instantly. Mila, reacting the fastest, immediately held up the dough in her hands. “I’m kneading! I didn’t say a thing!”
Setis stared at her for a few seconds before turning and walking away.
Time passed quickly. Once eight o’clock hit, the flow of people in the teaching building steadily increased. Guests began to trickle into the refreshment area, most of them visiting tourists, along with a fair number of academy students. Mila handled the reception at the door while Thor moved between tables serving tea. The others performed their respective duties, and the entire operation ran much smoother than the day before.
Setis stood at the innermost station, directing the workflow while personally brewing tea. After yesterday’s training, her technique was quite respectable—at least she wasn't using magic to force the tea leaves to ripen anymore. However, her attention was clearly not entirely on the tea. Every time a new guest pushed open the door, she would look up with lightning speed, only to avert her gaze once she confirmed their identity.
The shifts in her expression were quite nuanced. The second before the door opened, she would unconsciously stand a bit straighter, her movements slowing as her eyes fixed on the entrance. If the person entering was just an ordinary guest, she would return to her work, her face showing almost no fluctuation. But if someone with a build similar to Li Yuan’s walked in, her eyes would light up momentarily before quickly dimming as she turned back with feigned indifference.
Mila saw these changes clearly from her post at the door, silently counting the occurrences. By ten in the morning, this cycle had repeated no fewer than twenty times. She couldn't help but sigh inwardly—even the Tyrant was no different from any other girl when she had fallen.
By midday, the crowd in the refreshment area thinned out slightly. Setis had just finished restocking a round of refreshments and was standing by the window to catch her breath. The sunlight streaming in caught her blonde ponytail, giving it a soft, radiant glow.
Suddenly, the voice of the student at the reception desk rang out, several pitches higher than usual. “Setis, someone’s here for you!”
Her expression brightened instantly. She moved so fast that Thor didn't even have time to react—she smoothed her sleeves, instinctively adjusted her hair, and strode out of the classroom, her lips curling into an uncontrollable, faint smile.
Standing in the corridor was a blonde young man, waving at her with a smile.
Setis’s expression collapsed instantly.
“...What are you doing here?”
Her tone was worlds apart from a moment ago, cold enough to sound like she was interrogating a criminal.
Reinhardt von Sebas was clearly accustomed to his sister’s rapid-fire mood swings. He merely held out his hands with a wry smile. “Mother wants you to accompany her for a walk around campus. She says the anniversary celebration is a rare opportunity and wants to explore it with you.”
Setis frowned.
“I’m still—”
“Mila said you’ve already arranged all the morning tasks,” Reinhardt interrupted smoothly. “I checked with her; she said the afternoon refreshments are mostly prepared and they can manage without you.”
Setis fell silent for a few seconds. She looked back at her busy classmates in the classroom; from a distance, Mila gave her a “don’t worry” gesture.
“...Fine.”
Her tone carried a hint of reluctance, but she ultimately nodded. Her parents were indeed very busy, with a territory to manage and her mother’s various social obligations. The times the whole family could gather were few and far between; she couldn't bring herself to refuse.
After a few brief words to hand over her duties to her classmates, she headed downstairs with her brother.
Duchess Sebas was wearing a light blue gown today, still holding her fan. When she saw her daughter emerge from the building, she broke into an exceptionally radiant smile.
“Where is Father?” Setis asked as she approached, looking around to confirm it was only her mother.
“His Majesty summoned him to receive some foreign guests from the north,” Duchess Sebas said, unfurling her fan with a mischievous glint in her eyes. “I was invited as well, but I claimed I wasn't feeling well and declined.”
Setis looked at her mother suspiciously. “You aren't feeling well?”
“I feel much better now that I see my daughter,” the Duchess said with a laugh. “It’s the anniversary. Rather than spending time in the palace drinking tea and chatting with a bunch of old men, I’d much rather walk the campus with my daughter. Besides, your father can handle it on his own.”
Setis felt somewhat helpless, the corner of her mouth twitching slightly. She didn't say much, however, and simply moved to her mother’s side, naturally taking on the role of a tour guide. The three of them traversed the campus, retracing the route Setis had taken with Li Yuan the day before—the training grounds of the Martial Arts Division, the ivy-covered library, and the stall by the lake selling magic items. The paper crane performance had changed to a different program today, featuring a swarm of magically controlled butterflies fluttering above the flowerbeds.
But Setis’s state of mind was clearly different from yesterday.
