In the morning, Wren, who woke up a little earlier than usual, slipped down from the top bunk and glanced at the bottom bunk. The bed was empty. The blanket and pillows were neatly folded in the corner.
There was no sign of anyone other than Wren in this cramped room.
The Apprentice who was supposed to be Wren’s roommate was a boy named Gerald Anker.
He was slightly older than Wren. Probably around fifteen or sixteen. His black hair was short except for his bangs which distinctively hid his face, and he rarely ever spoke.
He never made eye contact with anyone else, never rose his voice, and generally had an air about him like a stray dog that wasn’t comfortable around people.
Over a week had passed since their lives as Apprentice Mages began, and yet Wren hadn’t had a full conversation with Gerald even once.
When Gerald was in the room, he almost always sat silently, reading a book. He also woke up much earlier than Wren, going off to practice with his sword.
Additionally, he went to bed early at night, almost certainly before Wren did.

(I was thinking of telling him about how we went on the mana density survey yesterday and encountered a Monster……..but he was already asleep by the time I got back.)

Yesterday had been a constant stream of surprises, and he still hadn’t fully worked through his emotions quite yet.
However, that was that, and this was this.
Deep inside, Wren desperately wanted to experience what it was like to share the excitement of an unbelievable experience of his with a boy of his age.
During meals, he often sat alongside other boys like Rose and Oliver, but both of them were adults. Wren wanted a friend that was his age.
Wren looked around the room and sighed.

(He’s a tidy guy, at least…..)

Gerald didn’t let his belongings scatter all over their room, and always made sure to fold and store his sheets and clothes when he was done using them. He probably grew up in a strict household that drilled those habits into him.
But, he didn’t feel like he had the haughty attitude of someone from a noble or magical house.

(It’s not that he dislikes me personally, more like he just doesn’t want to talk to people at all.)

He could kind of understand the feeling of not liking it when people pry too much. Wren himself wasn’t the kind of person who enjoyed talking endlessly.
Regardless, he wished there was less of a wall between them. He wanted to chat about meaningless things like “The sausages at breakfast were amazing today.” or “Gee, we have a lot of homework, huh?” or even “My teacher is so weird!”
Wren was a boy that hadn’t had many opportunities to interact with other people.

“Alright, I’ll just go for a walk.”

Wren got himself ready, and tied his smooth golden hair in a high ponytail. From time to time, he would let it down or tie it into a bun on a whim, but lately this has been his usual style.
With his hair securely fastened, he left the dormitory.
He figured if he went on a morning walk, he might have the opportunity to find Gerald and call out to him.
If someone asked why he was on a walk, he would just respond like this:

—You know, isn’t it picturesque when a pretty boy goes on a morning walk?

Wren, who’d gone on a morning walk in search of his roommate, Gerald Anker, noticed a surprising amount of people were out and about this early in the morning.
In the first place, the Wedge Tower had its role as the last line of defense against Monsters, so there were always lookouts posted at all hours of the day.
Aside from them, there were quite a few people who made use of the morning hours to get some training in.

“Oh, is that Wren over there? Heeyy! Good morning!”

Waving a hand covered in a gardening glove, he spotted a muscular man with fuzzy red hair and a beard that covered his face—the Apprentice Mage John Rose.
Apprentice Mages generally called each other by their first names, but nonetheless, the others all called him ‘Rose.’ The teachers also referred to him by his full name, ‘John Rose.’
The fact that ‘John’ was a common enough name to be confusing was one reason, but a bigger reason was Director Hegelich.
Guidance Office Director Hegelich’s full name was Melchior John Hegelich, so the teachers felt a little uncomfortable about the name.
On top of all of that, the man himself kept saying “Just call me Rose!” so by now everyone had settled on calling him ‘Rose.’
Said Rose was currently wearing work clothes and a straw hat and holding a large hoe. It didn’t look like he was doing morning exercises.

“Rose, what are you up to?”

“Gardening! I asked if it was okay for me to plant vegetables and flowers in the garden, and they told me I could plant whatever I wanted in this area!”

Therefore, in order to plant what he wanted, it seemed like he needed to work the soil first.
Wren recalled the lesson they’d had on imbuement magic.
Within magecraft, the field of imbuement magic involved techniques for imbuing mana into objects.
If those objects were plants, one could change their growth rate…….for the best mages, they could even control the plants according to their will. However, mages capable of doing that could be counted on one hand.

