The Unfathomable Senior
Could this skill be bugged? Or is he some kind of monster who can casually fool even a Level 1 Insight skill?
Either way, it was bad news for me.
The man standing before me was more alien and dangerous than any existence I had ever known in the game.
While I was lost in thought, Scone quietly drew a pure white bandage and a small vial from his coat.
Then, without the slightest hesitation, he knelt before me.
The sight of Scone—top of the third year, the envy of everyone—willingly dropping to his knees for a blood-soaked first-year junior.
Anyone else watching would have been green with envy. All it gave me was the feeling of walking on thin ice.
Ugh, I’d rather he just pointed a sword at me. That would be less terrifying.
Scone’s cold fingers carefully tore away the blood-soaked sleeve of my training uniform. Every time his touch brushed near the wound, the nerves around it prickled as if stabbed by needles.
“This will sting a little.”
He tilted the vial, and a clear liquid poured over the wound.
“Guh…!”
It was nowhere near “a little.”
A searing heat like a red-hot iron rod raking through the flesh stole my breath. When my shoulder instinctively flinched, Scone caught my arm—gentle, yet firm.
“Just a moment longer. The muscle and nerve damage is severe; this is far more effective than ordinary healing magic.”
I clenched my teeth and forced down the burning agony.
More than ever, I ached for Ravne’s hands—the ones that had once melted every wound away with warm holy power.
Truly.
…
“To take a wound like this without even screaming… impressive. The first aid is done, but you must receive proper treatment once the practical is over.”
Plip.
In that moment, a single red droplet fell from the tip of Scone’s nose and bloomed across the back of my hand.
Blood…?
“Ah… I must be a little tired.”
Even as he spoke so casually, the stream of blood refused to stop; it kept flowing without end.
Huh?
His body had been completely uninjured. Why was he bleeding this much? The giant magic beast’s attack hadn’t even touched him.
Don’t tell me…
One thought flashed through my mind.
Has he already started dabbling in forbidden black magic… this early?
That overwhelming power. And the inevitable price that came with using it.
“Senior, stay still.”
I slipped my trembling right hand into my coat. Familiar fabric met my fingertips.
The white handkerchief I had used to wipe Basil’s sweat—the one Ricotta had ordered me to throw away in disgust.
I felt weird tossing it right away, so I just washed it and kept it…
Without hesitation I pulled it out and brought it to Scone’s face.
“…Junior?”
For the first time, bewilderment flickered through his golden eyes. The world he always controlled so perfectly wavered, just a fraction.
With careful hands I wiped the blood streaming from his nose. The white cloth turned dark crimson in an instant. The bleeding was worse than I’d thought.
“I’m fine, this is nothing…”
I met his golden gaze head-on and threw his own logic straight back at him.
“…You said knowing when to act tough and when to accept help is also an important skill, Senior.”
Scone’s brow twitched ever so slightly. He clearly hadn’t expected a retort like that from my mouth.
At my bold words, Scone fell silent for a moment. He simply looked back and forth between my hand clutching the blood-soaked handkerchief and my face staring up at him with blank indifference.
I could feel countless calculations racing behind his eyes.
After a short while, the nosebleed gradually stopped.
“Hmm… Thank you, Junior. You saved my life.”
A rather grand thank-you for simply wiping a nosebleed.
“This handkerchief is dirty now. I’ll wash it and return it.”
“I don’t need it anymore. You can keep it, Senior, or throw it away. I don’t mind either way.”
I don’t want any more ties with that guy, and I definitely don’t want to give Ricotta any more ammunition. This is the best option.
Scone, who had no way of knowing my true meaning, simply narrowed his eyes with interest.
“You’ve been an unreadable junior ever since I first laid eyes on you.”
That’s my line.
“I’m already looking forward to our next ‘coincidence.’”
“Excuse me…?”
“If possible, keep things entertaining right to the very end.”
Having finished the emergency treatment on my shoulder, he rose to his feet, bowed politely, and vanished into the darkness of the forest without a shred of lingering attachment.
As if he had never been there at all.
Alone in the woods at last, I let out the breath I had been holding in one long rush. Strength left my legs and I sank straight to the ground.
“Haa… haa… Crazy bastard.”
In that instant, a translucent window floated up before my eyes.
A new scenario branch has been generated.
Hidden Stat 'Charm' has been unlocked.
