Chapter 60

〈Chapter 60〉 The Same Path, Different Dreams (4)

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#7

I had no idea I would speak so bluntly, and Yusefil was stunned for a long time.

Her mouth hung open slightly, as if she thought she might have misheard me.

Then,

"…Are you serious?"

She finally growled, baring her teeth.

Her expression was so vicious that it was hard to imagine it coming from a future cleric. Yusefil looked as if she had just received the greatest insult of her life, her hair trembling as she asked me.

Even facing Yusefil's immense anger, I didn't blink.

"Of course. A team member who can't keep basic promises due to their personality is useless. It's better to have them gone than around."

If we keep someone as reckless as Yusefil in our group, even tasks that should go smoothly will end up in a mess.

If I see a weed, I need to pull it out early.

I'm not sure if leading such a team member properly and making them contribute to the group project is the right role of a good leader.

But I guess I'm just not cut out to be a leader.

Despite arriving late without any special reason, she acted so relaxed, and her apology was so light that it seemed her pride as a noble had completely vanished. Her empty hands clearly showed that she had no intention of participating in the task.

This kid is hopeless.

Yusefil Deria. I admit, she's the top candidate for someone we should avoid in our group project.

Of course, she wasn't completely absent, but this type of person could easily ruin the group's atmosphere and slow down the project's progress.

"…Ha. What right do you have to tell me to leave…"

Yusefil scratched her head, a laugh of disbelief escaping her.

"I'm the temporary team leader. I have the duty, responsibility, and right to manage the team members. You agreed to me being the leader."

Though I didn't really want to do it. Honestly, I wanted to let Alphris take the role, but it ended up this way.

Since controlling the free-spirited Yusefil and Hector would be the top priority, I reluctantly decided to be the leader. Yusefil had also agreed enthusiastically.

"…"

Without a word, Yusefil glared at me.

"Do you really think you won't regret this?"

"…What?"

"Do you really think you won't regret this, damn it? If I leave, we'll go from five to four. You look like you want to get a good grade in this epic class, but it'll be hard to get the highest score without me, right?"

…How did this kid know?

That I'm obsessed with A+.

…Well.

I haven't completely ignored the possibility. Poor teamwork and all that. It was a real possibility.

But there's such a thing as leniency and flexibility in situations. Just because I arbitrarily excluded one unruly team member, it's unlikely that the entire group, including Yusefil, would have their scores reduced.

Moreover,

Epic class students are generally well-regarded and trusted by the professors. The fact that they chose an epic class for a course among the many offered at Frontier is enough to make the course popular.

In other words, these students were destined to hold important positions in the empire in the near future, so there was no reason to treat them poorly.

If I explain the situation that forced me to exclude Yusefil, they would likely understand.

However, there was a downside: the difficulty of the project would increase. But with Yusefil involved, it would have been a chaotic mess anyway, so this was a better choice.

I looked directly into Yusefil's burning eyes and said,

"Yeah, that won't happen. Absolutely not."

"…"

"If you keep acting like this, just go. You don't have to come to future meetings. Go take a bath or something you like."

The emotion on her face was a mix of shame and anger. Her pale face had turned as red as if it had been boiled in a train's boiler.

Alphris chose to observe rather than intervene. With her arms crossed, she looked at Yusefil, not me, with a displeased expression. She didn't seem to have any particular objections to my opinion.

Lenny, who had been watching us with a cold, icy aura, finally shut her mouth as a deep silence settled between us.

People passing by the station glanced at us, but I was used to being the center of unwanted attention. I was just curious about what rumors would spread this time. Damn.

—Rumble…

While I was arguing with Yusefil, the next tram slowly entered the station with a rumble.

To return to the second academic district, we would need to take the opposite tram. So Yusefil would have to pass by me, Alphris, and Lenny.

Yusefil bit her lip tightly, saying nothing. What did she want to say to me? I looked down at her, towering over her, as if daring her to speak.

Honestly,

If Yusefil had apologized sincerely, with the proper formality and genuine remorse, promising not to repeat her behavior, I might have forgiven her once.

But if she repeated this, I would expel her mercilessly. As I said, I could give her one chance.

—Tap, tap, tap.

Yusefil walked past me with a stern expression.

"…Fucking bastard. Die."

That was Yusefil's choice.

The ends of her flowing hair caught the corner of my vision. Her footsteps, filled with intense emotion, came close and then started to move away, heading in the direction of my shoulder.

"Yusefil Deria."

Yusefil didn't stop.

Neither did I.

"…My family has fallen. We were permanently expelled from noble society for refusing conscription. I'm not a noble anymore."

I had to give up everything. My father, the head of the family, fled to the countryside.

