Two Sub-Heroines Appear
Two sub-heroines appeared.
Riel and I advanced through the forest with our summons in tow. Our formation had Baduk, my summon, taking point, Riel and me behind him, and Frey, Riel's summon, bringing up the rear.
At first we hadn't bothered with a formation at all — we'd just pushed forward. But before our first encounter with a monster, Baduk had picked up its presence in an instant. Once I realized how exceptional his sensing ability was, I put him at the front.
"There aren't… that many monsters, are there?"
Hearing Riel's mutter, I thought for a moment. It had been about ten minutes since our first encounter, and we hadn't run into another one since. Well, we weren't the only ones in this forest, so that was only to be expected.
"Stay alert anyway, Riel. The ones we ran into earlier are among the weakest of the monsters that live here."
The monsters we'd encountered had been Gray Wolves. They were classified as monsters because they carried magi, but strictly speaking they weren't all that different from ordinary beasts, which put them at the bottom of the difficulty scale. That said, they were still monsters — getting attacked by one was dangerous all the same. Even so, any warrior or mage with a decent amount of training could handle them without much trouble. Just now, thanks to Baduk's early warning, Riel and I had been on guard and dispatched them easily.
"According to the materials, there are higher-tier monsters around here too."
I pulled the paper from my pocket and looked it over. It was a handout the professor had distributed to every academy student along with emergency magic tools — a simple summary of the monsters inhabiting the outdoor class area. Knowing the types of monsters in advance meant you wouldn't panic as badly when you ran into them, which in turn improved safety. Of course, it might make it harder to develop the ability to respond to sudden crises, but this wasn't mercenary guild training. For an academy that had to prioritize its students' safety, that was probably a sacrifice they had to make.
That was part of it, but the truth was I had also let my guard down to some degree. In the original story, the outdoor class section had passed without any major incidents — just another ordinary school lesson. But now that this world had become reality and was unfolding quite differently from the original, I couldn't afford to drop my guard completely.
"Woof woof!!"
"Ah, Baduk found something!"
At Baduk's bark and Riel's voice, I snapped out of my thoughts and looked around. Sure enough, from the direction Baduk was staring, I could hear something rustling. But it wasn't a monster. The distinct sound of shoes on the forest floor…
"Riel, that's not a monster. I think it's academy students like us."
"Really?"
No matter how large this outdoor class area was, seventeen teams had entered it, so running into another team was only natural. Still, I didn't drop my guard as I watched the source of the sound. Two academy students actually burst out — two girls from the same class.
They spotted us too, flinching in surprise for a moment, then their eyes met mine.
"Tch."
The brown-haired girl in the lead, her hair tied back, clicked her tongue right in our faces. Well, that was to be expected. Her name was Aria Owen — one of the sub-heroines, a commoner student who was always glued to Alan's side.
And the black-haired girl behind her. When I shifted my gaze to her, she met my eyes, startled, and immediately looked away. She was also a commoner student who followed Alan around, another sub-heroine: Phelis Valtreia.
Beside them I could see what looked like their summons — a small bird and a lion cub.
Of all the teams we could have run into first, it had to be the two girls who trailed after Alan. And they were radiating discomfort without the slightest attempt to hide it. Clicking your tongue and glaring at someone the moment you meet them… even setting aside the whole noble-and-commoner thing, that was pretty poor conduct as a human being.
Having only seen the heroines' kind, righteous sides in the original, seeing this from them was giving me one hell of a disconnect. No — it wasn't that they hadn't shown this attitude in the original. They'd taken exactly this tone with the villains of the original story, and with the corrupt nobles who'd picked fights with them.
…Which meant that in their minds, I was on the same level as those people.
Anyway, colliding with people who were openly spewing hostility was both exhausting and completely pointless. I lowered the sword I was holding and started walking, intending to ignore them and pass by. Riel followed behind me. Just as we were about to walk past them—
"Wait."
Aria Owen called us to a halt. I was trying to ignore the blatant provocation and just walk away, and she was stopping me. I pushed down the sense of absurdity, composed my expression, and turned only my head to look at her.
"What is it?"
"Don't get too full of yourself, Kyou Ventus."
…What?
What kind of bolt-from-the-blue nonsense was that?
