Scheduling (1)

After safely passing through the winter break of our second year-when Ethan and Harold’s death events should have originally occurred-Ethan and I smoothly advanced to our third year without any incidents.

To be honest, I was still a little anxious until the very last day we stayed at the Blackwood mansion.

What if some kind of force in this world compelled events to follow the original storyline, and that bastard Gyeotmwa came charging in to kill Ethan? That thought kept circling in my mind.

During our stay at the Blackwood mansion, I must have had dreams about this scenario at least a dozen times. Dreams where, just like in the original story, the Hero’s Party stormed the Blackwood mansion during our second-year winter break, and Ethan and I paired up to fight against him.

Fortunately, in none of those dreams did Ethan and I ever lose to Gyeotmwa Josyegigot. No matter how much of a “Hero” he was, facing Ethan alone while buffed by my support magic would have been impossible for him.

Of course, since it was just a dream, winning or losing didn’t really matter. But still, winning always feels better, doesn’t it?

After spending about a month and a half at the Blackwood mansion, Ethan and I returned to the academy dormitory about two weeks before the new semester began. As we prepared for our third year, we sat down to plan our schedules and decide which classes we’d take together.

“Are you still planning to take Father’s class this semester?”

“…I think I should. If I skip His Grace’s class this semester, he’d definitely find it suspicious.”

“You don’t need to push yourself too hard. If swordsmanship class feels overwhelming, it’s fine to take a break this semester. I’ll talk to Father about it.”

“No. Even students in the Swordsmanship Department who are… well, less skilled than me-no, I mean, those with weaker swordsmanship abilities-still attend. As someone from another department, I’m keeping up just fine, so I think I’ll still gain more from it than they will.”

Thanks to Harold’s consistent swordsmanship training, I’d already benefited a lot. The skills I’d learned had come in handy multiple times-during the bandit encounter, the monster subjugation event, and even the battle against Machart. So, I had no regrets about taking the class so far.

And since I’d already started down this path, I wanted to push my limits as much as possible. Even if I couldn’t reach Sword Master level, I at least wanted to aim for Sword Expert.

After all, the only chance I’d have to challenge myself like this was during my time at Luminor Academy. Finding a teacher better than Harold outside the academy would be harder than plucking stars from the sky.

So, just like the past two years, I enrolled in the Magical Swordsmanship class alongside Ethan.

And the remaining courses were the core of this semester. The curriculum would undergo a major shift starting now, marking the transition between the second and third years at Luminor Academy.

“So, which Exploration courses are you planning to take, Lillith? You can take up to five, right?”

“What classes are you planning to take, Young Master Ethan?”

“Don’t worry about my opinion for now. Just tell me which courses you want to take. I’ll adjust accordingly.”

At first glance, the “Exploration courses” Ethan mentioned might sound like general electives, but in reality, they were practical training classes designed to apply what we’d learned at the academy.

Starting from the third year, theoretical lectures would decrease, and hands-on training would make up the majority of our schedule. It was a completely different curriculum compared to the first and second years, where lectures had taken up over half of our time.

Luminor Academy doesn’t raise its students like delicate flowers in a greenhouse, only to sell them off to the outside world looking pretty.

Once we’ve learned enough, we’re expected to go out and kill some monsters, slay some bandits, and gain as much real combat experience as possible-all while making sure we don’t lose our lives in the process. That was the academy’s educational philosophy.

This applied not just to the Swordsmanship, Spearmanship, Archery, Combat, and Magic Departments, but even to the Theology Department. Priests of the Aurelia Church were required to undergo a probationary period where they gained practical experience before being assigned to a church.

Of course, the Engineering and Pharmacy Departments were exceptions since they didn’t involve combat skills.

If you played as a protagonist in those departments, there were ways to forcibly participate in combat training, but that wasn’t relevant to me or Ethan right now.

‘If you’re playing as the protagonist, you’d usually have the Hero Party fully assembled by this point.’

There were still playable characters among the first-years, but since they couldn’t participate in the joint training events for third and fourth years, they were rarely recruited into the Hero Party.

Even though Lilia was a heroine, in the original game, she was less useful than Thomas-all because of this. These two years of events played a significant role in character growth leading up to the Demon King subjugation.

At least if the heroine was a year below, like Lilia, there was still one year to train her. But heroines two years below were practically hopeless. By the time they were ready for practical training, the protagonist would already be graduating, leaving no way to involve them except through forced external events.

Well, the original game’s training system wasn’t my concern anyway. All I had to worry about was which classes Ethan and I would take together.

“How about ‘Natural Science Exploration,’ ‘Geology Exploration,’ and ‘Humanities Exploration’?”

In simpler terms, that roughly translated to “hunting monsters in the forest,” “hunting monsters in underground dungeons,” and “hunting bandits.”

“Humanities? Are you sure about that, Lillith?”

“It’s not like I have no experience, right? Don’t you remember the bandit subjugation we did together last time, Young Master Ethan?”

