William 03

Title: The Beautiful Doll

To be cautious, the earring on Kousen’s right earlobe faintly emitted a dim blue light, and a sound barrier made of psions enveloped the two of them.

“Your magic activation speed is incredibly fast.”

Mayumi’s beautiful eyes sparkled.

(As expected, Kou-kun is worthy of being the leader of the younger generation of the Kudou family.)

Kousen looked at her and said, “Then, I’ll share my method. Senpai, your family should have some branch families that aren’t publicly announced, right?”

Mayumi nodded silently.

This situation was common among every magic family; these branch families served as the private forces of the main family.

“Have the children from those families hold back a bit during the entrance exam, then during the major exams in their second and third years, they can smoothly advance to First Course students. This method shouldn’t be difficult for you, Senpai, right?”

Mayumi couldn’t help but sink into thought. In truth, the method Kousen proposed was one she had also considered.

As the eldest daughter of the Saegusa family, how could she not understand such a simple tactic?

In fact, when Kousen gave her his solution, this was the first idea that came to her mind.

She only wanted to see if Kousen’s solution aligned with hers.

“Hm?”

Kousen noticed a girl even shorter than Mayumi running straight toward them.

He quickly dispelled the sound barrier surrounding them.

“Saegusa-senpai, it looks like your friend is here.”

Kousen hurriedly alerted Mayumi, who was still lost in thought.

Snapped out of her reverie, Mayumi looked up, waved at the petite girl running toward her, and gave a genuine smile.

“President, why are you still here?”

The girl’s voice was soft and sweet, like an injured small animal, her mere presence evoking a desire to tease her.

“Kou-kun, let me introduce you. This is our student council secretary, Nakajou Azusa.”

“Or as we usually call her, A-chan.”

Mayumi walked to Azusa’s side, patted her head, and said with a mischievous smile.

Before Kousen could say anything, Azusa’s pink cheeks flushed visibly, like an angry pufferfish.

Her small hands flailed up and down.

“President, please don’t call me A-chan in front of juniors. I’m a senior too, you know!”

Though the petite senior tried hard to maintain her authority in front of Kousen, to him, she only seemed more like a small animal.

Perhaps a rabbit!

Though Kousen thought this, he didn’t neglect his manners.

“Nakajou-senpai, nice to meet you.”

“My name is Kudou Kousen. I look forward to your guidance in the future.”

Azusa seemed to experience being treated with such respect by a junior for the first time, and her small face showed a satisfied expression.

“Oh, right, President, the rehearsal is about to start. Let’s hurry!”

“Ah, you’re right.”

“Sorry, Kou-kun. The auditorium is just ahead; you can head there first!” Mayumi gave Kousen an apologetic smile.

She finally remembered an important task, pointed out the auditorium’s location to Kousen, and then left with Azusa.

As they left, Azusa had a good impression of Kousen, the junior who respected her so much. She even waved goodbye to him.

“Alright, I’ll walk slowly.”

Kousen glanced at his watch; there was still plenty of time before the opening ceremony.

◆━⊰✧⊱━◆

When he entered the auditorium, many students were already seated in the spacious hall.

Though there were plenty of empty seats at the front, not a single Second Course student sat there. Kousen didn’t want to stand out either.

While he wasn’t afraid of trouble, dealing with issues on the first day of school wasn’t his goal.

He found an empty seat among the First Course students, sat down, and closed his eyes to rest.

“Next, the speech by the freshman representative, Shiba Miyuki.”

Kousen had planned to keep his eyes closed and rest until the opening ceremony ended. He hadn’t come straight from the house he bought that morning.

Instead, he had woken up early and come from the Kudou family’s main residence, so he was a bit sleep-deprived.

Besides, the opening ceremony held no special meaning—just a group of people taking turns to give meaningless speeches.

However, when the freshman representative took the stage, the increasingly loud discussions among the surrounding students prompted Kousen to open his eyes.

Initially, he wasn’t interested in this so-called freshman representative, as he knew that if he had taken the final practical test, no one else could have been the representative.

It would have been him, Kudou Kousen.

But when he opened his eyes for the first time, he realized he was wrong. He was deeply intrigued by the girl now standing on the stage.

Make no mistake—this wasn’t attraction driven by desire, but rather by the girl’s very existence.

She was too perfect, with perfectly symmetrical features and precise body proportions, like a beautiful doll.

Yes, a doll.

This kind of beauty couldn’t be a creation of nature, as no human could give birth to someone this flawless.

This girl was strikingly similar to him.

Kousen immediately recognized her origin the moment he saw her. She was a modified magician, but even as a modification, her level of perfection surpassed current magical engineering standards.

Modified magicians had their abilities enhanced through genetic manipulation, but all modifications shared one common trait.

Though their abilities were stronger than those of ordinary magicians through scientific methods, their lifespans were significantly shorter.

Those in the know understood their own affairs. If he weren’t a reincarnated individual, the original Kousen would have had a frail body, been frequently ill, and likely wouldn’t have lived past thirty.

That’s why his grandfather, Retsu, found this situation utterly incomprehensible and could only attribute Kousen’s anomaly to a gift from heaven.

However, Kousen knew that what happened to him was fundamentally unreplicable. Yet now, Miyuki appeared as an exception—how could that not intrigue him?

“This is the masterpiece of which family?”

Kousen wondered, suspecting that Miyuki was the result of research from one of the Ten Master Clans.

As for other magic families, he didn’t even consider them, as it was simply impossible. Not because he underestimated them, but because their level of magical expertise could never achieve this.