Chapter 61
2:00 a.m.
Only the cool moonlight lay over the outdoor training grounds in front of the kendo hall.
-Whoosh, swish!
The sound slicing through the night air was regular and dry.
Gaios Leonhardt.
He was moving his sweat-slick body bare-chested.
By his feet, beads of sweat had already gathered into a small puddle.
Each time he swung the heavy greatsword, the cool night wind was torn apart.
His trajectory was impeccably straight, and his footwork was as precise as if it had stepped out of a manual.
Anyone who saw this would shower him with praise.
That he was a genius, as expected.
That it was the kind of skill befitting the top fourth-year student at Elterion Academy, an elite whose entry into the Imperial Knights was guaranteed the moment he graduated.
But Gaios knew.
That he had no talent for the sword.
Because when he first entered the academy, his grades were dead last.
If he had any talent at all, it was only one thing.
Enduring boredom.
Repeating something stubbornly, to the point of foolishness.
When the other students were asleep, he came alone to the training grounds and swung his sword.
He kept swinging it in silence until his eyes were bloodshot, blisters burst and his hands were covered in blood, and then calluses formed again and dulled his senses.
And so a year passed, then two.
Upon advancing to his third year, he finally seized the top spot.
And even now, with the Imperial Knights—the dream of every swordsman—right before him, he was still swinging his sword out of habit.
-Whoosh!
A sigh slipped into his impeccable swordwork.
Gaios froze, his expression darkening.
'...Too light.'
He couldn't feel any weight or will in the sword's tip.
Lately, he had felt himself stagnating.
He couldn't shake the feeling that he was just drifting in place.
“Is this... my limit?”
Swallowing the bitterness that lingered in his mouth, Gaios raised his sword again.
The fear that if he stopped here, he might not just stagnate but regress instead, drove him onward.
He kept swinging his sword like someone punishing himself, trying to drive away the emptiness closing in on him.
But unlike his heated muscles, his heart was growing colder by the moment.
*
“Mm...”
My eyes flew open.
My head felt so clear it was almost sharp.
I couldn't remember ever feeling this refreshed and invigorated.
The blanket was warmed by body heat and cozy, while the air was cool thanks to the air conditioner.
A perfect cradle of laziness.
“Hwaaah...”
I rubbed my face against my beloved pillow and looked up at the clock.
2:00 a.m. The time when sentiment was in full bloom.
“Roughly... seventeen hours?”
I had nibbled on brunch and fallen asleep, so that estimate was probably about right.
It seemed my day-night rhythm was completely flipped, but who cared.
It was vacation, after all. If my schedule was flipped, I just had to sleep long enough to flip it back, right?
The problem was elsewhere.
-Grrrrowl.
It seemed the stomach clock didn't care about day or night.
“I'm hungry...”
My need for sleep had been satisfied to some extent, but now my appetite was the problem.
I wriggled around on the bed like a worm, then suddenly sat up.
“What do I even eat at this hour?”
The cafeteria at this hour... there was no way it was open.
Unlike my freewheeling routine, the chefs' shift hours were fixed.
But if I started whining to the maid on duty and asked her to make me something...
-Lady Lunaris, eating in the wee hours isn't good for your health.
-Even if it is vacation, you still need to keep a regular schedule.
-There's such a thing as inertia, you know, young lady. If you keep up this lazy lifestyle even after school starts again...
Ah, I can hear it already.
I could vividly picture Ms. Odet, having woken up early, seizing the opportunity to unleash a barrage of nagging.
“Should I just go hungry?”
I tried forcing myself back to sleep, but my stomach kept growling, so I couldn't fall asleep again.
I scratched my disheveled hair roughly and then looked out the window.
The garden glittered under the moonlight.
Elterion Academy was famous for its excellent landscaping.
...There are that many trees.
Wouldn't there be at least one tree with fruit hanging from it?
Before coming to the academy, I had lived in the forest, so I'm pretty amazing at telling trees apart too.
Even if I couldn't find fruit, a little walk might make me drowsy enough to sleep.
Instead of the door, I opened the window and climbed onto the sill.
There would probably be a tiny on-duty maid standing guard at the door.
I had no interest in getting caught for nothing and hearing, 'Where are you going, young laaaady—'
I compressed the air beneath my feet, then expanded it in an instant and shot high into the sky.
The moment I landed on the ground, the soft feel of grass met my feet.
The night air rushing in was no match for air-conditioning, but it was still fairly cool.
I shoved my hands into my pockets and trudged along.
I quite liked the damp air, mixed with the scent of earth and grass.
