episode_0005

Shiiiiiiiiiiiiik!

Marius, who had risen high on the ice, sped towards the Dual Academy he had found, as if riding a slide.

‘Fa, Fast!! It’s too fast!!’

At a speed incomparable to something like a swimming pool slide, I closed my eyes and clung to Marius.

“Master.”

As I desperately held onto something tightly,

“Uh, yes?”

“……It’s fine if you grabbed it intentionally, but if not, I’d appreciate it if you would hold somewhere else.”

Marius said this, furrowing his brow slightly as if troubled.

“Ah.”

Only then did I realize that I was clutching Marius’s large chest. I had thought it was soft and warm, but being completely out of my mind, I hadn’t even known it was his chest.

“S-sorry!”

“No need to apologize.”

Fortunately, Arianna, who was holding tightly onto Marius’s neck, was too busy closing her eyes tightly and screaming ‘Hwaaaaa’ to notice. It was a relief not to have shown such an unsightly display.

“We’ll arrive soon, should we go straight inside? There is a barrier, but I can break it.”

“Hwaaaaaaat, A, A, A, can you let me down in front?! If you break the barrier, it’ll be a big problem!!”

“Alright. We’ll do that.”

As Marius slowed down, almost there, and asked, Arianna barely managed to collect herself and asked to be let down in front.

“There’s a barrier at the Dual Academy?”

“Yes, yes. The Dual Academy has valuable cardssssssssss!!!”

While Arianna was answering, Marius plunged rapidly, creating a nearly vertical slope.

Kuwoong!!

Marius landed on the ground, bending his knees. Despite it being quite a high height, he stood up calmly.

“We’ve arrived.”

“Heuk, Hwaaat. Hieuk……. M-my legs are trembling so much I can’t stand…….”

“M-me too…….”

Unlike the calm Marius, our legs trembled, and we immediately collapsed as soon as we got off.

“……Are both of you too weak physically? I just moved you.”

Marius asked, sounding worried.

I think calling that rollercoaster-like ride “just moving” is a misnomer.

“Next time, please let me prepare myself…….”

I got up and looked at the tall wall in front of me.

It was incredibly large and high to be called a school wall.

I wouldn’t even dare to try climbing it.

“So this is the Dual Academy. It looks just like some kind of castle.”

“Y-yes, they say it was actually a castle at one point. Though it’s a school now.”

Arianna explained, getting up shakily.

“The main gate is down along the wall…….”

And she trailed off, looking at Marius with a worried face.

“Um……. Well. It might be a rude question, but can you perhaps return to being a card?”

And she asked Marius something that I had also been wondering about, before I could.

“……Is my presence inconvenient?”

“N-no!! That’s not what I meant at all!! It’s just that, on the contrary, you’re so incredibly cool that you’ll stand out a lot……. I was worried it might cause a big commotion.”

Certainly, if an Ice Knight who looks incredibly strong to anyone were to just appear like this, it would cause a big commotion.

Especially if it’s not just an ordinary knight, but a knight that a Legend Card materialized into.

“Indeed. I understand. Is this a time for infiltration?”

After understanding the situation in a slightly different way, Marius extended his hand to me.

“It doesn’t particularly matter. If I disliked being a card, I wouldn’t have become one in the first place.”

And he beckoned with his hand as if telling me to take it, so I took Marius’s hand.

Thereupon, Marius shone brilliantly and returned to being a glittering Legend Card in my hand.

‘If you need my strength, call me anytime. I’ll be resting inside the deck.’

“……Ah, understood.”

After nodding my head in response to Marius’s voice echoing in my head, I gazed steadily at Marius, who had become a Legend Card.

“Arianna. Do you have a protector or something like that?”

“Protector……? Do you mean armor?”

“……No, it seems fine. Never mind.”

Touching it, the material wasn’t weak enough to need something like that.

It was like stainless steel, or rather, if you threw it, it felt like it would pierce a tree.

Since he was fine even after being hit by Arianna Fire in the first place, perhaps it’s obvious.

I carefully placed Legend Card Marius in my pocket and walked along the wall with Arianna,

“It’s closed.”

“Indeed…….”

We were faced with the completely closed main gate of the Dual Academy, with its lights also turned off.

“Hello~!! Is anyone there~!!”

“Is anyone there!!”

Arianna and I shouted loudly, but there was no reaction at all.

It seems it’s much later than we thought.

“Should we call Marius and try something?”

“That might be dangerous. The Dual Academy’s barrier is over 100 years old, so if it breaks, who knows what might happen…….”

“Then we absolutely mustn’t break it.”

We had finally come all the way to the Dual Academy, but we couldn’t get in.

It’s better than the middle of the forest, but this is troublesome.

“Hmm……. Is the town nearby?”

“Yes. It’s just a short walk from the main gate.”

If that’s the case, there’s only one way.

“How about we stay overnight at an inn tonight? We could also eat before we go.”

