Meeting Kelly at the Magic Academy

At the entrance of the Imperial Capital Magic Academy, Matthews stood with his younger sister, Mia, who had finally managed to buy several new dresses to her heart's content, as they prepared for her enrollment.

After Mia passed her talent re-test, she was cleared to enter. Matthews carried his sister's luggage inside, and after paying the tuition fees, he escorted her to her dormitory, room 519.

"Sis, do your best at school!"

"Got it, brother!"

He was promptly kicked out by his sister, the reason being that male students were not allowed inside the girls' dormitory.

"Tch, I'm your brother, for goodness' sake."

Matthews didn't hold it against her; instead, he wandered around the magic campus. Standing in the center of the school plaza was a statue, roughly a dozen meters tall.

Matthews reached out to touch it, feeling that it was likely made of copper.

"That's a lot of wasted copper. If used properly, it could be cast into many copper pots. Enough to open hot pot restaurants all over the Imperial Capital!"

"Olifar, a great water deity. In his youth—"

Just as Matthews, "Slap—"

As Matthews was engrossed in reading the inscription beneath the statue, he felt a tap on his shoulder.

"Who's there!"

Turning around, he saw a beautiful girl with long, wavy golden hair and emerald eyes, her sparkling eyes fixed on him with intense curiosity.

"Oh, I saw you from afar, but I didn't expect it to really be you."

Matthews thought carefully for a moment; it seemed he hadn't met any such stunning otherworldly girl since arriving in this world. If he had possessed this body through a soul transfer, it might have been a debt of romance left by the previous owner.

But he had arrived in his own physical body, so who was this girl with eyes full of light? Matthews pointed at himself uncertainly, then gestured toward the girl and asked, "Beautiful, did you mistake me for someone else?"

"Not at all. Your name is Matthews, isn't it?"

As she spoke, she snapped open a folding fan that Matthews had crafted. Matthews mentally filtered through the clients he had swindled in front of the Imperial Capital Academy earlier. Most of them were just chuunibyou brats; there were definitely no young ladies of seventeen or eighteen like her.

"Ah, I remember now. You're that beautiful girl, Kelly, from Karim City who received the gift."

The girl smiled and said to Matthews, "I really like this folding fan you gave me."

"Especially this line, 'Companionship is the longest confession of love.' Even though I don't know what these two birds you painted are? I've scoured the classics and couldn't seem to find birds that look like this."

Matthews thought to himself, it would be a miracle if you had. These two birds were Mandarin Ducks, which certainly didn't exist in this world.

"Haha, that's not important. They are a common animal from the legends of my hometown. Because a male and female only have one partner for life, they are used to symbolize unwavering love."

"Wow, really? Where is your hometown? I want to raise a pair of these animals too!"

Matthews awkwardly changed the subject: "They are just legendary creatures; they don't exist in reality."

"Oh, right, why did you come to the Magic Academy?"

Kelly replied directly, "I'm a student here. Though, how come I haven't seen you at the academy before?"

"I'm not a student. I just came to drop my sister off for school."

At this moment, Nina walked over, ignoring Matthews entirely. She said to Kelly, "Let's go, let's head back to the dorm."

Kelly nodded, then said to Matthews, "I'm off, let's chat again if we have the chance."

"Yeah!"

After Nina pulled Kelly away, she asked, "How did you end up chatting with him? He shouldn't be a student here, right?"

"Yeah, he was just here to drop off his sister."

Nina looked at her friend Kelly, who wore a faint smile, and asked seriously, "You don't actually like him, do you?"

"How could that be? I just saw him today and went over to say hello!"

Nina continued, "That's for the best."

"Have you ever seen these birds called Mandarin Ducks?"

Seeing her friend unfold the fan she had gotten from Matthews again, Nina replied calmly, "Didn't we check before? It seems there's no such creature."

"He just said this is a bird that symbolizes love, where the male and female only have one partner for life."

Nina was more realistic and not as desperate for romance as her friend. Born as the daughter of a small-city lord, she had long understood what she needed if she wanted to establish a foothold in the noble-filled Imperial Capital. It was definitely not that useless, impractical love that you could only look at but not eat!

However, she didn't contradict her friend. "Well, if there's a chance, it wouldn't be bad to collect a few and raise them."

Kelly sighed at this point: "Sigh, he said these things are just legends. They don't exist in reality. Do you think there really is such a thing as a love that defies all odds?"

Nina looked at her friend, who had fallen into a daydream, and sighed inwardly. Every young girl was a romantic; she, too, longed for a prince to come riding on a Saint Realm Seven-Colored Unicorn to marry her.

But upon second thought, she instantly sobered up.

"Maybe there is. I believe you'll encounter it sooner or later!"

After the two of them left, Matthews lost the mood to look at the statue. He turned to leave, just as his sister Mia emerged with her roommates.

"Brother, these are my roommates!"

"Nice to meet you all."

"Hello, big brother of Mia."

As an experienced veteran, this was the first time Matthews's nearly eight-year-old sister was enrolling in school. As her older brother, he had to make her look good, so he said, "Let's go. My treat today to celebrate you new students starting school."

"Wow, really? Long live big brother!"

Watching his sister's roommates, all little girls, cheering, a boy's voice suddenly rang out in surprise.

"Wow, big brother, it really is you."

"Hmm, what's going on?"

Matthews thought to himself that he didn't have any younger brothers here, only to see the little boy from the Utteridge Clan named Winter—the one he had first swindled into buying a folding fan for twenty gold coins—looking at him with delight.

Matthews said with a guilty conscience, "Ah, it's you."

Seeing Winter looking at him with such admiration, Mia shot her brother Matthews a look. It clearly said: you caused this trouble, you fix it!

Winter, being naturally outgoing, asked Matthews, "Big brother, where are you all headed?"

"Ah, I'm taking my sister and her roommates out for a meal. Do you want to come along?"

"Really? That's great! Let's go, I know where the good food is."

As he spoke, he immediately headed toward the academy gate, while Mia now wore a look of extreme reluctance. In her eyes, Winter, who had been swindled by her brother into buying a worthless folding fan for twenty gold coins, was a total fool.

"Brother, you deal with it."

Seeing that Matthews hadn't kept up, Winter turned back and said, "Big brother, keep up!"

"Ahem, coming, coming."