After the Duel
When the professor returned and yelled at us.
Up until that moment, I had fully expected to receive a fairly heavy penalty.
It wasn't as if I were completely blameless, after all.
Even though they had been the ones to request the spar first and pick the fight...
I was still the one who accepted it.
Because I believed I carried some measure of responsibility, I had been roughly estimating what kind of penalty might come my way.
"...Rian Tryce."
"Yes, Professor."
"There will be no penalty for you. Just don't go accepting spars like that so recklessly in the future."
Yet the student supervisor in charge of Academy discipline surprisingly handed me no penalty at all.
Hmm.
This was genuinely unexpected.
Now I was curious for no good reason.
"May I ask why I didn't receive any particular penalty?"
"...In all my years, this is the first time I've seen a kid wonder why he didn't get a penalty."
The student supervisor gave a wry laugh, as if he had truly seen everything, and then began explaining the reason I had been spared.
"First, the sequence of events was clear. From what Elice Axstra told me, Philip and Edger were the ones who provoked you to begin with."
"..."
"Second, you conducted the spar while observing the minimum safety rules. The supervising professor may not have been watching, but in the end no one was injured."
"...I see."
In short, it came down to this.
Fundamentally the other side had started the duel, and no one had been hurt in the process.
Since Sacred Academy valued growth through student spars above almost anything else, the student affairs office had judged that I bore no fault in the incident.
Something along those lines.
And after hearing the outcome, one fact suddenly made me curious.
"Then did Philip and Edger receive penalties?"
"They did. Those two were each given their own penalties for the offense of harassing a fellow Academy student."
News that cleared the clogged feeling in my chest so thoroughly I nearly choked on it.
So I had lived long enough to see those two get penalized.
It felt like only yesterday that I had watched them half-drunk in class after smuggling alcohol into an Academy where booze was banned.
A strangely satisfying feeling, I supposed.
It hadn't been intentional, but as a result I had managed a small measure of justice.
"Any more questions?"
"No. That's all."
"Then hurry over to your club room. Club time started long ago."
A clear dismissal from the student supervisor: if you have no more business, stop interrupting my work and get out of my sight.
Of course, that dismissal was something I had been waiting for to some degree myself.
"Understood. Thank you, Professor."
"Go on."
After bowing my head once in farewell, I left the student affairs office.
"...Rian Tryce."
"..."
"Come with me for a moment. I have something to say to you."
Outside the student affairs office, Elice Axstra was leaning against the wall, quietly watching this way.
As if she had been waiting the entire time for me to come out.
A quiet café inside the Academy.
I had followed Elice's lead, trailing after her until we arrived here.
"...Not many people around?"
"Well, it's club time. And this place doesn't get many visitors to begin with."
As Elice said, the café's atmosphere was quite different from a typical café.
If a normal café felt bright and modern...
This place gave off a slightly dark, old-fashioned vibe.
I felt a little sorry for the owner, but I could roughly understand why there weren't many customers.
"I like it for that reason. I come here often. Other cafés are just too crowded."
"I didn't know you disliked crowded places."
"Of course I don't usually. But sometimes you just want to work alone in a quiet place."
In short, she was using this place as a substitute for her office.
"...Right. Well, that aside."
"If there's anything you want to ask me, ask now. From a moment later, I'll have a lot of questions for you."
"Don't you need to go to club?"
"...What?"
"Club. Like you said, it's club time right now."
A thought that suddenly occurred to me.
I had been summoned by the student supervisor the moment the spar ended, but Elice should originally have headed to her club as soon as class finished.
How was she ignoring club time to talk with me here?
And the answer was revealed almost anticlimactically quickly.
"Ah, did I not tell you?"
"...Tell me what."
"My club only exists on paper. It's essentially a virtual club with no real form. I gathered students who didn't want to join any club and made it."
Aha.
So that method existed.
I hadn't known.
It was fine to just create a fake club.
