Do You Believe in God?
It was early dawn, before the sun had risen.
I was heading toward the personal training room.
Since it's the weekend, there shouldn't be any problem.
The dormitory had a ten o'clock curfew, but the training rooms could be used from the crack of dawn.
It was the academy's way of saying not to cut back on sleep.
Well, anyone who wants to train in the dorms will probably do it anyway.
Whether that meant meditating without sleeping or tempering their bodies, those who would do it, would.
Before long I arrived at the personal training room and sat down in a lotus position.
I needed to organize my thoughts.
She must still be young, right?
This was about Elena.
She had brought up the connection between transcendence and youth even though I hadn't said a word about it.
It must have come from her own experience of still being young.
What exactly did she do?
Elena's estimated age was somewhere in her mid-twenties.
I couldn't even begin to imagine what she had done to reach transcendence.
......Let's just focus on working hard.
Whether I reached transcendence or not, the only thing I needed to do was put in the effort to become stronger.
I wonder what's inside.
I pulled out the wooden box I'd received yesterday from inside my coat. It contained the spiritual medicine.
Elena hadn't told me what was inside, so my curiosity was driving me insane.
Guessing what a gift like this might be before opening it was surprisingly fun.
Is it something related to fire?
Since it was an elixir given to me, the chances were high that it would be helpful.
Or maybe something for the body?
Whatever it was, it wouldn't harm me.
With the heart of a child who had just received a present, I agonized for a moment before steeling myself.
Let's open it.
Unable to hold back my curiosity any longer, I lifted the lid of the box.
“Huh?”
What lay inside was a bright red bead that looked like a piece of candy, yet I couldn't sense anything from it at all.
What is this?
No heat, no presence, no energy. Nothing.
It felt like my expectations had been betrayed.
......No.
The headmaster wouldn't have given me something strange.
She couldn't have simply forgotten and handed me random candy.
I have to trust her.
If I looked it up in a book or asked someone else and it really turned out to be nothing more than candy, then I wouldn't trust her anymore.
When I finally left the personal training room, the sun was high in the sky, unlike the early dawn when I had entered.
What should I do now?
Maybe it was because it was the weekend, but I had no particular plans.
Should I go somewhere else?
I had never visited any town outside the academy grounds.
It would be good to go out, gather some knowledge while I was at it.
Let's go.
Once I made up my mind, I didn't waste time worrying.
I returned to the dormitory, got an outing pass, and headed to the carriage station.
As soon as I climbed aboard, the coachman asked,
“Where to, sir?”
“Um……”
I hadn't come with a specific destination in mind. I'd simply acted on impulse.
If I'm looking for knowledge, a bigger place would be better, right?
There was no way I'd learn anything about the world in some rural village.
“Take me to the closest and largest place you know.”
The coachman shouted in response,
“Then I'll take you to the most famous city—Krente!”
I was on my way to the city of Krente.
The trip didn't take long. Subjectively, it felt like less than thirty minutes.
“We've arrived, sir.”
I paid the coachman and stepped down from the carriage.
Being in S-Class really is nice.
When I'd first arrived in this world, financial problems had been a major issue, but S-Class had taken care of that.
They provided an extremely generous personal allowance.
I looked straight ahead.
A crowded street filled with people and carriages, merchants shouting to sell their wares.
It was exactly what you'd picture when you thought of a bustling downtown area.
So this is Krente.
The first city I'd visited on this continent was a shopping district.
After wandering around Krente for a while, I started to understand what kind of city it was.
Rumors really do fly around here.
News from the east was already circulating in the west in no time at all.
This shopping area seemed like the perfect place to gather information.
I haven't run into anyone I know yet.
In a city like this, you'd think I'd bump into at least one familiar face.
......I'll meet them eventually.
There were things I wanted to ask, so it would be nice to run into someone.
I was strolling at a leisurely pace when a clear, beautiful voice reached my ears.
“How much is this?”
It was a voice I'd heard before.
I turned my head toward the sound.
A breeze blew past, and her light green hair—almost as if it carried the essence of nature itself—brushed against me.
When her beautiful light-green eyes met mine, I called out her name.
“Banya?”
The genius commoner who had placed fourth among the first-years.
