Chapter 3

Chapter 003: Pulcheria’s Golden Hair (1)

Potsdam Royal Academy was made up of several major academic districts surrounding the dean’s mage tower. The largest of them was the College of Traditional Magic, which mainly taught elemental magic centered on the four major elements of fire, earth, water, and wind, as well as the magical studies derived from them. 

Next came alchemy and arcane studies, which together occupied another district as fringe magic. 

Smaller academic districts such as the School of Theology and summoning spells were scattered throughout various corners of the academy.

Although the academic districts were different, quite a few of the teaching facilities were shared. For example, the great lecture hall where Theresia was now.

Henry the Lion Teaching Building.

This vast lecture hall was located on the first and second floors of Henry the Lion Teaching Building. A rather large portion of the building’s space was occupied by this lecture hall, and right now, Professor Michel of the Fire Element Department in the College of Traditional Magic, teaching the Fire Element Composition major, was explaining the most basic professional knowledge of fire-element magic.

“Mage Becher and Mage Stahl together constructed the foundational structure of modern fire-element spells. Mage Becher boldly proposed that after fire-element magic completely burns an object away, the excess material will be dissolved by the flames, and the ashes left behind in the end will be quite pure. In this way, we can obtain certain substances with simpler compositions...”

Mage Michel’s voice traveled through the fixed wind-attribute spell to every corner of the lecture hall. Not every mage was qualified to conduct research into the structure of the elements themselves, so for these magic apprentices, a class discussing the ideas and conjectures of legendary mages regarding the elements would greatly improve their understanding of spells.

Theresia’s major in the history of magical studies required her to pay more attention to the historical influence of the mages’ hypotheses, but right now, her attention was not on the lecturer or the notebook in front of her at all. Instead, she was staring blankly at a figure’s back not far away.

The figure leaning beside the window was bathed in sunlight, making that golden hair shine with a dazzling light. Because of the direct glare of the intense sun, very few apprentices would sit by the window, so that figure stood out somewhat.

“Miss Thief?” Theresia stared wide-eyed, her gaze moving back and forth between that person’s golden hair and the shoulder visible through the gaps in it. Although she quickly realized that she could not rely on those two things to identify someone she was not familiar with, Theresia still could not help being drawn to that head of golden hair and the light it refracted.

Whether or not that person was the Miss Thief she had met only once yesterday troubled Theresia for an entire half of the class. When the lecturer announced a temporary break, Theresia sprang to her feet almost instantly, grabbed the notebook in front of her, and trotted over to the row of seats basking in the sunlight.

And the blond girl happened to stand up as well. Their gazes collided without either of them being prepared.

After seeing the other girl’s face, Theresia smiled a little proudly. “I was wondering during class whether it was you.”

“Being caught by you in a place like this really is a little awkward.” “Miss Thief” hurriedly flipped the notebook on the desk over, hiding the name on it. “Could it be that you came here to give me a demerit?”

“No, no.” Theresia quickly waved her hands. “I just want to know your name, that’s all. After all, you know my name, but I don’t know yours. Isn’t that a rather unfair thing?”

The other girl looked at Theresia suspiciously. “You ran out of the library and chased me all the way here just for that?”

Theresia shook her head hard. “I saw you because I was here for class.”

“So you’re a student, not the daughter of some esteemed mage?” Theresia saw genuine surprise on the other girl’s face.

“Huh? Why would you think that?”

“Because every time I go to the library, I can see you sitting in the librarian’s seat. For the past two years, you’ve basically been there rain or shine—so I always thought you didn’t need to attend classes.”

Theresia remembered her long list of skipped classes and could not help laughing awkwardly. “Ahaha...”

The blond girl circled around Theresia once and asked curiously, “Since you’re an apprentice, what major are you in? Don’t tell me you’re from the Fire Element District...”

“I study the history of magical studies.” Theresia turned her notebook and textbook around, showing the book titles on the covers to the other girl. “Maria Theresia. That’s my name. Maria is my surname, and Theresia is my given name, but since everyone just calls me Theresia, you can call me whatever you like.”

“Pulcheria.” The blond girl finally relaxed. No longer hiding anything, she openly let go of the name on the notebook she had been covering. “Since you’re letting me call you by your name, then I have to tell you mine for it to be fair.”

Theresia looked eagerly at Pulcheria. “May I ask what your surname is...?”

“What if you’re still here to cause trouble for me?” Pulcheria sighed. “No. I can’t trust you. If I get a demerit at a time like this, my graduation will be delayed. I can’t afford to cause trouble right now.”

“Then don’t run into the library lounge during the day.” Theresia shrank her neck, set her notebook down beside Pulcheria, and sat properly. “So we’re friends now?”

“A friend wouldn’t hold a tiny little thing like lying down in the lounge for a while against me.”

“Then why did you sneak into the library lounge?”

“Ah, I was busy writing a thesis at the time, and looking up all those materials made my head spin...” When it came to this matter, Pulcheria could not help feeling a little embarrassed as well. “So I slipped inside.”

Theresia blinked. “But the lock on the door...”

“It’s an application of the fire element. I drew away some heat to make the lock’s own structure brittle, then snapped it.” Pulcheria lowered her head and drew a few strokes in the blank space of her notebook, sketching out a simple pentagram magic array. “Then I used this high-temperature spell to weld the broken part back together. The casting medium was the parchment itself, so once the spell was complete, the parchment recording the magic array itself would also be destroyed.”

Theresia shifted her gaze away from the magic array, somewhat confused, and looked at Pulcheria’s proud expression. “But if you did that, wouldn’t you be unable to get out by yourself?”

“Huh?” Pulcheria’s expression froze in place.

Theresia was also stunned for a moment. “So you didn’t think of that?”

“I told you, my head was an absolute mess at the time...” Pulcheria held her forehead. “I can’t believe I made such a basic mistake...”

Theresia hesitated for a while, then lowered her head and took a key from her pocket.

“This.” Theresia handed the key to Pulcheria. “This is the key to my lounge in the library. From now on, if you want to find somewhere to rest... then come to my bed.”