The Red Fruit (1)
A week had passed since Dairos Academy officially began its semester. Most of the students were adjusting to academy life, making friends and building connections, but... there were still a few who hadn't adapted yet. These were mainly talented commoners. No matter how gifted they were, catching up to the nobles' level in just one week was impossible. As a result, the commoners were despised and envied. Some nobles even suggested creating a separate inferior class because the commoners were slowing down the lessons. Of course, such an opinion would never be accepted in an academy founded on equality—but even then, the academy couldn't stop the nobles from looking down on the commoners.
Liber was one of those overlooked students.
"Damn it, damn it—damn it all......"
Born a commoner, Liber had caught the eye of a knight passing through his village, received a recommendation, challenged the academy, and passed the entrance exam. But unlike the future he'd imagined, academy life was brutally harsh. No one bullied him directly inside the academy, yet nearly every student ignored him for being a commoner. The human heart is a delicate thing; even without outright torment, the pain ran deep.
"Fuck!"
Thud!
Liber kicked the lamppost beside the bench. The post didn't budge, and only his unfortunate foot throbbed in protest, but he couldn't contain his rage and kept spitting curses.
"Fucking hell, fuck this... You bastards... What the hell did I ever do to you......"
He had talent. He'd been lucky enough to meet a knight and enter the academy. He'd believed a brilliant future awaited him. Reality proved otherwise. That gap tormented him. He wanted to break free from this suffering right now. And he knew exactly how.
He simply had to grow. Catch up to the other students, then surpass them. If he did that, the nobles who had ignored him would suddenly reach out as if nothing had happened. After all, nobles were the sort who could snarl at you yesterday and gift you flowers with a smile today if it suited their interests.
But how? How am I supposed to do it?
Yet if he'd possessed that kind of overwhelming talent, he wouldn't be suffering like this. What he'd been given was merely the level of talent that earned the label of "moderate genius." And the most common sight in the academy was exactly that kind of genius.
"This is such bullshit......"
"Who's there?"
Liber, who had been sitting alone on the bench muttering curses, flinched and turned toward the voice. Someone was approaching from the darkness beyond the lamppost's glow. Wondering if it was the dormitory supervisor or an academy instructor, Liber trembled slightly as he waited for the figure to emerge.
A moment later, when the man stepped into view, Liber breathed a sigh of relief. The one who had called out to him was a second-year senior from the Knight Department. Intimidating enough, but not an instructor or professor.
"What are you doing out here by yourself?"
"...It's nothing, senior."
"Really? Looks like you've got something on your mind."
With a chuckle, the senior sat down beside him. Liber flinched at the sight of someone so far above him taking a seat at his side, but the senior waved it off and calmed him.
"Having trouble keeping up in class?"
"......"
"You were the greatest genius back in your village, but here you're just average, so it's bruising your pride?"
"How did you..."
Liber stared at the senior in astonishment. The older boy grinned and explained.
"I went through the same thing. Name's Damian Lotos. Second year."
"Ah, I'm Liber. Senior Damian."
"What you're worrying about right now... it's about Aura, isn't it?"
Damian began deducing his concerns as if he'd experienced them himself. The fact that he had pinpointed the exact problem made Liber's eyes widen.
"Yes. Aura. When I first started, I nearly went crazy trying to figure out how the hell I was supposed to learn it."
"...Even though you were a noble, senior?"
"Ah, noble in name only. No fancy family breathing techniques or support."
Damian scratched his cheek and opened up about his own past. How he'd gone hunting in the mountains as a child because there wasn't enough to eat. How he'd even tried eating tree bark. How pathetic it looked for a so-called noble to cling to expensive trinkets. Stories like that.
Realizing nobles had their own struggles, Liber slowly lowered his guard.
Noticing this, Damian spoke carefully.
"—If there was a way to solve that problem, what would you do?"
"Solve the problem..."
