Three Days Before School Starts
The Knight Department freshman orientation.
Once the instructors had finished announcing the entrance exam rankings and delivering their speeches meant to stoke a sense of belonging against the Mage Department, every first-year cadet was gathered in the gymnasium. Or rather, assembled would have been the more accurate word.
"Who are we?!"
"The honorable cadets of the Knight Department!"
"And who are you?!"
"The proud freshmen of the Knight Department!"
Seniors and juniors alike roared their chants, whipping up morale. It was a Knight Department tradition — a ritual for cultivating pride and forging camaraderie.
Even standing nearby was enough to catch the thick reek of sweat. A full step removed from the crush, Isolet took a quiet sip of water.
Sword and Sorcery's Song — the female lead of the knight route. Isolet. Just yesterday she had finished the entrance exam course faster than anyone and claimed the top rank.
Everyone's awfully loud.
Whatever this so-called tradition was supposed to be, even the recreation boiled down to nothing but contests of strength. Isolet didn't dislike that sort of thing, exactly — but when the entire crowd was nothing but pure physical types, it wore thin fast. She simply wasn't the kind of person who thrived on relentless, high-intensity action.
"Hey, Jackson. I heard you got wrecked by a Mage Department cadet?"
That was when something interesting caught Isolet's eye as she scanned the room.
"This guy's a complete idiot. How do you lose to a weakling like that?"
"Don't even start. He didn't even use magic."
"I heard he's a scholarship student, too?"
A cluster of cadets had circled a second-year senior named Jackson, clearly intent on tearing into him. Jackson stood in the middle of them, cradling wounds wrapped in bandages and adhesive strips.
"Shut the hell up!"
Not that Knight Department cadets were the type to let anyone off easy.
"Let you off? For what, you moron? Have some shame."
"Take that bandage off. Are you even a man?"
"Ugh. The fact that a guy like this is ranked seventh in the second year — the world's ending."
"I said shut up! I'm getting revenge. I'll crush that bastard myself."
From the sound of it, he had lost to a Mage Department cadet. In a physical fight, no less.
What an interesting story.
Unbidden, the Mage Department senior she had met on the day of the entrance exam rose in her mind. The man who had suddenly appeared in front of her while she was leading the course. The conversation they had shared that day had been striking enough to linger even now. For instance—
"Well met, new top student."
—the greasy senior who had greeted her with such unctuous familiarity.
Long hair, utterly unsuited to a Knight Department cadet. Swept all the way back to bare a broad forehead, skin gleaming. Any other student would already have been barked at by an instructor for looking like that — but he had earned the right to wear it.
"A pleasure. I'm the second-year top student. I suspect we'll have plenty of occasion to speak, don't you think?"
"Yes. It would seem so."
Isolet had bowed her head politely. The top student of each year enjoyed a host of privileges. That she could stand apart from Knight Department tradition instead of joining in, and that this man could maintain his eye-catching cosmetics — both were rights granted to those who represented their departments.
There was a scheduled exchange among the top students, wasn't there.
Duty followed privilege. This time, Isolet could not avoid the conversation either.
"Freshman orientation has its traditions. Sharing a drink with a junior who dreams of becoming an honorable knight. May I personally pour for you?"
"……"
Isolet neither accepted nor refused. Undeterred by her silence, the man lifted the bottle in his hand and filled a glass.
Glug—
A cup of clear liquid was held out before her.
"No need to worry. You seem to prefer water to alcohol, so I switched it. Will you accept?"
Light shimmered across the trembling surface. Isolet closed her eyes for a moment, leafing back through the pages of her memory — turning over the words of Senior Heracle from the entrance exam the day before.
"Heracle? Heracle? Oh my. Heracle has gone off to another world."
Someone was speaking beside him, but none of it reached his ears. He had already collided with a shocking truth, and his wits had packed up and left the premises.
……There's no male protagonist?
Clearing the first-act boss required the male lead. Knight and mage had to coordinate to take the boss down, and the finishing blow was meant to come from him. In practice, the first-act boss fight only cleared with proper damage if the male lead was present. Two female leads simply didn't have the damage output — the fight was designed to be impossible that way.
