34. Men Are Wolves. Or Not.
34. Men Are Wolves. Or Not.
34. Men Are Wolves. Or Not.
Back at the academy.
The next day.
My precious break time was shattered to pieces by an intruder.
"...Ha-na."
"Mmhm?"
Mmhm, my ass.
Her cutesy reply nearly softened my irritation, but I held my ground.
"Where exactly are you lying down right now?"
"Si-jun's room!"
"And before that?"
"The dorm! You think I don't know that?"
Ban Ha-na puffed up proudly. She wasn't wrong, but she'd left out one detail.
"The boys' dorm."
The boys' dorm.
The place where male students of the academy resided.
And yet this sacred ground had Ban Ha-na sprawled across it.
I sighed and spoke.
"I get that you're a guy, but this is my room."
"I... am not a guy! I'm a girl! Are you stupid, Si-jun?"
Then why are you in the boys' dorm, in my room?
I swallowed the question and looked at Ban Ha-na sitting on my bed.
Her bright pink hair caught the eye immediately.
Soft pink eyes.
Her appearance hadn't changed outwardly.
But her outfit was very different.
Black blazer, white dress shirt, red tie, black skirt.
The Hero Academy uniform composed of achromatic colors.
Unlike the pink princess dress Ban Ha-na usually wore, her current attire was perfectly ordinary.
"It suits you. The uniform."
"You... you think it's pretty? Well? Am I pretty?"
At the compliment, Ban Ha-na hopped off the bed and spun around once, showing off her new uniform.
She was clearly starved for praise, so I decided to be honest.
"Very pretty. Except for the part where you're in my room. Now, could you leave?"
"Hehe..."
Ban Ha-na seemed to have tuned out the second half. She walked to the mirror and inspected herself, delighted.
"He said I'm pretty... heehee..."
Ban Ha-na kept giggling at whatever she found so pleasing. I wanted to break her habit of only hearing what she liked, but I let her enjoy the moment.
Her body reflected in the mirror.
There was a name tag on her chest.
Ban Ha-na.
A name tag emblazoned with the name of a Black Dawn member.
It seemed Ban Ha-na had scraped her way into enrollment—her blank record and acknowledged ability getting her through somehow.
But what drew my eye more was the color of her name tag.
Despite claiming to be eighteen, it matched the color of my uniform's tag on the desk.
I lowered my voice and spoke.
"Ha-na. Stop laughing and sit here."
"...? Okay."
Ban Ha-na plopped down on the bed without hesitation.
I pointed a finger at her chest.
"Black. Why are you in the same grade as us?"
"..."
Sharp question, it seemed.
Ban Ha-na's bright smile vanished. Her expression flinched like she'd been caught.
She definitely told me she was a year older than me, didn't she?
If Ban Ha-na's claim were true, she should be wearing the white tag that marked second-year students.
But the small tag pinned to Ban Ha-na's chest was black—the color for first-years.
I narrowed my eyes.
"Did you lie to me...?"
"I don't lie! It's an error! A bug! A fake!"
"I believed in you... I'm disappointed..."
"...!!"
Ban Ha-na panicked at the word disappointed.
Was that too harsh of a joke?
I'd never really bought the eighteen claim anyway. This was already more or less what I'd expected.
After a moment of nervous fidgeting, Ban Ha-na spilled the full story.
"I... I didn't lie. Grandpa said I'd been around about eighteen times..."
"That sounds like dementia. At his age, that's about when it hits."
"Grandpa does NOT have dementia!"
Ban Ha-na yelped, then rushed on with her explanation.
"I told you I'm eighteen! That red teacher frowned at me. Then she wanted to check my physical age! She wouldn't listen!"
"And?"
"She... she said I'm sixteen...! Si-jun! This is unfair! She's the villain!"
A year younger than me.
But her abilities had been recognized by Shin Si-hwa, so Ban Ha-na argued she'd been allowed accelerated early admission as a recommended student.
...Now it makes sense.
The mystery of Ban Ha-na's hidden age.
Yeah. There was no way she was eighteen.
Ban Ha-na's height was about 155 at most—middle-school-level development. She didn't look anywhere near adult.
I'd nearly ended up using formal speech with her.
Science is more reliable.
I trusted technology over Ban Ha-na's memory.
A world where gates had opened, where science had leaped forward through mana—of course it would be more precise than Ban Ha-na's brain.
More importantly.
"Ha-na. What did you say to me before?"
"Th-that's..."
"You told me to use formal speech. So, who's older now?"
Ban Ha-na's newly issued resident registration card would show a year below mine. The one who had to use respect was decided.
"Polite speech. Go on."
"..."
"Answer me."
"I... I don't wanna...!"
Apparently unwilling to speak formally to me, Ban Ha-na shook her head side to side.
If she wouldn't use polite speech, then I had no choice.
I decided to say what I'd really wanted from the start.
"Ha-na. You don't want to use formal speech, right?"
"...Yeah."
"Then leave. This is the boys' dorm."
Ban Ha-na shouldn't have been here in the first place. Letting a female student into the boys' dorm wouldn't end with a few penalty points—disciplinary action at minimum, social annihilation at the academy as a bonus.
"Mmmm..."
She sat there, thinking it over for a moment. I'd been certain she'd dig in her heels, but Ban Ha-na's answer was surprisingly brisk.
