Chapter 2
That day was strange from the very morning. More precisely, it had been strange ever since I finished getting ready to go out.
As always, I washed my face and got dressed. Then, just as I was reaching for my belt at the very end, I found a weapon hanging from it that I had never seen before in my life.
It was a small hand axe. Until then, the only weapon I regularly used had been a single sword, so it seemed I had suddenly acquired a secondary weapon.
I was puzzled, but I tilted my head and put the belt on anyway. My simple conclusion was that I must have received it from someone while drunk and should return it later.
When I donned the red cloak symbolizing a third-year student and stepped outside, countless people were already moving about the campus.
It was around then that I began to feel genuinely perplexed. Of course, it wasn't simply because there were so many people walking around.
Including the students, faculty, and resident personnel who managed the various school facilities, tens of thousands of people lived here. It wasn't strange for the campus to be crowded from the morning onward.
What bewildered me wasn't the number of people in the crowd, but the degree of attention they were showing.
The moment I started walking, countless gazes followed me. Soon, whispers began to tickle my ears.
“That’s him, right?”
“I heard he beat the crap out of that Yurdina brat until she was half-dead……”
At the unfamiliar rumor, my gaze snapped toward its source. But as soon as I looked their way, they merely cleared their throats and hurried on.
Could they have been talking about me?
Feeling uncertain, I tilted my head once more. No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn't understand.
This was the Imperial Academy, the undisputed finest educational institution on the continent.
Eminent scholars and experts dispatched from every country gathered here to teach the continent's finest talents. Its history and scale also surpassed those of any other educational institution.
Since it was a place that claimed to be the best in the world, getting into the academy was no easy feat.
Only the most carefully selected talents from across the continent could cross its threshold. The entrance examination, with competition ranging from hundreds to one all the way to thousands to one, was equal for everyone.
Whether they were members of the imperial family, nobles, or commoners, everyone typically began by cursing when reminiscing about the entrance exam.
Having applicants submit a waiver acknowledging that they might lose their lives during the exam was a long-standing academy tradition. Actual casualties were rare, but the fact that such a waiver had to be submitted alone proved how perilous the academy's entrance exam was.
Only after overcoming hundreds of people hailed as geniuses from every country through such an arduous examination process could one barely become an academy freshman.
Of course, even managing to enter the academy somehow wasn't the end. During the four-year curriculum that followed, about ten percent of the students failed every year.
Failing at the academy meant expulsion. Naturally, students who had struggled so hard to enter fought tooth and nail to avoid failing, and competition only grew fiercer in the process.
It was an educational curriculum like a jungle. Only those who survived the four-year competition without falling behind could finally enter society bearing the title of academy graduate.
Still, it wasn't a bad investment, considering that a successful career was practically guaranteed once you graduated.
If anything, countless parents were eager to enroll their children in the academy, coveting the prestige of being called a “proven talent.”
My parents were a good example.
Since childhood, I had shown little interest in most things, let alone managing the family estate, and before long I became a source of concern for my parents.
The line of succession had long since been settled in favor of my eldest brother, and I wasn't as gifted in commerce as my younger sister, so my parents couldn't help worrying about how I would make a living.
When I turned eight, my parents eventually made a decision. If there was no field that immediately interested me, they would at least secure a way for me to make a living.
Thus began a harsh regimen of training from my early childhood. Fortunately, my talent wasn't utterly pathetic, so I was able to achieve passable results through bloody effort. With a bit of luck added to that, I somehow managed to enter the academy.
Of course, once I entered the academy, my talent proved to be nothing special.
This was a place that had gathered every kind of genius from across the continent. Naturally, there was a gap that half-hearted effort and talent could never bridge.
The only talents I had worth boasting about were my footwork and horsemanship. Thanks to them, I belonged to the group that could at least manage to avoid failing.
In other words, I was in the middle-to-lower ranks. Still, if I continued like this, I should be able to graduate from the academy without any trouble. That alone was enough to satisfy me.
Knowing one's place was always important. I had long since discarded the childish notion that I was the protagonist of the world, back when I was in my mid-teens.
That was why, whenever people asked about me at the academy, I maintained just enough of a presence to elicit a reaction of, “Oh, that guy!”
Put negatively, it meant there was nothing particularly noticeable about me. Put positively, it meant I had adapted smoothly to academy life.
So there was no way I could help finding the reaction around me today a little unfamiliar.
Whispers followed me every time I took a step. At first, I thought I might have put my clothes on wrong, but that wasn't it either.
I would rather have believed it was all a misunderstanding, but the glances of those stealing peeks at me were far too unmistakable for that. It was an awkward feeling.
Nothing was more frightening than attention without a reason. I couldn't even tell whether it was born of goodwill or malice.
The whispers that were making me uneasy didn't die down even after quite some time. I was on my way to a lecture, and at this rate, I would have to listen to people whispering even during class.
But it wasn't as though I could grab someone passing by and ask why they were whispering about me.
