In my first semester, it was already hard enough to look out for myself, so I couldn’t afford to worry about anything or anyone else. I’d been put in a situation where it was unclear whether I would be able to even take care of my own safety first.
Of course, after starting my second semester, while I hadn’t gained enough strength to ensure my safety, I had become a lot stronger.
However, for a time, my routine had pretty much stabilized.
Because my personal training and performance routine was stable, I could focus on other things as well.
Airi’s business, the new business plan for the Rotary Gang…
And even promoting the growth of the main story’s characters.
I had to keep working on myself while also making progress in the other fields.
First…
While it had not been decided yet if it would be a magic research circle, a magic research society, or a magic research club, it was clear that I had to talk to each student of Class B one by one, so I planned on visiting them after classes were over.
* * *
The next day. Wednesday.
Dawn…
I did my early morning training with Adriana. Of course, compared to Adriana, my stats were still a lot lower, but I didn’t fall behind anymore.
I couldn’t do any morning training the previous two days because of the Tiamata incident, but Adriana seemed to have kept doing the training alone during that time. When she asked me what happened, I said that I had simply overslept.
I did wonder how Adriana would react if she knew that I had become the Holy Sword Tiamata’s master. It was the divine Relic of the goddess Towan whom she served, after all.
I was pretty sure she would be surprised. Of course, that didn’t mean I would tell her. Adriana had a weak heart, after all.
“Phew…”
After one set, Adriana and I rested on the bench on the hill.
“Summer is almost over.”
“You’re right.”
By October, the summer heat would have left, making room for Fall to take over. And after a short Fall, Winter would be upon us. Adriana looked at Temple’s landscape stretched out before the hill.
“During winter, the view from this place is really nice, you know?”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
Adriana had lived a year longer in Temple than I had, so it was no wonder that she knew the scenery one could see in Temple during the winter. She guaranteed that Temple looked amazing in the snow.
“So does that mean that you’ll do your morning training during that kind of weather as well? What if you slip and hurt yourself?”
“Did you forget this?”
Adriana smiled as she showed me her hands emitting divine power.
Even if she got hurt, she would be able to recover with that, so it didn’t really matter if it snowed or not. That only made that girl seem even more clumsy.
“By the way, have you ever gotten into a fight with the Orbis Class?”
There had been some incidents the day before, so I was a little curious.
The incident taking place between the Orbis Class and Ludwig was scheduled to happen during the school festival, but we were already getting entangled with the Orbis Class because of trivial things.
Did Adriana, who had been in that place for one year longer than me, ever have a fight with the Orbis Class?
“The Orbis Class? Why? Did you get in trouble with the Orbis Class?”
As if wondering what she should do with that personality of mine, Adriana distanced herself from me while looking slightly tired.
No! Seriously!
I knew that I had accumulated a lot of karma, but no matter what I said, people would always connect me with the image of a troublemaker!
“No. I never got into a fight with them, and I only sparred and practiced with them in a normal way a few times.”
Of course, I’d overdone it a little, but I didn’t tell her that because she would only feel disappointed in me if I did.
Right…
Come to think of it, I never picked a fight with them, but they did, right? If you were asking me, they were the ones who asked for it, right? And because I’d won, they didn’t come to me to cause trouble afterwards, either.
Adriana nodded at my words.
“Hmm, the Orbis Class isn’t really fond of us. A lot of our kids also don’t really like the Orbis Class kids either. Art, for example, has been in a few fights with them.”
Art de Gartis, the second-years’ 3. He was the one I was supposed to have a duel with. Of course, I’d actually ended up fighting the third-year, Mayarton.
I hadn’t seen that dude ever since that duel. I only knew that his reputation had completely fallen to rock bottom within the Royal Class because he’d tried to punish a first-year through a duel.
Anyway, it seemed that the second-years, who attended Temple longer than us, had problems with the Orbis Class as well.
“How did the fights go? Did he win?”
“Well, they would be about equal. The students of Orbis Class are really hard-working, after all. Of course, that’s just because I stopped the fights before they became too heated.”
I didn’t know how strong Art de Gartis actually was, but it seemed to be rather difficult to tell whether he or the Orbis Class students were superior in their fights. Adriana sighed as she took a sip of water from her canteen.
“It’s understandable. We’re talented, and there are a lot of kids in the Orbis Class who really think that we would just get strong without having to put in any effort.”
There were some students that only relied on their talent and nothing else, but there were also students like Adriana who continued to train hard, so the dislike the Orbis Class held for the Royal Class was rather twisted.
“Worst of all, the Orbis Class is pretty much forcing its students to hate the Royal Class. Teachers and seniors alike. They tell them things like, ‘Do your best if you don’t want to lose to those bastards’…”
The Orbis Class had deliberately stimulated the student’s inferiority complex towards the Royal Class to make them work harder. ‘You guys don’t have any talents, so do you think you can afford to be lazy? How are you going to deal with the Royal Class if you don’t work harder?’ Something like that.
