Arden Feltner (1)
The Exchange Meeting.
It was an event held just before the second semester began at Delos Academy, officially organized under the banner of giving first-years a chance to get acquainted with the upperclassmen.
And the single biggest event included in that Exchange Meeting was the Martial Arts Tournament.
Featuring the Academy's most outstanding cadets, the tournament was built on the hope that first-years, witnessing their seniors' remarkable skill, would take it as motivation to grow.
Of course, first-years were permitted to enter as well, but the general custom was for most of them to give up early and simply watch the second- and third-years fight.
Anyway, purpose or no purpose, all of that was fine and dandy.
The problem was that the Exchange Meeting, as mentioned before, took place right before the second semester started.
In other words, it was an episode that didn't unfold until roughly the midpoint of the original story.
Sirius made his first appearance at the Exchange Meeting too, wasn't it?
I sank into thought, recalling the story of the original novel.
【Puppeteer】 Sirius — the one I'd come face to face with during this whole affair.
He was supposed to be the main villain of the Exchange Meeting arc.
After the incident in the Magician's Forest, the Blessing of Astesia had been kept under the Academy's guard. To steal it, an infiltrator would use his innate magic to puppet professors and students alike, manipulating them into fetching the flower for him.
During the Exchange Meeting, the entire student body was roaming every corner of the Academy at the height of the festivities, so he'd timed his move to exploit exactly that chaos.
But in the course of it, an unforeseen variable came into play — and that was his encounter with Arden.
Arden, who remembered the face of the person who had killed his parents when he was a child, immediately drew his sword and lunged — only to end up backed into a corner in turn by Sirius, who used the enthralled students as a shield.
Fortunately, however, Marie — on whom a flag had been planted by this point in the story — happened to witness the fight while she was out looking for Arden, and she saved his life.
The problem is that both Arden and Marie are far weaker than they were at that point in the original.
That's right. In the original, the Exchange Meeting was held just before the second semester began — meaning at least three months from now.
By then, Marie would have already accumulated a fair amount of combat experience as one of the original cast; her handling of her Familiar would be far more practiced, and her magic considerably improved — good enough that she put up a genuinely impressive fight even against Sirius.
And Arden, the original protagonist, goes without saying.
The original story went like this: the two of them combined forces, defeated Sirius, and the whole affair ended without major incident.
But the two of them, as they stood now, simply didn't have that kind of strength.
Which raised the question of what kind of variable that would become at the upcoming Exchange Meeting.
Just because I knocked him down doesn't mean I can rest easy.
The truth was, my "victory" over Sirius had been nothing more than exploiting an opening in an opponent who was, for all intents and purposes, toying with us — barely managing a mutual-loss draw at that.
If he had committed his full strength from the very beginning, all four of us standing there would have had our heads taken off in an instant.
And judging by the Magician's Forest incident alone, I couldn't assume the enemy would be Sirius and Sirius alone, as in the original.
If other Followers showed up to back him, I'd need to shore up our own strength with that variable in mind.
Another thing to rack my brains over.
Sighing at the prospect of more scheming, I grabbed a fistful of the cookies in front of me and stuffed them into my mouth.
Whatever festive mood the party had managed to drum up felt like it was deflating in an instant. Honestly, why was this wretched world so dead set on making people's lives miserable?
Thud.
"Ack!?"
The desk I'd been staring blankly at suddenly lurched, and a voice brimming with flustered panic rang out right beside my ear.
Wondering what was going on, I lifted my head slightly to see Arden staring down at his lemon-yellow uniform, at a complete loss for what to do.
Looked like he'd spilled his drink.
Watching a grown boy turn red in the face over a little wet clothing stirred less sympathy in me than a slow rise of stomach acid up my throat.
"Arden. Here, tissues."
"I-I'm fine. I'll just go change and come right back."
Declining the tissues Tina offered, he hastily got to his feet and hurried out of the classroom with urgent steps.
From the look of it, he hadn't even spilled that much — wouldn't it have been smarter to just wait for it to dry?
Maybe he was secretly the fastidious type.
Anyway, right now, worrying about the road ahead of me took priority over fussing over a kid throwing a fit over a spilled drink.
I should probably spend the weekend giving this some thought.
According to Arden, the Exchange Meeting was a month away.
That meant I had enough breathing room to prepare — and unlike the Magician's Forest incident, this time there'd be no letting my guard down. I even had a hidden card tucked away for precisely moments like this.
The best outcome would be Sirius simply not showing up. Please, let it pass without incident.
Even while believing the odds were slim, I clung to that thread of hope.
Of course, hope was just hope — my actual job right now was to work out solutions in preparation for the worst.
There were any number of approaches, but the first one that came to mind was raising the strength of the two people most likely to cross paths with Sirius.
I'd rather keep a low profile, but there's no helping it.
Having drained the bottle of blue liquid clean, I slowly opened my eyes.
Across from me, Arden had already changed and returned at some point.
Ideally, I'd be the one to take down Sirius myself — but since he was the man who had murdered this kid's parents, I ought to at least grant him the chance for revenge, as much as possible.
If it came to it, I could bend the plan. For now, let's just start plotting.
On any other weekend, this morning would have been leisurely.
Today, too, I flailed out of my covers at the alarm of larks chattering raucously outside the window since dawn.
"Ugh…."
Every fiber of my being wanted to sleep more.
I'd only been out of the hospital a short while — surely I'd earned the right to laze around for at least one weekend?
I mean, Professor Seras herself had told me to devote this entire weekend to nothing but recovery.
And with the bitter late-winter chill finally on its way out, staying right here and sinking into a deep, blissful sleep seemed like pure happiness.
"Hoo."
Suppressing the primal urges swarming over me, I sprang out of bed with a sharp jerk.
