Chapter 35
The next day. Reina’s shout echoed through the treatment facility in the monastery district.
“Ah! I still get mad thinking about it!”
I was peeling an apple beside her while listening to her cute tantrum.
“There are other people here too, Reina.”
“Ah! Sorry!”
Reina’s voice boomed through the treatment facility again.
“I told you to be quiet.”
“Oh. Does that mean shouting is also not allowed?”
“Just quietly eat this.”
I brought the well-peeled apple to Reina’s mouth. She smiled and took a bite, nibbling like a rabbit.
Then she looked at the apples on the plate in surprise.
“Wow! How did you peel it like a rabbit?”
“I practiced hard. Someone used to fuss a lot asking me to peel it like this.”
“Hmm… The kind of person who would ask the whole class to peel apples like that… is it senior Seren?”
I smiled and dodged the question.
Reina ended up resting at the treatment facility.
The aftereffects of the Aura Break had mostly faded, but she complained that the place where a branch had hit her shoulder was still problematic.
Since there couldn’t be a scar from the tree branch at the Trichiguan, it was definitely just a fuss—but she was cute, so I didn’t say much.
“You have to heal quickly so we can prepare for the competition together.”
“What competition?”
“There’s a dungeon raid competition happening in four weeks.”
“Dungeon raid?! Are we really raiding a dungeon?”
“No, not really. It’s an artificial dungeon created by the professors.”
“Geez, I got my hopes up for nothing.”
Real dungeons are special spaces formed when this world touches another, filled with all kinds of magical beasts, monsters, and traps—dangerous places.
Among mercenaries, the number of dungeon raids is recognized as a measure of strength. I understood Reina’s desire to try it, but sending students into a real dungeon would mean that even in the easiest low-rank dungeons, 6 out of 10 would get injured or die.
“They say it’s at the level of an actual low-rank dungeon, though, but no one will get hurt or die.”
“Oh…! That sounds fun!”
Reina jumped excitedly in her seat, then suddenly winced in pain.
“So heal up quickly.”
“All righty…”
Reina, who had been humming happily, suddenly put on a serious expression.
“Wait. Does that mean the three major factions will try to interfere with us?”
Reina’s prediction was right.
The three major factions had already declared they would block us, and we had responded with a “bring it on” attitude. They would definitely try to stop us by any means.
“The first-years might try something, but second-years shouldn’t get involved…”
“No need to worry about that. That’s why we called senior Lesta to handle the second- and third-years. She’ll take care of it somehow.”
“She’s reliable, but I don’t like her.”
It seemed Lesta was completely disliked in Reina’s mind.
I thought about telling her what Lesta told me in confidence but decided against it.
She’d recover on her own with time. For now, I just wanted to keep things from seriously worsening.
Before we knew it, it was lunchtime, and Lidipin came after finishing her class.
“I brought sandwiches… Oh, you’re here too?”
“I skipped the morning lecture.”
“Is that okay?”
“I said it was fine until this week.”
“Oh, right. I should’ve skipped too.”
“Don’t do that, Lidipin. The class is a mess, but you don’t have to be.”
“Hey. You say that to someone nursing a patient? I’ll press your shoulder.”
“Please, not that…!”
Lidipin burst out laughing at our exchange.
“I wasn’t sure what you’d like, so I bought a variety.”
Wow. The direct heir of a noble family really has a different spending style.
While eating the sandwiches Lidipin bought, I told her about the dungeon raid competition and our situation.
“Even if senior Lesta handles the second- and third-years, can we beat the first-years?”
“Honestly, I think Lidipin can take them all alone. Right, Ban?”
“Alone? If she shot an arrow, she could probably take everyone down. I wouldn’t be surprised.”
The difference between having aura and not is huge. And Lidipin’s aura density is high, so theoretically, if she charged with aura armor on, no one could stop her.
The only catch is that aura doesn’t come out well if she doesn’t use a bow.
When we praised her, Lidipin blushed and said,
“B-but senior Lesta said I’m useless as an archer…”
“That was when you hesitated.”
“Y-yeah, but…”
Then Reina poked Lidipin’s side and said,
“Be honest. You’re not worried about the first-years at all, right? You thought you could wipe them out if you wanted?”
“N-no!”
Reina seemed to have taken a liking to teasing Lidipin.
Then Reina suddenly remembered something and laughed.
“Oh! Speaking of aura, look at this.”
Reina pulled a sword out of her pocket and placed it in front of Lidipin. Closing her eyes, she exhaled sharply, and a red smoke-like aura rose from the sword.
Aura.
Lidipin was startled.
“You’re releasing aura?!”
“Hehe. How about it? Now we can really use Selenia-style techniques! Though I still need to practice.”
“Amazing!”
“Why is Ban’s reaction so lukewarm?”
“Me?”
I couldn’t say I had opened the aura for her.
I had pretended to be surprised, but maybe it wasn’t enough.
So I exaggerated my reaction.
“Wow! Reina! That’s amazing! You’re a first-year at the academy and can already use aura!”
“You’re so fake.”
Reina glared at me with her eyes shaped like half-moons.
“As punishment, give me a bite of the sandwich you’re eating.”
“So that was your goal all along.”
“No! I’m mad because your reaction was so lukewarm!”
“Then I’ll give you the whole thing.”
