Baran was standing in front of the Zukunft Academy campus, reading a webnovel on his phone.
"Ah… it was just getting to the good part. Why aren't there a few more chapters?"
He muttered in a disappointed tone as Angellica Baldwin approached him.
"H-hi, Baran…"
She hadn't quite decided what to do about yesterday, but she wasn't the type to reject an apology outright.
"Ah… A-Angellica… h-hi… I didn't think you'd come,"
Baran replied, his surprised tone showing clearly on his face.
"You accepted my apology, right?"
Even though he assumed she had, there was no harm in hearing it directly.
"Yes, I accept your apology… but please don't do something like that again, okay?"
Her voice trembled slightly.
"Hahahaha… that's great. What classes do you have today?"
Baran asked with a warm, friendly tone that surprised Angellica.
"My first class is theoretical magic. Yours?"
She couldn't help but notice how the usual coldness in his voice was gone, replaced by warmth and kindness — a complete opposite from yesterday.
'Maybe he changed after yesterday's duel…?' Angellica thought.
"Then let's go. Mine's the same."
He spoke with a voice full of brotherly affection.
Angellica shivered involuntarily. His sudden change unsettled her. 'Maybe this is his true personality,' she thought.
"Let's go."
With those words, the two began walking to class.
After eight classes, Angellica and Baran were walking through the campus corridors.
"What a day, Baran,"
Angellica said, satisfaction clear in her voice.
"You don't say. You nearly killed me making me teach you that 4th-rank spell,"
Baran replied, equally amused.
"Come on, you enjoyed it too,"
she teased, lightly elbowing him.
"You learned quickly, or I'd have had a nervous breakdown,"
he grinned in response.
Angellica realized that lessons with Baran were much more fun and easy. She felt as though she'd found a missing piece in her life…
Suddenly, she turned to look at him — his slightly messy brown hair, dark brown eyes, and balanced features, a mix between cute and handsome — and she felt herself drawn in.
"Something wrong, Angellica?"
His sudden question snapped her out of her thoughts.
"No, nothing,"
she said, nodding and continuing on.
'Maybe I'm just overthinking things,' she told herself. Perhaps her attraction to Baran was just a fleeting sense of connection from their similar personalities.
'That was a fun but exhausting day,' Baran thought. After classes on magic theory, close combat, holy energy, and math, his mind was drained. He needed some entertainment.
Shiver.
Baran suddenly looked around, startled, and saw four boys.
One was on the ground while the others bullied him. Baran ignored them and kept walking.
Shiver.
When it happened again, he assumed it was some kind of energy and glanced around — but all he saw were the bullies and the victim.
Shiver.
"Angellica, go on ahead. I've got a little business to take care of,"
he said, his voice softening with instinctive protectiveness despite trying to keep it cold.
"O-okay,"
Angellica replied, walking away.
The moment she left, Baran headed straight for the group of four.
"Hahahaha… look at the Fort family's little bug,"
Alvéric laughed as he kicked Tristan.
"Hahahaha… let us have a turn too, Alvéric,"
said Vautrinne, his blue eyes sparkling with cruel delight.
"Step aside, Alvéric, it's my turn,"
said Darvois.
"Mind if I join the fun?"
A calm but cold voice behind them cut Darvois off.
When he turned, he froze — brown hair, dark brown eyes, and that terribly familiar face.
"W-why are you here, Sonnenaufgang…?"
Darvois's voice was thick with fear and despair. The boy who had dominated the first day of school stood before him.
"Why? Isn't it obvious? That beetroot head on the ground caught my interest."
Baran spoke with a faint killing intent.
"O-okay, we'll leave, please forgive us,"
Vautrinne begged desperately.
"Of course. Now get lost, bugs,"
Baran said with a smile, though his killing intent intensified.
The three ran off, leaving Baran alone with the beetroot head.
"Hey, beetroot head. How are you?"
Baran approached him step by step, and Tristan's eyes widened with each step.
"Ahh! What do you want from me?!"
Tristan finally screamed, overwhelmed.
"Stand up,"
Baran ordered coldly and authoritatively.
Tristan stood without thinking.
"Follow me,"
Baran said in the same tone.
He led Tristan to the arena, where Tristan began to tremble, assuming Sonnenaufgang would force him into a match.
"What's your energy?"
Baran asked, still cold.
Tristan was surprised. 'Why does he want to know? Maybe if I tell him the truth, he'll lose interest,' he thought.
"I-I don't have any energy,"
Tristan stammered.
Baran gave him a look that said 'What kind of nonsense is this?'
"Don't drag it out. Speak."
"I'm telling the truth! I-I wouldn't lie in front of Sonnenaufgang!"
Tristan insisted.
Baran frowned, thinking. 'Is it even possible not to know your own energy?'
He glanced at Tristan — a boy with dark crimson hair and eyes, even more handsome than Baran himself.
Normally, hair and eye colors like white (holy energy) or black (corrupted energy) came from extremely pure energies in saints or corrupted ones.
But Tristan was a rare case — both his hair and eyes were dark crimson.
Baran suddenly realized something.
"Demonic energy,"
he murmured aloud.