189. I Was Only Gone for a Day?
189. I Was Only Gone for a Day?
The end of the semester was approaching.
With the tests over and the upcoming vacation, the students were in high spirits, lively from the morning onward.
Perhaps I had gotten swept up in that atmosphere myself, as I quietly reflected on this past semester.
'It was a successful first semester.'
No matter how I thought about it, I could only conclude that I had done well.
As things stood, I had now prevented three times the branching points toward this world's hopeless future that only I knew of.
The Growth Potion, my original objective, was also somewhat on track... and while it was only a little, I had seen some effects.
I hadn't been able to keep my sister's words telling me to just rest up a bit, but what could I do?
If I had just lazed around playing, this world would have fallen into the demons' clutches.
At this summit, the Masters of each nation had also agreed to further pressure the forces of the Demon Church, so their threat would diminish even more.
Then I could finally devote my full energy to supporting Professor Praha's research.
The wall of 150 that I thought I could never overcome was not far off now.
Apart from that, I had to resolve the matters I had been putting off, like visiting my maternal uncle in the Nemea family or attending the Phrygia party.
Since it was vacation, I should also look for the scattered members of the Snowfield Expedition Team.
I had gotten entangled with Hohenheim recently, so I needed to tell them about her.
'Things keep piling up.'
It wasn't something I wanted, but it bothered me that they were snowballing more and more.
As I mulled it over for a while, the scene I had witnessed this morning suddenly came to mind.
'No matter how I looked at it, she wasn't okay.'
In the end, Lucia had insisted she was fine, refusing adamantly, and left.
She had covered her face with her bandaged hand, so I couldn't see properly, but her eyes were swollen.
The fact that she waited in front of the main gate, when she could have come in anytime she knocked, meant she had been hesitating to come inside.
'Should I have held her back?'
The image of her from behind kept flashing before my eyes even afterward.
I was too distracted to chase after her then, but I had the feeling I should have held her back.
Wondering if something had happened yesterday while I was gone, I asked around.
"Did something happen at the academy yesterday?"
"Do you know something?"
Amy tilted her head, looking genuinely clueless as she pondered.
"Right... you weren't here yesterday, were you...?"
"Uuum... right, I was going to mention that this morning, but I forgot too."
"What could have happened in just one night to cause this?"
Riber, wearing a sulky expression, spoke up casually.
It seemed certain that something had indeed happened.
"Well, about that...."
Just as my questions kept piling up, the lecture hall door opened and Lucia walked in.
"....."
Speak of the tiger and it shall appear—she hadn't come out for morning exercise, so I wondered if she wasn't coming today, but thankfully she showed up.
But the reactions of the other people were a bit strange.
By now, everyone was used to it, and there had never been students who walked on eggshells just because Lucia arrived... but the moment Lucia entered, all the murmuring stopped.
"....."
Seeing that reaction, Lucia also hung her head low.
Lucia's general behavioral pattern upon arriving at the lecture hall, as I had observed until now, was as follows.
As soon as she arrived, she would utilize her high vantage point to pinpoint my location.
Here, it branched into two points: she would either come near me, or watch from a distance just barely within my line of sight.
There was no specific condition; the result seemed to vary depending on her mood that day.
After entering the lecture hall, Lucia looked around and then her eyes met mine.
Normally, she would join me here, but....
"...."
She whipped her head around and went straight to a secluded spot completely out of my field of vision.
"What in the world...."
I was about to continue the conversation when Andy came in.
While everyone had been watching Lucia nervously, the moment Andy returned, the atmosphere reverted to normal as if nothing had happened.
'Damn, what the hell is it?'
Next to me, Amy and Riber were smiling wryly, telling me we'd talk after class.
.
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.
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"Now, a quick announcement. The grades everyone has been waiting for have been posted. I put them up on the bulletin board on my way here, so everyone check them after class.
"Well, everyone seems more interested in other things right now... but still, this test was the one that happens once a semester, wasn't it.
"... I understand everyone is curious about their grades. I know them, though."