I heard it was almost as if they were in the military.
Adriana knew that there were some of her classmates who hated the Orbis Class, but she had no particular opinion about them. She seemed to worry more about structural issues.
“So you don’t like or dislike them?”
“Well, that’s how it is. It’s not like nothing happened.”
Adriana wore a slightly awkward smile as we talked about that topic.
“Something happened?”
“Huh? Ah… Yes. We didn’t get into a fight. The matter was… quite difficult.”
“What happened?”
At my question, Adriana scratched her cheek slightly, wearing a somewhat bewildered expression.
“Well… One of the Orbis Class kids…had been following me for quite a while…”
“Follow you? For what re—Ah. No way.”
Adriana’s slightly flustered look made me realize what had been going on.
“Did some guy fall in love with you at first sight or something?”
“…Y-yeah…”
Adraina nodded her head slightly, her face red.
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Certainly, it wasn’t really that strange or surprising that something like that happened.
“Well, even when I told him that I was planning on becoming a Paladin of the Church of Towan, he didn’t give up… that guy was kind of troublesome.”
Since she was going to be a Priest of Towan, she couldn’t accept his heart, no matter how much she liked her. She’d told him that many times, and yet he was still unable to understand her words.
It seemed like Adriana hadn’t gotten into a fight with them, but she’d still had some trouble with them.
“Things are probably really difficult for you, too. If anything happens, then tell me…”
This didn’t only apply to the Orbis Class, Adriana was in a position where she couldn’t accept anyone’s love, even if she liked them.
“Uhm… that might be a bit troublesome. So… While I do think of you as a friend, I want us to be a bit more cautious because others might think otherwise.”
Adriana was just reasonably comfortable with people of the opposite s*x, but other people might believe that it was something more, so it seemed like I had unknowingly caused her harm. Her expression darkened slightly.
Adriana stretched her body.
“Urg… I just feel relaxed around you, junior. You don’t seem like someone who has that kind of interest in me.”
“You can tell?”
“Of course, it’s obvious.”
Adriana smiled at me.
I’d thought she was just nice and pleasant to everyone, but that was the first time I realized that she was actually quite the careful person in regards to those kinds of things.
Was it because I hadn’t been showing any signs that I was trying to get closer to her more than we already were?
Adriana smiled, seeming lonely as she was fiddling with her canteen.
“If someone I thought of as a precious friend tried to be more than just that… What should I do in that situation…?”
She wouldn’t be able to accept their love.
A situation in which she just wanted to stay as friends while the other party didn’t.
It seemed like Adriana found herself in that kind of situation at the moment.
“Pretending to not notice their feelings… would be bad, right?”
That seemed to be a separate matter from what happened with the Orbis Class.
Someone liked her, but that person was a very precious friend to Adriana. They couldn’t be anything more than friends, and she also didn’t want them to be anything else.
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However, Adriana seemed unable to decide whether it would be right to pretend that she didn’t notice the other person’s feelings or not.
“That would be bad indeed.”
I answered curtly before I took a sip from the canteen as well.
Did I really mean those words that I spoke to Adriana?
I didn’t know.
Translator – KonnoAren
Proofreader – ilafy
There’s a saying that even ten bodies aren’t enough to get everything done.
It meant that one was just that busy.
To be honest, I didn’t even need ten.
I wished I had just three, no more or less.
One placed at the Rotary Gang, one located in Temple, and one for my private life.
Spending some personal time was necessary because, in the end, my human relations within Temple were very important as well, so I couldn’t just neglect them. I didn’t know if I could solve everything with my own strength alone. However, nothing like that was possible.
Of course, splitting myself into three was impossible, even with ‘Additional Settings’, so I had to do everything myself.
I had to live such a damn hard life, even though no one asked me to.
No, but honestly, if someone actually asked me to do all that, I don’t think I would work as hard as I was.
I entered the dormitory of Class B because of my work for the Magic Research club. Harriet and Adelia were the only ones with magic majors in Class A. I wasn’t in charge of persuading Adelia because that was Harriet’s job.
What I planned on doing was talking to the two students with magic majors from Class B and number B-2, Louis Ancton.
Louis Ancton once helped me to prepare for the midterm exams in our first semester, though I’d half-forced him.
“Hey, it’s been a while, right?”
“Uhm, Ah… Reinhardt. Ehm, yes…”
Louis Ancton, that nerd, still stiffened when he saw me. Honestly, I had never done anything to him. I had just asked him to study together, and I hadn’t said anything harsh to him or tried to blackmail him.
“I’m going to make you an amazing offer.”
“…Huh?”
“So come to the magic lab. Bring Anna and Christina as well.”
“Huuuh?”
Damn it. Although I didn’t really bother him, who’d like a guy who talked to people in such a commanding tone?