“Really?! Well, this time I’ll forgive you!”
Her act of pretending to be arrogant was cute.
After spending the day taking care of Reina, the next day.
After finishing my morning lectures, I was supposed to meet Reina and Lidipin at the library.
I had cleared the first main event and could now use fire and earth magic up to circle 3.
Up to circle 2, I managed somehow with circle magic, but from circle 3 onwards, magic got complicated and required understanding.
I’d learn circle 3 and 4 magic starting week 8.
The next raid would be at the end of the semester, so it was better to gain experience through the dungeon raid competition beforehand.
While searching the library for elemental magic books, I heard familiar voices.
“You need to interpret this part by breaking down the characters like this.”
“Like this?”
“Right. If you fix this part this way, it’ll be better.”
“Like this?”
“Are you stupid?”
“……”
Going towards the voices, I found Drena, Sonia, and…
“Ban Astrea?”
Ceres Laplace was there.
Her long purple hair reached her waist, with a single strand sticking out like a point on her crown. She was petite with a cute face but had an emotionless expression and pale pink eyes that seemed to pierce into your soul, creating a difficult atmosphere to approach.
“Why are you here?”
“I just heard a familiar voice.”
“Familiar?”
I silently pointed to Drena, and she frowned.
“Why are you here?”
“Don’t ask the same question again.”
What I was seeing was strange.
Drena and Ceres being together was one thing, but Sonia was there too.
“An unusual combination.”
“We were in the same group for joint tactics.”
“No, I mean it’s unusual for all three of you to be in the library.”
“From my point of view, you being in the library is the most unusual.”
This guy never stops talking.
“Anyway, what were you doing?”
Ceres answered.
“Teaching.”
Ceres was a bit of an eccentric character, especially noticeable in conversation. She spoke bluntly and went straight to the point without preamble.
At first, I couldn’t understand her without community help, but now I could catch almost everything.
I thought carefully.
On the table before them were various low-rank magic books and magic circles drawn on paper. Since Ceres could use circle 4 magic before admission, this wasn’t a study session.
So…
“You were teaching magic to Drena and Sonia?”
Honestly, this was one of the simpler things Ceres could say. I could tell by observing the surroundings.
But the three of them looked shocked as if they had witnessed something impossible.
“Did you understand what I said?”
“Are you seriously understanding this girl?”
“Oh my…”
“Well… I can understand this much…”
What do they think of Ceres? At least since she’s a person, conversation is possible.
“But I’m a little disappointed. Drena, I gave you a note to teach you, but you’re learning magic from someone else?”
“Did you give me a note? I don’t remember.”
Pretending not to know all of a sudden?
“You crumpled it right in front of me, and you say you forgot?”
“Well…”
I just said that to continue the conversation, but Drena looked oddly nervous.
Could he feel guilty about crumpling the note? No way. If so, he would’ve apologized by now.
Not knowing what he was thinking, Drena said,
“I have my reasons here.”
“Fair enough.”
Drena wasn’t the type to lie. I let it slide.
“Anyway, Ceres Laplace teaching others…”
Ceres’s eccentric thinking was hereditary. The Laplace family was historically peculiar.
Because she realized her oddness early on, it was known she wasn’t interested in socializing. But the Ceres before me said she was teaching magic to those two.
“Did you get a whim? Or did Drena provoke you?”
Just as Drena was about to retort angrily, Ceres stopped him and said seriously,
“I was teaching because I wanted to meet you.”
“To meet me…?”
What could that mean?
Their connection was that they were in the same group for joint tactics and participated in the mine extermination at freshman orientation.
Though they’d been in the same group before, there was no teaching event early on.
In the mine extermination, the only cutscene was Ceres showing interest in the user, Drena, with no further development.
So this situation was clearly off the original storyline. Something changed.
The only variable I could think of was the boss fight info I gave.
Drena must’ve used the info secretly.
Normally, that wouldn’t be a big deal, but the problem was that Ceres somehow found out about it.
If she found out, she’d be interested in the boss info’s source—and since I admitted to giving the note to Drena, it explained why she was “teaching to meet me.”
“So, you were teaching because you wanted to meet the person who gave Drena the magic circle note, and that person is me?”
Drena pressed his temples as if he had a headache.
“What do you want me to do by admitting that…”
“So what?”
“The mine at the orientation only used the magic you told them. I was trying to keep it a secret…”
I expected this situation, so I said naturally,
“Are you suspecting I’m involved with the mines?”
“I’m guessing you knew about it beforehand.”
Sharp guy. But I kept my cool.
“That Cain Tromer who became a mine had poor magical talent. He must’ve used simple, straightforward magic, so it’s natural that the spells I advised overlapped with what he used.”
I thought that was a perfect excuse.
Naturally, Drena nodded.
“True. I suspect I was wrong. Sorry.”
“Good enough.”
Since Drena lied, next was Ceres… but she just stared at me, seemingly shocked.
Did she notice something strange?
Ceres possessed the “magic eye” that could see subtle flows of mana, aura, and divine power. She might have detected something I failed to hide.
But despite the tension, Ceres flipped her hair and approached me, grabbing both my hands and locking eyes.
“Marry me.”
Suddenly?
At that moment, Lidipin appeared and shouted,
“No way!”
