Chapter 71
Chapter 71
Immediately after returning to the Academy by carriage early in the morning, I threw myself straight onto the bed.
The fatigue from the dungeon expedition overlapped with the aftereffects of last night’s intense events, so I fell into a deep sleep without even a moment’s reprieve, but the noise that soon followed forced me to open my eyes again.
Thud thud thud thud—
The sound of knocking on my door rang in my ears.
Overcome with rising irritation, I rubbed my dry face while still lying down.
As the knocking grew more violent, I lifted my body, heavy like waterlogged cotton, and opened the door, only to meet the eyes of Alice at the very moment she seemed about to smash it down with her clenched fist.
“…Ahaha.”
When I looked at her with narrowed eyes, Alice awkwardly withdrew her hand with an embarrassed expression.
I casually glanced down the hallway and saw that there were still few people around.
That was probably why she had felt comfortable knocking so boldly.
“…Well, I came by briefly last night, but you weren’t here…….”
Just as I was about to clutch my throbbing head, Alice, unable to endure the silence, spoke first.
“I haven’t been back long.”
I answered that way while yawning, and this time Alice narrowed her eyes.
She glanced into the room as if she wanted to come in, but I wanted to sleep a bit more.
“What is it.”
“…I thought if you didn’t have anything to do, we could at least go have lunch together.”
When I asked while running a hand through my messy hair, she spoke cautiously.
It didn’t feel like I had been lying down that long, yet it was already lunchtime.
That just meant I had been sleeping deeply.
Listening to Alice, I did start to feel hungry.
“Wait a moment.”
No matter how annoying it was, I still had to take care of basic grooming, so I closed the door and was about to at least fix my hair, but Alice had already slipped into the room with a nonchalant expression.
“Did you stay out overnight?”
She asked calmly.
I roughly tidied up the bedding, sat on the edge of the bed, and nodded.
“Yeah, the schedule ended up being longer than expected. There wasn’t a carriage to come back on.”
“…With that woman?”
“It was Petra. The eldest daughter of the Leipzig family.”
Alice looked like she was paying attention to Petra.
She had probably heard from Elysia that Petra was my fiancée.
“Hmph.”
Having finished tidying up, I twisted my waist and stretched.
Perhaps because of what had happened last night, a lingering sense of weakness could still be felt here and there.
As I twisted my body like that, a pure white sword standing against one wall suddenly caught my eye.
“Right, I was so tired I completely forgot.”
I picked it up and handed it to Alice.
She took it without thinking, then looked at me with an expression asking what it was.
“I said before I’d give you a proper sword instead of Excalibur. The reason I stayed out overnight yesterday was because of this guy.”
“…Ah.”
Alice opened her eyes wide and alternated her gaze between the sword and me.
I was only keeping a promise I had made before, yet she looked overly moved.
It was embarrassing enough for the one giving the gift.
“Let’s go eat lunch.”
“…I’ll treat.”
After that, Alice continued to look to be in a good mood.
Seeing her that excited over a single sword made me feel a bit sorry.
I had money to the point it was rotting away—maybe I had been too stingy.
“Hello.”
“Oh, Yuria.”
As Alice and I were eating, Yuria soon appeared.
She carefully sat down in the empty seat next to us and greeted us.
“Where’s Leysias?”
I didn’t see Leysias, who usually stuck close to her like a best friend.
At the question, Yuria answered with a slightly awkward smile.
“…She trained magic incantations until late last night and collapsed from exhaustion. I checked her room before coming here, and she’s still sleeping like the dead.”
“…Haha.”
How hard must she have trained to collapse like that.
When I let out a dry laugh, Yuria glanced at me.
“I think it’s because of you, Ostia.”
“Me?”
“You know that magic incantation you used when you got supplementary lessons from Instructor Gawain last time. The one that caused an uproar around the area.”
“…That one?”
“It seems she got some inspiration from it. Lately, aside from classes, she’s been researching that nonstop…….”
“Oh?”
This was a new story.
I never expected Leysias to be influenced by that incantation.
I felt a bit intrigued about what kind of results this unexpected development might lead to.
“By the way, Alice looks like she’s in a good mood.”
“Hmph.”
At Yuria’s words, she pointed to the White Lotus, which she had set aside while eating.
Then, puffing out her shoulders with a proud expression, she spoke.
“I got a present.”
“A present? Ah.”
Yuria alternated her gaze between the White Lotus and me.
Then she nodded slightly, looking a bit envious, and continued.
“You two seem close. To be honest, until you said otherwise, I thought you were already dating.”
“…Well, that’s not completely wrong.”
Alice answered while glancing at me, implying that our relationship wasn’t exactly ordinary.
I let out a bitter smile at that.
It certainly wasn’t an ordinary relationship.
Like that, we continued our meal while chatting about various trivial things.
However, there was still another visitor who would come looking for us.
“Ostia.”
At the familiar voice, my head turned on its own.
At first, I thought it might be Leysias, who had just woken up, or another member of our group returning to the Academy after finishing their business, but an unexpected face was standing there.
“Could we talk for a bit after the meal?”
“…That’s fine.”
Petra spoke to me in an extremely businesslike manner.
When I nodded with an awkward expression, she finished by saying we would meet in the cafeteria in thirty minutes, then turned around without hesitation and left.
“What’s going on?”
“Who knows.”
At Alice’s question, I felt puzzled.
I had already received more than enough thanks for the sword.
Judging by her attitude, it didn’t seem to be about what had happened last night either.
After finishing my meal appropriately, I headed to the cafeteria alone.
She seemed to have been waiting already, because when she saw me, she waved her hand.
As I walked over, Petra rose from her seat and approached me.
“Then, let’s go.”
“Weren’t we going to talk here?”