“…But that was a bit dangerous, wasn’t it, Lillith?”

“I was just being careful not to let Isabelle get hurt. It wasn’t particularly dangerous. And compared to back then, I’m much stronger now. The same goes for you, Young Master Ethan, doesn’t it?”

“…That’s true, but still.”

To be honest, it wasn’t like “Humanities Exploration” was completely risk-free. Fighting people was inherently more dangerous than fighting monsters, after all.

But the reason I suggested it to Ethan wasn’t arbitrary-it was one of the most rewarding courses in terms of experience points.

Unlike the protagonist, who could freely roam around hunting monsters as they pleased, my only way to earn experience was by diligently attending the academy’s classes. So, I really wanted to take all three of these courses if possible.

“So? Are you only taking those three? What about the other two?”

“For the remaining two, I’d like to hear your opinion, Young Master Ethan. So, how about you decide on the other two courses?”

“I don’t mind if you choose all of them, though.”

“You should also learn how to evaluate courses for yourself, shouldn’t you?”

“…Alright, fine. Hmm…”

Honestly, the reason I left the last two choices to him was simple-the remaining Exploration courses all gave roughly the same amount of experience.

Since I’d already secured the three most rewarding courses, it didn’t matter much what Ethan chose for the other two.

No matter which courses Ethan picked, I was prepared to follow without complaint…

“For one of them… Oh, how about this?”

“Necromancy Exploration…?”

“Yeah. This one seems a bit less dangerous.”

Necromancy Exploration.

Another name for it would be “Hunting Ghost-type and Undead-type Monsters.”

In other words, taking this course meant we’d inevitably face monsters like banshees and zombies, and the training locations would be places like graveyards and abandoned houses…

“……”

“What? You don’t like it?”

“…No, it’s fine. Truly excellent judgment, Young Master Ethan.”

…Well, it’d be unfair of me to reject the course Ethan picked just because I was bad with that kind of thing.

I could treat this as an opportunity to overcome one of my weaknesses. Sooner or later, as an adventurer, I’d have to face ghost-type or undead-type monsters anyway.

If I had to get this kind of “vaccination,” it was better to do it during an academy course-preferably while Ethan was by my side.

“If you really don’t like it, we can change it. I just happened to see it and picked it randomly.”

“No. I won’t go back on my word after leaving the choice to you. And it’s not like I’m afraid of ghosts or zombies.”

“I wasn’t asking if you were scared of them. Are you weak against ghost-type monsters?”

“I’m not weak. There’s no reason to be afraid of ghost-type monsters that can’t even physically interact with-“

“…Lillith. What’s that in the mirror?”

“……Huh?”

“There, right there… There’s something in the mirror…”

…What’s gotten into him all of a sudden? Did he eat something weird?

Given the flow of our conversation, Ethan was probably just teasing me. A cheap trick like suddenly pointing at a mirror and claiming to see something wouldn’t work on me.

“Stop joking around, Young Master Ethan.”

“…I’m not joking. Look, Lillith.”

“……”

But since Ethan was staring at me with such a serious expression while pulling this prank, I decided to humor him and play along for a bit.

-Whoosh! Whoosh!

“Ah, there’s nothing there, Young Master Ethan.”

“…You’re turning your head back and forth so fast, of course you wouldn’t see anything, Lillith.”

“Enough with the jokes, Young Master Ethan. They’re not funny at all.”

“No, seriously, look. There’s something pitch-black in the mirror…”

“……”

-Slowly.

“…See? There’s nothing there, Young Master Ethan. What exactly do you mean by ‘something pitch-black’?”

“It’s right there. The world’s most adorable maid with pitch-black hair.”

……Huh?

“What? The world’s most adorable maid? Does a ghost like that exist?”

“I never said there was a ghost in the mirror. I was just surprised because you suddenly looked so beautiful.”

“……”

With those words and a beaming smile, Ethan locked eyes with me.

His ridiculous behavior made my blood boil, so I stood up from the table where we were sitting across from each other, holding my course registration form.

“…On second thought, I think I’ll redo my entire schedule this semester. It seems better to focus on the Magic Department’s exclusive Exploration courses this year.”

“S-sorry, Lillith! I was wrong, so please don’t do this!”

“I think I’ll take the Arcane Studies Exploration course. Since you still can’t use arcane magic, Young Master Ethan, I’ll have to take this class with Miss Agnes.”

“I-I said I’m sorry! Calm down, Lillith! Please?”

-Hug.

“I-if you think this will make me forgive you, you’re sorely mistaken, Young Master Ethan!”

-Peck. Peck peck.

“No, I… Ugh, aah…”

…For some reason, Ethan had gotten the strange idea to hug me tightly and plant kisses all over my cheeks. Unable to endure his nonsense any longer, I pretended to forgive him.

It wasn’t that his actions had actually made me less angry. I was just letting it slide this one time.