Just for Tonight
A woman stepping out of the bath in a man's house—
What the hell is going on?
Even for me, the whole thing had come on so suddenly that I couldn't get a handle on the situation.
"As expected of you, Professor. For a second I thought something terrible was about to happen, but I believed in you the whole time, you know?"
"I believed in you. Kyle Edelrein."
"Kihiit~ I'll have to try even harder."
And through all of that, the other students—Nariel included—were taking it as a given that I was the one who'd finished the bastard off.
But I was the one who'd actually launched the attack. I'd seen it. I knew.
The light that had erupted from Erina's hand had damaged him before my strike ever landed.
Our attacks had just happened to overlap, so everyone else seemed to be writing it off as some kind of barrier.
I flicked my sword through the air a few times, shook the blood from the blade, and slid it back into its sheath as I looked down at him.
He looked like he could stop breathing any second. Moving was out of the question—even drawing air seemed to cost him everything he had left. Every time he managed a breath, he coughed up blood, and watching that…
So he wouldn't be pulling any more dangerous stunts. That much was clear.
Something about the way he was reacting felt excessive for a single slash I'd thrown at him, though.
And from what I could tell at a glance, whatever this was, it wasn't the usual kind of attack a priest would use…
"……Professor!"
While I was sunk deep in thought, Erina came running up behind me and threw her arms around me with a soft thump.
I felt a small tremor running through her.
She'd probably been scared. In a way, this had been her first real fight. And as a student taking priestly courses, Erina rarely had any reason to learn combat techniques meant for fighting other people.
A human being—not even a monster—had come at her intending to kill her. She had every right to be shaken.
The truth was, Erina had done more than anyone to put that man down. Or, more precisely, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say she'd protected herself.
Even if I hadn't thought to throw that small slash of mine, I had a feeling I'd still be looking at the same scene right now.
Which made me wonder, for a second, whether I'd even needed to step in—but that kind of hypothetical was pointless. Meaningless. Every moment, I'd done the best I could. That wasn't something I could call a mistake.
That aside… judging by how she's reacting, Erina doesn't seem to know what she just did either.
My head hurt. Where was I even supposed to start teaching her this?
"Th-Th-That…!"
Looking down at Erina clinging to me, I could hear Linea having some kind of fit behind us.
But that wasn't what needed my attention right now.
"Erina. You're not hurt anywhere, are you?"
"Y-Yes…"
Good. That, at least, was a relief.
I left Erina where she was, arms still around me from behind, until she could settle herself, and turned my attention to the man who was still coughing up blood.
Just as I'd noticed earlier, the blood pouring out of him wasn't purely red. He was clearly vomiting blood, and yet the color had lost some of its crimson—almost as if a milky white light had mixed into it.
Even the scrapes he'd taken while trading blows with Nariel showed the same shift through the torn edges of the wounds. The change was unmistakable.
It was as if holy power had been blended into ordinary red blood.
No—more accurately… it was as if Erina's holy power, once it had invaded a target she'd marked as an enemy, was functioning like a poison.
What I was looking at was pure DoT damage.
Applying game knowledge to a real situation felt a little off, but… that was what poison did, wasn't it?
What I could see matched. Life and heat seemed to be draining out of the man's body. And the blood he'd spat across the ground was already evaporating like smoke, scattering into light, breaking down completely.
Watching it gradually chew through his life force, I couldn't help thinking how much it resembled the way a poison worked—its nature and its application both.
To wield holy arts like this…
It didn't look like something you could brush off as a minor power.
And over the man's body—across his back—something like a magic circle, or rather a holy formation, had risen into view. I didn't know how long it would last, but if we simply left him alone, I had a feeling he'd die on his own soon enough.
Ah.
Leave him alone. Right. This wasn't the time for that.
Step. Step.
I walked closer until I stood over him and spoke.
"Where did you come from?"
"…Heh. Heh heh. Now I remember. You're Kyle Edelrein—the war hero. I never imagined I'd run into you in a place like this, so I didn't recognize you at first…"
"…Answer the question I asked."
"Looks like I should have been watching you instead of that elf… Not that the result would have been any different no matter what I did… Cough."
Nariel, standing on the other side of him, shrugged as if to say this had nothing to do with her.
"…This bastard."
He just kept spouting nonsense.
"…Fine. I'm a dead man walking anyway, so I'll do you a special favor and tell you…"
A favor?
"I don't know what your objective was, but a man who went after young students and tried to kill them has no business talking about favors."
"Yes… I'm sorry about that. But students with that much ability… if we didn't want them interfering with the job, we couldn't exactly leave them alone…"
"……"
…Well. He wasn't wrong, exactly.
"We're a worthless little mercenary band sent by Kaldos."
"…The Kingdom of Kaldos?"
The Marquisate of Eshval and the Kingdom of Kaldos—the ones who had led the last war against the Five-Nation Alliance.
