The sickly-looking, dark-haired older-sister type leaned on her Ogre Mage Staff and walked through the school gates with visible effort.
Cold sweat kept beading on her forehead. Her skin had lost all color — not the dewy, translucent white of her usual radiance, but the pallid, washed-out white of exhaustion and illness. Dark circles had even appeared beneath her eyes. Yet somehow, none of this diminished her allure. If anything, it added a fragile, heartbreaking vulnerability that could trigger the protective instincts of any female creature within eyeshot, flooding them with a sudden, overwhelming surge of maternal devotion.
"Good morning."
A broomstick drifted to Li Fei's side, and Irena perched sideways on it, her snow-pale legs swinging back and forth in a carefree alternating rhythm.
"Morning, Naby."
Li Fei didn't even look up. One hand braced against her lower back, her legs threatening to give out with every step.
Irena puffed out her cheeks ever so slightly.
When she needs a favor, it's 'Big Sis.' Any other time, it's 'Naby.' Painfully relatable.
"So... what happened to you?"
Seeing Li Fei look like she'd topple over in a light breeze, Irena tapped one finger against her lips and tilted her head to ask.
"Injured my vitals in the great battle," Li Fei said, her expression grave.
"The one in Viranean? But you seemed perfectly fine the evening before last."
"Ah, right, yes — Viranean, exactly. That battle was truly brutal. I've been left with aftereffects — intermittent ones, mind you — but they flared up yesterday, which is why I was forced to skip class."
Li Fei heaved a long, weary sigh.
"The important thing is that you're alive," Irena said, offering some comfort. "The calamity in Viranean — fewer than one in ten survived, and almost every survivor paid a devastating price. Grace hasn't even dared come to the Academy much these past few days."
"Why's that?"
"Her mother says she burned through a whole month's worth of good luck, so this month she's absolutely cursed... Apparently one of the upperclasswomen lost control of her mana during spell practice and nearly blew Grace up with a Fireball. But that's not even the worst of it..."
Irena leaned in conspiratorially and dropped her voice to a whisper: "On her way home from school, some village kids were throwing rocks at each other for fun. When Grace walked by, one of the kids accidentally mistook a dried, hardened piece of Moonlight Wolf... droppings... for a stone. And then his hand slipped, and it flew straight at her. She had to spend one of her precious single-use defensive barriers just to dodge that particular stroke of misfortune."
Li Fei burst out laughing, Grace's exquisitely sculpted, aristocratic face flashing unbidden through her mind.
Joy built upon another's suffering is still, undeniably, genuine joy.
"Oof, I can't walk anymore."
After clutching her stomach and laughing for a while, her legs went even softer. She simply flung her staff — leaving Irena scrambling to catch it in a panic — and used the distraction to hoist herself up onto the broomstick with a grunt.
She wrapped her arms around Irena's waist, buried her face in the ashen-grey hair, and half-closed her eyes. Her voice still carried that irrepressible, lingering thread of seduction:
"Take me to the Dean's office."
...
Qin Zhihua stood before the mirror, gently tracing the dense constellation of marks someone had left on her neck. First came a helpless expression — and then, suddenly, she pressed a hand over her mouth and laughed.
"Young Miss, shall I apply something to make those fade?" Su Ling'er asked sweetly.
"No need. I'll be going into seclusion for a few days."
Qin Zhihua cradled the ends of Su Ling'er's hair in her palm and combed through them with gentle, deliberate strokes — the very picture of a devoted, gracious mistress: "Misfortune is where fortune takes root. I may have abandoned the family's inherited art, but these past days have given me much to reflect on. Perhaps I can forge my own cultivation method."
"Congratulations, Young Miss," Su Ling'er said, her admiration sincere. But then something occurred to her, and she stopped and started several times before finally letting her gaze flicker sideways. "Only... you and she only just... Isn't going into seclusion now a little... hasty?"
