"Hey, hey, look at that girl..."
"Seriously, how can she show her face here?"
"Pretending to be innocent, shameless..."
The girl sitting in her seat completely ignored the strange gazes she was receiving. She made a conscious effort to disregard the mocking whispers. After all, she had expected this reaction from the start.
...The real problem, however, was the lecture being conducted right in front of her.
"Oh, so you mean... the key points required for constructing a boundary formula are..."
The elderly professor, who seemed on the verge of his coffin, mumbled the content with uncertainty. A small sigh escaped from her lips in response. She tried not to be noticed by those around her, but she was clearly becoming bored.
"Sigh... So boring."
Resting her cheek on her hand, she muttered quietly. It wasn't because she didn't understand the lecture. On the contrary, she found it unbearably dull, precisely because she already knew everything being taught.
...The Onmyouji Academy, an affiliated institution of the Omnyouji Bureau, was a national educational facility for training young exorcists.
However, many prestigious families preferred to pass down their secret rituals and concealed techniques within their own families, making it rare for their members to attend the Onmyouji Academy.
In fact, the establishment of the school was originally a supplementary system set up to restore the quality of the exorcists' families that had been severely weakened or even wiped out during the "Human-Youkai Great War."
As a result, the majority of students attending the school were from newly emerging exorcist families or from second or third-rate families. Even if students from prestigious families attended, it was more for networking purposes rather than the actual lectures.
This resulted in the low standard of lectures. Coupled with her own intelligence, the class was unproductive and even painful for her. Even though she was treated as a special student, it didn't change that fact. In fact, it sometimes felt like a burden, considering her family's position.
"Uh...!?"
She felt something hit her head. When she glanced, she saw a piece of rolled-up Japanese paper lying on the tatami mat. A small mocking laughter could be heard from behind...
"..."
She thought it was a pointless prank, a childish act. And actually, it was just that—a child's doing.
"Stealth. Transformation. Curse reversal. ...Go."
She whispered under her breath, directing her focus to the hidden paper. Silently, a paper rat emerged from her sleeve and rolled towards the scrap on the floor. Upon contact, the rat reconfigured itself, turning into a wrinkled paper rat.
The paper rat dashed forward, hopping between the gaps of the desks. It jumped out on top of a desk right in front of a boy who was about to become an exorcist.
"Huh?"
'Squeaks!'
In an instant, the boy was dumbfounded. The paper rat was quicker than he could react. It spat out ink, splattering the boy's face. Before the boy's cries attracted the attention of others, the paper rat retreated and escaped out of the window. It toss into the fireplace or furnace to make sure there's no evidence left
"What are you doing? If you cause another commotion, you will be punished, you know?"
"No, it's... it's that guy! Using a Shikigami!!"
"Shikigami? Where would you find such a thing?"
"Ugh...!!?"
In response to the professor's words, the girl smirked. She wasn't an impulsive fool herself. She had taken great care to disguise her use of the technique. She had meticulously researched, ensuring that there were no visible traces of her employing the magic. Besides, the elderly professors, who were only concerned about their retirement and salary, had no intention of verifying such trivial matters, and she had seen through that.
"Enough of this nonsense. Stop fooling around, or I'll have to impose penalties!"
As expected, the elderly professor complained, scolding the bewildered boy. Then, as if testing the girl, the professor asked her a question related to the lecture. Without hesitation, she responded in a singing manner. The professor sighed but praised her, and she accepted the compliment gracefully.
...She didn't realize that her condescending attitude towards others might be one of the reasons she was disliked. Or maybe, even if she had realized it, she simply dismissed it as nothing more than petty jealousy.
"Then, moving on to the imbuing of characteristics in the boundary... Oh, my, is it already that time?"
As the lecture was about to transition to the next topic, the sound of a bell echoed through the room. It was the bell that conveyed the time to the imperial palace and the entire capital city. Marking the passage of time was both a duty of the court and a right of the state to govern the actions of its officials, both civil and military.
And that bell marked the end of the tedious hour.
The elderly professor declared the end of the lecture and assigned the next task, while the attending students started chatting with each other. Amidst it all, she calmly left the room. She had no questions to ask the professor, and she had no interest in the inferior students. She had never experienced strolling around the city's shops with friends, nor did she have any desire to do so.
