"Aaaaaaah—"
The sound came from far away and from top to bottom, accompanied by increasingly obvious vibrations. If you listened carefully, you could make out that the cry was swirling and spiraling downwards.
It seems that someone rolled down the stairs, from the third floor to the first floor.
Just as Shinji made this judgment, he saw a person falling out from the stairs.
Surprisingly, the young man, who was only a few years older than Shinji, bent his waist and bounced up from the ground the moment he landed, and he didn't seem to be affected by the fall at all.
The young man stood firm, not even bothering to clean the dust off his body, and raised his head and cursed: "You barbarian, you bumped into me again."
"I'm sorry, I didn't see it because you're too short." The apology sounded insincere.
This was also a teenager, and compared to the thin teenager before, he was indeed very tall. The two stood side by side, and the difference was as obvious as that between a professional basketball player and an ordinary person.
"Do you want to fight?" The short boy looked at him unkindly with his fist raised high.
"I don't want to be accused of bullying the weak." The tall boy crossed his arms and challenged.
"It's not certain who is weaker." The short boy threw a punch.
This punch seemed to land in the air, but in fact, at the moment the fist was thrown, the air in front of the fist suddenly solidified, as if an air lead ball was pushed out and hit the tall boy's face.
The tall boy stood still, uttering an unintelligible syllable. The air cannonball seemed to encounter a tough wall and was refracted and bounced away.
As luck would have it, the air lead ball that bounced high into the sky was refracted again after hitting the ceiling of the teaching building that had been strengthened by magic, and the refracted trajectory was aimed right at Shinji's forehead.
Shinji sighed helplessly, raised his empty left hand, and smashed the air lead ball. For him now, a real lead ball can be smashed with one hand, let alone the air condensed by magic.
It was not until this time that the tall and short men who were confronting each other realized that there were other people in the entrance hall and they quickly stopped.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
"Sorry, I wasn't paying attention. Are you hurt?"
"It's okay." Shinji smiled and didn't take it to heart.
The magician is also a human being. Everyone has a time when he is young and hot-tempered. He had fought in his previous life when he was in school, but it was not so exaggerated.
"That's good, that's good." The short boy noticed the suitcase that Shinji was dragging, and his eyes lit up. "Are you here to report? Then we will be classmates from now on?"
"No." Shinji shook his head. "I have something to ask your teacher Velvet. Where is he?"
"The teacher's office is in the innermost room on the third floor." The tall boy replied, "Well, I don't know which department you are from, but please come to our classroom to try out a few classes when you are free. The teacher's classes will definitely not disappoint you."
"Yes, yes, Mr. Weber is the best." The short boy echoed.
"Okay, I'll come when I have the chance." Shinji nodded, picked up his suitcase and walked up the stairs.
The two boys, about fifteen or sixteen years old, behind him were still shouting.
"That's settled."
"You must come."
"Haha, Waver is really loved by students. Even though they are all problem students, the atmosphere is much better than outside."
Shinji, who had relaxed, brushed past the students who were walking out of the classroom one after another, walked along the marble floor to the end of the corridor, and knocked on the door casually.
"Come in." Weber's voice was a little different from usual calls, less casual and more teacher-like.
Shinji pushed the door open and walked in.
Weber's office is divided into two rooms, with a shoe rack at the entrance.
Unlike Japan, there is no custom of changing shoes when entering teaching buildings in the UK. This is probably Weber's personal habit. It seems that he has specially prepared replacement leather shoes in his office, and he probably also has replacement clothes in his closet.
Finding that there was no one in the outer room, Shinji placed his hand on the rather elegant door of the inner room.
As soon as I opened the door, a tidy room appeared before my eyes.
The most eye-catching thing is the tightly packed bookshelves. The books are meticulously sorted by type and size, and the angles of the shelves are carefully arranged to prevent sunlight from shining in from the windows. A rough count of the books on the sliding bookshelves shows that there are about a few hundred books.
There are also unique silver pens and double-edged cigar cutters on the desk, as if the owner of the room has developed a habit of smoking cigars. Overall, this is an office that fits the college atmosphere very well—ignore the latest handheld game console Game Boy Light produced by Nintendo in the corner of the room.
Now, Weber was sitting on an antique chair in the back of the room, his hands resting on the armrests, staring at a stack of documents with a melancholy look on his face.
Compared to the end of the Fourth War, Waver had changed a lot. His height, which was less than 1.7 meters, had grown to 1.8 meters in more than three years. His round face had turned into a long face, and his delicate features had become tougher. His short hair, which originally reached his ears, had grown to his waist, and only between his eyebrows could one glimpse the shadow of his youth.
Shinji closed the door and greeted Waver.
"Hey, long time no see."
When Weber raised his head upon hearing the voice, he stood up from his chair and froze on the spot.
"Matou Shinji?"
"It's me."
"What are you—? Where's the teacher?"
Shinji didn't rush to answer. He took out a few runes and activated them before speaking.
"Mr. Kenneth is still in Japan. He asked me to come here in advance to prepare for his return in a few days. You know, many people here don't want to see him again."
"really."
Waver agreed. Just because he had been in charge of the El-Melloi classroom for a while, many people disliked him, not to mention that he was the leader of a faction. Shinji didn't greet him in advance because he was afraid that someone would notice something.
"What are you going to do? Do you need any help?"
"First, collect intelligence. I have already made arrangements for this. As for you... just provide me with a place to stay. I will live with you for the next few days to prevent you from being kidnapped or even killed."
The news of Kenneth's imminent return caused an uproar. As the source of the news, Waver would naturally be under tremendous pressure. Shinji had to prevent these pressures from all sides from turning into actual threats.
Kenneth had told him more than once before coming here: the factional struggles between the clock towers were just like the struggles between the various forces in various countries, full of intrigues. And because of the concealment and specificity of magic, the cruelty of the struggle was even higher, and it was too easy to make a person disappear forever.
So, Shinji came.
As one of the most important investments of the Matou family in the next twenty years, Shinji will kill anyone who dares to touch Waver.