Ch.152Chapter 152: A Long, Long Day (3)

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After leaving Professor Grace, who had returned to the Cradle.

I tucked the booklet she had given me into my chest and continued walking toward my next destination.

To her office, where my sister would be waiting for a private meeting with me, though the content of our discussion had changed.

Since the final barrier restoration had been performed quite far from the office where my sister was.

It would take a fair amount of time to walk there.

But now that the Subjugation Festival had ended and the Cradle students no longer had anything special to do within the fortress.

Time was all I had left.

So I simply took my steps toward the office as leisurely as possible.

When I had awakened to face the slightly late morning.

Fatigue had gnawed at my body with each step I took.

But now, strangely enough, my body felt incredibly light as I moved.

At first, I attributed this lightness to my mood.

[Oh… To control the armor without being overwhelmed by it on just your second time wearing it. Good, very good.]

As Professor Grace disappeared, I could tell this wasn’t just my imagination when I heard Fafnir’s admiring voice, which had lost much of its sharpness.

Suddenly, I compared today’s movements with yesterday’s situation when I had just put on the Crimson Dragon Armor.

Compared to yesterday, when I had faced magical realm beings while spewing scarlet flames in the dragon armor—though “moving freely” might be an overstatement.

Today I had desperately followed Professor Grace, who moved at an unbelievable speed to complete the barrier restoration quickly.

I had engaged in even more strenuous activity, to the point where I thought I might actually die.

Yet as time passed, my physical condition, which I had expected to collapse after such intense exertion, was actually becoming more robust.

It seemed almost laughable now that I had worried about the armor draining all my energy and leaving me to wither away.

[What’s good is good. From now on, train your body and mind by wearing the armor whenever necessary.]

‘I’ll take that advice to heart.’

I politely accepted Fafnir’s suggestion, my voice revealing my improved mood due to my better physical condition.

By the way, the person he dislikes… let’s call them a person for now.

Anyway, it was surprising how quickly his fierce voice returned to normal as soon as that person disappeared.

He really dislikes Professor Grace.

As someone who has only fragmentarily encountered the events of the Great War a thousand years ago through records.

I don’t understand why Fafnir, who was thoroughly marginalized in those records, would dislike Professor Grace, who is of the same kind despite having differently colored scales.

I remembered how he had previously shown discomfort when her place of origin was mentioned.

With my limited information, all I could do was try to infer the deep-seated feelings hidden within Fafnir.

“I suppose I’ll understand when the time comes.”

[What are you talking about?]

‘Nothing at all.’

As I tentatively concluded that I couldn’t understand for now and quietly organized my thoughts that threatened to expand endlessly in my mind.

“…I’ve arrived.”

I had reached my destination before I knew it.

The time it took to restore the barrier and.

The time it took to walk from the final restoration point to this office were almost the same.

But since the restoration itself had finished so quickly.

I ended up returning to the office in less than an hour after leaving it.

Now, once I enter the office, I’ll be able to sit comfortably and have a relaxed conversation with my sister, right?

I was certainly thinking that as I was about to knock on the door to enter the office.

[Wait.]

Thanks to Fafnir’s sudden interruption, I had no choice but to stop my hand that was about to knock on the entrance door.

I was about to ask why he had suddenly stopped me.

[Don’t go in now. Wait a little while.]

The urgency in Fafnir’s voice silenced my question.

So instead of asking him for the reason.

“…”

I hardened my relaxed expression.

And extended my spiritual perception beyond the door to find out what was happening inside.

Thanks to my improved physical condition, which had been in tatters when I woke up this morning.

My now-sharpened spiritual perception swept through every corner of the office as if it could detect even a single needle, providing me with abundant information.

My perception told me that there were two more people in the office besides my sister.

That these two people were people I knew well.

And naturally, that there was nothing inside that would put me in danger.

‘Excel… and Siz.’

I wasn’t sure why these two were in the office.

But what mattered now wasn’t finding out why they were here, but the fact that they weren’t people who would cause me physical harm.

By this point, I was beginning to feel suspicious.

Why would Fafnir try to stop me from entering an office containing my precious family, a friend who was like family, and someone even more important than all of that?

[Just because you know everything doesn’t mean it can be explained in words.]

‘What does that mean?’

Fafnir was still clearly avoiding my question with ambiguous words rather than explaining the reason.

Since it seemed difficult to get the answer I wanted this way.

‘Are you stopping me because I’ll be in danger if I open the door now?’

I changed my question.

[Hmm, rather than dangerous, I’d say an extremely embarrassing scene is about to unfold, so open it later, that’s what I mean.]

…Despite Fafnir’s intention, his voice echoing in my head.

“…”

Made my hand, which was about to knock on the door, move toward the doorknob instead.

The word “embarrassing” from his mouth created a vague anxiety that it might be related to Siz, whose presence I could sense inside, and that drove me to act this way.

However, even though my anxiety had unconsciously placed my hand on the doorknob.

I hesitated for a moment, unable to turn it without hesitation.

Just as I was about to continue my deliberation on whether to turn the handle or not.

CRASH!!

The sound of something collapsing and shattering.

