Reunion
As expected, they’re stepping in.
I thought this while watching the backs of Elion’s group. Sure enough, they moved exactly as I had predicted. Given how they had behaved so far, the pattern wasn’t hard to read. In fact, it was practically inevitable. Whenever anything happened at the Academy, Elion’s party always shoved their way in to take a look. Most of the time, Rex seemed to be the spark that set things off. Still.
I’ll need to stay sharp this time.
The Knight of the Lake was no pushover. There was a real chance it could spiral into a serious disaster, so I had to watch with extra care. I trailed slowly behind Elion’s group. They never once suspected someone was following them as they headed for the lake. The campus was vast, so the walk alone took quite a while, yet the time didn’t feel long at all.
Before long, Elion’s party and I reached the vicinity of the lake.
“I-it’s here!”
I spotted the target. With a metallic clank, something wearing armor made its appearance. …Or rather, I should say the armor itself appeared. It wasn’t that someone was wearing the armor; the armor was moving on its own. The suit of armor wandered around the lake as if possessed by a ghost. That was the true identity of the so-called Knight of the Lake.
If someone asked how armor could move by itself, the answer involved a complicated set of circumstances. The lingering soul of a knight who couldn’t let go of his attachments to the mortal world had, through various processes, become tainted by the lake’s mana and half-materialized as a spirit. To put it simply, it was something like a half-ghost, half-spirit hybrid.
Clank. The armor—no, the knight—saw Elion’s group and raised its sword. And just like that, the battle began.
Rex was first. He charged the knight with his spear. The sight was quite valiant, and his momentum wasn’t bad, but—
“Uwaah! What kind of strength…!!”
He couldn’t even handle a single blow and was sent flying.
Clang!
“It’s too hard!”
Delphine seized the opening to loose an arrow, but the shot failed to pierce the knight’s armor.
“I’ll hold it off!”
In the end, Elion had no choice but to step forward and face the armor directly. Yet even she—
“Ugh…!”
—was completely overpowered by the knight’s assault. Elion had long since surpassed the average first-year level. After defeating Bellard, that fact was undeniable. But even she couldn’t handle the armor one-on-one.
Eventually the four of them began attacking it together. Elion drew the knight’s attention while the others supported her and struck from the sides. It was true that Elion’s skill stood out among the group, but the other three were also well above the Academy first-year average. And since they had been coordinating for more than a day or two, their teamwork was easily enough to handle opponents two ranks higher.
The problem was—
Boom!
“Uwaah!”
—the armor far exceeded even that level. Despite their fluid, water-like coordination, Elion’s party struggled considerably. It couldn’t be helped. The soul that had become the armor’s core had been a formidable warrior in life.
Still…
From the way things were going, it looked like they would win. The battle itself was helping Elion’s party grow stronger.
If things keep progressing like this, that is.
But I had a feeling the situation wouldn’t stay that simple. It wasn’t certain—just a possibility. If nothing happened, that was fine. In fact, it would be better. Yet I couldn’t shake an inexplicable sense of unease. That was why I had come here and even prepared a tool in advance.
As I continued watching their fight, it happened. Just as I expected.
“Wh-what is that…!”
An ominous energy began pouring out of the armor. It carried a similar feeling to the aura the cat-like monster had emitted during the “weirdo incident.”
“Of course it wasn’t going to be that easy.”
Muttering to myself, I began to move. It was obvious at a glance. That unidentified energy was about to flip the tide of battle. Elion’s party, who had been fighting hard, would once again be overwhelmed by the knight. If I left them like this, all four of them could actually die.
So I would step in before that happened.
I took out the item I had prepared and got into position. A rock had been enough for the cat monster, but it wouldn’t cut it this time. The opponent’s level was different. Throwing a stone at this thing wouldn’t create any openings. Maybe the old me as Gunter could have managed it, but this current body made it impossible. That was why I had gone to the trouble of bringing a proper tool.
Vrrr. The object in my hand vibrated as it drank in mana. Sensing that it was fully charged, I hurled the javelin I held.
The target was, of course, the armor that was radiating sinister energy and preparing to move again.
Whoosh!
The javelin sliced through the air faster than an arrow. And then—
Boom!
—it blew off the armor’s arm along with part of its upper torso.
“Wh-what…!”
