Bonus Short Stories

Second Year

“Is that the last of the luggage for the second years?”

Today we’re doing the annual deep cleaning of the dorms. The students take all of our furniture and belongings outside the dorm, and then the dorm mother uses magic to clean all of our rooms. With so many students bringing so much stuff outside, we have to put our things on specific spots on the lawn, grouped together by class year, and then by room number.

“You two—we have some time right now, do you want to organize our stuff?”

We don’t have any lessons today, so we have some time to kill while the dorm mother is cleaning our rooms. Just as Benjamine, Nikeh, and I are going through our belongings and discussing what we don’t need anymore, however, we’re interrupted by a high-pitched laugh from nearby.

“O-ho-ho-ho! Behold this lovely portrait of Sir Alois I commissioned especially from an artist!”

“My heavens, a portrait of him sleeping... Lady Maris, I don’t suppose you’d let me have that!”

Maris is showing off a large, framed drawing to the other noble girls. It’s so big she has to use both hands to hold it up. From what it sounds like, she had a portrait drawn of Rockmann while he was sleeping—without his permission. I wonder how he would react to hearing about this portrait...? Not that I care how he feels, or anything.

“That’s so cool! I wish I had a portrait of Satanás sleeping.” Benjamine and Maris seem to share the same preferences for artwork of their crushes. Benjamine’s biting down on her thumb in envy as she watches Maris parade around with the portrait. Does everyone become like this if they like someone too much?

I hear one of the noble girls getting a bit worked up over the portrait. “Lady Maris! Just one copy, Just one copy of that, please!”

“Sally, dear, stop—! Nala, kindly refrain from touching—!”

Barely three minutes have passed since Miss Maris brought out that picture, but the throng of noble girls is beginning to fight for possession of it, like a game of capture-the-flag. This is absurd. Now some of them are even using magic! I can’t say I understand why they’re so desperate, but surely it can’t be worth getting into a magical battle over, right? Some of the girls have a stupid, cheeky little glint in their eyes as they cling to the frame of the portrait, yanking it this way and that. At this rate, they’re likely to rip it in half. How could any noble girl allow herself to participate in such a farce?

“Um, yikes, that’s a bit concerning, don’t you think?” Nikeh’s brows are furrowed with worry as she points over at the commotion. One of the girls has apparently conjured a tornado—and it’s headed right for our belongings.

“Huh? Oh—ahhhh!” Boom! Our luggage goes flying to all four corners of the compass as the wind races through the area. Ugh, this is the worst! Everything is everywhere! I don’t have too many clothes, but still, it’s embarrassing to have them blowing all over the place.

“What d’you think this is?”

Right as I’m about to cast an attraction charm to pull everything back towards me, I hear Rockmann’s voice. On instinct, I whirl around to face him.

“‘This’ is, of course, all your fa—”

“Underwear?”

Rockmann is looking at some white underwear that he’s holding up with both hands. My underwear. My underpants.

Why do those girls want this guy’s portrait? No good ever comes of seeing his face. I’ll just have to get rid of the cause of all this stupidity: that dumb picture.

“ERASE!!”

But first I’ve got to erase this idiot’s memory.

Third Year

My favorite place at school is the library. I can find out whatever I want, anytime I want to. It’s a magic place for me. Even if I’m there all day I never get bored, and there’s nothing I like better than hiding away among the stacks of books on a rainy day.

Nikeh, Benjamine, and I are in the hallway. They laugh as they wave goodbye to me in front of the library doors. “Bye now, bookworm!”

“Oh, hey Hel.”

Someone calls out the instant I enter the library.

“Danji, hey, it’s been a while. Haven’t seen you in here lately.”

“Been busy having a friend help me practice summoning.”

Danji Gert: a boy with chestnut hair

He’s a student in the classroom next to mine, and a commoner like myself. He’s one of the regulars here at the library, and I often see him here.

“You figured out summoning for yourself already?”

“Yeah, I can do it. My familiar’s a white lynx.”

It seems like he’s been busy reading books on summoning today. At a large table meant for ten students, all I see are reference materials on magical creatures and summoning manuals scattered hither and thither.

“Uh, Hel, if it’s not too much of a bother—mind teaching me some summoning?” Danji grabs my arm as I turn to walk towards the other side of the library. I’d planned on studying height increasing and gigantification spells today, but I guess that’s not happening.