Students poured out of the stopped tram. Some passed by me, and Yusefil must have blended in with the crowd.

Amid the many voices, a faint voice escaped my lips.

"Don't lose yourself just because you have nothing to lose."

It was probably a useless thing to say.

…Yusefil Deria.

A member of the fallen Deria baron family. Despite being a new student, she had a very casual attitude. Her apology was light and meaningless. She must have been acting this way for a long time.

As a once noble and perhaps as a human being, it might have required her to completely abandon her dignity to act this way.

I know I'm not in a position to lecture her. Her situation is probably very different from mine. She might not have had someone like Rubia by her side in her childhood.

Tap, tap…

—Tap.

She turned to look at me on the third step.

Then,

Yusefil, with an unreadable expression,

"Fuck off, bastard."

Naturally, she flipped me the middle finger.

#8

After Yusefil left for the second academic district, Alphris, Lenny, and I went to a nearby restaurant to satisfy our hunger.

It was past dinner time, so the place was quiet, which was actually a good thing. We discussed the group project while eating well-cooked meat.

The essential abilities required for controlling mana. The variability of mana. The various attributes of mana. The special properties that arise from refining and emitting mana absorbed from the natural world, rather than generated from one's internal reservoir. The structure of the circuits that take on different characteristics based on how one has used mana in the past. The interactions between the mana emitted by Alphris, a magic major, Lenny, a swordsmanship major, and myself, who majored in both.

We went through the topics we learned in "Mana Control I" and had a heated discussion about how to solve the project correctly.

After eating, we went to a cafe before the last tram arrived to summarize our conversation and noted our free times on a notebook. We then started our belated introductions.

Alphris was an exchange student from the Kingdom of Artina. The second son of the Chebloup baron family. And Artina was Rubia's homeland. In other words, the princess of the country where Alphris lived was in the same epic class as me.

Alphris, who seemed to have known this fact, finally asked me with great curiosity what the princess, known only through rumors in her country, looked like.

It was quite a dilemma, but I told her that the princess had blonde hair and red eyes, and a noble face that suited her title.

Alphris, who thought it was a good connection, said she would like to spend some time with Rubia. I swallowed the words "probably not" and said I would think about it.

Next, Lenny introduced herself. She was a commoner from a remote village, a young swordsmanship prodigy who was highly anticipated but felt burdened by the attention.

The attention only grew over time, and when she was told that she should take the Frontier entrance exam after graduating from middle school, she firmly refused.

Eventually, she was dragged by the villagers to take the entrance exam.

Lenny was now standing in front of us.

The village celebrated her as a national hero and collected donations from the entire village to pay for her tuition at Frontier, despite the fact that it seemed to have drained the village's budget for half a year. But the villagers were just happy.

…By the way, all epic class students received full scholarships. There was no need to mention this in front of Lenny.

Anyway, she was struggling with the burden. She felt that everyone here was better than her and was very sorry to the villagers who believed in her.

When she was about to cry, I handed her a handkerchief, and she added, "By the way, do you remember… the day of the entrance…?"

It turned out she had met me on the day of the entrance. I was really sorry, but I couldn't remember at all. After a long moment of thought, a scene suddenly came to mind, and I slapped my forehead.

On the day of the entrance ceremony, I arrived at Frontier by train and, as I stepped out of the carriage, I met a new student in the corridor. She was wearing the same maroon uniform as Lenny now.

It was such a brief encounter that I almost forgot about it. On the other hand, Lenny somehow remembered me.

It might have been because the epic class was so small and she was in a tense state when she met me.

After that, we drank coffee and chatted about trivial school life. Alphris and Lenny were mainly interested in how I lived as an epic class student.

But there wasn't much difference, really. Classes, eating, training, eating, more classes, more training, and sleeping… It seemed they were curious about my dormitory environment.

When I told them the truth, they were envious. While the rooms in the regular class dormitories were large, they weren't as luxurious as the epic class dorms. What they envied the most were the luxurious facilities in the epic class dormitory grounds, like the swimming pool, which they had to take a tram to reach.

"Right. Edge, I have a question."

As we were about to part ways, Alphris suddenly asked me.

The epic class is an elite group of the continent's best talents. She probably wanted to know from the beginning what decisive factor allowed me to enter the epic class.

After some thought, I realized Alphris's major was magic and asked if she could cast a third-tier fire spell.

Alphris replied, "It's not that difficult, but why?"

I shrugged without a word, and Alphris, half-believing me, cast the spell.

After a short incantation to focus her mind, a small magic circle glowing red appeared on Alphris's palm.

—Third-tier fire spell, Flare.

As the summoned flame danced according to the caster's will, a flash of insight struck me, and I extended my right hand.

