The Calm Before the Storm
The part-timer at the café told me I had to order a drink if I wanted to stay, so I immediately picked any random beverage and returned to our table.
My wallet was starting to feel dangerously light. It was a good thing the academy provided meals; otherwise, I would have burned through all my money long ago.
When I got back, Tana glared at me with a bright red bump swelling on her forehead.
“You said you weren’t coming, but here you are?”
“It wrapped up faster than I expected. And I didn’t have anything else to do.”
Still sulking from the forehead flick, Tana grumbled beside me for a moment before gulping down her drink.
Watching her like this makes me curious just how hard I actually hit her. It couldn’t possibly compare to what Sirien would do, but it must have hurt enough to make her react this way.
“Eep.”
The moment I quietly raised my hand in the flicking position, Tana immediately scooted away. Her reaction was crystal clear.
Feeling bold, I kept the pose and inched closer. Tana kept backing up until her retreat was blocked by the wall, her eyes widening like saucers.
Seeing those big, sparkling eyes made every bit of resentment I held toward her completely vanish. The genuine terror on her face that I might actually hit her again brought a smile to my lips.
Of course, I had to clench my teeth desperately to keep from laughing, but even that wasn’t enough to hold it back completely.
“Is this funny? You think this is funny right now?!”
Tana exploded when she saw me burst out laughing.
Even I had to admit this prank had gone a little too far.
I let out a small chuckle and kept apologizing over and over. It didn’t seem to calm her anger, though.
“Are you two dating?”
Cheon Yu-ha, who had been quietly watching the whole thing, suddenly asked.
Both Tana and I reacted violently to the abrupt question.
“No.”
“No! Why would I date a guy like him?!”
I wasn’t sure what misunderstanding Yu-ha had come up with, but this was just the kind of prank friends pulled on each other.
…Still, “a guy like him”? That was a bit harsh.
Whether Tana reacted strongly or not, Yu-ha continued without batting an eye.
“Then that’s fine. I only have one question.”
“If you’re wondering how I managed to stay out overnight, then…”
“I don’t need that. I have no reason to leave the academy in the first place.”
Now that she mentioned it, the freshmen had been at the academy for less than a month. We hadn’t even taken midterms yet. There was no way she’d suddenly get homesick and want to face the outside world.
If anything, most people probably wanted to stay inside the academy.
“Then what are you curious about?”
“Whether your body is really sick. Whether you’re so ill that it can’t be treated inside the academy and you had no choice but to go outside.”
Yu-ha’s question was mixed with Tana’s worried gaze. I met both their eyes and thought for a moment.
I could tell the truth. I could say I used the question ticket I received from the dean to get permission for an overnight stay. They would both understand and let it go.
But that was practically classified information. The top student, the one who handled the Sage’s question ticket, breaking school rules? That could never be allowed to become a precedent.
Even if I told them I went out to get Holy Water to save Tana, I couldn’t reveal it.
So that option was off the table. I could just give them a different truth instead.
“I am sick. And it can’t be treated inside the academy.”
When I said it so calmly, both their gazes wavered. They were probably imagining some incurable disease or disability.
“But it’s not the kind of thing you two are worrying about. There’s no problem with my lifespan or overall health. It’s just… annoying.”
“Annoying?”
“It’s hard to explain. Anyway, just know that it doesn’t affect my health at all.”
…Come to think of it, doesn’t “disability” actually fit in some ways?
The thought suddenly crossed my mind, but I quickly erased it. There were things in this world that just made you depressed if you dwelled on them. That thought was one of them.
Either way, I wasn’t lying. Even though I had omitted some parts, I had never spoken a single falsehood.
It was true that it couldn’t be treated inside the academy, that there was no issue with my lifespan or health, and that it was only slightly bothersome.
“……”
After I finished speaking and took a sip of my drink, Yu-ha’s gaze settled on me. She was reading my expression and posture with absolutely no emotion.
She was probably trying to catch the unique gestures that appear when someone lies…
“Then that’s fine.”
There was no way she would sense anything. Because it was the truth.
