The Secret of a Classmate
People usually picture academies as places filled with youth, romance, hard work, and passion. The Dairos Academy from the game was exactly like that. Players could do whatever they wanted. You could become a knight, a mage, a soldier, an artist, or a government official. Along the way, you could seduce royalty, date a beggar from the back alleys, or even buy slaves to build your own harem. Naturally, I imagined reality would be something similar. I thought the academy would overflow with dreams, hope, and love.
The Knight Department proved me wrong.
“Next!”
Piiiiik—!
The moment the instructor blew his whistle, the cadets who had been catching their breath immediately raised their wooden swords and leveled them at their opponents. These training weapons had heavy metal cores driven into them, making them far heavier than real blades. Obviously, a solid hit could break bones, and a well-placed strike could kill. Yet the cadets pointed and swung them without the slightest hesitation. This was training meant to ensure they wouldn’t hesitate when it mattered in real combat.
Whack—!
“Uwaaaaack—!”
“…You okay?”
Since it was a wooden sword instead of a bladed one, swinging it carried less guilt. The cadet who took the blow screamed in pain, but nothing was actually broken or fatal. And as long as you didn’t die, the academy would spare no expense to heal your injuries.
I glanced toward the area where the priest cadets had gathered. One of them, who had been reading from the scriptures, carefully approached the fallen cadet and examined him.
“Are you all right? Where does it hurt…”
The priest cadet began reciting a prayer over the angry red swelling. It was laughably slow compared to the bishop-level priests who had spent years on battlefields, but the injury slowly started to mend.
Once the prayer and healing were finished, the priest flashed a bright smile, told him to train without worry, and returned to his spot.
Watching the whole thing, I wondered if priests were all psychopaths.
They’re literally telling people to go get hurt…
I shrugged at the newly healed cadet as if to ask whether he wanted to keep going. The guy whose bones had just been broken and re-knitted gave me a sour look, let out a long sigh, and forced himself to his feet.
“…Please go easy on me.”
“Sure thing.”
The next instant, the cadet with my sword buried in his solar plexus rolled across the ground, wheezing, before passing out completely.
I hauled the unconscious guy over and “donated” him to the priests as a human test subject, then came back and waited for the next round.
After the instructor blew his whistle again, the cadets who had been swinging their swords with gusto exchanged light bows and shuffled one position over to face new opponents.
The one who stepped up to me was a skinny blond. A commoner who was still pretending he hadn’t learned how to use aura.
“Ah, hello. Please take care of me…”
“Yeah, sure.”
Up close, I noticed his eyelashes were surprisingly long. He was a guy, not a girl, so why was his face so delicate? I mentally roasted the unnecessarily handsome bastard for a moment before realizing I didn’t even know his name.
“Hey, you—what’s your name?”
“Me?”
“I’m Kyle Meyer.”
“Arthur. It’s Arthur.”
“Got it. Arthur.”
I gripped my wooden sword and grinned at him.
“You—why are you hiding?”
“…!?”
Arthur stared at me in pure shock, as if asking how the hell I knew. I simply smiled back at him.
A moment later, the instructor’s whistle blew, and I swung my sword.
Watching Arthur struggle to block it, I kept swinging. Let’s see how long you can keep up the act.
Arthur couldn’t hide his shock as he looked at Kyle standing before him. The man had seen straight through his secret.
How… how did he know?
He had never told a soul about the secret he carried. Even the academy’s headmaster shouldn’t have noticed it. Yet a classmate he had just met today had figured it out? It didn’t make any logical sense.
How was something like that even possible?
Could it be—this guy.
Arthur recalled the words the man who had sent him here had spoken before his arrival at the academy.
—There will be those who desire your body. They will come for you.
The warning that organizations craving his body would pursue him, and that he needed to grow strong before they could target him. Was Kyle one of those secret organization members? An agent sent to capture him?
…But would he really just announce it like this?
Even Arthur found that strange. If the man truly wanted to target him, why reveal it upfront? Wouldn’t the normal approach be to lower his guard first?
While Arthur stood there sensing something off and turning the situation over in his mind, Kyle looked at him and spoke.
“Hey.”
“Uh, y-yeah?”
“Not paying attention?”
Kyle frowned like he was annoyed, then swung his sword at the dazed Arthur. The strike was slow with an obvious trajectory, clearly meant to jolt him back to reality.
Arthur blocked it and snapped out of his thoughts, finally remembering he was in the middle of a spar. He also realized that if Kyle had attacked without caring whether he moved or not, he would already be badly injured.
Is he trying to make me drop my guard like this?
Arthur felt a twinge of disappointment in his own persistent suspicion, then looked directly at Kyle.
“Sorry. I’ll focus now.”
“Good. Lose focus and you’ll get hurt.”
