140. End of Spring
140. End of Spring
[I'll be waiting at the end of the spring that has passed, Ronan.]
I read the sentence Arisa had written two, three times, over and over.
Then, on the fourth read.
"Goddamn it... what the hell is this bullshit?"
I couldn't hold back the curse.
The end of the spring that has passed? Waiting? For me?
Where the hell is the end of a past spring, and I don't like the way it's written as if I'll obviously come find her.
Ah, fine. Of course, that doesn't mean I won't go looking for Arisa. I'm definitely going to find Arisa. And not just Arisa.
Luna, Paulo, and that bastard Kaloso too.
I'm going to find every last one of them.
Find them, and once I've found them.
Kaloso... a tiny, fingernail-sized question did flicker up about whether that bastard had some reason for killing me, but anyway.
When I find them, I'm going to beat the living shit out of every single one of them.
So, yeah... I can understand that line about waiting for me.
But.
The sentence is really... vague.
Why the hell did she write something so sentimental?
She scribbled down a sentence I can't even make sense of.
Did that girl hit puberty late or something?
Actually, Leona had already read it too, and it made me wonder if she just couldn't understand what the sentence meant either.
Am I stupid?
No, I'm not stupid.
Paulo. He'd say the sentence was cool, jot it down in the notepad in his head, and someday mumble those words himself.
Kaloso. He'd wonder if it had some magical treatment on it and blast the note with magic.
Arisa. Arisa, who loved spring, would grin all soft and say the sentence was simply lovely.
Luna. If it were Luna... she might be able to interpret it. Luna was the smartest of us.
"...Tch."
Anyway... with the information I have now, I can't interpret it.
I clicked my tongue and tucked the note into my subspace pouch.
The Holy Kingdom where Arisa vanished.
And Luna's location, which I'll learn once I reach Tier 6.
I don't know where Luna is, but either way, she's probably far from the Imperial Capital.
Same with the Holy Kingdom. It takes too long to go there and back. In that case... I'll have to move during summer break.
Well... if it were really urgent, I could move right now, but whether or not those guys are in a hurry, I'm too weak right now to move recklessly.
I need to reach at least Tier 6.
So, where should I go first?
While I was thinking about that.
"My lady! I'm all done getting ready!"
From far off, I heard Eurasia's bright voice.
"I've drawn the bath too! It's lily-scented!"
Lily scent? A fragrance I've never smelled before.
"It's really nice! Hurry on over!"
"Yeah."
Thinking that there sure were a lot of people waiting for me here and there, I stripped off even my remaining underwear.
*****
"As I mentioned before, next Monday. Three days from now is the start of midterm exam period. Have you all prepared well?"
Late April, midterms.
Unlike the entrance exam, Karelai Academy's midterms are said to be conducted entirely as written exams.
Conversely, finals are conducted entirely as practical exams.
So, the written exams on the midterms cover basic knowledge and everything we've learned so far, plus hints that serve as the background for the finals.
Anyway, midterms are in three days.
A whole lot of incidents happened one after another after I enrolled, but ever since receiving Arisa's note from Leona, I'd spent a peaceful month with nothing happening.
No, it wasn't entirely peaceful and quiet either.
"Now then, everyone? Midterms are midterms, but you all know we also have to write our club's performance report to match that period, right?"
The Demon World exploration club Stella created.
Its supervising professor had been decided as Adelia.
Why the hell? Why did she do something so insane?
According to what I heard from Stella, after seeing Stella running around until her feet sweated, Adelia approached her first and earnestly said she wanted to be the supervising professor.
According to Adelia, she stepped in because she felt sorry for Stella, who was standing in the faculty office with tears welling in her eyes.
Adelia's version seemed a bit closer to the truth. Not just a bit.
Adelia's version was just right.
As the application deadline approached, Stella, growing more anxious, would have gone around to every professor she could, and after being rejected by all of them, she would have been agonizing alone.
But asking us for help after boasting she'd do it herself wouldn't have been allowed by Stella's peculiar, ambiguous pride.
So she was probably just standing in the faculty office with a pitiful look on her face. And... Adelia, who'd been watching that all along, would have helped Stella at just the right moment.
And the reason she didn't tell me about the club's supervising professor—it seems the two of them had coordinated their stories.
On the first day of the club, I saw Stella and Adelia exchanging glances.
This sneaky little wench had schemed with the Black Wizard.
"Oh my. Glaring at me like that won't change anything, you know? Because the side receiving the performance report is the club-related department. So, would Miss Eli care to look at me a little more gently?"
"My eyes are always like this."
"Hmm? A lie. When you look at Miss Stella, Miss Pina, or Miss Eurasia, your eyes go quite soft, you know? Hm... Miss Ophelia... why did I leave her out? Is it because she's your senior?"
