Any student at Seorn who knew Julia would say the same thing about her.
A solitary flower blooming atop a white snow mountain.
The phrase carried equal parts awe and envy.
Julia had claimed the top spot among the first years with her overwhelming magical ability and sharp intellect.
Beautiful, from a prestigious school, and an outstanding mage to boot.
Countless students tried to get close to her, hoping to build a connection.
Even some teachers and upperclassmen showed her favor.
But Julia coldly rejected them all.
At first, she would wear a smile like a wall, not responding at all.
If anyone persisted despite that, she would look at them with the face of winter frost and tell them, cold as ice—
Go away.
Thus Julia became the girl whom even upperclassmen couldn’t touch, despite her being only a first year.
A peculiar-branch mage with great backing, with no friends, aloof and untouchable, shrouded in mystery.
In a sense, Julia had become something of a trademark among Seorn students.
‘And yet, this Julia...’
Ludger silently watched her now, furiously kicking the door with both feet.
“Ugh, come on! What are you sulking about now, you grumpy old coot?!”
Without hiding her emotions in the slightest, she shouted at the one behind the door.
The sight was so unlike the Julia known at Seorn that she could have been an entirely different girl with the same face and name.
“Oh? She’s kicking the door? Then she must be an intruder! We definitely can’t let her in.”
The old man’s cackling laughter sounded from behind the door.
Julia glared, eyes blazing.
“Are you seriously doing this right now?”
“Are you seriously doing this right now~.”
“Ugh, stop repeating after me!”
“Ugh, stop repeating after me~.”
“You’re how old and still this childish?!”
At that moment, Julia suddenly remembered Ludger was standing beside her. She tried to fix her expression.
But it was already too late.
“Ahem. I brought a guest with me. You’re really going to keep acting like this?”
“A guest?”
The voice behind the door perked up with sudden interest.
“What kind of guest?”
“Someone who wants information on the depths of Dreamland.”
“What?!”
The door that had been firmly shut swung open ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) at once.
“You should have said so sooner!”
The one who opened it was a long-bearded old man.
He looked every bit the archetype of an old wizard from fairy tales—long white beard, long hair, and all.
But the mischievous smile and childlike sparkle in his eyes erased any sense of dignity from his face.
“Oho! So this is the one. Welcome, welcome! A fine-looking young man indeed! So, which school are you from?”
The old man laughed warmly as he greeted Ludger, his expression brimming with joy.
Though Ludger had heard Julia say they would be welcoming, the genuine enthusiasm still caught him off guard.
Carefully, he asked,
“You don’t know who I am?”
“Eh? And who are you, then?”
“...”
It wasn’t arrogance, but Ludger was used to his name carrying recognition by now.
Yet this old man seemed completely unaware.
In a school of this scale, surely they had at least heard of Source Code.
And this wasn’t even some distant land—it was within the Empire itself.
From beside him came a muffled chuckle.
Julia, smiling like she had just seen something amusing, was stifling laughter.
“Professor, how can you say that with such confidence?”
“Because I have the right to.”
With nothing left to lose, Ludger decided to brazen it out.
Julia, unable to deny that, stilled her laughter and nodded.
“That’s true. Who else could say it so boldly? But these people are the exception. They don’t care about the outside world.”
“Eh? So you’re famous, are you? Sorry, we wouldn’t know. All we do is sleep.”
The old man’s words drove the point home.
“Anyway, welcome to our Dreaming School!”
But just as he spoke, a streak of light pierced his forehead.
Julia had fired off a spell.
Ludger was about to ask what was going on when he noticed the old man smiling even with a hole in his brow.
“Heh. Doesn’t work, you know.”
“Damn.”
Julia clicked her tongue.
The old man’s body scattered like an illusion—then reappeared elsewhere like a mirage.
“Illusion magic?”
“Oh? Is that how it looked? Too bad, it’s not that simple.”
Indeed, it wasn’t.
The old man was far too aware of his surroundings for it to be a mere illusion.
But Ludger had witnessed the body act as though it had physical presence, so the thought was inevitable.
“This is far more complex than illusion magic.”
The old man chuckled as he floated in midair.
Not with levitation or any spell, but as though swimming freely through space.
Ludger studied him carefully, then spoke.
“Astral projection. Mixed with necromancy, perhaps?”
“Ohh.”
The old man stopped drifting and his eyes gleamed.
“Didn’t think anyone would guess it right away. Even the others here got it wrong a few times.”
“So your true body must be somewhere here. But if you stay separated too long, your soul’s tether weakens. Returning to your body would become impossible.”
“Heh. I know that. But didn’t I say? This isn’t ordinary magic. I mixed in my dream magic.”
“Dream magic?”
“My body is fast asleep right now. And while it sleeps, my mind roams free like this. And the best part is—”
The old man raised a finger proudly.
“Even while sleeping, I get to play!”
“...”
...Practical, actually.
He called it play, but surely he didn’t waste it all on amusement.
A mage’s pursuit of research was endless.