"I'm asking what you'd do if there was an easy way to awaken your Aura."
As he spoke, Damian reached into his coat and pulled out a small glass vial. Inside was something that looked like a red fruit. Liber had never seen anything so vividly red before. It was a bright crimson berry that seemed as if it had been formed from congealed human blood. He couldn't tear his eyes away.
Watching him, Damian smiled.
"This fruit lets you sense Aura."
"There's really a fruit like that?"
"Yep."
"Then... why don't nobles use it..."
"It's incredibly rare. Extremely."
Even though Damian was nearly a fallen noble, he still came from nobility. If he called it expensive, Liber couldn't even begin to imagine its true value.
Pop—
Damian opened the vial and placed the fruit in Liber's palm.
"Eat it."
"Wh-what? But you just said it was incredibly rare?"
"It is. I don't have many myself. But... no matter how precious something is, it should be used for those who need it."
Liber swallowed hard, staring at the fruit in his hand. If he ate this—if he just ate it—he could sense Aura.
"...Why are you doing this?"
"Hm?"
"Why are you being so kind to someone you just met?"
He didn't shove it into his mouth right away. He might not have been well-educated, but he wasn't a complete fool. He knew there was no reason for a stranger to give him something so valuable and treat him kindly.
"Does helping someone in trouble need a reason?"
"Even so—"
"Ah, of course it's not free."
"...I don't have any money."
"I'm not asking for money."
But then.
"Someday, when you see someone struggling like this, help them. That's the price I want."
Liber was so desperate that he didn't question the noble, knightly virtue Damian displayed. This was the noblesse oblige he had never even imagined—using everything one had without hesitation for the weak. Deeply moved, tears streaming down his face, Liber tossed the fruit into his mouth.
A moment later, he shuddered as he felt Aura surging through his body.
"Th-this is......"
"Congratulations. You're an Aura User now too."
The corners of Damian's mouth curved into a smile as he spoke. Gazing at that smile, Liber vowed to devote everything to this senior and to live just like him.
"Hey, Arthur. Got any plans after class today?"
"Huh? No. Why?"
"Let's go shopping."
After some time had passed since the start of the academy term, students began forming friendships with those they clicked with. "Clicking" usually meant coming from a good family and possessing outstanding skill. I could have gotten close to kids from excellent houses with even better abilities, but the one I spent most of my time with was Arthur.
The other nobles didn't look kindly on me associating with a commoner... but that wasn't my concern.
More than anything.
He's the only one whose level is even remotely close to mine.
In both skill and looks. Among the first-year Knight Department students, only three could even somewhat handle my sword. Hundred, Arthur, and one student whose name I couldn't remember. That nameless one was already glued to the so-called elite nobles, and Hundred had zero manners, so—inevitably, Arthur was the only one left.
Fortunately, Arthur didn't seem to mind hanging around me. Though he did throw a fit every time someone called me gay.
"Why? Need to buy something?"
"Dessert."
"Dessert?"
"Yeah. Someone asked me to get some... but it'd be embarrassing to go alone."
"Looking after your fiancée? You're such a romantic."
It was actually a gift for another woman, but I nodded along. Arthur nodded back in understanding.
After class, we headed out of the academy together. Dairos Academy consisted of the main building reserved for students, instructors, and professors, and the academy territory that encircled it. Just one step outside, countless shops built for the students beckoned them. A dessert shop was among them.
When we reached the dessert shop, Arthur lingered at the entrance, hesitating.
"But Kyle, I don't have any money..."
"You think I'd drag you out here and make you pay? I'll buy it, idiot."
"Really?"
Arthur broke into a bright smile at the promise of free dessert and stepped inside. The place was packed with female students who had rushed straight from class. It was only today I realized just how many girls attended the academy. There were a few in the Knight Department, but they were such a tiny minority that I'd mostly kept my distance.
"Whoa......"
"What? First time at a place like this?"
