Ch.4242. Distrust, and Hatred (5)

The thunderous sound echoed throughout the mock battle room.

There, the combat capabilities of the new party member were confirmed.

“You’re quite impressive, aren’t you? That hit got me good.”

Goden laughed casually while rubbing the side of his ribs where Aris’s magic had struck.

Though in reality, they both knew the attack hadn’t actually done much damage.

“I’m nearly out of mana here. Should you really be saying that?”

Goden’s sparring partner raised one hand with an annoyed expression, declaring defeat with three fingers—index, middle, and ring.

The victor, Goden, approached Aris who had slumped down on the training room floor and helped her up.

“That’s not true. I’m just confident in my defense. Anyone else would have retired long ago.”

“How humble of you. So, did I pass?”

Aris smiled knowingly, as if already aware of the result.

Unlike her, Goden still had one lingering question.

“Could you elaborate a bit more on why you sought me out?”

“I already explained that at length. I feel it’s time I joined a permanent party.”

“That’s not enough. What I’m asking is why you’d need to join our unknown party specifically.”

Aris Mackenheim.

Most students graduate from Levrant Academy in their fifth year and head to society or the battlefield.

Of course, there are occasional prodigies like Renias, Ronellion, or Ophelia who can visit the battlefield before graduation. The same applies to Goden, who was asking the question.

And Aris, who was fixing her disheveled pink hair before him, was another prime example.

Aris of the Lotus.

A daughter from an untitled family in the Mackenheim territory of Algenib Province.

Being from a nameless noble family, she had experienced, albeit to a lesser extent than commoners, the injustices prevalent in noble society.

However, with her genius-level understanding of magical power, she quickly developed her unique magic and soon achieved its full bloom.

Claiming she wanted to show those who had looked down on her what she was made of, she successfully built up achievements by taking on multiple positions in other teams. From then on, her unique magic, the lotus, became her symbol, earning her enough fame to be known by that epithet.

In other words, though she was the same age as Goden at nineteen, she had already served as a mercenary for other teams after skipping grades and was now approaching early graduation.

With such skills and extensive experience, couldn’t she join another team or establish her own?

Why specifically Tembris? Goden wanted to probe for a definitive reason, sensing a gap in her stated motives.

“I also don’t care much for the nobles of this academy. Isn’t that reason enough?”

“Hmm?”

Goden stroked his chin, carefully gauging her response. Aris quickly drove her point home.

“Don’t you think the empire will be in danger if things continue as they are?”

Confident this would suffice as an answer, Aris flashed a smile.

Did that memory suddenly flow in? Even Aris knew it wasn’t right to say it like that.

Could she directly say she knew this party would completely collapse because of one person, and she was here to prevent it?

‘There’s no way I could say that.’

The fact that she needed to join this party somehow remained unchanged.

What came to mind was the severe shortage of vanguards at that time.

There were so few vanguard positions to block attacks from the front that it was impossible to fulfill their roles properly, forcing them to choose inefficient attack strategies.

Based on the battle situation from that memory, Aris had given Goden a vague answer about the coming crisis for the empire.

After all, considering the contradictions of the academy, it wasn’t entirely wrong.

“If that’s your reason, then welcome.”

“Right?”

Aris’s first condition for joining the Tembris party had been met.

‘It seems sufficient to move on to the next step.’

Having vanguards wouldn’t change the situation anyway.

But what Aris had seen was people endlessly sacrificing themselves to protect one incompetent person. That was her grievance.

Finally, when Michelle collapsed from dehydration and closed her eyes forever. That guy was late again.

Aris interpreted this fragment of memory as a sign to change the future that awaited them.

Therefore, her task was simple.

She needed to go back to the starting point.

Goden. The central figure of Tembris. He just needed to not die.

Because they paid too high a price for one person, the Tembris party eventually collapsed because of that very person.

‘It’s all twisted because you came back alive instead, Junon.’

An incompetent vanguard who couldn’t fulfill his role? A burden on Tembris who had lost his power? Those were matters for much later.

