Last Gun Alchemist

Night eventually passed, and morning arrived once again with the light of the rising sun spreading across the Royal Academy.

The different residences throughout the Academy Wings slowly came to life as their doors opened one after another.

Students stepped out of their homes, some still looking tired from the previous night while others were already dressed and prepared for another day of classes.

Some boarded the Noble or Royal Steam-Buses that moved along the Academy roads, while others entered their private Noble or Royal Steam-Carriages waiting outside their residences.

Ezra, Cyrus, and Maxwell were among the students who ordered Noble Steam-Carriages for the trip to the Academy.

The drivers were paid before the three entered their respective carriages, and after the Vehicles started moving, the familiar sound of their engines joined the growing noise of the morning traffic.

By the time Ezra arrived at the First-Year Academy District parking lot, many students had already arrived.

The morning air was cool, and the sunlight hadn’t yet become strong enough to remove the chill from the stone roads.

Ezra stepped out of the Noble Steam-Carriage and adjusted his Academy clothes.

Lucy immediately waved toward him.

”Goodbye, Master.”

She stood near the attendant’s area while holding a suitcase.

”Goodbye, Lucy.”

Ezra replied.

Lucy gave him another small wave before making her way toward the area where the attendants were expected to remain until the Academy closed for the day.

Their masters and mistresses, meanwhile, would spend the day inside the main Academy building.

Ezra turned away and walked toward the training area with the other students.

Before their first class began, everyone changed into their Academy training clothes in the changing rooms.

The students gradually gathered on the training ground, where Professor Kent was already waiting for them.

He was sitting on his familiar foldable chair.

However, something about his posture was strange.

His fingers were interlocked tightly in front of his face, and his upper body leaned forward slightly.

His expression was unusually serious.

Too serious.

Karla noticed it almost immediately.

She slowed down as she looked at him.

”What is wrong with him?”

Her eyes moved from Professor Kent’s face to his strange sitting position.

Several other students had noticed the same thing.

As more of the first-years entered the training ground and saw their professor sitting there with such a serious expression, their faces gradually became confused.

Some whispered to each other.

Others simply stared.

Cyrus walked beside Ezra toward the throw pillows where they usually sat.

He glanced toward Professor Kent.

Then he leaned closer to Ezra.

”What’s wrong with him?”

Ezra looked toward the professor.

Professor Kent was still sitting there.

His fingers remained interlocked.

His expression hadn’t changed.

”Might be constipation.”

Nate’s voice suddenly came from behind them.

He wore a faint teasing smile as he walked toward his usual place.

Cyrus immediately looked back.

”You know he can hear you, right?”

Priscilla replied before Nate could say anything else.

Her arms were folded as she walked beside him, and she gave him a side glance that made her opinion of his comment rather clear.

Nate shrugged.

”Well, we all know who said the words then.”

Cyrus pointed lightly toward Nate with a smirk.

Ezra sat down on his throw pillow and folded his legs.

He glanced toward Professor Kent again.

”The Professor might just be preparing for some goofy torture.”

He said plainly.

Priscilla stared at Ezra for a moment.

Then she walked toward the place where she and Nate usually sat.

Cyrus remained beside Ezra.

He looked as if he wanted to say something.

”Hey... Ezra.”

Ezra didn’t even look at him.

”Must you always wonder about the romance of two people?”

He asked plainly, narrowing his eyes slightly.

Cyrus immediately grinned.

”So, you do think there is something going on with those two.”

Ezra’s expression remained unchanged.

”It’s not something worth talking about though.”

He replied.

Cyrus gave a small laugh.

”But that’s the beauty of youth as well as knowledge...”

His voice was playful.

Ezra gave him a quiet look.

Cyrus suddenly lowered his head.

”Plus, I’m sorry about my sister’s joke.”

He said suddenly, his tone becoming more sincere.

”I knew she was up to something when she said she wanted to use my Zphone, but who would have thought she would take pictures of Vera and Lucien Derlis while he was playing with her hair?”

He shook his head.

For a moment, he looked genuinely apologetic.

Then the corner of his mouth began twitching.

”But...”

He tried to hold it back.

”Puff...”

His shoulders shook.

”Puff... puff...”

Ezra stared at him.

Cyrus covered his mouth.

It didn’t help.

A laugh escaped.

”Hahaha...”

He leaned forward slightly as he tried to control himself.

”Vera actually shouted ’Assault!’”

Several students nearby turned their heads toward him.

Cyrus continued, clearly finding the memory impossible to forget.

”She seriously accused him of assault in broad daylight.”

He paused.

”No, wait, it was at night actually, but you get what I mean.”

His laughter became louder.

Ezra remained silent.

Cyrus wiped the corner of his eye.

”And the worst part was that she wanted to cut off the part of her hair Lucien touched.”

His expression became even more amused.

”She said his scent had ruined the precious smell of her hair.”

A few students who had been listening began laughing as well.

Cyrus could barely continue.

”Then Vera actually said she would rather go bald than use her Cognis to regrow her hair.”

”Hahahaha!”