All that remained in the place where Scone had vanished was a silence of unknowable depth and the system window spinning my thoughts into chaos.
Charm…?
It was a hidden stat the “protagonist” had never once obtained in the game.
In most ordinary games, “Charm” was usually a debuff that beguiled the target and restricted their actions.
But this… didn’t feel like something so simple.
There’s no way a stat I get from getting tangled up with a lunatic like him is going to be normal…
“Damn it!”
My head throbbed. Whether it was dizziness from blood loss or dread of the future barreling toward me, I couldn’t tell.
I gently touched the bandage Scone had wrapped around my shoulder. Even through the cloth I still seemed to feel the cool brush of his fingers.
…For now, I have to get out of here.
I forced my swaying body upright and set off in the direction Kado and Abo had fled. Fortunately, the forest floor still held clear traces of their panicked retreat.
I don’t know how long I walked. From the underbrush ahead came a familiar voice.
“Y-you… you’re alive?! I thought you were dead, you idiot!”
Kado shouted as he rushed over.
Despite the gruff tone, his eyes trembled faintly with relief.
Classic tsundere character.
Right behind him, Abo spotted me and came running. Yet she only circled around me, never quite daring to touch my body, as if afraid of my wounds.
“What about that magic beast? What happened? Don’t tell me… it’s still chasing us?!”
“It’s dead.”
“…What?”
My short answer painted both Kado’s and Abo’s faces with pure shock.
“Y-you… killed it? That ridiculous monster?”
“No. Another senior took care of it. Looks like he came after seeing the rescue flare.”
Claiming I had finished it myself would only make things more suspicious. Better to stick to the truth.
“Saya… wound… looks painful.”
Abo had somehow drawn right up beside me. She stared fixedly at the bloodstained bandage on my shoulder and whispered. Worry mixed with a strange, eerie heat in her eyes.
What’s with her now…
I instinctively took a step back. Abo’s fingers twitched as if disappointed.
Kado grabbed the scruff of her neck, pulled a small potion bottle from his coat, and thrust it at me gruffly.
“Hey, drink this at least. Better than nothing.”
“…You’re giving me this expensive potion?”
“Wh-who said I was worried about you? If you collapse here and ruin the practical, my score tanks too!”
Watching a guy act all tsundere felt weirdly off, but I gratefully accepted the expensive potion.
I downed it in one go. The burning heat in the wound slowly subsided, and strength began to return.
It wasn’t a full recovery, but enough that I could move without trouble.
“Oh, right. Lady Ricotta… they said she’ll be fine once she gets treatment.”
“Huh?”
When I turned my head, Abo was still sneaking glances at my shoulder as she mumbled.
“After we fired the rescue flare, a third-year senior showed up pretty quick. Said they needed treatment right away and took Lady Ricotta and the whole team straight back to the academy.”
“I see… that’s a relief.”
Thank goodness. It looked like we had avoided the worst early-story route where the heroine gets murdered by the villain.
We caught our breath for a moment, then set out again.
No one spoke. In that silence Abo stuck unusually close to me—deliberately, uncomfortably close.
Her gaze stayed locked on the bandage around my shoulder, and every time her hot breath brushed the nape of my neck, goosebumps rose.
I steeled my wariness inside.
The moment this practical ended, I would put distance between us for sure.
But for now the objective still lay beyond the forest, so I had no choice but to keep traveling with them until it was over.
The time lost to the giant magic beast, plus my slow pace as an injured person—all of it combined so that by the time we reached the heart of the forest, the sun had completely set.
As if filling the place the sun had left, the forest’s core gradually transformed into a mystical landscape.
Even the density of the air was different. Instead of the damp, metallic scent of earth, a cool, cleansing energy wrapped around my whole body with every breath, washing my lungs clean.
The bizarre shapes of the trees vanished. In their place, silver light shimmered along trunks that rose straight toward the sky. The leaves quietly glowed, gently pushing back the forest’s darkness.
“Whoa…”
We’re almost there.
Moonlight Spring.
The mysterious spring said to hold the essence of the moon.
The area around it was so saturated with mana that the boundary between reality and illusion grew hazy.
I kept my guard up and scanned the surroundings.
“Over there… I see light.”
Abo quietly pointed ahead.
Between the branches, a soft silver-white radiance rose like mist.
Finally…
The moment we pushed through the last thicket, the sight that unfolded before our eyes stole everyone’s breath.