"There's nothing else to say anyway, can't we go look now?"
"Nothing changes by looking sooner. Still, I'll wrap this up as fast as I can, so don't worry."
Andy tapped the blackboard and continued speaking.
"Now the semester is almost over. I know everyone is excited because it's vacation, but try not to cause any trouble. And go easy on the gambling.
"Drink in moderation at the taverns. There was a time when the academy had to suspend all alcohol sales because of too many alcohol-fueled violence incidents, so bear that in mind... got it?"
There was nothing special in the lecture content.
They were all hiding it, but you could see that the professors wanted the semester to end quickly more than anyone.
My growing curiosity was ultimately not resolved satisfyingly.
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As soon as class ended, Lucia fled as if escaping, so I went to find Shahra.
I could have heard it from Riber or someone else, but I deliberately chose to hear it from Shahra.
It seemed like a serious problem, so I needed detailed information.
As soon as I came to find her, Shahra had an expression that said, "I figured you'd come."
"Forgive my impertinence, but were you perhaps outside the academy yesterday, Atlas-nim...?"
"Yeah, I had other business and went out, only returning this morning. Was there some kind of problem?"
"No. Forgive my rudeness..."
Upon hearing that I hadn't been at the academy, Shahra held her tongue.
Any normal method of leaving the academy would leave a record, but I had gone out via teleportation and returned using my Law, so Shahra wouldn't have been able to find it in the records she could access.
Shahra's reaction was also strange.
"I thought you would have conducted traffic control right away yesterday, Atlas-nim."
"Me? Traffic control?"
Her words were getting stranger and stranger.
Just what situation was I supposed to have sorted out?
Shahra continued speaking.
"Yesterday, Count Russell visited the academy in strict secrecy."
"Carlos? "
"Yes. It seems he met briefly with Lucia Russell and then intended to leave right away."
Carlos Russell, the current head of House Russell and a top-tier Expert master.
Like Edward Lemnos, he had reached the edge of being a top-tier Expert and was prepared to become a Master at any time, but he was also famous for being unable to break through that wall for over a decade.
Firm as the Rock Crest that was his family's symbol, he rarely showed emotion in front of others and didn't like to boast.
That must be why he just wanted to come and go secretly.
"However, considering that was his intention, it doesn't seem like it ended there."
"...No."
Shahra hesitated for a moment before speaking.
And the moment I heard what it was, I immediately understood why Shahra had hesitated.
"Carlos Russell made an announcement that day that he would choose Lucia's betrothed from among the academy's students, and then left."
"Isn't he a lunatic??"
I was so dumbfounded that I shot up from my seat.
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What I heard from Shahra was too shocking.
For a while, the words she had spoken circled around and around in my head.
'Carlos suddenly left a message saying he would allow the strongest male student at the academy to marry Lucia after graduation. It seems he didn't listen to Lucia's wishes at all, however.'
I wanted to hear the detailed inside story from her directly, so I kept wandering around, but Lucia continued to avoid me after that.
When Lucia, who was so adept at hiding from others' eyes, started avoiding me in earnest, there was nothing I could do.
A normal person would have stopped here.
'The other Pillars were also shocked. No one imagined Russell would say something like that. The full story is known only to the parties involved, but apparently, he had a harsh argument with Lucia after they arrived at the academy.'
But unfortunately for Lucia, I wasn't a normal person, and when she acted like this, it only made me want to hold onto her more.
In the end, judging that she would eventually return to the dormitory, I decided to stake out near the female dormitory while enduring the pointed stares of Riber and Amy.
It was Lucia's fault for annoyingly and persistently avoiding me.
No matter how hard she tried to run away, this place was the academy.
She had no choice but to come back to the dormitory in the end.
'She's here.'
As expected, my prediction was exactly right.
As dusk fell and the sunset glow descended, I spotted Lucia looking around before entering the dormitory.
Once she was inside, it would be troublesome to bypass the barrier, so I had to catch her now.