She opened her mouth, looking slightly flustered.
“Adel? What brings you here?”
Banya and I always exchanged greetings whenever we met in S-Class. What should I call her?
She didn't seem like a commoner at all.
To be exact...
She seems more aristocratic than anyone I've ever met.
Every single one of Banya's movements was elegant and refined.
Putting aside the fact that she was beautiful, she possessed every ounce of dignity I could imagine.
The earrings hanging from her ears only accentuated her beauty even more.
I was dying to know how a commoner could carry herself with such grace.
“I heard it was famous, so I came to take a look. What about you?”
“I ran out of cooking ingredients, so I came to buy more.”
She didn't look like the type who would ever get her hands dirty, yet apparently she even cooked.
“You cook too?”
“Yes. It's easier for me to directly control the nutrients circulating through my body.”
“I see.”
I walked through the streets with Banya, talking with her longer than usual.
“How did you end up using a bow?”
At my question, Banya hesitated for a moment before answering.
“My... father is a hunter who uses a bow. I naturally started learning after watching him.”
It didn't seem like something she needed to hesitate over. Maybe there was more to the story, so I changed the subject.
“Oh, right. Do you know what this elixir is?”
It was a question I'd planned to ask people who seemed knowledgeable about this world.
I took the wooden box out of my coat and showed it to her.
When she saw the bright red candy-like bead, Banya's eyes widened.
“This is... a jade.”
“A jade?”
“Yes.”
Banya was one of the people who knew I'd come from the mountains.
Even if it was something that would make her eyes widen, it made sense that I wouldn't know about it.
“What is it?”
“Jade is a gem that stores mana. The mana inside is an unknown quantity. Only the person who sealed it knows how much is in there.”
Banya let out a disbelieving laugh, as if she couldn't believe I was carrying something like that around.
“Who gave it to you?”
“The headmaster.”
“Ah, then it makes sense.”
It seemed Elena had given me something far more impressive than I'd realized.
“How do I use it?”
“You just swallow it. That said, the mana inside is so vast that people have died from it before, so you need to be careful.”
“......”
Dying from eating an elixir.
It wasn't something I'd never heard of.
Still, the thought that it could happen to me left me momentarily stunned.
“Still, the headmaster wouldn't have given a student a fire jade they couldn't handle, so don't worry too much.”
Banya smiled reassuringly, as if she understood my concerns.
She has a kind heart too.
How was this girl a commoner?
At this rate, she was like the World Tree that embraced the entire world.
As I was thinking that, Banya asked,
“What about you, Adel?”
“What about me?”
“Um... how's academy life?”
It was a casual question.
I was living the same routine every single day.
I woke up early, went to class, attended lectures, and headed straight to the personal training room once classes ended.
I only ate when I actually felt hungry.
After listening to me, Banya asked in a worried tone,
“Are you feeling okay?”
“Yeah. I'm not sick or anything.”
“That's a relief. If you ever feel unwell, tell me.”
“Why, are you going to nurse me back to health?”
“Yes.”
“......”
I'd said it as a joke because she seemed so concerned, but I hadn't expected that answer.
Is there a reason?
For some strange reason, I kept getting the feeling that everyone in this world was unusually kind to me.
Extreme evil.
As far as I knew, that was the only explanation.
But wouldn't that actually raise the difficulty instead?
I must have been lost in thought for quite a while.
Banya asked again,
“Are you really okay?”
I stopped thinking about it and answered,
“Yeah. I'm perfectly fine.”
I loosened up my body a little as I spoke, and she finally nodded.
“Alright. But if you feel sick, make sure to tell me.”
Maybe she really was the World Tree.
She had an atmosphere that felt like nature itself, and a soft, elegant personality like a gentle spring breeze.
She was exactly what I imagined the World Tree would be like.
We were walking in a rather pleasant mood when a mysterious man wearing a robe approached us.
I asked cautiously,
“......Who are you?”
But the man simply muttered to himself and didn't answer.
After a moment, his muttering stopped and a single sentence slipped from his lips.
The moment I heard those words, I understood.
A cultist.
That insane religious group existed in this world too.
I usually ignored people who said things like that, so I was about to keep walking.
“Yes. I believe.”
Until Banya answered, that is.