Chapter 35
Chapter 35
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 35
Chapter Title: Gray Dawn Society (1)
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Shirley kept glancing my way throughout the conversation, gauging my reaction.
Judith, too, seemed to be checking on my condition while pretending otherwise.
“……I’m really okay now.”
The future “me”……
Did she take advantage of their kindness like this?
I knew what form the rumors surrounding me had taken.
After the festival incident, the stares directed at me weren’t kind at all—thank goodness vacation was right around the corner.
The rumor that I’d self-harmed just to draw attention was actually the mild one.
Knowing how grueling academy life would be going forward, Judith probably secretly hoped I’d take a leave of absence.
“Anyway, taking a leave like this feels like running away, and it’s making me uneasy.”
“No, Senior, do you have two lives or something? You don’t seem like it, but you’re awfully brave.”
Shirley, unable to stand it any longer, scolded her.
But I agreed with Shirley.
My life wasn’t two lives, so why was I so obsessed with this?
No one had told me to protect the academy, or to stand against whatever entity was reaching out its claws toward me.
If there was a reason for this feeling, it was probably……
‘Because the letter I wrote under hypnosis doesn’t feel like a lie.’
I could chalk it up to confirmation bias or delusion.
But the problem was that I wasn’t the only one who’d witnessed the strange events focused on me.
Those incidents centered on me had ultimately harmed all the cadets, even escalating into collective hysteria for a time.
“Do I hold some kind of key?”
“……”
“……”
A thought I’d only meant to keep to myself slipped out.
Judith and Shirley both widened their eyes at the out-of-nowhere remark and fell silent.
“……What’s with the mood?”
“No, it’s embarrassing…… That’s not it, uh, a bit too serious…… Oh, come on. Senior Judith, say something.”
“Huh? Oh, Arma might think that way. Your mom does maritime trade, after all…… Like, you’re the captain of your own life, something like that……”
“Steering is the helmsman’s job—never mind. I said something unnecessary.”
“Arma, I think you could end up in a situation like that!”
“Enough already……”
Speaking what I should’ve only thought was a brutal price to pay.
In just two days, I’d become a crow rival and the captain navigating life’s voyage.
“Oh, right. Senior. Dillon said to give this to you.”
At that moment, Shirley rummaged in her coat pocket and handed over a wax-sealed letter and a wrapped book.
“What’s this?”
“Well……”
Shirley deliberately cleared her throat, drawing it out.
She kept it up until I fetched a paper knife and slit open the envelope, then said it almost in unison.
“It’s a notice for winter remedial classes. He said it was in your mailbox.”
“Remedial classes.”
To think such a day would come in my life.
To exaggerate a bit, it felt like the sky was falling.
“No way……”
There’d been about two weeks of absence so far, but excluding the week I was comatose, the next week had been a school-wide temporary suspension.
In other words, I’d only missed one week of classes on my own.
“Senior, you got kicked out of the theology lecture once, remember? Lord August didn’t count it as attendance.”
“I’m innocent. He’s the one who kicked me out.”
“Life throws all sorts of things at you, right?”
“Yeah, Arma. By the way, I’m taking the winter seminar too, so come find me if you get lonely.”
“Why doesn’t that comfort me?”
A seminar and remedial classes were different beasts to begin with.
Lord August had probably resented me for putting off basic theology until the end.
Otherwise, there’d be no reason for such pettiness.
At least the winter makeup classes would save me from failing; otherwise, all my grade management would’ve gone down the drain.
“Arma, even captains have to study.”
Judith added, holding back a laugh.
I issued an eviction notice to the two lingering over the remaining tea and shooed them out by force.
“Jeez. Why’d they come in the first place?”
I moved to the window to see them off and waved to the two walking away.
After confirming Shirley and Judith spot me and wave back, I threw myself onto the bed, which I’d pushed far inside from the window.
Aegis Academy’s architecture was fundamentally exaggerated, designed to intimidate people.
I reached futilely toward the ceiling, far beyond my grasp.
‘So, next up is returning to daily life, then.’
The leave of absence talk was on hold, and the academy’s unusual temporary suspension had ended.
I resolved to play the part of Arma Cruise, returning to routine as normally as possible.
“They really want me gone, huh?”