-Eek!!

A shrill, thin scream that was difficult to identify.

-Kugh!!

Excel’s painful voice, clearly recognizable even through the door.

‘What embarrassing…’

I turned the doorknob boldly while inwardly lamenting words that wouldn’t be heard.

How could I hesitate when sounds like a war had broken out inside, rather than any embarrassing situation?

I felt a slight regret rising in my heart that I should have either knocked immediately or turned the doorknob without listening to Fafnir.

But without showing any such feelings on my face, I urgently opened the door without observing the proper etiquette of knocking, and what met my eyes was…

“…Hmm.”

An involuntary murmur escaped my lips at the embarrassing scene that immediately made clear why Fafnir had tried to prevent me from entering.

[…You should have listened to me.]

‘I didn’t expect this.’

I made a deep mental promise to pay more attention to Fafnir’s words in the future.

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Embarrassing.

This sentiment came naturally, as the scene before my eyes was difficult to describe with any other word.

Let me explain why I say this.

First, I need to describe the interior of the office.

Compared to my early morning visit, the office had become so disorderly that I questioned whether this was the same place I had visited in the morning.

The decorative items that had played a major role in maintaining the room’s orderly atmosphere when I first visited were now scattered in random places rather than where they belonged.

Books rolling around on the floor.

The source of the loud noise I had heard from outside.

And also the cause of the books scattered across the floor—two bookshelves that had fallen over.

It looked so chaotic that one might think a war had broken out in here.

But if this mess had been the main issue, I wouldn’t have used the word “embarrassing” at all.

The real source of the embarrassment permeating the air was something else entirely.

It was essentially created by two of the three people I had already sensed in this room through my spiritual perception.

“…”

My sister, who was unable to get up from beneath the fallen bookshelf, maintaining silence for reasons unknown.

“…Kugh.”

Excel, who was groaning in pain from the weight of the bookshelf that had fallen on his back.

Yet clearly relieved that my sister beneath him was unharmed.

The scene they created was embarrassing because he was positioned on top of my fallen sister.

And I wasn’t the only one who felt this way—among those not involved in the accident between these two.

“…”

Siz was covering her eyes with both hands, struggling to forget what she had just witnessed, without saying a word.

…Looking closely, she was actually peeking through the gaps between her fingers, but still.

Anyway, in such an emergency situation, it would normally be natural to worry about the two people at the center of the incident.

But because it was these two particular people, there was actually no need for concern.

From the beginning, even if a boulder heavier than that bookshelf had fallen on his back in that position.

It was clear that neither of them would have been injured, so they couldn’t possibly be hurt by a mere fallen bookshelf.

Therefore, my gaze toward the scene wasn’t concerned with how injured they might be.

Rather, checking on my sister’s condition beneath Excel was the urgent matter.

Of course, I wasn’t worried that she might be injured or unconscious.

I was afraid that Excel, in his reckless attempt to protect my sister, might have created an even more embarrassing situation than simply being piled on top of her.

When I first flung open the door after hearing the noise, my sister and Excel seemed to be holding up relatively well, apart from their bodies being unavoidably stacked on each other.

But that impression quickly faded.

As the dust raised by the books from the collapsed bookshelf gradually settled, the scene at the “epicenter” became clear…

“…Excel.”

My sister addressed Excel, who had both his hands on her “chest,” in an ice-cold voice.

“Ah…haha.”

Excel, finally realizing where his hands had gone, let out an awkward laugh with an expression trying its best to feign nonchalance.

For whatever reason, Excel showed no intention of removing his hands from my sister’s chest.

And after my sister called his name in that cold voice to give him a hint, yet seeing no change in his behavior.

“…So that’s how it is.”

An even chillier voice than before escaped her lips.

SLAP-!!

With a movement so swift I couldn’t even see how her hand rose, my sister delivered a clean slap to Excel’s cheek, the impact resounding clearly through the room.

“…Huh! What did I…?”

Excel, feeling the sting on his cheek, finally removed his hands from my sister’s chest and rubbed his face.

“I’ll help you up right away.”

He stood up effortlessly, as if he had never felt the weight of the bookshelf crushing him, moved it aside, and extended his right hand to help my sister up.

“Sigh…”

My sister let out a sigh of some indeterminate emotion, her demeanor considerably calmer than when she had delivered the slap.

[…I didn’t see it.]

Fafnir’s voice, having witnessed the entire process, was filled with astonishment at not being able to properly see my sister’s hand movement as she brilliantly slapped Excel.

‘How did that slap even fly?’

It wasn’t just Fafnir—I couldn’t see my sister’s hand movement either.

The only takeaway was a strengthened resolve to be more careful around my sister.

Amidst all this commotion, I turned my gaze to the wall clock in the office to check the current time, and the hour and minute hands indicated that it was about five minutes before noon.

Even though it wasn’t yet lunchtime.

Seeing two major incidents(?) already occur.

I couldn’t help but think that today would be an exceptionally long day.

This thought of mine reached its peak not long after, when my sister, who had moved everyone to the dining hall under the pretext of lunch to escape the embarrassment, spoke as soon as she sat down.