Ah, Is, Is That So? We Held Hands After All?
Ah, Is, Is That So? We Held Hands After All?
Plan never wasted a single action.
The thought itself likely never crossed his mind. Fear, dread, anxiety—the elements that sharply diminished human efficiency were simply absent from the boy.
At least, that was how Becky perceived him.
Even a crisis didn't feel like a crisis when he was around. It wasn't arrogance. Plan's actions were always backed by sound reasoning.
...Right. It had been this way from the beginning, ever since they first met in front of the Agora Board.
"Pay particular attention to this section. At your level..."
One by one, the formulas Becky had scrawled out so messily changed shape, transforming into the correct answers.
The difficult problems she had failed to understand became simple under Plan's touch.
It was a wondrous feat, but Becky still didn't grasp the formulas themselves.
Even as his explanation drew to a close, she found herself merely staring at his profile.
That softly glowing profile struck her as strangely captivating.
The very image of a mage.
An obsessive breed who pursued logic with unwavering intuition, who walked straight into the blaze if the path of truth demanded it, even if it consumed them whole.
An eccentric who never doubted himself, never relied on anyone else, and carved out his own unique domain through sheer independent force.
"..."
The boy's profile, containing all of that, was elegant.
At the same time, Becky reached out before she knew what she was doing. Plan, right beside her, suddenly felt impossibly far away.
Her palm was just grazing the edge of that sculpted profile when—
"Did you understand?"
His voice jarred her back to her senses.
"Ah, w-well, I..."
She shoved her hand into her pocket and stammered without meaning to.
Faced with someone explaining something with such earnest intensity, Becky had simply been in a daze.
"Sorry..."
"What exactly is so difficult about this?"
Plan let out a deep sigh and grabbed Becky's wrist.
"Wha— wha?!"
A faint tremor went through Becky's shoulders. But Plan's gaze remained fixed on the memo page of her Trivia.
"If you can't grasp it, shouldn't you try drawing it yourself?"
As Plan moved his hand, Becky's hand naturally moved with it. This time, she tried to force herself to concentrate on the formula.
"...First, establish the framework."
Circuits drawn by Becky's fingertips began to glow blue. Her eyes, watching the process, naturally lit up as well.
"Then, extract the essentials."
"Wow..."
She hadn't known a boring formula could be drawn like this. Becky let out an involuntary sigh of admiration at the scene blooming across the memo paper like a night sky.
"And for the detail work, mind the density."
By then, Becky had grasped Plan's lesson.
And at the same time, she felt her academic curiosity quietly raising its head.
"Impossible... isn't a thing..."
Becky murmured Plan's words back in a daze.
She wanted to put this welling emotion into words.
She turned toward Plan, her lips about to part—and at that exact moment, the two of them were enveloped in a white burst of light.
Far off in the distance, Hailey, still hung up on a rock, began to glow white as well. Only then did Becky suddenly remember that Hailey had been there all along.
'Damn, that's infuriating.'
To Becky, Plan was simply someone she was grateful for. So what was Hailey's problem, constantly sneering at every little thing?
Becky conjured a single non-attribute sphere in her hand.
If she abandoned the form, just as she'd just learned, and maximized the output before launching it...
PWAK—!
A dull smack echoed out, and Hailey's head snapped back violently after taking a direct hit to the forehead.
"Hyeok?!"
...Whoops. She'd hit her a lot harder than she'd meant to.
◈
The moment I was returned, I surveyed my surroundings.
"They said this evaluation's on hold for now."
"Martin says he saw a skeleton, I heard."
"A skeleton? More posturing to pick up girls. That's on a whole different level. Why would something like that show up in an artificial labyrinth?"
Just as Violet had said, Becky and I had apparently been the last pair. The area was already packed with students buzzing with chatter.
"KYAAAAAAAAA—!"
Hailey's shriek tore through the air, sharp and piercing.
"My face, what happened to my face—!"
Doubled over, she desperately covered her face with both hands as a nasty-looking lump swelled up on it.
While the students made a noisy racket, Violet was busy doing a headcount.
Real demon beasts and unforeseen variables had appeared, unnatural for the setting, but fortunately, there were neither casualties nor missing students.
Internal observation had been unstable anyway, so the exploration assessment scoring was ultimately put on hold.
Had I wasted an artifact for nothing? I was just letting out a deep sigh when Becky abruptly approached me.
"Hey, um, Plan."
"What."
"So... thanks."
I gave her a brief nod. I wasn't really in a position to be accepting thanks.
I hadn't done all that purely to save her. It was wide-area magic, so Becky happened to be saved by it, that's all.
But Becky apparently still had something left to say. She held out her Trivia towards me.
"I explained it thoroughly enough."
"No, that's, that's not it..."
Becky's gaze drifted furtively to the side. I had no idea what was so important that she'd keep dragging it out like this.
"Your Trivia code. Want to trade with me?"
"Code?"
"What. D-don't you want to? No... if you don't, forget it. I just thought we could, y'know, contact each other sometimes. Share stuff like exam info with each other. It'd be nice, right?"
I'd asked purely out of curiosity, but Becky rattled off her words in a rush.
"And we're friends... aren't we friends? Hey, you just don't know any better, that's all. F-friends trade this stuff all the time, naturally. It's not even a big deal."
