Island of Wisdom (7)
“Eh? That guy, all brain and no heart, said that? Bringing you along must’ve meant he wanted to make full use of you.”
Chad tilted his head, and Lukna quickly made up a half-hearted excuse.
“Maybe it’s because I’m not good at following orders. I made a few mistakes earlier too, haha.”
Lukna pointed to her disheveled shirt.
Chad noticed that the missing buttons had been replaced with the medals Maritian had given her and seemed convinced by her explanation.
“Ah, so you got marked by that perfectionist too. Poor Luka.”
He laughed heartily while draping an arm around Lukna’s shoulders, clutching his stomach from amusement.
Lukna flinched at the contact.
It felt strange that her whole body stiffened against a skinny guy she could probably defeat in sparring.
“Why are you so tense?”
Chad wiped his eyes and tilted his head, staring directly at Lukna.
“Do you think I’m some bad guy who would do something to you?”
“……”
“You’re more innocent than I thought.”
Chad tickled under Lukna’s chin, and her body floated into the air, hanging upside down.
A vine-like plant had sprung from the ground, wrapping around her ankle.
It was Chad’s magic.
“Wh-what are you doing?”
“I have a favor to ask of you. Could you keep it a secret that I just met a girl?”
“This is your idea of asking a favor?”
“You have secrets too, so don’t act high and mighty.”
Lukna swallowed hard at that.
Upside down, the pendant of the holy sword tucked inside her shirt swung free near her chin.
Chad placed his finger on her forehead and slowly moved it.
His fingertip passed over her nose, lips, and neck.
It stopped at the medal Maritian had attached in place of the missing shirt buttons.
Hanging upside down, Lukna could barely breathe.
She was nervous because his fingers might notice the holy sword and pull it down.
“Haha, look at you all tense. Fun, isn’t it?”
Chad pressed the medal slightly harder.
Even though he was thin, he was strong. The collarbone where the medal touched ached.
“You still going to deny it, Luka?”
He tilted his head, one corner of his mouth raised, and revealed a secret of hers.
“You… are a girl.”
“……”
Lukna’s eyes widened, then she burst out laughing.
Chad might have thought she’d gone mad from blood rushing to her head, but she was relieved it was her gender, not the holy sword, that had been discovered.
‘If my gender is discovered, it could just get me expelled, but if the holy sword is found out, Maritian would crush me. And the Red Eagle wouldn’t leave me alive either.’
Graduation was only a few months away, but her top priority was safety and survival.
Chad furrowed his brows as he saw Lukna remaining so composed.
Was Lukna Golden someone who could act so nonchalant in this situation? His eyes narrowed.
“No use pretending not to know. I saw it clearly when you returned to school.”
“What?”
“You drinking gender juice in front of the school gates.”
Chad explained he had been to the Island of Wisdom before, so he was familiar with all sorts of elixirs—except for the golden elixir, which he hadn’t seen firsthand.
“Oh, so you saw that back then.”
Lukna nodded, recalling her first arrival at the military academy.
She cut the vines that had bound her ankles with the training dagger she’d used for practice.
Spinning her body, she landed on the ground smoothly, showing impressive skill.
Chad, taken aback by her composure, thought for a moment and then smiled knowingly.
“Ah, so you were waiting for an excuse to get expelled from school?”
That explained why Lukna had stood out by knocking down Hans and Zwei, creating that strange club, and drawing attention to herself.
“Even with memory loss, it’s odd for someone to run out of the school in a panic and then come back on their own. I always wondered…”
His usually weary brown eyes regained a sharp, vibrant glint.
It was the thrill of solving a difficult magic formula—a rush of excitement from head to toe.
A long-missed, exhilarating feeling. Lukna was the source of it.
Even more exciting because the person delivering it was female.
Her whole body trembled as if overwhelmed with pure joy.
“Right, you returned unwillingly under pressure from the Golden family. You couldn’t refuse the Count’s offer. You were waiting for an excuse to be expelled and escape that terrible school.”
He seemed to understand that awful feeling—being thrust into misery against one’s will and the choking sense of responsibility.
Chad muttered to himself as he stepped closer to Lukna.
