On the morning after she tried out the Magical Flying Device, Tia left her room earlier than usual.
She usually went to the First Spire’s dining hall to eat breakfast alongside Sevil, but today she decided to go there alone.
Tia waddled furiously out of the dorm, and when she saw her target approaching from the men’s dorm, she called out to him.

“Julius!”

She caught sight of a boy in a robe with straight black hair, carrying a snakelike aura — Julius, who seemed to be on his way to the dining hall alongside his roommate, Finn.
The diminutive Finn froze and looked fearfully at Tia, but Julius smiled as he always did.

“Kuku, what is it? Have you decided to join my faction yet….?”

Tia was a little surprised to hear those words.
Just yesterday, Tia had jumped at Julius and stepped on him.

(……I thought he would be afraid or angry.)

Humans were pretty good at hiding their emotions, so it was possible that he could have just been suppressing his fear or anger.
However, as far as Tia’s eyes could tell, Julius looked no different than usual. His voice didn’t waver at all.
Tia inhaled sharply through her nose and voiced the words she’d been mulling over since last night.

“You see. I, I don’t want friends.”

“Kuku…… Is that so?”

“But, it was wrong for me to step on Julius and throw that bracelet on the ground. I’m sor-ry.”

Julius’ expression didn’t change at all. He still had that thin smile on his face.
On the other hand, Finn fidgeted expressively, and nervously looked up at Julius. His face asked What do we do, Julius?
Tia stared at Julius, and continued.

“I want to learn flight magic. Because of that I, um, asked the people at the Management Office to let me use their Magical Flying Device.”

“Good, good…….kuku, the Management Office is aligned with the Modern School.”

They’d learned in their group lessons about Modern and Classical Magecraft.
However, Tia couldn’t think of a reason why anyone would form factions over which kind of magic they used.

“That ‘Modern School’ or ‘Classical School’ stuff… Is that important?”

Julius’ expression changed ever so slightly. His smile remained as it was, but his eyes narrowed just a bit. — Julius spoke with a biting voice.

“Yes, it’s important. It’s important to me, at least.”

“I see…”

‘Then it wouldn’t be a good idea for me to say it’s a waste of time, huh’ Tia thought.
She had just been yelled at by Rukiye yesterday for disrespecting magical devices. It was wrong to disrespect the things people cared about.

“Piyo, the Modern School is important to Julius, and he likes teaching people things. I’ve got it memorized!”

“……I don’t recall ever telling you that I enjoy teaching people things?”

For the first time, Julius clearly frowned.
Tia glanced at Finn, who was hiding in Julius’ shadow.

“Finn told me. He said Julius loves to teach things to people!”

“Ah—” Finn vocalized before he held his mouth closed with both hands.
When he realized Julius was looking down on him, he understandably wavered.

“Um, sorry, Julius. I came up with it on my own…… so…….”

“Kuku……. kukukukuku……..”

It was impossible to tell the true meaning of that laugh. That said, Tia thought he wasn’t laughing at Finn’s expense.
‘Well, it doesn’t really matter,’ Tia decided to keep the conversation going.

“Umm, I think we’ve gone off subject? I, uh, I’m fine as long as I can fly. Since I’m practicing with the Magical Flying Device now, I don’t have anything I need you to teach me, Julius…..”

However, Tia understood that she would have a hard time making it in the Wedge Tower if she only ever thought about flying with the Magical Flying Device.
Humans liked to study all kinds of things at once.

“There’s nothing I want you to teach me now, but later, if there’s something I don’t get, I want you to teach me…… please teach it to me.”

Tia aggressively bowed her head. With the momentum of her head bowing forward, her arms swung upwards like she was spreading her wings. Crap. At times like this, she was supposed to either keep her arms to her sides or neatly in front of her.
Should I try that bow again? She thought as she lifted her head.
As expected, Julius laughed “ku, ku, ku.”

“Kuku, very well. When the time comes, I will teach you the excellence of Modern Magecraft.”

“Peuu……. I probably won’t learn that……”

“Ku, ku, ku, then we shall talk later. Let’s go, Finn.”

Julius straightened his robe with a flourish, then continued on his way towards the First Spire: White Smoke. Finn nervously hustled to catch up with him, and Tia waddled behind them.
Julius came to a halt and looked back at Tia.

“Why are you following me?”

“Eh? Aren’t we going to the same place? I wanna eat breakfast.”

Now that she’s said everything she had to say, Tia had no more hangups about dealing with him.
She was feeling pretty good this morning, and was excited to eat breakfast as soon as possible.
Julius stayed silent, but beside him Finn fidgeted as he spoke up.

“Um, Julius, Tia, why don’t we all walk together? Please?”

“Piyo! Yeah, let’s go. Aren’t you coming too, Julius? Do you not like breakfast?”

“……Kuku, ku, ku, ku, ku…..”

“You know, your laugh sounds a lot like a pigeon’s call.”