It's precisely because of that that I need seclusion. The thought crossed Qin Zhihua's mind with equal parts exasperation and sweetness. A certain someone has absolutely no sense of self-preservation. If I put off seclusion any longer, I'll likely burn out completely.
With a sigh that was half-helpless, half-blissful, Qin Zhihua reached into her fragrance pouch and withdrew a stack of goldsmith's notes, setting them on the table. "Ling'er, go find us a shop premises and hire some capable hands. When I come out of seclusion, we'll continue in the medicine trade."
"We're opening our own shop?!"
Su Ling'er's heels bounced rapidly, her eyes sparkling bright. "What will we call it, Young Miss?"
"Li's Apothecary," Qin Zhihua said without a moment's hesitation.
...
"It seems you've become a fully mature female Transcendent," Nicole said, studying the utterly transformed Li Fei — placing unmistakable emphasis on the word mature.
She could tell at a glance that Li Fei had completed her coming-of-age ceremony.
"You've grown taller too..."
Melodia's eyes lit up with delight. Though Li Fei still couldn't compete with this golden-haired older-sister type — whose figure put succubi to shame in every dimension — she had become more slender and proportioned, radiating that lively, effusive bloom of youth alongside the timeless, classical elegance of Eastern beauty.
"Mm-hm," Li Fei confirmed, holding her red tea and sipping at it to rehydrate, letting out a thoroughly self-satisfied little hum.
"The exchange event in a month comes with excellent prizes — you should start scouting for teammates," Nicole said, spinning her fountain pen between five fingers with practiced ease, her eyes warm with amusement.
"The exchange event..."
Li Fei dimly recalled Nicole mentioning it before, and asked curiously: "What does it actually involve?"
"Three-on-three team battles, single-elimination format."
Nicole straightened in her seat. When it came to official matters, this refined mage carried herself with every ounce of a dean's authority: "In principle, all lower-year students from both academies are pooled together and matched with teammates by random draw."
"Hm?" Li Fei tilted her head. "I assumed it would be each academy handpicking a few representatives to fight each other."
"The exchange event serves two purposes," Melodia picked up. "One is to provide practical combat experience. The other is to let truly talented students shine — and to give ordinary students a reality check."
"As everyone knows, in a one-on-one duel, mages tend to fall short of warriors — especially at lower Sequences. The former haven't yet mastered a mature, comprehensive spell repertoire, while the latter already possess formidable physiques and considerable combat technique."
"You can't expect a novice mage who takes several seconds of standing still to cast a Fireball to beat a warrior who moves like lightning, sprints a hundred meters in six or seven seconds, and can shatter a tree with a single punch."
"We didn't organize this event to have the Magic Academy's students get pummeled one-sidedly by warriors."
Fair point, that.
Li Fei glanced back at Nicole, whose eyes had narrowed into a pleasant smile.
— That said, Teacher Melodia, even I can see that whenever Nicole explains anything to me, she manages to slip in a jab or two at warriors...
— You're a full-time instructor at the Magic Academy. Saying things like this in front of the esteemed and ever-so-subtly scheming — ahem, esteemed and proud — Mage Dean herself... isn't that a little lacking in tact?
By contrast, the consummate public relations professional that was Loxibrook's top courtesan was exceedingly well-versed in the art of reading the room. She smiled and said nothing — but something clicked into place in her mind.
Placing the phrase "in principle, teammates are assigned by random draw" alongside "you should start scouting for teammates" — and seasoning it with the earlier hint of "excellent prizes" — Li Fei let the implications steep for a moment, and immediately grasped the Dean's deeper meaning.
Clearly, the staunch mage-supremacist Nicole was subtly communicating:
Field an all-mage team. Steamroll those muscle-brained warriors. The rewards will be well worth it.
Li Fei kept her expression perfectly neutral as she probed further:
"Still... with random team assignments, isn't it a little... unfair?"
"Luck is a component of strength — that's common knowledge. And certain individuals can translate luck into very tangible destructive force and lethality. Miss Grace, for instance."
