The small auditorium had always been a quiet place.
Dormitory small auditoriums rarely hosted official events, classes, or examinations.
There was good reason for that.
For a formal event, they could simply use the grand auditorium, and if people wanted somewhere quiet to socialize, there were more than enough places better suited for it.
Usually, it was filled with the smell of dust, and sometimes the sound of someone tapping at the piano before running away would linger there.
But today, the small auditorium was different.
The sweet scent of wine in glasses.
The faint fragrance of perfume.
Sparkling chandeliers cast their light across the broad ceiling, while voices tinged with foreign accents drifted through the air.
Today, an international student exchange mixer was being held here.
“Isn’t this nice?”
Someone beside her lightly bumped her shoulder and smiled.
A girl from another country.
An excessively cheerful voice, excessively friendly gestures. Leila instinctively tried to take a step back, but the girl did not allow her even that one step.
“It would be awkward if I came alone, you know. You’re an international student too, so making friends at an exchange event will be helpful!”
“…”
Instead of responding, Leila sat down.
More accurately, she had been made to sit down.
The girl smiled with satisfaction and raised her glass.
“A toast! Today is a day for getting to know one another.”
Leila Draconis did not raise her glass.
She had never liked gatherings like this. Introductions, posturing, kindness.
Everyone wrapped it in the language of friendship, but in truth, it was closer to a procedure for determining who possessed the more valuable things.
Even so, she had come because the girl seated beside her, Luana Belmora, had helped her greatly until now.
There had been several times when Luana’s help had allowed her to avoid situations likely to become bothersome.
She owed a debt, so she was repaying it.
Leila watched the people around her expressionlessly.
At the center of a group stood a young noble from some kingdom. His voice was loud, his laughter hearty, and he had no hesitation in endlessly exaggerating his country’s superiority.
“Ah, everyone. My introduction is overdue.”
He lifted his glass.
“I am Edric Montaine, from the Kingdom of Liston.”
The people around him grew quiet.
Everyone present knew that this introduction would end with bragging.
Edric Montaine went on and on about the power his family held and the number of places with which it traded.
Leila looked away. There was no reason to meet his eyes.
If he did not ask her name, there was no need to give it.
But then—
The gaze of Edric Montaine, who had been continuing his pompous introduction, landed on Leila.
He paused and stared directly at her, as though inspecting a jewel he had just discovered.
“Oh, I do not believe we have met before.”
Everyone’s gaze shifted toward Leila.
Leila, on the other hand, did not even raise her head.
“Fascinating,” Edric said.
“Hmm… Your eyes, your atmosphere. You seem like someone from a place not easily reached. How should I put it?”
Leila gave no response whatsoever, and noticing this, Luana beside her gave an awkward laugh in an attempt to keep the mood light.
“Right? Leila is pretty, isn’t she?”
Even then, Leila did not respond. Perhaps growing impatient, Edric lowered his voice.
“Draconis… was it?”
Leila raised her gaze.
Only slightly.
“…”
“My knowledge is lacking, you see.”
He smiled smoothly.
“I have never heard of such a house. Could you at least tell me which region your family is from?”
Quiet snickers rose from around them. They were not friendly laughter. It was the laughter of people checking the value of a name.
The international students could not join the Empire-born group that dominated Exion, but they had readily adopted its uglier habits.
Even things like this mockery and ridicule.
Without lifting her glass, Leila quietly spoke.
“Terbar.”
“Terbar? Ah… so you are from the Terbar Highlands of the Kingdom of Lexon… Hmm.”
Edric wore a doubtful expression.
“It is neither particularly far from nor near to Exion. My country trades with it as well, so I have heard a few things, but… the name Draconis, however…?”
Leila’s brow rose ever so slightly.
Did he truly not know? Or was he pretending not to know?
Either way, it did not matter to her.
If he wanted to know that badly, there was no reason to hide it.
“Yes.”
She spoke.
That one word was so calm that it drew even more attention.
“I am—”
At that moment—
KRAAAAAASH—!!
The world turned upside down.
The chandelier swayed violently, and every glass trembled at once.
Someone screamed, while someone else shoved back their chair and jumped to their feet.
“Eeeeeek!”
“What was that?!”
“That sound—!”
“Was it an explosion?!”
“Outside…?!”
Leila rose at once and looked toward the door.
Light flashed across the iron door and the small auditorium’s windows from the impact.
The runes around the door, which normally had no presence at all, appeared all at once.
“Everyone, stay here—!”
And then—
Rumble—
A barrier descended.
“What was that just now? Why is there a barrier…?”
The space seemed to tighten around them.
A transparent membrane spread along the door and walls.
Tap, tap, tap—
Thud!
“Urgh….”
