The Noble Lady's Intuition
"Oho. Sharp as ever, aren't you?"
"Something feels off? What do you mean?"
Theo scratched the back of his head, taking a moment to choose his words. When the pause stretched a little too long, he finally spoke, carefully.
"The way the others treat Faye so casually… No, wait. They're friends, so being casual makes sense. Still, it feels like they're too comfortable, or maybe too dependent. Actually, this is a party, and considering Faye's stamina is way above everyone else's, maybe it's not that strange after all…"
Despite how long he'd thought about it, his explanation came out muddled and hard to follow. Eventually he gave up and shook his head.
"…Sorry. I did feel like something was off, but trying to put it into words just doesn't work. Must've been my imagination."
"It's fine. Tell me again once you've sorted it out."
For someone who usually overthought everything, Theo's words felt unusually weak. But that was normal. In fact, the fact that he'd even sensed something strange this time was more surprising.
What Theo had noticed was the starting point of the story meant to recruit Faye. I'd told him before that Faye was lower on the recruitment priority list. The reason was that her misfortunes only began after third year. Had I mentioned that too? Yeah, I probably had.
Before third year, Faye lived an ordinary, blessed life. There were signs of future misfortune, sure, but they were the kind of events anyone might encounter while living normally. And now he was already picking up on them? Even if he was still uncertain, that was impressive.
Of course, in the reality we were living now, that future wouldn't happen. To put it simply, Faye's misfortune stemmed from the fact that she was a noble. A baroness, at that. Barons held the lowest rank among nobles. Some baronial houses managed to wield power if their territory had valuable specialties or if the family had exceptional talents, but Faye's family, the Ronand house, was nothing more than a tiny, insignificant clan owning a few villages in the remote countryside. Their position was extremely vulnerable to political entanglements. If she'd been a commoner, she could've abandoned everything and disappeared, but even a worthless noble house was still nobility, and that made things difficult.
Right now, Faye's party members were grateful for her outstanding skills and tried to repay her accordingly. But people tend to take kindness for granted if it continues. By third year, they'd start treating Faye's efforts as expected. When she tried to leave, they'd bring up her family and threaten her, leaving her no choice but to sacrifice herself. And the more her talent shone, the faster that situation would accelerate, turning what had been a problem between classmates into a conflict between houses…
Let's stop there. I didn't want to think about it anymore either.
Anyway, that future hadn't arrived yet, and it never would. Right now, at the start of first year, it was just a party of noble young ladies hanging out and laughing together as ordinary friends. Yet he'd already noticed the strange signs. I should praise him for that.
"…What? Why are you suddenly smacking my shoulder?"
"You're too tall for me to pat your head."
"Hearing you say weird things means you're back to your usual self, Luna."
This guy, even when I compliment him. I considered kicking him but held back. I'd decided to praise him for once, so I'd generously let this slide.
◆
Time passed, and the third dungeon practical came to an end. Students were now allowed up to the fifth floor. Other classes had already suffered casualties—half from recklessness, half from carelessness. Our Class B had injuries, but no deaths. That was nothing short of good luck. Even in this medieval fantasy world where life was cheaper than in the modern one, losing a classmate would inevitably darken the class atmosphere. I didn't like heavy moods. So it was fortunate there were no fatalities.
That said, our class wasn't exactly running on pure optimism either.
"How far did you guys get today?"
"Midway through the fifth floor. We might even reach the latter half next time."
"You guys are fast. We only just reached the fifth floor today."
"The fourth-floor boss is especially tough. Now I get why the professor only allowed up to the third floor on the first day."
The difficulty spiked sharply with each floor. During the first practical, most students had cleared the third-floor boss, the final allowed section. Now, fewer than half the parties had cleared the fourth-floor boss. Of course, that had nothing to do with our party.
"Claire, are you okay? You got sent flying pretty far when you blocked the boss's attack earlier."
"I'm fine. I was just light, so I flew back. I blocked it properly, so there's no problem."
"Weight really is an issue. Theo, don't you have a spell to increase weight?"
"I do, but the duration is too short to be practical. It'd be better to find a magic tool with a similar effect and use it at the right timing. Want me to get one?"
"Could you really get one for me?"
"As long as you have the money, it's not hard. I've got a regular supplier."
