Don't Leave Like This
"Hey, did you hear?"
"Hear what?"
"That second-year who turned Kaiden into pulp! His name was… Zeke, right?"
"Oh. Yeah, yeah. I know. What about him?"
"Get this—he only got a one-month suspension…."
It was before the official disciplinary notice had even been posted on the bulletin board.
No one knew when or where the story had first taken root, but once it began to spread by word of mouth, the rumor tore through the entire Academy like wildfire on the wind.
Regardless of gender or year. In the hallways, in the dining hall, even out on the training grounds.
Students clustered together, rehashing what had happened during the duel over and over again.
"I heard he talked Kilian Borzi—the Knight Order commander—into a corner with pure words."
"I heard that too! Said the guy came out with his face completely red…."
"What the hell did he even say in there to walk out in one piece?"
"I'm more hung up on the fact that he only got a month of suspension…."
Even if the regulations technically left no grounds for complaint, he had laid hands on a noble. And not just any noble—a collateral member of the Borzi family, one of the Five Ducal Families. By every ordinary measure, it was the kind of disaster that should have meant expulsion at best, and vanishing without a trace at worst, with no one left to complain.
No one said it out loud, but everyone had quietly assumed the minimum would be expulsion.
That it had ended in a suspension—and a relatively light one of only a single month—was more than enough to leave a great many people suspicious.
"So Lorraine must have pulled some strings behind the scenes, right?"
"Lady Lorraine? Why would she bother with some commoner?"
"Tsk tsk tsk… You really don't know a damn thing, do you. He's the commoner Lorraine dotes on."
"Ah…."
"I don't think that's it. I saw her this morning—when she heard the news, her face went completely white and she started running around like crazy."
"…So you're saying he actually handled it himself? A commoner, against a ducal family's Knight Order commander?"
"……."
The rumors kept chaining into one another, growing longer by the hour.
At that same moment, inside a dormitory room.
Click.
Zeke was packing the bare minimum into a single, spare bag.
An Academy suspension, by principle, meant eviction from every facility on campus—including the dormitories.
In other words, for one month he would have to live outside the Academy walls.
To anyone else it would have looked like a harsh punishment. But in this moment, at least, it was a greater reward than anything else he could have asked for.
I can skip the useless classes and move freely.
And legally, no less.
Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump.
The sound of someone sprinting down the corridor.
He had just started listening, wondering if something urgent had happened, when the footsteps drew steadily closer to his door.
"……?"
Bang!
"Hah! Hah! Huu… Hey—Z-Zeke! Is that—is that true?!"
"…Is what true?"
The dormitory door nearly came off its hinges as Hans burst in.
He looked like he hadn't stopped running the entire way; his face was flushed deep red. The moment he saw Zeke calmly packing a travel bag, he clawed at his own hair.
"…So it is true! Damn it—hey! You're just going to take the suspension lying down?"
Ah.
Only then did Zeke seem to understand the situation. He waved a hand lightly, telling him to calm down.
"Is that all this is about."
"'Is that all'—that's not how this works, you bastard! You should've at least yelled that it was unfair! Or contacted Lady Lorraine or something!"
"Hans. Keep your voice down. They can hear you out in the hall."
Ziiip.
Zeke answered while leisurely closing the zipper on his bag.
Inside were a few changes of clothes, some essentials, and a notebook holding the schedule of future plans he had written out the day before.
It was barely enough to call luggage.
"You know as well as I do. There was no way to dodge the discipline. They sent a Knight Order commander from a ducal house—the Academy had to save face somehow."
"Even so… even so, a whole month is too long! And once you're outside the Academy—you think the Borzi bastards are just going to leave you alone? What if they send an assassin after you right away?!"
The voice of a friend who was genuinely worried for him.
The image of Hans from his previous life—throwing his own body in the way to save him, and dying for it—flickered through Zeke's mind. His gaze softened, just barely.
"Don't worry. I don't die that easily."
"Aigoo, this hopeless idiot… If I'd known it would come to this, I would've gone with you."
