Friendly Match (2)

Haa.

Orca let out a sigh.

Friendly match or whatever, she had absolutely zero interest in it.

If it weren’t for the teacher’s words, she wouldn’t even need to wander around like this.

“‘Do your best’… What the hell does she even mean by that…?”

Orca couldn’t understand why she was obeying the teacher’s words so thoroughly.

It had already been so long since she decided to stop caring about adults’ words or other people’s opinions.

Of course, thanks to that artifact called “the scent that subdues demons” she received from the teacher recently, she had been sleeping deeply and feeling more at ease.

She couldn’t find a way to steal it and escape yet, and it only worked when she listened to the teacher’s words, so she was staying put for now.

But that didn’t seem to be the whole story.

It felt like… something subtly different…

At that moment.

A shout came from behind Orca, who had been lost in thought.

“Die, Orca!”

“…Why does everyone say the same thing?”

“Guh-hk?!”

A sinister arm sprouted from Orca’s back as she sat still, grabbing the student who had lunged at her.

The student, realizing the ambush had failed, struggled desperately to escape the grip, but to no avail.

No matter how much they struggled, the giant hand didn’t budge an inch, and the student’s face gradually turned pale.

…And moments later.

When Orca realized the student’s presence had disappeared from her hand, she clicked her tongue.

“Missed it again.”

How many was that now?

At first, she thought they had escaped when they disappeared after she merely knocked them unconscious to torment them later.

But after the third and fourth student disappeared like that…

Orca became certain.

Someone was rescuing students who fell into incapacitated states.

Since they called it a match, they must be evacuating them before real danger occurred.

She could tell it was the teachers’ doing.

But how?

What method were they using to rescue them?

That was Orca’s question.

She had been watching the students she caught ever since, but gained nothing.

They disappeared in literally an instant.

“…Magic? Tch.”

She vaguely remembered something similar from a previous class, or maybe not…

When the thought that her ignorance about why students disappeared was due to her own lack of attention in class surfaced, Orca decided to stop thinking about it.

She was curious, but not enough to investigate the principles behind it.

But perhaps because she had raised the question…

Orca began feeling a curiosity she had never experienced while studying, bubbling up intensely.

“First of all, this isn’t a fight to the death, so why are they telling me to die…?”

No, that aside.

Why were they shouting while ambushing her?

Were these idiots forgetting that their voices would make their targets react?

“…No, maybe not. They’re just inexperienced.”

She could understand.

Because Orca had been like that long ago too.

Shouting to hide the fear of potential failure.

It makes action easier.

A reflexive action, in a way.

The price for making action easier was making failure easier too, though.

“…Mood ruined.”

Suddenly reminded of those buried memories from her past, Orca flopped down onto the grassy field.

Recalling those days she didn’t want to think about left her in no mood to do anything.

Though the teacher’s words about “doing your best” came to mind, so what?

At least right now, she didn’t feel like doing anything.

She could excuse herself by saying she tried reasonably hard after taking down several opponents.

Even if they were the ones who approached her while she stayed still…

Who cares? Screw them.

I’ve done enough.

Thinking this way, she hadn’t been lying down long, basking in the warm sunlight, when another presence approached.

Again…?

So damn annoying.

With eyes closed, Orca waved her hand dismissively to signal she meant no hostility.

“Ignore me and move along, or knock me out and leave. I don’t care.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that. Orca. I’m very interested in you.”

“What? Stop bothering me and get lost.”

Irritated by the person ignoring her words, Orca sharply opened her eyes to tell them to get lost immediately.

But the student who had spoken to her merely smiled brightly while watching Orca, completely unfazed by the threat.

“…You again. Thought you’d stopped approaching me.”

“Long time no see, Orca. I intended to… but I heard something interesting.”

Despite having pure white bandages covering her eyes, the girl looked at Orca as if she could see, smiling with relief.

“As expected, I believed you would gradually become a proper person.”

“…Ugh. Get lost right now.”

“How coy.”

“…”

No getting through to her.

Should’ve covered her ears instead of eyes?

Orca thought this while looking at the Watcher, Anastasia.

Having always been revered at church, she seemed unable to comprehend rejection.

“Our little caged bird might not understand this… but I’m telling you to disappear from my sight right now?”

“I know, Orca.”

“What?”

“…Conversely, Orca. The wild wolf might not understand this… but I’m currently trying to communicate with the wolf.”

As if realizing she couldn’t win through words, Orca sighed and lay back in the grass.

She’d be gone when she woke up from a nap.

***

“Huff, huff… Hoo.”

The boy, Leo, trudged wearily along the riverbank.

He searched for a place to rest and recover his stamina depleted from earlier battles, but all he saw was dense forest.

According to the teachers’ explanation, there should be grasslands beyond the forest.

But instead of grasslands, Leo had been wandering through the woods for hours.

“…Fighting five at once was too much after all.”

A knight must face adversity without yielding, always confronting opponents honorably.

That mindset helped him withstand and counter the five-person ambush…

But apparently he hadn’t been realistic enough.

Though he managed to repel them, his body was left in tatters.

He needed to find a proper resting place soon, or he’d be in real danger.

His stomach had started growling too.

…Was this the end?

To become this exhausted from a momentary lapse in judgment.

Something to reflect on.

“…What’s this?”

A delicious smell suddenly tickled Leo’s nostrils.

Fish. Well-grilled fish.

Having wandered parentless from place to place, Leo knew this scent well.

The smell of freshly grilled fish. Caught from the riverbank?

But how?

They were in the middle of a match, and chaos had erupted as students flooded from the grasslands into the forest.

Most students were busy fighting each other to defeat.

No one should be leisurely grilling fish in this situation.

It must be a trap.

A trap to gather exhausted people like him and eliminate them all at once.

Yet despite knowing this, Leo found his feet moving toward the direction of the fish smell.

An irresistible temptation to his growing hunger.

“…Damn it.”

Ultimately, Leo began moving toward the delicious smell despite knowing it might be a trap.

Fine.

If that’s how it is, he’d break through head-on.

Even if there was a trap, that fish smell was real.

His nose, trained through countless meals, wouldn’t lie.

Though exhausted, his body was superior to other students his age.

If he could defeat any ambushing students and seize the fish…

“Alright, let’s go for it. Yeah.”

“Talking to yourself about something?”

“?!”

Wh-when did…?!

Leo urgently drew the sword at his waist and swung toward the direction of the voice.

But it only cut through empty air.

The student who had spoken beside him sounded flustered, as if startled.

“Whoa, easy there… Wow, quick reflexes! Didn’t expect that speed when you look so tired.”

“…!”

He had moved his body before his mind could process it upon hearing the voice.

Since the voice came right by his ear, he thought it would be unavoidable.

Yet he hadn’t even grazed, let alone cut, the student.

While Leo stared in shock, the girl pulled something from her waist.

A fight?

Shouldn’t have come here.

…But the expected confrontation didn’t happen.

The girl’s reaction was completely different from his expectations.

“You look hungry. Want some?”

“…Huh? Fish?”

“Isn’t this what you wanted? Don’t need it?”

“I-I’ll gratefully accept it, but…”

“Then eat.”

“Ah, thank y…ou…?”

What the girl pulled from her waist wasn’t a weapon.

A crudely skewered grilled fish on a stick.

She proudly handed it to Leo.

“I’m Eileen. Nice to meet you, Leo.”

“…Ah, yes. Nice to meet you too.”

What in the world was this situation?

While warily scanning his surroundings, Leo unconsciously began chewing the grilled fish in his hand.

…Ah, delicious.