It’s a Tragedy Up Close, But It’ll Be a Tragedy Even From Afar(3)

“Stop right there!!”

As the shouted cry rang out, both the observers who had come together and the students who were in class looked at Rimia with bewildered faces.

After all, if a observer who came to observe the class, and moreover, someone who is the Queen of the Elves, suddenly tells you to stop in the middle of conducting a class, anyone would reflexively turn to look.

And as the gazes gathered like that, Rimia, who had shouted to stop, was frozen in the midst of those gazes.

No, to be more precise, Rimia also couldn’t hide her bewilderment at her own shout just now.

‘I, I unintentionally…’

That’s because the shout just now was, as the saying goes, an unconscious outcry.

The moment Rimia saw Riana training desperately among the common human students on top of the large sports field, she shouted without realizing it herself.

Realizing it belatedly, Rimia froze at the dozens of pairs of eyes gathered on her, but the water had already been spilled. There was no way she could take back the shout she had just uttered.

Therefore, Rimia, frozen in place, pondered what words to say from her confused mind, but fortunately, before Rimia could take time to organize her thoughts, Kama, who had been leading the class, stood up from where she was sitting.

“You must be one of the people who came for today’s observational class. You were Rimia Sel Moonsgard, right? Nice to meet you, I am Kama, in charge of this archery class, as you can see.”

Kama introduced herself in a soft and sweet voice, as if trying to ease Rimia’s tension, speaking calmly.

Her voice was so soft that even Rimia, who detested humans, was momentarily dazed.

To the point where she doubted for a moment if Kama might be an elf like herself.

However, as if not allowing herself to be intoxicated by such a voice, Kama immediately threw a question at Rimia, who had briefly relaxed her expression.

“But seeing that you told us to stop the class, do you have some complaint about my class?”

Kama threw a straightforward question at Rimia with a bright face and tone.

But even so, she was asking politely using honorifics, so Rimia couldn’t open her mouth and just stammered.

“…Mother?”

If it weren’t for Riana’s voice calling her as she approached from the distance, she might have remained frozen.

“Ah, my daughter Riana. It’s been a while.”

Riana, who had approached at some point, was looking at her with a worried face.

At that face, Rimia felt her frozen mouth move and greeted Riana. And seeing Riana, recalling why she had reflexively shouted like that, Rimia inwardly thanked Riana and turned to look at Kama.

“Riana, let’s catch up after all the academy schedules are over, at night.”

“Ah, yes Mother…”

At Rimia’s words, Riana looked hesitant, then seemed to realize this wasn’t a conversation for her to join and quietly retreated.

Seeing this, Rimia thought.

Yes, what was the reason she had shouted to stop? Wasn’t it because her daughter, and if she meddled a bit more, the children of humans who would have to fight demons in the future, were being harshly ground down by unreasonable training?

Even if there had been incidents with demons and this was training to prepare for that, there should be limits.

Who in the world would make people do things that normal living beings can’t do, calling it training?

That’s why Rimia had shouted to stop the class, and now realizing the reason she had shouted, Rimia answered Kama, whom she had turned to look at.

“You asked if I have a complaint about your class? Of course I do. Who in the world would conduct such an absurdly ignorant training, calling it a class?”

“…Pardon?”

“Am I wrong? What did you say earlier? That arrows should reach the clouds? If you train with such an unrealistic goal, the students who will become excellent soldiers in the future…!”

“Um… that’s something any archer should be able to do sufficiently…”

“Will be overworked… Wait a moment. What did you just say?”

Rimia was about to explain to Kama that the students who would become precious soldiers in the future should not be overworked. But she cut off midway and threw the question back at Kama’s interrupting words.

Wondering if she might have misheard just now, she tried to recall the memory from just a few seconds ago, but no matter how she recalled it, it didn’t seem like she had misheard.

So Rimia pressed her throbbing head for a moment, then opened her eyes again.

“If I didn’t mishear, you just clearly…”

“Yes, after all, if an archer’s arrow can’t even reach the clouds, they’re of no use, right?”

