The Mage of Primordial Chaos

Before leaving my dorm, I turned to look at Claire, who by the looks of it, did go to the Recreational Campus with the rest of the group, but… whether she enjoyed it or not was a mystery. Her expression was as cold as ever, and she showed no sign of joy or even disgust at the other male students' gazes.

But that was fine. If she truly didn't enjoy this trip at all, that's all the better for my plan in the grand scheme of things, actually. This way… I can become even closer to her when I take her there myself.

As I exited, the girls waved me goodbye and wished me good luck, which I really would need to survive the upcoming predicament. Sylvoir was not one to show mercy—but then again, neither was I. I didn't want to use it if possible, but I had one final trump card up my sleeve…

*****

- The Administrative Campus -

Very soon, I arrived at the Administrative Campus. Or was it called Administration…? Ah, whatever. I don't really care. The point is, this building wasn't actually very big, compared to the rest of the structures in the various sky islands that composed up this school. However, that being said, even in a small structure like this, it was difficult to find which room was Sylvoir's.

Hm… she told me to see her tonight at this place, but… she didn't mention where, exactly. Oh well… let's just head in, and see where that takes me…

Upon heading to the front gates of the fence surrounding the building, I was unsurprised to see it locked. Of course, this was not done like some simple metal lock on a door made of similar material. No—fitting in with the sci-fi high-tech theme everywhere else in this school, the door and fence around it were made with special blue light barriers that were impenetrable from all sides, below, and above. Apart from the 'gate' part, the rest of the 'fence' was invisible until touched, which is when it will shock the person who touched it. Truly a dangerous mechanism.

The gate looked exactly like its name: a gate. Think of a Japanese Torii gate, but futuristic and sci-fi with black and turquoise as its main colors. On the side of the gate, implanted into one of the pillars, was a scanner device of some sort similar to the ones embedded in the teleportation platforms. Recognizing that, I immediately knew what I have to do, and lifted my wrist to aim the Navigator's panel directly at it.

Both the scanner's and my Navigator's screens lit up momentarily, and after a few seconds, the scanner's screen turned green, and a line of text appeared on it:

[Identity Authorized. Access Granted.]

Oho… it seems Sylvoir's already set this up ahead of time to authorize my Student ID. Perfect.

Confidently, I strode on through the gate, and continued onwards into the building itself. Obviously, there wasn't another lock or security gate here, since there already was one at the outer barrier.

Inside the building, the lights in the front lobby were on, but many of the rooms had them turned off. In addition to that, there were only two floors in this building, so it shouldn't be too hard to navigate to the room I wanted to go to. I didn't detect any life signals on the first floor, so I decided to head straight for the second using the staircase—the elevator was a bit further away.

After coming up to the second floor, I rounded the corner out of the stairwell, and immediately spotted the person I was looking for. Only… she appeared to be hiding, or something…?

"Hello, Ms. Sylvo-" I opened my mouth to call out to her, but in an instant, she appeared before me and pressed her hand against my lips.

"Shhh!" She whispered intently, looking around, before using telepathy to speak into my mind.

"Idiot… can't you see I am eavesdropping?"

I arched an eyebrow and responded in a similar manner. Eavesdropping? On who?

Suddenly, from within the room Sylvoir had been crouching beside the entrance to, came an indistinguishable man's voice. 

"… Hold on. I thought I heard something outside."

"Hm? Don't you have a Sound barrier set up?" A woman's voice replied, similarly from within the chamber. "With your strength, even a Saint should not be able to break your barriers."

"I do, but… with the contents of our conversation, it never hurts to be certain."

The sound of footsteps followed that statement, growing closer and closer to the door.

"Tch…!" Sylvoir quickly l0oked left and right for a place to hide, before suddenly dragging me by the wrist and pulling me into the room across from the one she had been spying on. The sound of her opening the door made a small click, and that was nothing compared to the door closing. Sylvoir did her best to minimize the sound created with her gentle movements, but even so, it still made a noise.

The lights in the room were off, of course, since the original owner of this office had already left for the day. After looking around in panic for a bit, she pulled me underneath the couch with her, taking me by surprise.

The door to the room slammed open right after I concealed the two of us's auras with Psychic Magic, and in walked a person who turned on the lights—the man from just now, undoubtedly. We could only see his feet and ankles from here, but it would seem he was wearing formal black pants of some sort paired with black shoes.

After a few steps, the man paused in place, and appeared to be surveying his surroundings. He remained utterly quiet for a few seconds, trying to detect any sound, but Sylvoir and I remained dead silent. Neither of us dared to put up a Sound Barrier for protection, since we'd just heard about this man's proficiency in the Sound Element. No doubt, if we used a barrier, he'd be able to detect it and pinpoint our location instantly.

With a few seconds passed, the man at last spoke.

"… Hm. I am fairly certain I heard the sound of a door opening and closing just now… was I wrong…?"