"Fine! I'll leave! But I'm not using polite speech! Deal with it!"
She sprang to her feet and headed for the door. There was just one major problem with that.
"Hey, wait. Hold on...!"
Creeeak...
The door swung open as Ban Ha-na tried to step out.
I yanked her back inside and clapped a hand over her mouth.
"Mmph... mmmph...!!"
She thrashed like she couldn't breathe. What was she thinking—what if there were male students out there?
I stuck my face out through the crack of the door.
...Empty?
Thankfully, at this hour the male students were either in class or doing personal training.
I relaxed and released my hand.
"Wh-what are you doing...!"
"Shh. Go carefully. I'm the one in trouble if you get caught."
Kidnapped by villains, back for just one day, and already caught with a girl in my dorm room? If that got out, I'd get branded as some kind of sex-crazed pervert.
"...? Got it, I guess."
Ban Ha-na tilted her head like she didn't quite grasp what it meant for a boy and a girl to be in the same room. But she perked up at the word trouble and headed for the exit.
...She's leaving more easily than I expected.
I thought she'd insist on living here.
At least Ban Ha-na had some degree of moral sense.
"Huff..."
With Ban Ha-na gone, a weight lifted. I exhaled and took a moment to rest.
Then another voice rang inside my ears.
—Human.
"What do you want now."
Are you going to torment me too?
Fenrir's heavy, solemn voice echoed through my skull.
—Human. Surprisingly. Strong?
"...?"
What an incomprehensible question.
Last time Fenrir went off calling me weak. Now he was suddenly asking if I was strong.
—Strong male. Many. Females. Commands. In Fenrir's. Society.
To sum it up: in Fenrir's society, strong males commanded many females. He'd seen the women swarming around me and gotten the wrong idea.
"The people you saw are all my friends. Don't misunderstand, puppy."
—Human. Misunderstanding. Qualification. Exists.
"What...?"
—Females. Make. Many wives. Give. Strength.
"You're... insane..."
Like a beast in heat.
Fenrir was telling me to accumulate wives.
A strong king commands many wives. A harem.
Fenrir was urging me toward a beast-like culture.
But I was born human. I had no confidence in managing multiple women.
"Anyway, I have no intention of doing that. Next time, ask permission before you talk to m—"
—Human. Will regret.
"Regret what."
I scoffed at Fenrir's words.
He should make sense if he's going to talk.
But Fenrir refused to give up and kept telling me to earn his qualification—repeating the line about regret every time.
What the hell does he mean by "will regret"?
I couldn't understand it. Not until Fenrir spoke about lifespan.
—Human. Lifespan. Two years. Soon. Die. I swear.
"What do you mean, am I terminally ill...?"
Dismissing it as nonsense would be easy. But Fenrir couldn't lie—an S-rank Magic Beast with intelligence to match. Bound by a mana oath. What Fenrir said was true.
I really am terminally ill...?
The misunderstanding Shin Si-hwa had jumped to—was it actually the truth?
First came denial.
I immediately invoked Libra and asked about my lifespan.
"Libra. Tell me my remaining lifespan. Payment in the Golem Core's magic power."
—Insufficient value. Changing payment method to lifespan. Half of lifespan will be consumed. Do you consent?
"...I do not consent."
An absurdly high cost. If I had plenty of lifespan left, the cost for confirming it would have been small. The cost was high precisely because I barely had any left.
Fenrir spoke again.
—Wasted effort. I. Know. Your body. Best.
Since he rested at the core of my body, Fenrir knew my condition better than anyone. He seemed to have an unanswered question.
—Human. In the past. Ever. Made a contract.
"A contract...?"
—Contract. Body. Lifespan. Weakening.
I had no memory of making a contract related to bodily weakness.
If I had to point to something, it would be the Character Creation Window.
Someone did call me a miracle child at some point, I think...
Memories of being sick in childhood, unable to attend elementary school, living in a hospital. That was the only body-related detail I had, so I had no clue about any contract.
Had I burned through my lifespan by making some contract as a kid out of childish ignorance?
But I was hospitalized because of a congenital mana core problem, wasn't I...?
Nothing connected to a contract. My head only got more tangled.
Precious little lifespan left, and episodes to survive. There was too much to think about.
—Human. Simple.
The beast called it simple and kept talking.
—Qualification. Fulfill it. Contract. I block. Lifespan. I extend.
Fenrir said he would handle the lifespan problem from whatever contract was eating away at me—that I shouldn't worry. I had no idea why he was being this generous.
I asked him directly.
"I thought the weak weren't qualified?"
—Human. Special. Many. Females. Exception.
In Fenrir's eyes, it wasn't about surpassing 11 in Mana. Having a lot of women qualified me instead.
He said two years left, right...?
Two years.
Just two years.
"...Minimum number?"
—Four. Minimum. More. Strength. Increases.
Four.
Four women.
A Magic Beast truly is a Magic Beast.
I'm going insane.
I clutched my head and sank into thought.
If I didn't woo women, I'd die within two years.
But the more women I wooed, the better my odds of clearing the world of V. AGE.
A fate that demanded I walk the path of a womanizer.
"What am I supposed to do...?"
Things were flowing exactly the way this fate wanted.
And so I began to fall into deep contemplation.