Chapter 77: The First Letter (77)
Chapter 77: The First Letter (77)
On the day I first entered the Academy, I remained silent.
It was due to nerves. To put it in perspective, I felt like an adventurer taking his first steps into uncharted territory.
In all my years, I had never been away from my family for so long. At most, my experience with staying away from home consisted of spending a few months at the Einstein or Haster territories.
So, to be suddenly plucked from the warm embrace of my family and told to spend four years in this strange place—I couldn't help but be intimidated. Of course, since I was the one who wanted to enroll, I was also looking forward to the youth I would spend at the renowned Academy.
However, my fluttering heart was forced to hold its breath the moment I arrived at the Grand Plaza where the entrance ceremony was being held. No matter where I looked, there were only strangers. Until now, the loneliness had been manageable because I was with Reto, but once I was separated into the Swordsmanship Department, I couldn't find a place for myself among the groups of people huddled together.
Those who appeared to be high-ranking nobles were already busy moving about and exchanging greetings. They were likely children of families who already knew each other. Unlike me, who didn't recognize a single face or name no matter how much I looked around, they were starting from a completely different point.
I shook my head with a sigh. I chided myself for being intimidated already, and just as I was trying to steel my resolve once more—
"Ah, ouch!"
A girl bumped into me. It seemed she had been pushed around by the surging crowd and made a mistake. My eyes drifted toward her.
She had innocent eyes. That was my first impression of her. She was a woman with striking light green eyes that resembled the verdancy of a deep forest.
She stared at me blankly, looking utterly terrified.
"I-I'm sorry! Y-Young Master. Please, forgive me..."
The moment I heard those words, my expression became just as blank as hers.
For a moment, I didn't quite understand what she meant, but then my eyes fell upon the uniform of the tearful girl.
The fabric was poor. It meant she was using the standard-issue uniform. Nobles, even if only for the sake of their pride, usually sought out high-quality fabrics for their Academy uniforms.
I was no exception. Unable to withstand my younger sister's nagging, I was currently wearing a stylish uniform tailored at a high price. Combining that with her inexplicable reaction, there was only one answer.
She's a commoner.
Looking back, it was quite rude, but I think I gazed at the girl with a sense of wonder at the time. It was only my second day at the Academy since moving into the dormitory, and I was finally seeing the reality of the rumors I had heard.
In the Academy, there is no distinction of status. The same went for the gap between the rich and the poor.
Only skill—that was the sole value pursued by the Academy, which aimed for fairness and equality.
Watching the girl tremble as if she were about to be punished at any moment, I inadvertently let out a chuckle.
My tension had finally dissipated. Thus, I spoke with a voice tinged with kindness.
"I'm not a 'Young Master.'"
"B-but then, what should I call you...?"
"Ian."
With that, I held out my hand. At first, she flinched and froze in surprise, but after a moment, she cautiously looked at my hand.
She looked at me as if she had discovered a riddle.
Perhaps she thought the Academy's rules were actually a fantasy. So, I decided to give her some certainty.
"My name is Ian Percus. I look forward to getting to know you, friend."
The girl said nothing for a while. She blinked, looking back and forth between my face and my outstretched hand, and only after some time had passed did she respond.
"...Y-yes."
Like a cat discovering something for the very first time, she cautiously took my hand.
As it turned out, she was from the Alchemy Department, and I heard she had been pushed all the way to the Swordsmanship Department's area because she was so terrified of the sheer number of nobles.
Her name was Emma. She was the first commoner friend I made at the Academy.
*
"What are you thinking about?"
That quiet voice snapped me back to reality. The timeline of my wandering thoughts returned to the present. This was a hospital room.
The girl, who still had a lingering childishness back then, had blossomed into a more mature beauty over the past few years.
The girl's light green eyes, crinkled in a soft smile, were fixed on me. Back then, there was a certain charm in how she seemed a bit scared, but now, not even a trace of fear remained.
It was already our third year of Academy life. Even if we weren't the closest of friends, we were companions who shared memories, so we had seen each other's faces quite often.
If she were still afraid of me even now, it would have been quite hurtful in its own way. I shook my head with a bittersweet smile.
"Just thinking about the past for a moment."
"The day of the entrance ceremony?"
My eyes twitched, hit right on the mark. I looked at Emma with a bit of surprise, but she merely maintained that inscrutable smile.
She really was a woman with sharp intuition. She had a knack for reading people's minds.
"Yeah. Back then, you were a country girl through and through."
"And you were a noble young master, weren't you?"
"But I was just as kind to the ladies. Don't you remember me taking you all the way back to the Alchemy Department's section?"