“If you can say that, it seems you really have confidence… Then why don’t you show me once?”

It’s nonsense. No, before that, it was an impossible thing to say, so Rimia snorted softly while looking at Kama.

Shooting an arrow to hit a cloud? It’s romantic, but obviously a story that would only appear in fairy tales.

If you were to pick the race that uses magic best, it would be the merfolk of the underwater kingdom, and if you were to pick the race that uses swords best, it would be the humans of the Puhara Kingdom. However, if you were to say which race is best at archery, Rimia could confidently assert that it was their elf race.

In hunting, in war, even in daily life, elves live with bows.

So they can’t help but become familiar with bows, and being familiar with bows, they can’t help but be good at archery, right?

That’s why Rimia knew well how stupid it was to say you could shoot an arrow to hit a cloud.

No matter how good you are at archery, 500m would be the limit.

The Sky Island, which was at the same height as clouds but has now disappeared, was much higher than 500m, which means that no matter how high you shoot an arrow, it won’t reach the clouds.

“Sigh… Then, although I’m busy with class, I’ll show you just once.”

Kama took out the bow hanging on her back, as if giving in to Rimia’s forceful words.

And at the bow Kama took out, Rimia momentarily stopped breathing.

‘What an extremely beautiful bow…’

A bow as beautiful as if it had been carved from an entire branch of the World Tree.

It was a bow so beautiful that it would be strange not to be distracted if you had any knowledge of bows.

But right now, she was standing here to engrave Kama’s lie in her eyes.

Rimia shook her head lightly to come to her senses and focused on Kama’s hand, which had started to move.

Even each movement approaching the bowstring moves carefully, as if breathing life into it.

Kama’s hand approaching the bow carefully, as if touching a small, difficult-to-handle life.

Eventually, Kama’s hand touched the string and pulled the bowstring.

---

Rimia standing right next to me, observing my every move as if examining them.

I didn’t feel any particular burden, so I just calmly pulled the bowstring and hung an arrow created with magic on it.

I thought they wouldn’t be able to say anything if I was conducting such harsh training, but it seems Rimia was more strong-hearted than I thought.

I never imagined she would shout so nonchalantly right away.

Therefore, I decided to awaken Rimia’s mind with this one arrow I’m hanging now, and as I was looking for a cloud to target while hanging the arrow, I caught sight of Mira sending frantic gazes from the corner of my vision.

At that gaze that seemed to pierce through me, I slightly rolled my eyeballs to check.

-Please stop! My mental fatigue is at its limit now!

Although she had stayed up several nights even during holidays because of the observational class, it seems the fuse was burning inside even though she looked fine on the outside.

Mira’s silent cry asking me not to create things to worry about because her mental strength couldn’t hold out anymore.

However, I answered only with a smile that raised the corners of my mouth and pulled the bowstring even more.

Types like Rimia would keep bothering you if you don’t firmly put them down fair and square.

‘Yeah, that would be troublesome.’

Rather than becoming endlessly troublesome later, it was easier to finish future classes by firmly pressing down now.

So I don’t stop.

I pulled the bowstring endlessly, beyond the length the students were pulling earlier, and picked one cloud as a target with my wandering eyeballs.

One particularly large cloud boasting its presence in the blue sky full of cumulus clouds.

Capturing in my eyes the huge cloud that seemed like even a giant couldn’t fully embrace in its arms, I aimed the bow in a straight line precisely towards the cloud.

‘No need for things like orbit correction.’

Anyway, once shot, it will fly in a straight line to the cloud. Not affected by wind direction or speed, just pioneering its own path.

Then I just need to set the direction for such an arrow to go straight ahead, trusting it.

“Hup!”

Woong───!!!

Along with a short intake of breath, I released the bowstring I had pulled to about 70%.

Then, with a huge drumming sound, the arrow stretched out like a beam of light.

The arrow, which flew with everyone’s gaze attached to its tail, charged precisely aiming at the center of the cloud I had targeted, and.

Pueong…!

It created a huge wind hole in the cloud.