Chapter 37
Chapter 37
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 37
Chapter Title: The Mark of Tribulation (1)
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“Uh...”
A person lay collapsed on the floor.
There wasn’t even time to think.
I set the gun case I’d been holding down on the ground and rushed over, checking the fallen boy’s pulse and slapping his cheeks.
“Hey! M-medical team. No, the infirmary?”
-Slap, slap!
The boy didn’t stir.
His pale complexion and hair that shimmered green like a bird’s tail feathers in the light swayed limply.
“Hahaha.”
“Why are you just laughing? Have you lost your mind? What’s this guy’s name?”
“Eliya Allison.”
“Open your eyes! Eliya!”
“Open your eyes~”
Like it was all a joke, Dylan circled around me, half-heartedly shaking the cadet Eliya to wake him up.
I was utterly dumbfounded. What kind of guy is this?
‘It won’t work.’
I bent down to hoist the limp Eliya onto my back.
That was the moment.
Dylan slipped his arms under Eliya’s armpits from behind me, stood him up straight, planted him firmly in a chair, and clapped his hands right in front of his face with a loud smack.
“Ugh...”
“Get up, you lazy bum.”
“Hey, he looks like a patient. You can’t treat him like that...”
“Hmm...”
“Eliya.”
The same Eliya who hadn’t budged even after slaps and calls to his name.
There was no way he’d wake up from just that.
‘Is this guy a psycho? He’s gonna kill him at this rate.’
I bent down again to shoulder Eliya.
I couldn’t wait any longer—that’s what I was thinking when it happened.
“M-my cheeeks hurth tho much...”
“Yeah, that’s the real Arma Cruise talking.”
“Wha’ tha hell ith tha...”
The cadet Eliya, whom I’d thought was out cold, woke up.
“...Huh?”
“You ruined my first impression. What are you gonna do about it?”
“You’re blamin’ me for everythin’...”
As his eyelids lifted, pale green irises peeked through his narrow eyes.
Startled, I stood there dumbfounded, watching the scene unfold in silence.
“You really dragged him here? Yawn...”
“What’s with that tone? ‘Dragged him’? I told you—he’s perfect for us!”
“Perfect or half-perfect~... Who’d wanna join an unofficial club squatting in a crumbling wreck~?”
His words dragged on like he could fall asleep again any second.
But now that Eliya’s eyes were fully open, his face looked oddly familiar.
“Ah!”
It was the pale-faced cadet who’d been trailing behind Dylan when I first met him.
So that cadet was Eliya Allison.
“What the hell. I thought he’d collapsed.”
“This guy’s a hopeless slacker. Probably passed out from starvation. Right?”
“...”
Eliya kept his mouth shut, eyes half-lidded with faint dark circles underneath, pupils rolling around.
It looked like Dylan was telling the truth.
“Sigh, what’s the deal?”
With the tension easing, I pulled out the chair opposite Eliya and plopped down.
Leaning back against the headrest and looking up, I saw a ceiling tangled with cobwebs and dust like ivy vines.
‘Oh god. Is all that dust?’
I instinctively covered my nose and mouth.
The colored ceiling, decorated with plaster clover shapes, was so damaged it was hard to guess its original form.
Unlike the newly built west and east annexes, the north annex—said to be over a century old—retained its archaic architectural style.
“Sorry for startling you. I’ll brew some tea now, so just wait a bit. Eliya, grab something to eat.”
“Yess~...”
I was already exhausted from this so-called classic club.
Part of me wanted to refuse even the tea Dylan offered, but that felt rude, so I nodded weakly.
‘Is this some kind of trick?’
If it was intentional, it was brilliant.
My soul felt like it had flown right out of me.
Snapping back to reality, I straightened up—and Dylan, sensing it without even turning, let out a little chuckle.
He lit the cold stove, violating school rules by placing a kettle he’d smuggled in on top.
The weather hadn’t fully cooled yet, so hot tea was a bit premature, but my tension-chilled fingers made it perfect.
“So, in the end, the class rep sent the invitation~?”
Eliya opened a side table by the window and pulled out some snacks.
He put half on a plate and offered it to me, stuffing the rest into one cheek like a little rodent and munching away.
It was the extreme efficiency of someone who hated proper meals.
“I did receive an invitation about joining the classics club.”
“I told you that was too suspicious—quit it.”
“Hmph. Sincerity always gets through.”
“That’s what you call sincerity getting through? He’s super wary of us...”
Munch, munch.
After demolishing the snacks in his cheek, Eliya sat across from me with a brighter expression, swinging his legs.
He still looked bloodless and tired, but up close, he seemed about Theodore’s age or a bit younger.
Ignoring Eliya’s jab, Dylan returned with a kettle wafting a fragrant aroma.
“Here, the place is rundown, but the tea leaves are top-notch. Roasted from fresh spring buds.”
“Thank you.”
To my surprise, I received a spotless teacup.
The white cup with its gold rim gleamed without a single chip, handle crevices and interior impeccably clean.
‘Now this is unexpected.’
Looking closer, the plates Eliya used for snacks and the treats themselves showed a host’s sensibility.
Honestly, Dylan’s roguish charm had prejudiced me—I never imagined this kind of hospitality.
“It’s delicious. I was getting hungry—thanks, I’ll dig in.”
“Arma Cruise is the picture-perfect model student.”
