Ch.5555. Denial (3)

Aris discovered only one thing.

Junon was definitely not among that group.

After she collapsed from mana exhaustion, that’s when Junon appeared, which would explain who that voice belonged to.

Articles, newspapers, documents, entries, sentences.

No matter what she checked, there was nothing related to him.

Compared to other students, there was nothing special about him; his name was barely listed as a member of the defense battle.

“But he suddenly appeared and did all this.”

Based on the pile of documents, the information could be pieced together like this:

At the moment she collapsed from mana exhaustion, Junon appeared and somehow created an opening against the Osoftera.

Junon changed formations and brought the students to Alcaide Hall without a single casualty.

After leading all students to Alcaide Hall, he conducted a sit-in battle, buying time while waiting for support.

Finally, Professor Dahlia arrived, concluding the defense battle, and Erica’s surgery was performed.

This was what she could infer about what happened after she collapsed.

“Does that… even make sense? And by that guy?”

There’s no way Erica could have woken up fine after such severe injuries and changed the students’ formation and system.

The possibility that anyone else present could have done it was also infinitesimally low.

Therefore, the man who suddenly appeared must be Junon, and he was the one who achieved all these results.

It wasn’t a matter of possibility. The problem was that no one except that one person could have done it.

But considering what kind of person Junon was, this was a contradiction.

A man who became a burden after losing his power. One who survived shamefully through others’ sacrifices. One who left his comrade to die.

The Junon that Aris knew, in her memory, was such a person.

With two constantly conflicting thoughts making her head feel like it would split, Aris couldn’t just stay cooped up in the hospital.

“Patient Aris? Are you going out?”

“I’m going to process my discharge.”

“Discharge…?”

“Yes. Please process it as quickly as possible.”

The Aris who had insisted on staying hospitalized and delaying discharge until yesterday was nowhere to be found.

‘I need to properly check if that guy is plotting something else.’

***

“I-I’m sorry!!!”

“…”

Again today, everyone runs away like they’ve seen a ghost whenever they encounter me.

I get it perfectly. Just making eye contact with me is scary, right?

But that’s not entirely bad. They haven’t noticed that something is off yet.

—Kuk kuk kuk.

Thanks to that, some people have found gossip to chew on, which they seem to enjoy quite a bit. Those guys in the back are tearing me apart, having found a juicy piece of gossip.

—How can he now avoid even his own classmates? Senior Aris must have suffered so much because of him…

—Still, someone who even skipped a grade is on a different level.

—Maybe he tried to mess up the formation, and she stopped him?

—Ah. What a shame. If only my father hadn’t called me urgently, I would have seen it myself.

‘Babble all you want.’

They’re sitting there comfortably talking nonsense after escaping at the first sign of Osoftera, having only heard the nobles’ alliance’s message.

If you had been there, you would have wet your pants. You bastards.

‘No, wait.’

Thinking about it, it’s actually fortunate that they weren’t there.

If these firepower-obsessed fools had accidentally drawn the attention of the monsters, the formation would have collapsed, and everyone would have been wiped out. This is definitely better.

Ignoring their slander, I checked today’s notice.

[Kanolatlr cleanup complete. All troops except necessary garrison will return today.]

Their losses were probably minimal.

While the entire Schütt province would have suffered some damage, it would mostly be confined to the western region.

Using this as leverage to inflict some damage on the nobles’ alliance, if my Bluschuar Arc loan is handled properly, there won’t be any issues.

It’s been a day since Professor Dahlia took it, and there’s been no word, which suggests there’s nothing to nitpick about.

The clear victor of this subjugation battle was the empire’s side.

Now, it’s time to naturally move on to the next scenario.

[Class Assignment Test Notice]

[For details, refer to the bulletin board content that will be posted during the morning.]

It wasn’t much different from before the regression. The biggest changes were that the end-of-semester evaluation was moved up, giving us more time.