"Yeah! First time."
"Ah, right. You're a commoner."
Chuckling at Arthur's exaggerated awe, I went straight to the counter and paid for a cake. Arthur tried to order a mountain of different cakes, claiming he'd never seen most of them, but since the goal was to hit every cake shop in the academy territory, I limited him to just one.
"Thanks for the treat."
"Yeah."
Arthur demolished the cake in seconds and even stole half of mine. I sighed and stood up. Only after licking the cream from his lips did he follow.
We continued our conquest of every dessert shop in the academy territory. When a place was too crowded, we saved it for later and powered through dozens of cakes.
"Ugh, I'm stuffed."
"Still a little short..."
"What?"
On our way back to the academy, barely enduring the nausea from eating sweets all day, Arthur suddenly glanced into a side alley. I followed his gaze and spotted someone staggering deeper inside.
"That's..."
"Why? Who is it?"
"...He's in our class. Liber."
"Oh, there was a guy like that?"
When I tilted my head in confusion, Arthur gave me a look that asked if I was serious. I shrugged, and he began explaining what he knew about Liber.
"His skills suddenly shot up recently. Everyone's dying to know how he improved so much in such a short time."
"Must be a genius."
"...It's not the kind of growth you can just call genius. There's probably some secret behind it."
"What, is he on drugs or something?"
I'd said it half-jokingly because his staggering through the back alleys made him look exactly like an addict, but Arthur seemed to realize something. Without a word, he headed straight into the alley after Liber.
I scratched the back of my head, watching him charge ahead without discussion, then sighed and followed.
We tailed Liber secretly. He kept glancing around, overly conscious of prying eyes, and before long he met a woman who looked like a prostitute.
"Sir Knight."
"Haa, haa—."
"Come here."
The moment they met, Liber dove into a fierce kiss. Arthur watched the raw sounds and sight with his mouth hanging open. Realizing why Liber had been so wary of being seen entering the back alley, I turned to Arthur.
"He really did have a secret."
"...Yeah."
Having realized it was nothing special, we left the alley and headed back toward the academy. As expected. My memory might not be the best, but I at least remembered who the first enemy to attack the academy was. It was definitely some guy named Deza or Demigras. Not Liber.
I'm not an idiot. Why would I mix those up?
After all, I'd seen the first-round ending of Dairos Academy. I knew roughly how this world operated.
Liber shoved away the prostitute who had suddenly kissed him and shouted.
"Haa, haa— What the hell was that......"
"...They must have left."
The prostitute wiped her mouth and glared at him. Realizing what her words meant, Liber flinched and stared at her.
"N-no! I brought them!"
"It did look like they were following you... Well, since they left, maybe they really were your friends."
"I don't have friends like that..."
"Oh my, making friends is really important, isn't it?"
"Sh-shut up! Don't lecture me!"
Liber yelled, his eyes trembling as he reached out to the prostitute.
"G-give it to me...... the medicine, give me the medicine......"
"It's not medicine. It's a fruit. The fruit of life. Scarlet."
"It's all the same, so hurry......"
The prostitute smiled slyly and pulled a glass vial from her cleavage. Inside were several seed-sized Scarlet fruits. The moment he saw them, Liber's eyes rolled with desperation as he tried to snatch the vial, but she didn't surrender it so easily. Watching him pant with raw hunger, the prostitute slowly curled her lips.
"Did you complete the task you were given?"
"I-I did. I did it, so......"
"Good. Good deeds should be rewarded."
Pop!
She opened the vial and handed him one Scarlet. Liber tossed it into his mouth immediately and shuddered. The life energy flooding his body. He could no longer live without it.
The prostitute looked at Liber, lost in the Scarlet's embrace, and concluded he was truly a pathetic man. To fall apart after only a few days?
Well, it doesn't matter to us.
Whether a mere commoner student ruined himself or not was of little concern. What mattered was accomplishing the great cause.