The Ground Hardens After the Rain (1)
The first year at the Academy came to an end, and winter arrived.
Winter break—a brief chance to catch his breath after a semester spent swinging a sword day in and day out.
And so the Hero, Gehmajoshigi-gwat, was spending his vacation caring for children at a remote orphanage out in the western provinces.
'So in the end, I couldn't confirm it this time either.'
Ethan Richard Blackwood's exclusive maid, Lilith Rosewood. She was now a noble of the Blackwood branch family, going by the name Lilith Blackwood Rosewood—but there was no way Gehmajoshigi-gwat didn't know that she was the Lilith from the original game.
And more than that, he had lately begun to suspect that this Lilith might be a transmigrator, just like him.
The way she had stepped in to stop Agnes from drinking at that banquet, and the ease with which she'd handled Nathalie when she got drunk—watching all that, he had come to think that it was probably the case.
Of course, there was still room for it to be a misunderstanding, so Gehmajoshigi-gwat wanted a little more certainty before committing to the idea.
'At the last banquet, I was supposed to get it out of Lilith's own mouth, one way or another.'
But the banquet that day had dissolved into nothing thanks to Nathalie's rampage. Drunk out of her mind, she had thrown a fit and insisted on a sparring match—not with him, but of all people, with Ethan.
Thanks to Lilith's quick wit, he had managed to get her calmed down and put to bed, but that was as far as things went.
The moment Nathalie went quiet, Ethan and Lilith both slipped straight out of the after-party, and the mood among those left behind wasn't exactly what you'd call good, either.
'Honestly, this kind of gathering doesn't suit me. It seems my presence put Nathalie in a worse mood, so I should be the one to take my leave first.'
'Wait a moment, Young Master Ethan. I'll apologize on Nathalie's behalf for what happened, so if we could just talk for a minute—'
'I don't see what good an apology does when it doesn't come from the person who caused the trouble. And even if I accepted it, I doubt that would give me a reason to stay here.'
'…….'
'If Young Master Ethan says so, then I shall withdraw as well.'
'…Lilith could stay a little longer. I saw one of your Hero Party acquaintances over there earlier. Feel free to go catch up with her before you head back.'
'No, I will take my leave as well. If I'm to prepare for our departure to the Blackwood estate at dawn tomorrow, I should head in now.'
'…If you insist.'
Ethan had never been fond of him to begin with. Gehmajoshigi-gwat could still remember the way Ethan's brow had furrowed the instant their eyes met.
Already in a sour mood, Ethan had poured out his complete displeasure through the oil Nathalie had spilled on the whole affair, and Lilith—Ethan's exclusive maid, who had shown her exhaustion while calming Nathalie down—naturally exited right along with him.
Seraphin did her best to gather the remaining guests and force the conversation along, but a mood broken once never returns to what it was.
It had been a precious occasion that Seraphin had arranged at his own request, and in the end, he couldn't learn whether Lilith was a transmigrator or not.
…No, if anything, maybe it was a mercy that he'd merely failed to get what he wanted, and nothing worse.
The banquet that day came back around, in the end, as the worst possible outcome for the Hero Gehmajoshigi-gwat.
Because fine cracks had begun to spread, ever so subtly, through the founding lineup of the Hero Party he had worked so hard to assemble.
"P-please, everyone, stop…! If you play with food, n-noona's going to g-get you…!"
"You lost your doll, and you're telling me it's my problem? Can't you go look for it yourselves? Did you think I rode all the way out here in a stuffy carriage to play nanny to you brats?"
Charity work at the western orphanage.
It was one of the episodes selectable during the first-year winter break of Luminor Academy.
The story of uncovering a string of child disappearances at the orphanage where Serista had grown up—her hometown, in a sense—and ripping out the roots of the Dark Cult at their source.
It was one of the larger events in the game, so under normal circumstances, it would never have been just the three of them. Aside from Serista and Silena, who were off dealing with children on the other side of the grounds, Gehmajoshigi-gwat had intended to bring every remaining member of the Hero Party.
It was a rare event that boosted party members' experience, affinity, and bonds all at once—and besides, he'd wanted to make the final battle against the Dark Cult officer behind the disappearances that much easier.
Yet the roster for the orphanage volunteer work had shrunk by half, leaving only three.
Nathalie, upon seeing her own disgraceful behavior replayed through Seraphin's recording artifact, had gone into shock and fled home to her village.
Thomas, who had planned to swing by his hometown and join up a little late, sent nothing but letters saying he couldn't make it after all, worried as he was about Nathalie's state.
And Agnes, after witnessing Nathalie's raucous meltdown, had apparently lost whatever affection she had for the Hero Party entirely and returned to her family estate without a word.
So in the end, after everything circled back around, the only two willing to follow him anywhere were Serista and Silena—the two of them, who had come along to the orphanage all the same.
…Of all people, the two with the worst possible compatibility with small children, at this orphanage event.
"Haah…. What on earth are you crying about? You're the one who couldn't keep track of your own things. Knock it off already."
"B-but I told you not to p-play with your food…! Waaaah…! Wh-why do you keep b-bullying me, noona…! Hic… h-hic…!"
One person making a child cry. One person crying because of a child.
