I Became the Academy’s Female Delinquent Chapter 56. The Pursuit of Truth (5)
Dane patted Elsie’s head.
Elsie didn’t resist, reflexively closing her eyes and not avoiding his hand.
‘Ah, it’s Elsie.’
The Elsie he remembered.
It was like a dream. The fact that this young sister of his was alive and vibrant before his eyes.
If Woden’s assumptions were all true, her very existence was nothing short of a miracle.
‘How much does Elsie know about herself? Her memories?’
Her habitual, small actions were the same, yet sometimes felt different.
She had lost her memories.
Though it might be more complex in essence, it was indeed an appropriate expression.
Thanks to Elsie not rejecting Dane’s touch, it created a rather affectionate sibling-like scene. Thrud quietly rested her chin on her hand, watching the sight and muttering.
“Elsie… I’m glad…”
Elsie, who had been kicked out of the family and lived alone, now had someone on her side. Thinking about why he had only appeared now made her feel a little resentful, but…
“Putting them together like that, you can really tell they’re family.”
Doyun also looked at Elsie with a satisfied face and muttered.
“You’re stating the obvious, kid. How close do you think we are as siblings…!”
Dane waved his free hand as he shouted.
Following his hand, Elsie’s head also moved slightly.
“…Distracting her with flowers and then petting her in that gap is a bit pathetic, though…”
Elsie, periodically losing her mind to the yellow bouquet Dane brought, was full of loopholes.
The Elsie-petting strategy that utilized that was very effective, it could be said.
“Elsie has loved these flowers since she was little.”
As Dane’s hand, which had been patting her head, disappeared, Elsie, who had been docile like a languid cat, slowly opened her eyes.
Then, she quietly stared at the freesia bouquet in front of her.
“She’s almost lost her soul…”
“Is it like catnip…?”
It was beyond simply liking them; it seemed like she was intoxicated.
Then, Elsie flinched and came to her senses, rolling her eyes around and then brushing back her hair, as if embarrassed.
“Elsie… you seem to really like those flowers.”
To Thrud’s wistful question, Elsie twisted her hair with her finger and answered.
“No, well… yeah. I’ve liked them since before, but what is it…? I don’t think it was this much…”
It might be difficult to express in numbers, but she felt like she liked them roughly twice as much.
Liking something she already liked twice as much. It was dangerous in many ways.
Every time the bouquet in Dane’s hand moved slightly, she unconsciously followed it with her eyes.
Elsie, feeling scared as if she had been hypnotized, shook her head and stood up from her seat.
Dane reached out as if regretting Elsie going to where her friends were, but stopped.
He didn’t hold her back, knowing that Elsie was the most shocked and confused of all, even though the story he had heard from Woden was quite shocking to him.
Elsie, who had hidden behind Thrud, peeked out and looked at Dane.
“Ah, um…”
Dane nodded with a beaming smile at Elsie’s appearance, as if she had remembered something and had something to say.
‘Her memories must be very confused… Like how she was flustered after calling me Orabeoni…’
“Tell me anything, Elsie. This Orabeoni is always on your side.”
Elsie, who was about to talk about Svik’s attack, hesitated for a moment.
It was good that they had subdued Svik peacefully, but she was a little embarrassed to talk about it because they had let him get away.
Still, Dane was an important figure in the family. He needed to know what he needed to know.
Elsie swallowed hard and explained what had happened with Doyun in an organized manner.
We caught him and had him with us, but he disappeared.
In summary, that was it.
As Elsie’s story grew longer, Dane’s expression changed from moment to moment.
Even though he had come down to Midgard himself, the threat to his precious sister continued.
An unbearable anger boiled within him.
‘Herja, that woman, has seized power within the family, and now she has nothing to fear!’
To the point where she openly appears and threatens Elsie. This was crossing the line.
The magician Svik, who had been by Herja’s side as her close aide since she entered the Adorencia family. Dane gritted his teeth as he thought of him.
Father. In a situation where the absence of the head of the family had become excessively long, what would have happened if even he had gotten caught up in something and returned later than now?
“But that bearded ba… ah, no. That bearded magician… honestly, I think it’s okay even if they come in droves because he’s too weak…”
“Elsie… he was weak, but if they come in droves, it seems like it would be very annoying.”
Dane, who had been quietly angry and gritting his teeth, paused at Elsie and Doyun’s conversation.
Elsie’s ability that he had heard from Woden. He thought it was unusual, but to the point where she felt Svik was insignificant.
‘Elsie has become that strong…’
Dane remembered what Elsie had told him in the past about the dreams she periodically had.
The content about Elsie in the dream, who boasted a noble figure and roamed the battlefield.
At the time, he thought that Elsie’s desire to bloom her combat aptitude and be recognized for her ability had appeared in the form of a dream.
‘If that was her seeing herself in a parallel world…’
Dane looked at Elsie with a serious expression.
A soul that came from another world.
Perhaps it was the soul of another Elsie that she saw in her dream.
Woden Alfodr had told him.
‘The power that child wields is fundamentally different from Skjaldmaer. It’s a name that disappeared long ago along with the scattered divinity.’
Valkyrie.
‘That’s why she can be said to be an even more special being. That child is the only one in this world…’
Dane stood up from his seat.
“Elsie.”
There were many stories he wanted to tell.
Whether she knew about the union of souls.
