episode_0317

After safely passing the 2nd year winter vacation, which should have included the death event of Edan and Harold, Edan and I successfully advanced to the 3rd year without any incidents.

To be honest, I felt a little uneasy until the last day at Blackwood Manor.

There was a lingering feeling in my mind that maybe, due to some force that compels this world to follow the original plot, that guy might come to kill Edan.

I had almost a dozen dreams with similar content during my stay at Blackwood Manor. Dreams where the hero party stormed Blackwood Manor during the 2nd year winter vacation, and Edan and I teamed up to fight against him.

Fortunately, Edan and I never had to face that guy in a dream. Even though he was a hero, facing Edan alone, who had my support magic buffs, would have been impossible.

Of course, it didn’t matter whether we won or lost in the dream. But winning always felt better.

After spending about a month and a half at Blackwood Manor, Edan and I returned to the academy dormitory two weeks before the new semester to prepare our schedule for the upcoming 3rd year classes.

“Will you be taking your father’s class this semester?”

“I think I should. If I don’t take Lord Agust’s class this semester, it will definitely seem strange.”

“You don’t have to feel pressured. If the swordsmanship class is too difficult, you can take a break this semester. I’ll talk to my father about it.”

“No. Even other students in the swordsmanship department who are less skilled… I mean, less skilled in swordsmanship, are taking the class, right? I believe I can keep up well among students from other departments, so I think I can gain a lot from it.”

Thanks to consistently taking swordsmanship classes from Harold, I had received help several times. I had used my swordsmanship effectively in bandit encounters, monster subjugation events, and even in the MacHeart War, so I had no regrets about what I had learned so far.

And since I had already embarked on the path of swordsmanship, I also wanted to challenge my limits. Even if I fall short of becoming a Sword Master, I wanted to at least try to become a Sword Expert.

After all, the period of attending Luminoir Academy was the only chance I had to challenge myself in this way. Finding a teacher outside the academy who could teach better than Harold would probably be much more difficult than catching a falling star.

So, the magic swordsmanship class that Edan and I had taken together for two years was also on the schedule for this year.

And the rest of the classes were the key for this semester. The main focus was on the completely revamped curriculum for teaching the 2nd and 3rd parts of Luminoir Academy.

“What elective subjects are you planning to take in the 3rd year, Relise? You can take up to five.”

“What classes do you plan to take, Edan?”

“Don’t ask for my opinion. Just tell me what classes you want to take, Relise. I’ll take it into consideration.”

Edan’s ‘elective subjects’ might sound like general education classes at first, but in reality, they were practical training courses designed to directly apply the knowledge learned at the academy.

Starting from the 3rd year at the academy, practical training courses took up the majority of the curriculum, with a decrease in theoretical lectures. It was a completely different curriculum from when theory classes made up more than half of the curriculum in the 1st and 2nd years.

Luminor Academy does not cultivate students like greenhouse flowers just for show and then sell them to the outside world.

The academy’s educational policy was to provide students with as much practical experience as possible by allowing them to kill monsters and bandits while minimizing the loss of life, once they had learned enough to do so.

This story applied not only to the combat departments of swordsmanship, spear techniques, archery, martial arts, and magic, but also to the theology department. The priests of Aurelia’s church had to accumulate practical experience during their apprenticeship period in order to qualify for assignment to the church.

Of course, this did not apply to the technology and pharmacy departments, as they had no combat abilities.

For me and Ethan, it didn’t matter how we participated in practical training if we were to enter the technology or pharmacy departments as main characters.

“If you play as the main character, you usually have a hero party by this point.”

Although there were still playable characters in the first year, joint classes for third and fourth-year students were not possible, so hero parties were not usually taken along.

Even though Liria is the heroine, she is considered less useful than Thomas according to the original work. The events of the past two years play a significant role in the growth leading up to the subjugation of the demon king.

If the heroine is a year younger like Liria, there may be a chance for growth, but heroines below the second year were truly hopeless. By the time they trained in practical exercises, the main character would already be graduating, so there was no way for them to be involved in external activities other than by force.

Well, the original nurturing system was a story that had nothing to do with me anyway, so my only concern was how Ethan and I would take our classes.

“‘Exploration of Natural Sciences,’ ‘Exploration of Geology,’ and ‘Exploration of Humanities,’ how about those?”

Roughly translated, it would be ‘Hunting monsters in the forest,’ ‘Hunting monsters in underground dungeons,’ and ‘Fighting bandits.’

“Humanities? Is that okay, Liries?”

“It’s not like I have no experience, right? Do you remember when we went on a bandit subjugation together last time, Ethan?”

“…It was a bit risky back then, Liries.”

