The Members Stay Behind, the Advisor Goes Home – 1
Saying that the prayer-meta of hoping for a sixth character to appear is the most effective approach is also a way of saying there is nothing I can do for Luise right now. The situation is enough to make tears well up on their own.
Still, I can cling to a little hope. One semester out of six is already behind us, and the first semester of the first year is only the opening stretch of the Academy’s three-year program. Setting aside my own position—having to sit through this hopeless disaster of a show for five more semesters—the club members still have plenty of chances left.
Of course, that is only a small hope. I am not exactly counting on anything. After all, if you never expect much, you never have to be disappointed.
Was it always like this?
A more fundamental question struck me. Had the original story been like this all along, and I was only now finding it unbearable because I was watching it in real time? From a reader’s seat the calendar skips ahead at a comfortable pace, but I am stuck observing day after day. Maybe that is why I feel like I am losing my mind.
I almost wished that were the case. Then I could have made sure I served as inspector every first semester and pushed someone else into the second-semester post. I would have come back after a half-year gap to see actual progress, and the frustration would have vanished.
From somewhere deep in my heart a whisper rose—Those idiots would be exactly the same after half a year—but I did my best to ignore it.
The period when the club room smelled of ink instead of flour had returned: a positive sign that the final exams, the last item on the semester’s calendar, were drawing near.
It really is almost over.
I felt a little sorry for the kids frowning at textbook pages and scratching away with their pens, but I could not begin to describe how happy this moment made me.
Vacation is something everyone looks forward to, but this year the anticipation ran especially high. Even the Academy’s principal and vice-principal had to be sick of high-ranking dignitaries prowling around their own backyard. The moment those dignitaries’ return home became a settled fact, their faces brightened considerably.
Naturally, Villar’s mood had grown brighter with every passing day as well. At the start of the term he had looked more haggard by the hour; now, with the oasis of going home shimmering right in front of him, he seemed to have reached a state where he could endure any suffering.
It is good news. Technically.
Vacation was definitely something to celebrate. It meant a temporary release from the job of watching and cleaning up after key figures whose heads could roll over the slightest scratch.
But ever since the Demon Duke incident had summoned me back to the Imperial Capital, I had been forced to accept a painful truth: the Academy was a relative paradise. Once I returned to the capital, I would be crushed under Audit Department work and live like a mayfly that never knew when the higher-ups might call.
A delicate position—glad, yet unable to be glad. If I had never realized any of this, I would have headed for the capital in high spirits. Instead I had already swallowed the red pill and learned the truth.
"Luise, that is not how you solve that one."
"Ah—you’re right."
While I was weeping inwardly over my bitter reality, two women’s voices reached my ears. An impossible thing in a club room where Luise was the sole rose among thorns—unless the other woman happened to be her closest friend.
"Thanks, Irina!"
"The one next to it is wrong too."
"Ah."
The hero who had dragged the club room’s catastrophic gender ratio of six boys to one girl all the way up to three-to-one was Irina.
After presenting the hawthorn and vanishing without a trace, Irina had, a few days ago, begun reporting for duty at the Baking Club as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Once or twice I might have let it go, but she was coming every single day. Didn’t she belong to another club?
"We decided not to hold meetings because exams are so close. I thought it would be nice to study with Luise—would that be all right?"
"It’s fine. Do whatever’s comfortable."
When I asked, she answered that she had no need to go to her own club. Since that was her story, I had no real reason to stop her, so I told her she could come. Still—
They do meet, though.
I was, for what it was worth, one of the club advisors, and with the vice-principal as a line of communication I kept a decent handle on Academy affairs. I also knew that other clubs might gather during club hours simply to study on their own, but they never simply stopped meeting altogether.
The Gardening Club, Irina’s own, had not skipped a single meeting up to this very moment—not even on the day she had shown up carrying a hawthorn sapling.
And I can’t exactly call her on it.
Irina was already watching me carefully enough. These days it was not because of the Audit Department’s friendly fire; the unusual part was that she seemed to be gauging my reaction to her gift.
In that atmosphere, saying something like “Why are you lying?” might send her into a genuine panic and make her bolt. Besides, a slightly embarrassing incident already hung between Irina and me, so I felt bad about poking at her.
Even now, while she whispered with Luise, she kept sneaking glances at me—and then, the instant our eyes met, she hurriedly looked away. It was almost funny.
It’ll be fine.
I was reluctant to rattle Irina, but there was nothing to scold her for in the first place. Skipping your own club to hang out at a friend’s—unless you were looking through the eyes of a total stickler—was not exactly a crime.
Even a dignity-conscious noble was still a kid who had not yet turned twenty. Remembering my life before possession, this was peak friend-obsessed age. Perfectly understandable.
"This one’s wrong too."
