Lost in the Helen Estate
“······Adel.” A voice reached me.
“Adel.” Focusing on the sound, I realized it was calling my name.
“Mmm······.” I opened my eyes naturally, and the world brightened before me.
“Huh?” I blinked blankly. I was sure I had fallen asleep facing the window, yet now I was leaning against something else entirely.
When I turned my head slightly, Shane’s face came into view.
“You’re awake?” She smiled softly, and my face grew warm.
‘······She’s way too close.’ We had been close before, but never this close. I quickly lifted my head.
“······S-sorry.”
“It’s fine. I don’t mind at all.” She raised her arm casually, and I nodded before asking something else.
“How long has it been? Feels like I slept for quite a while.”
My body and mind, which had been exhausted, now felt somewhat refreshed, so several hours must have passed. The thought made me feel a little more guilty.
“Look over there.” Instead of answering, Shane pointed out the window. Following her gesture, I looked outside.
“······Huh?” The fields and grass I had seen before falling asleep were gone. Instead, we were surrounded by a snowy landscape with flakes falling steadily. The carriage had stopped, and I felt the cold as I asked,
“······Is this the north?”
“Yeah, we’ve arrived.” At her words, I glanced around the carriage, but the other three were nowhere to be seen. It seemed they had already gotten off, leaving only Shane behind to wake me.
“Shall we get off too?”
“Huh? Oh, sure.” Still dazed from staring out the window, I stepped down first at her words and extended my hand. It was basic manners. Shane took my hand and stepped out of the carriage.
We walked toward where the Class S students had gathered.
‘It’s cold.’ Not just a little cold—freezing. I drew up my fire energy to warm my entire body.
‘Isn’t she cold?’ Shane wore only her uniform, without any extra coat. Since I was this cold, I wondered if the uniform really protected against the chill and asked,
“Shane, aren’t you cold?”
Shane alternated her gaze between me and herself for a moment before letting out a soft laugh.
“Not really. The academy uniforms have various spells woven into them. Cold resistance is one of them.”
“Ah.” I understood.
‘But what about mine?’ Where was it? Maybe it got stolen. Thanks to my fire energy it didn’t matter, but today I felt oddly wronged again.
“You’re up?” Before I knew it, we had arrived, and Christina approached us. Her mood seemed rather sour.
“Yeah.” Sensing I shouldn’t provoke her, I kept my reply short.
“Everyone’s here.” As soon as Cain arrived, he approached the students and handed each of them a square object.
“These are temporary Hero Certificates. While staying at the Helen family estate, they will serve as your identification.”
I wondered if a Hero Certificate was required to enter, but apparently that wasn’t the case.
‘There must be merchants who aren’t heroes too.’ Just as I thought that, Cain pointed behind him.
“That is the Helen family estate. Most of you are probably seeing it for the first time.” He glanced at a few noble-born students before turning away.
When I looked in the direction he indicated, I saw a massive mansion and a wall that resembled the Great Wall.
‘How could something like that ever be breached?’ The thought that such an impenetrable-looking wall could someday fall gave me a headache.
‘It’ll be fine for now.’ Nothing would happen. Not to that wall, and not during the time I would be staying here.
“Then let’s go.” We followed Cain toward the Helen estate.
Though it was called a large mansion, from the outside it didn’t look big enough to house thousands of people as I had heard. But sure enough, once we stepped inside, I realized space-expansion magic had been cast.
Cain spoke with someone, who nodded and stepped aside. After walking a little farther, I began to understand the layout of the mansion.
‘It’s divided into sections.’ Honestly, I had expected a maze since hundreds of people were supposedly staying here, but it seemed they had arranged it so that only a certain number of people occupied each area.
Cain stopped walking, apparently having reached our destination.
“This is your lodging. You’ll stay in the rooms marked with your names. We’ll head to the Demon Realm starting tomorrow, so rest as you please today.”
With those words, Cain continued walking without pause.
‘Let’s just think of it as a big apartment.’ There was no need to overthink the structure. It was simpler to just go with the flow.
Left alone, I wandered around looking for my room.
‘Here it is.’ After venturing deeper inside, I found the room marked with my name.
