episode_0023

For over two weeks, Alice worked diligently to heal Arthur.

Thanks to this, Arthur was able to live a happy life and relieve a lot of stress, returning to his original state.

Arthur woke up in the morning and thought about all the things he had done and said so far, and he felt ashamed and wanted to disappear.

When I looked to the side, I saw Alice lying down still sleeping, and my own dark past began to come to mind.

-Alice!! Carry me.

-I want to eat meat.. You’ll buy it for me, right..?

-Give me a quick morning kiss!

-Say I love you 100 times every day!

-Ugh~ You don’t even know this? You’re such an idiot, Alice!!

Countless memories continued to assault Arthur’s mind. But this was cute. The worst was…

-Alice? I prepared dinner tonight! Ta-da!

-Why is there nothing? It’s here! Tonight’s menu is ‘me’♡

-I’m just joking! If I do that, I’ll be the only one tired, so why should I do it?

-What’s with that expression.. Did you expect that? Alice is so innocent hehe!! You idiot, you idiot!

Arthur still couldn’t forget the expression Alice had on her face that day.

“… ”

‘This is just a mental illness..’

Arthur, who had cooled his head, thought calmly. This can’t be real… Hmm, no matter how much I think about it, it’s clear that it was a dream! I’m not that childish, nor that stupid!

But reality was harsh. I could hear Alice’s words as she woke up to Arthur’s presence.

“Huh..? You woke up early today.. My baby? What do you want to play with today?”

Arthur’s mind began to break apart again at Alice’s words.

“Kkiyaaak!!! What kind of tone is that!!”

Alice tilted her head at Arthur’s reaction.

“Why… You asked me to call you that..”

“No!! There’s no way I would do that!! Get out of here! Get out of here! Get out of my room!!!!”

Get out of here quickly, Alice! Please… I’m so embarrassed I could die.

In the end, Arthur forced Alice out in the morning and was left alone in the room.

Arthur looked around the room he was left in and noticed a bag of medicine on the desk.

“What is this..?”

Anyone can tell it’s a bag of medicine! Why did I think this was a nutritional supplement until now? Am I really out of my mind?

“… ”

Yeah, people can make mistakes as they live! I guess I’ve been crazy for a while now! So I guess I should just pretend I lost my memory.

Arthur, who had been nodding to himself, opened the door again.

“Arthur..?”

When I opened the door, I saw Alice standing there, fidgeting.

“Aris..? I think I lost my memory.”

At Arthur’s words, Alice made a bewildered expression.

“Huh? Then you were holding me like a baby last nightㅡ”

-Sudden..

“I don’t remember, Alice?”

As Arthur spoke through his teeth, Alice noticed that his mind had returned to normal.

“Oh..I see, I understand.”

Arthur is back to normal! He’s had a really hard time…

However, it was good that things went back to normal, but Arthur was a little annoyed that he kept insisting that he didn’t remember after making things difficult for him, so he decided to tease him a little.

“Then don’t you remember that either..?”

“A few days ago, you took off all your clothes and came to the table for dinner..”

At his own words, Arthur quickly reached out and covered his mouth.

And Arthur smiled and began to whisper in his ear.

“Do you really want to see me get angry?”

Arthur thought to himself that if Alice brought up his dark past again, he would become a devil.

Alice also felt both thrill and fear at the same time, as if she was risking her life in gambling, and she was curious about how Arthur would react if she teased him more, but she didn’t have the confidence to handle the aftermath, so she decided to stop.

… … …

Alice told the doctor everything she had heard.

“..I think that’s definitely right…”

Originally, he had completely given up on using magic. He couldn’t feel mana and the amount was small, but Fabian’s method seemed to be effective, so he came to him like a ray of hope.

Rather, I think that’s why it was so shocking. Of course, now that I know that no method works, I won’t be so disappointed like last time.

“So, if you’re feeling too stressed, you have to let me know.”

“Yeah…”

This incident made Arthur reflect on himself.

I thought I had let go of my obsession with using magic myself, but in reality, it was festering inside me.

Yeah, what can you see in front of your eyes? Let’s just live as if we’re under a curse that prevents us from using magic!

Arthur, feeling much more at ease, lay back down in bed.

“Arthur, I’ll go to class and come back. See you later.”

“?”

Arthur’s body froze at Alice’s words.

Come to think of it, how did I do in class? I don’t remember anything…

“Aris? How did I do in class..?”

“I’ve taken care of everything, attendance will be fine too!”

As Alice spoke, ominous thoughts kept coming to my mind.

“No, then I didn’t attend class?”

At Arthur’s words, Alice looked dumbfounded.

“Of course, what kind of class is this! Are you kidding me?”

Arthur’s hands and feet began to tremble and his eyes turned to the calendar.

Next week is the midterms!! Hey, now is not the time for this. From today on, I have to study whenever I can except when I sleep!!

“Aris? I think I should just study since I have a test next week. Let’s eat separately for the time being.”

Arthur, who had just said that, quickly left the room and ran to the classroom.

Alice, left alone in the room, looked at the door through which Arthur had exited.

“You always get full marks anyway…”

… … …

As I arrived at the classroom, I saw the back of Fabian, who had arrived early and was sitting down.

“Arthur? Long time no see.”

