"Ugh, how annoying... Could that guy be doing this on purpose?"
Lilith, with her vivid red hair, walked alone through the increasingly dense stream of students.
Her royal birth, combined with the astonishing magical talent that had quickly become common knowledge since her enrollment, had formed an invisible barrier around her.
The students along the way, nobles and commoners alike, instinctively kept a polite yet distant space between themselves and her, not daring to approach, let alone strike up a conversation.
For now, that space born of awe gave Lilith room to immerse herself in her thoughts and grumble quietly without being disturbed.
And the thing bothering her most at the moment was undoubtedly that guy named Greg Sass.
Shortly after her grounding had been lifted, Lilith, unable to suppress a certain impulse, had once again changed into that plain outfit and slipped into the Academy Dungeon as Lily Carlo, the daughter of a wealthy merchant.
She wanted to visit that hidden camp on the upper levels and see Greg again. After all, she still hadn't heard him acknowledge her last time.
Of course, that was only a secondary reason.
Her main reason for wanting to see Greg this time was simply that she wanted another taste of the grilled meat he had made last time.
Well... at least, that was what she told herself.
However, her hopes had come to nothing.
When she crept into that familiar corner, the camp was deserted, with only the remains of an extinguished campfire and a makeshift tent she hadn't seen before.
In the clearing at the center of the camp, a black cat lay atop a pile of stone slabs with strange patterns.
Those slabs gave Lilith a very odd feeling, as though some sort of whispering were circling around her ears.