Adrian visited the club room for the first time in a long while. Other than the day he’d joined, it was his first time stepping foot inside. He had signed up for Ordinas solely to use the greenhouse—he had zero interest in the club’s original purpose, which was social networking.
As he swung the double doors wide open, a strange sense of déjà vu washed over him. It was still as dark, filthy, and chaotic as ever.
Poking out from behind one of the sofas—mostly hidden deeper inside the room—was a student’s shoe. Adrian headed straight toward it. He had business with the owner of that shoe.
Sure enough, Kyle D’Baicia was sprawled out comfortably on the sofa, fast asleep again.
“Um… Sunbae.”
Kyle was someone with real ability. But whether he hadn’t heard or was simply ignoring him, he kept exhaling softly with his mouth half open. Hmph. Adrian stepped right behind the sofa and let out a deliberate throat-clearing sound. Then, just as he’d done the last time, he gave the sofa a light kick.
Thud!
The loud sound made the entire couch tremble.
Mmmghh…
Only then did Kyle’s brow twitch, and his face scrunch up in discomfort. Still, with his eyes shut, he rolled over and muttered,
“…Don’t wake me unless it’s urgent. I finally crashed after pulling all-nighters for days…”
Kyle’s pathetic plea didn’t work on Adrian. He kicked the sofa again—this time harder—and spoke in a firm voice. He hadn’t come all the way here just to waste time.
“Please get up. Just for a moment.”
“I just fell aslee—… Huh? Wait, who—?”
Kyle finally opened his eyes and looked up toward the face above him.
“Oh? Adrian. What’s up?”
Urrgh… Kyle greeted him with a strange expression as he stretched out his stiff limbs.
“I was sent by Professor Olivia.”
“Ah, so you’re the assistant she said she was sending?”
“Yes.” Adrian watched Kyle stretch with a blank expression. He’d already accepted an advance payment from the professor, so even after learning that the person he’d be assisting was this Kyle D’Baicia, it was too late to back out.
“What do you need help with?”
“Perfect timing. I’ll show you right away.”
Kyle lazily shook out his tousled hair and sat up from the sofa. Adrian followed behind as Kyle made his way toward the table in the center of the Ordinas clubroom.
“There’s a study I need to finish before the end of the year, so I asked her to find me an assistant. But I’ve organized most of it already, so I promise it won’t be too demanding.”
He gestured toward the chaotic piles of parchment spread across the table. If that was what Kyle called “organized,” they clearly had very different standards for what counted as tidy.
“The ancient mana I sensed from that button you auctioned off at the Academy was really helpful. Still keeping where it came from a secret?”
While lazily shuffling several stacks of parchment into separate groupings with the back of his hand, Kyle asked the same question Professor Olivia had posed earlier. Adrian nodded silently. Kyle smacked his lips, clearly disappointed.
“Well… anyway. Look at this.”
Grinning, Kyle gestured to one of the piles he’d just set aside. He seemed to be in an exceptionally good mood—probably because his research was bearing fruit. Though judging by the dark circles under his eyes, it was likely true he hadn’t slept in days. The effect only made his expression seem more devious.
Adrian grabbed one of the parchments and, with a detached look, untied the blue string holding it together. As he unfurled the scroll across the table, Kyle reached into his jacket pocket, pulled out a cigarette, and lit it with the silver lighter that had been left haphazardly on the table. Adrian glanced at him but didn’t say anything. Whether the man next to him was smoking or not didn’t matter in the slightest right now.
Adrian’s hand gradually tensed. His brows knit slightly, and his head tilted faintly to the side, as if he couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing.
This is…?
Adrian’s elegantly shaped lips parted slowly.
“What exactly is this research about?”
Ha. Kyle turned his head and exhaled a stream of white smoke, chuckling under his breath. The way his junior looked utterly stunned after just one glance at a single parchment—as if he had grasped the essence of the study—was unexpectedly endearing.
“That’s a record of the unusual mana I collected over the break…”
Ah, for a clearer explanation, another document would be better. Try opening that one too.
Kyle gestured with a sharp tilt of his chin toward a parchment roll bound with a red string. Then, dragging over an ashtray, he placed his half-smoked cigarette down for a moment. Even though this was a professor’s recommendation, Adrian was still a freshman, and Kyle had originally only planned to assign him the menial, bothersome tasks.
But the moment he saw Adrian’s eyes light up as he asked questions about the research material, he changed his mind without hesitation.
Adrian immediately unrolled the parchments Kyle had pointed out and laid them neatly across the table. It became obvious why Kyle had singled those out—the scrolls were filled with obsessive traces of his research. Some had notes scribbled like random doodles, while others featured smudged ink illustrations from a quill pen that had blurred beyond recognition.
“There’s a force in this world that no one can defy—or so they say.”
A force that could not be defied.
At the clarity in Kyle’s voice, Adrian slowly lifted his head from the parchments. He could tell—plainly—that Kyle’s usual flippant and carefree air had vanished entirely. Kyle continued, pointing to a particular section on the parchment. It was a chart, laid out in what looked like a chronological order of events.
“Some call that unstoppable force a simple repetition of cause and effect. Others call it fate. But…”
Unconsciously, Adrian clenched his hand into a tight fist. The very topic Kyle was now casually rambling about was something even dragons had pondered over for eons. Yet no one had ever provided a clear answer.
“I call it Ordinas.”
“……”
Adrian met Kyle’s gaze directly, which now shot at him like a straight arrow. He said nothing. Ordinas—it was not only the name of this club, but also an ancient word meaning “natural order.”
“Order.”
Adrian breathed out the word, almost like a groan. Kyle nodded solemnly and pulled another parchment closer.
“This is the proof. And the core of my research.”
The parchment was filled with records about black mana. The accompanying illustration showed a dense, pitch-black mass. Whether it was fortunate or not, Adrian recognized it—he’d heard of black mana before.
Kyle began explaining his theory on black mana and the method he intended to use to prove it. Adrian listened intently, nodding now and then with a serious expression, occasionally raising questions that prompted Kyle to consider new perspectives.
***
Adrian tapped one of the yellow fruits hanging from a Kevish tree with his index finger. If the fruit stayed in this condition until harvest, it would be rated top-grade.
He made a long vertical mark in the small notebook he was holding. The page was already filled with rows upon rows of tally marks. A sleek smile curved Adrian’s elegant lips.
“Perfect.”
Each tree produced between twenty and twenty-five fruits. The saplings had cost 10 Tilon apiece, so the fruit would be priced somewhat lower.
“…If each Kevish fruit goes for about 8 Tilon, then… 4,800 Tilon.”
But… was this really something to be excited about?
Adrian absentmindedly stroked the soft feathered end of his quill as he walked between the Kevish trees. If he added his current funds to the projected fruit income, he’d have well over 5,000 Tilon. Of course, that was only half the price of Fellen Deeps’ sword, which cost 10,000 Tilon.
However, Adrian—or rather, Mikhail—still had one last card to play.
“If Mikhail wins first place in the martial tournament and scoops up the prize money, then it’s doable.”
Ha… Adrian let out a hollow laugh, as if even he couldn’t believe what he’d just said. That would just barely bring them to 10,000 Tilon.
But his amusement was fleeting. The corners of his mouth, which had curled up in a smirk, slowly relaxed and settled back into place.
“…It’s creepily precise.”
Kyle’s research on the world’s immutable force came back to mind. Of course, it was nothing more than a student’s academic project… but as a dragon, Adrian couldn’t bring himself to dismiss it so lightly.
Wait we’re close to his ‘death’ accident now omg