Well…
To be honest, it was a lot easier to just act like that than to give detailed explanations every time. When I said, “Hey! Give that to me!” they’d just give it, and when I said, “Hey! Do this!” they’d just do it.
It was very comfortable…
It seemed like I had already long passed the point of no return.
I just couldn’t help it anymore…
* * *
There were two students with magic majors in Class B:
B-5, Christina, who had a talent in Alchemy and Enchantment.
B-6. Anne de Gerna, who had a talent in Black Magic.
Then there was B-2. Louis Ancton, who didn’t have a magic-related talent but studied it.
Enchantment was a very expensive field of magic, as I heard from Harriet. It was a magic system that wouldn’t be taught easily and whose methods were strictly guarded.
However, that didn’t mean that it was a rare type of magic or that it was a higher-ranking magic system.
7 Adelia had talents in summoning and magic crafting. While enchanting was merely used to enchant objects, magic crafting was used to create machines powered by magic. A typical example would be the mana train or the warp gates.
Magic crafting was a higher-level magic system that couldn’t even be compared to the field of enchantment.
Of course, Harriet, who had a talent for magic in and of itself, held the absolute best talent among all magic-related talents.
So, what was unique about No. 6 Anna de Gerna?
Her talent was black magic.
While it was quite the insidious and evil type of magic, there were black magicians among the teachers in Temple. Not every part of black magic was used to curse others after all. They were simply studying the field of magic and science called black magic.
“So. Erm… I bought them.”
“Oh, well done. You did a great job, man.”
Anyway, Louis Ancton went to Class B’s magic lab with the other two, just as I told him. I could see Louis’ expression slightly stiffen when I told him he did well.
It seemed like he felt slightly humiliated, totally being treated like my henchman like that. No, but I really just meant that he did a great job, though.
While they both had seen my face before, we hadn’t spoken with each other.
Neither of them had any idea for what reason I called them there, so they were rather curious as well as bewildered, each in their own way.
However, the most important thing was that they came, even though it was some guy that they weren’t even close to who’d called them.
In the end, I was still of the opinion that first impressions were very important. I hadn’t done anything like that before ever since I’d acted like a rabid dog in our first semester.
After the second semester had begun, I’d stayed quiet, except for that time where I sparred with a student from the Orbis Class during my Swordsmanship Classes. Of course, there were still rumors about my unusual actions in the Darklands floating about.
However, that was vastly different from acting like a scumbag.
Anyway, both of them came when I said that I was looking for them, and I don’t know what I would have done if they hadn’t.
Christina wore a pair of glasses on her nose and had her orange hair tied in braids. She was wearing a white robe, which looked similar to the gown worn by doctors, with various stains on it. Some of them could be presumed to come from drug ingredients, and others appeared to be dirt.
It was quite well known that her clothes would always appear like that because she frequently dealt with alchemical reagents as well as plants and herbs.
Anna de Gerna didn’t give off the same gloomy feeling as Dettomolian that made me want to ask if he was okay. Her eyes just seemed somewhat hollow all the time. She had black hair, black eyes, and wore a black robe. Her skin was a little pale, however.
If Dettomolian seemed like a Skeleton, then she seemed like…
A Vampire who really needed a blood bag.
Even Eleris didn’t have that bad a complexion.
She seemed slightly sickly with her somewhat pale skin. If one was looking for an example of a pretty girl that exuded a very dark aura, that would be her.
Anyway, all of them were staring at me.
“I didn’t make you come here to cuss you out or something. This is your dormitory. Just sit down, guys.”
I was trying to talk nicely, but I ended up uttering commands again.
What the F*ck?
Did I get too used to that? Was Reinhardt’s personality, the embodiment of the saying, “Strong against the weak and weak against the strong”, ingrained in my body?
All of them, including Louis Ancton, sat down.
Those guys all had pretty different personalities.
Class B was the main focus of the story and all descriptions, so I knew all the characteristics of each individual character. Of course, I’d gotten to know the guys from Class A better as well.
Louis Ancton was a man who had a great sense of superiority and an idiot who looked down on anyone who was dumber than him to the point that he would even ignore them.
Christina was bright, cheerful, and curious.
Anna de Gerna gave off a rather ghastly and gloomy vibe, but she was actually not that bad.
However, in front of the supervillain that seemed to be me, all three of them froze up like mice before a cat, even though they all had different personalities.
Oh well, it was a good thing, I guess.
It was a lot easier to talk to them when they were calm like that.
“Do you guys have any thoughts of creating something like a magic research group?”
“…Magic research group?”
All of them seemed rather perplexed because they never expected that these words would ever come out of my mouth.
I was pretty sure that they were seeing me as some kind of super villain, but I wasn’t actually planning anything villainous or anything, all I did was plan things to make those guys successful later on.
How would they regret listening to my words?
Those guys would thank me later.
Although… I didn’t know when that would be.
____
Chapter end
