Ch.9494. Scheduled Encounter (1)

Goden was certain. The person who sent that signal, the kind you’d only see on a battlefield, and the one who faced the corrupted spirit were one and the same.

“Just from what was in the newspapers and bulletin boards, I could tell how bad the situation inside was. Was it really that bad?”

“You’re not asking me to explain that situation in more detail, are you?”

“Nah, that’s not my focus. The important thing is that someone was there who managed to evacuate everyone without a single person missing.”

In such an environment, most people would have reached the stage of frustration and resignation and given up, but the result was the complete opposite. They even succeeded in bringing and rescuing the spirit mages who were on the third floor.

Such results don’t happen unless someone pulled up morale that had hit rock bottom and awakened them.

In short, someone who excelled in both martial and academic abilities, and furthermore, possessed leadership.

Such a person could fill the only flaw in Tembris.

The empty center position would be claimed by that person—Goden was brimming with expectation.

“Tell me quickly. Huh? Who is it, who?”

His swelling expectations urged Senia to hurry. However,

“It would be better not to recruit them.”

“…Huh?”

Senia cut Goden’s expectations with a single stroke.

“We already tried to recruit that person before. And Erika strongly opposed it at that time.”

“What… So the person you’re trying to bring into our team…”

“Let me tell you one more thing—the person in question said they had no intention of joining a team. Does that give you a hint?”

“…”

On the day Tembris was promoted to an official team, that name had been mentioned once.

And the good atmosphere, which coincided with the festival, completely flipped the moment that name came up.

There was no way Goden, as the team leader, wouldn’t remember this.

“It was that person…?”

Tsk, Goden clicked his tongue in disappointment. Senia, watching him, felt relieved, thinking he was going to give up.

However… Goden’s reaction was quite different.

“Wouldn’t things be different if I went to see them personally? Hehe.”

“What? Don’t…”

“I’m going!!”

“Hey, Goden!!”

Senia immediately followed after Goden, still wearing her hospital gown with only slippers on.

Repeating in her mind, ‘This is bad.’

***

A day in the hospital is truly boring. Because you can’t do anything.

Still, what alleviates this boredom is having someone who comes to visit.

*Snore* *Snore*

‘…You.’

The kind junior who had been fretting over my injuries until just a while ago had fallen asleep with her head on the bed.

“Hehehe…”

When I brushed aside her uncomfortable hair, she made a strange sound as if she was feeling good. But sleeping like that must be uncomfortable.

Although I was hospitalized because I was a patient, I wasn’t actually sick. So I lifted Reniath’s body onto the bed and laid her down comfortably.

But after covering her with a blanket and trying to remove my hand…

“Don’t… go…”

“…”

Reniath immediately grabbed my hand and pulled. What’s certain is that she hadn’t woken up.

You could call it sleep-talking… but why would she make such a pitiful voice?

“Alright, alright. I’m not going anywhere.”

“…”

As I held her hand again so she could sleep soundly, Reniath finally relaxed her expression and went back to snoring peacefully.

I could dismiss it as her having a bad dream, but suddenly those words came to mind.

-‘As Reni’s longtime friend, I’m asking you. Please take good care of that poor child so she doesn’t keep eating away at herself anymore.’

Princess Ophelia’s request, suggesting that something was weighing on Reniath.

During the festival, seeing her various expressions, I thought maybe I had misunderstood, but recently I’ve had this strange feeling again.

Has this girl, who always smiles so brightly, ever said she was struggling?

‘…No, she hasn’t.’

If I were to count how many times I’ve seen this face that’s now pitifully holding my hand and not letting go… this is clearly the first time.

Recalling the princess’s request as her longtime friend, I suddenly wondered if Reniath was also pretending to be fine.

From some heavy burden.

“Mmm…”

Still half-asleep, she’s rubbing her eyes. She shows no awareness of what she was doing earlier.

“You’re awake.”

“Eh… senior…?”

“You can sleep more if you want.”

At that, Reniath jumped up in surprise and got off the bed.

“Y-you shouldn’t do that! You’re the patient! Why am I here… ugh…”

“You looked like you were sleeping well, so I put you on the bed myself.”

“Why would you do that, really…! I foolishly fell asleep… Get back up there right away!”

And with her antenna sticking up in all directions, she pushes my back toward the bed.

Even though she knows I’m not that injured, I think she’s pushing my back because she’s embarrassed about being caught in such a vulnerable state.

Seeing her so embarrassed makes me want to tease her.

“So, did you sleep well? You were drooling while you slept.”

“I-I don’t drool when I sleep?!”

“Why, looking at that white mark on your mouth, it seems like you slept well enough to drool.”

At that, Reniath gasped and quickly rubbed her mouth. The way she scrubbed so hard, as if she might have actually drooled as I said, shows she wasn’t sure herself.

“Hehehe.”

“Ugh… senior…!”

“Okay, okay. I’ll stop teasing you.”

Even though I said I’d stop teasing her, Reniath was apparently so embarrassed that she had to hit my arm several times with both hands before she finally stopped.

Now that the mood has lightened a bit, I think it might be a good time to say it.

“I’m sorry, Reniath. I was trying to take the easy way out back then, wasn’t I?”

“Huh? About what?”

“The magic manifestation. I asked you to teach me, remember? Buying you a meal and then asking you to teach me right away—thinking about it now, it was really a bad thing to do.”

“…”

“It won’t happen again. I should struggle on my own for a while; it’s only meaningful when I achieve results after putting in the time.”

