Chapter 41: 40

(unedited)

 

“Are you going straight home for vacation?”

 

I quickly changed the subject. I figured that if we talked about exams for too long, I wouldn’t have anything left.

 

“No, I’m not going home while I’m at the academy.”

 

“Really……?”

 

“And you?”

 

“Well, I’m going to stay here for a while and then go home.”

 

I thought about going right away, but I was told that students in swordsmanship classes have to do extra training every vacation.

 

This meant that Liel would have to stay at the academy for the entire vacation, just like last year.

 

If I left him alone, he would get bored when he wasn’t training.

 

So I decided to stay with him for a while and then go visit my grandmother.

 

I wrote a letter to my grandmother about this in advance, and she said that she understood how worried I was about Liel, and that I should take good care of him.

 

To her, Liel was like a grandchild, so it was a natural reaction.

 

I thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea for us to go out and play together during the vacation when Liel wasn’t training.

 

“Hey, why are you following us around?”

 

Just as I was thinking about where to go, I suddenly heard Melissa’s sharp voice. She wasn’t talking to me, but to someone who was following behind.

 

“Oh, no, no……. I’m just…….”

 

I turned around to see a brown-haired boy with neatly slicked back bangs, cowering and stammering his way through a series of stuttering excuses.

 

He was actually just saying one “no” after another.

 

I think he’s in my grade.

 

At first glance, I thought I recognized him, but then I didn’t.

 

Sadly, I hadn’t yet memorized all the faces and names of my classmates.

 

I tilted my head and looked at the boy—.

 

“Oh, it’s nothing!”

 

The boy who had made eye contact with me turned and ran away, as if he had seen something he shouldn’t see.

 

“Who is he?”

 

“Not sure……?”

 

‘Why did he run away when you saw me?’

 

* * *

 

[Narrator’s POV]

 

The boy who had been following Melissa and Lucy, only Lucy to be exact, was named Pavon. He was the third son of the Countess of Merrin.

 

He was uncharacteristically timid, with a dull presence despite his compliant appearance.

 

“Ugh……. They must have thought I was weird……!”

 

Sobbing into his hands, Pavon buried his face in his hands as he squatted alone in a deserted backyard.

 

It was about three months ago that Pavon began to notice Lucy.

 

It was raining hard that day, and Pavon had the misfortune to be caught by his professor so he was doing chores and got out of school late.

 

As he watched the rain fall, he cursed himself for not bringing an umbrella that morning.

 

Soon, his eyes caught sight of several students walking in the rain.

 

Some of them were attending a swordsmanship class. They weren’t like other students.

 

As instructed by their instructors, if it rained, they had to walk in the rain, and if it snowed, they had to walk in the snow.

 

It was real-life training for the frequent outdoor activities they would have to endure when they became knights.

 

Pavon looked at the men in the rain and realized that he would soon be one of them.

 

His shoulders slumped, his face gloomy, he took a step forward. A girl with an umbrella haphazardly stretched out next to him and walked by.

 

Pavon immediately recognized her as Lucy, who was in the same grade as him, and since he was habitually observant, he had already memorized the faces of the first-year students.

 

At this point, he didn’t think much of it, except that he envied Lucy for having an umbrella.

 

Until she grabbed the rain-soaked arm of a man in the rain.

 

It didn’t take long for Pavon to recognize the man she was holding onto.

 

It didn’t take long for him to recognize the man Lucy had grabbed, both because he was famous and because he’d overheard Cecil, who was in the same lecture that morning, talking about them from the back of the room.

 

“They’re just friends.”

 

But her friend shook her head in disbelief.

 

Cecil’s friend didn’t seem to believe it, and neither did Pavon.

 

But if they were really just friends—

 

What kind of love does a girl have for someone that she’ll run through the muddy ground to put an umbrella on her ‘friend’?

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Suddenly, a question flashed through Pavon’s mind.

 

It grew for a moment, creating a small breeze.

 

If only Lucy and Liel were really ‘just’ friends, as Cecil had said.