“I moved cautiously to make sure Isabelle didn’t get hurt, so it wasn’t really dangerous. And compared to back then, I am much stronger now. And you are the same, aren’t you, Ethan?”

“…That’s true, but.”

To be honest, there were still risks involved in ‘Exploration of Humanities.’ It was a common story that fighting people was more dangerous than fighting monsters.

However, the reason I suggested ‘Exploration of Humanities’ to Ethan was different. This course was one of the most rewarding in terms of experience points.

If I could freely roam around looking for monsters like the main character, it would be different, but the way I gained experience points was by diligently attending the academy’s classes, so I personally wanted to take all three courses if possible.

“So? Are you only going to take those three? What about the other two?”

“I want to hear Ethan’s opinion on the other subjects. So, how about you decide on the other two subjects, Ethan?”

“I think it’s fine for Liries to decide everything.”

“Don’t you need to learn how to take classes as well, Ethan?”

“…Alright. Then, um…”

In reality, I gave Ethan the choice of the remaining two subjects because the experience points gained from them were all the same.

Since I had already secured the three best courses, it didn’t matter to me which two subjects Ethan chose.

No matter what courses Ethan signed up for, I was ready to follow without any complaints…

“One thing first… Oh, how about this?”

“Studying sorcery… is that right?”

“Yes. This one seems a bit less dangerous.”

Studying sorcery.

In other words, it was supposed to be something like ‘hunting Ghost-type and Undead-type monsters.’

So, listening to this meant not only facing monsters like Banshees or Zombies, but also that the practical training location would be a graveyard or an abandoned house…

“….”

“Why? Don’t you like it?”

“No, it’s fine. You have a really good eye, Edan-nim.”

Well, I feel bad for rejecting Edan’s choice of class just because I’m weak against that kind of thing.

I should think of overcoming a slightly uncomfortable part for me in this opportunity. Eventually, the time will come when I have to face Ghost-type or Undead-type monsters as an adventurer.

If I’m going to get vaccinated, it’s better to do it during the academy’s class, preferably when Edan is by my side.

“If you don’t like this kind of thing, you can change it to something else. I just picked it randomly.”

“No. I will not change my opinion of leaving the choice to Edan-nim. And I’m not particularly afraid of ghosts or zombies.”

“I didn’t ask if you were scared. Are you weak against Ghost-type monsters, Lily?”

“I am not weak. I have no reason to be afraid of Ghost-type monsters that have no physical intervention abilities…”

“…Lily. What’s in that mirror over there?”

“….Yes?”

“Um, there… there’s something in the mirror…?”

…Why is he suddenly like this? Like he ate something wrong.

Of course, judging by the flow of the conversation just now, Edan’s actions were probably just to tease me. Such a shallow trick of whether there is something in the mirror or not wouldn’t work on me.

“Don’t play around, Edan-nim.”

“…I’m not playing. Look there, Lily.”

“….”

But since Edan was so serious with his joke, I pretended to be fooled and played along with his joke for a while.

-Swipe! Swipe!

“Oh, there was nothing, Edan-nim.”

“…There’s no way you can see anything by shaking your head so quickly, Lily.”

“Stop playing around, Edan-nim. It’s really not funny at all.”

“It’s not that. Look really, there’s something dark in the mirror…”

“….”

-Slide.

“…Oh, there’s nothing there, right, Edan-nim? Where did you see something dark?”

“It’s clearly there. The most lovely maid in the world with black hair.”

…Huh?

“What? The most lovely maid in the world? Is there such a ghost?”

“I didn’t say there was a ghost in the mirror, did I? I was just surprised by how pretty Lily looked all of a sudden.”

“….”

With those words, Edan smiled brightly and looked into my eyes.

Feeling a rush of heat at his ridiculous appearance, I stood up from the table facing Edan with my course registration form in hand.

“…Come to think of it, I think I need to redo my timetable for this semester. It seems like focusing on magic department exclusive research subjects would be better this year.”

“Sorry, Lily! I was wrong, so please don’t do that!”

“I seem to quite like the Visionary Studies course on this side. Since I remember that Edan-nim couldn’t handle Vision magic yet, I should take this class with Agnes.”

“Sorry! Please forgive me, Lily! Please don’t be mad!”

-Hug.

“If you think my heart will be relieved this way, well, you’re mistaken, Edan-nim!”

-Pat, pat.

“No, I… uh, ah…”

…Edan, who was hugging me tightly and showering my cheeks with kisses, seemed to be under some strange misconception. I couldn’t bear to endure his nonsense any longer, so I just pretended to forgive him.

It wasn’t like I forgave Edan’s behavior out of anger. I just let it slide this once.