Morning, inside a slightly messy room.
*CREAK!*
Accompanied by the sound of a door opening softly, a small figure entered with the lightest possible steps.
As if not wanting to touch the various items lying on the floor, afraid of damaging them, the girl in the gray robe carefully tiptoed through the gaps of empty space, towards a bed at the deepest part of the room.
Seeing the person still lying on the bed, their entire body wrapped in a blanket like a snail, the girl looked a little helpless, but also smiled faintly as if pleased, then reached out and nudged the person on the bed.
"Brother, it's eight in the morning, time to wake up."
"Huuuh~"
No answer, only snoring.
Pushing him again with a little more force, the girl continued, "Miss Mary has prepared breakfast, Brother's favorite Chinese breakfast, if you don't get up soon it will get cold."
"Hmm~... Huuuh~"
The snoring still didn't stop.
The girl frowned, then lifted her leg wrapped in stockings and climbed onto the bed, pulled down a bit of the blanket covering him, and for the third time said to the blonde-haired young man whose head was visible, "Brother, if you don't get up soon you'll be late, Lord Waver will be angry."
"Ugh...li..."
"Five?"
"Sleep five more minutes..."
That sentence again.
For the past two years, almost every morning the girl heard that sentence when waking the young man. At first, the girl was still innocent and believed him, but the so-called five minutes, in reality, the young man wouldn't wake up before an hour had passed.
Letting out a resigned sigh, the girl stood up and directly pulled open the window curtains that were drawn beside her. Bright morning sunlight instantly illuminated the room, the dim room was instantly filled with morning light, and in an instant became brightly lit.
And due to the sudden burst of light, Naoki, who had been lazing in bed, couldn't stand it and opened his eyes. After grabbing his glasses on the bedside table and putting them on, he said reluctantly to the girl in front of him, "This method again... It's not good for the eyes, Gray."
"Only this way will Brother wake up, right?"
Jumping down from the bed, Gray smiled faintly, "Good morning, Brother. I've helped prepare your clothes, hurry up and get up. I'll help you tidy up these books on the floor, put them back in their usual place?"
"Yeah..."
Sitting up from the bed, watching Gray start tidying up the room, Naoki unconsciously chuckled, "Haaah... I'm really spoiled by you, Gray. If you didn't come to help me tidy up every day, my room would definitely be a mess. Thank you for your hard work these past two years."
"It's nothing, I'm Brother's younger sister anyway." Gray smiled, "Alright, leave this to me, Brother go take a shower and change first."
"Um."
◆━⊰✧⊱━◆
A few minutes later, in the dining room on the first floor of the apartment.
Seeing Naoki enter, Merlin, who was sitting on the sofa reading a newspaper, immediately smiled, "Already awake? Woken up by Gray again?"
"In these two years, what day haven't I been like this?"
"Really, can't you occasionally wake up on your own? If this continues, what if Gray isn't around?" Merlin said with a disappointed tone, "Breakfast is prepared for you, hurry up and eat then go to university soon."
"Don't rush, there's still time, with my leg speed I can make it on time without any problem."
Naoki said while sitting down and slurping his noodles.
"Besides, I've already learned almost all the basic course material, now I just need to take the required credits to graduate. As long as I can pass the attendance and final exams, skipping a few classes isn't a problem."
"Especially now that it's approaching the end of the semester, there won't be any new material taught even if I go."
"You..."
Seeing Naoki clearly getting lazier and lazier, Merlin didn't know what to say for a moment, after all, what he said was indeed true.
Although he had only been at the Clock Tower for about two years, because he had Waver and Merlin as roommates, Naoki had already mastered almost all the basic university knowledge. If there was a written exam, out of a hundred points, he should be able to get eighty.
Therefore, even though Naoki was often late, Waver wouldn't scold him, especially since Naoki's reason for being late was to develop his own Mystic Code.
"By the way, how is the progress of that Magecraft research?" Merlin asked, "It's been almost half a year, have you mastered the basics?"
"Ah, you mean summoning Magecraft?"
Summoning Magecraft.
About a year and a half ago, not long after the incident in Paris, Merlin found a reason to give Naoki the magic book Aleister had obtained from Morgan. After getting that magic book, for some reason Naoki showed great interest, almost pouring all his attention into the research of summoning Magecraft.
Of course, at that time Naoki, who was still half-hearted, couldn't possibly research anything. Only after constantly asking Waver and Kayneth to fully explain the professional course of Spirit Evocation did he begin to understand it little by little.
Official research only began about half a year ago.
"Hmm... I understand it theoretically, but I've never actually tried summoning. Today I'm going to the Department of Spirit Evocation, if I can borrow a standard summoning catalyst, I can try it."
There were two conditions required for summoning magic: environment, and catalyst.
In the right place, at the right time, and with the right natural conditions, Magecraft could only be used perfectly through a catalyst whose power reached a certain standard. If forced, let alone summoning fairy mutant creatures, even fairies couldn't be summoned.
—That was the theory.
Natural conditions, Naoki had a way to deal with them, the only problem was the catalyst. Who told him he was really broke? After deducting the monthly rent, the remaining money was not enough to buy a good catalyst at all.
"Sigh~ when can I become rich?"
Letting out a sigh and finishing his noodles, Naoki wiped his mouth, and at the same time, coincidentally, Gray came over to him carrying a packed backpack, "Brother, backpack, textbooks, and stationery are all packed. And this, Brother always carries Logos React, right?"
"Um, thank you, Gray."
After storing Logos React, Naoki stood up, "Alright Merlin, Gray and I are leaving first. We have classes all day today, we'll be back for dinner tonight."
"Be careful on the road, don't jump onto rooftops again because you're in a hurry."
"I will watch over Brother."
"Gray!"