Alphris was very surprised.

Lenny, who had been watching with a puzzled expression, was startled.

Although the Flare was fixed in place for safety, a third-tier spell could easily burn a human's fragile palm. Still, the control was impressive. It's not easy to fix a fire spell, which is usually radiative, so easily…

I didn't use a mana circuit. They must have seen that. I just extended my hand and grabbed the spell Alphris had cast.

—Whoosh.

The moment the flame touched my hand,

It rapidly contracted as if time had been compressed and vanished without a trace in the blink of an eye.

Seeing it so easily extinguished, it seemed Alphris wasn't a once-in-a-century genius.

They were stunned by the fact that I had cleanly extinguished a third-tier spell with a simple gesture.

But when they saw my white and gold uniform, they seemed to understand something and nodded with a small sigh of admiration.

…Well.

Even if I'm the last number, 15.

#9

After parting ways with Alphris and Lenny,

I quickly boarded the arriving tram and returned to the epic class dormitory.

"Where should I go today…"

As I inhaled the cool night air deeply, preparing to burn my tired body one last time by heading to Building 3,

A figure walking briskly from the tiled path on the left caught my eye.

It was almost 11 PM, so it was dark, but the golden hair shining under the crimson streetlights was unmistakable.

Sure enough, it was Rubia.

I thought about surprising her by hiding behind a bush, but since I had warned her that I would hit her if she played any more pranks, I decided to just greet her simply.

She seemed to have been taking a walk and was returning from that direction. I slowly walked towards her from the opposite direction.

—Tap, tap…

She kept looking down despite hearing footsteps that weren't hers. If we kept going, we would bump into each other, so I called out to her from about three steps away.

"Hi."

"——!?"

I didn't expect such a strong reaction.

Rubia let out a silent scream and was startled. She looked as if she had encountered a ghost on a night road and was quickly backing away.

—Slip.

"Kyaa?!"

She stepped on a stone behind her and started to fall in an acrobatic curve.

Oh, if she falls like that, she'll crack her head.

I couldn't let that happen.

—Tap.

I had grown taller, with a longer stride and reach. I quickly moved and grabbed Rubia's wrist tightly. Pulling her, her light and small body flew towards me.

I lowered my head to meet her gaze.

"I didn't mean to scare you, sorry."

"…"

She instinctively wrapped her arms around my back and waist.

Her damp hair, cold with sweat, stuck to her slightly flushed cheeks. Her face was red, but not because of my actions; it was already red.

Feeling a familiar sense of déjà vu, I noticed a slightly stronger scent of skin, more intense than when I had held her at the medical center. She was in casual clothes, not her epic class uniform. Her windbreaker was unzipped, revealing a white round-neck T-shirt underneath. Her legs, held at an angle by my hands on her back, were wrapped in training leggings.

She must have been coming back from a workout. It was unexpected.

"…"

"…"

A moment of silence fell.

Her eyes, redder than her flushed ears, blinked a few times and met mine.

Just then,

As I was about to help her stand up,

"…G-get away…!"

…Oh.

Here comes the slap.

—Thwack.

"Helping you and getting hit is unfair."

"T-this…!"

Rubia's wrist, which had been caught helplessly.

We struggled for a moment, and when she realized she couldn't win against me, she jumped back and slowly retreated.

"U-uh, u-uh, u-uh…"

For some reason, she crossed her arms as if protecting her chest and wrapped them around her shoulders. She looked like a drenched cat, as if she had been forcibly molested, making me feel awkward.

"…I know, but I didn't do it on purpose, right?"

I swear.

Rubia didn't seem to hear me.

"Y-you, y-you, y-you're really, s-saying, s-saying, t-this… t-twice… r-really, h-huh…"

"…Wait, hold on. Hey. Are you crying?"

"Y-you, y-you, I really hate you…"

…Are you crying to the point of tears?

…For a moment.

Based on rational and cool thinking.

Trying to understand from Rubia's perspective as a sensitive girl, hmm. She usually dislikes physical contact with boys and is easily startled.

She must have been sweating after her workout, and considering her noble status, it's unlikely she has ever been in a situation where she was held by a boy like me.

This must have caused an overwhelming sense of shame, producing tears in her eyes.

In short, it was a very awkward situation.

"Sniff, sniff… Huh…"

"Hey, hey… I'm sorry. Don't cry. I'm sorry."

"Go away… I really hate you…"

"I'm sorry, okay…"

She just crouched down and started crying. I'm going crazy.

Feeling awkward, I carefully approached to pat her back, but she weakly pushed me away.

…This is bad.

Just when I thought we were getting closer, and I tried to start a conversation to bridge the gap,

It seems we're only getting further apart.