“…It’s a bit too discreet of a conversation for that.”
“…….”
When I narrowed my eyes slightly at those words, she blushed and hurriedly added,
“I’ll get angry if you think anything strange.”
“I don’t think I’m the one having strange thoughts.”
Petra hid her reddened earlobes and, telling me to follow quietly, started walking.
If it was important enough to change locations from the cafeteria, then it had to be a fairly serious matter.
Since she belonged to the student council, I naturally assumed we were heading to the student council room, but before long we arrived at the female dormitory.
“…Petra.”
“Just follow quietly. Originally, letting a man in here violates school rules, but it’s something that secretly happens quite often.”
Saying that it wouldn’t be a problem as long as we weren’t caught, she grabbed my arm and pulled me along.
‘This is my first time coming here…….’
Alice had gone in and out of my room countless times, but this was the first time I had visited the female dormitory myself.
On the first floor, there was a lobby and a lounge where people could relax.
However, perhaps because it was the tail end of a holiday, there were few people around.
Even so, it was impossible not to draw attention, so we hurried our steps and soon arrived at Petra’s room.
“Sit wherever you like.”
A faint lilac scent lingered in her room.
Since the male and female dormitories were built with the same layout, it wasn’t much different from my own room, but the traces of her presence permeating the space made my mood lift slightly.
Whether she knew how I felt or not, Petra rummaged through her desk and placed a single document on the table.
“…This is?”
“You know this month is the academic festival season, right? This year, it’s being held in the Kingdom of Demedrio.”
“Well, I do know that.”
The academic festival was an event where the continent’s most prominent academies each selected representatives to showcase a year’s worth of achievements.
There were fields where theoretical research results were presented, but naturally, the tournaments displaying superiority in swordsmanship and magic were the most famous.
‘But why are you telling me this…….’
In the early part of the original work, this wasn’t even mentioned.
By principle, first-year academy students couldn’t participate in the academic festival, and this period was part of an ordinary daily-life segment that wasn’t very long.
The protagonist only participated in the academic festival when he became a second-year.
At that point, even newly admitted first-years were given seeds to participate.
But that wouldn’t be the case this year.
“…Two of the second-year representatives who were supposed to participate in the academic festival had to step down due to unavoidable circumstances. So I was asked to look for suitable replacements, and then I got caught up in yesterday’s incident. Even so, there were still a day or two left, so I was thinking it over…….”
She pressed her fingers firmly against her temple and paused for a moment.
“…Senior Louis made a new proposal.”
“Carius?”
Louis was the name Carius used at the Academy.
At his name suddenly coming out of Petra’s mouth, I frowned slightly.
“There’s one vacancy each in the magic division and the swordsmanship division. Senior Louis recommended you for the swordsmanship division, and Miss Leysias for the magic division.”
“First-years can’t participate in the academic festival, can they?”
“Normally, yes. But while I was away yesterday, Senior Louis contacted the Kingdom of Demedrio’s side and already obtained permission.”
“Permission, my ass…….”
He had probably applied pressure under the name of the Empire’s First Prince.
The Kingdom of Demedrio was the country closest to the Empire, so it couldn’t help but be greatly influenced by that name.
‘If it’s Demedrio, that’s Werner’s homeland.’
“He said your own intentions were the top priority. But since he’s already set things in motion…….”
Petra trailed off.
Even if my individual martial power surpassed his, the overall balance was still tilted toward Carius or Darius’s side.
With a sigh, Petra told me she hoped I would come up with some excuse and not go.
If one wanted a stable direction, her words weren’t wrong.
During the Academy arc, Carius had always been scheming one thing or another.
Especially this time, since he was orchestrating something that didn’t exist in the original work, there was no way to predict what kind of move he would make.
Still, avoiding a fight that had already come my way didn’t suit my nature.
“…I figured you wouldn’t listen anyway.”
Seeing my expression, Petra shook her head with a bitter smile.
In response, I smiled at her as if to say it wasn’t even worth arguing.
“As for Miss Leysias…….”
“I’ll talk to her. It’ll be a good opportunity for her too.”
“Then please do.
I’ll be accompanying you as part of the Academy’s representatives as well, so I should be able to provide a fair amount of backup.
However…….”
“Someone like Louis wouldn’t plan things carelessly. It’s fine. He won’t be able to come at me head-on anyway.”
At my bold declaration, she nodded, saying she understood.
Then she ended the conversation, saying she would convey the details again tomorrow.
“Then…….”
When I stood up from my seat, Petra followed behind me as if to see me off.
On a sudden whim, I stopped just before leaving her room.
Petra looked at me with a puzzled expression.
“What…….”
Before she could finish the question, I turned around and pulled Petra into my arms.
Then I lightly pressed my lips to hers and whispered into her ear.
“I haven’t forgotten your vow to become mine.”
“……!”
Petra’s face immediately turned bright red, and her whole body trembled.
Before I could get hit, I quickly released her and bolted out of the room.
The moment I got outside, I heard a shrill scream behind me along with the sound of something slamming into the door and falling.
I enjoyed the sound as I walked away at a leisurely pace.
“An academic festival, huh…….”
Walking down the path after leaving the female dormitory, I mulled over those words.
In the original work, that name first appeared when the protagonist became a second-year.
If I remembered correctly, I had heard that this year’s academic festival ended up being canceled due to a terrorist incident.
It was a detail that only passed by briefly, so I didn’t remember it clearly, but it seemed the kingdom was divided between pro-Empire and anti-Empire factions, constantly causing trouble.
The terror incident at the academic festival was probably related to that as well.
“This should be fun.”
I had been wondering how to deal with those bothersome older brothers, and now they were creating an opportunity on their own.
There really were no better older brothers than these.