Back to Daily Life? (2)
Back to Daily Life? (2)
Still, I was able to spend the afternoon feeling somewhat refreshed.
I felt as though about half of what had been troubling me had been resolved. Through meditation I had gained a means of quickly recovering even when fatigued, and the problems in the north had been alleviated, if only a little. On top of that, I had managed to firmly imprint my abilities onto the people around me.
The emotional side of me that Mia Crowfield had witnessed would have been greatly diluted by this incident as well. After all, I had effectively demonstrated that I alone could inflict serious damage on the enemy.
Perhaps it would even serve as a warning, to some degree, for the Countess Crowfield, who, by now, was likely dreaming of vengeance against the emperor. In the original story, Claire had transferred in partway through her first year rather than at the start of the term, and above all, she hadn't acted as overtly as I did, so the Crowfields had looked down on her to an extent.
Still, back then she hadn't gone so far as to blow the Count away with a bomb.
There was an enormous difference between dealing with an assassin and dealing with a human weapon who could annihilate an entire unit of enemies.
"......."
I could understand why Mia Crowfield kept glancing at me.
Though it seemed that getting closer to her had become more difficult because of it.
"Sis!"
...... And there was someone else whose attitude toward me had changed.
Since I had returned after performing at the level of a human weapon, I had expected the number of people who felt awkward around me to increase dramatically, but Claire instead treated me without reserve.
My earlier remark, that "it was something I did because I wanted to", must have had a strong effect. I hadn't mentioned the reason I had wanted to do it, and the job itself was actually smashing a mercenary company and coming back rather than gaining or acquiring anything, but Claire seemed to have no particular problem with the act itself.
More than that, she appeared to have become convinced that I still possessed genuine emotions.
"Claire."
"I know, I know! But this isn't the academy, we're outside!"
Before I could even say anything, Claire cut me off with those words and tapped me on the arm.
...... She said we were outside the academy, but what we were doing was field practicum that even counted toward our attendance.
And besides, we were in our school uniforms right then. The only difference was that we weren't inside the academy building; in reality, it was practically the same as being at the academy.
"By the way, Claire has been calling Sylvia 'Sis' for a while now. May I ask why?"
Claire was walking on my left, and Alice was walking on my right. Thanks to that, I felt oddly unsettled. Both of them were something like sisters to me.
Well, it wasn't as though I had specifically thought of them as "sisters" while living my life, but...... you know that feeling that develops little by little when you're around someone. Claire had followed me in that sort of situation, and Alice had been by my side for a long time, so I seemed to feel that sort of affection for both of them.
"Ah, that."
Hearing Alice's words, Claire spoke with a confident expression.
"Doesn't Sylvia have a strangely older-sister-like aura? I have a younger brother, but I never had an older sister. So I just decided to call Sylvia 'Sis.'"
"......."
When I glanced back for a moment, Leo was staring a hole through the back of Claire's head with an utterly incredulous expression, and I nearly laughed. The reason she called me "Sis" was one thing, but more than that, his expression suggested he found it absurd that Claire had referred to him as her younger brother.
"...... For that reason?"
Alice's gaze, which had been directed past me at Claire with her head tilted slightly forward, turned toward my face.
No matter how I looked at it, she clearly didn't believe a word of what Claire had said.
"......."
I looked at Claire wordlessly, but Claire simply averted her gaze elsewhere and feigned innocence.
Come to think of it, she hadn't just started calling me "Sis" this very moment, but had been subtly doing it for a while now.
Well, I mean...... it didn't feel as jarring or unpleasant as I had expected, but if she kept calling me that in this situation, it put me in a difficult position.
"......I will explain later, separately."
I spoke quietly to Alice.
"...... All right."
Once I said that, Alice pressed no further. She might have with someone else, but she trusted me.
Standing close to Alice, Charlotte had also overheard my lowered voice and wore an expression of interest, as if my words had piqued her curiosity, but she didn't intrude, presumably judging that prying into secrets was not befitting of royalty.
