Ariel Academy (2)
I was walking down the hallway after finishing my meal, heading toward the second-floor training grounds. That’s when it happened. Lloyd, Bobby, and Louis—friends of the original Sian before I possessed him—had been trailing me since the cafeteria, constantly pestering me with questions.
“Sian, what the hell did you do over break? Did you get stranded in the Demon Realm or something?”
“Uh… I just went on a diet, that’s all.”
I answered Lloyd, who was about my height and had a slim build. If I suddenly cut them off and started walking alone, it would look suspicious. For now, I figured I should just play along.
“If we use Sian right, picking up girls is gonna be way easier than before. We won’t even need to go to the brothel anymore. Hehe…”
Louis, who was short with narrow eyes, smirked. I wondered if they were laying it on a bit thick. This face had become familiar from staring at it in the mirror every day back when I was fat, using it as motivation. But now, every time I saw it, it just looked too delicate. A man should have a wild, rugged charm. Maybe my eyes were a little too big, too…
“Fuck! The world really isn’t fair! I thought we were in the same boat, but who knew there was a face like that hiding behind all that blubber?!”
“……”
Bobby, the hulking giant, grumbled. Louis immediately started teasing him.
“Hey Bobby! Who knows? Maybe if you diet and lose some weight, you’ll end up looking like Sian!”
“R-really…? Should I start dieting from today?”
“Pfft, dumbass. You really believe that? You’d still look the same. Go get that crushed potato nose fixed first, idiot! Kick kick!”
“What did you just—?! You… you son of a bitch!!”
An enraged Bobby chased after Louis. The nimble Louis easily dodged him and kept taunting him the whole way.
…They really have no sense at all. I guess this is what you get when they’re the original Sian’s friends. Or maybe all guys this age just act like this. Either way, they all seemed to have a default setting of foul mouths and a serious weakness for women.
“Sian, where are you headed anyway?”
Lloyd asked as we walked down the corridor. I’d been lost in thought.
“…To work out.”
“Workout? C’mon man, forget that. Let’s go to the library and hit on the cute girls. The view was great today. If you show up, it’s game over, dude!”
“……”
No thanks. That would completely ruin my training routine. Because of Aria, I’d already had to push my afternoon workout to the evening. If I delayed it any further, I wouldn’t have enough recovery time before lunch the next day. Besides, girls my age all looked like little sisters to me. Just meeting them would probably fill me with guilt. Right now, building strength came first.
“If I skip even one day, I get anxious. Can’t do it.”
“Damn… what the hell happened to you over break? The old Sian turning down girls to work out…?”
We were almost at the training grounds at the end of the second-floor hallway when it happened.
“Hey, hey! Look over there! Look!”
“Ooh…!”
Louis pointed dramatically into the distance, making a huge fuss. Even Bobby, who had been chasing him in anger, instantly calmed down and stared ahead with his mouth open.
What’s got them so worked up? I looked forward as well.
…A girl? She was quite beautiful. These guys really were obsessed with women. She had the look of a cold beauty. So pretty she reminded me of a girl I knew…
Long black ponytail. A haughty, cat-like face, just like Aria…
Aria… like…
Wait. The girl walking toward us was actually Aria?!
I quickly ducked behind Lloyd.
“? What are you doing?”
“Ah, no… just let me stay like this for a second.”
“……?”
I couldn’t let her see me. If she recognized me, I’d get dragged into all sorts of trouble! Did Aria seriously work out twice a day? I thought she was just crazy about swordsmanship, but it turns out she’s just a muscle-obsessed maniac…
“Dude, is that even a human face? She’s soooo fucking pretty… seriously…”
“Hehe, I wonder if she’s ever had a boyfriend? If not, I could treat her right.”
Bobby drooled as he watched Aria approach.
…Was this a new form of suicide wish? She lived and died by strength. In the story, she sets her sights on Kain after he awakens his talent, naturally falls in love, and follows him as one of his heroines. Along the way, she gets caught up in countless incidents. Wanting to get involved with her was basically the same as saying, “I don’t value my life.” The more beautiful the flower, the more thorns it has. That saying fit her perfectly.
Judging by the reactions of the boys around her, Aria really must be insanely pretty. Well, in the story she’s called one of the academy’s top three beauties, so I guess it makes sense.
“Hey, how long are you gonna stay like that?”
“I’m good now.”
After Aria passed by without noticing me, I finally stepped out from behind Lloyd.