Silena, far too fiercely independent to look after children—and Serista, far too soft-hearted to deal with their mischievous pranks.
Watching the two of them, he couldn't help missing the people who were supposed to be here in the first place.
If Nathalie and Thomas—both from the same hometown, both experienced with looking after neighborhood kids—had been here, they could have taken a great deal of the weight off Serista's shoulders.
And even Agnes, for all her poor people skills, had a strange knack for getting along with children younger than herself.
The western orphanage volunteer event, minus those three, had been promising him a world of trouble from the very start.
'Did I really just create pointless complications by stirring up things that were never in the original story?'
If that was the case, would it be better to simply move according to the original walkthrough, thoroughly and without deviation?
But if events flowed along the original plotline, then by the end of second year, he would ultimately have to cross blades with Ethan in a fight to the death.
'I don't know. Either way, I've still got about a year left.'
Considering how emptily he had wasted the past year, a year didn't feel like such a long time.
For now, it was time to soothe Serista, who was weeping woefully all over again, and teach Silena how to handle children.
"Silena, they're just little kids. If you bear down on them like that, how are they supposed to understand? And Serista, stop crying. All of you—if you make your teacher cry, a demon will come out from under your bed when you're sleeping…"
All he wanted was to defeat the Demon King and go home. For him, it was nothing but an exhausting procession of days.
Unlike summer break, with its endless parade of bothersome affairs, winter break flew by in the blink of an eye.
For one thing, the return trip to the Blackwood estate had been delayed by Seraphin's student council duties, and for the same reason, the return to school came quickly as well.
Of course, thanks to the incident at that after-party, the atmosphere upon their return remained far from pleasant.
"……."
"……."
"……."
"My, my, what's the matter with everyone~? Why on earth is the council room so quiet today~?"
Only Orion, who hadn't attended the after-party, carried on in his usual breezy manner, while the rest of the members all radiated a strange, prickling awkwardness.
"L-Lilith…. Here's the first-semester budget list for the club subsidies…."
"…Thank you, Lady Auguste."
"Y-yeah…."
Lizzie—who had clung to me and thrown a drunken tantrum over two cocktails—avoided my eyes with an embarrassed expression.
"…Here are the audit documents for last quarter's drinking fountain replacements, Madam President."
"Th-thank you, Young Master Ethan…."
Seraphin, who had invited guests without Ethan's knowledge and put him through such an unpleasant ordeal, couldn't even lift her head in front of him.
Four people in one room, plainly divided into aggressors and victims with no room for debate. Naturally, the mood couldn't be good.
Lizzie, I supposed, had simply misjudged her own tolerance, so that was forgivable. Seraphin, in fairness, had no way of knowing Nathalie's drunken habits—she could argue she was blameless.
But even so, if she was going to plead her case, she should at least have given the student council members some warning that the Hero Party would be attending.
Since Seraphin had invited Gehmajoshigi-gwat's party of her own accord, without consulting the confirmed attendees beforehand, the problems that resulted were her responsibility in the end.
She had probably assumed that her only duty was to coax the awkward, wounded feelings back into some semblance of easy familiarity.
As an imperial princess raised on a rigorous liberal education, Seraphin was knowledgeable across every field—finding common ground among people and building bridges between them was one of her greatest talents.
But even she had been powerless against the sheer ruthlessness of Nathalie's drunk behavior, and in the end, Seraphin had all but incurred a debt of sin against Ethan.
Over the winter break, a letter of apology, written in Seraphin's own hand, along with a gift, had flown from her to Ethan—and that much, at least, had softened my feelings somewhat.
…But it seemed Ethan was still carrying that incident around with him, tucked somewhere close.
'All because of things that were never in the original story, everything keeps tangling up….'
Being at odds with Seraphin at this stage of things was not a good omen.
Whatever else could be said of her, she was a genuine ally from the beginning of Luminor Academy to its very end.
Falling out with Seraphin meant falling out with the Hero, Gehmajoshigi-gwat, by extension—and in the worst case, the Hero, standing at Seraphin's side, might come to regard Ethan as a villain.
A strained relationship that cooled into distance could somehow be mended later. But standing at her opposite pole was an entirely different matter.
Even as I quietly turned all of this over in my head, the hourglass kept draining, marking the end of the student council's workday.
"All the accounting audit work has been finished, so I'll be leaving now, President Seraphin."
"Oh, Young Master Ethan. If you happen to be free this evening—"
"My apologies. I still haven't finished unpacking the luggage from the estate. I need to have it sorted before the semester begins, so I'm afraid I don't have the time."
"…I see. There's nothing to be done about it. Get home safely, Young Master Ethan."
"Yes, President Seraphin."
Ethan's habit of cutting off Seraphin's careful, conciliatory overtures mid-sentence was overtly, almost scandalously rude—but since everyone except Orion and Lizzie knew that the source of his anger ultimately lay with Seraphin, no one could easily call his behavior into question. Not even Luke, Seraphin's ever-loyal attendant.
"Lilith, let's go."
"…Yes, Young Master Ethan."
Up until that moment, I still believed that the rift between Seraphin and Ethan was something I could help mend, with a little effort.
"I'm not joining the student council in the second semester, Lilith."
…That is, until we returned to the dormitory and those words came out of Ethan's mouth.