The Book Appreciation Club
Sacred Academy.
The setting of the original novel Academy's Sword, and the name of the academy I currently attended.
It had been founded to raise talented individuals capable of protecting citizens from the mysterious monsters that had begun appearing at some point. That was the founding purpose of Sacred Academy as I knew it.
Swordsmanship, archery, spearmanship, and more. Students took classes in their fields of talent and steadily honed their skills in keeping with the academy’s purpose. And the same held true for most of the clubs that existed within its walls.
Clubs.
In this world they were also called clubs—an established part of academy life. Once regular classes ended, every student moved to their own club and continued their activities there. If the club you belonged to was excellent, you could often learn far more than you ever did in class. That was what clubs meant at the academy.
"......Junior Rian."
"Yes, Senior Tinia."
"Did you perhaps skip afternoon classes today?"
From that perspective, the Book Appreciation Club I belonged to was a distinctly odd presence at the academy.
Tinia Trision.
In the original story she was not one of the protagonist’s heroines, but a third-year senior who appeared in the role of helper and supporter. Female characters in novels of this genre usually fell into one of two categories: heroine, or villainess who stood against the protagonist. Tinia Trision fit neither. She held a favorable impression of the protagonist, yet it was never romantic—only a pure, human-to-human fondness. She would appear whenever the plot needed a helper, then drift away again the moment the incident was resolved, as if nothing had ever happened.
Even with that kind of setup, her popularity had been considerable. The author himself had once said that dozens of emails arrived demanding she be made a heroine.
She never formed deep ties with the main cast, and once each event ended she simply returned to her Book Appreciation Club and read. The club’s name itself was strange. Everyone else was desperately trying to raise their own strength, yet here was a club that casually hung the words “Book Appreciation” on its door. Of course Sacred Academy had other clubs that encouraged hobbies, but those were always secondary clubs students joined on the side. The only people who treated a hobby club as their main affiliation were the two of us sitting here now.
When I offered no particular answer, my senior’s frown deepened.
"Answer me. Did you skip afternoon classes today?"
"......I did skip them."
"You did? So you’re admitting with your own mouth that you cut class?"
"......There were circumstances."
"Circumstances. Are they the sort that can convince me?"
She looked ready to keep that expression until she heard every last detail.
......How does she even know I wasn’t in class when we’re in different years?
I sighed inwardly at the absurd situation that had been going on for a while, but I couldn’t sit here like this until club time ended, so I gave a brief explanation.
"I see. So Junior Rian went to the hospital."
"..."
"But my questions still aren’t fully answered. In fact, one more has been added."
"......What is it?"
"You still haven’t told me what hurt enough to send you to the hospital. That’s what I want to know."
Hmm.
Why did she have so many questions for me today? She had always been the type to meddle, but today felt worse than usual.
......Or maybe it’s just that my own condition is off.
The thought came unbidden. A simple sense that something about me was wrong.
At most, one year.
Ever since the doctor’s words had entered my ears with perfect clarity, I had felt that my entire state was poor. Perhaps that was only natural. Not many people could stay calm after learning they were terminally ill. Most would scream that they didn’t want to die, or thrash about insisting they weren’t ready to go. That was the ordinary reaction. Human beings usually wished to live a long time. The old saying that even rolling in a dung field was better than the next world existed for a reason.
By that measure, my current condition was objectively abnormal. I didn’t know why. Maybe it was simply the hollow realization that every effort I had made until now had been meaningless. Emptiness, loss. Those vacant feelings alone seemed to fill me. A state so full of emptiness that it had become calm instead. Put another way, a state in which nothing stirred any real emotion. That was probably the most accurate description of how I felt right now.
With that thought, I gave my senior a rough excuse.
"After morning classes my wrist started tingling a bit. That’s why I went."
"Your wrist? What did they say at the hospital?"
"Just a temporary symptom. Eat well and rest and it would be fine, they said."
"That’s a relief. Wrists matter to everyone, but especially to people like you who use a sword. Be careful."
The piercing stare she had fixed on me earlier was gone; now she spoke with the kindly eyes of a school nurse. It was a thoroughly wicked impulse, but I suddenly wanted to throw a stone into that gentleness.
"......That doesn’t sound like something a senior who once cut her finger cooking and couldn’t take exams for a while should be saying."
The reaction came almost instantly.
"Th-that was an unavoidable accident!"
"..."
"I was already in a bad mood that day...... Anyway, it was an accident!"
"......Yes. Let’s call it that."
As far as I remembered, even in the original story the protagonist’s party had desperately tried to stop Tinia whenever she announced she was going to cook. She was trying hard, though. I could cut her some slack for that much. No one was perfect.
I nodded along with those thoughts, and Tinia—face still faintly flushed from the exchange—spoke again.
"......Anyway. I’m glad the hospital said it was nothing serious."
"Does that mean Senior accepts it?"
"Yes. Hospitals can’t be helped. In fact, I’d rather praise you."
"......Praise?"
"Yes. Going to the hospital when your body hurts is a very, very good habit. Surprisingly many people never manage to form it."
Was it my imagination? A faint sadness seemed to color her last sentence. It probably wasn’t imagination. Her own younger brother had failed to go to the hospital when he should have, and was now hospitalized because of it.
"..."
Perhaps because the original setting about Tinia rose so clearly in my mind, a question I had never asked before suddenly surfaced.
"......Senior."
"Yes, go ahead."
"Why did you bring me here?"
A question I had always been curious about, yet never voiced.
In the original, Tinia had always been a bright character—so bright that the protagonist’s party only learned very late that she had a painful younger brother. But always being bright did not mean she was a fool. She couldn’t have been unaware of the rumors surrounding the person standing in front of her.
Originally, Rian would have joined a delinquent club full of problem students. There he would have been branded a greater and greater scoundrel, his title shifting from “beyond reform” to “human trash.” But I had possessed him before he sank that deep. After I left that club with nowhere else to go, it was Tinia who had brought me here.
I had always wondered why. Why take Rian Tryce—someone she had never met, someone whose reputation was the worst—into a club that was practically her own sanctuary? I had been curious, yet I never asked. I simply believed I had no right to ask such a thing.
Today was a little different. Whether because Tinia seemed more talkative than usual, or because of the terminal diagnosis I had heard at the hospital, I felt I might actually receive an answer.
And all that deep pondering turned out to be completely unnecessary.
"The reason I brought you here, you mean."
"......Yes."
"Well, is there anything special about it? I just wanted to, as club president."
"..."
"Sacred Academy Club Rule Number Three. The club president may recruit any member they wish. Surely Junior isn’t unaware of that rule?"
Tinia answered with her usual bright smile.
"......I see."
I looked at her quietly and thought, vaguely, that I might feel regret. That losing these club hours spent chatting and reading books with Tinia might leave me with a sense of loss. It was a rather shabby club that might be dissolved any day for lack of members, yet the thought still came.
The first day after receiving a terminal diagnosis passed peacefully, just like any other day—almost as if it were quietly preparing for everything that was still to come.