Guessing at a future that hadn’t happened yet, based on dream clues, was ridiculous.
But no matter how I puzzled it out, there was only one answer.
The stage for future events was right here at this academy.
I’d graduate in two years. Yet in the dream, I’d stayed at the academy afterward.
“A disaster starting from the academy.”
Would another future arrive where four cadets die?
No matter what form the disaster took, could I stop it this time?
I clenched my outstretched hand, and unreliable blue veins bulged on the back.
“Oh. Right, there was a book too.”
I sat up again and pulled out the wrapped book Shirley had given me with the letter.
It was quite thick with pages, substantial volume for just one book.
Oddly light compared to its bulk.
I sliced open the wrapping with the knife I’d used on the envelope, and the musty scent of an old tome wafted up faintly.
“This.”
I swallowed dryly at the cover of the unwrapped book.
I’d definitely seen this cover before.
Unlike other editions, this one beautifully depicted the Genesis God Aegis and an enlarged snowflake.
It was unmistakably a variant from the Lichten region, from the Genesis Myths.
“Why would Dillon send this?”
I’d run into him in front of the library, sure, but he couldn’t have seen what book I borrowed.
He’d just guided me to the Genesis Myths shelf—among the dozens or hundreds there.
For Dillon to specifically send me the Lichten variant meant one of two things.
Pure coincidence, or he knew what I’d picked.
Either way, sending me a holy book of all things reeked of suspicion.
-Flutter, flutter.
I flipped quickly through the pages to check for other notes, and sure enough, one slipped out from the middle.
The note was written in precise, ruler-straight script:
〔Arma Cruise, interested in classics? I’ll invite you.
Details tomorrow morning in advanced major class. Gray Dawn Society, Dillon.〕
“Gray Dawn Society.”
I checked both sides of the note and shook out the book for more clues, but nothing else caught my eye.
I folded the note back into my pocket and started to go find Dillon, only to plop down again.
If I rushed off impulsively and something happened, I’d really get tied up and shipped back home this time.
“Sigh.”
Incidents kept piling up.
I went to bed in a strange mood, unsure if I wanted tomorrow to come quickly or not at all.
***
The next day.
I donned the designated activity uniform: a black silk shirt, white leather pants, and suspenders, then slipped on flat-nosed slippers.
Today was advanced major class, so I headed to the shooting range.
Cadets set their own schedules freely, but advanced majors were fixed for Monday mornings, the start of the week.
‘I don’t wanna go.’
I checked my gear almost grudgingly, tying my hair back differently from usual—not just sweeping side bangs aside, but gathering and bundling it.
It started because front hair got in the way of aiming, but now my skill wouldn’t waver from loose strands; still, it was habit.
Finally, I grabbed the case with the flintlock pistol I’d stowed in the wardrobe.
(*Flintlock pistol: a pistol ignited by flint)
“Arma.”
My reluctance slowed my steps, shoes dragging, when Judith called from afar.
She’d just emerged from the annex opposite the main dormitory of Tree Cross House.
She had advanced major today too, but unlike my training activity wear, she was in formal dress uniform.
“What’s the occasion? Promotion evaluations aren’t till next month, right?”
The gold embroidery along the shoulders and leg seams suited her sea-blue hair, set against the dark blue jacket.
The blue velvet ribbon matching her special-occasion jacket was Judith’s trademark.
“No idea. They told me to wear dress uniform, so I did.”
“Sounds like something good’s coming.”
I gave her hunched back a poke and headed together to the annex for major lectures at Tree Cross House.
Once inside, I’d go to the rear garden shooting range, she to the front garden sword hall.
We passed a corridor with a 16-panel mural depicting Aegis’s sacrifice and salvation.
Judith looked uneasy the whole way.
“Judith.”
“Yeah?”
“I’ll be in the rear garden all day. Come by anytime.”
“Heh, got it. That puts my mind at ease.”
A few steps from the corridor’s end, she strode ahead, then spun around.
“See you later. No slacking—I’ll check on you.”
“Hahaha…… Sure.”
With that, she turned and marched toward the sword training hall.
She might not know it, but in that outfit, her nickname was [Aegis’s Blue Lightning].
She’d cringe if she heard, but I thought it fit well.
Judith was out of sight now.
Looks like we’d both have a tough day ahead.