Chapter 2

Chapter 002: Margaret, My Dormmate

“She left.” Theresia watched Miss Thief’s retreating back. “She still hasn’t told me her name.”

The wisdom frog on the floor truly could not bear to watch anymore. It patted Theresia’s calf. “Croak!”

“Oh, right! I have to hurry and clean this place up!” Theresia immediately panicked and hurriedly remade the bed the blond girl had slept in.

After checking the lounge again, making sure no one else was still here, and confirming that all the work had been completed as usual, Theresia finally left through the library’s small side door, still startled and uncertain.

Theresia had been working as a librarian at the Potsdam Royal Academy for a long time, but this was the first time she had encountered such an unexpected situation. Whether it was someone suddenly appearing in the lounge, or the fact that cleaning up the bed had made her close the library later than usual—her life was supposed to be unchanging, doing the same things at the same times every single day.

Troubled, Theresia passed through the mage tower and the broad teaching district, then returned to her dormitory.

The light in the room was on. As expected, her roommate had returned long ago. Theresia pushed open the door and skillfully flung herself toward the kitchen.

“Mar~ga~ret~”

Theresia let out a long wail and threw herself into her roommate’s arms.

“Stop making trouble.” Margaret patted Theresia on the back, then gently pulled her away. “Wash your hands and get the dishes and cutlery. I made stew.”

“Stew?”

“Mm. My family back in the Netherlands sent over some ham, butter, and fish. The teleportation magic cost more than the food itself. I told them it would be fine to put everything in a spatial ring and have Owl Express send it over slowly, but my family always feels food sent that way isn’t fresh.” Margaret turned around and showed Theresia the storage cabinet in the corner of the kitchen. “I asked an upperclassman to construct a constant-temperature spell over there. These foods should be kept for about a week.”

Theresia leaned closer to the three-dimensional magic array and examined it carefully. “Mm... As expected of our upperclassman’s magic array. The structure is very complete. The wind-element magic over here seals off the flow of air in this area, then the fire-element generation spell at the bottom has been reversed to draw heat out of this space, and the water-element cycle on this side carries it away. Although it’s only a compound of low-level magic arrays, the combination is remarkably harmonious...”

“A mixed structure of three elements. All I can say is, that’s our upperclassman for you.” As Margaret spoke, she stirred her mana and dispersed the fire-element magic beneath the stew pot. “The stew is ready. Stop staring at the magic array. That thing over there isn’t something lower-year students like us can casually touch.”

Theresia stared at the redundant portions in the spell structure. After thinking for a moment, she still did not make any modifications. “Mm. I’ll get the plates.”

After the two of them sat side by side at the small table next to the kitchen, Margaret closed her eyes, raised the cross hanging before her chest, and softly recited, “The poor shall eat and be satisfied. Those who seek the Lord shall praise Him; their hearts shall live forever. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, from now unto eternity, and unto all ages... Amen.”

Only after finishing all of this did Margaret open her eyes again and smile at Theresia. “All right, let’s eat.”

Theresia nodded, and only then did she reach toward the bread.

As they ate, Theresia told Margaret about the Miss Thief she had encountered in the library today.

“Blond hair and blue eyes, huh? There are far too many people like that in the academy.” Margaret bit off a piece of bread, chewed it carefully, and only then swallowed it. “But as long as you can prove that no one entered or left the lounge during the day, wouldn’t that be enough to show she broke the rules and trespassed? There’s no need to directly prove exactly when she entered the lounge during the day.”

Theresia nodded. “That does seem to be the logic.”

“And you, honestly. Since you had already confirmed that the other party had violated the rules, couldn’t you just call a teacher over?” Margaret raised her hand and lightly patted Theresia on top of the head. “Dummy.”

“She was only lying in the lounge for a while. There was no need to call the school staff over.”

Margaret shook her head. “That place is the mage tower, the residence of His Excellency Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss. A stranger appearing there is not a small matter.”

“Then the next time I see her, I’ll call the mages over.”

“It would be best if there isn’t a next time. I don’t want you losing your librarian job.” Margaret picked up another slice of bread and carefully spread butter over it with a knife. “Even if you’ve worked there for a long time, if something goes wrong, the directors will definitely still drive you out of that place. If you get driven out, what will you do about your tuition?”

Theresia shrank her neck. “I know.”

“You never take anything to heart.” Margaret naturally knew that her roommate had not really listened to her words.

The dormitory where Theresia and Margaret lived was specially provided by the school for working students. Not every student had the financial resources to cover their own tuition, but likewise, not every student’s talent could simply be rejected. Because of that, the Potsdam Royal Magic Academy provided many on-campus work-study positions for talented but impoverished students. Most of these positions were easy and well-paid, enough for them to have some money left for daily life after paying tuition.

The school had also set aside separate dormitories for them. Four students were divided between two bedrooms, sharing one living room and one kitchen. It could be said that although the place was small, it had everything they needed.

Margaret worked in the school cafeteria. She was responsible for getting up early every day to help in the kitchen, assisting with the preparation of all the ingredients for the day’s meals until class time arrived. Compared to Theresia’s job, Theresia’s work took up quite a lot of time but was very easy, while Margaret only needed to work for one hour before classes.

Of course, that also meant Margaret had a perfectly legitimate excuse to take home some fresh vegetables.

“You have classes all day tomorrow, right?” Margaret asked while cleaning up the tableware.

“Mm. It’s Professor Michel’s Fire Element Extension class.” Theresia wiped the table. “I can’t skip that one.”

“You spend too much time in the library, don’t you? Isn’t that job only something you need to do when you don’t have classes? But I remember you’ve skipped quite a lot of classes, haven’t you?”

Theresia curled her lips. “The library is more interesting than sitting in a classroom.”

“At least earn enough credits for your required courses. We still have research projects to complete before graduation. If your graduation gets delayed, I won’t help you, you know.”

“I’m in history, and you’re in the School of Theology... Even if you wanted to help me, you couldn’t.”

Margaret clasped both hands tightly against her chest. “Dear Heavenly Father, You are an all-powerful and all-loving God. Please grant wisdom to the children who study, so that they may be filled with spiritual wisdom in their studies and succeed in their learning...”

“I don’t need that kind of help!”