I'd only just resolved one crisis — why on earth was I signing up for this fresh suffering first thing in the morning? A fundamental question. But there was nothing to be done.
If only to spare myself a far greater ordeal later, today's effort was a necessary investment.
In other words: the sacrifice of the small for the sake of the great.
Weather feels warm.
Only after changing into light, comfortable clothes did I finally glance out the window to gauge the temperature.
This dorm room, drafty as it was — though nowhere near as bad as back home — had one virtue: you could roughly infer the weather outside without leaving your bed.
It was a little pathetic that I was even listing such a thing as a virtue.
Creak.
Accompanied by the short-lived shriek unique to an unoiled hinge, I stepped out of my room.
The corridor felt a touch chillier than inside, but it was pleasantly brisk — nothing my current outfit couldn't handle.
Knock, knock.
When I reached another student's door at the far end of the hall, I knocked without hesitation.
He kept better hours than I did, so I had complete faith that at this hour he'd be wide awake.
"Arden, you up?"
"…Oh, uh, yeah. I'm up. Something wrong this early?"
Arden's voice came through the door a beat late, clearly flustered.
Maybe he hadn't expected a visitor first thing on a peaceful weekend morning.
Or — wait, had he actually been sleeping? His voice sounded far too alert for that, though.
"Nothing to do on the weekend anyway, so I figured we'd loosen up with a spar. One round."
I tossed it out as casually as I could manage, playing down the speech I'd rehearsed.
Instantly, a voice thick with confusion floated back from the other side.
"A spar? Out of nowhere?"
"Yep. First off, can you open the door? I feel like an idiot standing out here."
"Ah — it's unlocked, come on in."
Oh, so that's how it was.
I always cracked my door before sleeping, so I'd just assumed everyone did the same.
Feeling slightly sheepish, I opened the door and stepped in — and there across the room sat Arden on his bed.
"You sleep wearing that ring?"
His clothes were rumpled and plain, but the silver ring on his index finger was as present as ever, and my eyes drifted to it without meaning to.
I'd never worn a ring myself so I couldn't say for certain, but didn't most people take theirs off at night and leave it on the nightstand?
"W-well, I wear it all the time, so taking it off is more of a hassle. Ahaha…."
"Hm. I see."
The awkward laugh grated on me, but I decided there was probably a reason for it and let it slide.
Whether someone else wore a ring or didn't was none of my business.
"More importantly — a spar? What brought this on?"
"Just felt like it. When I thought about it, we'd never actually crossed blades, so I figured it was a good opportunity."
It was a conveniently improvised excuse, but I thought it held up well enough. It wasn't even a lie.
Sure, I'd stuck close to Arden ever since entering the Academy, but we'd never once faced each other in class or during any of our free time.
Knowing that the original Arden was a strength-hider, maybe part of me figured a spar would be pointless — he'd never go all out anyway.
A one-sided bout like that meant nothing.
And true to my expectations, Arden responded with visible reluctance, scratching his cheek.
Presumably he couldn't show his full strength, but didn't think he could handle even a watered-down version of me without it being obvious.
"If it's training you want, wouldn't you be better off sparring with that guy in Class B you're always fighting? What was his name again?"
"Phorion?"
"Right, him. He'd probably serve you better than I would."
Trying to palm me off onto Phorion while pretending it's for my own good. How shameless can you get?
If ever there was proof he was a strength-hider, every single one of his actions made me want to pinch the bridge of my nose.
But I'd anticipated this move too, so I simply shrugged and answered with as bland an air as I could muster.
"I spar with him all the time. Well, if you really don't want to, suit yourself."
"N-no, it's not that I don't want to…."
'Fine, if you're declining, that's that' — I nudged his conscience with just that undercurrent, and Arden frantically waved his hands.
Just as expected.
He'd had a borderline pushover personality in the original too, so pushing him like this made it nearly impossible for him to say no.
Honestly, whether I sparred with Arden or not was neither here nor there for me.
Don't get me wrong — he was a good sparring partner, but there were plenty of other ways to grow stronger, and worst case I could always ask Professor Seras again.
Still, if only to eliminate the variable that loomed ahead, the original protagonist's strength needed to be cultivated.
In other words, I was using myself as experience points.
And along the way, it wouldn't hurt to get a firm read on exactly where his abilities stood right now.
No guarantee I'd win, but I won't be swept aside easily.
We weren't enemies, and I had no particular need to beat him.
All I needed was to be an even match — just strong enough to push Arden's growth along.
"…Alright. I'll just change and head out, so wait for me outside, okay?"
Having finally caved to my request, Arden rose from the bed and effectively showed me the door.
Honestly, the words 'why not just change here?' climbed all the way up my throat, but I swallowed them and stood up as well.
Even between two guys, there were lines of privacy you simply didn't cross. Mm.
"Right. I'll wait outside."
"Yeah."
Just as I turned to leave the room —
A word of warning I needed to give him beforehand sprang to mind, and I pivoted back, fixing Arden with a grave look as I spoke.
"Just in case — don't you dare go easy on me because of the spar."
"……"
At those words, his tightly pressed lips held for a moment, his eyes widening bit by bit — then they settled back to normal, and his trademark good-natured smile spread across his face.
To my eye, it looked like a smile strained out through sheer embarrassment.
"As if. What could I possibly have that'd let me go easy on you?"
"…Good to hear."
Having said this much, with a personality like his, even if he held back a measure of his full strength, his heart would be in it completely.
And then all I'd have to do was pry the strength out of him from there.
"Hoo."
The moment the thought landed, a wave of crushing reality washed over me.
Why was it me suffering like this, all because of one pathetic protagonist?
I'm collecting on this debt later, Marie or not, I vowed, and stepped out into the hall.