She spoke her honest thoughts the moment it occurred to her, to which Julius responded with silence and a stern face.
That’s not a very happy face, Tia deduced.

When time came for the group lesson, Hütter walked into the classroom with exhaustion evident on his face as he spoke.

“Alright, good morning everyone. For some reason, some scary fella from the Extermination Office came barging into the Guidance Office yesterday…… I won’t get mad, but would anyone who has a clue why that happened please raise your hand~?”

Pointy-hat Roswitha proudly raised her hand, while little Finn and long-banged Gerald hesitantly raised theirs as well.
Tia had no clue, so she didn’t raise her hand, causing Wren to elbow her in the side.

“Put your hand up, too. He definitely complained about you by name.”

“Piyo? Who?”

“The dude with the scar on his face! You just took off with him hanging there!”

Oohhh, that guy. Tia connected the dots and raised her hand as well.

“Thanks to that guy, I was able to fly! Mr. Hütter, can I go say ‘‘thanks’ to him?”

“Please don’t. Well, I get where you’re coming from…… but Director Hegelich is having a hard enough time as it is, so you should try not to make any more enemies.”

“Okay??”

Tia had no memories of making any enemies, so her response was laden with a fair amount of confusion.
“Ahem,” Hütter cleared his throat. That ‘ahem’ was code for ‘I’m about to talk about something important.’
Tia covered her mouth with both hands.

“That covered, I have something important to tell you before we begin class. It’s already been two weeks since you guys have started taking these classes. At around this point, we were thinking it’s about time for you to select a representative for your class.”

The classroom began to buzz with excitement. Some of the students immediately started paying more attention.
Tia stuck her hand up and spoke.

“Piyopp! Mr. Hütter, what does a ‘representative’ do?”

“They’re someone who will serve as a point of contact between the Instructors and the Apprentice Mages. You could think of them as a leader for you Apprentices.”

So he was telling them to pick a boss to lead this flock of twelve Apprentice Mages.

(Kinda like wolf Monsters do.)
 The Harpies of Breakneck Gorge didn’t really have bosses. If an enemy showed up, everyone would sing together, they would flock to the fight, and they’d all swing their talons.
However, groups with bosses were more coordinated, and Tia knew they could be very dangerous to fight.

“In addition, whoever is chosen as the Apprentices’ representative will receive permission to access the Second and Third Libraries that Apprentices are ordinarily not allowed to enter.”

A few peoples’ eyes lit up when they heard Hütter’s words.
The Library Office in the Third Spire: Water Bubble managed a series of library rooms, but Apprentices were only allowed to visit the First Library.
The Second and Third Libraries were said to contain more specialized texts and lots of incredibly valuable books.
Hütter looked across the students’ faces and smirked.

“On top of that, I made a deal with the lady in the dining hall…… For the next year, she’ll give an extra dessert every week to whoever is chosen as the representative.”

Most of the class reacted in amazement.
Rose and Oliver, adults who ate a fair amount, nodded in sync.

“Dessert, huh? That sounds pretty appealing……”

“Indeed, sweet flavors enrich the heart.”

Even Gerald, who usually sat silently, uncharacteristically covered his mouth. “Sweets…… a luxury…” he muttered, while Finn absentmindedly whispered “Sweets sound pretty good, huh?” to Julius.
And the youngest among them, Sophie the Shaman, hunched over her desk as her legs bounced beneath.

“Ahh….. I don’t wanna be representative at all, but in this isolated environment sweets are just too tempting….. no faaaiiiirrrrr…….”

While the dining halls of the Wedge Tower would provide three meals a day, it was a rarity for them to serve desserts.
From time to time the dining hall of the Third Spire: Water Bubble would sell baked snacks, but those sold out almost immediately.
Tia was fine with just a little bit of food, so the idea of additional desserts didn’t really appeal to her, but it seemed like more than half of the class was inspired by Hütter’s proposal.
Wren posed a question to Hütter.

“Wait, Mr. Hütter, how’d you manage to make a deal like that? Didn’t you just come to the Wedge Tower a few months ago?”

That was true. As someone who was dispatched by the Mage Association, he was a relative newbie to the Wedge Tower.
Hütter snorted proudly and rose a single finger that he waved back and forth.

“Listen up, you guys. When someone makes food for you, having the communication skills to thank them and properly express what you liked about the meal to the chef will make your life richer and happier. Keep that in mind.”

So it sounded like he had built a rapport with the lady at the dining hall by communicating his feelings of thanks and his thoughts about the cooking to her.
Tia looked at Hütter in admiration. Mr. Hütter really was an amazing person. Even when Tia and the others weren’t watching, he was making deals like that all the time.
Standing before a crowd of students excitedly buzzing with chatter, Hütter clapped twice and got everyone’s attention.

“That said, I want all of you to discuss who you want to be the representative among yourselves and report the results to Director Hegelich a week from now. Alright, with that over with, let’s dive right in to Mr. Hütter’s Marvelous Magical History Hour~!”

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