Thanks to that, although the class assignment test was slightly delayed, it will proceed much faster than before.

Next, the number of vanguards didn’t decrease much even into the third year.

The unchanged number of vanguards had a significant impact on the Osoftera battle, and although there were fewer than before, the damage wasn’t as severe.

Except for just two people.

The clear difference from before the regression is Erica’s severe injury and Aris’s mana exhaustion, but I’m not sure how this will play out.

Since Professor Dahlia is here, I think they’ll somehow recover and take the next class assignment test.

If that happens, the result will be the same as before, just with a different number of participating students and an earlier timeline.

“Oh?! The class assignment test notice just went up! On the bulletin board!!”

“Let’s go, let’s go. Finally, the duel test!!”

There are many futures I need to change, but from my perspective, there are also futures that shouldn’t change.

But that’s secondary right now.

“You, what exactly are you plotting?”

Aris Mackenheim.

Known as the main figure in this Osoftera defense battle, she came looking for me, taking advantage of the moment when other students had left.

I had anticipated this. Since Professor Dahlia came with the object loan permit, something seemed off.

Besides, things don’t always go as planned, so I considered such variables and prepared countermeasures.

However, rather than immediately deploying my prepared countermeasures, it’s more important to understand why this situation arose in the first place.

“What are you talking about, coming at me out of nowhere?”

Playing dumb, I hoped this wasn’t the situation I was anticipating.

***

“Tell me straight. What’s your ulterior motive for using my name?”

“What did I do?”

As Junon shrugged his shoulders and tried to brush it off nonchalantly, Aris gritted her teeth.

He’s acting like he knows everything but is trying to deny it. If he’s going to deny it like this, it’s better to point it out clearly.

“You did everything, so why are you pinning it all on me?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t understand why you’re coming to me with this.”

“…Are you joking?”

“I think you’ve got the wrong address, so go somewhere else.”

“Answer me properly. Don’t try to dodge the question!!!”

Finally unable to contain herself, Aris raised her voice.

As she raised her voice and fumed, she began to spill out all her suspicions.

“The formation I used was Kenick 6. I never used Hashirt 3. Contrary to my intention to drive everyone out through the east gate, they say the final stand was at Alcaide Hall, holding out like a siege to buy time? And then Professor Dahlia arrived, and it became my achievement? Me, who had poured out all my mana trying to save Erica and completely passed out?”

“…”

“Are you satisfied now? Does it feel good to prove that all my choices were wrong?”

Aris didn’t stop there.

“No matter how much I tried to push them back with Kenick 6 formation, they wouldn’t budge. Then the rear seemed to run out of mana, and the firepower weakened, so we kept getting pushed back. During the retreat, some groups fled, breaking our line. With the line broken, even Erica, who had been slowing our retreat, was hit.”

As if to say that someone definitely intervened in this matter.

As if to point out that the main actor in this incident was certainly not Aris herself.

And as if to admit that it was all her fault—that her wrong directions instilled anxiety instead of trust in a group of students, ultimately leading them to flee and putting Erica in danger.

She spilled everything, admitting that it was all her fault.

“I’ve told you everything, now it’s your turn to answer. What’s your scheme?”

Aris needed to know Junon’s purpose, even if it meant exposing her own flaws.

His every action was irritating to her. Especially with the memory of losing a comrade because of Junon.

If he was trying to manipulate her comrades again this time, she was determined to stop him.

Then, an unexpected answer came from his mouth.

“Hah… I had my suspicions. I wondered why such a formation was used and why such things happened. I see. You didn’t know properly. That’s why it happened.”

He let out a hollow laugh, as if something had finally clicked for him.

What is it? What is he thinking? What is he trying to demand?

Aris was tense, hoping to finally understand his intentions. But he continued with words that made no sense to her.

“It’s quite pathetic. My end came by your hands, yet I have to help you, which I really hate.”

“…What?”

His end came by our hands? He hates having to help us?