“Eh.”

There’s no choice but to find somewhere else to sleep.

“Arianna?”

“Eh, ah, um. Th-that’s right!”

When I called Arianna, who had somehow frozen, she nodded her head flusteredly.

“We, we can’t just sleep outside. Yes. Th-there is one nearby. I haven’t been there, but……. We can’t just sleep outside!”

Watching the bright red and incoherent Arianna, only then did I realize what I had said.

As it was a fantasy world, I had said it with the sense of an inn from an RPG game, but upon reflection, what I had said was no different from asking a woman I had just met to go to a motel.

“……Right. Yeah.”

It was awkward to calmly say it and then deny that I meant it that way, so I just nodded and headed towards the inn with Arianna in an awkward atmosphere.

*

The communal bath at the inn closest to the Dual Academy.

“Haaaaaaah…….”

I sighed, fiddling with my brown hair floating in the water.

“What in the world is going on…….”

I ended up coming to an inn with a man while wearing the Dual Academy uniform.

And what’s more, because there were no other rooms left, it was a single room.

If my parents knew I was doing this, they might faint.

Just imagining it made me want to hide, so I submerged myself completely in the water.

‘Sir Knight said he absolutely didn’t mean it that way, but……. Hooouuuuuh…….’

Boggle Boggle Boggle.

I’ve never had the experience of sleeping in the same room with a man, except for my dad.

Just imagining it makes me dizzy.

My body is getting hotter than the lukewarm bathwater.

‘No, it’s just sleeping, what is there to be nervous about? If anything, I can just sleep on the floor.’

I got out of the water and washed myself, thinking about Sir Knight.

‘……He was truly amazing, Sir Knight.’

Extremely calm even in a crisis situation where only 1000 HP remained, his sharp eyes that looked somewhat tired yet piercing.

The gentle way he reprimanded me after seeing my messed-up deck, and the smile he wore while building me a very powerful and easy-to-use deck.

The modesty he showed by not revealing any greed for the Legend Card I had obtained entirely thanks to his help, and congratulating me.

‘On top of that, he was even the Chosen One who was only known through legends.’

Finally, the moment I received the Legend Card, that card awakened and even appeared in reality.

How could such a person exist?

It was too amazing.

He was like a hero from a legend, a prince from a fairy tale book.

I wondered if I was seriously dreaming.

But,

‘Compared to him, I am.’

I am an inferior student from the countryside, incredibly far from the city, whose only skill is using a little bit of fire magic.

Magic or whatever, no matter how well you use it, it means nothing if you are weak in a duel.

Because if you can’t win, you can’t even cast it.

And using it in daily life is incredibly dangerous because my power control is still clumsy.

‘Someone like me couldn’t possibly suit Sir Knight.’

When he asked if we should go to an inn together, I was extremely surprised and thrilled, but while walking for a long time, Sir Knight flatly stated that he didn’t mean it that way.

‘I did think that would be the case. I knew it would be……. It’s only natural, but, but, still…….’

The more I thought about it, the more mixed emotions flooded over me, and I stopped washing and buried my face in my knees.

“…….”

And when I lifted my head, a liquid soap that was much more high-class than the soap I usually used caught my eye.

‘……Still.’

I squeezed a long stream of liquid soap into my hand,

‘Still, let’s do my best……!!’

I started washing myself, doing my best, just like the day I first entered the Dual Academy.

*

‘Completely exhausted…….’

After washing and changing into the indoor clothes provided at the inn, I returned to the room and flopped onto the bed.

Arianna hadn’t returned yet.

It seems women take a long time to wash in any world.

‘I even got Arianna to treat me to a meal and pay for the inn fee.’

On top of receiving that precious Legend Card, I even received a place to eat and sleep.

I wonder if I’m receiving too much just for winning a proxy duel for her and fixing her deck a bit.

‘Well, in this world where duels are everything, maybe that is quite a big deal…….’

Even so, thinking that I’m indebted to a young girl, who I don’t even know if she’s a middle schooler or high schooler, feels a bit wrong on a human level.

‘I’ll definitely be indebted to her more in the future. I should properly earn my keep.’

I think the duels held at the Dual Academy were called [Official]?

It would be good to help her build a 40-card deck suitable for that.

‘I roughly know that it’s [Duel Fantasia]. What generation’s meta is it?’

I recalled Arianna’s deck.

It might be that there were no spells and traps because she hastily adjusted it for [Legacy], but putting that aside, there was one thing that bothered me.

There wasn’t a single card that could be called a ‘generic monster,’ commonly known as a ‘hand trap,’ which has become an essential element in modern [Duel Fantasia].

‘Compared to the reality I lived in, is it much earlier?Or perhaps…….’

While sitting upright on the bed and contemplating the duels of this world, the door clicked open.

Arianna, who had finished washing and returned,

‘Huk.’

looked such that a ‘Huk’ sound naturally came out from inside my heart.