Never Die Villain

Two weeks later.

"Huh."

There was something about the atmosphere in the lecture hall that Ilya could only describe as strange.

Everywhere he looked, people seemed to be watching him, and whenever he happened to meet someone’s gaze, they would immediately look away and continue whispering to whoever was sitting beside them.

Ilya couldn’t exactly blame them.

After all, who wouldn’t be surprised when the son of a family famous for producing swordsmen suddenly appeared in a lecture hall filled entirely with wizards?

The Belozersky name had practically become synonymous with the sword, so seeing one sitting among students of the Magic Department was strange enough that several people seemed convinced he had simply walked into the wrong room.

——Is that really Ilya Belozersky?

——What is he doing here?

——Maybe he got the room wrong.

——I don’t think so. He’s been sitting there for ten minutes.

Ilya could hear every word.

Still, he knew that shouldn’t be the case.

He had checked his schedule twice before coming here, then checked the room number again outside just to make sure, and unless the Academy had somehow printed the wrong information on his schedule, he was exactly where he was supposed to be.

More importantly, Elise was here.

She sat directly in front of him, occasionally stealing glances over her shoulder without actually saying anything. Every time Ilya caught her doing it, Elise quickly faced forward again, apparently just as surprised by his presence as everyone else in the room.

"...?"

Ilya picked at his ear with his pinky before casually opening the book on his desk.

If Elise wanted to ask, she could ask, and if everyone else wanted to stare, then they were free to waste their time.

Unfortunately, opening the book only gave them something new to whisper about.

——Wait, he’s actually studying?

——Does he even know what he’s reading?

——Why wouldn’t he?

——He’s a Belozersky.

"...."

Ilya’s eye twitched.

Apparently, being a Belozersky had rendered him illiterate at some point.

’...Is this my popular phase?’

He turned another page anyway.

"...."

Elise glanced back again. This time, Ilya looked straight at her.

"Do you need something?"

"...No."

"Then stop looking at me. The guys are giving me weird looks every time you turn around."

Elise blinked, then glanced toward the other side of the lecture hall. Several male students immediately looked away, one suddenly becoming extremely interested in the blank page on his desk.

"...Why is that my problem?"

"Because they look like they want to kill me."

"That’s kinda..."

Elise trailed off. She thought his reaction was a little excessive, and rather than argue about the intentions of every man who happened to look in their direction, she quickly changed the subject.

"W-What are you doing here, Ilya...?"

"I moved departments." Ilya turned another page of his book. "Seems like we’re sharing this class, though."

"You moved departments?"

"That’s what I just said."

"From Swordsmanship to Magic?"

"Unless there’s another department teaching Advanced Magic Theory, yes."

Elise’s eyes dropped toward the book in his hands, then toward the front of the lecture hall where Advanced Magic Theory II had been written across the board.

It was strange enough that Ilya Belozersky had transferred into the Magic Department, but seeing him here specifically raised another question entirely.

Advanced Magic Theory wasn’t supposed to be a class someone could simply walk into after transferring departments.

Technically, Ilya didn’t even have the prerequisite courses required to take it.

He had never taken Basic Magic Theory, Mana Fundamentals, Spell Construction, or any of the other first-year courses required of a Magic Department student, yet somehow, Advanced Magic Theory had appeared on his schedule anyway.

Ilya had wondered about it himself.

The only explanation he could think of was the Head of the Magic Department. He had already been allowed to transfer under unusual circumstances, so whoever approved his schedule had probably decided there was little point in forcing him through introductory courses after seeing what he was already capable of.

Elise, however, didn’t know any of that.

Just then, a middle-aged professor entered with several books tucked under one arm and placed them on the podium.

He gave the room a quick glance, paused when his eyes reached Ilya, then checked something on the papers in his hand before looking back at him.

"...."

Ilya stared back.

The professor checked the paper one more time.

"Am I in the wrong room?" Ilya asked.

A few students laughed.

"No, Mister Belozersky. Apparently, you are exactly where you’re supposed to be." The professor placed the paper down and adjusted his glasses. "Which brings me to something we need to address before today’s lecture."

The room immediately grew attentive.

"We have two transfer students joining the Magic Department this semester. The second will not be attending classes for some time due to circumstances I am not permitted to discuss, so you will meet them at a later date."

Several whispers immediately started again.

"For now, however, we have one."

The professor looked directly at Ilya.

"Would our present transfer student please stand and come to the podium?"

"...."

Ilya looked around. Everyone else looked at him. He pointed at himself.

"Me?"

"No, the other swordsmanship heir who transferred into my class."

Several students laughed again, and even Elise covered her mouth.

Ilya sighed and closed his book.

"...Sure."

He stood and made his way toward the front of the lecture hall, ignoring the dozens of eyes following him.

By the time he reached the podium and turned around, the room had gone unusually quiet.

The professor stepped aside. "Introduce yourself."

Ilya scratched the side of his neck and cleared his throat.

"Ilya Valentinovich Belozersky. Second year."

The professor waited.

Ilya looked at him. "Uhm...?"

"Continue."

"...There isn’t much else."

"Why did you transfer to the Magic Department?"

"Ah, right." Ilya nodded before turning back toward the class. "I’m here because I recently realized I’ve apparently been studying the wrong thing my entire life. It only took me sixteen years to discover that my constitution was better suited to magic than swordsmanship, so here I am."

A few students exchanged looks.

"And if any of you still have doubts, I can demonstrate some magic."

He raised a hand and pointed vaguely across the lecture hall.

"I’m getting a little tired of all the suspicious looks you’ve been giving me since I sat down, and I’m pretty sure half of you still think I walked into the wrong classroom."

A few students immediately averted their eyes.

"Hopefully, that’ll clear things up, and then we can stop staring at each other and become friends or whatever."

The room remained quiet.

Then someone near the back raised his hand.

"Can you actually use magic?"

"...That is exactly the kind of doubt I was talking about."

A few laughs finally broke through the awkward atmosphere, and Ilya sighed before extending his hand.

"Ignis Muspell... Gjósa... Exsurge..."

The professor’s expression changed the moment he recognized the incantation.

"Wait, isn’t that—Belozersky, not in here!"

"Eruptio!"

Boom——!

An explosion erupted in the middle of the lecture hall.

Several students screamed and threw themselves away from their desks, but before the flames could spread any farther, the professor thrust out his hand. A magic circle flashed into existence around the explosion and immediately compressed it, trapping the fire within a barrier before it could engulf half the room.

"...."

Smoke drifted toward the ceiling. Ilya lowered his hand.

"There."

The professor slowly turned toward him.

"...."

"Ahem." Ilya cleared his throat. "I believe that should dispel any doubts."

"You goddamned terrorist!"

Ilya glanced around at the stunned students before looking back at the professor.

"Does that make me a wizard now?"

The professor looked ready to throw him out of the lecture hall, but after several seconds, his irritation gradually faded.

He adjusted his glasses, looked at the scorched floor, then back at Ilya before a smile slowly formed on his lips.

"Well, you’re not much of a wizard if you don’t blow something up sooner or later." The Professor gestured toward the seats. "Welcome to the Magic Department, Belozersky. Now sit down before you demonstrate anything else."

"Thank you, sir."

Ilya returned to his seat under an entirely different set of stares than before.

At the very least, nobody seemed to be questioning whether he belonged in the Magic Department anymore.

Everything had gone almost exactly as Vera said it would.

The man, Professor Antoine, loved large-scale magic more than anything else, so if Ilya wanted to make a decent first impression, Vera had told him to demonstrate something suitably destructive.

As always, her advice worked.

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