Reniath stared at me blankly with wide eyes, then burst into laughter.

“Ahaha! What’s this about? You’ve been holding onto that all this time?”

“Well… it’s kind of awkward. You must have worked hard in your own way.”

“It’s nothing like that. Don’t worry about it.”

What could it be then? I was about to ask, but I didn’t want to immediately dampen her bright smile that was now beaming with tears in her eyes.

‘I’ll have to postpone asking if she had some strange dream while sleeping too.’

Today, I’ll just let her smile brightly.

─────.

Hospitals become quiet in the evening except for the emergency room, so it’s rare to hear voices from the patient rooms.

But… it seems like human voices are gradually getting closer in this quiet hospital.

And it seems I’m not the only one who noticed it.

“I guess there are people visiting other rooms. They seem very energetic.”

The voices are getting closer.

The problem is that those energetic people seem to be coming this way…

-Let’s see, it’s here!

-Hey! This is inconsiderate. Let’s just go back, okay?

-Just wait a bit. I’ll convince,

“them!”

Sure enough, a large man burst through the door. Behind him, another person was pressing their temples.

…Why do my bad feelings always turn out to be right?

“You’re Junon, right? Nice to meet you!”

Why is Goden coming to my hospital room?

Senia behind him had her hands clasped together, and was mouthing something.

Sorry, she seemed to say.

And as I expected, Goden…

“Want to join our team?”

He’s as direct now as he was then. But I need to take a different path now than I did then.

“Nope. Not joining.”

My discharge time is almost up anyway.

***

Southern part of the Grand Duchy, Mirpark Province.

Even in the deep twilight of night, this place is often brighter than day.

However, the light here is never that bright, warm image of light.

“That’s it, Cain!!”

“What are you doing, Zed!! Get up quickly! Get up and protect my money!!”

The two spaces divided by black iron bars are completely different places.

Inside, a fierce battle rages. Outside, voices rise in cheers and jeers, enjoying this entertainment.

The place that drives away darkness is inside the black iron bars. That place is illuminated only by light sources meant to show the splattered blood.

“Huff, huff…”

“Hah… hah…”

The two boys grasp their swords again.

The two sharpened blades reek with the smell of each other’s blood, but the boys still crave more of each other’s blood.

Bound by their respective shackles, they had to somehow grasp their swords and defeat their opponent. Even if their bodies were torn apart.

“Aaaah!!!”

“Kuh…”

“That’s right!!”

“What are you doing!! Why can’t you win even once?!”

Finally, the match is decided in one exchange, and the joy and sorrow of those outside the bars split in two directions like the contrasting outcome.

“The winner of this match is Cain!! The odds were 1.6 times!!”

“Yes!!!”

“That damn Zed!!! Do you know how much I bet?!”

The announcer steps forward, and they take the loser away to begin emergency treatment. Inside the blood-stained bars, there was actually no winner to speak of.

A victory full of wounds. A meaningless defeat.

There is no vitality in their eyes.

“Regrettably, today’s Octagon ends here. We express our infinite gratitude to all of you who have watched.”

“What, announcer! The next match!”

“Hurry up and bring more! I’m going to take back all the money I lost here today!”

“Please calm down. We appreciate the noble lords’ infinite love, but we must expand our offerings to respond to this, mustn’t we?”

─Ooh!!

“Starting tomorrow, the long-awaited tournament will begin!!”

─Waaah!!

Today’s Octagon ended like that.

“Now, Cain. You’ll be able to do better tomorrow, right?”

“…”

When Cain glared at the announcer with fierce eyes, he snickered and once again made Cain his plaything.

“My, my. It hurts my feelings when you glare like that. I’m doing my best to get what you need.”

“…!”

“If you keep acting like this, I might have to give up. I’m not sure if I can find that rare item anywhere else.”

“I’ll do it!! I’ll do it… so please keep your promise.”

“Of course, of course. Don’t worry. Thanks to everyone’s excitement about your status as an academy student, the down payment is filling up nicely.”

This is a place of lawlessness created to avoid the eyes of the Grand Duke, operating solely for the amusement of nobles.

All kinds of prohibited activities in the Grand Duchy—gambling, drugs, and more—take place here away from watchful eyes.

And at the pinnacle of this lawlessness are the fights between humans.

The gambling sweetened by the fierce battles taking place in that arena called the Octagon.

Cain had almost given up his academy life to earn money in the Octagon, hoping only to purchase a certain item.

‘Just… when will I be able to get it…’

Lumia, who had been so healthy when they were taking their end-of-term evaluations at the academy.

To cure her illness, he had no choice but to frequent this place called the Octagon.

Having heard that there was a route here to obtain an item with an absurd price and rarity, he had no choice but to head to the Octagon.

“Ah.”

“Oh, are you okay?”

“…Yes.”

Looking up, Cain saw a famous person from the academy.

Before… they were famous in a rather bad way, but now they were famous in a genuinely good way.

“Next time, watch where you’re going. You were looking down too much while walking.”

“Yes. I’m sorry.”

After apologizing, he simply went on his way. But suddenly he felt something strange.

‘This path is wide, so it’s rare to bump into someone…?’

With that thought, he looked back, but the person who had just bumped into Cain was nowhere to be seen.

“Was it… my imagination?”

But it wasn’t his imagination, as Cain would soon realize.

By encountering that black-haired senior he had bumped into today again in a few days.