“Thanks for going easy on them.” Hugging Layn’s arm, Irea grasped his hand slightly tighter. “He went super overboard, and I will have him punished but… If anything were to happen to him in my presence, it would be a huge pain in the ass.”

Explaining the situation as they moved towards the academy, Irea didn’t let go of Layn’s arm even for a moment. Even when he took his barrier down, the girl remained glued to his side.

“I expected something like that. But seriously, kids are stupid. If we take everything they say and do on face value, humanity would die off long ago.” Shaking his shoulders, Layn still couldn’t be bothered with the problematic youth from before. The only reason why he didn’t like the guy was due to its clear advances towards the girl that Layn already set his sights on.

“Yeah, for my reaction back then… I apologise.” Lowering her head as her hands tightened around Layn’s arm, Irea looked to the side. Noticing the uneasy look on her now hidden face, Layn couldn’t help but sigh over how adorable this girl was.

“Not a problem. I was prepared for it ever since I killed off that entire group of vagabonds.” Shaking his head to indicate that it really wasn’t a problem for him, Layn looked towards the direction they were heading to. “Changing the topic, is this the academy you spoke of?”

Pointing his hand at a huge complex of impressive buildings gathered within a compound fenced off from the rest of the town. High towers stood guard over the two visible gates, and two more located beyond Layn’s field of view. Even though the fence didn’t look to be sturdy at all, the patch of perfectly empty land surrounding a set of walls proper made it nearly impossible to approach the place stealthily.

“Yeah. It used to be a fortress on its own… But as the city expanded, the former role of this place became irrelevant.” Looking at the sight with her eyes slightly widened in awe, Irea immersed herself in the history of the place. “After all, what roads could that fortress guard, if it was already within the city itself?”

Step by step, the three of them made their way towards the complex. With Sitra keeping up his appearances of a mute, Layn only had the girl to talk with during their leisure journey.

“Okay, we reached the teacher’s quarters.” As soon as the group got off one of the three huge bridges connecting the two sides of the town, Irea announced. Then, Sitra pulled on Layn’s robe.

Still not speaking anything at all, he simply pointed his hand at the big compound in the distance before bowing his head down.

“Right, Sitra lives in the elder’s quarters. Since you decided you want to live with me for the time being, we will be parting our ways here.” Nodding her head to the scout of the group, Irea promptly nudged Layn’s side to make him do the same.

With their farewells silently exchanged, Sitra turned around before moving towards the big compound, while Irea pulled on Layn’s hand, guiding him towards the smaller streets. Bit by bit, the shops around them turned into homes. What used to be a trading area, quickly turned into a calm settlement, filled with two-storey buildings.

“We are here. Just don’t raise your expectations too much.” Stopping the archmage before one of the buildings, Irea pressed her hand against the door before pushing forward. Sadly, rather than instantly entering the lodging, Irea actually moved to the stairs, quickly reaching the second floor. Only there, after choosing one of the two doors, she finally reached her home.

“I don’t know what you meant before, this place is quite nice!” Dropping the few bags that he had on himself directly on the floor, Layn looked around the place. Divided into two rooms, one of which served as the living area while the other one had some rugs laid out for a bed.

“Stop it. I’m not an elder like Sitra to live in a comfortable house. This is all I can afford with my entry-level teacher wage.” Putting a sour smile on her face, Irea moved to the other room. With a rustling sound of her robes sliding down her fair skin, the girl began to change her outfit.

“Give me just a moment.” Not daring to try his luck at all, Layn obediently remained in the living area, admitting the ingenious design of the kitchen and heating. While some of the engineering solutions were too complicated for the archmage to see through in an instant, just the fact that a fireplace could be ignited with just a single pull of a lever only proved how sophisticated this system was.

“Okay.. I need a few moments to go deal with my stuff. Take a short rest here, I will come to pick you up to get you registered once I come back, okay?”