Which meant he was in trouble. A great deal of trouble.
"Hmm. I wonder if I've committed some discourtesy. This gentleman's expression has gone terribly stiff."
"No, no~. There's nothing wrong with Isolet at all. Heracle just suddenly went strange, that's all."
"Didn't you say he was from the Mage Department? A mage's greatest strength should be an exceptional mind."
"Heracle is different. He's an eccentric who enjoys exercise."
……He clawed his drifting consciousness back into place.
Calm down.
He couldn't fold here. Yes, both protagonists turning out to be women was an unforeseen development — but even if a tiger dragged you off, you survived if you kept your head. He simply had to do better.
First, let's think a little harder about how to clear the first-act boss.
Relying solely on the protagonists was going to be difficult. He would need to devise additional methods—
"Boop."
"……"
A sudden warm touch on his cheek. Helene had reached out a finger and poked him.
"What are you doing?"
"Hm? Nothing. Just trying to snap Heracle out of it. You suddenly blocked Isolet's path and froze right in the middle of everything. You have to take responsibility, don't you?"
"Ah. Right."
……He had done something worth apologizing for.
He had appeared in front of Isolet while she was running the course perfectly well, then locked up the moment he saw her. Concerned, she had been unable to leave and had stayed right there.
"Are you all right, Isolet? Shouldn't you be racing again even now?"
"Please don't worry. Even if I run now, first place is still achievable."
"Wow, amazing. That confidence is so cool."
Clap clap clap—
Helene's admiration. Without particularly showing it on her face, Isolet turned to address him. She looked genuinely curious.
"Did you have business with me? You appeared so suddenly that I was rather startled."
"……"
"Ordinarily I should have been focused on the entrance exam, but your expression looked so grave. Before I knew it, my feet had stopped."
"……Ah. Right."
What was he supposed to say? He couldn't tell her the truth. Instead of admitting he had been shocked that she was a woman rather than a man, he needed a suitable reply.
Ah.
This would do. She was a woman too, after all — which made him all the more concerned.
"Once the entrance exam is over, there's going to be a freshman orientation."
"Yes. I'm aware."
"Someone there is definitely going to offer to share a drink with you. Even if they say it's water instead of alcohol, don't believe them. It's booze."
"……?"
Isolet's blue eyes went round. She turned his words over for a moment, then tilted her head, looking thoroughly puzzled.
"……How do you know that?"
"No comment."
"Then why tell me?"
"I was worried. You look like someone who doesn't care for alcohol."
It wasn't an empty line. When you played the knight route of Sword and Sorcery's Song, there was an illustration in Act One, Chapter One — a scene of Isolet drinking and coughing that he had never liked. It wasn't the kind of thing a woman ought to have to go through, so he had decided to interfere.
Not that I sold it particularly well.
Well, if he played dumb, there wasn't much she could do about it.
"Go on. You should get moving, right? Any later and you won't take first."
"……Very well."
Isolet rose and held out her hand. Small, in keeping with her frame, yet soft and carrying a quiet strength. Because she was a knight.
"Since fate has brought us together, would you care to shake hands?"
"Sure."
He would rather not get entangled if he could help it. But given what he had already done, he silently took her hand.
Squeeze—
……Why was she putting so much strength into it, though? Was this a contest of wills? Or was she interested in him?
"……Hm."
And there it was — a faint smile curling at the corner of Isolet's mouth. He had no idea what she was thinking, or what she had decided from shaking his hand.
Please tell me I didn't just step on a landmine.
Do not take an interest in me.
The handshake ended. From the clearing back onto the course, Isolet broke into a light run, leaving her farewell behind.
"It was a pleasure meeting you. Until next time."
"Yeees, see you later."
Helene waved with a smile; he gave a rough nod. He watched Isolet go, silver hair swaying, until Helene jabbed him in the side.
Poke—
"I was right, wasn't I?"
"Huh?"
"She's your person of destiny, Heracle. Isn't she?"
"……Seems that way."
