No matter how special the Old School Building may be within the Academy, basic human decency is still upheld there.
Would the instructors allow female students to sleep naked in the same bed as a male student?
Perhaps if it were the instructors themselves?
Of course not.
Because today is not their turn.
And the two people lying next to me right now are not naked either.
If you pull the blanket slightly, you’ll see that they are definitely wearing sleepwear underneath.
A black band of magic, almost like bandages.
Rather than actual clothing, it feels as if they have tightly wrapped themselves in black bandages, almost like some kind of tape affixed to their bodies.
It looks as if that S-rank monster, Gerrquan Wiperus, had sprayed ink and censored them, but some might still find the sight of such tight-fitting attire quite… enticing.
I simply accept it as is.
Whether they wear off-shoulder dresses or wrap mana-infused tape around themselves like bandages, it only means they are sincerely committed to the process of refining their mana to be as ‘pure’ as possible.
“Wake up, Yunia. And Ludmila.”
“Mmm… is it morning already?”
Yunia yawns as she lifts her body.
Likewise, Ludmila, who had been peacefully asleep, rubs her eyes and slowly begins to wake up.
Snap.
As soon as I flick my fingers, a refreshing breeze sweeps over both of them.
A simple cleaning spell—effective enough to make them feel as fresh and hygienic as if they had taken a shower. Quite useful on busy days.
“How do you feel?”
“As always, excellent. Phoenix, when I sleep by your side like this, I don’t even have nightmares.”
“That’s right. Rather… Ahem.”
Yunia, who was about to talk about her dream, suddenly flushes red and clears her throat.
Ludmila, too, briefly turns red and glances at me before closing her mouth.
I don’t ask what kind of dream they had to make them so embarrassed.
After all, as someone who is half-incubus, I already have a general idea.
At the very least, it’s not the kind of nightmare where they witness the horrors of Angels descending to Earth and lose their sanity.
If anything, it’s more about their human instincts, desires, and aspirations materializing into dreams—experiencing new things or envisioning their future selves.
In short, Kyun-Kyun.
Not that I manipulate anything.
Even without interference, both Yunia and Ludmila naturally experience it on their own.
Knock, Knock, Knock.
A knock from outside.
I immediately recognize who’s standing beyond the door.
Creak.
“You’re late!”
Evangeline stands with her arms crossed, scanning the room.
Unlike the two, who are still scrambling to put on their shirts and other clothes, she is already dressed perfectly in her Academy uniform.
“New students are arriving today, and you’re just lounging around? You need to establish discipline from the start!”
“We’re all part of the Academy’s special class. Is discipline really necessary? The Esdinas Academy teaches that we should study together, learn together, and achieve our goals together.”
“Ludmila, what if the new students get too comfortable with this guy and start rotating into his bed?”
“That would be… a bit problematic.”
“Could you avoid using the term ‘bed rotation’ in front of others? The new students aren’t like Senior Yurha, who already understands our environment.”
I tousle Evangeline’s hair as I scold her.
“If someone unfamiliar with the situation sees this, they might get startled and report it.”
“Oh? So you do realize it’s a reportable offense?”
“It’s not exactly a normal situation. It’s against the Academy dormitory rules, after all.”
“The rule that male and female students can’t sleep in the same bed in the Academy dorms?”
“Exactly.”
“Then as long as it’s not the Academy dorms, or as long as we don’t sleep in the same bed, it should be fine?”
“Over the past 500 years, countless Academy students have tried to exploit loopholes in the rules. That’s why there are now so many additional clauses closing those gaps. You can’t underestimate the history of the Academy, Yunia.”
There’s a reason why the Academy rulebook is as thick as a college textbook.
“But the Old School Building isn’t subject to those rules, is it?”
“Yunia, if someone hears you, they’ll think we’re using the Old School Building to do all the things we can’t do in the dorms.”
“That’s not incorrect, is it? Hehe.”
“That kind of ominous smirk is exactly what causes misunderstandings with new students.”
“But this way, we set clear boundaries in advance, so they don’t overstep. They still have a long way to go before they can benefit from the Phoenix Totem.”
“Indeed. With the Great Martial Tournament approaching, we need to maximize our exposure to the Totem’s power.”
The reason they’re so used to sleeping in my room isn’t just because we’ve grown close.
“Staying close to Phoenix makes our mana purer and more refined.”
“Exactly. Are we supposed to just ignore the ‘thing’ inside us? We refuse to let it be.”
“That’s right. Oh, and you know tomorrow is my turn, right? Hehehe.”