Someone ran for the door and grabbed the handle, only to strike an invisible wall and be thrown back.
“What is this barrier?!”
“Why is this happening here—?!”
Leila narrowed her eyes.
An emergency barrier.
Normally, it isolated the interior from the outside in order to protect those within when a disaster or external intrusion occurred.
But this barrier… was strange.
“…The barrier is wrong.”
“What do you mean by that? Move aside!”
Clank… clank….
Edric pushed against the door.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Someone else kicked it.
Soon, students began firing magic at the door all at once.
KRAAAAAASH!
“Th-this….”
“Are we… trapped?”
The attacks had no effect. Every strike felt as though it were sinking into mud.
Leila placed her palm against the barrier and slowly let mana flow through it.
“…”
Normally, touching a barrier from inside should produce a certain reaction.
As an emergency barrier, it existed for the safety of those inside.
In other words, it should be possible to release it from within.
But this was not normal. Rather, it was blocking contact from the inside.
Leila slightly parted her lips.
“…It’s reversed.”
“What? What does that mean, Leila?”
Luana asked in a trembling voice beside her.
Instead of answering, Leila ran her hand across the barrier again.
“It is supposed to block the outside, but it is blocking the inside.”
At those words, Luana looked toward the door. Leila was right.
…The barrier was facing inward.
“We cannot get out of here.”
Luana’s face went pale.
“Th-that can’t be….”
Leila turned her eyes away.
The small auditorium was wide, and its ceiling high. All the more so because it was a space for nobles.
That made it even crueler.
The hot smoke would rise, buying the people inside some time to breathe.
But as time passed, even this space would not hold.
As she finished organizing her thoughts, another dull impact echoed from outside.
KRAAASH!
Someone fell over, crying out.
“F-fire!”
“The flames are rising outside!”
“The windows are turning red…!”
Leila let out a long breath.
People were beginning to panic.
Some struck the barrier without realizing their hands had turned red. Some collapsed in tears. Some seized others and shook them.
Amid all of it, Leila checked one thing.
The inner lock mechanism beside the door.
…As expected, it did not work.
In the end, there was no way to escape unless someone tore the door open directly from outside.
The moment she reached that conclusion, the nape of Leila’s neck grew slightly cold.
“…”
Outside, everything was engulfed in flames. Judging by it, the scale was beyond imagination. Then when could rescue possibly arrive?
Leila raised a hand to her neck.
A scale-shaped necklace.
Always cold. Always quiet. An ornament that must have seemed no more than decoration to others.
Squeeze—
Leila gripped the scale between her fingers.
“…”
In a tiny voice, she said something to the necklace.
It was so brief that it almost sounded like she was leaving behind her last words.
Hummm—
The scale reacted for a moment before falling silent.
“Hoo….”
Leila closed her eyes, then opened them again.
She spoke lowly to everyone.
“Get down.”
The others stared at her blankly.
Whether they did or not, Leila gave them a warning.
“Speak less. Breathe less, too.”
Her words were so firm that a few obeyed instinctively.
But not everyone did.
A rather long time passed after that.
It may have been short in absolute terms, but to those trapped inside, it did not feel that way.
They could not help growing more desperate.
“Please… please save us!”
Someone pounded on the barrier again, while someone else shouted in anguish.
“Why won’t it open?! Why won’t it open?!”
Leila looked at the barrier.
Then, very slightly, she frowned.
The surface of the barrier was trembling faintly.
…A coincidence?
Had an explosion reached this area?
Rumble—
A great sound came from outside.
Different from an explosion.
As though debris was being cleared away.
Which meant…
“…It’s not a coincidence.”
At that moment, the small auditorium ceiling heaved once and spilled dust.
Crack—!
“Eek….”
“I don’t want to die….”
Everyone swallowed their breath at once.
As silence fell—
Creeeak—
The iron door groaned from the outside.
It was the sound of metal being bent.
Everyone’s faces turned toward the door at once.
“W-wasn’t there someone outside just now?”
“Is it a rescue team?!”
“A professor? Someone is here!”
They immediately grew frantic.
“Th-they’re trying to open the door! We have to shout!”
“Save us! We’re in here… here…!”
Screeeech—
………
Crunch—
KRAAAAAASH—!
As the runes entwined with the door lost their light, the barrier dispersed with them.
“I-it opened!”
“We’re alive… Sob… we’re alive!”
Everyone ran toward the door, covering their mouths and noses.
And then they saw who stood before it.
“…Good heavens.”
At the open door was a male student, his forehead and face drenched in blood, kneeling unconscious.
***
News of the fire in Lumenia’s Hazel Hall reached Seria von Kreutz as well.
It was shocking news, but she was staying in Sirwen Dormitory rather than Lumenia Dormitory.