“Hahaha.”
I couldn’t fathom why this felt like a fresh grad’s job interview.
Dylan propped his chin, staring straight through me as I sipped my tea properly.
“So, shall we get to the point?”
I set down my cup at what felt like the right moment—not rushing the conversation.
Dylan grinned so wide his eyes vanished.
“To be honest, it’s all in the invitation. We want to invite Cadet Arma to our [Ashen Dawn Society]... well, precisely, the Classics Culture Club.”
“Classics Culture Club? Not Classics Literature?”
“Ours deals with slightly loftier stuff.”
“Like?”
“Like the customs of the Lichten region where the [Aegis Genesis Myth, Lichten Edition] was found.”
-Clink.
The teacup I’d set down carefully spun slightly off-kilter, rattling as it righted itself.
“That... part, about the book you sent me.”
“Huh?”
The Genesis Myth had countless editions.
From minor variants born of copying errors in scripture transcriptions, to full-blown ones like the Lichten edition Dylan gifted, which included descriptions of the “unspeakable beings.”
With around 250 extant editions, the odds of him randomly gifting the exact Lichten one I’d borrowed were minuscule.
‘Why that book of all things?’
Instead of blurting questions that might reveal my hand, I waited for Dylan to speak first.
But he just blinked in confusion, question marks practically floating above his head.
He clearly wasn’t volunteering anything.
“Why’re you brooding like that~? It’s suspicious he picked that exact book as a gift~.”
“Huh? Why!?”
“Because Arma Cruise doesn’t know the class rep was managing the library checkout log that day.”
“Ah!”
Eliya’s words cleared up the confusion for both me and Dylan at once.
“Oh, duh! Right? From Arma’s perspective—”
“It’s pretty creepy~. Just the fact he checked the checkout log is super off-putting~.”
“It creeped you out?!”
Dylan slammed his hands on the table and leaned toward me.
I flinched back in surprise.
“A bit, yeah.”
It’d be a lie to say it hadn’t.
I nodded awkwardly.
Dylan groaned “Ah, ugh, ah,” covered his face, and slumped into his chair.
“Didn’t mean to creep you out—my bad.”
Seeing Dylan flustered, I awkwardly chugged my tea.
‘Makes sense. My checkout record was in the log.’
That explained why he’d dangled the Lichten reference to lure me in.
I sighed in disbelief.
“No wonder I couldn’t sleep.”
“You couldn’t sleep?! Why!?”
“‘Cause who wouldn’t freak out about getting stalked by some shady guy digging into your history~.”
“You little—!”
“Eek!”
Dylan pinched Eliya’s lips—who was slyly throwing him under the bus—and turned to me with flushed cheeks.
He had to be embarrassed.
I’d tossed and turned too, wondering what scheme that cryptic invitation hid.
‘Good to know it’s nothing.’
I flashed a smile to show I wasn’t mad, and Dylan finally relaxed, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Got ahead of myself—sorry for the slip-up. I swear I’m not stalking you or anything...”
“Yeah, Eliya’s explanation makes that clear.”
“You forgive too easy, and he’ll do it again.”
Eliya grumbled, lips still smarting.
After that, the mood softened more than our first meeting, letting us chat quite a bit.
I learned the Classics Culture Club [Ashen Dawn Society] was unofficial, recruiting new members for formal approval but striking out every time.
“Isn’t it so unfair?! To escape obscurity, we need official status—but to go official, we need popularity!”
“A real dilemma.”
I couldn’t bring myself to tell Dylan his choice of a niche club was the root issue as he vented fringe woes.
He wasn’t demanding an answer anyway, so I nodded along appropriately and stood.
“Anyway, I get the gist. Sorry for jumping to conclusions.”
“No need to apologize—just sign this membership form...”
“That too, sorry.”
“Iron wall.”
“Sorry.”
“Two apologies already...”
Dylan clutched his chest dramatically, feigning hurt.
But a senior graduating next year couldn’t just sign up on a whim.
“I’ll think about what you said, but don’t get your hopes up.”
“Oh! You’ll think about it? That’s plenty!”
Dylan flipped attitudes like a pancake, jumping up to see me out.
I grabbed my gun from the corner where I’d dumped it to carry Eliya, then turned.
Eliya was tidying the book he’d face-planted into when I first entered this clubroom (more like an abandoned faculty office).
Black cover, fancy gold-embossed title: [Gold and Silver Know All].
An intro to that once-famous cheesy mysticism school.
‘They’ve got an oddball here too.’
Wanting to leave on a good note, I smiled and waved.
Eliya lowered his gaze demurely and bobbed his head in return.
I barely shook off Dylan—who clung like he’d grab my pant leg—and exited the annex.
***
“Eliya.”
Dylan returned to the classics clubroom, gazing after Arma Cruise’s receding figure.
One person’s departure filled the room with the old building’s signature hush and chill.
“How’s that guy?”
Eliya slammed shut the book he’d been skimming indifferently and propped his chin.
His smile-free face looked pallid, almost gloomy.
“The Mark of Tribulation. Best steer clear.”
Dylan chuckled at Eliya’s words.
“But that’ll be tough.”
“...A real dilemma~.”
Eliya parroted Arma Cruise’s earlier quip with that passable smile.
Truly, the academy knew no quiet days, he thought.