Let's Prepare for the Exam
When was the last time I had been held this tightly?
Had anyone ever whispered to me like this before?
Eline’s whisper seemed to flow through my body, circulating deep inside me.
At the word “forever,” I opened my mouth to answer, then closed it again.
Instead of speaking, I simply held her tighter.
“…”
Eline showed no particular reaction to what I did.
For several minutes, we stayed locked in that embrace.
Forever.
Listening to her calm breathing, I closed my eyes.
I found myself wishing this moment could last forever.
Thank you.
Just thinking that was enough.
Had he fallen asleep?
The head that had been resting against her shoulder sank heavily.
The careful strength he had been using to hold himself up gave way, and he leaned into her even more deeply.
Better than seeing him from afar, better than standing beside him, better than holding his hand.
Better even than when she had carried him on her back.
Better than clutching a pillow tight.
It felt so much better than any of that.
“…”
Had he heard her words?
She hoped he had. She hoped he would remember them.
She wanted them carved firmly into his mind.
She didn’t want him thinking unnecessary thoughts.
“Lutes.”
“…”
“Are you asleep?”
He said nothing. Only his chest rose and fell as he breathed quietly.
She could feel his body leaning against her little by little.
…
There were things she once would have been too embarrassed to do.
But at some point, that had changed.
Was it from the moment she carried him on her back? Or from even earlier, when she had kissed his cheek?
She wanted to keep leaving traces of herself on him.
She wanted to tell him she was right here, and that he must never forget it.
Eline drew in a deep breath.
And then, just as if she were hugging a pillow—
Squeeze—
She pulled him tightly into her arms.
“…Haa.”
His chest compressed and a soft breath escaped him. His scent filled her senses.
His body, so much larger than any pillow, was truly warm.
She stayed like that for several more minutes.
Then she turned her head.
His peaceful profile came into view, as if he had slipped back into deep sleep.
Suddenly she remembered something she had learned long ago.
That even in sleep, a person responds to external stimuli.
That the brain registers them and etches them into the space of the unconscious.
So.
She whispered into his ear once more.
“Lutes.”
In a soft, gentle voice, quiet enough not to wake him.
But clear enough for him to register it.
“I’m never letting you go.”
She whispered it again, carefully, distinctly.
“So… don’t even think about running away…”
Had he heard her? Had his mind taken it in?
She didn’t know. But one thing was certain—Lutes’s body had shifted, ever so slightly.
Looking satisfied, Eline slowly released the embrace.
If she held him any longer, she wasn’t sure she would be able to control herself.
She eased him back carefully, and he slumped limply onto the bed.
She pulled the blanket up over him.
Before long.
If he did well on the exam—if he managed to rise to Alpha Class even sooner—then she would tell him everything herself.
She had waited two years. What was two more weeks?
Eline opened the window, and the cool night breeze washed over her.
Bright light poured in, and my eyes opened on their own.
“…Ah.”
At some point I had been laid out comfortably on the bed.
When I turned my head, the window I had closed the night before stood open, and a cool breeze tickled my eyebrows.
Had she really left through the window?
…
I sat up.
Of last night’s events, not a single trace of Eline remained, as if it had all been a dream.
Forever.
…It definitely hadn’t been a dream.
The words she had whispered into my ear still echoed inside my head.
I looked down at myself.
What was it I truly wanted?
To return to the estate?
Why?
I asked myself the question again.
I had close friends back on the estate.
There was a mountain hideout behind the mansion that only I knew about.
There were restaurants that existed only in our territory’s village.
I would be assisting my older brother, but I wouldn’t actually have much work to do.
Sleep, meals, and clothes would all be taken care of.
There was no reason to give that up.
Is that so.
Why had Eline said “forever”?
The confusion magic the intruders had used last time had ultimately amplified the anxieties already inside me.
In the end, the future I would face… was probably one where our paths diverged.
I would return to my estate, and she would go to the Empire’s Magic Tower.
Could Eline really have been unaware of that?
…
I didn’t know. But one thought rose clearly in my mind.
If I could stay by Eline’s side.
If I could remain at her side forever.
I might… be able to give it up.
The idea that I might not return to the estate flickered, however faintly.
Of course, nothing was certain yet.
For one thing, it was already too late for me to enter the Magic Tower.
Eline was simply a very special case.
Getting into the Magic Tower—the institution that led all magic on the continent—wasn’t something effort alone could achieve.
“…Mm.”
My head felt complicated.
No. No, that’s not it.
Even so, I shook my head now.
The future could wait. What mattered right now was the exam.
I needed to prepare for the test that was coming soon.
Professor Laen had said that classes would be suspended and the academic schedule would change, but the exam material had already been almost fully covered, and changing the exam dates themselves would probably meet with strong resistance.
Judging by past experience, the Academy’s exam schedule itself likely wouldn’t shift much.
At most it would be delayed by a day or two.
And.
I revised my plan.
Whether I made it into Alpha Class or not, once the exams were over, I would tell Eline that very day.
I didn’t want to put it off any longer.
In two weeks.
Thump.
“…”
The moment I made the decision, a corner of my heart began to ache again.
The kinder Eline was to me, the more I wanted to be good to her in return.
But in the end, this relationship was fundamentally wrong.
Part of me wanted to tell her the moment she next came to the hospital room.
But the promise we had made in the library came back to me.
Probably.
I wondered if Eline would stop me again.
I had to work hard. I had to stand tall. So she wouldn’t be disappointed.
Two weeks.
With so little time left, I felt tense and, at the same time, afraid.
