Spending Another Day
Another peaceful day.
The ordinary rhythm of meeting a friend at the café and chatting carried on as always.
"So you draw a graph here... and then, that is..."
Chloe was in the middle of throwing herself into self-improvement.
Student council elections were held starting in the second year.
Before that, she had to raise her grades and rack up achievements.
She wasn't the only one with her eye on the student council president's seat, after all.
Holding the title of student council president at Purity Academy translated into a tremendous advantage after graduation.
The competition was fierce, but with the present story diverging from the original, Chloe — hailed as the hero who saved the citizens of the Max Republic — was the undisputed frontrunner for the next presidency.
She'd even scored a perfect mark on her midterms.
As long as she didn't pull anything stupid, her road to success was all but paved.
Do your best out there.
I'm rooting for you, Chloe.
Because while you're buried in all that, I'll be sure to pry Eva away from your side.
Anyway, it seemed the Vital incident had changed everyone in some way, and each of them was showing me a new side of themselves.
"..."
"Eva, you okay? You don't look so good."
"Ah, u-um, well! It's nothing..."
After the terror attack, Eva had shut herself in her room for a while, but after I talked her around, she worked up the courage to come outside.
Whether she'd steadied herself or not, she seemed to have regained her usual brightness.
"S-Sir!"
"What?"
"...Never mind, I guess?"
That said, Eva had been talking to me more often lately, but whatever was on her mind, she kept cutting herself off mid-sentence.
She could just come out and say it, you know.
Something holding her back?
"Is this right?"
"Nope. Your mana balance is off. Again!"
Arlan sat on the sofa, absorbed in her training.
Flinging magic around inside a café or shooting at targets would've been a nuisance to everyone, so she was focusing on mental discipline and mana control instead.
Ter and I stayed at her side to assist.
Just in case some unforeseen accident happened and we needed to react in time.
Why the sudden training, you ask?
—Please help me get stronger!
—I want to become stronger! Strong enough that I'm incomparable to who I am now!
Apparently the incident in the Max Republic had lit a fire under her.
By her own account, she'd been helpless back then, and failing to protect Eva was her lifelong regret.
She'd even knelt and begged, saying she'd do anything if she could grow stronger than she was now, so here I was, helping her out.
"Look at her. She's really working hard."
"That's how much the terror attack must have shaken her."
I couldn't speak for anyone else, but Arlan had seen through Vital's identity right away.
She'd never laid eyes on the man before, but standing in front of him, she would have felt it instinctively — that he was of the Celestial Clan, same as her benefactor the Archmage, and that he was her original.
And she realized they'd begun targeting Eva in earnest, and that she couldn't afford to stand still any longer.
Hence her asking for help from the strongest person here — me.
"Tch, and I missed out on all the fun."
Ter grumbled as she watched Arlan's training from the sidelines.
While the other students had huddled in the waiting room, breathlessly watching the terror attack unfold, Ter had held a covert little social gathering with the faction that supported Arlan.
Her midterm scores were neither here nor there — her real interest was gussying up Yupi.
Thanks to that, she'd come out of the chaos of the incident without a scratch.
Though the woman herself didn't seem particularly pleased about it.
"Ugh, if only I'd been there. I'd have dealt with that terrorist in one stroke and stolen the spotlight...!"
"Ashera, that is never going to happen. If you'd been there, you'd have been one-shotted right alongside Arlan."
"You think some two-bit terrorist could beat me?"
Click!
She pulled the trigger and spun the gun in a full flourish, showing off a flashy revolver spin.
The pistol whirled in a circle before coming to a halt, aimed precisely between my eyes.
"I am the rightful owner of a Divine Artifact. Unless I'm up against someone on the level of that girl or the Sword Saint, it's bang! Right to the forehead!"
"You point that barrel at my head one more time, and—"
Pow!
"Hyung!"
You don't go waving dangerous objects at people like that.
Which is why I gave her a good knuckle rap to the head.
It was a light tap, but it must have landed a solid hit, because Ter clutched the top of her skull and rolled around on the floor.
"Nngh, that hurts! Solis, you—!"
"Drop that 'why'd you hit me' look. You forgot your manners, so I taught you a quick lesson."
"Tch!"
Ter clicked her tongue and grumbled, but she didn't actually lunge at me or put up any real resistance.
Well, I mean — fight me a hundred times, she'd lose a hundred out of a hundred. Who'd come charging in anyway?
