I Was Part of Your Play, Too?

After he got off the steam bus, the sky was already growing darker. Ansu walked home alone.

Just as he turned into an alley...

From the depths of the darkness behind him, countless bugs crawled out from beneath a sewer grate, gradually gathering into the shape of a person.

Elder Hall narrowed his eyes, staring gloomily at Ansu's retreating figure.

Just thinking about how he'd spent the entire day lurking outside the school made Elder Hall feel annoyed. Why had those two stayed in the library for so long?

Damn, those two really love studying...

But thankfully, they couldn't stick together forever. At last, he'd gotten his chance!

Cecilia thinks so highly of that boy, so this really is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity...

Elder Hall thought to himself.

Everyone had been waiting for years. The old hag Samantha was finally on the verge of death, and their Reformist Faction was about to take control of the entire Order...

But no one had expected Samantha to take on such a powerful student before she died.

If it weren't for Cecilia, that insanely powerful Mad Witch, Samantha would never have made it this far!

Those bookish fools in the Truth Faction, who devoted themselves to researching magic, were already out of step with the times! So, to keep this thousand-year-old Order from straying from its path, and to fulfill their true sacred mission...

Cecilia had to be eliminated! They had to cut off Samantha's right-hand woman!

As Ansu walked through the alley, he suddenly heard a strange rustling sound.

He stopped and looked back...

Then he saw countless bugs swarming toward him from the darkness.

So this guy had finally shown himself...

A withered, ugly figure took shape not far in front of Ansu.

"Ansu Morris."

Elder Hall seemed to think this was the first time they'd met. His lips spread into a deliberately mysterious smile.

"Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Elder Hall of the Council of Elders."

"You should know what the Council of Elders means to the Order."

"Now that you've joined the Echo of Truth, I have a duty to share our sacred mission with you..."

Elder Hall's opening spiel was much the same as last time. It sounded like the ramblings of some cultist.

But Ansu wasn't about to humor him.

"Sacred my ass! Are you done yet?"

A [Illumination Spell] he'd trained to LV.3 flew straight at Hall's head.

Hall froze as a blinding white light suddenly flared.

He let out a startled scream.

"What? What the hell is that?!"

Hardly anyone would train such a basic, everyday 0th-circle spell to this level. Ansu's move was like throwing a flashbang right in Hall's face.

"Damn it! Have you lost your mind? How dare you?!"

The scorching light stung Elder Hall, and the swarm of bugs surrounding Ansu instinctively recoiled.

Ansu turned and ran.

Elder Hall cursed under his breath behind him. Once the brief [Illumination Spell] faded, the swarm finally recovered and surged like a tide in pursuit of Ansu.

"Damn it! No wonder that Mad Witch chose him..."

He was just as unpredictable as she was!

Elder Hall squinted in discomfort, keeping his eyes fixed on Ansu's fleeing figure.

Since the boy was being so uncooperative, Hall couldn't be blamed for what came next...

He'd make the boy wish he were dead! He'd make him regret what he'd done!

The ground trembled faintly as the gathered bugs, like some terrifying monster, caught up with Ansu in seconds.

Elder Hall gave a vicious grin and reached for Ansu's neck.

But just as the giant hand formed from bugs was about to touch him—

A powerful aura of magic gathered in an instant. The swarm crashed into something like a wall, splattering the bugs' disgusting fluids in every direction.

Elder Hall looked around in surprise. "Who's there?"

"You ugly old bastard. You really haven't learned your lesson, have you?" Cecilia's mocking voice drifted slowly out of the darkness.

Ansu turned around. Cecilia had appeared beside him at some point.

Her purple eyes settled on him as she asked quietly, "Are you all right?"

"How could I be? I was almost eaten by bugs..." Seeing Cecilia show up, Ansu teased, "My lady Witch, looks like you couldn't resist following me after all~"

"I wasn't following you!"

Cecilia crossed her arms and snorted. "And I didn't come here just to protect you!"

Ansu silently watched Cecilia try to deny it.

So she'd just happened to be out wandering around in the middle of the night and run into him, huh?

Tsunderes were out of fashion, Miss Witch...