Whether there was confusion in her memories.
And what had happened to ‘you’ over there.
However, he swallowed those questions inside. There was plenty of time.
It wasn’t a topic to bring up so suddenly.
‘Whatever happened to you, you are my family and my sister. Elsie.’
That fact, at least, had not changed.
Elsie tilted her head as Dane called her name but didn’t say anything.
‘Why is he like that? Is he going to hug me again…!’
That was troublesome. Because a warm feeling kept welling up.
It wasn’t that she disliked it, but it was unfamiliar and difficult to accept.
Dane, who had been silent for a while, raised his arm and scratched the back of his head.
Elsie ran away behind the chairs where Thrud and Doyun were sitting and watched him.
“Shall we all eat out?”
Everyone tilted their heads at Dane’s unexpected suggestion.
“In commemoration of the tearful reunion with my beloved sister, I’ll treat you!”
Of course, there was no reason to refuse.
The day was setting, and the streetlights on the street were lit up one by one.
Starlight revealing its appearance one by one beyond the branches of Yggdrasil.
Elsie, walking beneath it, took a deep breath and looked up at the sky.
The sky here was no different from the sky in her hometown.
Except for the branches of a slightly larger tree stretching across the sky, and starlight shining through them.
“Is it a little too different…?”
When she tried to recall her hometown to return to, only blurry images came to mind, except for some parts.
Throb!
And again, she felt a tingling pain in her waist. What on earth was it? Why did this happen when she tried to strongly recall her hometown?
“Damn it. Did I get stabbed by a knife or something? Why is it like this… Is it a sequela of being pierced by Fenrir’s fangs…?”
Elsie, covering her waist with her hand and stopping for a moment, muttered a joke and shook her head. Then, she ran towards those who were going ahead.
“Wait!”
“Oh, Elsie! This Orabeoni will hug you!”
“Ah, no…!”
*
Several sunrises and sunsets passed.
The day that Dane, who had been with them for a short time, was leaving had come.
Perhaps it was because he didn’t feel like a stranger to her at all.
Elsie, who had grown fond of him in the meantime, saw Dane off with an expression that showed how sad she was.
She didn’t dislike the somewhat exaggerated love and affection he sent her.
There were many stories they hadn’t finished, but they had also had many conversations enough that she didn’t regret it.
“Remember. The current you is the figure that the Elsie of the past has always dreamed of.”
Elsie turned her head shyly at Dane’s affectionate tone.
She almost ran away when he first brought up the story of the Elsie of the past in a meaningful way.
“No matter what happened, you are my proud sister.”
Saying that, Dane patted Elsie’s head.
“The letters and the poison bottle will be good evidence to prevent that woman’s rampage. I wish I could kick her out of the family completely, but… I don’t have the authority to do that.”
“It’s enough.”
Elsie grabbed Dane’s large hand that was patting her head.
And she covered his hand with her small hands as if shaking hands.
“Honestly, I think it’s fortunate that I don’t have any memories of that stepmother. She seems like a crazy woman who doesn’t know the limits, so be careful.”
Elsie opened her blue eyes wide and calmly looked up at Dane and said that.
Dane’s expression, which had been quite serious at her admirable appearance, instantly loosened up.
He burst into tears in an unsightly manner and hugged Elsie tightly.
“Waaah! Elsie!”
“Eek!”
Elsie, who reflexively screamed, had her vision raised as she was lifted up.
“I’m going to take you with me after all!”
Thrud and Doyun, who had been quietly watching the tearful farewell of the siblings with lukewarm eyes, ran up and pulled Elsie away.
“Elsie can’t!”
A tug-of-war, no, an Elsie-tug-of-war had begun.
Elsie, who was caught in the middle of that sudden battle, felt like her body was stretching out.
After struggling to hold onto Elsie for a while, Dane gave up and let go of Elsie.
He shouted at Elsie, riding on the nameless eagle.
“I’ll contact you often, Elsie!”
“I, I’ll reply to you!”
“I’ll come see you again!”
“Then I’ll, I’ll come out to meet you…!”
“And now you don’t have to worry about the family’s problems! I won’t leave you alone like before!”
“How many times are you going to say the same thing… Ahem! I, I’ll trust you…! More than that, take care of yourself!”
“Of course! And just a few more words…”
Dane didn’t seem to be finishing his words.
The neck of the nameless eagle, which had been waiting patiently, turned 180 degrees and roared at him.
_Kyaaaaakㅡ!!!_
The eagle, unable to bear it any longer, flapped its wings and soared into the sky.
“Hey! I haven’t finished talking yet! You bastard! Oh, Elsie! Be careful of men! They’re all like wolves! Especially the one next to you-”
Thanks to the eagle, which soared towards the Bifrost in the sky at a tremendous speed, Dane’s voice could no longer be heard.
The wind subsided, and Elsie, who was waving her hand towards the sky appropriately, tilted her eyebrows.
“A wolf next to me, what…?”
When she turned her head to the side, Doyun was the only one she could see.
“…?”
Thrud was already behind her, grabbing Elsie’s shoulders and shaking her.
Elsie, tilting her head with an expression that she didn’t know what was going on, quickly forgot Dane’s last nonsense.
And she loosened her body, which felt stretched out due to the aftermath of the Elsie-tug-of-war.
“I wish I was a little taller…”
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