Even if he had tagged along, it probably wouldn't have changed much.
Hans clawed at his hair as if his insides were about to explode, then pulled a jingling leather pouch from his pocket and tossed it onto Zeke's bag.
"What's this?"
"…It's not much. Use it for inn fees and food while you're out there."
"……."
Zeke looked down in silence at the leather pouch settled on top of his bag.
He knew Hans's family wasn't well-off either. The money he was offering had to be everything he had scraped together over a long time.
Feeling a tight ache settle in a corner of his chest, Zeke took the pouch and pressed it back into Hans's hand.
"I'm fine. I'll take the thought."
"Hey, you jerk!"
"And Hans."
As if to ask what he could possibly have to say all of a sudden, Hans wore a baffled look. Zeke gripped his shoulder hard.
"Wh-what? What is it?"
"Don't slack on your training while I'm gone. Shield practice. Every day. No skipping."
"H-haah…?"
Hans, still looking like he had no idea what any of this meant, heaved a deep sigh and sank down onto the bed—when another set of frantic, gasping footsteps came pounding down the dormitory corridor.
Thud-thud-thud-thud!
"…Seniormmm!"
The person who appeared in the doorway was Airi, breathing hard.
Her breath had climbed all the way to her throat; her platinum blonde hair was a tangled mess.
"…Airi?"
"And what are you doing here? How did you even get in? This is the men's dormitory!"
"Senior Hans, please be quiet for a second!"
Hans let out a startled yelp, but Airi didn't so much as glance his way.
Her emerald eyes were locked on Zeke's bag as if they had been fixed there.
"Is it… is it really a suspension? A whole month?"
"Rumors sure travel fast."
Zeke answered evenly as he slung the bag strap over his shoulder.
"…Why? Why didn't you say anything! Senior Kaiden was the one in the wrong first! He even used mana, didn't he!"
"……."
Zeke was the one who had been suspended, yet tears were already welling at the corners of Airi's eyes as if she herself had been wronged.
Her shoulders trembled faintly with indignation and fury—painful enough to watch that anyone looking on would have felt sorry for her.
"I-I'll write to my father. If we lodge a formal protest with the Academy in the name of the Leticia family, they might shorten the term!"
"No—at the very least I can ask them to let you stay in the dormitory. So please, Senior… don't go."
The Leticia Count Family was one of the Empire's most renowned magical houses. With their influence, it wouldn't have been impossible.
"Airi."
Facing the tears already gathering at the edges of her reddened eyes, Zeke quietly shook his head.
"Y-yes?"
"I appreciate the thought. But don't."
At Zeke's low voice, Airi froze and closed her mouth.
"I like this suspension. There's no reason to get it cancelled."
"But…!"
"Be rational. Airi Leticia."
She flinched.
"Se…nior?"
"If you step in, it becomes an all-out conflict between the Leticia family and the Borzi family. You're not planning to drag your entire house into a mud fight over someone like me, are you."
Toward a girl whose reason had been clouded by anger, Zeke spoke in a tone that was calm and, in its own way, considerate of her. Airi could only bite her lip, unable to find another word.
It was a cold thing to say—but nothing in what he had said was wrong.
"Th-then… come to the Leticia Count Family's villa instead! I'll speak to my father and arrange everything…!"
"No. I already know where I need to go."
"Senior…."
"Don't make that worried face. For me, this is actually a good thing."
"Haaah?"
"…What?"
Airi and Hans made the same blank sound at the same time.
They clearly wanted to ask what kind of nonsense he was talking about.
Zeke slung the bag higher on his shoulder and allowed himself the faintest smile.
On the path leading out of the dormitory building toward the Academy's main gate.
The sky was unusually heavy, packed with dark clouds as if a downpour might break at any moment.
The farther he walked toward the gate, the more he felt the sidelong glances of the students around him.
Yeah? So what.
Stare or don't. He kept walking without so much as a glance in return.