"I don't know what kind of dirty trick you pulled, but that duel was as good as Alan's victory!"
"Th-that's right! You must have bribed the professor!"
…Excuse me?
The one who got disqualified for a dirty trick was their Alan. Apparently in these girls' heads, I'd bribed the professor into disqualifying him. Alan himself had fought me directly, so he'd felt the discrepancy and come to terms with it — but these two hadn't.
"That's not even worth responding to."
"What did you just say?!"
"Phelis Valtreia."
"!!"
When I called her name, Phelis startled and ducked behind Aria as if fleeing. She peeked her face out just enough to look at me.
"W-what is it?"
"You just claimed I bribed Professor Altman, didn't you?"
"Th-that's… why does that matter?!"
Did this girl have a sense of fear or not? In the original she was timid, but the type who still said what needed to be said.
"If your claim is wrong, then you've just insulted an honorable academy professor — and a noble of House Altman."
"!!"
Phelis's face went deathly pale. If you're going to openly claim a professor took a bribe, shouldn't you at least consider a risk like that? In the original, Professor Altman actually had been bribed by Kyou Ventus, and he was a moderately corrupt adult who committed minor improprieties here and there — but in this particular matter, he was definitely innocent.
"If you still intend to stand by that claim, I'm prepared to prove both Professor Altman's innocence and my own."
"Th-that's…"
Phelis trembled, her face ashen. Right. She'd had her suspicions, but now that I was confidently offering to prove my innocence, of course she was thrown off.
"I-I just meant that it was possible…"
In the end, Phelis took a step back. Well, she wasn't about to stubbornly hold her ground at the risk of being charged with insulting a noble-born professor. Even so, the trembling hadn't left her. As she took a step back, shaking, Aria Owen stepped forward as if to shield her.
"How cowardly! Using your noble title to threaten her!"
Wait, hold on? How does that causal chain even work?
I was certain now. Aria Owen was in the same category as Alan Ludwig — people you simply couldn't reason with.
"Dealing with you any further is a waste of time."
In cases like this, it was better to just ignore them. Having made that judgment, I turned my back and started to leave.
That was when it happened.
"Woof woof!!"
At Baduk's bark, and the mana I felt behind me — I had a rough idea of what was about to happen, and I was inwardly horrified.
You've got to be kidding me. She's actually going that far?!
I immediately gathered my own mana and fired it at the surge of power rushing in from behind.
Wind magic
⟨ Wind Cutter ⟩
It was fairly difficult to learn, but the casting speed was extremely fast and the power was decent, so it was a spell I used often. I looked back as I fired it.
Aria Owen's spell
⟨ Lightning Bolt ⟩
Aria Owen's Lightning Bolt collided with my Wind Cutter, and a small explosion erupted. But my Wind Cutter had been slightly more powerful. After the explosion, the remaining mana formed a small blade of wind that flew toward Aria Owen.
With a sharp hiss, the blade of wind grazed Aria's face. It left a thin cut across her cheek, and the hair she'd tied back was sheared roughly in half.
"Aaaaaah!!"
"Aria!"
Aria clutched her cheek, screaming as she collapsed to the ground, and Phelis cried out in concern. I felt not the slightest bit of sympathy.
"Lightning Bolt is a low-tier spell, but a direct hit can still inflict a serious wound. You fired that at someone who had their back turned. Are you out of your mind?"
"Hic… nngh…"
"Don't sit there sniveling over a graze from leftover magic. Compared to what you just did, it's nothing."
I was the one who'd been attacked. I was the one who'd nearly taken a serious wound. And she was bawling over a scratch. Hearing my words, Phelis was glaring at me like I'd done something wrong.
Was this that "whoever cries first wins" thing?
"I'll be reporting this to the professor later."
"Hic… waaaaaah!!"
What, now she was wailing? What did she think she'd accomplished? The moment you fire a spell at an unguarded opponent, that's grounds for suspension.
"Riel, let's go."
"Yeah."
Riel, who had watched the entire sequence of events, was looking at them with equally cold eyes, so I took her with me and left. Aria's crying continued behind us, but I ignored it.
Still, both Aria Owen and Phelis Valtreia were the type who hung around Alan Ludwig constantly. I had a feeling something annoying was going to come of this, and my head started to ache.