Chapter 28
Chapter 28
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 28
Chapter Title: I Hate Training (3)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Most of the monsters inside the maze resonated with my weaknesses. Things made of fire and lava hot enough to melt ice, things that swung swords and closed in on me relentlessly, and things even tougher and colder than me that wielded ice.
Breaking through them one by one, I could clearly feel what I lacked. Sharpness, firepower, and even imagination. I didn't know how the old Aisha handled her ability, but for my power—which could manifest whatever I "wanted" into form—the most important thing was imagination, after all.
Even just shaping ice into a spear offered endless possibilities depending on the form. And beyond that, learning shapes I didn't know opened up even more uses. If I could strengthen my ability simply with the knowledge I had, wouldn't it make sense to acquire more knowledge?
Ray Meyer gave a satisfied smile when I mentioned that. She said it was something she'd been thinking about too—my ability, which shared aspects with magic, relied heavily on knowledge. The points she pointed out were the scientific knowledge needed to increase my ice's hardness and the structures of various objects.
She said simply mimicking the outer appearance wasn't enough; only by fully understanding and replicating the structure could I achieve true hardness.
"...It's in the library, isn't it."
"Yeah..."
It had been days since we started going to the library. After the practical exam, the note quizzes had stopped too, so I thought the pressure from studying would ease up. I never imagined I'd end up going there of my own accord. But sure enough... it seemed impossible to strengthen my ice with just my imagination anymore.
Resuming science studies I'd abandoned ages ago wasn't so bad, with fragments of memories surfacing bit by bit to help me catch up. The one problem? Why was Zenon here?
Was he reading or not? He'd been staring blankly ahead at the same page for a while now, and it was getting on my nerves. Didn't he skip studying too?
"Why are you here?"
"...I can't leave you alone."
He added it was because of Hera, then buried his head in his book. His ears were bright red, so he must've been embarrassed saying it. Glancing around, a female student nearby smiled slyly at us and made a fist pump. What was that supposed to mean?
Even though I'd asked him not to, Zenon refused to leave me alone. Even when other professors asked me to do something, he'd stubbornly insist on tagging along. It was dangerous, he said—Hera Carmen had been too quiet lately.
Getting slightly hurt back then must've shocked him, because now even a small scratch made his face harden as he demanded to know where it came from. Paper cuts, even. At this point, wasn't it obsession? When I asked why, he'd say, "Because we're friends." It was hard to deny that, so we'd been hanging out together...
But the stares from everyone around us were annoying. People kept asking when we'd started dating, saying we'd been seen together a lot lately. Even Frey clung to me, asking if my affection for her had cooled. I promised we'd go to the amusement park together later, and that seemed to calm her down a bit...
It still bothered me all the same.
There was a time when my actions veered strangely off course. When I tried to completely cut ties with Zenon to reject becoming the heroine, I felt an odd sensation like my body wasn't obeying my heart. But what I felt now was different.
Could I say my current state was fully Aisha now—like a perfect girl? My tastes hadn't changed much... but my heart and actions no longer pulled in different directions like before.
All I heard around me were rumors about me and Zenon being this or that, doing such and such. If I spaced out, my thoughts naturally drifted that way. Well, I didn't particularly dislike him anymore, and his personality wasn't prickly. It was just fondness as a friend, I guess.
I didn't want to think about anything more than that. Lately, these nagging thoughts kept popping up, leaving me a bit dissatisfied, but nothing else unusual happened. Regularly visiting the library to study was part of trying to clear my mind of those distractions.
"...Sleep well."
Shaking off my thoughts, I looked over. Zenon was asleep, face down on his book. Had he fallen asleep right after burying his head? He'd said he'd study hard, so it was a little infuriating seeing him like that.
"He must be tired from training."
The maze escape training had stretched to about three hours now, and navigating the vastly expanded maze while dealing with monsters wasn't easy. Still, compared to the intensity of Zenon's training, mine felt far too lenient to call "hard."