"Eliarnes looks at me softly...?"
Stella muttered and looked at me.
"Heehee."
Eurasia giggled and leaned toward me.
[I like Miss Eliarnes too!]
Pina wrote in cute little letters on the sketchbook-shaped Device she'd newly received from Adelia.
"Are you juniors secretly ostracizing me because I'm your senior?"
Ophelia, who I'd subtly... subtly gotten closer to over the past month, snickered.
"Enough... with the chitchat. Please just get on with it."
"Very well."
Clap! Adelia clapped her hands to shift the mood, then picked up a piece of chalk with a beaming smile.
"The performance report. It'll be hard to write. Our club can't help it."
She put emphasis on the word "our."
She's always like that. She seems absolutely, utterly, completely delighted to have become this club's supervising professor.
"So, I. Adelia Baros, the supervising professor of this club, will help you all. I'm a professor who cares for you all this much, you see?"
"You'll really help...?"
Stella, dark circles hanging under her eyes, brightened and looked at Adelia.
Apparently, she's been losing sleep lately over writing the performance report.
"Yes. The Demon World exploration club. It's a club related to the Demon World anyway, isn't it? And with 'exploration' attached... without going to the Demon World, our club can't prove any proper results."
"...That's right."
"So I've done quite a bit of investigating, you see?"
Her gracefully curved eyes turned toward me.
"So let's go eat some chicken skewers."
"...What? Chicken skewers?"
The heads of the four sitting in a row beside me all tilted in unison.
"Yes. Chicken skewers. I'll explain what I've investigated while we eat."
"We can go out just to eat chicken skewers?"
"It's not just chicken skewers. This is an outing for your club time."
Having said that, Adelia pulled five small slips of paper from her bosom. I looked closely, wondering what they were, and they were outing passes.
She'd prepared them in advance. The ink on the signed side was completely dry, so it looked like she'd written them last night.
She really came determined.
"Now, let's hurry! To eat chicken skewers!"
Adelia, a pleased smile on her face for whatever reason, took the lead, and Pina, grinning at the mention of eating something tasty, followed after her.
Stella rose from her seat with a meaningful look on her face, and Eurasia had already stood and was keeping by my side.
Ophelia, meanwhile.
"Achoo!"
Let out one dumbass sneeze, then placed a small note on top of my hand.
The skill with which she placed it while avoiding the eyes of Eurasia, who was clinging close, was impressive. Even I, a former pickpocket in my Past Life, couldn't help but admire it.
The contents of the note? No need to think about it.
It's about the request I'd made before, asking her to investigate the Holy Kingdom's movements.
Though it probably isn't the finished version.
I'd told her to pass along any difficulties that came up along the way or information she couldn't uncover because she hit a wall, so something must have come up again this time.
That makes six times in one month.
She's eaten up more than enough money, and I don't know what the hell kind of problems keep cropping up so often.
And here's the really annoying part.
She could just hand me the note at night, or when I'm alone, or when I go to the bathroom, but she always hands it over when people are crowded around like now.
Talking about this and that, she seems to have some romance for this kind of nail-biting espionage? Or whatever. Anyway, she has a talent for making things annoying for me too.
"...Eurasia really is the most normal one."
Pina got burned once like that and now trots after the Black Wizard who said let's eat something tasty, Stella keeps watching my every move during club time, and Ophelia is... problematic in many ways.
"Yes?"
"Mm. No, nothing. Let's hurry."
I hid the note Ophelia had handed me in my bosom and moved my feet. Then Stella, who'd been nervously watching me, scurried after me.
"Hey. Stella."
"Uh, yeah?"
"Congrats on reaching 5th Circle."
Having said that, I tossed a bracelet to Stella.
It was a custom-ordered Artifact to commemorate her reaching 5th Circle.
Its effects... well, it has all sorts of good things.
And just like that time... a cherry blossom-shaped gem and a Mana Stone are set in the center of the bracelet.
I didn't commission it.
That person made it on their own.
"Huh?! Wha, what! No... thanks, first of all. But wha, what is this?"
"A gift."
"I know that. But... a bracelet? A cherry blossom... shaped gem and a Mana Stone?"
"It's an Artifact. I didn't know how big your total Mana pool was, so I had it expanded to the maximum for the size, and it has two defensive magics, plus a function where if you break the bracelet in an emergency, an alarm rings on another Artifact."
"Another Artifact...?"
Stella tilted her head. I showed her the pocket watch in my bosom.
"This."
The weight attached to it. A cherry blossom-shaped Mana Stone. If Stella breaks that bracelet, an alarm rings here.
It's an incredible function that can even roughly tell where she disappeared from.
I spent a lot of money to add this.
"...The gift is too much."
"Take it when it's given."
