"Excuse me, is this First University?"
The beautiful woman who had surfaced from the lake wiped her face, shook the droplets from her hair, and smiled sweetly at the young witch and wizard on the shore. Her scarlet eyes gleamed beneath the sunlight like two translucent rubies, mesmerizing anyone who looked into them.
The witch on shore was still staring blankly.
The wizard, however, subconsciously nodded when he heard the beauty's question.
Though his gaze remained somewhat dazed—he did not know why, but he found the beauty before him oddly familiar. Yet for the moment, he could not bear to look away from those lovely eyes and only wanted to gaze at them a little longer.
The beauty glanced at the red robes worn by the two students, growing more certain. "Jiuyou Academy?"
The wizard slowly nodded, certain thoughts drifting through his mind again. He always felt as though he had overlooked something. His companion, meanwhile, remained completely dumbstruck, as though she had yet to recover from the shock brought by that Green Vine.
A hint of disappointment appeared on the beauty's face. She seemed about to say something else, but then frowned and looked down.
Following her gaze, the wizard finally noticed a second head emerging from the lake.
It was another person with red eyes, wearing Jiuyou Academy robes and soaked from head to toe. His features seemed even more familiar to the wizard than the beauty's.
The second person to emerge from the lake held a rune gun, a classic double-barreled Remington. Its body was covered in bright yellow pinwheel-shaped runes, and it radiated an aura called "danger." His wizardly instincts made his eyes sting.
The pain made him close his eyes instinctively, yet it left a shred of clarity in his mind.
Within that clarity, he