Exam Results(2)

The atmosphere in the training grounds solidifies like stone due to the king’s sudden appearance.

Of course, I wasn’t particularly tense and just knelt, but looking at Arin, her face was so pale it seemed like she had drunk a bowl of tension.

It seems facing the king as a knight puts quite a strain on the heart.

I wanted to comfort Arin, who seemed so extremely tense, even a little, but it seemed I couldn’t do that because of the king scolding Tin right in front of me.

“Hero? Father! That’s too much for such a cowardly and dirty commoner…!”

“You foolish son! Even if you’re so sheltered in the castle that your ears are dull, don’t tell me you don’t know the hero who saved our kingdom by blowing away the Sky Island!! I earnestly requested and brought her when you asked for a strong professor, yet you show such behavior? You should be ashamed!!!”

“What?! That commoner… no, that woman is that person?”

Tin glanced at me with surprised eyes after hearing the king’s words. Somehow, Tin and Pelian seemed to not know me properly compared to others.

I had thought they were pretending not to know me because they wanted to look down on and belittle me as a commoner, but to think they were just unaware of the rumors.

I shook my head while inwardly sighing at Tin’s pathetic information network, and as I quietly listened to their conversation, the voice of the king, who had been one-sidedly scolding Tin, gradually subsided.

“Huu… I don’t even want to see you anymore. You two, go back to the castle right away! I’ll punish you later.”

“……”

“Brother……”

“Let’s go, Pelian.”

Perhaps the scolding was finally over, the king ordered them so while rubbing his nose bridge, and at that, Tin and Pelian left the training grounds with gloomy faces.

The two disappeared as the iron door opened and closed once.

And when everyone’s gaze, including mine, followed after them, the king, who had been standing still in place until just now, approached me.

“I apologize. My foolish son, whom I raised too indulgently, has shown such disgraceful behavior. Please rise now.”

“Yes, and there’s no need to say that much. Not wanting to accept defeat is something all children of that age do.”

“Hoho, thank you. Knights, all rise as well.”

“””Yes!!!”””

The king burst into laughter at my words.

And at the king’s words, as I raised my knees that had been kneeling for several minutes, the knights also sprang to their feet at the king’s command.

As everyone stood up, there seemed to be signs of silence falling, but fortunately, the king opened his mouth first before silence could settle in.

However.

“In the end, both of them failed the exam result, right? Even though they’re foolish boys, it’s regrettable, truly regrettable.”

The problem was that the king’s first words were very difficult for me to answer from my position.

“Umm……”

He doesn’t seem to be hinting at anything while looking at me, and the king himself seems to have said it just out of a feeling of regret, but it was an extremely tricky thing to say.

Therefore, I let out a hum while contemplating whether I should answer this or not, but after observing the king’s expression, I cautiously asked him.

“…If you wish for the princes to pass, I could speak to Dean Mira.”

“No, don’t say such nonsense. Lua Academy has been operated fairly until now, so how could we break those rules even if it’s the royal family? I don’t have the slightest intention of having them enter through unfair means.”

“If that’s the case……”

Then you shouldn’t have said something that seemed like you were hinting in the first place.

I inwardly burst out with complaints at the king’s words, but since there wasn’t even a hint of intentionality visible on the king’s face, I couldn’t voice this either.

‘In the first place, I can’t voice complaints to the king anyway…’

I sighed at my still ambiguous position despite being hailed as a hero, and checked the time on the clock hanging in the palace.

The current time was 5:40 PM.

Although I came for Tin and Pelian’s exam, now that the exam was over, I had a strong desire to return as soon as possible.

Right now, today was the day I had decided to give Myu a gift, but I lost time because of this, so it’s only natural that I want to go back as soon as possible.

However, I couldn’t say that I wanted to go home in front of the king’s face, so in order to return quickly, I opened my mouth to continue the conversation that had been briefly interrupted.

“From what I can see, if the princes learn swordsmanship with practical application, they should be able to pass the academy soon, but would you like me to introduce a swordsman I know well as an instructor?”