“You said you were sick, but are you feeling better now?”

Fabian, who did not know Arthur’s exact condition, only knew that Arthur was sick, and Arthur was rather relieved by Fabian’s reaction.

Fortunately, you didn’t know about my condition… I wonder if Aris did something about this too?

“Yeah.. I’ve had a terrible cold for a while now…”

“I’m sorry to say this, but can you tell me how far we’ve come?”

Fabian readily agreed to Arthur’s words and told him about what had happened during class.

Arthur’s face began to brighten as he listened to Fabian’s story.

That’s fortunate… Since this is information that I already know, I shouldn’t have any trouble following along, but more importantly, I wonder if they also came up with a practical evaluation method?

Arthur, who was curious, asked Fabian straight away.

“Professor Adele told me that last time. She said that we would catch virtual monsters with educational magic tools.”

“They said that when you catch a monster there, they evaluate what kind of magic you used and how… but they said that even if you just catch it, they give you a base score.”

Arthur was reassured by Fabian’s answer.

Phew… Then I guess I can still get points by just catching it with my sword? That’s fortunate.

While I was thinking about the exam, I saw Professor Serena coming into the classroom.

The professor started the class without saying anything, and Arthur’s daily life returned to normal.

… … …

“So there’s nothing to study for?”

“Yeah, I already know all this stuff…”

Arthur, who had studied all the material he had missed for weeks in two days, started to pester Alice, saying he was bored.

“Should we just go on a date?”

Arthur, sitting next to her, began to seduce Alice.

“No, I have a lot to study too.. I heard there’s a written exam for the journalism department too?”

“It’s nothing special when I look at it, but if you look at it the day before, you’ll be able to memorize it all.”

Alice looked at Arthur with a dumbfounded expression.

Are you serious, Arthur? You memorized this thick book the day before?

But when Alice saw Arthur’s eyes, she knew that Arthur was sincere.

“Huh… I said that only you can do that, Arthur?”

Arthur starts to make a face that shows he doesn’t understand what Alice is saying.

“Why can’t you do that? I told you to read books from time to time, it’s so frustrating, frustrating!!”

As he began to beat his chest and groan, Alice felt dizzy.

Just bear with it for a bit… If you don’t pay attention, it will play on its own…

Arthur kept nagging her from the side, but Alice gritted her teeth and ignored him.

What the… Are you going to ignore me now, Alice? I can play well on my own!

Eventually, Arthur gave up and left Alice behind in the library.

Arthur, having escaped from the library, wondered how to pass the time, but no particular idea came to mind.

…Yeah, I guess I’ll try exercising for the first time in a while.

Arthur, having made up his mind, headed to the training grounds of the Knight Academy.

There were no particular problems as the Academy had no restrictions on using other departments’ facilities.

Arthur arrived and looked around.

“Oh! It’s definitely spacious and nice..”

Do other students have external classes? There’s no one there… Well, I’m comfortable and happy when there’s no one else around.

Arthur took out a blunt iron sword from the wall and approached the practice dummy.

“Huh? This is…”

But it wasn’t an ordinary doll, it was a doll with a button on the back of its head. Reading the writing on the side, it said, “Golem for combat practice.”

A golem for battle practice…? Does it move? This might help me get stronger quickly!

Arthur, who happened to be bored, immediately pressed the button to move the golem.

“Please select the difficulty level.”

“Difficulty levels are easy, intermediate, and advanced.”

The Golem’s mechanical voice was heard, and Arthur decided to start from the lower level first.

“Please make it lower level.”

Upon hearing Arthur’s words, the golem’s eyes glowed green, it raised its wooden sword, and took a fighting stance.

Oh? This is a classic horse race.. Is this the distance to cut the bell?

As Arthur had expected, the golem came forward and swung its bell-cutting sword. Arthur easily dodged the golem’s attack due to its obvious movements and swung his sword to attack its head.

-Wow!

However, the golem was unharmed by Arthur’s attacks, and instead began to counterattack Arthur.

“What’s so hard..”

As Arthur continued to dodge attacks and attack the head, the golem eventually appeared to stop functioning.

“Whew…. It stopped after I hit its head. Am I that weak..”

Arthur, still not satisfied, wiped away the sweat and set the golem’s difficulty to intermediate.

The golem’s eyes began to glow blue, and it began to display unusual attacks, unlike before.

“Huh!”

-Pfft!

After going back and forth several times, Arthur eventually collapsed in pain after being hit by the golem’s surprise punch.

“Ugh… This is no match for me…”

Isn’t there a huge difference in difficulty between intermediate and low level? There’s no comparison from speed to strength.

Of course, the lower-level ones were much faster and stronger than Arthur, but they were able to close the gap to some extent with their reaction speed.

However, because the intermediate level was too fast and stronger, if an attack came that could not be avoided with speed, you had to block it, but with one hand, the strength was pushed back, and a vicious cycle occurred in which your posture collapsed, and this accumulated and inevitably led to defeat.

Arthur, who had fallen, got up again and pressed the golem’s button.

“I’m definitely going to win today!”

But how do you win..?

But Arthur had no plan, and the golem’s merciless attacks began again.

“Eww!! Okay, time out!!”

In the end, Arthur’s body only received more bruises.