Even if she couldn’t fully recall what happened afterward, the cause and effect were solidified.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that one person’s existence had brought about their downfall.

“Well then, may I go introduce myself to the other party members?”

“Hmm. I was actually going to suggest that.”

Goden pointed his thumb toward the window outside. It was clearly not the right time.

“Most of our party members are scattered at this hour.”

“Hehe. I’ll just greet them again tomorrow then.”

After bidding Goden goodbye until tomorrow, Aris left the mock battle room.

While Goden’s eyes followed her flowing pink hair until the end… he couldn’t see her face.

He only noticed that the corners of her mouth, which had been slightly upturned in a smile until just now, had suddenly dropped.

He couldn’t have imagined that behind her hair-covered face was a rigid expression filled with contempt directed at one person.

‘Must be my imagination.’

Thinking this, Goden tried to shake off the unsettling feeling.

“Still training… or perhaps not.”

“Princess Ophelia?”

“It’s just the two of us now, so call me by my name?”

“How bothersome. What is it now?”

Goden asked what business Ophelia had coming to find him directly this time. In response, Ophelia took an uncharacteristically long pause.

After clearing her throat twice, Ophelia brought up an unusually vague topic.

“About the new party member you accepted. Is everything alright?”

Sensing an uneasy premonition, Ophelia was inquiring about Aris.

That eerie smile she had shown when asking to be introduced to Goden’s party somehow bothered her.

***

There were definitely two people who entered the physical training room.

But as time passed, one of them somehow transformed into a rabbit.

“Hueee, I can’t, I can’t run anymore…”

Indeed. Renias, showing excessive enthusiasm for my true teachings, gradually transformed into a rabbit with a silver mane.

Now she’s stuck to the floor like gum, making groaning sounds.

I was like that at first too.

“Uuugh…”

“Keep lying there and your mouth will get crooked, Renias.”

“Senior. Be honest with me. You knew I’d end up like this, didn’t you!”

“Of course. I was the same at first. I’d collapse on the floor and rest for dozens of minutes.”

“Hiing… That’s so mean. If you knew, you should have stopped me properly.”

“I did try to stop you, but you wouldn’t listen.”

“Uuu…!”

Renias glares at me with puffed cheeks, apparently upset.

Not that it’s scary at all.

I told her not to overdo it, but she snorted confidently and insisted on following the same training regimen I usually do.

How far did she run? Maybe a few hundred meters? That’s when Renias immediately collapsed.

After Renias puffed her cheeks to express her dissatisfaction for a while…

“Hik?! My, my leeeeg…”

Her muscles seem stiff from the sudden movement, causing her to be startled.

Seeing her hiccup and make a tearful face again… it’s obvious she’s got a cramp.

“Sigh. Tell me which leg it is. I’ll help you stretch it out.”

“Le-left calf.”

“Here?”

“Ugh… Yeeees… HYAAAK!! IT HURTS!!”

“It’ll hurt less later if you endure it now. And stop hitting my shoulder.”

“Hiing… I’m sorryyyy… But it really hurts.”

Getting cramps from overexertion is unavoidable, isn’t it?

When has she ever used her body like this before? At most, probably just for the end-of-semester evaluation.

From what I heard about the evaluation, she sighed deeply and couldn’t move from her bed that day.

That became her motivation, and whenever she meets me, she snorts with determination, saying she needs to build up her stamina.

As the cramped leg gradually loosens and the pain begins to subside, Renias seems to have enough composure to suddenly start a conversation.

“Come to think of it, I’ve never seen you use magic, Senior. Always visiting the physical training room… have you given up on magic?”

“No, not exactly.”

It’s just that I rarely have a reason to use it.

I think I only use it when I’m getting thrashed in duels with some incredibly skilled person or during practice.

“Can you show me once? Anything is fine.”

Why the sudden curiosity about my magic?

“Here.”

I created a small magic shield in front of Renias’s eyes to show her.

