Harvest Festival (2)

1.

From the moment Yohan started training, Yuriel had been hiding in the bushes, watching him.

Not to gather information like an informant.

Nor to seize an opportunity like an assassin.

She didn’t have a shady hobby of secretly peeking at others.

She wanted to tell him that she wanted to train with him too, but she hesitated and several weeks passed.

Yuriel seemed to think she was hiding well without being noticed, but Elia knew Yuriel was hiding in the bushes from the very first day.

Yohan saw Yuriel tripping over a rock and muttered.

“…Chick?”

Yuriel, who had fallen awkwardly while trying to run away and couldn’t bring herself to look up, questioned Yohan’s words.

Suddenly, a chick?

Then, one important fact flashed through her mind.

“Eek!”

Yuriel desperately reached back with both hands to cover her butt.

Her skirt had flipped up as she fell.

Yuriel’s panties were being revealed to Yohan.

Panties with a yellow chick on a white background.

“Ahem… ahem.”

Yohan, who had imprinted Yuriel’s small, bouncy butt in his eyes, cleared his throat after a long while and turned his head away.

“……”

Yuriel slowly got up and smoothed out her skirt.

She turned around.

Yohan had his eyes closed and was looking away.

“……Did you see?”

“No, I didn’t see anything.”

It was an immediate answer.

“You said chick, though?”

“……It looked cute.”

Yuriel swallowed her embarrassment with a “Kkeueueueue.”

Her face flushed.

She had shown her most shameful appearance to the person she least wanted to see it.

“One of us has to die, and it’s not going to be me.”

Yuriel drew her sword.

“Don’t blame me.”

“Wa, wait a minute…!”

Yuriel swung her sword at Yohan’s neck. But the sword didn’t cut through Yohan’s neck.

“How dangerous.”

The Saintess grabbed the sword.

With her bare hands, no less, holding the sharp, blue blade.

The blade dug into her palm.

“Ah…!”

Yuriel was startled and dropped the sword.

“Oh dear, a swordsman shouldn’t let go of their sword.”

The Saintess shook her hand.

A few drops of blood stained the ground.

The Saintess returned the sword to Yuriel.

Yuriel put it back in its scabbard as soon as she received it.

“I, I’m… I’m sorry.”

Yuriel apologized, trembling.

She wasn’t trembling because she was afraid of receiving a great punishment from the Holy Nation for injuring the Saintess. Her body was trembling with guilt because she had hurt someone she cared about.

“I understand, so you don’t have to apologize.”

She showed her butt to someone in an embarrassing pose, so it’s understandable that she might act impulsively out of embarrassment. Swinging a sword was a bit much, though.

“But… Saintess… yo, your hand…”

“My hand is fine.”

The Saintess showed Yuriel her palm.

There were faint bloodstains, but no wound from which blood should be flowing.

She had healed it with Divinity.

This level of injury was nothing.

It’s not that she doesn’t feel pain, but she’s used to this kind of pain.

She’s even had her abdomen pierced by a spear, so this is nothing.

Of course, that’s a story from her past life.

“By the way, Yuriel, do you have a hobby of being a Peeping Tom?”

“N, no, no!”

Yuriel, who usually had a taciturn and cold image, stuttered and her tone became cute when she was flustered.

“You’ve been secretly watching, both today and the last time. It’s suspicious.”

She had started to feel Yuriel’s gaze since the entrance ceremony.

At that time, when she headed to the Magic department building to find Ether professor, who had chosen the Path of the Devil, she noticed Yuriel was watching. Also, when she defeated the Demon in the lab.

Since then, she often felt a watching gaze.

Recently, the gaze had become even more intense.

When she walks out of the temple and through the Imperial Academy, Yuriel’s eyes prick at her back.

Could this be… a woman’s jealousy?

She’s interested in Yohan, so she must feel like there’s a nuisance next to him, no matter how much of a Saintess she is.

Scary, scary.

“N, no, really… it’s not that. It’s true I was secretly watching… but I don’t have any strange hobbies… it’s not that. It’s just… well… the reason I was hiding was… it’s not because of anything else, it’s just… it’s not…”

Yuriel was rambling.

Her eyes were spinning.

She looked like she was about to burst into tears any second.

“I’m just kidding. Was I too harsh?”

The Saintess approached Yuriel.

Yuriel hiccuped and cowered.

Anyone would think she was trying to eat her.

“Yuriel, are you going to participate in the Harvest festival?”

“Ye, yes…?”

“If you’re thinking of participating in the Harvest festival, how about joining Yohan Hyung’s party?”

Elia wanted the two to become close.

Yohan, who will become a Hero in the future.

It would be good for him to have reliable companions.

The Imperial Academy is not just a place to improve swordsmanship skills.

