56. Welcome to Kalon Academy! (2)
56. Welcome to Kalon Academy! (2)
"You look great with that beard shaved off!"
Really?
At Millia's comment, I stared into the mirror.
A face that still bore every trace of a life lived on an uninhabited island.
Honestly, I hadn't spared a single thought for my appearance in ten years. That was only natural. What kind of lunatic worried about grooming when he had to find enough food to survive the day?
In the face of survival, that kind of pointless activity was practically suicide. Not that I'd had any way to take care of my appearance even if I'd wanted to. When you spent your days moving under a blazing sun, there was no way your skin could stay untouched. Even Karina, surrounded by Divine Power that healed most injuries almost immediately, had gotten slightly tanned.
Speaking of tans, lightly bronzed skin actually looked rather nice...
"Yohan! Yohan!"
"...What is it?"
"Why'd you zone out all of a sudden? Are you sick? Want me to blow on it?"
"Never mind."
I roughly ruffled Millia's hair as she looked at me with worried eyes, then turned away. Since my upper body was bare, it was time to put on a shirt. I pulled a suitable one from my bag and slipped it on. It was plain enough.
"Wait! Take that off!"
"What's wrong with it?"
"That hasn't been washed in forever! It stinks! Here, wear this! Put this on!"
I caught the pile of clothes Millia tossed at me. Clean clothes, though where she'd gotten them, I had no idea.
Where had she gotten them? Had she taken them from somewhere in the mansion? I asked Millia, who was staring at me intently.
"Where did you get these?"
"The ladies who live here gave them to me!"
So the servants who managed the place had given her clothes for me to wear. Since I was a guest, they apparently provided at least that much service. But a suit... I hadn't expected formal wear to be the first thing I tried on after reaching the academy. The fabric felt quite good beneath my fingers.
Of course the clothes offered to a guest at the Saintess's residence would be high quality. Giving me something cheap would only embarrass them if word got out. I set the clothes on the bed and spoke to Millia.
"I'm going to change, so wait outside."
"Okay! You have to actually wear them, got it?! If you get lazy and come out without changing, I'll be mad!"
Even I had that much common sense. I stared at the closed door for a moment, then changed. It didn't take long.
Even after being stranded on an uninhabited island for ten years, I hadn't forgotten how to put on clo— I'd misbuttoned it. I undid the buttons I'd fastened one hole off and did them again. Once I was fully dressed, I stood before the mirror and found a sharp-looking gangster staring back at me. If I undid the top two buttons, I might even have looked like a hitman.
Since I'd transmigrated anyway, couldn't I at least have gotten a slightly more impressive face?
Not that being a pretty boy would have mattered much once my entire body was covered in scars. Still, I seemed better-looking than I had been before transmigrating... or was I? Honestly, I couldn't remember my old face. I was certain I'd been a male college student, but my face itself was strangely hazy.
"...Forget it. What's the point of dwelling on the past now?"
Who I'd been before transmigrating no longer mattered. The only part of the past I needed now was information about the game.
"Can I come in~?"
"Come in."
The moment I finished speaking, the door swung open and Millia entered. Reni had joined her too, though I had no idea when she'd arrived. With her pipe in her mouth, Reni gave me a quick once-over, then let out a whistle.
"You clean up pretty well when you dress properly. Keep it that way while you're here. Don't wander around bare-chested just because clothes are uncomfortable."
"I don't plan on walking around shirtless here either."
I had at least that much common sense. I'd been wearing clothes throughout the trip, hadn't I? Admittedly, I'd mostly thrown them on without much care. I looked away from Reni and toward Millia, who approached with sparkling eyes. She naturally took my hand, tugged me forward, and said,
"Let's hurry out! I want to look around the academy!"
"All right, stop rushing me."
"Have fun. I've got to get Karina's enrollment paperwork ready."
"Okay, Reni! Do your best!"
Reni turned and vanished the moment she finished speaking.
I stared at the spot where Reni had disappeared for a moment, but Millia's insistent pestering left me no choice but to head outside Dawn Hall.
----------------
"Look, look! A fountain! What kind of statue is that?"
"It's a sculpture of Kalon's messenger."
I dredged up a tooltip I'd read ten years ago. How on earth was I remembering this? Maybe because I'd seen that explanation dozens of times while I madly clicked around trying to find a hidden item inside the fountain?
"Really? A god's apostle looks like that?"