“I feel like I could pull it off, if you’re the one that teaches me.”

Danji looks completely serious as he says this. I sigh. Well, how can I turn down an honest request like that? I nod and shake his hand firmly. I will make him a capable summoner.

＊　＊　＊　＊

“You know, Hel darling, I’ve noticed you’re getting along rather well with Gert recently.”

“Oh, is that so? Please Miss Hel, do tell us all about him.”

Lessons have finished for the day. I’m standing up from my seat when Miss Maris and some of the other noble girls come dashing over, apparently hoping that I have some gossip to dish out.

It’s been about two weeks since I began practicing summoning with Danji. Every day after school we head out to the field to have our practice sessions, and short of literally holding his hand, I am doing all I can to help him learn the basics. It’s more difficult than I thought it would be, and Danji often has this self-deprecating grimace on his face while we’re practicing. Just a little more practice and he should be able to do it. I’m going to head to the classroom next door to meet up with him so that we can walk out to the field together.

“All I’m doing is teaching him summoning,” I say, waving away their questioning.

“Oh, no need to be shy about it! Nanalie, you’ve finally discovered love for yourself, haven’t you? Isn’t that wonderful, Sir Alois?” Miss Maris tries to draw Rockmann, who’s still sitting down, into our conversation.

“Not sure how ‘wonderful’ that is,” he says. “If you really are trying to teach him, it shouldn’t be taking this long. Maybe you’re just a bad teacher?”

“What’d you just say!?”

Our eyes flash as Rockmann and I glare at each other. What a despicable pair of eyeballs! There’s no point in just jabbering away here in the classroom with this fool. “Hmph!” I turn my back to him and leave the classroom.

But then something happens the next day.

After school, I again head over to the neighboring classroom, and what should Danji do but tell me, with a big smile on his face, that he successfully managed to perform a summoning yesterday. Well, isn’t that nice. But you weren’t able to do that during practice, so I’m a bit confused...? I tilt my head to one side. He explains that last night, Rockmann visited his dorm room and, carefully and patiently, taught him exactly what to do.

“You’re just a bad teacher.”

I spend the rest of the day shut up in the library.

Fifth Year

“Love potion?”

“Yeah, someone mixed it in.”

Or so Prince Zenon tells me from his seat in front of my desk, looking completely serious.

Next to me, A Certain Guy is sitting with a cloth blindfold over his eyes. It’s a guy, sitting next to me, which means that the person with the blindfold on is Rockmann.

The morning had so far been just like any other, but upon entering the classroom, I noticed that it was quite a bit louder in here than usual. A mob of students had gathered around the teacher’s desk at the front of the classroom. Between gaps in the crowd I catch glimpses of what appears to be Satanás wrapping a blindfold around Rockmann’s head. What in the world...? My face unconsciously screwed up into a frown of confusion as I look on.

“Sometime early this morning, a girl from the year below us asked to come into the classroom. I think she’s from a family of equivalent rank to Duke Rockmann’s household. She said she wanted to give Rockmann some cookies, so Maris let her inside...”

When the girl gave him the cookies, she apparently said she wanted him to eat them “right now.” Rockmann, of course, isn’t the type of guy who can refuse a direct request like that from a cute girl, so he’d done as she’d asked and ate them. But then—

“It sounds like he saw some thin, red vapor float up out of the cookie he’d bitten into.”

Rockmann had understood immediately that some sort of drug had been mixed into the cookie—how he knew that wasn’t clear, gut instinct, perhaps—and immediately closed his eyes. Miss Maris and the other girls inside the classroom found the smoke rather suspicious and began interrogating the girl, who panicked and made her confession: she had laced the cookies with a love potion.

“Drink the potion, and the first person you see of the opposite gender shall become the object of your affection.”

The girl had been escorted out of the classroom. The other girls in the room screamed bloody murder at her until she was out of sight, apparently, but they’ve calmed down somewhat now that our first lesson of the day has finished and are stealing glances at Rockmann. Unfortunately, magic that occurs as a result of a potion cannot be undone by a spell, only by the antidote potion, and the girl had not prepared one. Because of that, the teachers are currently busy preparing the antidote, according to Satanás.