It’s also a place to learn social skills and build connections.

Building connections steadily for four years will be of great help in the future.

“No… I…”

“You already have a party?”

“Ah… that’s…”

“If it’s Yuriel, you must have formed a party as soon as the Harvest festival announcement went up.”

Second seat in the Swordsmanship department.

Love calls must have been pouring in from all over the place.

It’s obvious, but the stronger the party, the more advantageous it is in the Harvest festival.

However.

“No… I couldn’t.”

“You didn’t?”

“No… I couldn’t.”

“So, you’re saying the party is complete, but you haven’t applied yet?”

“Saintess.”

It was Yohan who stopped the Saintess from actively approaching Yuriel.

Yohan shook his head as if to say, “Don’t say any more.”

“Why?”

The Saintess blinked.

She was just trying to find one more party member who was lacking.

“I, I couldn’t find a party… so I haven’t applied yet.”

Yuriel said, forcing the words out in a depressed voice.

Yuriel Van Skolhart.

Second seat in the Swordsmanship department, first year, but she doesn’t have a single friend.

Even though she’s been living in the Imperial Academy for almost two months, she hasn’t made a single friend yet.

She has a shy personality.

She usually has a stoic face and a cynical reaction to those around her.

When she’s in swordsmanship class, she makes remarks that seem to look down on other students.

It’s not that Yuriel wants to do that.

Because she’s so shy, cold words just pop out.

But because they don’t know the circumstances, people around her are keeping their distance from Yuriel.

To put it bluntly, she’s being ostracized.

She eats in the corner of the student cafeteria during lunch.

She practices with the professor because she doesn’t have anyone to practice with during swordsmanship practice.

There were also times when Yuriel was the only one who didn’t hear news that all the other students had heard.

No matter how good you are at swordsmanship, you need to be a good person to make friends.

“Then that’s even better!”

The Saintess grabbed Yuriel’s hand.

“Take this opportunity to get to know each other.”

The Saintess looked at Yohan.

“What do you think?”

“If it’s okay with Yuriel.”

Yohan shrugged.

They’re not close, but it’s not like he has any ill feelings towards Yuriel.

Rather, Yohan recognizes Yuriel as a rival.

There’s a big difference in grades and skill, but after sparring twice, he has a desire to win against her someday.

“What will you do?”

The Saintess asked Yuriel with a bright smile.

“I, I… not really…”

“Think of it as punishment for cutting my palm.”

The Saintess poked at Yuriel’s guilt.

Her palm is fine because she healed it, but the fact that Yuriel cut her palm remains.

“……Yes.”

Yuriel answered reluctantly.

“Then let’s shake hands to commemorate becoming the same party.”

The Saintess put Yuriel’s hand in Yohan’s.

There was also the meddling of an old woman who wanted a young couple to become close.

Yuriel shuddered.

It was the first time she had held a man’s thick, rough hand.

“Nice to meet you.”

“Y, yeah…”

Yohan found the timid Yuriel to be fascinating.

He doubted that she was the same cold-blooded swordsman he had sparred with.

Thus, Yohan’s Harvest festival party was completed.

2.

Early dawn.

The vice-commander of the 11th Imperial Knights, Gale, arrived at the Imperial Academy.

The recent series of incidents.

The entrance exam and entrance ceremony incidents.

He visited the Imperial Academy to investigate those incidents.

The culprit was caught and the case was solved, but the root cause has not yet been found.

The traitor, Ether.

If they had interrogated him, they might have known more.

But when they recovered him, he was already dead, so the information they could get was extremely limited.

Perhaps the real culprit is still at the Imperial Academy.

The Imperial Academy itself is investigating and constantly detecting Demonic energy, but safety is not guaranteed.

If they appear again… it will be this Harvest festival.

Worried about that, troops were dispatched from the Imperial Knights this time.

Gale walked around the Imperial Academy.

His specialty is detecting Demonic energy.

It’s a useless ability in the Demon Realm, where Demonic energy is everywhere, but it’s very useful outside the Demon Realm.

It wasn’t Demonic energy, but what Gale felt was a powerful Magical power when he was walking around a forest in the Imperial Academy.

The air is shaking.

It’s a Magical power that makes your hair stand on end.

Strong Magical power in a forest far from the Magic department.

It’s worth checking out.

Gale headed to where the Magical power was felt.

There was a girl there.

The girl was wielding a sword, her golden hair fluttering.

It’s a beautiful movement.

To think that there is a student with such movements at the Imperial Academy.

She looks like a skilled person who has been practicing swordsmanship for decades.

Apart from that.

Magical power was fluctuating violently from the girl’s sword.

It’s a chilling energy.

If that explodes at once, a huge explosion will occur.

…Is it terrorism?

He doesn’t know the details, but he decided to subdue her first.