Ch.160160. You Don’t Always Go Home for Vacation

A week had passed since the start of the vacation. Nothing particularly significant had happened.

Except for Celia becoming a bit more clingy after I forcibly went on a date with Alkine, there really wasn’t anything noteworthy.

Well, it couldn’t be helped since we were still at the Academy. It wasn’t exactly a place with entertainment options.

At most, people would train individually. But for me, with fixed stats, training was like pouring water into a bottomless jar—pointless.

One might think leaving the Academy would solve the problem, but the issue was having nowhere to go.

In these dangerous times, no one would travel during vacation; most people returned to their hometowns… But I’m a transmigrator. I recently learned where my hometown was, but I didn’t particularly want to visit.

And Celia is an imperial princess. It only takes a day to make a round trip, and she had visited recently, so there was no particular need for her to return home during vacation.

Alkine is a northern duchess. As I’ve mentioned before, the north is ridiculously far. It’s not somewhere you can visit during a short vacation.

Lilith… has no hometown. Sometimes I forget because I’m used to her image as a saint and her easygoing personality, but she was a princess of a kingdom destroyed by the Demon King’s Army.

How could someone who doesn’t even know if her family is alive go anywhere during vacation?

For these reasons, we remained at the Academy despite it being vacation time.

Among us, Lilith was the busiest, but even she didn’t have much to do recently.

It seemed to be because she had been kidnapped not long ago.

We hadn’t publicly discussed Lilith’s kidnapping incident. But we had definitely informed the church, which was probably why Lilith seemed to be getting somewhat overprotected.

“Saint, today’s schedule…”

“Ah, just a moment. I’ll get ready and leave soon.”

“No, that’s not it. I came to tell you it’s been canceled, so please rest.”

“What?”

“The security personnel we hired haven’t arrived yet due to supply issues. So we just canceled it.”

“But this is something I do every day. Why do I suddenly need security?”

It was like this. Whatever she tried to do, the church preemptively stopped her.

As a result, Lilith wasn’t going outside the Academy much either.

Anyway, the point is this:

Not everyone returns to their hometown during vacation.

Since the Academy doesn’t close, some people just continue staying here.

With freedom to go out during vacation, in some ways, this was actually the perfect time to enjoy the campus life I’d dreamed of.

“Heave-ho! One more lap!!”

Over there, the original protagonist seems to care more about training than hometown visits or campus life.

It looks like his growth is finally on track as he’s doing something quite extreme. He’s pushing a boulder twice his size with all his might.

I didn’t quite understand why he called me to this remote place just to show me this, but it was impressive enough that I decided to consider it an interesting spectacle and move on.

“You two. Please have some tea while you wait.”

Just then, someone approached and offered us tea. It was Frang, who had become the protagonist’s friend.

“Ah, thank you.”

“I’ll enjoy it.”

I, and Celia who had somehow followed me despite me leaving alone, accepted the tea and moistened our throats.

Yes, this was the place with the cabin I had introduced to Frang.

It seems to have become Frang’s laboratory and the protagonist’s training hideout.

“I haven’t made proper progress yet, but I’m steadily making adjustments. I think I’ll have some results in about another week.”

Frang said this to us as we sipped our tea.

The fact that he seemed completely unfazed while his friend was pushing a boulder with a face about to burst from exertion suggested this wasn’t the first time he’d witnessed such a scene.

He seemed to be focused on fixing his invention based on the advice Celia had given him on graduation day, rather than returning to his hometown.

Well, it wasn’t bad that these two were working so hard to grow.

Especially since in the upcoming event, if things go wrong, taking care of oneself would be quite important.

Even in the original story, the protagonist’s goal was survival, not heroics.

‘The Arpatustu Invasion Incident.’

If my prediction is correct, he will come during this vacation.

Since I’ve already informed the headmaster about certain things, we might be able to handle it more smoothly than expected, but…

‘The opponent is a demon.’

No matter how low-ranking or early-episode the character might be, a demon is still a demon.

Moreover, since he uses fire, the damage could escalate quickly if things go even slightly wrong.

I considered finding and eliminating him before he appears, but unfortunately, I couldn’t find a way.

Even in the game, he only appeared in the main episode invasion event, so I had no way of knowing where he was hiding. And the heretics who had allied with Arpatustu were keeping their mouths shut in the underground prison despite being tortured.

Rather than wandering around trying to find him, it seemed better to wait here and deal with him when he appeared.

“By the way, how are they going to handle those Fanatic guys?”