‘That guy’s eyes… it’s like they’re going to swallow me.’
Lukna backed up, her back hitting a hard wall.
Without hesitation, she pushed Chad’s chest away.
“Ugh?”
His skinny frame staggered back three or four steps.
“Stronger than I expected, Luka.”
Chad was astonished but laughed again, amused.
“You’re the first woman to push me away. I’m quite surprised.”
“First time for this, huh? Your social circle must have been pretty limited.”
“Haha, no matter how sharp you get, it doesn’t erase the secret you’ve been hiding, Luka.”
The Golden family had forced her into the academy, even disguised as a boy, to ensure she would earn her diploma.
Luka, fed up with school life, had been waiting for a chance to deliberately get expelled.
Chad misunderstood this as having discovered a huge weakness of hers.
“Let’s keep our secrets, Luka. But I’ll make sure you can go about school comfortably. No one will bother you anymore.”
Chad gave his signature flirty eye-smile.
He was confident that the girl would probably fall for him.
“Fine.”
Lukna answered quickly, without hesitation, and left the alley.
It wasn’t that she needed Chad’s help, nor that she’d been won over by his smile—she just wanted to escape the moment of facing him.
Chad followed her and, as if petting a dog, stroked her head.
“Why are you following? Didn’t you say you weren’t sightseeing?”
Lukna bristled to avoid the unwelcome touch, which only amused Chad further.
“A gentleman should escort a lady properly.”
“Hah!”
Lukna quickened her pace.
She ran, but the usually lazy Chad kept up easily.
“From today, Luka and I will get along even better than Maritian.”
“What?”
“Sharing a secret makes a bond stronger, right?”
“……”
“Then where should we start sightseeing? There?”
Chad pointed left.
“No, from over there.”
Lukna pointed to the opposite side.
Several figures in black masks surrounded the fallen Grand Sage.
“Damn it, if only this old man hadn’t used the mermaid’s voice, I could’ve finished this quickly.”
The masked figures were pulling the Sage Stone from the fallen Grand Sage’s staff.
“Wait, someone’s coming from that way? Cadets from the academy?”
“What? Weren’t they all supposed to be at the central tower?”
The crouching terrorists were startled by Lukna’s sudden appearance and raised their weapons defensively.
‘Just as Maritian predicted.’
While the tower was being held by one group of terrorists, a hidden remnant was targeting the Grand Sage and the Sage Stone.
‘The terrorists must be the Red Eagle.’
Their faces were hidden under deep black hoods, but the Red Eagle emblem hinted at their allegiance.
Their dagger-hand movements and nimble motions suggested they weren’t ordinary dark mages.
“Chad, if you cast magic, I’ll grab the Grand Sage while you distract them… Chad?”
Where had he gone?! Lukna glanced around.
The bastard was waving from far away, having already disappeared from the immediate scene.
“Good luck, Luka!”
“Why aren’t you coming here?”
“I got jealous.”
Chad drooped his eyebrows, pointing at Lukna’s shirt and wrist.
Looking down, she saw Maritian’s medal along with the holy relic bracelet he had gifted her.
“Next time, wear what I give you. Then I’ll help.”
With that, Chad vanished from sight.
‘That damned guy!’
Lukna gritted her teeth and focused on the enemies surrounding the Grand Sage.
One of them had already stolen the Sage Stone and fled.
Three remained. Not bad. The absence of that one might even make it easier to call on the holy sword’s help.
“Hi, Visbi, can I defeat these guys alone?”
“Of course, but the opponents are highly skilled, Master.”
‘Is that supposed to be comforting?’
“Did I not tell you to train properly? You slack off and ignore me, and now look at the mess you’ve caused.”
‘It’s just a few times, I was trying my best!’
“This time, I’ll help you, but train harder afterward.”
The holy sword lectured like a mother while emitting light.
A long rod jutted from the shining pendant. Lukna grabbed it, and a club shot out…
“Kill them!”
She hadn’t fully drawn the club yet, but a dark red magic circle spread across the ground beneath her.
Even villains wait for magical girls to transform—did these guys have no decency at all?
With the club half-embedded in her chest, Lukna squeezed her eyes shut…
Nothing happened.
