Chapter 46: Insomnia

Early the next morning, Roland stood up from his desk, letting out a yawn.

After a night of word-by-word proofreading, Roland was virtually certain there were no major flaws in his translation.

At the very least, the general meaning of the poem matched his initial conjectures.

From that relatively complete poem, Roland could draw two hypotheses: a relatively conservative one and a relatively radical one.

The conservative hypothesis was that the Primordial Runestone originated from ancient times, an era when gods still walked among mortals, and it was through the Primordial Runestone that magic was brought into the mortal realm.

The radical hypothesis, on the other hand, was that the Primordial Runestone came into existence even before the birth of the gods, serving as the very origin of all laws and magic in the universe.

As for why these two entirely contradictory hypotheses arose, it stemmed primarily from Roland's differing interpretations of the final, deciphered line.

"The supreme gods wield its majesty..."

Whether the gods were merely its possessors or the creators of the Primordial Runestone itself remained an open question with no definitive answer.

Yet Roland had no way to acquire any further information to verify the truth.

After all, even within the database of the Continental Historical Society, there was only this single, ambiguous poem documenting the origin of the Primordial Runestone.

Facing the morning sunlight streaming through the window onto his desk, Roland stretched lazily.

Pulling an all-nighter—and spending the entire night engaged in intense mental activity—inevitably left him feeling a wave of exhaustion.

Closing the book borrowed from the library, Roland walked over to the cabinet on the side, took out the school uniform provided by the academy, and put it on.

Just like the regulations in every school, even in this otherworldly realm, wearing a uniform on campus was mandatory.

Fortunately, the uniform of the Royal Magic Academy was not particularly hideous.

While it could not be called stunningly handsome, the outfit consisted of a black, hooded, long-hemmed duffel coat paired with a white shirt and a thin blue tie inside, which at the very least could not be considered ugly.

In fact, worn by someone with Roland's crowd-pleasing good looks, it looked surprisingly striking.

Moreover, the fabric of the clothes was exceptionally fine, carrying that unmistakable sense of "luxury" that even the most ignorant person could recognize at a glance.

If an item was stained, dirtied, or torn, one could simply go to the academic affairs office to exchange it, and if the clothes did not fit, the academy even had dedicated tailors on hand to alter them for free.

All of the above, including the uniform itself, cost not a single penny.

This alone surpassed the schools of his past life by a wide margin.

Having changed into his clothes and gathered the borrowed books, Roland prepared to return the books first.

Iluvia had not yet sent him a message, which meant the intelligence had not arrived.

Perhaps, after returning the books, he could still manage to grab some breakfast at the cafeteria.

Just as Roland pushed open the door and stepped out of the dormitory building, he found a helpless Kalia crouching right beside the steps in front of his door.

"What on earth are you doing out here so early?"

Upon seeing Kalia, Roland instinctively glanced back at the clock inside the room.

6:23 AM.

"Roland... I couldn't sleep..."

"Oh, then go back and catch up on your sleep. What are you doing coming to find me? The academy hasn't officially started yet; it's not time for your classes."

"Actually, last night, I ran into that annoying woman."

"An annoying woman?"

Roland was left full of question marks, having no idea whom Kalia was talking about.

"Oh, you know, the one who came to the academy with you yesterday afternoon!"

"Ah, Iluvia... Did something happen between the two of you?"

Kalia shook her head. "Not really."

"Or rather, I suppose I should probably thank her properly."

"What kind of trouble have you stirred up now?" Roland covered his face and sighed.

Kalia instinctively hugged herself, curling up into a ball. "Actually, at first I didn't realize it last night... It was as if something was stopping me from noticing what was happening."

"Until the middle of the night..."

Kalia began to recount her encounter with Iluvia the previous night, and how it was only hours later that she belatedly realized what she had walked into.

An illusion. An illusion of unknown origin.

If she hadn't eaten too much for dinner last night, leaving her with no appetite even in her dreams, and if Iluvia hadn't happened to spot her and wake her up from the dreamscape...

Where on earth would she have ended up walking?

For the first time in her life, living alone in a completely unfamiliar environment surrounded entirely by strangers, the only person she could even remotely consider an acquaintance turned out to be that obnoxious woman!

The mere thought of it made it impossible for Kalia to fall asleep.

No, the wave of exhaustion still washed over her, but she dared not close her eyes again.

Until the sky grew faintly bright, Kalia quickly changed her clothes and bolted straight toward Roland's dormitory.

After listening to Kalia's account, Roland's expression darkened as well.

Although he had learned from Iluvia yesterday that someone intended to target the people around Fram, he hadn't expected it to happen so soon.

"I understand, Kalia... Just stay with me for now."

Roland pulled Kalia up from the ground, then patted her shoulder. "Let's go get something to eat."

"Yeah!"

At the mention of food, Kalia visibly relaxed.

Roland had no choice but to postpone his book-returning plan; he would grab breakfast first and head to the library afterwards.

...

Inside the cafeteria, seeing that the food piled on Kalia's tray was still stacked as high as a small mountain, Roland couldn't help but marvel inwardly.

This was already the third trip to the buffet for this creature.

Half of the food on her tray would have been enough to keep him so stuffed he wouldn't even need lunch.

Yet for Kalia, it seemed she could keep going indefinitely.

Roland half-feared the cafeteria would introduce a "Kalia Rule" in the future, requiring her to pay out of pocket if she exceeded a certain food quota.

Fortunately, for now, the cafeteria staff were mostly just amused.

They all wanted to see just how much food this delicate, slender girl could possibly consume.

Just as Roland and the cafeteria staff were appreciating Kalia's eating performance, another figure carrying a food tray approached and quite naturally sat down right beside Roland.

With her arrival, the numerous curious gazes previously fixed on the scene shifted elsewhere.

This was true for both the staff and the other students dining in the cafeteria.

Even Kalia paused her eating upon seeing the newcomer.

Yet, just as Kalia wanted to glare fiercely at the woman, the memory of her help the previous night forced her to settle for fiercely biting down on the fork in her mouth.

"Hi, good morning."

Iluvia sat beside Roland with a radiant smile, ignoring Kalia entirely and focusing solely on Roland. "The intelligence has been gathered, you know."

"Once you're done eating, let's head over to Ms. Fram's office together. I've already contacted her."

Roland glanced sideways at Iluvia. "I thought you would use a more covert method to transmit information."

"What does it matter? Anyway, whether it's you, Ms. Kalia, or Ms. Fram, the three of you have already been marked by those people as being on my side."

"Since that's the case, why bother hiding it?"