However, instead of heading straight back to the temporary residence set up outside the palace walls, she had a different destination in mind. She was heading to see that person.
With super sneaky skills and hypnotic tricks she learned from her 'teacher,' plus some curse-tools she had, fooling the watchful guards was a piece of cake.
"Huff, huff, huff!!"
Her heart pounding, she ran through the gates and arrived at Gai-kyo (outer area), the slum area primarily inhabited by the poor and migrant workers. There, in the back alley of a certain shop, resided the person she sought.
"Teacher!!"
Bursting into the shop, she exclaimed, causing a family being treated by the young doctor, her teacher, to look at her in surprise. The doctor, dressed in a white coat, smiled wryly when he saw her.
"You're certainly full of energy. ...Oh well, it hasn't been that long since the bell rang. Seems like you rushed here. ...Ah, could you wait for a moment in that corner? I'm still preparing the prescription. Feel free to read any books on the shelf while you wait."
"Yes, understood!! I'll do that!"
She quickly went over to the shelf in the back of the shop and started immersing herself in a book. The 'teacher' chuckled at her behavior but continued explaining the prescription to the mother and child.
"Alright, then. Will this amount be fine?"
"Well, are you sure? It's such a small fee..."
The mother was astonished by the cost indicated on the abacus. In Gai-kyo (Outer Area), there were plenty of unreliable doctors, and many would demand large fees. This unreliable doctor is here because the number of certified doctors recognized by Fusō-kuni was insufficient, given the demand. So, most people relied on unlicensed folk medicine or dubious remedies.
This young doctor was one of the most reputable in Gai-kyo (Outer Area). His diagnoses were accurate, and his prescriptions were highly effective. He asked for reasonable payment, conducted himself with sophistication, and also secretly sold affordable and potent curse-tools. Many residents of Gai-kyo believed that he was once a nobleman serving in the imperial palace. Like Seinen Shonin, who had fallen from grace in the court's political struggle and descended to the common world to serve the people, it was rare for someone with such charisma to dedicate themselves to the common folk.
"That's alright. It's just a common cold for the boy. Nothing too serious. ...More importantly, please make sure he gets plenty of rest. Give him water frequently, and feed him easily digestible food."
"Yes, understood. Thank you so much."
Smiling as she touched the child's forehead, the 'teacher' offered advice to the mother. She couldn't help but express her gratitude repeatedly. After the mother and child left the shop, he sighed.
"Well, then. Why were you in such a hurry to come here today? Is it because you're the daughter of the Matsushige family?"
As he turned to ask her, his gaze landed on the young girl who was intensely reading a book.
The contents of the book she was desperately trying to decipher were about the effects of various spiritual and magical herbs, based on experiments. Much of that knowledge was beyond what students at the academy could learn, and some of the items were potentially subject to prohibition as forbidden arts. From those precious texts, the girl shifted her gaze to her 'teacher,' and then she answered.
"Today, I heard it was the day to evaluate the results of your experiments, and I thought I'd help as your assistant!"
The lively girl responded, but the young doctor, her teacher, sharply pointed out, "You're lying. Your real intention is just to know the results of the experiment as soon as possible, right?"
Her enthusiastic answer was indeed an attempt to deceive, and upon realizing the truth behind it, she couldn't help but smile wryly. She smiled, attempting to cover it up like a child.
She knew about the experiments her teacher had been conducting when she visited this place before. She couldn't help but be curious and anxious about the results, to the point where she couldn't sleep well last night. But that was her secret.
"Oh well... you're such an incorrigible child."
With his remark being accurate, her teacher gave her a grown-up, exasperated smile but didn't pursue the matter further. Instead, he snapped his fingers, and the door closed, the sliding doors shut, and the medicine cabinet closed. The shop was closing for the day.
"Now, come here. Bring your brush and scrolls. You're going to learn from someone else's knowledge, so at least act as my assistant."
"Yes, teacher!!"
With her teacher's permission, the girl happily smiled and ran towards the back of the room, where she made her footsteps echo. She was excited. She deeply respected her teacher and was genuinely delighted to be of assistance to his research.
In her family's position, due to their financial circumstances, and above all, due to the numerous legal constraints imposed on exorcist families in Fusō-kuni, she was bored. She didn't want to waste her time and talents. So, when she encountered a teacher who far surpassed her, a girl who was naive about the world almost blindly believed in him.
And then...
