Distrust and Hatred (Part 5)
A deafening roar reverberated through the Mock Combat Room.
Within its reinforced walls, the combat prowess of a prospective party member had just been put to the test.
"Not bad at all," Goden said with a hearty laugh, casually rubbing his flank where her spell had struck. "You really caught me with that one."
Of course, his sparring partner knew full well that her attack had barely left a scratch.
"I'm on the verge of running completely dry on mana, so I really don't think you should be saying that."
Looking thoroughly displeased, Goden's opponent raised three fingers—index, middle, and ring—to signal her defeat.
Goden, the undisputed victor, walked over to Aris as she slumped onto the training floor and offered a hand to pull her up.
"That's not true," he insisted. "It's only because defense happens to be my specialty. Anyone else would have retired from the field long before now."
"How humble. So, did I pass?" Aris asked, flashing a knowing smile as if the outcome were a foregone conclusion.
Yet unlike her confident demeanor, one question still nagged at Goden's mind.
"Could you give me a bit more of an explanation as to why you sought me out?"
"I already gave you an earful about that," she replied. "I figured it was about time I settled down and joined a permanent party."
"That alone doesn't add up. What I'm asking is why you'd bother joining a no-name party like ours when nobody's even heard of us."
Aris McKenhaim.
Most students at Lebrant Academy only graduated in their fifth year before stepping out into society and onto the frontlines. Naturally, rare prodigies like Renias, Ronelion, and Ophelia occasionally saw real battlefield deployment ahead of time. Goden, who was questioning her now, fell into that very same category.
And Aris, who stood before him smoothing down her disheveled pink hair, was another prime example.
Aris of the Lotus.
She was the daughter of an untitled noble house from the McKenhaim domain in Algenib Province. Because her family held no prestige, she had experienced the casual cruelties and contradictions of aristocratic society firsthand, even if not quite as harshly as commoners did.
Yet thanks to her uncanny, genius-level comprehension of mana, her Unique Magic had sprouted in record time, and its flowering awakening followed soon after. Driven by a burning desire to give the arrogant insects who looked down on her a taste of their own medicine, she took on multiple roles across various teams and racked up an impressive list of achievements. Before long, her signature lotus magic earned her a renowned moniker across the academy.
Though she was nineteen—the same age as Goden—she had skipped grades and was already poised for early graduation, boasting an extensive background as a sought-after mercenary for top-tier squads. With that caliber of talent and wealth of experience, she could easily have joined any prestigious party she wanted or founded one herself.
Why, then, was she deliberately knocking on Tembris's door? Seeing this glaring hole in her rationale, Goden pressed for a clear answer.
"I'm sick to death of the nobles in this academy too," Aris said smoothly. "Isn't that reason enough?"
"Hm?" Goden rubbed his chin, studying her expression. Seizing the opening, Aris drove the point home.
"Don't you think the Principality is doomed if things stay the way they are?"
Confident this would silence his doubts, Aris offered him a bright smile.
'Memories suddenly flooded into my head'? Aris knew she couldn't possibly say that out loud. How could she bluntly tell him that she knew this party was destined for complete ruin because of one single man, and that she was here to stop it before it was too late?
There's no way I could ever say that.
Yet the absolute necessity of joining this party remained unchanged. What surfaced vividly in her mind from those fragmented memories was the catastrophic shortage of vanguards. With virtually no frontliners capable of withstanding the enemy's onslaught, the battle lines had collapsed, forcing the party into desperate, inefficient attacks that bled them dry. Drawing on the tactical realities from that terrifying memory, Aris had deliberately framed her answer around the looming crisis facing the Principality. Given the rotting contradictions plaguing the academy, she wasn't technically lying anyway.
"Well, if that's your reason, then you're more than welcome," Goden said.
"See?" Aris beamed.
Her first objective—gaining entry into the Tembris Party—was officially accomplished.
It should be safe to move on to the next phase right away.
Having more vanguards wouldn't fundamentally change the tragedy anyway. What truly rankled Aris was the memory of endless lives sacrificed just to protect one useless parasite. And in the end, when Michel collapsed from dehydration and closed her eyes forever... that bastard had arrived late yet again.
Aris interpreted this fragmented memory as a divine mandate to rewrite the coming future. Her task was straightforward: everything had to return to square one. Goden, the central pillar holding Tembris together, simply had to survive. Because they had paid far too steep a price for a single worthless life, Tembris had ultimately crumbled under that very burden.
Everything went wrong the moment you survived in their place, Junon.
