Chapter 50: Chapter 49: Ophélia’s First Day.

The phone rang at 7:10 in the morning.

Takeshi looked at it from bed with half-open eyes, read the name on the screen, and took three seconds to decide whether to answer. In the end, he picked up.

"Good morning."

Merwyn said without any preamble.

"I need you to go to the shrine, pick up Ophélia, and accompany her to the high school."

Takeshi slowly sat up in bed.

"Can’t Nyx go?"

"Nyx has a meeting with the family lawyer about the inheritance situation."

"And Aoi?"

"Aoi has sword practice starting at seven and finishes right when classes begin."

Takeshi stared at the ceiling.

"Send her in one of your cars... I’m sure you’ve got one available."

"No."

Merwyn replied in the same tone someone used when explaining something to a person who should’ve understood it already.

"If Ophélia arrives in one of my vehicles, anyone aware of my resources will associate her with the student council from day one. That draws attention exactly where we don’t want it. She needs to arrive like any other student, on foot, without external markers."

"And I’m the least noticeable external marker?"

"Exactly."

Takeshi didn’t answer immediately.

’He just called me a nobody...’

"Fujimoto."

"I heard you already, fine."

Merwyn ended the call without adding anything else. Takeshi set the phone down on the bed and remained seated for a moment before getting up to get ready.

’Today’s going to be busy.’

The shrine was a little over twenty minutes away on foot from his apartment. Takeshi left with enough time to arrive before Ophélia had to wait too long.

The morning was clear, and the street carried the usual weekday noise of people heading to work, shops opening, the occasional car double-parked. Takeshi walked at an unhurried pace.

He arrived at the shrine at 7:48. One of the workers recognized him from the entrance and let him pass without questions. The place had the same atmosphere as the first time, with controlled silence and people moving with purpose, but without noise.

Takeshi followed the main hallway toward the inner waiting room, where they told him Ophélia would be ready.

He saw her while he was still several meters away.

She was standing near the window, wearing the high school uniform with a backpack slung over one shoulder.

The uniform suited her well. Her dark jacket followed the line of her shoulders without any looseness, and the pleated skirt fell exactly at the proper height. Her light hair was tied back simply, with a few loose strands framing the sides of her face. The eyes Takeshi remembered as pale caught the window light in a way that made it difficult not to look at them a second longer than necessary.

She didn’t have to do anything in particular to draw attention.

Takeshi stopped walking for a second.

The chat suddenly appeared.

[LADIES AND GENTLEMEN]

[GOOD AFTERNOON EVERYONE]

[the protagonist has just booted up]

[now I get why they picked this setting]

[TAKESHI.EXE HAS STOPPED RESPONDING]

[don’t blame him, I’d be standing there too]

[sanity decreasing... but for different reasons this time]

Takeshi resumed walking and left the chat floating there without reading any more of it.

Ophélia noticed him approaching, and her expression immediately changed. She smiled, and there was something about that smile Takeshi couldn’t quite define at that moment.

"Takeshi."

She said.

"Good morning."

"Morning."

He stopped in front of her.

"Ready?"

Ophélia nodded, but the gesture was too quick, almost restrained. Her hands were closed tightly around the backpack straps. Takeshi noticed that detail, and he also noticed her shoulders slightly tense, her eyes moving a little faster than normal, the way she exhaled somewhat unevenly.

’It’s her first time going to a school...’

Takeshi thought.

’Guess she’s nervous about that.’

He found it cute. Not in a condescending way, but in the way something completely genuine was difficult to ignore.

"Nervous?"

He asked.

She hesitated.

"A little..."

She admitted.

"I don’t exactly know how I’m supposed to behave in a place like that."

"It’s a school."

Takeshi said.

"You don’t need to behave in any special way."

"I know, but reading about something and actually being there are different things."

That was true. Takeshi didn’t have an argument against it, so he simply pointed toward the exit.

"Come on, unless we want to be late."

Ophélia followed him toward the door. One of the older priests approached before they left and quietly said something to Ophélia. She answered calmly, nodded, and then kept walking. Takeshi decided not to ask.

They left the shrine and headed down the main street toward the high school.

Ophélia walked beside him with straight posture and her eyes moving from side to side, taking in the stores, the people, a dog tied to a pole, a sign with peeling letters outside a hardware store.

She wasn’t doing it in an obvious way. It was more like someone mentally recording every single thing because they knew they would never have another chance to see it for the first time.

"How many people are there at the high school?"

She asked after a moment.

"I don’t know the exact number, but several hundred... I think."

"And do they all know each other?"

"No, the groups are smaller. You know the people in your class, the ones from activities, the people you run into in the halls often..."

Ophélia processed that.

"And how do those groups form?"

Takeshi thought about the answer before giving it.

"Without much planning, I guess. People who sit together, who end up in the same places, who start talking for some random reason. There’s no formal process."

"Like us?"

She asked.

"More or less."

Ophélia nodded slowly, as if that confirmed something she had been calculating. Then she looked ahead and asked:

"What are magic classes like?"

Takeshi explained the format to her: theory two days a week, practice the other three, an instructor who preferred direct examples over long explanations. He told her about the affinity system, the test done during the second month, the difference between how elemental magic was taught compared to imbuement.

Ophélia listened attentively and asked specific questions that showed she was processing the information in real time.

Takeshi answered everything he knew, and the things he didn’t know, he admitted directly.

At some point along the way, Ophélia asked whether the cafeteria had many food options. Takeshi told her it was standard school cafeteria food, that it did the job and wasn’t terrible, but not to expect anything special.

"I’m not expecting anything special..."

She replied.

"I just want to eat there."

She said it in such a simple and straightforward way that Takeshi didn’t know how to respond.

They kept walking. The chat floated up a couple more times with comments, but Takeshi ignored it effortlessly.

When they were two blocks away, Ophélia slightly slowed her pace.

"Something wrong?"

Takeshi asked.

"No."

She said, then added in an almost quieter voice:

"It’s just that we’re almost there."

Takeshi glanced sideways at her. Ophélia’s gaze was fixed on the building already visible at the end of the street. She wasn’t scared. She was anxious.

Takeshi said nothing and kept walking beside her.

They reached the main entrance of the high school at 8:14, with enough time before the first bell, but there, waiting near the gate, stood Aoi and Nyx.

Takeshi stopped for a second.

Neither of them said anything, but both were looking at Ophélia, then at Takeshi, with expressions that didn’t need words to communicate exactly what they were thinking.

Ophélia greeted them with a bright smile, completely unaware of anything.

’Yeah, today’s definitely going to be busy.’