Starry Country, Sword and Rose Sorcerer University, dusk.
Carrying her sword bag on her back, Ingrid returned to the dormitory and held up a gold-bordered invitation. "I just got back from practical swordsmanship class. Someone asked me to deliver this invitation to Sonia."
Adele walked over, took a look at it, curled her lip, and casually tossed it into the trash can. "Even a viscount's son dares to send an invitation? Talk about a toad lusting after swan meat... Ingrid, let me teach you: for invitations with fewer than three stars, just refuse by saying, 'I'm not really that close with Sonia.' If there's a moon star, you can bring it back, because that means the sender is at least an official heir to an earldom or higher."
"What if there's a radiant star?" Although Ingrid was technically of noble birth as well, she had never studied heraldry growing up and knew nothing about noble etiquette.
"Then that represents an olive branch from royalty," Adele said. "You'd need to drop to one knee, put on white gloves, and accept the invitation to show respect to the royal family... Haha, just kidding. In reality, taking it normally is fine, but doing that might win you the royal family's favor!"
Adele had only meant it as a joke, but seeing Ingrid adopt a contemplative expression, she was caught off guard. "You're actually considering it?"
Ingrid countered, "Why wouldn't I consider it? Aren't opportunities to build connections with royalty exceedingly rare?"
Adele scratched her cheek. "Well... how should I put this? The impression you've always given us, Ingrid, is someone who won't bend her knee to power, let alone compromise herself for profit. After all, when Sonia offered to introduce you to Professor Trozan before, you weren't even willing..."
"I don't bend to power, nor do I compromise myself for profit." Ingrid nodded. "In the few days since I became a sorcerer, plenty of nobles have extended goodwill to me through various channels, and I ignored them all."
"Then why are you willing to bow to the royal family?"
"Bowing to other nobles is selling oneself to the powerful, but serving royalty is contributing to society. How could they possibly be the same?" Ingrid rolled her eyes at Adele, walking over to set down her sword bag. "I'm not an idiot. My goal after becoming a sword sorcerer is to join the Starry sorcerer system. If there's an opportunity for a higher starting point, why should I turn it down?"
Adele understood—the reason Ingrid was so unyielding was that she had decided long ago her only sovereign could be this nation, and the master of the Starry Country was the royal family. Therefore, she would only dedicate her loyalty to royalty and would never accept recruitment from other nobles.
"Still, why don't they go straight to Sonia?" Ingrid asked, puzzled. "Sonia goes to the training ground every day. Wouldn't she be easy to find?"
"They don't dare."
Rubbing her eyes and yawning, Lois climbed down from her bed and said, "Nobles care about saving face above all else. If word got out that Sonia rejected their banquet invitation, they would be the only ones humiliated, never Sonia. But if the invitation comes through us, no one will know even if it's rejected... Urgh, my head hurts so bad. Adele—"
"Coming, coming." Adele quickly mixed a glass of honey water and handed it to Lois, who gulped it down. Ingrid asked curiously, "You get hangovers, Lois?"
"Any normal person gets a hangover after sleeping off booze," Lois grumbled.
When Sonia returned triumphant from Locus University in the early hours of the morning, the entire female dormitory had erupted, throwing an all-night celebration party.
The dorm matron had objected at first, but after Professor Trozan paid out of her own pocket for the Secret Garden to deliver several cases of wine overnight, the matron could only reluctantly accept a couple of drinks herself.
It was inevitable that the girls' dormitory would be so thrilled. Although Sonia had been devoted entirely to swordsmanship training this past month without attending any girls' activities, one had to remember that last semester, she had worked diligently to expand her network. Even if she wasn't close with everyone, she had at least met them once.
Thus, following Sonia's rise, the girls quietly followed this impoverished, beautiful college student. Among them were well-wishers, the envious, and the spiteful. Regardless, they were all watching Sonia. And as Sonia trained in swordsmanship come rain or shine and racked up dazzling victory after victory, many of them gradually shifted their perspective, secretly cheering her on and becoming her very first fans.