Emma covered her mouth and let out a light laugh. Though she didn't look completely recovered from her illness yet, just seeing her laugh put my mind at ease.
I could finally shed my guilt. Emma and her father would be able to live happily now.
Ever since she collapsed, there hadn't been a single day my mind was at peace. It felt like it was my fault, because I was the only one who could have stopped it back then.
I was glad that I could set things right, even if it was late. I truly felt that way. Although I had missed the chance to earn tens of thousands of gold, I wasn't so desperate for money that I would weigh a friend's life against gold coins.
Emma smiled for a moment, then stared straight ahead with eyes that had grown deep and somber. Then, she glanced at me.
It was the kind of look only seen in those retracing the past.
"...Come to think of it, it's strange. That connection from back then still continues even now."
It wasn't a particularly profound insight. I snorted and said, "That's just how connections are. You meet by chance, and somehow it keeps going."
"Yes, you're right. But until I entered the Academy, I never imagined I'd become friends with a noble young master."
The topic of 'nobles' came up again. Emma was always like that.
While pretending not to care on the surface, she drew a clearer line between 'noble' and 'commoner' than anyone else in her heart. In fact, this might be a characteristic of all commoners attending the Academy, not just Emma.
Just as there were nobles with a weak sense of class, there were those with a strong one. Since I belonged to the former, I could just treat them comfortably, but it was obvious without asking what the latter thought of commoners in their hearts.
So, even when Emma showed such signs, I deliberately didn't point it out. But today, Emma looked so lonely saying that, I couldn't help but say something.
"Emma, I told you. In the Academy, nobles and commoners are the same anyway. So, the fact that you and I became friends—"
"I know. But... were we really this close?"
I fell silent for a moment. It was a statement that could be easily misunderstood. The kind of thing that, if heard from a friend you thought you were close to, would haunt your mind like a nightmare for a week.
However, Emma seemed to have a different meaning. Her weak gaze turned toward me.
"I heard it cost over 10,000 gold. The demonic beast corpse you offered to the God to save me."
"...Don't worry about it."
"How can I not worry?"
I had spoken sincerely, but Emma's retort was equally sincere, so I had no choice but to fall silent again.
Emma was looking at me with trembling eyes. She even looked a bit afraid.
"I'm a commoner! I can't repay a debt of 10,000 gold. Even if I were to sell my life somewhere, I wouldn't even get a tenth of that. So how could you make such a decision without hesitation?"
"Like I said, it was a decision I made on my own, so don't worry about it..."
"What do you want?"
It was a direct question. I looked at Emma with an absurd expression. Her light green eyes were trembling violently.
"What should I do? Should I live as the Percus family's exclusive alchemist? Or... do you want my body?"
"Emma."
A low voice escaped my lips to calm her down. But Emma's anxiety was not easily soothed.
It was a staggering 10,000 gold. It was an amount of money a commoner could never touch even if they worked their entire life. Even high-ranking nobles pay a great deal of attention to transactions involving such sums.
The scale was different. I hadn't realized that a debt that could never be repaid, no matter what she did, would be such a burden to Emma.
At that time, my only thought was that I had to save Emma. Perhaps I had been selfish too.
To relieve my own guilt, I hadn't even considered Emma's feelings. Of course, even if I had known her feelings, I would have reached the same conclusion.
"Just how... h-how am I supposed to repay this grace...!"
"...Emma!"
Finally, a shout burst from my lips. Emma flinched, her body trembling as she looked at me with startled eyes. Only then did I let out a sigh and stand up.
Then, I gently placed my hand on Emma's shoulder as she looked at me with trembling eyes.
"Live."
It was an abrupt statement. Emma's tearful eyes blinked a few times, and a blank question followed.
"...What?"
"Live. Just like usual... and just like you were meant to. Graduate from the Academy safely, and make the potions that keep herbalists from getting hurt, just like you dreamed. Earn money, take care of your father, and live. Happily."
The words poured out of me like a rapid-fire. Emma could only stare blankly into my eyes, as if she could find my true intentions by looking into them.
But no matter how much she looked, it wouldn't matter. Right now, I was speaking the truth without a single grain of falsehood.
Perhaps she finally understood my sincerity, as Emma's trembling noticeably subsided. She said nothing, however, and simply continued to stare at me.
I could only give a wry smile.
"That is my only wish. And that is the way you can repay me."
There was no answer for a long time. But it didn't matter. As long as my feelings were conveyed, that was enough.
I quietly sat back down. The silence lasted so long that I started to feel awkward. Just as I cleared my throat and slightly averted my gaze—
"Pfft."