An incompetent vanguard who couldn't even pull his own weight? A deadweight who lost his power and dragged Tembris down into the abyss? Those specifics belonged to a much later time. Even if she couldn't piece together every single link in the chain of events, the underlying causality was indisputable. It was no exaggeration to say that one man's existence had brought about total ruin.
"In that case, do you mind if I go say hello to the rest of the party?" Aris asked pleasantly.
"Mm. I was going to suggest that, but..." Goden pointed his thumb toward the window. It was far too late in the day. "Most of our members have already scattered by this hour."
"Hehe, then I'll just greet them tomorrow."
Bidding Goden farewell until the next day, Aris turned and walked out of the Mock Combat Room. Goden watched her leave, her swaying pink hair catching his eye until the very end... but he never caught a glimpse of her face.
All he noticed was that the gentle smile lifting the corners of her mouth had vanished in a split second. He could never have imagined that beneath that curtain of hair lay an expression of pure, frozen contempt, dripping with venomous hatred aimed at a single man.
Must be my imagination, Goden thought, trying to brush aside the sudden chill running down his neck.
"Still training... or maybe not."
"Lady Ophelia?"
"It's just the two of us right now. Why not call me by my name?"
"Man, what a pain. What is it this time?" Goden asked, wondering what had prompted Ophelia to seek him out in person. To his surprise, Ophelia hesitated, uncharacteristically taking her time before speaking.
Clearing her throat twice, she broached a subject that seemed completely out of left field.
"About that new party member you just accepted. Everything all right with her?"
Sensing a faint, nagging unease, Ophelia was asking about Aris. That chilling smile Aris had worn when asking to be introduced to Goden's party had somehow refused to leave her mind.
Two people had definitely entered the physical training room together.
Yet as time wore on, one of them had somehow transformed into a rabbit.
"H-Huuueh... I can't... I can't run anymore..."
Indeed. Overcome by an excessive eagerness to absorb my genuine instruction, Renias had gradually devolved into a breathless rabbit with silver fur. Right now, she was plastered flat against the floor like chewing gum, letting out pitiful, ragged groans.
I suppose I was like that in the beginning, too.
"Uuugh..."
"Keep lying on that cold floor like that and your face is going to freeze, Renias."
"Senior! Be honest with me! You knew this would happen, didn't you?!"
"Of course I did. I was the exact same way at first. I used to sprawl across the floor and rest for half an hour at a time."
"Hmph... You're so mean! If you knew, you should have properly stopped me!"
"I tried to stop you, but you wouldn't listen."
"Ooh...!"
Frustrated, Renias puffed out her cheeks and glared up at me for no good reason. Not that her scowl was the least bit intimidating.
I had explicitly warned her not to overdo it, but she had snorted with fiery determination, insisted she was fine, and stubbornly chosen the exact same training regimen and intensity I used every day. Had she even managed a few hundred meters, let alone a full kilometer? That was right around when her legs gave out and she collapsed in a heap.
Her indignant pouting, however, did not last long.
"Eek?! M-My leg...!"
Her muscles, shocked by the sudden strain, had seized up stiff as a board. Seeing her hiccup and tear up again... yep, she had a cramp.
"Good grief. Tell me which leg it is. I'll work it out for you."
"T-The left calf."
"Here?"
"Urgh... yes... EEEEEEK!! That hurts!!"
"You have to endure it now so it hurts less later. And stop smacking my shoulder."
"Hnnngh... I'm sooooorry... but it really hurts!"
Cramping up after reckless overexertion was only natural. Where would a highborn lady like her ever have pushed her physical body to its limits before? At most, during the end-of-term evaluation. When she had mentioned that exam earlier, she had sighed deeply and admitted she couldn't even climb out of bed the entire next day. That humiliating memory had fueled her competitive drive, making her puff out her chest with determination, eager to build physical stamina the moment she met up with me.
Once the knot in her calf loosened and the pain subsided, she seemed to regain some breathing room. Instead of groaning, she abruptly opened her mouth.
"Come to think of it, I've never seen you use magic, Senior. Between that and you only ever coming to the training room... have you given up on magic entirely?"
"No. Not necessarily."
I just rarely had an occasion to use it. Aside from getting beaten black and blue while sparring with a certain esteemed professor, or practicing alone in secret, I hadn't cast a single spell.
"Can't you show me once? Anything will do."
Why was she suddenly so curious about my magic?
"Fine. Here."
I manifested a small Mana Shield right before Renias's eyes. The remote barrier projection technique I had picked up while sparring with Professor Denis was gradually becoming second nature.