Since it was someone else’s affair, she had no reason to be emotionally shaken—
…Wait. Hazel Hall?
In that instant, Seria remembered that someone she knew stayed there.
—You wouldn’t happen to be… Seria?
Seria hurried toward Hazel Hall. Even as she became short of breath, she could not stop.
More urgent than that was relieving the suffocating pressure gripping her chest.
He got out… surely… surely, he got out.
When she arrived before Hazel Hall, Seria stopped blankly in place.
“…This can’t be happening.”
Crackle—
The flames were devouring the building.
A red glow licked across the windows, while black smoke rose into the sky and made the night even darker.
Whenever she heard the pillars creak and break apart, a chill ran down Seria’s spine.
People were gathered there.
Students, instructors, and several professors. Students using water magic desperately poured streams of water over the flames, but those streams were far too small before this fire.
“Damn it… Of all times, this had to happen when every professor of water magic was away!”
Someone’s words deepened Seria’s anxiety.
“No….”
As she murmured, she listened closely to the staff shouting the names of those who had not escaped.
And the instant she heard a name that should not have been there, she bit her lip.
Bump!
Then someone brushed past Seria’s shoulder. People were gathering near the entrance.
“They’re coming out!”
“People are getting out!”
“Move!”
Seria raised her head.
People truly were pouring out.
Coughing, crying, supporting one another. Some crawled out as though dragging themselves across the ground.
“Cough… cough….”
“I-I’m alive….”
Seria’s eyes rapidly searched among them.
…He was not there either.
Aion Iskar.
Only two people had yet to escape.
Leila Draconis.
And Aion Iskar.
It was not as though Seria particularly cared about him, but neither was she cold enough to be indifferent to the possibility that someone she had spoken to only recently might be dying.
“Aion….”
Without realizing it, she called his name.
Just then, a low voice that seemed to sneer sounded beside her.
“…He barely survived. If he still has not come out by now, then it is over for him.”
A blond male student, his face streaked with black soot, declared it flatly.
“He won’t come out.”
Seria gritted her teeth.
“…Do not speak so carelessly.”
Kael glanced at her and sneered.
“Do you even know what it is like inside? I was there until just now! It is practically hell in there!”
Seria’s hands trembled.
“You….”
“They’re all dead. Horribly, too.”
Kael seemed certain in his belief.
But then—
The murmuring among the people rose once more.
“Th-there!”
“Someone’s coming out!”
Seria reflexively looked in that direction.
A silhouette appeared through the pitch-black smoke.
A silhouette walking slowly, carrying someone in its arms.
Seria’s heart pounded once.
It must be Aion.
…Yet at the same time, an odd anger rose in her.
You made me worry… But were you really out there saving just anyone?
Had Aion rescued another female student?
Relief drained the strength from Seria’s body, but she was also embarrassed that she had run all this way out of concern.
“Honestly….”
She looked more closely at the silhouette.
…The shoulder of the person being carried was much broader than that of the one carrying him.
Seria’s thoughts froze for an instant.
A face emerged from the smoke.
It was Leila Draconis.
With an expressionless face, she was carrying a man in her arms as though he were a princess.
Blankly watching the sight, Seria muttered,“…The other way around?”
The man in Leila’s arms was Aion.
Blood covered his forehead.
A red stain had spread beneath his nose.
His lips were pale, his eyes shut.
His body hung limp.
“Aion!”
Thank goodness.
He was alive.
Only after confirming that did the tight pressure around Seria’s chest vanish as though washed away.
He appeared badly injured, but seeing him sleep peacefully in a female student’s arms made her own concern feel almost excessive.
Then her attention shifted to how this incident would end.
The flames consuming Hazel Hall still showed no sign of weakening.
Something appeared in the sky.
Rain clouds.
An unusually distorted cumulonimbus cloud had suddenly formed and began pouring rain upon Hazel Hall.
Shhhhhhh—!
Rumble—!
“R-rain!”
“It’s raining!”
Sizzle—
The fire began to die down beneath the torrent.
Rumble—!
Lightning struck.
“…This is impossible. Why is it suddenly raining?”
In that brief flash, someone looked up at the sky.
A shape flickered like a shadow between the clouds.
Enormous wings.
“Th-that….”
Someone muttered in a trembling voice.
“A-a dragon…?”
The surroundings fell silent.
Then another student beside him snorted.
“Do you know how many centuries it has been since a dragon was officially seen? You saw something that was not there.”
“Ah… y-yes. That must be it.”
Lightning flashed once more.
Rumble—!
The sky went dark again. Only thick clouds remained overhead, and there was nothing else to see.
Leila looked up at the sky pouring down its rain and spoke as though complaining.
“…You’re late.”