“Rose, are you interested in researching imbuing mana into plants?”

“Nope, I plan to study Modern Magecraft at the Wedge Tower. Things like elemental magic and barrier magic. Imbuing mana into plants is……………….a hobby!”

“Sounds like a really smart hobby to me.”

“Does it? Hehe, I guess that was a compliment.”

To be honest, he had thought of Rose simply as ‘useless adult number one,’ but he seemed to be a reasonably serious student when it came to magecraft.
He had it together much more than Wren, who still had no clear objective.
Rose removed his mud-coated gardening gloves, then wiped his sweat with the towel he had hanging over his neck. Watching him with curiosity, Wren noticed something unusual.

“Rose, you wear a ring?”

On his left middle finger, he was wearing a silver ring.
It was a little wide, with no visible decorative adornments, just a simple ring.

“Yep, isn’t it cool?”

“I’m just surprised. I didn’t think you were in to that kind of thing.”

“Ahaha. By the way, I saw Tia and Sevil over there, have you said hi to them yet, Wren?”

Wren jumped a little at the names Rose mentioned.
Tia and Sevil. The two who were involved in that huge incident with him just yesterday.

“…………”

Wren bit his lip and lowered his head.

—Tia was a Harpy. A Monster.

Tia, who had been captured by humans and had her flight feathers clipped so she could no longer fly, took human form so she could learn flight magic. At that point, she said she sacrificed her reproductive abilities.
He had loads of questions.
Who was the human who cut Tia’s flight feathers?
Who was the one who turned Tia into a human and gave her the candies to let her turn back into a Harpy? Was it a Monster or a human?
Was it okay for Tia, a Monster, to be outside of the Crystal Territory for so long?

(Honestly, this question could be serious bad news.)

The Wedge Tower was an organization dedicated to fighting Monsters. That a Monster had infiltrated such an organization essentially made her a spy in enemy territory.
If she’s found out, they’d obviously kill her.
Wren and Sevil, who knew her identity but kept quiet about it, wouldn’t be let off lightly……..Maybe Sevil could be pardoned as the Emperor’s sister, but Wren was a normal commoner. He would likely be expelled from the Wedge Tower.
And yet, Wren had no intention of revealing Tia’s true identity to the Wedge Tower.

(After all, Tia has no intention of hurting anyone……..She doesn’t, right? No, wait, I should probably confirm that part…….)

Monsters are obsessed with humans. In the case of Harpies, that reflected in their method of reproduction.
Harpies were creatures that abducted human men to mate with them.
Tia claimed that it was fine because she had no ability to reproduce.
However, Wren thought.

—Then, if one of your friends abducted a human, would you stop them?

Wren kept that question for himself at the time.
It would be cruel to continue that line of questioning. Both to Tia and to Wren.
Eventually, it had to be addressed. However, that didn’t have to be now. Wren ran away from the issue.
Wren still couldn’t wrap his mind around his emotions towards Tia.
He had been so drained simply staying alive yesterday, then he was so busy with reports and such after returning to the Wedge Tower, until he finally went to sleep, exhausted.
However, ever since the moment he heard Tia’s sincere wish to fly through the sky, Wren had held on to the thought:

—I want to help her fly.

When he thought about it, Tia had been saying the same thing ever since the entrance exam. She wanted to fly.
Unlike Wren, who had no ambition, Tia had a clear goal.
Perhaps it was his ego that made him think he wanted to be the one to grant that wish.
Wren grasped at his chest, and confronted the voice in his heart.
Probably, Wren was rooted by the first feeling he had had towards Tia.

(I thought: I want to be friends with her…….I still think that, even now.)

…….As he lost himself in thought, Rose squatted down and stared at him. It made him feel a little uncomfortable.
Rose asked with a gentle voice.

“Did you have a fight with Sevil or Tia?”

“Nothing like that. I was just thinking! Anyways, what are those guys doing this early in the morning?”

“Training, I guess? It seemed like Tia was going ‘Pefu, pefu’ running all over the place.”

“………….Huh?”

“Oh, and she was going ‘Pefupo!’ and punching Sevil!”

“Huuuuuhhhh!?”

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[V3C2] A Harpy’s Physical Test