I'll Protect You, Vel!
I'll protect Vel!
Letting Professor Penelinne's shrill voice drift in one ear and straight out the other, I mechanically copied the writing on the blackboard into my notebook.
Honestly, once I was already half ignoring her, I wasn't sure what the point of this was anymore — but sloppy class participation docked points too, so I had no choice but to at least look like I was studying. Whatever I failed to jot down, I'd just copy off Rone or Arden later.
Clack!
Just as I was hitting my stride with the note-taking, Professor Penelinne set down her chalk with a theatrical flourish and shifted her gaze somewhere off to the side. She was apparently checking the clock to gauge how much time remained until the end of class.
"Well, that's about all we can manage for theory today…."
Clap! Clap!
Her hawkish nose twitching, she stepped out from behind the lectern and clapped her hands to draw everyone's attention.
"Now then. I'll be assigning the homework you're to prepare for next class."
There were still a good ten minutes left, and I'd briefly wondered why she was letting us out early — turns out she simply had other business. Serves me right for hoping. I'm the fool here.
Come to think of it, though, wasn't this the first time Professor Penelinne had ever so much as mentioned an assignment? If I remembered right, the reason her herbalism class was mind-numbingly boring yet still managed a middling reputation among the cadets was precisely because there were no assignments.
"Seriously? An assignment?"
"Ugh, the lectures alone were already killing me…."
Right on cue, groans rippled through the room at her proclamation. Of course, no one had the guts to say it to Professor Penelinne's face, so it was barely audible — to my ears, at least.
In any case, Professor Penelinne — having just delivered what amounted to our death sentence — picked up the conductor's baton resting on her desk and swished it through the air. Immediately, something shaped like a soap bubble floated up beneath the overhead lamp, then promptly took the form of a glass bottle filled with a green liquid.
Is that a potion?
"This will be your assignment. Even the dimmest of you surely knows that most potions and elixirs are made from herbs."
Oh, we know. The question is why you had to tack on that little jab.
At this point, I was starting to suspect she did it purely to get under the cadets' skin.
"This potion in particular is called Mocher's Prank. Those of you in the know will recognize it, no doubt, but out in the world it's commonly called a love potion."
The word love seemed to stir quite a few hearts, because the eyes of the grumbling cadets lit up in an instant. Still — a love potion? If there was any doubt this wasn't a fantasy world, here was your answer. They had every drug under the sun.
So does that mean, literally, that whoever drinks it falls in love with everyone around them?
Magic or not, a potion was still just a potion at the end of the day. I had my doubts it could so easily toy with human emotions.
"By this time next week, each of you will brew one of these Mocher's Pranks and submit it to me. Naturally, sourcing the herbs and the recipe will be your own problem to solve. Kekeke."
Barely had Professor Penelinne's brief explanation ended when a male cadet in the front row raised his hand.
"Professor, do we not need to test it by drinking it ourselves?"
What a transparently motivated question.
But he clearly wasn't the only one thinking it — cadets all around, boys and girls alike, nodded along with an air of oh yes, I was just about to ask that too.
Professor Penelinne's response:
"Talk sense, you fool! If you botch the brew and send yourself to the afterlife, whose fault were you planning to pin it on?"
"I-is it really that dangerous?"
"Hmph. Brewing is the kind of work where the smallest error in the blend can turn a medicine meant to save a life into deadly poison. And you call yourself an academy cadet, not knowing that much…. Tsk tsk."
In other words: don't try anything cute, just make it and bring it in.
Disappointed sighs escaped from all corners at the professor's bark.
"Hoo…."
For some reason, Rone was among the sighing, but I did my best not to notice and looked away. She seemed to still have more she wanted to say.
"Also, this assignment will be done in pairs. Starting from the front row, pair up with the cadet in front of or behind you. The leftover halves can make do."
The room erupted into an even bigger commotion than when the assignment itself had been announced. Pair work was routine enough in other classes that nobody cared much about it in principle — but being told, out of nowhere, to pair up with whoever happened to be in front of or behind you, someone you barely knew? Naturally, that was what threw people off.
I was no exception.
If it had been the seat beside me, I could have just paired with Rone. But no — it had to be the seat in front of me. If I could have my way, I'd want to be paired with the person whose face I'd see as little as possible….
"Hee hee, Vel, we're partners! Looking forward to it!"
"...Ah."
Right. This girl sits in front of me.
* * * *
Of all people, it had to be her.
Tina had twisted around in her seat and was beaming at me with the sunniest of expressions, and I felt a sigh building in my chest all on its own. What a cruel, cruel reality.
