57. Welcome to Kalon Academy! (3)
57. Welcome to Kalon Academy! (3)
Elina... was dead?
The shocking news left me unable to collect myself.
Elina.
The Knight Department heroine, in other words. She was cheerful, responsible, and diligent. She was practically assembled from clichés, but a game like this needed one or two heroines built entirely from familiar tropes.
Elina was a capable companion and had a fairly high recruitment rate.
She wasn't especially popular, but Survival Academy revolved around a damage-dealer-dominated meta. The human elixir Karina could heal through most incoming damage, so tank characters were largely treated as joke picks.
Still, she was one of the companions you could recruit fastest, and you could obtain a high-performance weapon through her Character Quest, making her the number-one recommended companion for new knight players...
She was dead?
Really?
This wasn't some hidden-camera prank, was it?
"Yohan?"
Millia's voice finally snapped me back to my senses. This wasn't the time to stand around. I thanked the bespectacled student staring at me in confusion and left.
"Yohan! Where are you going?!"
"I have something to check."
"I'm coming too!"
Millia grabbed my sleeve and matched my pace. Feeling bad as she huffed and puffed to keep up, I shortened my stride and slowed down. We had plenty of time, so there was no need to get worked up. Whatever the situation, the way forward only became clear once you calmed down.
"Yohan, seriously, what's wrong? Can't you tell me?"
I felt Millia clutch my sleeve tightly. Her grip was weak, but the effort she put into it showed how badly she wanted to know why I was acting this way. I'd have asked too if someone suddenly took off like that. What was I supposed to tell her? I couldn't reveal the truth, so I had to give her a vague answer.
"It's nothing to worry about. I only vaguely remembered something from my past."
"The past? Before you came to the uninhabited island?"
"Yeah."
"I see..."
Fortunately, Millia seemed to accept it readily. She didn't pry about my past. Well, Millia, despite seeming childish, had a fairly mature side to her. Though that was only natural, considering the age gap between us was hundreds of years. We slowly walked across the garden again.
Our destination was the Knight Department.
If Elina was dead, there was something I needed to check.
"Where are we going?"
"I have something to check at the Knight Department."
"The Knight Department? Is this related to your past?"
"Yeah."
"I'll help too!"
"There's no need for that."
There wasn't really anything to help with. I'd only come to check things today, anyway.
I stood before the main entrance of the Knight Department, marked with a crossed sword-and-shield emblem, and looked around.
Perhaps because the academy was closed, hardly anyone was around. Even those few people paid no attention to Millia or me. Was it another aftereffect of the Hellhound Incident? I secretly plucked a flower from a bed beside the Knight Department building. A pure white flower. A lily, perhaps. It was also the symbol of Elina's family.
One of Elina's ancestors had been a famous knight, and the lily became so closely associated with her family that people practically treated them as synonymous. Her family therefore passed a lily-shaped ornament down to each heir.
For some, a necklace. For some, a ring. For some, an earring.
In Elina's case, it was an earring. Remembering how proudly she had smiled while wearing it, I entered the building. Then I picked up an old scrap of paper from the floor and activated a Skill.
"Craft."
The shabby flower was instantly wrapped in clean paper. Millia tugged at my sleeve as she watched and asked,
"Who's it for?"
"...It's a memorial offering."
"Memorial?"
"Yeah."
At the words 'memorial offering,' Millia fell silent. The phrase seemed to weigh on her. Had it been too dark for her? Our conversation stopped for a moment. With Millia, who normally chirped without pause like a skylark, suddenly quiet, the atmosphere turned awkward at once. I was accustomed to silence like this, but she apparently was not and kept stealing glances at me.
I deliberately ignored those looks and went over my faded memories. Where had Elina's classroom been?
Second floor?
Third floor?
I just needed to know where the first-year classrooms were.
There should have been a map somewhere, though I did not know whether an outsider would be allowed to see it. Keeping watch for anyone nearby, I slowly searched the first floor. I must have stood out too much, because a middle-aged man stopped me at the stairs to the second floor.
"Who are you? Why are you wandering around the Knight Department building?"
"I came to pay my respects to Elina. Er... respectfully."
Don't glare at me. Anyone could slip up. Polite speech really did not sit naturally on my tongue.
"...Are you acquainted with Elina?"
"We crossed paths... a long time ago."
I put on the most mournful expression I could manage. When I poked Millia in the side, she copied me and adopted an equally somber look. Fortunately, the man regarded us with sympathy before speaking.
"Go to the end of the right hallway on the second floor. There is a desk there that Elina used. It will be piled with flowers, so you'll find it right away. And it would be best to leave immediately once your memorial is finished."
So he was telling us not to do anything suspicious and to leave immediately afterward. I felt a little called out.