Her tone while introducing the various sites remained professional and brief, but her attention was obviously elsewhere. Her gaze would drift every so often—not specifically looking for someone, but unconsciously, uncontrollably scanning certain directions. Sometimes it was the main road leading to the academy gates, sometimes a particular corner, and sometimes just a blurry figure in the crowd.
Duchess Sebas took all of this in. She didn't call her out on it, but quietly nudged her son with her fan.
Reinhardt looked down and met his mother’s smiling eyes. She hid half her face behind her fan and tilted her chin toward Setis, the meaning in her eyes as clear as day—go ask.
Reinhardt took a deep breath and walked to Setis’s side with a resigned expression.
“You seem quite distracted today.”
Setis’s footsteps faltered. She shook her head. “I’m not.”
“From the moment we left the teaching building until now, you’ve looked toward the academy gates at least—”
“Why are you counting that?” Setis’s tone began to prickle.
Reinhardt hesitated for a moment but decided to finish his thought. “Are you waiting for Mr. Li Yuan?”
Setis’s expression froze instantly.
A flush spread from her ears to her neck, so fast it looked as if she’d suffered a backlash from her own Fireball. She opened her mouth, then closed it—then opened it again, finally squeezing out a few words in a strained, awkward voice.
“What are you talking about—”
A very soft laugh came from behind them.
Setis whipped her head around. Her mother was hiding her face behind her fan, but her eyes, curved into crescents, gave everything away. Reinhardt took a half-step back, already bracing himself to be scolded.
“For the Blood Moon God, we gladly face death!”
In the crowd not far away, a man dressed as an ordinary tourist suddenly screamed. His voice was sharp, like tearing cloth, filled with a frantic, devout fervor. Before Setis could even shift her attention away from her brother, the man drew a dagger from his sleeve and slashed it across his own throat without hesitation. Blood sprayed everywhere. Nearby tourists shrieked in horror, and a mother holding a child stumbled back, knocking over a stall behind her.
“Someone committed suicide!”
“The Blood Moon God? He said the Blood Moon Cult!”
“Over there too! By the lake!”
Panic was like a stone thrown into a calm pond; the ripples spread in all directions with terrifying speed. People began to flee in every direction, stalls were overturned, goods rolled across the ground, and several children were separated from their families, wailing in the chaos.
Then, the sounds of explosions erupted from everywhere.
Boom—Boom—Boom—Continuous explosions rang out simultaneously from the north, south, east, and west of the academy. The ground shuddered. The windows of a distant teaching building shattered from the shockwave, glass shards raining down like needles. Columns of black smoke rose from multiple locations.
Groups of figures in dark red robes emerged from every corner. Their faces were hidden behind uniform masks, and they held staves high as mana glowed around them. They didn't aim for any specific person but instead unleashed magic indiscriminately toward the densest parts of the crowd—fire, wind blades, and ice spikes. Beams of mana in various colors poured down like a torrential rain.
A masked man stood by a nearby flowerbed, his staff pointed at the sky. A ball of piercing red light condensed at the tip before exploding into dozens of tiny flame arrows that scattered in all directions. People were struck mid-run, falling with agonized screams; others were knocked over by the shockwaves, scrambling up to keep running. Most people simply charged toward anything that looked safe, pushing and trampling one another. The sounds of sobbing and screaming merged into a cacophony, as if the end of the world had arrived.
Chaos—absolute chaos.
In just a few minutes, the entire academy had transformed from a joyous, festive atmosphere into a living hell.
“Setis!”
Her mother’s voice snapped her back to reality. She whipped her head around to see her mother already protected behind Reinhardt. Her older brother’s staff was in his hand, its tip pointed outward as mana surged to form a semi-transparent barrier shielding the three of them.
“To the teaching buildings!” Setis barked, her staff appearing in her hand at almost the same instant. “Gather the students in the classrooms! There are protective barriers there!”
Her voice was decisive, without a hint of hesitation. In this moment, she was no longer the girl blushing at her mother’s teasing; she was the magic warrior who could blast a Rank 3 warrior off the stage with overwhelming power.
She cast one last look toward the academy gates.
Then, taking a deep breath, she waved her staff and ran toward the nearest group of fleeing students, with her mother and brother close behind.
The priority now was to get as many people as possible into the teaching buildings alive.
Fire and ice continued to fall, explosions continued to ring out, and more people screamed. The chaos was spreading like an uncontrolled plague.
Rate on N.U.
