What Do You Mean, I Just Got Discharged?
Thankfully, I managed to skip out on the herbalism class without a hitch and made it to the end of the school day.
I'd slipped in just before the bell rang, mentioned that the Headmaster had summoned me, and even now I couldn't forget the professor's expression — a nod of acceptance paired with a distinctly sour look.
Because of it, I felt oddly light today. Normally, exhaustion would come crashing down on me the moment class ended.
No plans after school today, either. This is the best.
Professor Seras's lessons were only ever supposed to run up until just before the expedition into the Mages' Forest, anyway.
Marie's lessons were in a similar position, but when she caught wind of me slacking off just because the exams were over — insisting that I was the one lacking in theory and needed to study more — I'd been browbeaten into continuing them indefinitely.
Still, I'd only just been discharged, and tomorrow kicked off two whole days of hard-earned rest, so as a gesture meaning take three days and rest up properly, today's lesson had been canceled.
"Hmhm~"
Which meant I could stroll back to the dormitory with a spring in my step, and a tune was already slipping out of me unbidden.
That used to be something Rone did all the time whenever she got excited. Maybe hanging around her for so long had been contagious.
Feeling strangely self-conscious, I glanced around — but thankfully, most of my classmates had already filed out of the classroom.
"Bell! Let's have a party to celebrate your discharge! A party!"
I'd grabbed my bag and was just stepping out of the classroom myself when the voice of an overexcited puppy came barking from behind me, drawing steadily closer.
I turned, and standing there was exactly the person I'd expected.
Tina — tail-less, but if she'd had one, it would have been whipping back and forth at that very moment.
Though honestly, her energy was hard to believe for dismissal hour.
No, wait. Come to think of it, maybe it was because it was dismissal hour that she was this worked up.
Either way, the party proposal didn't strike me as particularly welcome, and before I knew it, a sulky tone had crept into my reply.
"Dramatic much? Anyone would think you'd been hospitalized for a month or two."
"How can you be so cold about it? A friend's gone out of her way for you here."
"Nobody asked her to. Shoo."
At my little wave — the kind you'd use to brush off a mosquito — Tina let out a growling grrr!
If she really were a dog, her ears and tail would have shot straight up on the spot.
I was mulling over that pointless little thought, wondering how on earth I could shake her off, when a rather androgynous voice drifted over.
"Come on, why not just hang out with us? Tina's been bored out of her mind without you."
Of all people, Arden was defending her?
I'd noticed her lingering in the classroom today instead of making a beeline for the dormitory like she usually did — maybe Tina had hired her in advance as manpower to pin me down.
Then again, there were barely a handful of people in our class. How bored could she possibly get from one person being gone for a week?
She might be a bit of an outsider like me, being a commoner, but she had plenty of social instincts buried in there. I was sure she got along fine with the other students.
"It's not like she's a puppy that lost its owner…"
"What!? Did you just call me a dog!?"
Apparently my muttered comment hadn't gone unheard. Tina's eyes flew wide open and she shrieked at the top of her lungs.
Unlike the composed tones of Elisha or Rone, Tina was a high-pitched one like Marie — and when a voice like that goes up an octave, it hits your ears like a needle.
"I said puppy."
"That's the same thing!"
At my flat response, Tina kept snapping back — how could I call a friend who'd gone out of her way for me a dog, and so on.
Hold on. She'd let plenty of other things I said slide before, so why was she so touchy about the word dog specifically?
I'd heard that calling a fat person a pig makes them furious, while saying it to a scrawny one lands like a feather.
By that logic, I couldn't help but entertain a perfectly reasonable suspicion: was this girl actually a dog?
"Don't start fighting, you two. So, Bell — what do you say?"
Arden cut in with a little joke to smooth things over, then turned her gaze on me.
Truthfully, all I wanted was to rest today. But then again, tomorrow was a holiday too, so what would one day of goofing off really cost?
It's not like I was somebody so important I needed to play hard to get. No reason to act pricey about it.
"If you want to hang out that badly, fine. But where exactly is this party happening?"
Arden seemed to have been as much in the dark as I was, so I decided to ask the mastermind directly.
She wasn't about to suggest cramming three people into her shoebox of a dorm room, right?
Never mind the space — I'd count myself lucky if the mice didn't steal our food.
"Hehe, I've already got it all figured out."
But as if to tell me my worries were for nothing, Tina puffed out her chest, squared her shoulders, and beamed with pride.
Looking at the swaggering spectacle she made, I somehow felt more uneasy.
Not that I'd dare say that out loud — she'd obviously come charging at me like an angry puppy.
She'd told me to sit tight and wait, seeing as she'd scouted out a "perfect" party venue — so I sat in a classroom chair for roughly thirty minutes.
Once most of the students had filtered out of the main building and the last traces of life had faded away, Tina came strolling back into the classroom, arms stacked high with something hauled from her locker outside, grinning from ear to ear.
"Party time!"
She dragged over three desks — mine included — shoved them together, let out a triumphant whoop, and began setting out the mountain of things she'd carried in.
Hopeful against hope, I asked about this unbelievable situation that had materialized out of nowhere.