Jake seemed to have no particular thoughts on the matter. Watching him look around in all directions, he appeared entirely uninterested in this topic...... but I couldn't afford to let my guard down.
In the original work, the atmosphere had rarely been this bustling. The dialogue lines for each character were fixed, and owing to manpower limitations, unless a character was central enough that their absence during an event would be glaring, the "switchable party members" often became wallflowers in those events. Since they had no dialogue script in the first place, even if they appeared in a cutscene, they would just be standing there vacantly in the background.
And usually, the only character seen roaming the field was the one the player had set as their representative; occasionally, one or two others would tag along for event purposes. Which meant that even though, by the setting, everyone was traveling together, only one character was actually rendered before my eyes.
So, the bustling atmosphere felt a little strange to me.
But at the same time, it was a little enjoyable. It seemed a touch awkward compared to the game, but having my friends listen and react to our conversations reminded me of the times in high school when I would move around in a pack with my friends.
"All right, then."
Claire stretched her arms wide and spoke.
"Let's do our best this afternoon too! Since we'll be heading back tomorrow."
"...... When we return, do we go straight back into classes starting Monday?"
"Isn't that obvious?"
Following Claire's remark, Mia Crowfield asked with a note of worry, and Charlotte answered as though it were only natural. At Charlotte's reply, Mia Crowfield's shoulders slumped.
Tomorrow, we would conduct our practicum only until late morning and then return to the academy by train. But since this place was quite a distance from Rondarium, we would have to spend several hours aboard that train. The interior was spacious and comfortable, but it didn't provide sleeper compartments, so during those several hours, we would still have to remain seated in our chairs.
It must have been hard to believe that classes would resume the very next day with no time to recover from the journey.
...... Though I planned to rest by switching out between a few night shifts.
Even so, seeing her chat so naturally with the others like that, the hour we had all spent on requests together this morning seemed to have paid off. They appeared to have gotten quite close in that time.
The blue Marmaros in the staff that Mia Crowfield held still gleamed.
*
"Outstanding."
Jennifer spoke with a genuinely astonished expression.
There were far fewer tasks remaining in the afternoon than I had expected. Thanks to the protagonist's party having cleared almost every request in the morning, the students who had woken up late—well, it wasn't actually late by the clock, but relatively late, anyway—had bolted toward the request office, so only a handful of requests remained by the afternoon.
And in the original work, this was also the trigger that unlocked the concealed quest.
If you cleared all the morning sub-quests, then after completing all the afternoon quests, an event for "having time left over" would appear. Although clearing all the morning quests didn't actually reduce the number of afternoon sub-quests.
For reference, if you failed to complete all the morning sub-quests, time would run out while your characters were still busy working on other tasks besides those labeled as sub-quests, so the conversation scene with Jennifer would never occur at all.
Anyway, to the party members who had finished their work and returned well before the afternoon was over, Jennifer—
"You'll have plenty of time left today. There's still a long while until the dinner hour."
—began with that remark.
"Yes, that's correct."
When Leo nodded, Jennifer let out a "Hmm" and fell into thought for a moment, then asked,
"In that case, would any of you care to attempt a worthwhile challenge with the time you have left?"
he asked in return.
"A challenge...... you say?"
At Leo's words, Jennifer nodded, a playful smile on her face.
"That's right. If you succeed, it could prove tremendously helpful to you all. Well, considering the time, it's a bit short, but."
"......."
The students exchanged glances. Their eyes were full of interest.
In truth, Jennifer was telling them about this then partly in jest, and partly in earnest. Half of her wanted to startle her mentor, and the other half genuinely wanted to reward her pupils, of whom she had grown quite fond.
Not to mention, she had been keeping a close eye on Leo, who had properly inherited the Grace family swordsmanship.
She must have seen that he, at minimum, had talent.
"Would you like to hear it?"
When the students, who had been looking at one another, all nodded, Jennifer smiled and opened her mouth.
"In that case—"