 

***

 

From then on, Pavon watched Lucy closely: whenever she was asked about Liel, she always answered with the word “friends”.

 

Every time she answered, he would feel relieved.

 

At some point, he realized that he liked her. It wasn’t love at first sight.

 

He knew Lucy before he saw her that night in the pouring rain.

 

Of course, if someone asked him if he remembered that night, he would honestly nod.

 

It was the first time he realized he wanted to be loved by someone of the opposite sex.

 

The moment he realized his feelings for Lucy, he was grateful that he was the third son of the Count of Merrin.

 

It might be getting ahead of himself, but if he were to marry Lucy, who would inherit the marquisate, he would have to enter her family.

 

He once said this to a friend and was called a creep.

 

He couldn’t wait to confess his love to Lucy, no matter what others might think.

 

He wanted to give himself the closure he deserved.

 

But it wasn’t to be. Lucy was always with Melissa or Liel, except when she went to the library.

 

Sometimes he’d find her in the library and try to talk to her, but he’d have to give up right away because she’d be talking to a senior who’s part of the library committee.

 

He wondered if he was just unlucky, or if Lucy was always surrounded by people.

 

Whatever it was, Pavon hadn’t been able to get a word in with her, let alone a confession, even though it was only three days before vacation.

 

“T, tomorrow is…….”

 

Sobbing into his lap, Pavon clenched his fists tightly and vowed to himself.

 

Tomorrow, he would confess to her, no matter who’s by her side.

 

* * *

[Liel’s POV]

 

When the morning training ended, the students disappeared one by one to take showers.

 

Normally, Liel would have blended in with them and gone to his dormitory to freshen up before heading to his afternoon lecture.

 

If only he hadn’t been stopped by Instructor Hemil.

 

“I should warn you, this is an invitation, not a requirement, and you can say no if you don’t want to.”

 

Before he could even get to the point, Hemil’s face was serious. He looked almost too serious for someone who was trying to ease the burden on someone.

 

“Okay.”

 

Liel replied, resisting the urge to wash up.

 

“During this vacation, I was wondering if you would like to accompany me on an extermination mission.”

 

“Extermination mission?”

 

“At its best, it’s practice, at its worst, it’s……. I can’t think of a word for it, except that you could get killed if you do it wrong.”

 

Hemil scratched the back of his head. If his demeanor was any indication, he was not in favor of Liel participating.

 

Still, he made the recommendation to Liel because all the instructors were in favor of it, except for him.

 

‘They’re the ones who voted for it, not me.’

 

Hemil grumbled to himself.

 

In the past, when wars between humans and demons were at their peak, or when demons were on the rise, students as young as six were often recruited to fight.

 

But that was only when the situation was desperate, but by now it had long since become little more than a bad tradition.

 

Certainly, it wasn’t until after the war with the Demon King that this tradition reemerged in the Academy.

 

The knights who fought in that war argued that there was no telling when such a catastrophe would occur again, and that they needed to raise knights as skilled as Duke Marsen.

 

To do so, they said, practical experience was crucial.

 

However, the safety of the young students was also important, so they usually picked and chose only those who had the skills to survive in combat.

 

The instructors, with the exception of Hemil, voted unanimously in favor of Liel.

 

They recognized his talent, but they also had high hopes for him because he was the son of the Duke of Marsen, another untold war hero.

 

“In return, of course, you’ll get a high mark in your life history and extra points on your grades, but……. It’s a small price to pay for risking your life. You can turn it down right now, okay?”

 

Hemil asked, wanting Liel to say no right now.

 

Liel rolled his eyes and looked up at the sky at Hemil’s contradictory attitude of offering and refusing.

 

Lucy will be returning to the Marquis of Seywint for the vacation anyway.

 

So as far as Liel was concerned, it was the same as if he was training here or going out to the outer walls of the Empire.

 

“By when should I let you know?”

 

Unlike Hemil, his voice was calm. Hemil’s face crumpled at his oddly positive tone.

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