Our focus was on checking and improving the small shortcomings we'd noticed during combat. Clearing the fifth-floor boss was a given; we'd even reached the point of shortening our clear times. Our progress was on an entirely different level from other parties still struggling to reach the fifth floor.
The reason we could advance this quickly was simple.
"As expected, it's the Goddess's blessing. After training there, this place doesn't feel like much of a trial anymore."
It was all thanks to the 'real' Academy Dungeon that the Goddess provided. To avoid confusion, let's just call it the Goddess Dungeon. This world didn't have status windows, so the Goddess Dungeon didn't give more experience than the Academy Dungeon or anything like that. Unfortunately. Still, fighting the stronger monsters in the Goddess Dungeon naturally improved our skills faster. And most importantly, there were no entry restrictions. While other students had to wait a whole week for their single practical day, we trained in real combat every single day. It was like the difference between entering a growth-resource dungeon once a week versus once a day in a mobile game. Cheating? The protagonist party was allowed to be a little unfair.
Of course, all of this was a secret. Claire's vague way of putting it was no exception.
"Claire."
"…Ah. I'm sorry."
Claire immediately realized her mistake and reflected on it. She quickly glanced around. Fortunately, her voice hadn't been loud, so almost no one had heard. The few who happened to catch it simply assumed it was typical priestly praise of the Goddess, given her status as a saint candidate, and didn't think much of it.
Except for one person.
"Hey, hey! What was that just now? You have a good training spot?"
It was Faye, the battle-crazy puppy who was always hungry for training and combat. Her tail seemed to wag so hard it blurred as she asked with undisguised curiosity.
"Sorry, Faye. This is our party's secret. You know how it is, right?"
"I know? Ah, you mean what the pretty lady said."
Her once vigorously wagging tail drooped. Or at least, it looked like it had.
"But it's different if it's you, Faye. How about it? Interested?"
"Huh? Yeah. Yeah!"
Faye nodded so vigorously her head looked like it might fly off.
"But while we're doing this, you'll have to stick with us. Are your friends okay with that?"
"I'll go ask!"
Faye dashed back to her party and returned shortly with one of her party members. The girl greeted us politely and spoke.
"Please take good care of Faye. It seems like training with us alone isn't enough to satisfy her anymore."
"Leave it to us. She'll definitely get stronger."
After a brief exchange, the girl returned to her seat. She seemed like an ordinary, good friend.
…Something about it felt strange. After all, the corruption that would turn her party members into trash was still far in the future. Right now, they were just friendly classmates. Still, seeing someone I'd already labeled as trash acting like a decent person left a weird taste in my mouth. Was this what regressors felt like? Redeeming villains before they committed their crimes, or something like that.
"Luna, why's your face like that? You look like you just bit into poorly dried blue slime jelly."
"…What kind of food is that. No, was my expression really that bad?"
"Yeah. It was pretty weird."
"Enough with the 'weird' comments. Let's do introductions first."
Claire hadn't been at the hideout the last time Faye visited, but since they were in the same class, it didn't take long. By the time introductions were done, the last party had returned from the practical, marking the end of the academy day.
We headed straight to the hideout.
"This place is still amazing no matter how many times I come! I can't believe there's somewhere like this in the academy."
"Right? It's useful in all sorts of ways."
When I pulled a bottle of alcohol from the fridge, Faye looked shocked.
"That's alcohol! I thought it was banned in the dorms!"
"But this isn't the dorms. And who's going to come catch us?"
"Whoa. Amazing!"
Theo, who'd been watching our exchange, spoke in disbelief.
"Luna. That's the alcohol I brought."
"Come on, it's not like you hid it. If you left it out, it means you're sharing, right? If you want to enjoy something alone, hide it."
"No, that's not what I meant… Whatever. Do what you want."
"Good, good. Simple and easy to understand, right? Faye, if there's anything you don't want to keep in the dorms, you can leave it here too."
"Got it. I don't have anything like that right now, though."
"You don't have to. Anyway, let's rest for a bit, then get ready and head to the dungeon."
"Dungeon? Not training?"
"Ah. I guess I haven't mentioned it yet. We're going to a dungeon. A place harder than the Academy Dungeon."
"A harder place?!"
Faye's eyes sparkled with anticipation and excitement as she echoed the words.