In truth, most students of Sword and Rose Sorcerer University came from Jialesi's middle class, lower nobility, and merchant families. Though born into luxury and comfort, their inner lives were often utterly vacant. The prosperous city of Jialesi had merely filled their heads with vanity and amusement, bestowing none of the responsibility or ideals they ought to possess.
The better ones, like Lois, still knew to study hard so they could take over the family business later. The worse ones, like Adele, simply drifted through four years at the university, ready to marry right after graduation, have a few kids, and coast along for the rest of their lives—after all, someone would always catch her if she fell.
They were like lavishly dressed scarecrows, lingering in the mortal world merely to make up the numbers.
At the beginning, the reason locals like Adele and Lois had ostracized Sonia and Ingrid was fundamentally a clash between scarecrows and fire. Both Ingrid and Sonia held clear ideals and ambitions in their hearts; their souls constantly radiated the flames of "struggle," naturally provoking alienation from scarecrows.
But now, circumstances had changed.
Because Sonia was no longer just fire; she had risen, becoming a steadily ascending radiant star.
Scarecrows feared the searing pain of flames, but they did not fear the sunlight of a radiant star. On the contrary, they yearned for the sunlight to enrich their souls. As long as the radiant star grew brighter and brighter, they felt as though their own hollow souls were becoming fuller and more brilliant.
In fact, Lois was the first to be influenced. To keep pace with Sonia, she had quietly declined all social invitations, stopped attending tea parties, quit her clubs, and even listened attentively in class, devoting herself wholeheartedly to studying the water sorcery faction. Her progress over this past month was worth the previous six months—all that meaningless socializing in the past had consumed far too much of her mental energy.
So when they saw Sonia slay the alchemical giant bear with a single sword strike on the Curtain live broadcast, they were so thrilled they nearly leapt for joy in the dorm. The honor of being Sword and Rose students, combined with Sonia's achievement—these two joys overlapped, bringing them even greater delight.
Last night's celebration party didn't end until dawn, and the dorm room still bore traces of yesterday's revelry: the trash can overflowed with bottles and cans, and paper scraps from firework canisters littered the floor—quite an achievement that they had even managed to find celebratory fireworks in the dead of night.
Lois wasn't a sorcerer yet. Staying up late to watch the Curtain broadcast had already exhausted her, and with the late-night party on top of it, she had paired an all-nighter with alcohol, drinking more and more freely. The moment dawn broke, she collapsed drunk in bed and slept like a log, skipping an entire day of classes.
In contrast, Adele had drunk plenty but suffered no ill effects whatsoever. Even after staying up all night, she was still full of energy and didn't need any sleep—which, by her own account, was "a talent honed from binge-watching shows late into the night." Lois was currently dying from her miserable hangover, and seeing Adele looking so radiant while fiddling with the Curtain, she couldn't resist kicking her.
"My bad!" Lois preempted immediately at the top of her lungs.
Adele was completely thrown off by her and grumbled, "I knew you'd take your anger out on me..."
"Where's Sonia?" asked Ingrid. She had been conducting Void Realm Exploration last night, and by the time she returned this morning, the celebration party was already over. "Is she still out?"
"She came back at noon," Adele said, jutting her chin. "She's been lying in bed the whole time."
Ingrid looked over, only now noticing Sonia lying prone on her bed and messing around with the Curtain. She tapped away with intense focus: one moment smiling with joy, the next gnashing her teeth, one moment solemn and contemplative, the next radiating vindication—her expression shifting several times within a single minute.
The swordswoman blinked. "Why has she suddenly gotten obsessed with the Curtain? She's just like a certain someone..."
"You've changed, Ingrid," Adele said faintly. "You never used to insult people so indirectly."
"I didn't say it was you!"
"You still dare to deny it? As if I don't know who in this building is most obsessed with the Curtain?!"
Chapter 268