If I told her the truth, this relationship would end… right?
…That’s not for me to decide.
That would be for Eline to decide once she knew everything.
If she said we should stop seeing each other, if she said we should break up, I would accept it.
If she told everyone I had deceived her, I would accept it.
If she ordered me to drop out, I would do it.
Even if she said we should never speak again and never see each other’s faces, I would accept that too.
…
I shoved the stray thoughts aside and shifted restlessly.
If only I had a book, I would have liked to study.
But I had ended up in a hospital room so suddenly that there was nothing to study with.
I sat up.
I couldn’t afford to waste time, so I decided to review the concepts I already knew.
I pushed the curtain aside and began looking around the room.
Past the several beds screened off in the ward, a desk covered with countless medicines came into view.
Surely somewhere around here there would at least be something to write with.
When I opened a drawer, the sharp smell of disinfectant rose up, and I spotted a quill pen and a small scrap of parchment that looked meant for notes.
This should be enough.
I returned to the bed, sat on the edge, spread the parchment on the side table, and began writing out magic formulas.
Purification.
A spell that could clear status ailments and, depending on the situation, even dispel physical magic affecting the body.
Scratch, scratch—
Multi-Layer Barrier.
Not the strongest of shields, but a spell that could be cast on nearby allies or targets to keep them safely protected.
Scratch, scratch—
Binding.
The still-difficult binding magic was especially hazy in my memory, so I had to keep reviewing it.
Here I need to draw the formula more smoothly, with curves instead of straight lines…
The more I wrote, the more I got confused.
Hmm.
There was no answer key, so if Eline came later I would have to ask her—
Click—
The door opened.
I turned my head on reflex, and a leisurely humming voice drifted from beyond the curtain.
“Nothing on today’s schedule… Ah! So free! Hope everyone’s still out on business trips next week too…”
Clattering sounds, and the noise of someone tidying things away.
“Oh right, I wonder if he’s awake yet.”
“Yes.”
The shadow approaching the curtain flinched and stopped.
“What? You can hear my voice?”
“I can hear it perfectly well.”
He was humming that loudly—how could anyone miss it?
The curtain was pulled aside, and the owner of the voice appeared: Romi.
“I do have a pretty loud voice, don’t I? Still better than hearing it while you’re asleep, right?”
He grinned at me with a haggard face.
“Did you not sleep last night?”
“No, I slept great.”
…That sounds like a lie.
He had probably spent the whole night replaying the chess games he had lost.
Unlike yesterday, his face looked truly exhausted, as if he had stayed up all night.
Romi seemed embarrassed at being caught out and started spinning around, trying to change the subject.
“Don’t just keep staring. What, you didn’t even finish the soup yesterday? Ventilation’s nice and all, but close the window—pollen’s flying around. Don’t you know your bronchial tubes are the most sensitive? Keep taking your medicine regularly, and don’t move around too much…”
He was seriously noisy.
The last place his eyes landed was the parchment on the side table.
“What’s this? You were organizing magic formulas?”
Romi said it casually, and I lifted my head.
“Why… why do you ask?”
Right.
Why hadn’t I thought of that?
This guy might look like this, but he was a proper instructor employed by the Academy.
He might not be on the level of the professors, but he should have more than enough basic knowledge, right?
“Do you know what formula this is?”
“Oh come on, who do you take me for? I may look like this, but I came from the support field, you know?”
Bingo.
He scanned the formulas I had written with his eyes.
“…Wow, student. You’ve been studying hard, huh? The formulas are all clean, no fluff.”
“Really?”
He nodded.
“Yeah, a little crooked here and there… but this is pretty good. You’re not bad at studying, are you?”
I stared straight at him.
“What, why are you looking at me like that? It’s embarrassing.”
“Teacher.”
“Yes…?”
I tapped the parchment lightly.
“Could you teach me for a bit?”
“Teach you?”
“Yes. The exam’s coming up soon and I don’t have time. I don’t even have any books.”
I explained the situation matter-of-factly.
“Ho… even while hospitalized, that kind of academic passion… and that chess skill you showed yesterday… you’re no ordinary guy, are you?”
Romi looked me up and down and offered a short bit of praise.
“And that chess skill.”
“You don’t have to say it twice. I heard you the first time.”
“…Ahem.”
He cleared his throat.
Just how badly did he want to play chess?
Ah…
A good idea came to me.
“How about this, then? You teach me, and in return I’ll play chess with you whenever we take a break.”
I made the offer.
Help with exam prep in exchange for chess games.
It seemed like a perfectly reasonable proposal where each of us got what we wanted.
But.
“Hss…”
Romi, whom I had expected to accept readily, stroked his chin with a thoughtful expression.
“…It’s a tempting offer, but teaching you study material is a bit…”
“Why? You’re part of the Academy Medical Bureau anyway, so it doesn’t really have anything to do with the exam questions, right?”
Unlike the Academy professors who handled education directly, the administrative staff had nothing to do with the exams as far as I knew.
Besides, the Medical Bureau was treated as a completely separate institution and barely even registered as a presence inside the Academy.
“That’s true, it is… but this is rare free time for me, you know. Everyone’s out, and there’s no work…”
So he was saying this golden free time was too precious to spend teaching.
I nodded lightly.
“Alright then.”
“What, you’re not going to try harder to convince me?”
“What’s the point of clinging if you don’t want to teach? I don’t like forcing people who don’t want to do something either.”
My quick acceptance seemed to throw Romi off for a moment, but he soon composed himself and cleared his throat politely.
“Ahem, well, I’m sorry about that—”