But on an occasion like this, doesn’t anyone think it’d be better to leave him walking around blindfolded all day? As punishment for his sins? Perhaps I should try wrapping it around his head a little tighter... I have an evil grin on my face as I sneak my hands up towards the cloth of the blindfold. The Prince has a suspicious look in his eyes as he watches me.

“Hehehe—ah, uh oh?!”

Despite my caution, the blindfold falls right off. I barely touched it with one finger! As a result, Rockmann, who’s been so careful up until now, makes eye contact with me. Oh dear. I bet all the girls who’ve been watching him this whole morning have witnessed exactly what I just did.

“Hellllllllllllllllllll!”

“Ah! Oh no, I’m sorry!!!!!”

All the girls in the classroom leap out of their seats and glare at me with positively demonic rage contorting their features. It’s too late to help now, but I work to refasten the blindfold over Rockmann’s eyes. They’re gonna kill me.

“What a racket you’re all making. Would you mind quieting down just a little?”

Rockmann slaps away my hands, tossing the blindfold onto the floor.

“Ouch!! Oh, hold on...the love potion didn’t work?”

He looked at me, right? But he’s acting the same as he always does. All of the students are staring at us with their jaws dropped in disbelief that Rockmann just hit me.

“That love potion must’ve been a dud.”

Prince Zenon looks closely at Rockmann. He shakes his head. “A dud,” he agrees.

Good grief. What a morning.

Sixth Year

There are many kinds of magic. Among them, of course, are an abundance of spells that can be used for pranks.

“Awawa—”

I look up at everyone else. They’ve all gotten bigger. No, I’ve gotten smaller. But not just smaller, I’ve also gotten younger. I can’t even speak properly.

Professor Bordon walks over to my seat, picks up my little body with his hands, and sighs. “It’ll take a whole day to reverse this.”

Today’s lesson covered how to mix medicinal potions for healing different types of injuries. We weren’t in our usual classroom, but the laboratory. Our seating chart hasn’t changed, however—even with five students to a group, I am still somehow sitting next to Rockmann.

I’d carefully mixed my potion exactly as instructed. Professor Bordon told us to exchange potions with someone else in our group. I’d switched with the boy sitting across from me and drank his...but then:

“Yugirsto, you’ve gone and made an Infantilizing Draught!”

“Sorry, Hel!”

The boy Yugirsto looks distraught as he apologizes to me. I feel like reaching out and patting his head in forgiveness, but I can’t do that from where Professor Bordon is holding me in the air, and on top of that, my arms are too short to reach. He didn’t do it on purpose, I know that. I can’t even tell him it’s alright because my mouth won’t form the words. From the outside, I’m guessing I look like I’m one or two years old.

“Aha! Nanalie, you are so adorable!”

Miss Maris and a few other noble girls gather around Professor Bordon and reach out to touch me. Maybe they’re just fawning over me because they’re being controlled by their maternal instincts, but I must admit I enjoy this outpouring of unconditional love. Having said that, I’d much rather go back to how big I was before. I can’t even use magic to fix this in my current state!

“A full day, sir?” Rockmann had until now been sitting quietly, observing the situation.

“Yeah, probably. If it was a charm it’d be one thing, but the effects of a potion are different. No matter how skilled the mage, there’s no one who can instantly reverse this.”

Rockmann looks at me pityingly as I wave my arms in the air, still being held up by Professor Bordon. His eyes aren’t those of someone sympathetic, however—his expression looks more like one would have upon looking at a distinctly pathetic individual.

It’s unbelievably insulting that he gets to see me like this. Not helping the matter is the fact that Professor Bordon is now leaning me against his shoulder and patting my back, rocking me gently as if I really am some sort of baby. I feel my cheeks flush in embarrassment. My clothes, of course, have not changed with my body, and remain their original size. Little as I may be, I am gripping the cloth of my shirt as tightly as I can to prevent it from slipping off. Even though I have the body of an infant, I will not let him see me naked.

“Nanalie, you’re gonna behave and spend the day in the nurse’s office, got it? Rockmann, could ya take her there?”

Professor Bordon looks down at me in his arms as he says so.

Hold up, Professor! Why would you choose him, of all people?!

“Understood, sir.”

You bastard! Just what have you “understood” about this situation?!

Ah! Stop it! Don’t pick me up! Don’t hold me in your arms! Don’t pat me on the back with that smirk on your face—!!