Scholhart (1)

1.

The academy’s weekend.

I went to the shopping district after a long time.

It wasn’t a trip to the distant Ponika Town by carriage, but a small shopping district within Minerva Town.

There was a place to drink tea, and a few restaurants and general stores.

“It’s crowded even on the weekend.”

Since you can’t go far on weekdays, it’s naturally bustling.

I thought they would go out to Ponika Town to play on weekends like today, but that wasn’t the case.

Without exception, this street was crowded with students even on weekends.

Still, it was definitely much quieter compared to weekdays.

“Hello, Saintess.”

“Hello.”

I greeted the students who greeted me first with a kind smile and headed to the cafe.

A cafe in the square.

It’s a charming one-story building.

It’s run modestly by the owner, and it reminds one of a rural aristocrat’s private garden, so it’s quite popular with female students.

I sat by the window overlooking the square.

“Shall I order what you always have?”

Rael, who is helping me with my duties even on weekends, said while looking at the menu.

The menu I always eat.

You might naturally think it’s strawberry milk, but it’s not.

That sweet strawberry milk with the soft, chewy strawberry pulp is only sold in Ponika Town, so I can’t drink it here.

Although I like that the most.

Here, I eat iced coffee and a slice of cake.

If I had come to a cafe in the old days, I would have only drunk coffee.

But these days, I feel sad and disappointed if I don’t have a sweet dessert.

I enjoyed the sunlight streaming through the window while watching the square leisurely.

It’s not like I only do swordsmanship training on weekends.

Taking a break is also important.

It’s not more effective to overexert yourself by only training.

That’s that.

Honestly, I just liked coming to this cafe on weekends, having a cup of coffee, and eating cake so much that it became a hobby.

A leisure I couldn’t enjoy in my past life.

The coffee I drank on the battlefield was just grinding the supplied coffee beans with my sword sheath, pouring hot water over them, and drinking it. The battlefield was a cafe with Magical Beast corpses scattered around and a rotting smell filling the air.

I even lost my canteen and used a Magical Beast’s skull as a cup.

“Hmph…”

I don’t know how I even thought of using that back then.

I was leisurely looking out the window, reminiscing about the old days, when.

“Huh?”

I suddenly spotted a familiar face.

Yohan.

His hair was damp with sweat, as if he had been training until just now, and his shirt was also soaked with sweat.

And the woman next to him, Yuriel.

Yuriel was being dragged along by Yohan, who was holding her wrist, with a disgusted expression.

“Oh my… well, well…”

When did they become like that?

I felt like Yuriel was interested in Yohan, but I didn’t think they would develop such a relationship already.

“…Young people these days seem to fall in love so quickly.”

Back in my day, it took years of exchanging letters and being too embarrassed to even hold hands to have a relationship.

But now they confidently do that on the streets.

Times have definitely changed.

For the record, I, who am saying this, have never been in a relationship.

It’s not like I have some sad story.

It’s not like I liked the same gender either.

It’s just that I was going to the battlefield, so I didn’t know when I would die, and I didn’t want anyone to be saddened because of me, so I didn’t do relationships or marriage.

Well… in the end, there were more than a few people who shed tears because of me….

“Good times, good times.”

2.

A few hours earlier.

“Wanna bet on lunch?”

Yohan, who was training, wiped his sweat with his sleeve and spoke to Yuriel.

“…What?”

Yuriel frowned, as if she had heard something absurd.

“It’s almost lunchtime.”

“…I can just go to the dormitory and eat.”

“The dormitory food is bad.”

“I think it’s delicious…”

“So, how about we play a simple game and the loser buys lunch?”

Yuriel looked at Yohan with a reluctant expression.

She didn’t really want to.

Why should she?

That thought was bigger.

Before that, were they even close enough to bet on lunch?

Lunch bets are for friends.

She had seen it often.

She had seen the members of the family’s Knights playing card games, betting on dinner.

She had also seen it while wandering around the territory.

She had seen little kids playing tag, betting on snacks.

…I wanted to try it too.

But she had no intention of doing it with Yohan, who was neither a friend nor anything else.

She would try that after she made a friend.

Rock-paper-scissors.

Playing tag.

Running around in the rain.

That’s Yuriel’s wishlist of things she wants to do with a friend someday.

“It’s too disadvantageous for me to have a duel since the result is obvious…”

Even though Yuriel had no intention of betting, Yohan seriously thought about what kind of bet would be fair.

“…Okay! How about a simple game of rock-paper-scissors?”