Rex and the rest of Elion’s party were thrown into confusion by the sudden turn of events. But fortunately, even in that urgent situation, someone kept a cool head.
“Now’s our chance!” Charlotte shouted.
“I don’t know what just happened, but…”
“We have to seize the opportunity!”
The others snapped back to their senses and rushed the knight.
…Good. This should be enough.
Watching them, I reached a conclusion. There was no need for me to intervene any further. And just as I expected, my prediction proved correct once again. Having gained the upper hand, Elion’s party began pressing the armor back. It was a rare being that was both ghost and spirit, but its main body was still just a suit of armor. It couldn’t do anything beyond the armor’s physical limits. In other words, once it lost an arm to the javelin, the outcome was essentially decided.
I observed the situation a little longer, then left once I saw Elion’s party delivering the final blow. I still had no intention of being discovered.
“Wow, I really thought we were done for this time…”
Rex wiped the sweat from his forehead with an expression that suggested he had aged ten years. He wasn’t the only one. The rest of the party looked utterly exhausted as well.
“…But who the hell was that?”
Rex suddenly voiced the question. The sentence was missing a lot of context, but the others understood him perfectly.
“This happened last time too.”
Last time—when they had faced the cat-like monster—something similar had occurred. A rock had flown in from somewhere and helped them.
“…Could it be the same person again?”
There was no evidence. Yet the entire group inwardly agreed. The situations were simply too alike.
It was then that Elion, who had been deep in thought, suddenly widened her eyes.
…No way?
A single hypothesis flashed through her mind. Both during the previous weirdo incident and this time, there was one clear common factor. Even setting aside the similarity of the events, it was power. In both cases, the intervention had required considerable strength—strength that clearly surpassed the student level. There weren’t many people in the Academy capable of that. And Elion knew one of them.
…What if it was Senior Kyle…?
Kyle Berwen. He could certainly do it. He possessed enough power to overwhelm even Bellard Berwen. And there was one more thing. Kyle Berwen had shown her—Elion—an inexplicable amount of goodwill. In other words, he had sufficient motive as well. There was no concrete proof, but it was a fairly plausible guess.
Could it really be…
Could it really have been Senior Kyle? Her heart began to race again at the thought, but—
“Elion?”
“Y-yes?”
Rex’s timely call brought her back to her senses.
“Do you have any idea who it might be?”
After a brief hesitation, Elion gave a small shake of her head.
“…No, I don’t.”
The possibility was strong, but she couldn’t be sure it had really been Kyle helping her. And even if it was, she had no intention of revealing it herself. She believed there must be a reason Kyle was hiding his identity while protecting her. So Elion lied to her friends. At the same time, she thought to herself that she really hoped it had been Senior Kyle.
Night had fallen over the Academy. Among the countless buildings spread across its vast grounds, inside one structure reserved exclusively for faculty—
“…Hm?”
A man suddenly lifted his head.
“…It disappeared.”
One of the seeds he had sown had suddenly vanished. It wasn’t a big deal. He hadn’t planted it with any grand purpose; it had merely been a minor experiment. The possibility of it being removed so abruptly had already been accounted for. Still, something about it bothered him.
“…It shouldn’t have been that easy to destroy.”
It wasn’t one of the seeds he had poured his heart and soul into, but its level was nothing to scoff at. The seed itself had possessed considerable strength, and when you factored in his own touch, there shouldn’t have been many people in the Academy capable of removing it.
“…A Saintess, perhaps.”
The first suspect that came to mind was a Saintess.
“Haa…”
Unlike his usual self, the man let out a sigh. He couldn’t contain his frustration. He had fled to this place to escape the Saintesses, yet it felt as if they were chasing him here. It was suffocating. It looked like he would have to lie low for a while. For the day when he would rise again.
Overcome by deep fatigue, the man closed his eyes.
“Ugh…”
I frowned at the pain radiating from inside my body.
…This body just refuses to get better.
There was still no sign of a full recovery, and the realization drew a sigh from me. But as I had told myself countless times, there was nothing I could do about it right now. All I could do was give this exhausted body some rest. I needed to get back to the dormitory quickly.
With that thought, I tried to quicken my steps when—
“…What are you doing?”
“……!!”
A voice suddenly called out from behind me. Startled, I spun around and saw it. In the darkness, silver hair and golden eyes shone with a clear, brilliant light.