Renias gasped in wonder—"Ooooh!"—tapping the translucent barrier curiously with her fingertip, and even pulsed a tiny thread of her own mana against it to test its resilience. Before long, she looked up at me with a radiant smile.
"How fascinating. This is your Unique Magic, right, Senior? It feels like a shield that blocks and pushes things away."
"Right. That's pretty much all I use it for."
I didn't know what she found so mesmerizing about it, but she couldn't seem to take her eyes off the barrier.
"Ever since we first met, I always felt you were a truly kind person, Senior. It makes total sense now."
"Where'd that come from out of nowhere?"
"Unique Magic is ultimately a creation born of who a person is inside, after all. Tee-hee."
I didn't understand her in the slightest. What did Unique Magic being an expression of one's inner self have to do with me being a kind person? And why was she looking at me with that bright, beaming smile while saying it?
"Stop talking nonsense and just go home to rest."
"Huh? Why? You just loosened my leg, so I can run more now!"
"Keep running and your muscles will be so sore tomorrow you won't even be able to stand. Didn't you say you spent an entire day glued to your mattress after overexerting yourself during the evaluation?"
"Ugh... Does soreness still kick in even after sleeping? I hate that..."
"If you want to hurt less, have your maids massage your legs before you go to sleep. That'll ease the pain."
"Okaaay..."
Sending a whining Renias on her way first, I cleaned up the training equipment and stepped outside. The sun had already dipped below the horizon.
Crack.
"Ugh! Good thing I didn't push it any further today."
I stretched my arms overhead, feeling an abnormal stiffness throughout my body. I wanted to blame it on running into so many people today, but deep down, I knew it was purely mental exhaustion.
"Senior! I have no intention of giving up!"
Charlotte's voice echoed in my head. No matter how many harsh words I hurled at her, she had simply brushed them off with a smile and handed me a finely crafted set of training clothes. The heavy fatigue clinging to me came from the fact that no matter how hard I tried to shake her off, she refused to let go.
How on earth am I supposed to get her to stay away?
Erika had already delivered that stark warning, so Junon's best course of action was to avoid encountering any of the Tembris members altogether. However, if Charlotte kept seeking him out like this, it would inevitably catch Erika's sharp eye and provoke hostility. Joining the party was obviously out of the question, and avoiding encounters entirely was ideal. But if things always went according to plan, he wouldn't have died in the previous timeline in the first place. What could he even do?
"Dammit all..."
Walking the stone path back to the dormitory with a troubled heart, every step against the ground felt strangely heavier than usual, sending subtle vibrations up through his boots.
And then, entering his dark gaze was—
A lotus...?
A single blossom, blooming with exquisitely folded pink petals resting on the ground.
Sensing the chilling dissonance the moment he laid eyes on it, Junon's mana surged on pure instinct as he snapped into a defensive stance. An instant later—
BOOM—!!
Kicking up a thick cloud of dust, the lotus detonated with a deafening, concussive blast.
And tucked away in the shadows, there was someone who unintentionally witnessed the entire spectacle.
W-What is that...?!
At first, Henna had groaned in silent exasperation, thinking that meeting three different girls in one day wasn't enough and now another one was being added to his rotation. But her skeptical scowl gradually gave way to pure shock, spiraling into confusion, until raw tension etched itself into absolute terror.
As Sylvia's best friend, she had only tailed Junon to figure out what kind of person he truly was. She just wanted to see if he was playing with girls' hearts.
Yet what unfolded before her eyes was a scene so terrifying it turned her blood to ice.
Junon's romantic entanglements? What did any of that matter now? That wasn't the problem at all.
The pink-haired woman she had suspected of being yet another admirer was, in terrifying reality, radiating pure, palpable murderous intent toward him.
A fleeting thought crossed Henna's mind that she ought to step in and help, but she was utterly paralyzed by fear.
How could anyone face an attack like that...?!
How could she step in? How could a mere student help? The scorch marks searing the stone floor, the massive blast radius, the bone-chilling roar of the explosion, and the violent shockwave buffeting her face forced her eyes shut. If she recklessly threw herself into the fray, even if her enchanted academy uniform absorbed some of the impact, there was no guarantee she would walk away with all her limbs intact.
Holding her breath, Henna took a trembling step back. All the relationship advice she had prepared to give Sylvia evaporated into thin air.
Unable to endure the freezing terror creeping up her spine for another second, Henna spun on her heel and sprinted into the night.
That pink-haired woman was mercilessly assaulting Junon with lethal intent. All Henna could do was pray he survived.
This was no longer about digging up Junon's private secrets for Sylvia.
I have to... I have to tell someone...!