Yuriel’s eyes widened.

“R… Rock-paper-scissors?”

She knew the rules.

She had even practiced alone.

Making scissors with her right hand and a fist with her left hand.

She had even done it looking in the mirror.

She had never won, though.

Whenever she saw children shouting “Rock-paper-scissors!” and enjoying the game, it looked fun.

The atmosphere getting more and more heated as they shouted every time they tied.

The smile on their faces as the game progressed.

It looked really fun.

“Okay, then.”

“Huh?”

“Rock-paper-scissors!”

“Uh, uh… paper!”

Yohan made a fist.

Yuriel panicked and made scissors without thinking.

Even though she was a few seconds late, she lost.

“I won?”

“W-Wait… let’s do it again. That was a foul just now.”

“A foul? I played fair and square.”

“Do it again.”

Yuriel glared at Yohan with strength in her eyes.

To ruin her first experience like this.

She couldn’t accept it.

Even if she lost, she couldn’t accept losing like this, panicking.

“Okay. Paper!”

Yohan held out a cloth to Yuriel, who was making a fist.

“I won, right?”

“Wh-What…?”

“That’s how you do it when you continue.”

Yohan grinned mischievously.

Yuriel stared with wide eyes, dumbfounded.

Then, she lowered her head and looked at Yohan’s cloth, which was held out in front of her fist.

“…That’s… cheating!”

Yuriel pointed at Yohan with a trembling finger.

“That’s the rule.”

“N-No, it’s not.”

Yuriel explained the rules of rock-paper-scissors in a soft voice.

She had thoroughly learned them so she wouldn’t make a mistake when she played with a friend next time.

What Yohan said wasn’t completely wrong, but wrong was wrong.

“It’s a foul to start when I’m not even ready yet.”

“Are you going to say that when you duel too?”

“N-No… it’s different when I duel…”

In the world of swordsmen, being careless is an excuse only idiots make.

‘It’s better to win cowardly than to die and lose.’

Didn’t the Saintess say that too?

There’s no such thing as being lenient or doing it again because you were careless.

In the first place, there’s no such thing as a redo in battle.

Anyway, this is rock-paper-scissors.

It’s a game.

“Okay. I’ll do it again.”

Yohan acted as if he was yielding.

“It’s not ‘I’ll do it again’… you have to, of course…”

Yuriel pouted and grumbled.

“The first person to win twice buys lunch?”

“Play fair and square.”

“I’ve been playing fair and square the whole time.”

The result of the game was 2-0.

Yohan’s clean victory.

“N-No way…”

Yuriel looked at her hand, which was making scissors, and trembled.

She didn’t expect to lose so easily.

It was a miserable defeat.

Her first experience was taken away by a strange man, and the ending was terrible.

Yuriel grabbed her sword.

“Where are you going?”

Yohan grabbed Yuriel’s wrist as she was about to return to the dormitory.

“You have to buy me lunch.”

“…Why would I?”

“We bet.”

“I didn’t say I would.”

“Are you going to be like this?”

Yohan pulled Yuriel’s arm and headed to the shopping district in the square.

“Let go…!”

Yuriel shook her arm.

She could shake him off as much as she wanted, but.

She was planning to go back to the dormitory and eat lunch, and she would be spending time alone in her room during the weekend, so she thought it would be nice to have a new experience for once.

And so, now.

Yuriel was being dragged through the shopping district by Yohan, who was holding her wrist.

“What do you want to eat?”

“…Eat anything.”

“Do you like meat?”

“…I said, eat anything.”

Other students’ gazes were subtly directed at Yuriel.

It was burdensome.

It was her first time walking through the shopping district with someone else.

And it wasn’t someone of the same gender, but someone of the opposite gender.

What if they thought they were in that kind of relationship?

She was anxious.

“Then let’s eat meat. There’s a really delicious lamb skewer place in this shopping district.”

It was at that moment that Yohan bumped into someone.

“Ah… I’m sorry.”

A tall man was standing in front of him.

The man’s golden eyes coldly looked down at Yohan.

“Uh…?”

The face of Yuriel next to him turned pale.

The man, who was walking through the square with four people, quietly looked down at Yohan, then slowly moved his eyes at the small sigh he heard from the side.

Golden eyes meet another pair of golden eyes.

“…Did you decide to abandon your sword?”

A cold voice stabbed Yuriel.

“Th-That’s…”

“To be wasting time on romance.”

“Th-That’s not it…”

Yuriel cowered as if she had met a beast.

“…O-Older brother.”