Millia circled the fountain, fascinated by the huge statue on top. It really was imposing in person. The fountain itself was practically the size of a pond, and the statue was taller than me. Considering I had a build people could reasonably call burly, it was enormous.
It was also the poor statue that got smashed whenever the opportunity arose in the original game. That was only natural when it stood somewhere so conspicuous... Still, magic restored it every time, so it always returned to normal once an incident ended. It was probably just a concession to the game system.
I looked away from the fountain and surveyed the path leading to the main building and the gardens surrounding it. A few people who appeared to be students were scattered around, but most wore grim expressions. Were the effects of the Hellhound Incident still lingering? The academy itself seemed to be temporarily closed as well.
"Yohan! Let's go check out the school building now!"
"Yeah, yeah. But keep your voice down a bit. The atmosphere around school isn't great right now."
"Got it!"
Millia pressed a finger to her lips as if sealing them and gave me a playful smile. Cute.
It was about time to head to the main building.
We walked side by side toward the main building.
The path leading to it was well-paved, so each footstep rang out clearly against the ground. I savored the sounds of civilization as I reached the front door. Though the school was on break, the doors were open, which was a relief. Naturally so, since the Magic Department and the Alchemy Department, which primarily conducted research, weren't about to suspend their work even on such a day.
More importantly, if I wandered around the main building, would I get to meet one of the heroines from the original?
Knight Department, Magic Department, Alchemy Department, Political Science Department, Administration Department... and what else was there?
A couple more. The game had so many heroines it was hard to remember. I vaguely recalled there'd been a blue-haired one, a redhead, a silver-haired one, a black-haired one...
Well, if I actually ran into them, the memories would come flooding back, wouldn't they? For now, I'd focus on walking around and memorizing the layout.
"The lobby's enormous too! Oh..."
I quietly raised a finger to my lips. Making a commotion inside the building could draw attention. Not that being noticed would change much, but it was still better to be mindful.
We passed through the lobby and entered a hallway. It was called a hallway, but it was a wide corridor where about eight people could walk side by side. Being the sort of school that received obscenely overflowing donations every year, every single facility was magnificent enough to be worth seeing. Though that also made me reluctant to touch anything.
We walked down the hall and quietly entered an empty lecture room. Perhaps because this place was an academy in name but essentially a university, it resembled the college lecture halls that lingered faintly in my memory. The only difference was that the desks and chairs looked intimidatingly expensive.
"Do they hold classes here?"
"Seems so."
"I want to take a class too..."
I looked at Millia at that, and her face showed an envy she couldn't hide.
That was only natural. Millia had probably never experienced anything resembling a normal life.
"...If you study really hard, you could end up attending school yourself, you know."
"Really?"
"If you work really, really hard."
Was I only giving her false hope? Still, it seemed possible. The academy welcomed talent, and if she worked hard enough, she might have a chance. The General Studies Department also had a relatively low barrier to entry.
"I'll work hard!"
"Yeah, yeah."
Feeling like a proud father watching his daughter promise to study hard, I stroked her head. Millia wriggled beneath my hand and pressed closer like an affectionate puppy.
"Heehee."
"Let's go check out the other places now."
We left the lecture room and walked down the hall again. This seemed to be where the lecture rooms were clustered, since all the rooms lining the hallway had the same layout. We'd likely need to leave this hallway to see anything else. We walked on and on like that until we reached the end of the hall. At the end was a door leading outside.
Come to think of it, in the game it had been split into the main building, the individual department buildings, and the dormitories, hadn't it?
To see the departments, we'd apparently need to exit the main building.
"Millia. Do you want to keep looking around the main building, or visit the specialized department buildings?"
"Let's go see the other department buildings~"
"I recommend staying away from the Knight Department."
"Wah?!"
The female student who had spoken to us flinched at Millia's strange yelp. She had clearly been startled. I asked in the gentlest voice I could manage so I would not frighten her any further.
"Is something the matter...?"
At my question, the intellectually refined female student hugging a large book to her chest glanced around for a moment, then spoke quietly, as if sharing something I ought to know.
"Several first-year students in the Knight Department died... The atmosphere there isn't good."
"First-years... died?"
"Yes. Elina, the Knight Department's top-ranked student, and several others were protecting people when they..."
...Elina?
That was a name I'd heard somewhere before. Where had I heard it?
Elina... Elina... Elina... El...
Ah.
Oh fuck.
...She was the Knight Department heroine.
I froze at the unexpected butterfly effect.