"I didn't say anything wrong, you know."
"Don't get too drunk on your Divine Artifact. Keep that up and one day it'll send you straight to the grave."
Even Vital, a member of the Celestial Clan, had charged in believing he could beat me despite being weakened and barely able to handle his own relic — and Eva had whipped him into shape for it.
I could see the picture all too clearly: this fake, deluded into thinking she was a rightful relic owner, getting sloppy about her place and paying the price.
That said, the fact that she did have a relic was still a genuine point in her favor.
Compared to someone without one, the difference was stark.
But every enemy I'd be facing from here on out would be a relic owner or an inheritor with the qualification, so even that advantage of hers was fading.
Whatever. We'll cross that bridge later.
In any case, I wouldn't be running into those bastards until second year, so I'd let this one slide.
"No fun at all."
Ter pouted like someone who couldn't take a joke, sticking her lips out.
Unable to swallow her frustration, she picked out the easiest target around and picked a fight.
"Here's the coffee you ordered."
"You're late. What were you doing all this time?"
Ter's attention swung to Diana, who had just arrived with desserts and drinks.
I'd introduced her as my newly hired maid, and she must have seemed like the easiest target of all, because Ter needled her at every opportunity.
"What kind of maid is this slow? Honestly, can't even manage a simple table service."
"I'm... sorry."
Diana's fist was crying.
I'd trained her in advance, so she didn't broadcast her displeasure outright, but knowing her situation as I did, I could see it — the way her facial muscles twitched every time Ter needled her, the veins rising here and there beneath her skin.
A side glance.
"You're doing fine, so don't let it get to you."
Diana was sneaking looks at me, silently begging for rescue.
She looked so pitiful that I stepped in myself.
"Sir, over there."
"What is it, Arlan?"
"That maid you hired — could it be...?"
"You're right. She's Celestial Clan."
Arlan really did catch things by sight alone, huh.
Well, she carried an aura similar to the Vital I'd met before, so it would've been stranger not to notice.
"And knowing that, you still keep her at your side?"
"I've got her leash on tight. The Headmaster gave his blessing, too."
"If you say that much, then I'll say no more."
She whipped her head toward Diana.
A glare with a heaping spoonful of hostility mixed in.
Whoa, girl. You could kill a man with that look.
She must really hate her, huh.
It wasn't that I couldn't understand where Arlan was coming from.
That Archmage — her benefactor — had been opposed by that very faction.
The fact that she wasn't actively trying to tear Diana apart was restraint enough.
If I hadn't been shielding her, all hell would have broken loose.
Guess they're never going to get along.
Since they'd be traveling together anyway, it would've been nicer to see them smiling at each other.
Just another pain I'll have to bear, I suppose.
But a maid girl who'd do whatever I wished? A real man didn't give that up.
Conflicts at this level were the kind you laughed off and moved past.
Ring, ring!
"Huh? Who's calling?"
"It's me. One sec."
The phone rang loudly.
Not wanting to bother the others, I stepped out of the room and took the call in the hallway.
"Hello?"
"Solis, it's me."
"Marin?"
She'd gone quiet since we parted ways in the Max Republic — so she finally got through, huh.
"You alright? You hurt anywhere?"
"I'm fine. No problems. But there's something else."
"Hm?"
"I somehow made it from the Republic all the way to Dilmun, but my body won't move properly."
"You made it to Dilmun? Where are you?"
"The beach. I don't know the exact location. I think I can see a cave in the distance."
"I think I know the spot. Stay there — I'll come with the others."
I knew the rest of them had been burning for Marin's return, so I planned to bring them along to meet her.
"Alone."
"Hm? What was that?"
"Come alone."
But she wanted me to come without anyone else.
"Can I ask why?"
"...Just because."
Click.
"What's with her?"
And with that, Marin hung up.
...
Pinpointing Marin's location wasn't hard.
The beach, and a cave.
Within Dilmun, only one place satisfied both conditions, so I hurried there at a run.
"Hey."
The wind blew.
A sea breeze thick with the taste of salt.
The sound of crashing waves and the cries of gulls painted color across the empty shore.
With the burning red sunset at her back, a girl stood upon the damp sand the waves had just washed over.
"There. I came alone, just like you said."
"Thank you."
Marin Light.
There she stood, unchanged, waiting for me exactly as she had been that day.