Cecilia seemed to realize that her excuse wasn't very convincing. Her cheeks flushed, and she immediately explained:

"I... actually knew Hall was following you, so I'd been hiding nearby on purpose, waiting to draw him out and eliminate this threat once and for all!"

"Oh, I see!" Ansu nodded without asking any more questions.

Sure, whatever you say...

"Still, that move you used just now wasn't bad~" Cecilia suddenly changed the subject, a smile returning to her face.

"And what makes me even happier is that you understand magic far better than those old fossils in the Order."

Cecilia felt that Ansu was a promising talent, so she shared her ideas with him. "Basic everyday spells like Illumination are often overlooked, but I believe every kind of magic is worth studying. There's no such thing as useless magic in this world."

She cast a mocking glance at Hall, who was trapped behind several invisible walls.

"That guy's a perfect example of what not to do. He's gone crazy studying magic. He thinks that specializing in one advanced spell will make him invincible, and he's even transformed his body into a swarm of bugs... What an idiot."

Ansu thought, I'd specialize in some high-level magic if I could. I only know a couple of spells...

Still, he nodded along. "You're right, my lady Witch."

"You two are just going to stand there chatting?" Elder Hall shouted angrily. The swarm he controlled kept ramming into the invisible wall, splattering black bug fluids everywhere.

"Let me go! Cecilia, don't you know who I am?"

"If anything happens to me, the other members of the Council of Elders won't let you get away with it!"

But Cecilia didn't pay him the slightest bit of attention. Elder Hall's shouts became background noise to their conversation.

"By the way... you understood that book so quickly?"

She studied Ansu, a hint of surprise in her eyes. "Looks like I really underestimated you!"

Ansu was learning magic far faster than she'd expected. Could he actually be a magic prodigy?

Cecilia was increasingly convinced that keeping Ansu around had been the right choice. Now, she had even higher expectations of him...

"You must have finished studying General Magic by now," Cecilia mused. "How about this... Starting tomorrow, you can come to my place every evening..."

"Your place?" Ansu blinked.

"Mhm. My house is pretty big, so you can practice magic there without worrying." Cecilia nodded.

"Then... could you tutor me personally every evening, my lady Witch?" Ansu couldn't help getting his hopes up.

"My time is precious," Cecilia said, shaking her head. "I mean that I have a lot of books about magic at my current place. You can borrow whatever you like when you're there. Whether you can learn from them is up to you."

"Sounds great!" That was exactly what Ansu needed.

It didn't matter if he didn't have a great teacher. As long as he could unlock a magic skill, the progress bar meant that learning any spell was just a matter of time.

When he'd visited Cecilia's house last time, he'd seen that her collection of books was practically a treasure trove!

"Then tomorrow..." Cecilia began.

"Enough!" Elder Hall cut them off, fuming.

They'd been chatting away this whole time, laughing and talking! Were they seriously acting like he wasn't even there?

Were they on a date or something? Could they get serious? Was he part of their play, too?

"What an annoying pest..." Cecilia muttered impatiently.

She turned and slowly walked toward Elder Hall, who was still trapped.

"Hall, when you get back, pass this message on to everyone."

"If you bother me again, you'll die!"

Elder Hall froze. Was she planning to let him go?

"All right! I'll pass it on! Cecilia, let me go first!"

He shouted eagerly, his voice full of hope.

"Sure," Cecilia replied with a smile. "I'll send you home right now..."

A faint smile lingered on her lips, but as soon as she finished speaking—

An aura of destruction that could incinerate everything engulfed the entire swarm.

Hall went from overjoyed to despairing in an instant. He cursed in agony:

"Cecilia! You... you lunatic!!"

"Filthy subhuman! Beast! Devil!!"

Listening to Elder Hall scream and curse, Ansu wondered why even this line was getting recycled.

Elder Hall's vocabulary was a little limited...

A long while later, the alley finally fell quiet.

Where Elder Hall had been standing, only a patch of pale gray ash remained.

Cecilia waved her hand, and a breeze swept the ash into the sewer, leaving not a trace behind.

She chuckled. "I meant I'd send you to hell to pass it on to them."