“Oh, could you do that? If it’s someone the hero of the country recommends, I can trust and entrust them.”

The king exclaimed with delight at my words offering to introduce an instructor.

Seeing his face, I nodded once and continued speaking.

“Yes, she’s a safe person and stronger than most professors, so you can trust her as you said.”

“Hooh? Who might that be?”

“Her name is Morgan, currently my assistant. From what I can see, I’m certain there’s no one who can defeat her.”

Honestly, right now she’s just lazing around eating my cooking with nothing to do because it’s a period of stagnant growth for the students.

She’s practically a temporary unemployed person, so it should be fine to sell her as an instructor to get out of this situation quickly.

Moreover, recently she’s been going out and enjoying herself well on her own without needing supervision, so there was no need to worry.

Therefore, I sold Morgan as an instructor and guided the conversation with the king, and while looking at the king’s face smiling with satisfaction, I thought.

Even so, it’s trashy to one-sidedly sell my own person, so I should end it at just lending her out for a trial.

If I give her proper compensation, Morgan should forgive this much, right?

Muite.

Aria’s homunculus, nicknamed Myu for short, didn’t have many things to do in a day.

At most, she would wake up in the morning, monitor Isolde and Morgan, go to the academy with her mother for substitute classes, help prepare for lunchtime. And after finishing all that and returning to the temple, she could be said to have half free time along with taking care of Libby.

Moreover, recently, as Isolde and Morgan have become more trustworthy, the need for monitoring has been gradually fading, so Myu’s work has decreased even more.

Because of this, Myu has often been experiencing symptoms similar to depression lately.

Of course, she knew that Aria wasn’t deliberately not giving her work, but every time her tasks decreased, she felt like she was gradually losing her sense of purpose.

Although she was whipping herself, saying it was a useless thought, it was only getting worse rather than better.

However, it was too much to tell Aria or confide in Isolde or Morgan just because of this mental anguish, so Myu was living while quietly harboring this pain.

And now, after Aria had gone to the palace, Myu was waiting endlessly for her in front of the temple, looking down at the empty streets of the temple and muttering softly.

“Am I useless……”

Usually, she feels a sense of necessity because she can listen to everything Aria says, but when it really matters, Myu herself couldn’t be of any help.

When Aria went to fight the Demon King on the Sky Island, she could only open an escape route, and in the underwater kingdom, she was miserably defeated by Idea and nearly died.

She needlessly worried Aria and made her move.

That alone was a great burden on Myu’s mind.

“Mother always says it’s because of lack of experience, but……”

Aria always says the reason she’s still weak is because she lacks fighting experience, but such words were of no help to Myu.

In the end, those words that made it impossible to blame anyone else since even the lack of fighting experience was her own fault only made Myu more impatient.

If it’s due to lack of experience, she could build it up by going out and facing enemies.

Therefore, Myu had thought about going out and fighting, but when she saw Aria stopping her, asking her to just stay safe, she couldn’t help but feel impatient.

In the first place, if Aria was someone who didn’t fight and lived an ordinary family life, it might be different, but Aria always fights dangerous enemies.

Born as Aria’s homunculus, Myu had no option of not fighting and just staying safe.

“But Mother seems to want me to stay quiet……”

Whenever she wants to go out and fight, Aria always looks at her with sadness in her eyes.

As if she had already lost someone, with emotions that seemed to ask her to stay safe, at least.

“When I receive such a gaze, there’s nothing I can do……”

From Myu’s position, who loved Aria very much as a mother, such a gaze was unfair.

How could she ignore it when Aria looked at her with a wish for her safety that was almost at the level of an order?

Therefore, Myu had no choice but to stay quietly under Aria’s protection like this, and that’s why she was waiting for her mother with such a peaceful face today as well.

Of course, the depression about her own sense of purpose remained as it was.