Even with 24 hours in a day, no one could use them all.
No matter how much one cut back, at least six hours of sleep were needed. Even the most ascetic managed four.
For researchers, that meant losing four hours a day.
But with this dream-magic astral projection, none of that mattered.
The body slept, but the mind could keep researching.
And from how he had opened the door earlier, he clearly could interfere with the physical world.
To mages, this was the dream magic itself.
‘Wait. If Seorn’s graduate students were to learn this...’
They could research endlessly, true perpetual motion fueled by sleepless study.
“Professor... you’re thinking something terrifying, aren’t you?”
Sensing his dark thoughts, Julia shivered beside him.
The instinctive fear of a student catching on to a teacher’s dangerous idea.
How rude.
Ludger, embarrassed, shifted the topic.
“...Anyway, as you just heard, I want to know how to reach Dreamland’s depths.”
“The depths, eh? My, my. Never thought I’d see the day someone came asking about that.”
The old man stroked his beard, then vanished like a phantom.
This time he didn’t reappear immediately.
Instead, after a pause, footsteps approached, and the real old man entered.
“Can’t stay astral forever. Come inside.”
Ludger stepped into the mansion.
Though quiet, it was well-kept. No dust, not even in the corners.
Magic, no doubt.
“Ah, introductions. I’m Zantman, mage of the Dreaming School.”
“Ludger Cherish.”
“I hear you teach at Seorn? Must be tough. Hundreds of brats like our youngest all in one class?”
At that, Julia bristled.
“What did you just say?”
“See? Look at that glare. Tell me, is there anything in this world sharper than our little junior’s tongue?”
“You old—!”
“Careful. Watch your head.”
Just then, pale smoke drifted across the corridor.
Zantman ducked under it.
Ludger and Julia followed suit.
“What’s that?”
“Dream Mist. Touch it, and you fall asleep on the spot.”
“Why is that floating around here?”
“Well, we Dreaming School folk need lots of dreams. And to dream, we must sleep. But not everyone can sleep so easily. Some can’t fall asleep no matter how hard they try.”
Over-sleeping often led to insomnia.
That mist had been created to help with exactly that, Zantman explained.
“If you need to sleep but can’t? Summon Dream Mist. It’ll come, and after a few breaths, you’ll drift off into deep sleep.”
...Practical, again.
“But just dreaming isn’t enough. There’s also the opposite—Waking Cloud. Unlike the white mist, it’s light green. It wakes you up instead.”
“Wakes you up?”
“When you open your eyes in the morning, you don’t leap out of bed right away, do you? Your body’s fine, but your mind’s foggy. Close your eyes again and you’ll drift off.”
Just hearing it, Ludger understood.
Everyone had felt it.
“But with Waking Cloud? It sucks away the drowsiness, so you spring up instantly.”
“Then why is one called mist and the other cloud? They’re the same thing, aren’t they?”
“Different inventors. Waking Cloud was made later, and when he tried to call it mist, the Dream Mist guy yelled at him not to copy the name. So he changed it to cloud.”
...Just for that?
Ludger was beginning to realize the mages of this school truly weren’t normal.
And inside the mansion, there were more such oddities.
A pillow that sang lullabies when you lay on it.
A sleep mask that guaranteed instant dreams.
A crystal orb that replayed the dreams you had.
Bizarre, yet oddly ingenious.
Not only artifacts—spells too.
“And where are we headed?”
“The information you seek about Dreamland’s depths is top secret. Only our elders know it. Naturally, we’re going to see them.”
“They’re here?”
“Yes, inside. Though whether they’re awake is another matter. They’re probably asleep.”
“Asleep, meaning...”
“Dreamland, of course. For us Dreaming School mages, Dreamland is always the priority.”
Exploring new worlds was every scholar’s dream.
But only Dreamwalkers could truly explore Dreamland.
Having such a gift meant bearing that duty—so Zantman claimed.
“Well, I just joined because I liked being able to play while sleeping.”
He chuckled, looking like a child.
Compared to the stern elders Ludger had met lately, Zantman’s attitude was strangely refreshing.
“Here we are. Our school’s main bedchamber.”
“Bedchamber...”
Not a laboratory, but a dormitory of sorts. Odd, yet fitting.
The door swung open.
And it wasn’t as bad as Ludger had imagined.
He had pictured rows of beds with people sprawled everywhere.
But no.
There were beds, yes, but also countless research materials, some floating, some muttering in half-sleep.
It looked more like a psychiatric ward than a scholarly chamber—but in its own way, normal for this school.
The mages here were mostly older, men and women about evenly split, though even the youngest seemed past thirty.
And their reactions to Julia were all the same.
“Oh? Our youngest is here!”
“What? The youngest came? And without notice?”
“Stop sleeping, everyone! Our youngest has arrived!”
“Youngest! I bought cinnamon candy for you!”
As the mages fussed over her, Ludger glanced at Julia.
Her head hung low, the tips of her ears flushed red.
Her clenched fist trembled.