Exploding meteor showers from the sky, entering illusions of extreme environments and relentlessly whipping his own body. When I asked why it was so intense, Ray Meyer laughed and said:
—That guy's built for it.
I was stunned at first, but seeing Zenon never complain about that training made it click. He probably used his hatred for his father as fuel to push that far. Even through that grueling regimen, he never griped once.
He accepted it as a matter of course. Silently pressing on. That's why he was the protagonist. Could I do that? I shook my head. At the start, maybe, but repeating it for a week or two? I'd have quit midway.
And yet, through it all, he worried about me and hated leaving me alone. It wasn't so bad. A little burdensome, sure, but no one had ever fretted over me like this before. Whether I got hurt, came back bruised, or even came home with a broken tooth and blood dripping from my mouth—no one ever worried about me.
...Thanks.
Swallowing those words, I opened my book again.
Craaaack—
Ice pillars erupted from all four directions, binding the flames. Chains wrapped around those pillars—no longer melting, enduring the fire without even a hint of moisture. I smiled in satisfaction.
"Good."
I'd finally created ice that wouldn't melt. Of course, something hotter or a laser beam would still do it in. But it was clear this could withstand ordinary fire and high heat.
"You've reached a level I'm satisfied with now."
"You came in person today."
"I was thinking it might be time to wreck the maze. And I had something to tell you kids."
Something to tell us? I tilted my head, and Ray Meyer chuckled softly before speaking.
"Anyway, you've worked hard these past days—reading books and running the maze must've been tough. Thanks for sticking with it quietly."
"No big deal. It's all for my sake in the end."
"Ha, if only I had a daughter like you."
She smacked her lips, muttering about not having anyone to marry, then snapped her fingers with a tick. The blackened ceiling warped, flipping my vision. And there was the clearing from the start. Far off, Zenon lay collapsed on the ground.
"Zenon's done too?"
"Yeah, more or less. He's still a bit behind you, but not enough to get beat up out there."
"Ahaha..."
He never seemed the type to get beaten anyway, I thought, approaching the fallen Zenon and crouching down.
"...Cold."
He reacted instantly to the ice against his neck. Not unconscious, then. He usually passed out after training, making him hard to carry, but since he'd endured it, that meant the session was over.
"You okay?"
"No... I feel like I'm dying..."
Shuddering and staring at the sky, unwilling to even think, Zenon turned to me.
"How about you? Did it go as planned?"
"...Well, somewhat."
"Good."
Muttering that, he groaned ugh and tried to sit up.
"Not gonna help me up?"
"...Why should I?"
I stared at him offering his hand so casually, and he scratched his head awkwardly before standing on his own. He could get up by himself, so why ask for a hand? As I shot him a slight glare, Ray Meyer approached us.
"Hmm, about two weeks like this. No more training with you two for a while."
"...So we don't have to come after school anymore?"
"No, I said training's over. You still have stuff to do."
She fiddled with her smartwatch as she spoke. A hologram popped up.
With those words, and below it: All students enrolled in clubs must participate. No one at the academy skipped club activities, so this was probably an all-school event.
It was the only club event that appeared in the original story. It had decent weight, and footage from the festival often got scouts from guilds later on. That's why students prepared so diligently for it.
Come to think of it, it was in a week.
As I nodded along, staring at the hologram, Ray Meyer spoke up.
"This year's festival is simple. Teams of two, up to three candidates per team. The teams spread out, overtake others, and the first to smash the core in the center wins."
"We have to take first?"
Zenon asked, but she shook her head. Then why bring it up? As that question crossed my mind, Ray Meyer continued with a stiff expression.
"The reward for this festival is a bit special."
"Reward..."
Suddenly, a memory from too early in the story resurfaced. The club festival where Zenon participated and led his team to victory. I recalled the uproar in the academy because that year's prize was outrageously generous compared to others.
"Support items."
She lit a cigarette with a tick and went on.
"From first to third place—the rewards are support items."
Thinking of the insane events that reward would trigger, I felt my head throb again.