I would have much rather gritted my teeth and powered through this on my own — why was fate so desperate to hang this burden around my neck? At this point, I half wondered if Professor Penelinne and I were bound by some vendetta dating back to the day I was born.
"Thank goodness I got paired with someone I know. Right, Vel?"
Watching her giggle away, wagging an imaginary tail like an overexcited puppy greeting her owner, I could feel my fist practically weeping. She might be something of a model student in herbalism class specifically, but she was the last person I wanted to be tangled up with.
I'd sooner take a stingy grade, honestly. Just imagining spending an entire day with my ears ringing from her chatter was already giving me a headache.
"Don't you worry about the group work — just leave it all to me! I know my herbs inside and out."
"...Sure."
She puffed up her chest and declared it with all the confidence in the world, yet somehow not a shred of trust materialized in return. She clearly thought she had this in the bag, but as far as I knew, she wasn't exactly deeply versed in herbalism either.
Less honor student, more the image of a model student whose class participation is simply good. Which is to say: there was a strong chance she was nothing but a shiny skin over a rotten peach.
Just as I was racking my aching head over how I'd navigate this ordeal, Rone and Arden — who'd been paired together — came over to us.
"By the way, pairs? That's unusual. The other professors always assign three or more per group."
"Eh, professor's discretion, I suppose."
Shrugging at Arden's remark, I closed the dreadful textbook and gave myself a light stretch. She had a point, though.
Group work was usually three-person or four-person teams. There were occasional exceptions where we had no choice but to work in twos — like the mock combat drills with Marie — but whenever actual cooperation was required, it was almost always three or more.
This was my first time being assigned a two-person pair too, so I did find it a little odd, but I figured the professor had her reasons and let it go.
That aside — any way you sliced it, this class was a special circle of hell. The practical sessions at least had some fun to them, experimenting with what herbs could do, but the theory lectures made me want to gouge my eyes out.
Opening my mouth wide in a yawn, I began gathering my things — textbook, notebook, the rest. The other cadets were already filing out of the lecture hall in ones and twos.
"You two got paired up?"
"Ahaha…. Looks like it."
Arden scratched her cheek sheepishly and stole a glance at Rone beside her.
Come to think of it, I knew Tina was fairly close with Rone, but I'd never actually seen this girl have a one-on-one conversation with her. I wondered how awkward they'd get if the two of them were left alone together. Might actually be entertaining to watch.
"U-um, Vel…?"
I was quietly chuckling to myself, picturing the week of spectacles to come, when Rone popped out from beside Arden and cautiously addressed me.
I didn't need to ask what she wanted, so I shot Arden a meaningful look.
"...You two go on ahead. I'll walk with Rone at our own pace."
"Got it. Come on, Tina."
"Ooooh! Left alone together in the lecture hall, doing this and that— owy!?"
Somehow a chihuahua came bounding in mid-sentence, but I brushed it off lightly. I turned to Rone, who'd risen from her seat, and looked up at her.
Resting my chin on my hand, I pointed at the seat across from me and invited her to sit — but she shook her head firmly back and forth, like a child steeling herself to be scolded by her parents, making it clear she intended to remain standing.
Standing like that, she didn't look eighteen. She looked eight.
"I-I'm sorry about earlier, Vel. Getting worked up over nothing…."
"...Eh, I wasn't really bothered. You were being unusually hysterical, so I did wonder if something had happened."
Rone sulking was nothing new — she'd done it plenty of times before — so it wasn't any great surprise. It was just that today, there hadn't really been anything to sulk about, which left me mildly puzzled when she snapped at me. But apparently it had been nothing serious.
"Uu…."
"...Pfft."
Watching her purse her lips in the silence that followed, groping for something to say, a small smile tugged at the corner of my mouth. Then or now, the moment she realized her own fault, she never knew what to do with herself.
But this time, I carried a bit of guilt too, for not playing along with her. Let's call it even.
Press.
"Hyaaah!? M-my hair, you ruined it…!"
The moment I stood up and pressed my palm down hard on Rone's head, she flailed both hands in furious protest. When I finally let go, her hair was admittedly a little more flattened than before, but that was no concern of mine — I scooped up my belongings and headed for the door.
"Anyway, if we're done talking, let's go. Our class has another off-site lecture next period, so we're short on time."
"Y-yeah. Oh, and, Vel…?"
"Hmm?"
With a strangely resolute expression, Rone gave a firm nod, then slid right up to me and abruptly grabbed my sleeve. Then, looking up at me — we stood nearly a full head apart in height — she suddenly recited some inexplicable vow.
"J-just believe in me! I'll protect you, Vel!"
...Protect me from what, exactly?
Here I'd been thinking she was at least paying attention in class. Had she dozed off and had a nightmare or something?