Nicole's smile didn't waver. "The Sirens didn't give the dead at Turtle Island a fair fight. When Bai Mengtian went to suppress the situation, she certainly wasn't thinking about what the corpses had to say. My hope is that after this event, more students will reflect on how to pursue maximum victory with limited resources — rather than complaining that their teammates are too weak."
"How wise of you, Mama," Li Fei said, cradling her teacup, endorsing the sentiment without a moment's hesitation.
...
Having filled a flask from the Lucky Fountain, Li Fei strolled into the classroom at a leisurely pace. Students kept glancing at her along the way, though she paid it no mind — she'd long since grown accustomed to it.
But the moment she stepped through the classroom door, she found the entire class staring at her in unison. Several of the more outgoing girls who had spoken to her a few times came rushing over at once, chattering eagerly:
"Li Fei, Li Fei — is what the newspaper says actually true?"
"I never expected you to be like this — it's so moving!"
"Feibao, can you reenact that part again?"
"..."
Li Fei: ???
Just moments ago, on the walk over, she had been puzzling over a seemingly disconnected remark Nicole had made:
"The chaos in Viranean was a disaster — and in disasters, people need a hero to look up to."
Now she'd walked into a classroom full of people saying things she couldn't make heads or tails of, and she was thoroughly baffled.
She scratched her head and asked in genuine confusion: "What are you all... talking about?"
The girls crowded around her, all talking over each other:
"Excessive modesty is just another form of pride, you know!"
"Come on, tell us!"
"I, uh... I took a bit of a hit back in Viranean. I've been resting and recovering these past few days, so I'm not quite caught up on what's been happening..."
Li Fei spread her hands with a helpless smile.
"So it really is true."
"Aww, Feibao looks so pale and tired."
Amid the chorus of moved, sympathetic, and even reverent gazes, Li Fei stood there completely at sea — until the cheerful, instantly-familiar girl who called everyone 'Feibao' shoved a newspaper into her hands.
The headline was printed in thick, bold letters:
— A Soul More Beautiful Than the Face —
The accompanying illustration showed a black-haired witch collapsed in a pool of blood, unconscious, against a backdrop of devastation and ruin.
Nicole's Language Comprehension spell was still in effect, so Li Fei had no trouble reading every word:
"In the marine uprising initiated by Class-A fugitive and Siren Queen — the Kraken — tens of thousands of citizens tragically lost their lives in Viranean. Yet from within that catastrophe, countless heroes emerged, worthy of our highest praise. They refused to bow before the sea folk's blades, doing everything within their power to help others, even at the cost of their own lives. These heroes deserve our deepest admiration...
...
Li Fei was once nothing more than a wandering girl from a distant land, working at a tavern just to survive. Yet the cold hand of fate could not extinguish the flame within her — after long, exhausting shifts, she would still make her way to the nearest streetlamp, clutching books bought with her meager savings, and read late into the night.
Until one day, Magic Academy Dean Nicole — who had been working through the night, too troubled by the struggles of the city's many aspiring students to sleep — was pacing the streets when she came upon Li Fei: a girl sitting beneath a streetlamp, gnawing on a hard roll, a book open in her arms...
...
In the end, Magic Academy Dean Nicole was so moved by her perseverance and talent that she offered her the rare and precious honor of a Special Enrollment placement...
...
Loxibrook's pride, the once-in-four-thousand-years Bai Mengtian, also found an immediate and kindred connection with this diligent, brilliant Special Enrollment student...
...
Confronted by the ruthless sea folk, the righteously spirited Li Fei showed not the slightest trace of fear. She stood her ground and demanded in a voice of thunder: why do you commit these monstrous, heaven-defying acts that bring down the wrath of gods and men alike?!
...
'Hurry — save her.'