“…Huuu.”
Taking a deep breath at Kyle’s warning, Arthur felt his heart pounding hard. The aura generated from his heart spread throughout his entire body, filling him with vitality.
Inside Arthur’s chest was the Dragon’s Heart. That was his secret. The Dragon’s Heart produced a massive amount of aura every second, every breath.
“—Here I come.”
The Dragon’s Heart burned hot, launching Arthur’s body forward like a bullet.
Even an Aura User pouring out aura recklessly would only achieve minimal efficiency. But if someone could dump aura without caring about efficiency at all, it meant an Aura User could display power far beyond their normal limits.
“Hyaaaaat—!”
Arthur charged at Kyle with a surging wave of aura. The man might be skilled with a sword, but with this much aura reinforcing his body—
“Hey.”
Kyle casually kept pace with the aura-enhanced Arthur and blocked the incoming strike. Then he snatched the wooden sword right out of Arthur’s grip and frowned.
“Aura is banned during sparring.”
“Ah…”
Arthur belatedly remembered the rules and fidgeted, unsure what to say. Kyle looked at him like he was wondering what the holdup was.
“Aren’t you going to apologize?”
“S-sorry.”
“Yeah, okay. Just be careful next time.”
Watching Kyle laugh it off so cleanly after a single apology, Arthur let out a sigh of relief. So he wasn’t some villain after his life after all—
But.
Arthur finally looked down at his own hand. He had poured in an inefficient amount of aura to strengthen his body. The speed should have been something even an Aura Expert would struggle to match.
…How did he take it away so easily?
He didn’t have time to dwell on it. Kyle tossed the wooden sword aside as if the remaining time was a waste, and the moment Arthur caught it, Kyle swung again like he was getting revenge for earlier.
Arthur couldn’t react in time. The wooden sword slammed squarely into his jaw. His vision blurred as he glared at Kyle.
Ah, this rotten bastard…
“Uahaha! I said I was sorry!”
“You think that’s funny? I’ve got broken ribs here.”
Men grow closer through fighting. Having bonded with the other cadets through sparring, I let out a hearty laugh as I headed toward the grand bathhouse.
It was a bathing facility inside the academy, opened first to the Knight Department after training. Not that any other department bothered rushing there right after class anyway.
On the way to the large bath with the rest of the Knight Department cadets, I spotted Arthur hesitating in the distance. I quickly moved beside him and threw an arm around his shoulders.
“Arthur! What are you standing around for?”
“Uh, um?”
“Not coming?”
I dragged the reluctant Arthur along. He flinched and tried to resist, but there was no way his thin arms could overpower me.
When we reached the bathhouse, I noticed him sneaking glances at the women’s section and let out a small chuckle.
“What? You trying to sneak into the women’s bath?”
“N-no!”
“Then why do you keep looking? They’ll expel you if you go in there, you know.”
“…I’ll wash later.”
“Hey, we’re already here. What are you talking about? Walking around smelling like sweat will just make the entire Knight Department look bad.”
I shoved the strangely reluctant Arthur into the changing room. He turned his head away like he had seen something he shouldn’t have.
Wondering what was wrong with this guy, I quickly stripped off my uniform and waited for him to do the same.
“…Arthur, don’t tell me—”
“T-tell you what?”
“Is your body so pathetic you’re ashamed to show it? Sigh… Can’t be helped. It’s true that everyone else’s bodies look pathetic next to mine.”
I struck a pose in front of the mirror, flexing to show off my muscles. Arthur watched with a fed-up expression before slowly removing his own clothes.
I had thought he looked skinny from the outside, but his body was even more frail than I expected. It was honestly a mystery how someone with this frame could produce such monstrous strength.
I grabbed his shoulder.
“Arthur…!”
“Wh-what?! What is it?!”
“—What the hell is this skinny body? You’re basically just bones and skin standing upright…!”
“…Don’t scare me like that!”
After teasing him a little, Arthur swung my arm away and headed into the bath area.
Following him inside, I smiled with satisfaction at the vast facility that truly lived up to the academy’s reputation.
Before getting into the tub, I moved over to the showers to wash first. Arthur stuck right beside me and asked cautiously.
“Um, Kyle?”
“What?”
“So… you’re not going to wash my back or anything like that?”
“…What?”
I stared at him in utter disbelief. His face was slightly flushed for some reason. That expression triggered a flash of realization in my mind.
His reluctance to enter the bathhouse. The strange embarrassment. The odd behavior finally made sense.
You bastard…
So you’re gay.
I took a step away from him. Ignoring Arthur’s confused head tilt, I washed myself while making sure not to show him my back as much as possible.
The misunderstanding was finally cleared up later—after we had finished bathing and Arthur noticed I was still keeping my distance. He found it strange and spoke up.