“I heard they’ll be handed over to the church after they deal with that demon Ludion mentioned.”

“So they’re just in the underground prison now?”

“That’s what I heard. They’re all just sitting there without saying anything. It’s a bit suspicious, but the people assigned to guard them are trustworthy, so there’s probably no need to worry too much.”

…It’s a bit concerning that individuals who are fully capable of escaping are sitting quietly.

As Celia said, the imperial palace probably assigned only trustworthy individuals to watch them, but these are people who have already shown the unthinkable behavior of allying with demons.

They might be pretending to be quiet while plotting something.

“If you’re worried, shall we go check together?”

“Now?”

“Well, it won’t take long anyway. If you’re that concerned…”

Celia said this while pulling out a piece of paper from her chest.

On the elaborately decorated paper, the words ‘Date Coupon’ were clearly written.

“…What’s that?”

“I got sixteen date coupons last time in Ritten, and I thought it would be better to have them visible. I made them to match the number.”

When I pretended not to know and asked, Celia explained with a bright smile.

She was that excited about using the date coupons.

Did I really run away from this girl to go on a date with Alkine? Suddenly, I felt a strange sense of guilt…

But why was she showing this now?

As I wondered, Celia spoke.

“I’ll use this, so let’s go together.”

Hmm. I completely understood her intention.

She was suggesting we visit the imperial palace together, while also checking the underground prison.

What if Arpatustu invades while we’re away?

Alkine and Lilith can handle it just fine by themselves. Unless we’re talking about preventing it entirely, having Celia and me there wouldn’t make much difference.

In that case, burning one date coupon according to Celia’s suggestion wasn’t a bad choice.

“Shall we?”

Without much thought, just going with the flow, Celia and I headed to the imperial palace.

///

In the underground prison of the imperial palace, damp air lingered.

The sound of water dripping and pooling somewhere could be heard, repeating and reminding everyone that time had not stopped.

This was actually comforting to those imprisoned here. For people who were restrained and unable to do anything, such repetitive sounds helped them regain some mental stability.

But that was all. The sound of water provided no other help to them. It just came at a regular pace.

Although they knew that everyone who had been together was gathered here, they didn’t exchange a single word with each other.

Because it wasn’t allowed.

Of course, they could talk secretly, but thinking about what would happen if they were caught made it difficult to open their mouths.

Amidst this, the man who had been their leader, Fanatic, suddenly came to his senses.

How much time had passed? It wasn’t easy to tell in a completely closed space.

Meals were given only minimally to sustain life, and weakening magic had been cast, leaving them without strength.

How much longer would they have to stay like this?

Could it be that they were waiting for them to take their own lives?

Since this was the imperial palace and not the church, he thought it might really be the case, but everyone was enduring because they couldn’t easily give up the life given by God.

Naturally, he had considered escaping, but rejected the idea as it would be against God’s will.

Contrary to Ludion’s concerns, none of these people had any intention of escaping.

As Fanatic sat quietly in prison, he thought:

‘If it weren’t for that being, things wouldn’t have gotten this complicated.’

Well… since Ludion had stopped them and put them in this situation, it wasn’t an incorrect thought.

Except for the fact that his conclusion completely omitted what he himself had done.

However, he merely blamed without resentment.

The sensation of death he felt when beaten by Ludion was still etched in his mind.

It didn’t matter if he resented him or not. He and his companions were completely imprisoned in the imperial underground prison.

Just as he was about to reach the same conclusion he had been reaching every day recently—to just give up and accept it—it happened.

A voice that seemed to scrape against vocal cords was heard.

-You broke your promise and ended up in a place like this.

“…! Arpatustu?”

-What are you doing here?

It was Arpatustu, the demon they had contacted for their plan.

How did he know he was here? How did he enter the imperial underground prison?

Such questions arose, but now was not the time to ask them.

Because he had to answer the demon’s question.

“During preparation for the operation… we were interrupted.”

-This is why I shouldn’t trust humans.

With a wave of the demon’s hand, fire engulfed Gardian, the man in the cell right next to Fanatic.

“Aaaaargh!!”

He struggled for a while to extinguish the fire on his body, but it neither went out nor spread elsewhere.

Eventually, his body slowly burned away… until only ashes remained.

Seeing this, Fanatic was bewildered.

Even though Gardian was in a weakened state, he shouldn’t have been defeated so easily.

“What is this…”

-I wanted to kill everyone, but I held back.

“…”

Fanatic belatedly realized that something was very wrong.