“Was my back that cozy, bro? Why’d you suddenly cling to me like that?”
“…Do more back exercises. It was so narrow I could barely fit.”
“What the—?! You little shit—?!”
This skinny bastard trying to act tough. Lloyd, Bobby, and Louis escorted me all the way to the training room door. When I asked if they wanted to work out together, they said they were going to the library to hunt for girls and then head to bed.
The training grounds were empty when I entered alone. It was nighttime, and the day before the semester started, so everyone probably had a lot to prepare. Tomorrow I’d finally be attending classes at the academy. It was still far off, but when I reached second year, I definitely needed to take magic classes. The original owner of this body had only taken a few swordsmanship courses, so I felt strangely disappointed. I wanted to learn magic and alchemy too…
…I spent four hours in the training room swinging my sword and doing back exercises on the machines. The facilities were so clean and excellent that I was able to work out in a great mood before returning to the dormitory.
I woke up early the next morning, ate breakfast in the cafeteria, changed into the white shirt uniform, and was on my way to the classroom. For some reason, a few girls kept glancing at me and whispering. At first I thought it was just paranoia and tried to ignore it, but that wasn’t the case. They were definitely whispering about me.
…Had they figured out I was the scoundrel noble, Sian?
Even after I entered the classroom and sat at the very top of the pyramid-style seating—the most inconspicuous spot—the stares from several girls remained the same.
“Is he a new student?”
“I’ve never seen him before. Go talk to him!”
“He looks like he’d reject me if I tried… You go talk to him—!”
Why did they keep sneaking glances?
“……”
“……”
Ah. In my growing anxiety, I ended up making eye contact with one of the girls who had been staring at me. A few seconds later, she realized and quickly turned her head away. But something felt off. Why was her face turning red…?
I couldn’t understand it. Was she angry? She was the one who kept looking first…
The occasional glances continued without stopping until a female professor entered through the classroom door. I didn’t want to dwell on it and it felt uncomfortable, so until then I just rested my chin on my hand and stared out the window, pretending not to notice.
“Did everyone have a good break~? I’m so happy to start the first day of the semester with all of you~!”
The female professor entered with a bright smile and greeted the students. She was someone who faintly overlapped between the original Sian’s memories and my own game playthrough. Swordsmanship professor Laura. One of the Sword Masters of the Lianna Empire. Looking purely at her Danjeon stage, she was already an ultra-elite swordsman who had surpassed six stars. She had gained fame from a young age by hunting countless demonic beasts as an adventurer. She was even an ‘S’ rank adventurer—one of the highest grades, of which only a few existed per country.
And yet here she was, graciously taking a part-time teaching position for money. In the story, many other master-level figures had twisted personalities or were eccentrics, making them unsuitable as professors. I was curious what kind of person Laura would be.
“Since it’s the first day, let’s start light and swing some swords! Everyone stand up and move to the practice field!”
She spoke cheerfully, her blue hair swaying. But the reactions from some of the students were strange.
“Aww~! It’s the first day, can’t we just do theory today—?!”
“It’s hot… so hot…”
“Boooooo—!”
Were they crazy? They paid an enormous tuition to come here and this was their reaction? Rejecting instruction from a national-treasure-level talent… It left a bad taste in my mouth. I guess kids will be kids. The academy’s facilities and interior felt like a university, but the classroom atmosphere was exactly like high school.
Half the students wore expressions of disapproval like mine at the kids’ behavior. The other half had been swayed by the complainers and clearly didn’t want to attend class.
“Come on~! Let’s get up, everyone. Teacher doesn’t want to go out in this heat either… But what can we do! We have to make progress if we want to take the exams!”
“Then let’s just not take the exams!”
“Yeah, yeah!”
“What are you even saying…? We have to take the exams.”
The more I watched, the more absurd it became. To think that a national-treasure-level Sword Master was not only teaching but also acting as a childcare master, soothing these brats. Just as I was thinking that—
From somewhere around the center seats of the pyramid-style desks, a cold voice rang out. It was like throwing a rock into the currently loosened atmosphere. The eyes of the chattering students all snapped toward the center. I, too, couldn’t help but look that way out of curiosity.
“It’s very unpleasant to have my time wasted like this. You don’t know when to stop.”
A rather direct statement that basically said she didn’t give a damn about getting along with her classmates. The fact that the speaker was a girl made it even more interesting.