Not just these three from the Vermilion Bird class, but even some of the instructors come to sleep near me twice a week, trying to cleanse their bodies of ‘toxins’.
“Honestly, I should’ve kept this a secret from Instructor Kadisha.”
“Are you hoping to have some time alone? If that’s the case, then while we’re asleep, you could secretly…”
“It’s not like that.”
What exactly is this “toxin”?
“If the new students in the Old School Building ask why you’re sleeping in my room, how do you plan to answer? Are you going to say that you sleep nearly naked because you love the massages that blond and tanned delinquent gives every night?”
It’s angelic power.
Since the beginning of the first semester, I have been meticulously removing the angelic power within them.
Each time they Kyun-Kyun, the angelic power diminishes or completely disappears.
Whenever I infuse mana into my hands and adjust their flow, the angelic power vanishes.
Now, we refer to it as ‘mana toxins’.
Calling it outright ‘angelic power’ would essentially be declaring war against the Church of the Goddess.
And as the angelic power fades, the quality of their mana improves.
They themselves have felt this firsthand, which is why they treat me like a totem.
“We have no choice. Thanks to Phoenix’s special techniques, we keep getting stronger.”
“That’s right. If not for Phoenix, we wouldn’t have become this powerful.”
“Agreed.”
“…You’ve all swallowed the red pill a little too hard.”
“We had no choice. Now that we know mana has something like that in it.”
Instructor Kadisha, now wearing a white coat and having started to grow out her hair, approached the floor where the students stayed, adjusting her monocle.
“It might not be quite like a parasite, but if there’s something unpleasant in your body, wouldn’t you want to get rid of it? We’re not like Instructor Esta, an S-rank who can cleanse it on her own.”
“Instructor Kadisha.”
“Yeah?”
“Are you wearing something under that coat?”
“Ah, well…”
Kadisha scratched her cheek at my question, then playfully undid one of the coat’s buttons, winking.
“I am wearing something. Technically.”
“…”
What exactly is she wearing?
I don’t ask.
If I did, I’d just end up with more problems.
“So, Phoenix. Did you check the list of new arrivals today?”
“No. Other than Senior Yurha, I haven’t heard anything. Instructor Esta kept it secret.”
“I see. She left for the Academy’s main building at dawn, so I thought maybe you knew something… Oh?”
Kadisha’s eyes widened as she looked at the signal on her magic pad.
“We have a bit of a problem.”
“A problem?”
“Yeah. Right now…”
Kadisha gestured with her hand as if forming a wall.
“The female students have blocked the path.”
“…The female students?”
* * *
[At that moment, on the path to the Old School Building, Esdinas Academy.]
“Everyone, don’t unlink your arms! We must stand united!”
“Make sure your elbows are touching each other’s mana pockets! We’re blocking the way here!”
At the break of dawn on the first day of the second semester, a group of female students stood in formation at the entrance to the forest leading to the Old School Building.
“If you want to enter the Old School Building, you’ll have to get past us!”
“That’s right! We can’t just accept this! Do you know how hard we’ve worked for this?!”
“We spent our entire break training our mana, waiting to be ‘chosen,’ and now they’re just letting in pre-selected candidates?!”
With eyes blazing, the female students glared at the golden carriage that had come to a stop in the middle of the road.
“Uh, excuse me.”
A woman had stepped out of the Golden Carriage and climbed onto its roof—Yurha Silverstar.
She wore a troubled expression as she gestured toward the protestors.
“Since none of the seniors are here, I’ll just speak plainly. I’m the top-ranked student, so… are you blocking me too?”
“You’re fine, Senior!”
“Yurha is acceptable! But the others…!”
“We can’t accept them!”
The protesting female students pounded their chests as they shouted.
“How did someone barely scraping a C-cup make it into the Old School Building’s special class, the ‘Azure Dragon Class’?!”
“Yeah! And her mana isn’t even on par with the mana pockets—she’s only E-rank! Why?!”
Inside the Golden Carriage—
“Ugh… Uuuuugh….”
A timid girl with violet hair clutched a rather large magic panel tightly, looking as if she were about to cry.
“That’s… exactly what I want to knowww….”
She was a new student for the Azure Dragon Class.
“I didn’t even get in through special admission…”
“Even we, who entered through special admission, weren’t allowed into the Old School Building! So why, why would someone barely E-rank be allowed?!!”
Compared to the gathered female students—who had an average of G—she had less than half their capacity.
(TLN: Fun fact, the Azure Dragon has no relation to the Azure Flame that I know of. It references the Four Symbols, aka Chinese constellations just like the Vermilion Bird, future special classes will probably continue the trend.)