What does all that mean?

“I have no intention of encountering you all or joining your party. I know very well that both Erica and you deeply hate me.”

“…”

“I’ll grant what you first said. In return, solve your own problems from now on. That’s all I have to say.”

None of it made any sense. Aris couldn’t understand anything he had just said.

And what was with that cold gaze, as if he was somehow angry? Aris’s mind was full of questions.

She still needed to continue the conversation with Junon.

“Wait! We’re not done talking…”

“Bluschuar Arc. You know what it is, right?”

How could she not know? It’s a protective object created by the empire’s leading magical engineer.

She wondered why he suddenly brought it up, but as she tried to grab him again, he slightly raised his arm to show it off.

It was a threat that he would use it if necessary.

“Our ill-fated relationship ends here, Aris. As you—no, as all of you wish, I will never join Tembris.”

Having said his piece, Junon cut off the conversation and immediately left through the main gate.

“What… what does all this mean…”

Aris stood there, blankly staring at the main gate through which Junon had walked out.

***

In the end, she couldn’t find out anything.

She knows very well that the main actor in this Alcaide Hall siege was definitely not Aris, but Junon.

‘Then why?’

In her memory, he was trash who left his party member to die. And that was Goden, the core of the party.

After losing his power, he became a burden that only held back the Tembris party.

She didn’t even want to count how many people died trying to save him, somehow manipulated by him or key figures of the empire. It was incomprehensible that they even handed over command authority to him and entrusted the future of the empire.

She thought he was selfish, not caring if others died as long as he survived.

Then why this time? Why did he intervene this time, taking risks to save the students, Erica, and herself?

Wouldn’t it have been more in character for him to flee like those who deserted during the battle, or to not get involved at all?

There was one other possibility.

Perhaps he knew about the siege and wanted to put her in his debt to plot something sinister.

But he said he didn’t want to be involved anymore. He even said he would help only this once. He told her to handle the rest herself and firmly stated that he would not join Tembris.

This just… didn’t make sense.

It didn’t add up.

“My head hurts…”

Her head was throbbing from thinking too much. She decided to think about the rest later and planned to visit Erica’s hospital room.

“Lately, I keep seeing it in my dreams. That senior with the hole in her stomach…”

“Ugh. Don’t even mention it. I hate thinking about it. But I can’t help remembering it whenever I have a moment.”

She overheard two students talking in front of the bulletin board at Megrez Hall.

They must be talking about Erica.

Normally, Aris would have just thought “I see” and moved on, but the conversation that followed caught her attention again.

“Professor Dahlia’s surgery… that must be about that senior, right?”

“Of course. No matter how deep our injuries were, they’re nothing compared to Senior Erica’s.”

“True… But why did she ask us to help then?”

“Even if Professor Dahlia is a doctor, she only has two arms. She probably needed more hands. She needed help, so she called for people and happened to see that guy and brought him in.”

“Ah… I didn’t know that. Even if I knew, I don’t think I could have done it if asked…”

“I still remember how that person came out without any change in expression after going in for the surgery. Is he really human?”

“Yeah, seriously… I heard other guys run away in fear whenever they see Senior Junon.”

Junon? The person who helped with Erica’s surgery?

Hearing that, she couldn’t just stand by.

“Let’s go back. Oh… Senior Aris?”

“We… we’re sorry. We weren’t trying to gossip…”

“You two, is that story true?”

“Huh?”

“That Junon helped with Erica’s surgery. Is it true?”

The two juniors, seeing Aris’s face that seemed to have fire in her eyes, could only nod stiffly.

‘How is that possible?’

-‘I know very well that both Erica and you deeply hate me.’

Junon had implied that Erica, like herself, had shown such behavior towards him.

If that’s the case, he wouldn’t have wanted to help Erica at all. So why?

The conversation between the two juniors revealed that the person who participated in saving Erica, who could have been left to die, was Junon.