A laugh burst out. The source was, of course, Emma.
"Pffft, aha, ahahahaha!"
"...What is it now?"
I was already feeling a bit embarrassed, so I could only ask timidly. Emma laughed loudly, then covered her mouth while giggling.
She seemed to be trying to calm herself down. It took a little more time before she could speak.
"It was... pfft, it was just such an 'Ian' thing to say... it was funny. You idiot, dummy, pushover. You're going to get used by a commoner girl like me."
"Go ahead, keep the curses coming..."
I pouted as if offended by her words, but soon a faint smile played on my lips.
Emma's aura had finally relaxed. It would be impossible to completely shed the burden on her heart, but she wore a smile that suggested she felt somewhat unburdened.
It was a relief. I had been worried she would suffer under a sense of debt.
But Emma wasn't finished. She spoke to me with her usual gentle smile.
"...But Ian, you shouldn't be like that to women."
It was a warm smile. A smile that made one's heart feel at ease just by looking at it. I stared blankly at Emma's face.
Her skin was clear and without a single blemish. How was that possible? I had heard that commoners couldn't even wash their faces properly.
There were tears in the corners of her eyes, which were curved in a gentle arc, and the girl's hair, catching the sunlight from the window, took on a particularly reddish hue. Reddish-brown hair.
As if making a shy confession, the girl said:
"Because then, they'll get the wrong idea."
"...What idea?"
I instinctively asked back. But no answer came from Emma. Without losing her smile, she simply shook her head.
"No, it's nothing. It's already too late, anyway."
With a sorrowful look in her eyes, she placed a hand on her chest and let out a faint sigh.
"...I'm in trouble."
I thought to myself that she looked exceptionally beautiful in that moment, but I didn't dare put that sentiment into words.
It was the moment a connection from years ago tied another strange knot.
After the visit, I had to be admitted to the examination room immediately.
Initially, I had planned to visit tomorrow. Tonight was the After-Party of the Hunting Festival, and each team that participated in the festival would be assigned a table in the clearing in front of the Southern Forest.
And a banquet with an unlimited supply of food and alcohol would continue all night. It was an opportunity not to be missed. Since I was the winner of the Hunting Festival, I was even assigned four tables.
It meant I could invite my friends as well. First of all, I had made up my mind to invite Reto.
But my plan soon hit a snag. It was the Saintess.
"You must come see me immediately, Brother Ian. Understood?"
The Saintess spoke with such a terrifying look in her eyes that I had no choice but to surrender.
To be precise, her expression was no different from usual. She was smiling brightly, but for some reason, I felt a chill.
Having entered the examination room, I was busy reading the Saintess's mood. The Saintess, who was changing the bandages on my arm with a distressed expression, soon shot me a sharp look.
"Brother Ian, didn't you promise not to participate in the Hunting Festival?"
"T-there were circumstances. Actually, it was to save a friend..."
Fortunately, my excuse was perfect. Risking danger because a poor friend couldn't afford treatment—how could the Heavenly God not deem that righteous?
The Saintess seemed to have nothing to say to that, as she merely pouted. I found it a bit cute and made sure to engrave it in my memory.
As she wrapped the bandages, the Saintess's feminine curves brushed against my arm. Each time, her sweet scent wafted past my nose. I had never resented the fact that the nerves in my left arm hadn't fully recovered as much as I did today.
As I tried to avert my gaze, I heard the Saintess's voice, as if she had just remembered something.
"...Come to think of it, that friend was also a woman, wasn't she?"
"Yes, well..."
I couldn't tell the intent behind the question, so I just gave a vague answer for now.
Nevertheless, the dissatisfied look on the Saintess's face did not fade. Instead, she narrowed her eyes with a "Hmph."
"And the team members who participated in the Hunting Festival were all women, too."
"Yes, well. It wasn't intentional, but it just happened that way..."
Come to think of it, it was quite strange. Even if you tried to gather them intentionally, it wasn't easy to get three women together, yet that's how the Hunting Festival team was formed.
And that was the result of me considering the best possible lineup. And they were all women famous for their beauty.
Should I call this luck, or misfortune since it could lead to misunderstandings?
It was a truly mysterious coincidence. At that moment, as I was marveling to myself—
"...I suppose those women were more precious than me?"
At that subtly cold voice, my head turned with a creak.
There stood the Saintess, a bright smile on her face. Why did that benevolent smile feel so terrifying today?
"That's why you even broke your promise to me and went out to the Hunting Festival. Right? Brother Ian."
In an instant, my heart went cold.