Having confirmed that she couldn’t detect any such gestures from me, Yu-ha nodded obediently.
If she dug deeper, there were plenty of holes in my story, but she must have decided there was a reason I hadn’t said more. Maybe it was something I wanted to keep hidden.
That was probably her judgment.
After all, I had told her to think that way.
Slurp.
I sucked on the straw of my drink while looking at the two of them.
The mood had grown heavy after the rather serious conversation, but neither of their faces looked particularly gloomy.
That was a relief. It meant that both Tana and Cheon Yu-ha thought of me as more than just an ordinary student.
Of course, even normal students would worry if they heard someone had an incurable disease, but the fact that they were seriously whispering about it like this showed a certain level of closeness.
People are more indifferent to others than you’d think. Unless someone tells you directly, it’s common not to even know about someone’s death if you don’t actively look into it.
In that sense, the fact that these two had gone out of their way to look into my situation was a good sign.
It meant I could ask the question I had been planning to ask since I got here.
“Then can I ask something too?”
“As long as I can answer it, anything.”
“What kind of person is the Sword Saint? I’ve only ever seen him on screens, so I’ve always been curious what he’s like in real life.”
My question made Tana’s eyes sparkle too. Hearing about the Sword Saint directly from his own granddaughter? There was nothing more interesting than that.
“My grandfather…”
Yu-ha seemed to ponder for a moment before slowly opening up.
“He looks scary on the outside, but he’s actually very gentle. Unlike how he appears on screen, he smiles when he calls my name and tries to get me anything I want.”
A grandfather who doted on his granddaughter. That seemed to be Yu-ha’s image of the Sword Saint.
“Of course he’s strict when it comes to swordsmanship, but I can tell he’s teaching me while worrying about me, so…”
“Then what about enrolling in the academy? Was that your decision?”
“Yes. It was my decision. I wanted to learn from people other than my grandfather.”
Yu-ha added that on the day they parted, her grandfather had hugged her tightly and cried his eyes out. Her expression looked a little embarrassed as she said it.
“He sounds like a good grandfather.”
Tana said with a gentle smile. But beneath that smile was a discomfort I had never felt from her before. Yu-ha must have sensed it too, because her body trembled slightly.
I watched Tana’s smile for a moment before finally asking the question I had been holding back all this time.
“What about you, Tana?”
“M-me?”
“Yeah. After hearing Yu-ha’s story, I got curious about yours too.”
The moment I asked about her family, Tana’s pupils shook violently. It was a completely different reaction from before. Yu-ha was watching her as well.
“I-I…”
Tana’s silence continued. The longer she stayed quiet, the more certain I became that my guess had been correct.
It was a question I had carried since the game. Out of all those characters, why did Tana Erhen fall into corruption?
If there was some kind of trigger that caused her to fall, wouldn’t it be tied to her past?
Even though I thought that, I couldn’t dig any deeper. She had always refused to talk about her family.
Even after maxing out her affinity and reaching the game’s ending, her past was never revealed.
Every character had a past. A past created the present, and the present created the future. Yet only Tana Erhen had no past.
I had always wondered whether she simply didn’t want to mention it because she had already escaped her past, or because she was still trapped within it.
And now, I had finally found the answer. The trembling and anxiety I had never seen in the game. The way a simple question left her frozen in what looked like pure terror clearly said that something had happened to her.
Tana didn’t say a single word, but her actions explained her past perfectly.
And finally—
“S-sorry. I’ll head out first.”
The mask shattered.
Tana’s face was drenched in a melancholy and fear I had never seen before. The moment she fled the café, I could finally see it clearly.
The fragile soul she had been hiding all this time.
That soul was terrified of the evil controlling her and had hidden itself behind a wall. Her body was already being manipulated, and her soul had no control. In other words, she was like a time bomb. The barrier protecting her could explode at any moment, and if it did, even her soul would be dragged away.
Yet all she could do was sob.
I took one step back and faced the evil that was controlling her and filling her with fear.
The name of that evil was—family.