They didn't follow Aeltyr, the God of Light—who also stood for healing, truth, and sacrifice—but an heretical faith devoted to a sun god called Herion.
After losing the war, they'd been allowed to keep their kingdom, but only in exchange for staggering national reparations. I'd heard they were so crushed under that debt that their national strength had withered to almost nothing, and they no longer had the power left to fight… or so I'd thought. Apparently not.
They still hadn't given up. They were still plotting something. Persistent bastards.
…Was it possible that the holy art Erina had just displayed—her power—only worked on targets blessed by that heresy, or carrying its power?
Too few clues…
It had been my first ambush, and it had come out of nowhere. My response and my follow-up had both been sloppy.
Even while I filled my head with scattered thoughts like that, the man kept talking.
"Yes. That Kingdom of Kaldos… The mission itself wasn't anything special. Just simple reconnaissance… But to run into Kyle Edelrein on a basic academy recon job, right from the start… My luck really is garbage…"
Having said that much, the spy breathed his last.
…Tch.
"Nariel."
I clicked my tongue at his death and called her name quietly.
"Go on. Speak, Kyle Edelrein."
"This matter… we should get word to the capital side as soon as we reasonably can."
Sernia—the capital that held the Imperial Palace where the Emperor resided.
This wasn't some minor incident. A nation we'd been at war with until recently had sent a spy who had shown up right in front of us. It wasn't something we could simply let slide.
"Mm. That would be wise."
"Yes. But given my current position, I can't do that myself. So for now, the best option is to inform the Headmistress—"
I let the sentence trail off slightly, and she caught it without needing to be told, letting out a long sigh as she took the matter off my hands.
"Don't worry. I'll deliver word of this to Astria myself. You just get the students home safely."
"Thank you."
After everything that had happened today, personally escorting each of the students back to their dorms was the right thing to do.
There were only four of them anyway.
And Erina in particular had been through something rough. She'd been badly shaken. I intended to keep a closer eye on her, just in case anything else was wrong.
Maybe buy her something good to eat while I was at it.
Once I'd dropped off every last student, only Erina remained.
"…Um. Today… I want to go to your house, Professor."
"…What?"
"I'm scared. Please let me. Just for tonight. Okay?"
"…."
Erina pleaded with an almost desperate earnestness.
It wasn't that I didn't understand…
But still. A fully grown young woman, at a man's house… ahem.
On the other hand, I also found myself thinking there might not be any other choice. After what had happened earlier, the idea of sending her back to the dorm alone would only leave her anxious.
"Please? Professooor…"
"Ugh. Fine. But just for tonight."
"Yay!"
Watching Erina's face light up on the spot, I had the distinct feeling I'd just been played—but I decided to ignore that as hard as I could…
—And so, in the end, we went straight home.
I'd meant to wander around a little more and buy her something tasty, but she turned down every suggestion.
"So this is your house, Professor…!"
"It's more of a faculty residence than a house, really."
It was a small manor built to a modest scale, but I had the place to myself, so it was comfortable enough.
Click.
Haa… damn. A man's house. From a woman's point of view, there probably wasn't a single thing about it worth admiring.
"Haa—mm. The Professor's scent, filling the whole house…"
"Why are you sniffing that…"
Was my smell really that strong in here?
"It makes me feel… safe."
"Hmm…"
I half understood and half didn't.
Anyway—finding calm by breathing in the scent of someone you know, someone close to you. Something like that, maybe.
Erina didn't seem to have any family left right now… so there wasn't much to be done about it.
"Erina."
"Yes, Professor."
"Let's get cleaned up first. You should go in before me, right? Or would you rather I go first?"
"Y-Y-Yes? Professor? What do you mean by that…?"
Erina startled so hard she nearly jumped out of her skin.
"We've been outside and we just got in. I'm saying wash off whatever's stuck to you. We even climbed a mountain today, remember?"
"Ah. Y-Yes… we did, didn't we."
Climbing up and down a mountain—how much dirt and dust must she have been covered in?
And on top of that, up there, she'd fought her first real life-or-death battle against other human beings—assassins.
Even I, with Kyle's memories to lean on, still had a slight tremor in my hands from my first kill. Erina was younger than that, and she'd been through something similar. How much worse must it be for her?
Dust on her body, or the ugliness of what she was feeling—either way, I hoped a little warm water would help her wash it all away.
"The bathroom is in the room just past the end of that hallway. Make yourself at home—if you need anything, just grab it and use it."
"Yes…"
"…Ah. And right next to the bathroom there's a magical tool that washes and dries clothes. Put what you're wearing in there and start it before you go in."
A world with magical tools. Convenient as hell, honestly.
"H-Hey! You can't peek, okay!?"
"…Who said anything about peeking. I'll be right here reading. Just hurry up and wash and come out."
After Erina went in, I wasn't sure how much time passed.
Click.
…Hmm?
I must have dozed off without realizing it. Before I knew it, Erina was standing in the doorway of the room—fresh from the bath, soft and clean.