96. Hey, Smile
96. Hey, Smile
Jeobeok jeobeok
I walked out into the hallway and strode along, dazed.
"Hey, hey. Don't make eye contact."
"Whoa, the bloodlust is insane today... Did something happen..?"
Perhaps because my expression was lethally urgent, every male student I passed in the hallway averted their gaze.
The more they did, the more desperate I became.
Behind me, Casey glared with a sulky expression.
'Says the guy who doesn't have a single male friend himself!'
He had hit the nail on the head.
I thought I'd made a fair few on the Snowfield Expedition, but I had never properly had a single male friend in the knights' order or at the academy.
Maybe it turned out that way because I never tried to make any, but to dig into a more fundamental cause, the environment was bad.
Setting aside my family, since there were no boys my age around, during my apprentice knight days only bastards picking fights were around, so I fought every single day.
After finishing those bloody apprentice days of slashing legs, breaking bones, and driving elbows without a moment's rest, once I became a formal knight, even my peers and seniors could barely stand to meet my eyes.
They picked the fights first and then acted like the victims—utterly shameless.
Shortly after becoming a formal knight, I became a Master and zipped around the country with Teacher, so I had no time to make friends, and then after I became independent from Teacher, I wandered around alone again.
And at the academy... well, it's similar to my apprentice days.
Just as the gaze I felt from behind grew increasingly piercing, a group appeared in front of me.
It was a group of about five or six crossing the wide hallway.
At the very front was a handsome man with flowing long blue hair.
It was Zeke Albion, who commanded the Class 2 clique.
"...!"
Since we were walking straight toward each other, it looked like we would collide after just a few more steps.
Albion's clique refused to back down first and tried to stubbornly push forward, but Zeke Albion at the front glanced at my face and discreetly stepped aside.
A small ripple ran through the Class 2 clique, but no one objected to his decision.
They had already witnessed several times what kind of disaster resulted from picking a fight with me in the hallway.
'This guy might work?'
But even before we passed each other, I stared intently at Albion.
Sensing my gaze, Albion fluttered his long blue hair and slightly turned his head to avoid my eyes.
Wouldn't this guy, at least, go along with it if I suddenly spouted nonsense?
No, he had to go along with it.
I changed direction, strode right up to Albion, stretched my arm all the way up, and planted my hand on his shoulder.
"Look who it is! My friend Albion!"
"What?!"
As soon as my hand touched him, Albion's body jolted violently.
He looked flustered by my sudden chumminess.
"You...!! What are you trying to pull with Lord Albion!!"
"Everyone stay still!"
The moment I touched Albion's body, the Class 2 students scattered and threatened me as if they'd attack at any second, but Albion shouted them down.
"Hey, what is this suddenly in the hallway..."
Albion was bewildered, unable to make sense of my actions.
Even I don't understand, so how could a third party?
But from the moment he caught my eye, Zeke Albion had no choice but to play along with my forced act.
I pressed down on his shoulder to lower his gaze closer to mine and whispered quietly into his ear.
"Hey, smile."
At that single, chilling remark, Albion's eyes flashed wide, and a reaction appeared immediately.
"Ah.. Ahahahahahahahahahaha."
"Ah.. Lord Albion??"
When Albion burst out laughing upon hearing my words, the Class 2 students and everyone passing through the hallway started and looked our way.
"Hahaha, yes, you have to smile. Smile."
"Hahahahahahahaha"
We laughed endlessly like men who had lost their minds.
Since I was laughing, Albion followed suit and laughed too.
"Ha... Haha.. Hahahahaha!"
"Kkalkkalkkalkkalkkal"
"Ahahahahahahahahaha"
As that continued, the Class 2 students also started laughing, one by one.
Did they feel pressured that they had to laugh?
The reason we just kept laughing wasn't anything special.
I'd grabbed him, but since I had nothing to say to him, I just stood there laughing.
As if some laugh bell had been rung, the hallway filled with students mechanically doing nothing but laughing brimmed with madness.
"What the—why is everyone acting like this??"
Someone shattered that bizarre situation.
"Edgar..!"
Edgar Lemnos's lecture must have ended too; he came strolling along with a book in one hand.
Looking at the laughter filling the hallway, he wore a dumbfounded expression.
Originally, his clique used to carry all his things, but lately—perhaps some change of heart—he carried everything himself.
"Edgar!! This place.. don't.."
"Wow, Edgar's here too! Nice to see you, my friend!"
When Edgar, who knew nothing, tried to approach, Albion attempted to warn him, but I beat him to it.
Edgar Lemnos still couldn't grasp what was happening right before his eyes.
"Huh?? What's this all of a sudden!"
"What do you mean? We're friends."
"What? Me and you?? What nonsense are you spouting!"