1154 [Adel Ifrit] [Daren Gawood]
It seemed to be a two-person room. When turning the doorknob didn’t work, I pressed the Hero Certificate against it, and the door opened.
‘That’s interesting.’ It was new to see something like a door lock in this world.
Inside, I saw Daren polishing his sword.
“You’re here?”
“Yeah.” I answered briefly before asking what was on my mind.
“Daren, where do the others stay?”
I wasn’t asking for room numbers. I wanted to know where and what they were doing while staying at the Helen estate. Daren seemed to understand and gave me the answer I wanted.
“Most of them are at the training grounds.”
“Training grounds?”
“Yes. If you keep walking straight along the path we took with the instructor earlier, you’ll reach the training grounds.”
Cain had probably headed there as well. Since I had no luggage, I sat on the bed and organized my thoughts.
‘They must all be strong.’ The people who hunted demons in the Demon Realm wouldn’t be weak. At the very least, they should be stronger than the students. A smile naturally formed on my lips.
‘I wonder how many techniques and skills they have.’ If I could learn from them, I was free to do so.
‘This should be fun.’ I stood up. Daren seemed to have guessed what I was about to do and spoke up.
“Heading to the training grounds?”
“Yeah.” I smiled and said to Daren before leaving the room,
“You should come too.”
After all, Daren would come anyway. He felt the same way I did. Daren smiled as well and replied,
“I will.”
After hearing his answer, I left the room.
Once again, I am not directionally challenged.
······It’s just that the mansion is huge.
‘Where am I?’ I was standing in some unknown place. I had clearly followed the path Cain took, just as Daren had said, yet somehow I was stuck at a crowded intersection. I couldn’t even understand why there was an intersection inside a mansion.
‘Sigh, isn’t there anyone around?’ Especially someone who could give directions. I had come out to find the training grounds, but now it felt like I was trying to escape from prison.
Just as I was about to move again, a man appeared in front of me.
“Where is this place?” From the way he spoke, he seemed to be lost like me.
‘He looks strong.’ Despite his casual tone, the aura he gave off was no joke. Black hair, black eyes. A handsome man with a familiar appearance. A sword at his waist and a martial uniform similar to mine. As a fellow Korean at heart, I wanted to help him with directions. But someone who was lost themselves couldn’t exactly give directions.
Swish. The man and I brushed past each other, separated by only the width of a sheet of paper.
‘······I’m back here again.’ I had clearly gone in the direction the black-haired man had come from, so why was I here again? This didn’t make sense.
“Damn it. Why here again······ Huh?” Another black-haired man appeared in front of me. He looked at me as if he had seen me somewhere before, then passed by. I didn’t bother speaking to him either.
“Damn it.” I hadn’t planned on swearing. I had been trying to hold it in as much as possible.
‘But this is just ridiculous.’ Here again. This same intersection. At this point, it felt like I was trapped in some kind of barrier.
“Aaaah!!! Why here again!!”
······And standing in front of me, as if by some cruel joke, was the black-haired man once more.
“······.”
“······.” We looked at each other with eyes full of shared suffering before speaking.
“You too?”
“Yeah, me too.”
Haha. Having bonded over being lost, we sat together on a bench that had no reason to exist. The black-haired man spoke first.
“My name’s Vincent.”
The black-haired man, Vincent, muttered that he was heading to the training grounds.
“My name is Adel Ifrit. I’m also trying to get to the training grounds.”
Coincidentally, we had the same destination. We were just two people who didn’t know how to reach it.
“Hahaha.”
“Hahaha.” We both let out awkward laughs.
‘Is there no map?’ Since I wasn’t directionally challenged, if I had a map I could probably find my way.
“There’s no map.” Vincent seemed to have had the same thought and read my mind.
“······Anyone to ask?” It seemed like it should be fine to just ask someone passing by, “Where’s the training grounds?”
“Want to try?” But at Vincent’s words, I couldn’t nod. I had somewhat understood why we couldn’t ask.
“Then shall we look for it together? We’ve got plenty of time.” At my suggestion, Vincent added enthusiastically,
“Shall we? I’ll take that side. You take this side.”
The direction Vincent pointed wasn’t the path we had just come from, but a third option.
“Got it.”
And so began our strange search for the training grounds with Vincent.