I jumped down from the tree where I had been lying in wait.
"Huh-ahht!!!"
"Kyaaaaak???"
Startled by the sudden appearance of a suspicious figure, Lucia swung her fist in a panic.
I used my Law to change direction in mid-air and dodged it well, but the sharp wind pressure from her punch smashed right through the tree I had been on just moments ago.
The thought that I would have been hit if I had dodged wrong sent a chill down my spine.
But now that she had attacked and missed, her stance was disrupted—this was my chance.
"Got you..!! Stop making things difficult!!"
I succeeded in catching Lucia.
Though rather than catching her, it was more like I had latched onto her upper body.
"Kyaaaaak!! Someone help!!!"
"Lucia, it's me..."
Screaming as if trying to shake off the suspicious person clinging to her, she thrashed wildly.
It felt like I might get thrown off at any moment if I made a mistake, but it was bearable. That wasn't the end of it, though.
-Peok!!
"Uwaaak?!"
A blind fist flying wildly here and there landed squarely on my body.
It was the fist of Lucia, who could tear out the pillars of a three-story building with pure strength.
Each hit was so painful it made my head ring.
'Bandages... she still has them on...!!'
It hurt, but more than that, I focused on the fact that bandages were wrapped around Lucia's hands.
They weren't wrapped lightly but quite meticulously, as if she had suffered burns or something.
Not knowing who it was clinging to her, Lucia continued to swing her fists.
It didn't seem like struggling like this would get her to listen.
"Hr..gh!!"
Using my Law, I stepped into the empty air with both feet and tightened my grip around the rampaging Lucia, firmly restraining her.
A tremendous force was applied to my body in an instant, but I endured it, kept Lucia from moving, and then for the first time, met her eyes.
"Now open your eyes and look! It's me!!"
"...Atlas...?"
Only then did Lucia stop.
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"Uu... I'm sorry...y..."
Lucia sniffled back tears.
Having been hit without any proper defense, dark blue bruises had formed here and there on my body.
What terrifying monstrous strength.
No matter how much my physical durability was a bit weaker compared to other Masters, I was still a Master.
I wouldn't normally be hurt by mere punches, but it was terrifying to think what would have happened if someone else had been hit.
"Isn't there something you should apologize for more than that?"
"...."
When I brought up another topic, Lucia averted her eyes.
It looked like she wanted to run away right at that moment.
However, she didn't seem to want to run away when I was standing right in front of her, all beaten up from her punches.
She wouldn't be able to run away in the first place anyway.
If she tried to run this time too, I would catch her not as Atlas the academy student, but as a Master of the Empire.
Lucia's strength was too great for me to handle her while being lenient.
"Why were you avoiding me today?"
"Avoiding.. you... that's a misunderstanding...."
She kept avoiding my eyes.
"Are you still trying to lie to me?"
"Ow ow ow..."
So I grabbed both of Lucia's cheeks to keep her from turning her head elsewhere and forced her to meet my eyes.
"Why on earth are you running away?"
"...It's nothing... really. "
"Then why were you standing out there all night? You had something you wanted to say, didn't you?"
As I kept pressing her, large tears welled up in Lucia's eyes; she couldn't run away anymore.
"No..! It's... it's nothing to do with you...! Really... I just stopped by while passing by, that's all... There's nothing to say... so just go..!"
Lucia started to thrash and resist again.
Her crying and flailing were cute, but..
-Crack!
She must have been exerting so much force that the bricks paving the ground around the dormitory were shattered.
"It's all... all my problem... There's no point... in you doing anything... now..."
She really was an easy kid to read.
Was that truly the best she could do to refuse me? Only her body had grown; her actions were just like a child's.
Though she was trying hard, to my ears, it only sounded like she was crying out, begging for help.
I knew one method that worked well at times like this.
"You've been through a lot."
I hugged Lucia with all my strength.
When calming a crying child, nothing was as effective as holding them.
It would have been even better if we were close enough to hear each other's heartbeats, but regrettably, the cushioning was too large for that.