"So, in summary."
I didn't know why she was so flustered. I succinctly summed up her point.
"You want to be in regular contact with me. Is that it."
"That's... that's it. Yeah. Because we're friends."
"We're not friends."
I cut Becky off flatly.
For one thing, there's an age gap between us. For another, I don't have the kind of personality suited to making friends.
"...Huh?"
Becky's face flushed with pure disbelief.
"Hm? Huh?"
She tilted her head to one side, then the other. Then her eyes darted around in circles as she chewed on something furiously.
"Wha?!"
Suddenly, that tiny face of hers went as red as my own hair.
"Ah, then... Ah, w-well, is that how it is? Because we held hands? Ah~ s-so that's what you were thinking. Th-then. Do you want to go buy perfume with me next time?"
She was spouting gibberish I couldn't follow at all, so I had no choice but to let her words go in one ear and out the other.
A relationship involving regular contact. I did know of one such relationship, come to think of it.
"You want to be in contact with me."
"Huh?"
Becky still couldn't meet my eyes.
She fidgeted with her fingers for a long while, then gave a tiny nod.
"...I want to, so that's why I asked to trade codes."
"Very well."
I decided to hold her academic zeal in high regard.
I tore out one of the memo pages from my Trivia. Using telekinesis, I suspended it in midair and began writing memos.
『 How Healing Magic Became the Center of Controversy 』
That tome will be in my hands soon.
As it happened, I'd just been thinking that having an assistant to help me dissect it piece by piece would make the research far smoother.
『 Magic and Healing 』, 『 Magical Therapeutics 』, 『 General Principles of Healing Ethics 』, 『 Ethics of Healing 』... Once I'd finished noting everything, it came out to roughly eight volumes. Fortunately, that was a small amount.
I finished the memos and handed them to Becky. Her round eyes blinked.
"What's this?"
"Try summarizing the core content of the texts listed here."
"Summarize?"
Becky's head tilted.
"Ah... thanks for thinking about my studies, but out of nowhere?"
"Didn't you say you wanted to be in contact with me."
What's this about out of nowhere?
A relationship where you exchange regular contact on a daily basis. There is no relationship that fits that description better than that of an academic assistant.
"Well... that's true, but..."
Becky looked back and forth between the memos and my face.
"Isn't this... isn't this way too much? Getting to the core means you basically have to comb through all of it, right?"
"I'm not expecting much to begin with."
That's not me saying I'm delegating everything to Becky and relying on her.
I'm simply assigning it to her because if it proves even a little helpful, that in itself is a net gain.
That is all.
"And if I do it, by when...?"
"Tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?!"
Becky jumped in surprise.
Even this is me making a significant concession. Trixie's tome will be in my hands as soon as tonight.
"If you don't like it, then forget it."
"No, no! I can do it, obviously!"
I tried to take the memo back, but Becky subtly pulled her hand holding it away. Not that I had the slightest intention of forcing her.
"Hey, Plan..."
With tears brimming in her eyes, Becky continued.
"If I do this, we'll be in contact and we'll go buy perfume...?"
Well, I can grant a reward of that magnitude. I nodded readily.
"Fine."
"Ha... jeez..."
Sniffling, Becky turned and walked towards the library.
I'd curated only the books that looked to have decent substance. This process, therefore, will undoubtedly be a great help to Becky as well.
I never expected thanks in the first place.
Soon, I also turned and headed towards the training room.
◈
Even late at night, the lights of the Fritz family's personal training room next to the dorms stayed bright.
Trixie had just finished her ballet exercises.
Normally, she would have slipped into the bath the moment she was done, but right now, she was wholly absorbed in checking her Trivia.
[ ▶ This is a question I'm thinking of posting on the Agora Board next~. ]
[ ▶ Could you take just one look~! ]
[ ▷ Do you have the page with the formula written on it. ]
[ ▶ Yep~! ^ㅅ^ ]
[ ▷ Tear it up and throw it away. ]
Had it been anyone else, she would have flared up in an instant, but at Teaching-ssi's words, Trixie obeyed immediately.
'Teaching-ssi' was her pet name for the Teaching Auction, just so you know. Trixie had arbitrarily slapped it on this time.
[ ▶ Did you have dinner~? ]
[ ▷ Is that also a lesson. ]
[ ▶ I'll give you one gold coin~ !ㅅ! ]
Gold coins were something Trixie already had in overflowing excess anyway.
As she was firing back replies at lightning speed to his unhurried ones, Teaching-ssi asked her:
[ ▷ When exactly are you sending the tome. ]
[ ▶ I'll send it right now~ ]
After sending the reply, Trixie immediately inspected the condition of 『 How Healing Magic Became the Center of Controversy 』.
It was in pristine, brand-new condition, even wrapped prettily with a ribbon. He was sure to be pleased.
"...Hm."
On some strange impulse, Trixie suddenly conjured up a few tiny ants out of flame, looking as if possessed.
Her ability to manipulate the fire element was outstanding, and applying flame as 'summoning' wasn't difficult for her, making it possible.
Five ants hid themselves throughout the pages. They would report their positions to Trixie in real-time.
Who, in the end, was Teaching-ssi?
Trixie swallowed dryly.