When a stranger pleaded for help, Li Fei didn't spare a thought for the enemies closing in from every direction. She hoisted the wounded person onto her back without hesitation. Born into poverty, she could not afford a storage item — yet she gave away every last potion and scrap of food she carried to someone she had never met. When the person she'd saved looked at her through grateful, tear-filled eyes and asked her name so they might repay her someday, she simply replied: 'I'm a student of the Magic Academy. I live in Loxibrook.'
...
The survivors were hunted relentlessly by Sirens, with no road forward and no retreat. As they teetered on the edge of total annihilation, the Special Enrollment student — a young woman of limitless promise — burned the last of her life force and, without a shred of hesitation, threw herself at the Siren and cried out with all her strength:
'Pour every destructive spell you have into me!'
Mercifully, at the final moment, Bai Mengtian tore through the void and arrived just in time, rescuing the barely-breathing Li Fei and bringing her back to Bai Mansion to treat her personally.
Let us offer our prayers for this hero together, and hope that she recovers swiftly and returns to the Loxibrook family she calls home."
Li Fei read every word of the breathtaking article in silence, then fell into a long, profound stillness.
After a long moment, she exhaled slowly:
"So everyone... already knows."
She looked up and gave a modest little smile: "I only did a few small, insignificant things. Nothing worth making a fuss over."
The girls were immediately overcome with emotion, their faces flushed with fervent admiration.
"I'm going to be Li Fei's most devoted fan from this day forward!"
"Me too! Who wouldn't adore the campus beauty who's beautiful inside and out?"
"Li Fei, is your injury not fully healed? You look so pale — are there any lasting aftereffects?"
"Feibao, Feibao — can you reenact that part where you went 'pour every destructive spell into me'...?"
Whoever said that last line — get out.
Li Fei held her professional smile in place while a vein throbbed steadily at her temple.
Clap. Clap.
Two sharp handclaps cut through the classroom noise. Li Fei turned — Nicole and Melodia walked in side by side, and behind them followed a familiar white-uniformed figure.
Asuna's chestnut hair appeared to have been trimmed slightly shorter, though it still reached the back of her knees. She fixed her bright eyes on Li Fei as if trying to see straight through to her innermost thoughts.
Every single time. Every single time she encountered Li Fei, a vivid and utterly different image was carved into Asuna's memory.
The first time they'd met: covered in blood, behaving suspiciously, half-guilty and half-crafty.
The second time: Asuna had personally arrested her — this girl who'd broken the regulations and then had the nerve to be obnoxiously brazen about it.
That had made Asuna conclude that Li Fei was a beautiful woman with a rotten personality — yet Li Fei's act of pleading on her behalf had struck Asuna like a blow, leaving her tossing and turning for nights on end.
A few days ago, when the teleportation corridor to Viranean was reopened, Asuna had seen Li Fei again — unconscious, cradled in Bai Mengtian's arms. Several visibly anxious women had followed close behind. Among them, Asuna recognized Beatrice — an elven young lady who was somewhat naive but utterly dependable. From Beatrice, Asuna learned that in the midst of the crisis, Li Fei had voluntarily helped a group of strangers — including Cowell and his companions, people she'd never met — and had used herself as bait to lure away the most dangerous enemy.
To protect Li Fei's privacy, the elven young lady had kept the account vague, but even that much had been enough to overturn everything Asuna thought she knew. When she compared Beatrice's account to the newspaper article, she was startled to discover that while the two versions diverged in places, they also aligned in others.
That had given Asuna yet another sleepless night.
Then, just the evening before last, Li Fei had reverted entirely to the version Asuna remembered — abusing her personal connections, entangled in a web of women — and Asuna had felt a flicker of disappointment, followed by an inexplicable, inexplicable relief.
And now here was Li Fei — looking haggard, spirit and body alike worn thin, as though she hadn't fully recovered from serious wounds. Her smile was polite and warm, every bit the beloved model student adored by her classmates.
Just what kind of person... are you, really?
Asuna let out a long, silent sigh deep in her heart.
____
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