I’m gradually getting used to setting up remote barriers, a skill I learned during my recent duel with Professor Denis.

Renias went “Wooow~” and curiously tapped it with her finger, even bringing out a bit of her own magic to test it.

Soon, Renias asked with a bright smile.

“How fascinating. This is your unique magic, right? It feels like a shield that blocks and pushes things away.”

“That’s right. I mostly use it as a shield too.”

I’m not sure what’s so fascinating about it, but Renias’s eyes haven’t left it since earlier.

“I thought you were a kind person when we first met. Now I see why.”

“What are you suddenly talking about?”

“Unique magic is ultimately a person’s creation, after all. Hehit.”

I don’t get it at all.

What’s the connection between unique magic being a person’s creation and me being a kind person?

And why is she giving me this bright smile while saying such things?

“Stop talking nonsense and go home to rest properly.”

“Eh? Why? Now that you’ve helped me stretch, I can run more!”

“You’ll wake up tomorrow with sore legs and won’t be able to get up. Didn’t you say you were stuck in bed for a day after overdoing it during the end-of-semester evaluation?”

“Ugh… Does it still happen after sleeping and waking up? I don’t want that…”

“If you want it to hurt less, go back and ask the maids to help you stretch beforehand. It’ll hurt less that way.”

“Okay…”

After sending the whining Renias ahead, I finished tidying up the physical training room and came out to find the sun had already set.

***

Tap tap tap.

“Ugh! Good thing I didn’t do more today.”

When I stretch, my body feels unusually stiff, unlike usual.

I’d like to attribute it to meeting many people, but I know well that this is mental fatigue.

-‘Senior! I’m not giving up!’

Charlotte, who handed me a well-made training uniform, brushing off my harsh words as if they didn’t bother her at all.

It’s because I can’t easily shake her off.

‘How do I get rid of her?’

Since Erica left such a warning, it would be best for Junon’s side not to encounter the members either.

However, if Charlotte keeps approaching me like this, it might raise suspicions in Erica’s eyes.

Obviously, I should avoid joining the party, and it would be better if we didn’t meet at all.

But if things don’t go that way, I would have died long ago, so what can I do?

“Sigh…”

I walk toward the dormitory with a heavy heart.

With each step that touches the ground, the vibration somehow feels larger than usual.

And then, what enters those black eyes is—.

‘A lotus…?’

A single flower with pink petals beautifully bloomed into a bud.

Noticing something off about this flower, he instantly draws out his magic power and takes a defensive stance. And then,

BANG—!!

Creating a cloud of thick dust, the lotus disappeared with a loud explosion.

And there was one person who unintentionally witnessed this scene.

‘W-what is this…?’

Hena, who had initially lamented about meeting yet another person after already encountering three.

However, her wide eyes gradually filled with confusion, then tension, and finally etched with great fear.

She had only followed him to learn about Junon as Silvia’s friend.

She just wanted to know what kind of person he was.

But she ended up witnessing him being threatened by someone else to the point where it sent chills down her spine.

Junon’s relationships with women? What did that matter now? That wasn’t the issue at all.

The pink-haired woman, whom she had suspected to be another girlfriend, was actually harboring intense hostility toward Junon.

Of course, the thought of helping briefly crossed her mind, but Hena was too overwhelmed by fear to step forward.

‘How could I face such an attack…’

How could she step in and help?

The scorched ground, the range of the explosion, the terrifying sound it made, and the backlash from the blast—it made her eyes shut tight.

If she had rashly intervened, even with her school uniform providing some protection, she couldn’t predict if she’d return with all limbs intact.

Holding her breath, Hena stepped back. All the advice she had planned to give Silvia had completely evaporated.

With a chill running down her spine, Hena couldn’t bear to watch anymore and immediately turned to run.

The pink-haired woman was unilaterally attacking Junon, and all Hena could do was hope he would be safe.

Now, it was no longer about uncovering Junon’s secrets to inform Silvia.

‘I need to… tell someone…!’