"I... I didn't give you a gift when you reached Tier 5...? And I'm not confident I can give you a gift like this even if you reach Tier 6."
"Pay me back later."
"...Later."
Stella, who'd muttered that, lowered her head with a bashful smile.
"Yeah. Thanks... I'll use it well."
I didn't answer and moved my feet.
Then I felt a very, very sharp gaze from beside me. No need to look. It's Eurasia.
I chuckled and turned to look at Eurasia.
She had a glum expression, subtly expectant, subtly jealous?
"Why the face?"
"My face is always like this."
"Right now you look just like a scaly hedgehog mushroom."
"Whaaat?!"
I pressed a small box into the hand of the indignant Eurasia.
"Oh?"
"Of course there's one for you too, Eurasia. Open it."
"Oh... earrings...!"
Earrings. Cherry blossom-shaped earrings, same as before.
"The effects are the same as what I gave Stella. They'll be better than that necklace you used to wear, Eurasia."
"Gasp...! My lady is the best! I love my lady the most! I really have no one but you, my lady!"
The dark feelings vanished from Eurasia's face in an instant.
Eurasia, grinning like usual, and Stella, smiling in a way that was oddly unpleasant and gloomy.
And watching us... Ophelia, with a very flustered expression.
"What."
"Huh? No, I just... you seem to really cherish your friends, junior."
"I do."
Gasp! Eurasia drew a startled breath.
Stella froze on the spot.
Ophelia looked around at us with an odd expression.
"Hoo boy. Who's the top here?"
"Top?"
"Ah, no, nothing. Anyway, let's get going, juniors!"
Ophelia forced an awkward smile, spun around, and hurried after Adelia.
I also moved my feet to follow the group ahead.
The air isn't chilly. The warm breeze carries a scent that suggests it'll get hot before long.
"My lady, my lady."
"Hm?"
"My lady, what season do you like the most?"
"I like winter. My birthday's in it."
Eurasia asked the question, and Ophelia, who was walking ahead, cut in and answered first.
"I like winter too."
This time Stella answered.
"In winter, if you hug a heater Artifact inside a tent and sleep, you fall asleep so well."
"That's you dying, you crazy bitch."
"Wha, what?! Crazy bitch?!"
"I like summer! Even though it's hot, you can eat lots of cool things in summer!"
Eurasia answered while patting the indignant Stella.
"What about you, my lady?"
"Me."
I thought for a moment.
The season I like.
I hate the cold and I hate the heat.
I hate autumn because there are too many fallen leaves.
Spring? I hate it because Arisa liked it.
So, if I had to say.
"I like the time between spring and summer."
"...Huhhh?"
"What's the time between spring and summer?"
"Junior's surprisingly sentimental, huh?"
"Face forward and walk straight before I poke every single one of your eyes out."
"Hmph."
"Hey! I told you to talk nicely!"
"I'msorryjuniorsI'llneverdoitagain."
When I glared hard enough that the group's gazes all turned away, I smiled faintly and looked up at the sky.
Between spring and summer.
Honestly, even I find it funny after answering that.
I don't even know why I like it.
I just vaguely think it must be because of some childhood memory I can't even recall.
It's definitely in my memory, but it feels like it's hidden behind a hazy fog where I can't see it... that kind of feeling.
"If it's between spring and summer... is that the end of spring?"
While I was thinking that, Eurasia murmured quietly.
"The end of spring?"
The end of spring.
Arisa's letter.
[I'll be waiting at the end of the spring that has passed, Ronan]
"...Huh?"
Why.
Do I like.
The end of spring?
'Ronan. I like the end of spring.'
Arisa's voice.
Words I'd never once heard—that she liked not spring, but the end of spring. But something I had heard before...
A powerful question flooded my head.
A memory hidden behind fog—memory? Experience?
What the hell is it? Things I... have never experienced.
Just as it was about to enter my head along with a terrible headache.
"Hii! Hiii!"
From far off, Pina came running toward me, bawling her eyes out.
And behind her, I could see Adelia holding chicken skewers with an awkward smile.
That Adelia looks at me.
Her red eyes glisten. Her lips part slightly, and one step, tap.
The headache vanished.
The unsettling memory was veiled in fog once more.
All that remained was pure curiosity.
The end of spring. Arisa's letter.
The season I like.
She said she'd wait for me there.
Why? No, how the hell does Arisa know the phrase "the end of spring"? Coincidence? It's too much for coincidence.
"My lady? Are you feeling unwell?"
"...No. I'm fine. Thanks."
I carefully removed Eurasia's hand, which had somehow been supporting my body. At the same time, Pina threw herself into my arms.
"Hii...! Hic! Hiic!"
Yeah...
End of spring or whatever, first let's hear why this squirrel is crying.
I raised my head and looked at Adelia. She was still looking at me, smiling brightly.