And how long had she been waiting, soothing and comforting that depression with happy delusions, when a familiar footstep sound reached Myu’s ears as she was flying in front of the temple.

Step── Step──

The sound of heels she hears countless times normally.

The moment she heard that sound, Myu quickly raised her body that had been lying in the sky and descended towards the ground.

“Mother?”

“Ah, Myu. You were waiting. I’m sorry for making you wait long.”

“No! I didn’t wait that long!”

As expected, the owner of the footsteps was Aria.

Seeing Aria smiling at her with a pleased expression and a smile that seemed to show the tension of the day had been released, Myu flew into her arms in one go.

With a thud, she felt a hand patting and stroking her head as she hugged her.

Her mother’s touch that she hadn’t felt all day.

“Heheh……”

At the touch that was much warmer and gentler than the first touch she had felt in the past, Myu surrendered herself completely, and Aria’s laughter, as warm as her touch, echoed at Myu’s appearance.

However, that stroking time was brief, and Aria seemed to have remembered something as she ended it by tapping Myu’s head a couple of times and gently pushing her away.

“Ah……”

“Wait a moment, Myu. I have something to give you today.”

Myu let out a regretful sigh at the suddenly ended touch time, but seeing Myu like that, Aria smiled once and then rummaged through the bag hanging at her waist and pulled something out.

“I didn’t have a box that particularly suited this, and I didn’t want to hide it, so I didn’t wrap it separately, but please accept it.”

“Mother, this is……”

What Aria took out of her bag was none other than a luminous jewel with a reddish glow.

It was a jewel whose deep red color inside rippled like a wavy sea as the setting sun’s light shone on it.

And as Myu was entranced by its beautiful appearance, Aria placed the jewel that had been in her hand into Myu’s hand and said:

“From the underwater kingdom until now, I’ve only called you my daughter without doing anything else. It would be nice to go somewhere or create memories together, but I wanted to give you this first.”

“It’s a jewel I’ve never seen before….. Did you make it yourself with magic?”

“Yes. It’s a jewel made by putting in my blood, Yujia’s blood, Kama’s blood, Meiyel’s blood, and Yeonhwa’s blood, solidifying it, and then going through Meiyel’s magical processing.”

Aria briefly explained that she had made it by putting in the blood of themselves, that is, her five forms.

Hearing that, it seemed like looking at a small heart of a homunculus, just lacking the materials, so Myu let out an interested sound and held the jewel up to the sky.

Aria watched Myu’s actions for a moment, then opened her closed mouth once again.

“It’s not a jewel with any great effect, but it’s one that connects you and me.”

“Connection… you say?”

“Your body already has my blood flowing in it, but isn’t that color faint? So if you absorb that jewel into your body, my blood will flow more thickly in you. And not only that, I made it so we can feel each other’s presence more clearly.”

Even though saying presence is a bit vague, doesn’t it make us more like parent and child?

Aria said so and smiled awkwardly.

She seemed to find it a bit embarrassing and shameful to say it face to face, even to herself.

However, Myu wasn’t feeling any such sentiment at all.

Rather, what Myu was feeling was gratitude towards Aria for giving such a gift, and questions.

Originally, Myu was a homunculus who would gladly accept anything her mother gave as a gift, but the gift Aria gave this time had a different meaning.

Therefore, Myu asked Aria while seeing her vision blur and ache for a moment, but.

The answer that came back was so simple and clear.

“Why… are you giving me such a gift…?”

“Of course. As I’ve said many times before, Myu, you are my daughter. Just being my daughter makes your value superior to anything else.”

So I’m giving you that jewel because I want you to be undoubtedly my daughter that no one can question.

Aria said so with a face that said it was needless to say, obviously.

But those words, which might be so obvious to Aria, were what Myu desperately needed right now.

Therefore, Myu couldn’t say anything and just hugged Aria.

And dropping salty teardrops onto the red jewel.

Myu burst into tears for the first time in her life, her voice breaking.

Aria was a bit flustered at that somewhat unexpected crying, though.