“I think there were quite a few trees near the kendo hall...”
The kendo hall was a building mainly frequented by students of the Swordsmanship Department.
Since it was a space for combat-oriented students whose daily lives involved running around all day, it had been given a larger plot than the other departments.
It was a place I never went near under normal circumstances, but if not now, then when would I ever come here?
-Whoosh, swish!
I was walking and walking when, from somewhere, I heard a sound tearing through the night air.
...Just what kind of crazy person is working out at this hour?
If someone were doing that in front of Linea Hall? I'd have blasted them with a death missile without mercy.
The closer I got to the training grounds, the louder the sound became.
Regular, relentless.
Not knowing who it was, I thought they must be awfully diligent and exhausting, and I turned my head with half curiosity and half irritation.
Under the moonlight, a shirtless man swung his sword, sweat pouring down like rain.
His heated muscles bulged tautly, as if they might burst.
I recognized who he was at a glance.
'Gaios Leonhardt.'
The fourth-year top student, a pitiable senior doomed to be dragged off as a slave to the Imperial Knights as soon as he graduated.
Unlike the other 'characters,' he was also a little hard to know how to treat.
That was because he didn't even get a single mention by name in the original work.
The protagonist, Kyle Lowell, enters the academy next year.
Since Gaios-senpai, currently a fourth-year, would leave Elterion Academy next year, there was no chance for him to appear in the original story.
Ah, maybe he did show his face before Kyle once or twice.
That is, he would be known not by name, but as the academy's youngest knight in the Imperial Knights.
Come to think of it, extras who seem like nobodies often turn out to be surprisingly big shots.
If I could somehow coax these people together, I felt like I could get through the many incidents from the original story without much trouble.
Needless to say, I had no intention of running around myself to gather them.
I despised taking on troublesome work.
“...Let's just go.”
I let out a quiet sigh and turned my head away.
There was no point in making eye contact and only making things more tiring.
Just as I was about to pretend not to notice and move on.
“Who is it?”
The sound of swinging a sword suddenly stopped.
“...Damn it.”
It seemed the keen senses unique to a swordsman had noticed me.
Gaios-senpai slowly turned his head.
His eyes, visible beneath his bare forehead, fixed precisely on me standing in the darkness.
“Lunaris, is that you?”
“...”
Caught red-handed.
I laughed awkwardly and waved my hand.
“...Hello.”
“Where are you going at this hour?”
Gaios-senpai wiped the sweat from his face with the dirt-stained towel he'd tossed on the ground and asked me.
“Well, I couldn't sleep. I was just taking a little walk.”
“I see.”
“What about you, senior?”
“I was just loosening up a bit.”
Gaios-senpai answered in an indifferent voice, then started fiddling with his sword again.
“Wow, you're really working hard. Well then, I'll be going.”
I gave a perfunctory bow and was about to leave quickly when a voice followed from behind.
“It's vacation, so aren't you going back to your hometown?”
“...It's a hassle. Packing up and going down there is more trouble than it's worth.”
“Haha, that's so like you.”
“What about you, senior?”
“The academy is more convenient for training.”
Gaios-senpai let out a faint chuckle.
He looked down at the training ground floor with a bitter expression.
My gaze followed downward as well.
The sand-covered ground was soaked with the sweat he had spilled.
“Come to think of it, you'll graduate next semester, senior.”
The words slipped out carelessly before I even knew it.
“That must be nice. You're free now.”
I wasn't just being polite; I was honestly jealous.
Sigh, when on earth would I graduate from the academy and finally find freedom?
But after hearing me, Gaios-senpai's expression only grew darker.
“Well...”
Without warning, he gripped the sword's hilt tightly and muttered to himself.
“I'm the one who's jealous of you, actually.”
“Jealous of me?”
“Being a first-year means you still have a lot left to learn, doesn't it? It means you still have unlimited potential.”
“I don't really have that much to learn...”
“At any rate, you're climbing toward the realm of the Archmage.”
The senior muttered as if talking to himself.
“It feels a little strange, like my growth will stop the moment I graduate from the academy.”
This guy was completely soaked in late-night sentimentality.
“If I leave here, maybe there won't be anything left for me to improve... maybe I'll stop here...”
I can guarantee it.
If this guy remembers what he's saying now when he's lying in bed before sleep, he's definitely going to kick the blankets.
Or after waking up, for that matter.
This isn't based on my own experience or anything.
And it definitely isn't because I was belatedly remembering how I had acted all spoiled toward the princess recently and got so embarrassed I kicked the blankets.
...Seriously.