Reading the expression of utter disbelief on my face as I stared at her, Elice continued as if explaining.
"Of course, it was only possible because I'm first in the written exams. When the written-exam top scorer says she wants to create her own club, what professor is going to refuse?"
"..."
"If I had to put it, I took advantage of their complacency. 'Surely the written-exam number one wouldn't create a club just to skip club activities?' That kind of complacency."
Elice wore a thoroughly wicked smile, as if she found it immensely amusing.
Looking at that, I once again realized that Elice was still Elice.
I really shouldn't get on her bad side.
There was a reason all those things had been said about her in the original work.
"Well, anything else you want to ask?"
"...Not really? That was the only question to begin with."
"Good. Then now it's my turn to ask you."
After drawing a brief breath to collect herself, Elice began questioning me.
"I'll ask straight out. When did you start learning swordsmanship?"
"...Roughly eight years ago?"
That was about when most nobles first started learning the sword.
I figured the original Rian had probably picked one up around then as well.
As if she had expected that answer, Elice immediately changed the content of her question.
"Let me rephrase. Not the obligatory education—when did you truly start training in swordsmanship with real intent?"
"...About a year?"
"A year... Is that around the time you resolved to shed your scoundrel image?"
"Roughly, yeah. That's when I started sword training as well."
"And the reason you started?"
"...The reason?"
"Yes. There must be a reason or trigger for someone who never properly held a sword before to suddenly start training in swordsmanship."
Elice questioned me with her red eyes gleaming, as if determined to extract an answer.
Very unfortunately...
That was not a question I could answer sincerely.
"I suddenly thought that a day might come when I'd need it?"
"...That's it?"
"Yeah. Seriously. And looking back at the spar earlier, it turned out to be foresight."
"Hmm."
Elice stared at me quietly, as if she couldn't trust my answer.
But there was no helping it.
To explain why Rian Tryce had suddenly begun training in swordsmanship, I would have to explain that I was a different person from the past Rian.
And explaining it was a problem in itself.
Elice, who was more objective than anyone when it came to information, would never believe that fact.
How could anyone believe that, realistically?
That the current me was a completely different person from the past Rian Tryce.
I'd be lucky not to be treated like a lunatic.
The concept of possession was that impossible to explain to others.
Fortunately, Elice nodded before long.
"Well, I wasn't really expecting much. You still haven't even told me why you stopped acting like a scoundrel."
"...So you don't believe me after all?"
"Would you believe it if you were me? It's not like you discovered gravity because an apple suddenly fell on your head while walking. You just suddenly thought you might need it someday?"
"It's not like you're some kind of prophet either," Elice added, then let out a deep sigh.
"Sigh, I was the only one being sincere again. I only ever gave you information that was true."
"...Was that of your own free will? You just did it because I found out your identity."
"Shut up. Whatever the starting reason, the fact that I only provided you with true information is true."
"..."
"Fine. I got something from you today too, so I won't harass you any further."
That was welcome news, but one word stuck in my mind.
"...You got something from me?"
"Yes. Though someone as dense as you would never notice."
"..."
"You'll probably never figure it out in your lifetime unless I tell you."
Now Elice was openly cursing me.
Normally I would have somehow pried into what that meant...
"Isn't that right? Mr. Dense?"
For some reason, Elice's expression as she said that looked much brighter than usual.
"...Yeah, well."
I didn't particularly ask for the reason.
"Go on now. You have a club you're part of."
"...Ah, right."
"You're in the same club as a third-year senior, right?"
"...Yeah."
"Oh dear, you're going to get scolded. Not that it's any of my business, of course."
"..."
Hmm.
Thinking about it again, maybe I should have somehow dug out the reason after all.
A belated sense of regret washed over me, but it was already too late.
In other words, I was already late for club time.
...I'm going to get scolded again.
Along with the uneasy premonition that I would hear from Senior Tinia the scolding I hadn't even received from the student supervisor...
I left the café, leaving behind Elice who was waving at me.