"Don't tell me we're doing it here."
"Yup! Isn't this what school life is all about?"
Tina's ponytail swayed as she answered without a care, and her orange eyes — the very color of her hair made manifest — sparkled.
What on earth does she place her faith in, to be that radiant?
No — maybe she's radiant because she believes in nothing at all.
They do say the ignorant are fearless, after all.
"I stand corrected. You're officially a madwoman."
"Hehe, oh you, more compliments…"
That wasn't a compliment, you lunatic.
She was scratching her head like she'd just received an honor.
"Arden, did you know about this?"
"Of course not. All I heard was something about throwing you a little discharge party."
I'd wondered if she was an accomplice, but seeing Arden shoot an awkward, sheepish smile — clearly a fellow victim — I let out a sigh of relief.
Thankfully, it seemed my life didn't contain a second madman on top of the first.
"Alright, everyone dig in! I went all out preparing this."
Tina peeled the plastic off a bag of snacks I couldn't have identified to save my life and continued the setup with practiced ease.
Soon the unwrapped bags and wrappers spread out and blanketed the desktop entirely.
Even with four desks pushed together, it still looked like it might not be enough — proof that Tina really had gone all in on this.
It'd be awkward to bolt at this point, worrying about getting caught, so I decided to simply enjoy the moment.
And if a guard did catch us, I'd just burst into tears and wail that I'd been discharged today and this was my welcome-back party. So there.
Creeeak.
No sooner had I thought that than I heard the classroom's sliding door — which had been firmly shut — slide open.
My head whipped around, heart slamming — was the guard here already? — but standing in the doorway was a familiar face.
"Started without me, I see?"
Rone stepped inside, running a hand down her long silver braid and tilting her head.
Judging by her words, she'd been invited after all.
Proving the point, Tina caught my eye and gave me a wink with a prankster's grin.
Those two had met through me a handful of times, and it seemed they'd grown quite familiar since.
Otherwise, nobody would blithely invite someone to — or crash — a gathering like this.
"Word is you went through a lot too, Rone? Wouldn't have felt right leaving you out."
"Good call."
The more the merrier for a party, as the name implied, so I figured it couldn't hurt — and I offered her my genuine praise.
"Welcome back safe and sound~!"
Once everyone had a bottle of something to drink in hand, Tina wet her throat and let out a thunderous toast.
Does this girl understand that we're throwing a secret party in an academy everyone else has already left?
She's basically advertising to the whole area — come arrest us, we're right here.
Clink.
I held my bottle out with a wry smile, and the other three met it, all four glass bottles knocking together at once.
The crisp ring of glass rang out in every direction, and each of us plucked up a snack we'd had our eye on and popped it into our mouths.
Not bad.
The snack had a texture like the potato chips I used to eat in my past life, laced with a gentle sweetness like chocolate — honestly pretty good.
And I'm not one for sweets, so that was high praise coming from me.
The kind of thing just about anyone could enjoy without complaint.
"Hhhgggh…"
"What are you doing?"
We were all busy alternating between snacks and drinks when I heard what sounded like someone in agony beside me.
I turned to find Tina, face scarlet, wearing the expression of a child about to burst into tears.
And her tongue — not a playful little bleh, but stuck out like a serpent's, stretched to maximize its contact with the air. A sight so stomach-turning I nearly lost my appetite on the spot.
"H-hooot… wahhter…!"
Watching her flail both hands wildly at the empty air like a mindless zombie, I pointed at the perfectly intact bottle sitting right in front of her.
"Is the drink in front of you just decoration?"
"B-but iht's spicy…!"
Watching her thrash her arms in protest at my advice, my brain briefly blue-screened.
A spicy drink? What does that even mean?
Across two lifetimes I'd had sweet drinks, bitter drinks, drinks so greasy I could barely choke them down — but I had never once seen or heard of a drink that was spicy.
It didn't seem like the right moment to interrogate the victim herself, so as I stood there puzzling over it, Rone picked up the bottle in front of Tina and read the label aloud for her.
"It says, 'Random Flavor Drink. Put your luck to the test.'"
"Reaping what she sowed, I see."
I'd been half-wondering if the drink itself was defective, but I shrugged and closed the case with a tidy verdict.
At the very least she could have taken a small sip and spit it out. Gulping the whole thing down on the spot was the insane part.
Then again, the fact that she managed to swallow something that spicy at all was impressive in its own right.
"Oh, right — Bell. You probably haven't heard the news yet."
"What news?"
Arden, seated across from me, spoke up while I was busy ignoring Tina's suffering and munching away.
Something had happened during the week I was gone?
After personally living through the unexpected variables of the Mages' Forest incident, a chill ran down my spine all the same.
Dear god, please let it not be some garbage news.
"Because of the incident, our class and Class D's external expedition got canceled. Instead, they're moving the Exchange Meeting up on the schedule."
"…What?"
The first half was welcome news, but the second half was not something I could just wave off — my eyes snapped wide open.
What's being moved up?
What kind of heart-stopping news is that to drop on a man who got out of the hospital today?