In the original, this was the event that made Helene fall for the male lead of the knight route. For reasons unknown, the target had been swapped out for him.
At this rate, I'm going to keep getting tangled up with Helene.
The plan to leave everything to the protagonists and quietly step aside was looking less and less viable.
"Haa."
"Isn't a sigh a little much~?"
"I wasn't sighing at Your Highness."
Helene was a concern. Isolet was a concern. But above all, he needed a countermeasure for the first-act boss fight.
The core of the problem is insufficient damage.
Someone had to fill the empty seat. And who would that be?
No need to even think about it.
Him.
"……I'm sorry. I must decline."
"Hm?"
Creases formed across that greasy face. The very man Heracle had specifically warned her about, holding out a glass of liquor. At the unexpected refusal, he frowned.
"And why is that?"
"You said it was water — but it's alcohol, isn't it?"
"……A sharp junior, I see."
Apollon withdrew his hand with a look of regret. The clear liquid in the glass looked like water, but it was unmistakably alcohol. Having already heard as much from Heracle, she had seen through it at once.
"I'm not particularly fond of this sort of prank."
"My apologies. It's a Knight Department tradition, you see. Claiming it's water, then making someone drink — it tends to put people through quite the ordeal."
"……"
"All the more so for someone of your disposition, who dislikes alcohol."
Heh—
Apollon wore that greasy smile again.
As I thought. I don't like this person.
Isolet's brow furrowed slightly. She felt no goodwill toward Apollon whatsoever. That slicked-back long hair, the makeup plastered on thick — and beyond even that, something she could sense underneath.
……A clinging, unpleasant interior.
A dangerous man. Far more so than any mere Knight Department tradition.
……And yet there was something curious as well.
Someone there is definitely going to offer to share a drink with you. Even if they say it's water instead of alcohol, don't believe them. It's booze.
How did he know?
Hadn't he said he was a Mage Department cadet? How had he known about a tradition handed down in the Knight Department? By what means?
"……Senior Apollon."
"Hm?"
"Is this prank well known throughout the Academy? For instance — would even Mage Department cadets be aware of it?"
"Keh keh. My, it seems I played a rather pointless joke."
Apollon twisted the corner of his mouth at her words. The sneer was unmistakable.
"Calling it a Knight Department tradition was a lie. This is nothing more and nothing less than a personal prank of mine."
"……"
"Would Mage Department cadets know? Ha! It's not so trivial a thing that those bookish types would be aware of it. Don't look down on it."
"……I apologize for the discourtesy."
Isolet bowed her head in silence. She watched for a moment as Apollon narrowed his eyes and withdrew from his seat. Then a question slipped from her lips.
"Not knowing would be normal."
……How do you know that?
No comment.
According to Princess Helene, Heracle was unmistakably a Mage Department cadet. And yet he had known about Apollon's nasty little prank. That wasn't the only thing that bothered her.
Then why tell me?
I was worried. You look like someone who doesn't care for alcohol.
As if he were certain I don't prefer alcohol.
They had only just met. A senior she had never seen before in her life had spoken as though he knew her preferences exactly.
—And last of all.
Since fate has brought us together, would you care to shake hands?
Sure.
The exceptional physique she had felt in that clasped hand.
He was no ordinary person.
Not a vessel a mere mage ought to possess. Outwardly he had a solid waist and rather slender limbs — but Isolet's eye had read him at once.
A body blessed by the gods.
A physique of such overwhelming growth potential that even she, comparing pure physical aptitude alone, wondered if she might fall short.
"How intriguing."
Isolet's blue eyes gleamed.
It was a first. She had enrolled at Olympia Academy, yet nothing had particularly caught her interest — classmates far beneath her, rival-department cadets who might as well have been from another country. And then the single most powerful lump of curiosity she had ever encountered had appeared, surpassing all of them.
"……Heracle."
She rolled the name across her tongue. Somehow, she liked it. Was that the rose-tinted haze of infatuation?
"I hope we meet again."
And the face of Isolet as she said it looked very much like Irina — the protagonist of the mage route.