"Isn't this the friendship forged by crossing swords between swordsmen? Hey! I'm hurt if you act like that!"
Edgar recoiled as I giggled.
I wasn't doing it because I liked it either.
But the more this happened, the more shameless I had to be.
When I put on a brazen face and spouted plausible sophistry, he started showing a dubious attitude.
"... Is that so..?"
Perhaps my words were quite plausible, as Edgar didn't reject it outright.
"No, I'm... a mage, so why am I..."
"Just laugh."
"Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha"
Laughter bloomed in the hallway once again.
As the laughter bloomed on for a good while longer, another scapegoat appeared, drawn by the noise.
"What's this, what's this? Looks fun. Include me too."
Nivas Perda, his curiosity piqued, slinked over and started laughing alongside Albion.
Albion, forcing out laughter. Lemnos, pondering whether he was a friend. And Perda, joining because it looked fun.
Three of the Five Pillars gathered together, creating a surreal spectacle.
'What a complete mess.'
Casey, who had watched the whole sequence with sharp, glaring eyes, didn't say anything, but she seemed to be thinking the same thing.
———————————-
"Yeah, okay. Have a safe trip back."
After grabbing them and causing a suitable ruckus, I sent them all on their way.
Watching me roughly toy with the Five Pillars, the ordinary students feared me like I was a monster.
Something I tended to forget more and more these days was that those five were from the most prestigious families representing the empire's nobility.
"Ugh... my throat hurts...."
Albion, who had been forced to laugh continuously, fled first with a disgusted expression.
He must have figured he could get grabbed and made to do it again.
"Friends... I am...."
"Haha, I feel refreshed after that good laugh. Call me next time too."
Edgar Lemnos continued to mull something over deeply.
It seemed he was still agonizing over how to accept being called a friend.
Once Perda left all at once too, I felt a wave of relief.
I spoke confidently toward Casey.
"How about that? See?"
But naturally, Casey didn't buy my words.
"That's nonsense. The first guy you ran into was scared of you. The second one was confused. The third seemed like he didn't care."
"Nonsense. That's just how friends are. The reason you think it's strange is because you don't have any friends."
"...."
"If you think what I just showed you was strange, then you go make some friends first and tell me which part was strange. Then I'll humbly admit it."
Casey looked like she had a lot to say, but since it was true she had no same-age male friends, she seemed to have no grounds for rebuttal.
"I'll think about it."
With that, Casey turned and went back to the classroom.
After confirming Casey's retreating figure, I shuddered violently.
"Ugh, I really must have been crazy."
Repulsed by my own actions, I turned my head away.
There was still a little time, but it was time to head to the next lecture hall.
"Ah!"
"..."
"..."
Just then, at the bend in the hallway, I saw a flash of golden hair and red hair duck quickly back behind the wall.
"........."
My breath caught in my throat.
I had no idea what to say.
I wanted to bolt immediately, but if I ran, it felt like it would get even more troublesome.
As I stood frozen, clutching my throbbing head, the two heads hiding behind the wall peeked out again.
It was Emy and Liber.
"... How much did you see?"
"From the.. beginning?"
I wanted to die.
—————————————
Edgar Lemnos strolled down the hallway, pondering what had just happened.
'What's wrong? We're friends.'
Atlas had called Edgar a friend.
He had thought, what nonsense is this after beating me up like that so far, but the words that followed gave him pause.
'Isn't this the friendship forged by crossing swords between swordsmen? Hey! I'm hurt if you act like that!'
There is a friendship born from crossing swords and clashing against each other.
Edgar also knew, from hearing his family's knights, that such a form of friendship existed.
But those words were quite far removed from Edgar.
Although Edgar swung his sword almost daily, he could count on one hand the people he could call friends.
There were those who volunteered to be subordinates, but those of the same caliber he could call a friend were at best just Zeke Albion... and even with him, a mage, their topics of conversation often diverged.
'Is that how it is..?'
The duel between Atlas and Edgar wasn't a fight born of some grudge, nor did any lingering emotional resentment remain afterward.
Edgar had once even thought it was remarkable that Atlas, at such a young age, possessed incredible skill that made him recall his own father.
Though Lemnos was taught as the Sword of the Empire to always race ahead, it wasn't as if he had never wished for a companion who wouldn't trail behind him but run beside him... no, ahead of him.
Once he considered Atlas a friend, it wasn't so bad.
He was a swordsman superior to himself, and now that he looked, he got along well with the other Five Pillars too.
He was speculated to be the illegitimate son of Nemea... but looking at that skill, he was a figure who would achieve greatness on his own.
As a companion for the Lemnos family, he couldn't be better.
"Was I... friends with Atlas...?"
It felt strange, but since Atlas had said it himself, Edgar thought maybe he should just regard it that way too.