"Thank you."
We thanked the man and headed to the second floor. The end of the right-hand corridor. As we walked there, we glanced out the window behind the Knight Department building. A training ground larger than most athletic fields stretched below.
Despite the day off, quite a few people were using the training ground built for the Knight Department's students.
Watching a group run in perfect ranks brought back memories of my military service. I had hated morning runs. Running while singing military songs was such a pain that I used to hope for rain every morning...
"Yohan?"
"What is it?"
"You were the one who stopped."
I nodded at Millia's words and kept walking. The farther we went down the corridor, the heavier the mood became. It showed just how much Elina had meant to the people here. I passed several mournful-looking students and carefully approached her desk.
Countless flowers had been laid before the cabinet Elina would have used. Water stains marked some of the wrapping paper. Had someone cried while carrying the flowers here? Pushing aside the idle thought, I placed the lily among them and observed a moment of silence.
Rest easy on the other side.
I'd manage this world somehow.
After paying our respects, we quietly left the classroom. Our next destination was the third floor, where the third-year lecture rooms and lounge were located. In one corner was a room that only members of Elina's family had been allowed to enter for generations. I couldn't remember the exact mechanism, but I wanted to inspect it. The clue I needed should have been inside.
The problem was that I couldn't get in easily.
For today, I only planned to confirm the room's location. I quietly led Millia to the third floor. Several people looked puzzled by the unfamiliar outsider, but I ignored them and continued along the corridor. The building was so large that it took more than five minutes to reach the far end.
"Wow... that door is incredibly fancy."
So this was the door that could only be opened with the seal passed down through Elina's family. How was I supposed to get inside? A stare prickled against the side of my head. I followed it and spotted a female student watching me from a distance.
A friend of Elina's... or rather, judging by the yellow armband on her arm, she was a third-year. Maybe she just found us suspicious?
...With the way I looked, of course she found me suspicious.
"Millia. Let's head down now."
"Huh? You said you had something to do."
"I'm done."
I had time, so there was no need to act rashly. I quietly left the Knight Department with Millia.
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"Yo~han~ I'm hungry! Let's go eat!"
Perhaps because it was nearly lunchtime, Millia clung to my arm and whined the moment we left the Knight Department building. Passersby looked our way at her childish behavior. But why was that bastard glaring at me like I'd murdered his parents?
"Damn couples... even a guy like that gets a girlfriend, so why can't I..."
Ah, so he'd been single his whole life. But how did this look like a couple? It was a geezer with the mind of a fourteen-year-old and a fresh-faced young man. He had no eye for people. Then again, maybe that was why he'd been single his whole life.
...Not that I had ever dated a woman either.
Surrounded by strange looks, we headed to the main building and its first-floor dining hall. Guests of Dawn Hall were allowed to use it, so eating there shouldn't have been a problem. Just as I expected, we got in without trouble. Being known as followers of the Saintess carried some weight.
Though proving that status took a bit of time.
"Yohan, look at this. It's cake!"
Don't start eyeing dessert before you've even eaten. I took Millia's hand and led her toward the food counter. It felt as though I'd gained a little sister who needed a lot of looking after. Humming happily, she turned her attention to the food.
"Shh. Everyone's staring. Keep your voice down."
"Got it!"
She didn't seem to understand at all. Still, maybe because she looked like a kid, the people around us watched fondly, as if they were looking at an adorable little sister.
This girl's hundreds of years older than me, though.
"Hmm, hmm-hmm, hmm-hmm..."
I surveyed the food counter. Befitting a school with money to burn, the selection was luxurious. Expensive-looking dishes lined the counter, making it hard to tell whether this was a school cafeteria or a five-star hotel buffet.
We took plates, loaded them with whatever we wanted, found a table, and enjoyed an excellent meal. It tasted so good that the food from the inns along our journey could not compare. I savored my first truly fine meal in a long while and emptied my plate.
"I'm getting more."
"Come back soon~"
Sent off by Millia, I charged toward the food counter. I picked up each dish I hadn't tried yet, then reached for the tongs beside the last piece of heavily seasoned grilled fish. Another hand grabbed them a moment before mine.
"Uh..."
"..."
Violet eyes swept over me before meeting mine. The student wore rimless glasses and looked slightly disheveled, as though she'd just come from rolling around somewhere. Her bright purple hair stirred a sense of déjà vu.
Something about her looked familiar.
"...Hyi, hyiik..."
I hadn't done anything.
Why was she scared?
Figuring this was not getting anywhere, I tried to speak to her.
That was as far as I got before she screamed and ran away.
"A m-m-monsterrr!"
Covered in the food that had been on the plate she threw, I sighed.
What the hell had that been about?
Under the harsh glares of the people around me, I sighed.