"Hiiing…"
In fact, looking at Luise’s frankly unimpressive study skills, Irina’s presence seemed to be a net positive.
"Irina. This one too, please."
"Ah, that one?"
And the other members showed no signs of minding her, either.
Having another presence on the battlefield where they were fighting over Luise could easily have grated on them, but thankfully the boys never tried to freeze Irina out.
Of course, no one among them was quite stupid enough to pick a fight with Luise’s best friend and hand themselves a catastrophic penalty in the contest. They were idiots, yes, but not that thoroughly wretched. These kids simply lacked social awareness; they were still human beings.
"It is fortunate that Lady Irina is here. There have been times when none of us knew the answer to a question."
"I am most humb—"
"Haha, please be at ease. Are we not fellow students?"
"Ah—yes."
Even the most terrifying figure for Irina—a prince of her own country—was treating her gently. That said everything. With that, the princes of her homeland had no grounds left to edge her out.
"I’m so—so glad Irina’s here."
"That tickles."
Luise buried herself in Irina’s arms while Irina smiled softly and stroked her hair. At times they looked less like friends than sisters a year or two apart. Either way, it was a heartwarming sight.
Except for the idiots behind them staring at Irina with pure envy.
The trigger had been trivial.
"Starting today, I’m going to focus on studying."
Hearing Luise shore up her resolve, a thought had suddenly crossed my mind. If the Baking Club was pausing club activities for exam prep, then the Gardening Club doing the same would not look strange at all, would it?
True, the Gardening Club had never suspended a meeting once since the Academy’s founding—but an older brother who had only just arrived at the Academy would not necessarily know that.
This is my chance.
At first I had stayed away because I was too embarrassed to face him. Once I calmed down, I no longer had a proper excuse. No matter how often my seniors said it was fine to drop by, I could not claim the club was closed every single day. A day or two might slide; if it kept going, people would start to find it odd.
But if I said the club had halted meetings to prepare for exams, the pretext was more than enough. Perfectly plausible, and studying with a close friend was nothing out of the ordinary.
Using Luise like this left a bad taste in my mouth, but…
"Um, Luise? If you don’t mind, would you study with me?"
"Really? Is that all right?"
"Yeah. I don’t have anywhere else to go anyway."
"I’d love to!"
And Luise said it was fine. Yes. She wanted this too. I was not using her.
I’m sorry.
I repeated that to myself, but Luise’s sunny expression made it impossible to smother the guilt. Wanted this? Hardly. I was leaning on our friendship like a coward.
"Oh—long time no see. Come on in."
And yet I hated myself a little for how quickly his greeting thinned that guilt.
"Thank you for the gift. It really brightened up the club room."
"I’m glad."
And I hated him even more for clearly having no idea what the flower language meant. I was relieved, of course—genuinely relieved that he did not know—but still…
How could you.
Relief and disappointment sat side by side. How could a lady’s gift leave him so completely unmoved? It made me feel like a fool for agonizing over it alone.
Even if the famous meaning of hawthorn had been tolerance and forgiveness instead of u-unique… love…, he still would not have known. The thought left me hurt. I had worked up so much courage for that gift.
"Big brother has been taking such good care of it."
Luise’s whisper beside me loosened something in my chest, just a little.
The Baking Club’s six, plus one runaway from the Gardening Club, put their heads together every day and prepared for the exams.
"Why are there so many subjects?"
"It’s not practical work. We could probably get by with half-assing it."
The laments of our resident physical types, Erich and Ryutis, filled the club room. Their faces had grown darker by the day, and now they were freely venting their resentment toward studying. Exams driving students insane seemed to be a constant across worlds.
"Still, in only two days it will be vacation. Let us push a little further."
Erich, who had been sprawled flat, twitched at Ainter’s words and picked up his pen again.
"Yeah. Gotta hang in there. We should go home in a good mood."
"Ah—you’re going home?"
"Why are you talking like you’re not?"
"I’m not going."
At Ryutis’s casual reply, my cookie-chewing mouth froze.
"Huh? You’re not going?"
The news seemed unexpected to Erich as well; he asked with genuine puzzlement. Exactly, you little punk. What do you mean, not going?
"Armein isn’t exactly next door to the Empire. We’ll be back in two months anyway, so staying at the Academy is better."
"Just use teleportation."
"Mages who can cover that distance have more than enough work already."
This absolute bastard—why did his civic spirit only kick in at times like this?
"I agree. I had been thinking the same thing."
Later, who had been quietly scribbling something, threw his weight behind Ryutis’s words. You too? You’re not going either?
With a faint hope I slid my gaze sideways and found Tanian smiling and nodding. No. Not you. Please not you.
"It seems we are all of one mind. Haha—perhaps our time together has brought our hearts into alignment."
For a moment I could picture Villar wailing and pounding the ground in my head.