If they had something to say, they could come find him themselves.
Assuming they had the guts.
He moved at a brisk pace, and before long the Academy's massive iron gates came into view—
and the feet that had shown no sign of stopping came to a complete halt.
"……."
In the middle of the path.
A figure stood waiting for him, as if she had been there all along.
Sad eyes visible through hair stirred by the wind.
The silver insignia of the highest class gleaming on her neatly worn Academy uniform.
Lorraine Justain.
She stared blankly at the travel bag on his shoulder, then slowly lifted her head to meet his eyes.
"…Zeke."
Lorraine bit down hard on her lip before she finally managed to speak.
"Are you… really leaving?"
"The sentence was handed down. So I go."
"Why wouldn't you even talk to me about it first…!"
"Because there was no reason to."
It wasn't deliberate.
But whenever he dealt with her, he ended up colder and drier than he ever was with Hans or Airi.
Sensing that difference in temperature, Lorraine's eyes trembled faintly.
"I can help. I can."
"……."
"I'll speak to my father and have the Justain family stand as your guarantor. All right?"
"Even the Borzi family won't dare move freely if our house officially shelters you. I can get the suspension cancelled too. So please… please just accept my help, Zeke."
Her voice was shaking, faintly.
It was a pleading voice.
A desperate thrashing meant to hold him in place.
"I don't need it."
"Don't be like that—just listen to me once…!"
"That's enough, Lorraine. I told you not to concern yourself."
His voice was cold enough that even he could feel the chill in it.
If he could feel it, it had to be striking her far harder.
He hadn't meant to be cruel. He hadn't.
Don't forgive me.
Every time he faced her.
The voice of the girl who had betrayed him in another life circled his ears like a curse.
"Zeke… please, please don't do this…."
Plip—at last a thick tear spilled from Lorraine's eye and fell.
Unable to hold herself back any longer, she took a step forward and seized the front of his clothes.
Those trembling fingers.
They held a desperation so raw it was almost wretched.
"Don't leave like this… don't leave me behind…."
"I'll fix it somehow. Even if I have to beg my father—even if I have to stake everything and stand as guarantor myself—I'll get your sentence cancelled…!"
"……."
Lorraine's face as she clung to his collar through her tears, begging him not to go.
At the touch of those desperately shaking hands, something in his chest dropped hard.
For an instant his body locked up.
"It was all my fault. So… okay? P-please don't leave like this…."
Her voice calling for him so pitifully.
It was shaking something loose inside him.
"……."
Plip. Plip.
As if to speak for how she felt.
Rain began to fall from the sky, one drop at a time.
He is a traitor to the gods. Kill him!
Kill the traitor!
Strike off the head of the one who dared betray the Empire! Executioner!
A sky of raw, swollen red-violet. The soldiers' shouts shredding his ears.
And her final face, looking down at him and weeping in the moment his head was cut from his body.
Don't forgive me.
Like tinnitus, that voice slammed against his ears and jolted his mind awake.
"……."
He bit down hard on his lip. The coppery taste of blood flooded his mouth, and his senses snapped back into place.
The memory of betrayal was still carved into his soul.
Even if the Lorraine standing in front of him now knew nothing—even if she would never betray him—
he had no intention of entrusting his future to her the way he once had.
So move.
"……."
You useless, frozen body.
Move. Tear that hand off and move. Now.
…I said move!
Ssshh.
"…Ah."
With the feeling of coughing up blood, he forced one step. Then another.
He felt the fingers clenched in his clothes go slack and fall away.
"I'll be back in a month. Stay well."
"Zeke! Zeke! No—don't go! Please…!"
A scream of a cry calling his name desperately rose behind him, but he did not stop walking.
No—he could not stop. If he stopped here, he felt he would never be able to leave her behind and move forward again.
"……."
With heavy steps he crossed fully beyond the Academy's massive iron gates, and only then let out the breath he had been holding.
"Huu…."
The rain struck like falling needles, piercing straight into his heart.
He thought he might be sick.