A noble student who was also a member of the Royal Crest Faction which was the same faction as Cyrus laughed loudly.

”She wasn’t joking.”

Professor Kent suddenly spoke.

Everyone turned toward him.

He still had the same serious expression and the same strange sitting posture.

However, his fingers were now covering part of his mouth.

He was clearly trying to hold back his own laughter.

Many students stared at him.

Karla’s eyes widened.

So that’s why he has been making that weird expression.

She thought.

Professor Kent had apparently been trying to suppress his laughter ever since the students arrived.

Before anyone could say anything else, more students from the Royal Crest Faction began laughing.

Nina was one of the loudest.

She laughed openly while Zack stood beside her, covering his mouth as he tried to keep his own laughter under control.

Selena shook her head gracefully.

A helpless sigh escaped her lips.

She remembered the incident clearly.

The moment Vera had threatened to cut her own hair, Selena had immediately rushed over and grabbed both of Vera’s hands.

There was no way she was going to stand there and watch Vera cut off her beautiful hair over something as ridiculous as Lucien touching it.

Selena had tried to stop her.

Sasha had joined in.

Diane had moved away from Vera and used Hermione as her new sleeping support instead.

Nina also joined the effort to keep Vera from doing something drastic.

Before long, the entire mansion hall of the Royal Crest Faction had descended into chaos.

Students were laughing.

Several girls were trying to hold Vera in place.

Others were telling her to calm down.

Someone was probably trying to explain that cutting her hair because another person’s scent had touched it was completely unnecessary.

And through all of it, Lucien simply stood there with a helpless smile.

He looked as if he had no idea how a simple moment of touching Vera’s hair had turned into such a large incident.

Vera herself, however, remained quiet as she looked at her fellow classmates of the same faction laughing about the incident this morning.

Her dull black eyes moved across the group.

She didn’t look embarrassed.

She didn’t laugh with them.

Instead, she simply watched them with the same calm expression she usually wore when she was surrounded by people who were being troublesome.

Then her eyes shifted.

She looked toward Ezra.

Ezra happened to be looking at her as well.

Their eyes met for a brief moment.

Ezra glanced at her hair.

Then he looked back toward Cyrus, who had already leaned against him because he was still laughing too hard over the incident.

Professor Kent continued the story.

”At the end of the day, the whole Faction had to watch Miss Selena use the hair shampoo set she always carried inside her Space Bag.”

He rested his chin against the back of his interlocked fingers.

”She washed Miss Vera’s hair thoroughly, and after that, everyone began arguing over which hairstyle Miss Selena should give her.”

Karla looked at Professor Kent strangely.

”A lot of things happened during their Faction Welcome Party, huh?”

She asked.

Then she stared at him for another moment.

Wait...Why the hell was he even there in the first place?

And he made me do all his write ups the whole night saying he wanted to rest because he had a headache.

She wondered silently with a hint of building anger.

Ezra glanced toward Vera again.

His eyes moved toward her hair.

The hairstyle was different from what he remembered.

So that’s why her hairstyle looks different today.

He thought plainly.

Cyrus was still recovering from his laughter.

He wiped the corner of his eye again before continuing.

”The way Princess Stella, my stepsister, and even Diane of all people were busy bossing Selena around about which hairstyle they wanted for Vera...”

He shook his head.

”And that’s not even mentioning the upperclassmen.”

His laughter had finally calmed down.

”Ahh...”

He sighed.

Then he smiled with clear satisfaction.

”It was really fun.”

Several students from other Factions had been listening to the story.

They looked at the Royal Crest members with a mixture of surprise and envy.

Some of them probably wished their own Welcome Parties had been this lively.

Their Faction gatherings had likely been much more orderly, with students spending most of the night talking, eating, and introducing themselves to one another.

The Royal Crest Faction, on the other hand, had somehow turned a simple interaction into a situation involving Vera almost cutting her own hair, several girls trying to stop her, Selena washing her hair, and everyone arguing about what hairstyle she should wear afterward.

It was certainly memorable.

However, the Royal Crest Faction wasn’t the only Faction where something unexpected had happened.

The Crowned Order Faction had also experienced its own incident.

A certain commoner first-year had fought against an upperclassman from the second year.

The fight had been completely different from the chaos that had happened at the Royal Crest mansion.

There had been no Cognis.

No Alchemy Circles.

No special abilities.

It had been pure hand-to-hand combat.

And the first-year commoner had won.

He had defeated the second-year upperclassman using nothing but his physical ability and fighting skill.

The result had shocked everyone inside the Crowned Order Faction.

Nobody had expected the commoner first-year to defeat an upperclassman without using Cognis, especially when the opponent was already a second-year student with more Academy experience.

But the incident had done more than surprise the students.

It had attracted attention.

Now, that commoner would have to face another trial.

Another chance to prove himself.

Another opportunity to show the other first-years why he shouldn’t be underestimated.

The new Academy Day had barely begun.

Yet already, several first-years were beginning to attract attention for very different reasons.

And for the students who had gathered on the training ground that morning, the next part of their Academy life was about to become even more interesting.