It was then, while I was looking around with a troubled expression, that a savior caught my eye.
It was a man with a shuffling gait that seemed familiar somehow. His still-youthful face was pale. He must have drunk himself senseless yesterday, too.
With brown hair and green eyes that suited him well, he was an old friend of mine. We had been close since childhood, and we had also entered the academy together—a bond that had endured for a long time.
“Leto Einsten” was a celebrity whose name was sure to come up whenever someone asked them to name the academy's biggest wastrel.
Perhaps he was still suffering from last night's hangover, because he yawned, then stiffened when he spotted me walking toward him from across the way. The emotion that flashed through his eyes was unmistakable bewilderment.
But our relationship wasn't so awkward that I would pay close attention to a reaction lasting only a fleeting instant. Glad to see him, I immediately raised a hand and greeted him.
If it was Leto, he would know the reason. He would know why everyone around me seemed so desperate to whisper whenever they saw me.
“Hey, Leto!”
As I said that, I strode toward Leto without hesitation. For some reason, though, he seemed unable to stay still.
He hemmed and hawed while studying my expression, then suddenly opened his eyes wide as though he had realized something. I didn't know what had caused it, but he looked extremely shocked.
His scrutinizing gaze continued for quite some time. It was only when I reached him that Leto threw his arms around me with tears in his eyes.
“Ian, you’re back……!”
What the hell was he talking about?
I stared blankly for a moment at the sudden hug, then came to my senses. My hands immediately shoved Leto away.
I had no interest in sharing a passionate embrace with another man in broad daylight. And as far as I knew, neither did Leto. He often called himself “a lone wolf who roamed the taverns every night hunting lonely women.”
So when he suddenly embraced me, I had no choice but to be flustered. It felt as though he were welcoming a friend who had returned from the battlefield.
I got goosebumps. Scolding words spilled from my mouth.
“No… hey, are you crazy?! Why are you hugging me first thing in the morning, you creep……!”
But despite my rebuke, shouted while shuddering, Leto merely wiped at the corners of his eyes with his sleeve, looking as though he might cry. He sniffled and spoke.
“Hngh… That’s Ian all right. Yeah, that’s Ian… Welcome back, you bastard!”
As he said that, he patted my shoulder twice, as though congratulating me. I stared at him incredulously, but he seemed so deeply moved that he didn't even notice my reaction.
Before long, a dull pain began to spread through my shoulder from his pounding hand. My expression naturally crumpled, and a puzzled voice escaped my lips.
“……What are you doing?”
It was Leto who was startled by my perfectly reasonable question. His eyes went round, and then he practically jumped as he asked me,
“Hey, you don’t remember? What the hell you’ve been doing this past week?!”
“A week?”
Leto's dramatic reaction only made my expression grow more bewildered, and I questioned him in return. Leto then pounded his chest as though frustrated.
For a mage with such a weak body, he seemed remarkably frustrated.
“You, you… You don’t remember that either? You beat the crap out of Yurdina’s brat during the last lecture!”
“……I did?”
I pointed my index finger at myself. Unable to believe what I had heard, I voiced another question, and Leto vigorously nodded to confirm what he meant.
“Yeah, you lunatic! Last class, the third-years and second-years were paired up for sparring, and you beat that Yurdina brat until she couldn’t even stand, I’m telling you! Do you know how shocked Selin and I were when we heard? Wow, did this bastard swallow some bad bar food while drinking yesterday…….”
Leto's excited voice continued, but all I could return was a blank expression.
Because it was something that had left not the slightest trace in my memory.
A whole week? Then had I been out of my mind for an entire week?
Besides, “Yurdina's brat” was referring to that woman.
Seria Yurdina, the illegitimate daughter of House Yurdina.
Though born out of wedlock, she carried the blood of House Yurdina, one of the great powers of the Empire's north. Even at an academy that had gathered every kind of talent, her gift for swordsmanship was peerless.
Even before entering the academy, she had already been considered a leading candidate for top student in the Department of Swordsmanship. She was only a second-year, but few fourth-years could stand against her.
Countless people had approached her, drawn by her talent, background, and beauty, but she responded to them all with utter indifference. That was how she earned the nickname “Yurdina's brat.” By now, an atmosphere of subtly excluding her had even formed around her.
Even so, no one could openly bully her, because her talent shone that brightly. At the academy, skill was everything.
She was that formidable. Although she couldn't match the legitimate heir of House Yurdina, who was in her fourth year, she was a female swordswoman whose talent contended for the top spot among the second-years.
And I had beaten Seria Yurdina until she was half-dead?
It was so absurd that I couldn't even laugh. When I let out a half-formed “heh,” Leto began to wear a serious expression.
“Hey, you really don’t remember? Come to think of it, you were kind of strange. Your eyes looked tired enough to be strange… Could it be some kind of curse?”
Only then did I realize that Leto hadn't been joking or lying, but speaking seriously. A faint trace of concern had crossed his eyes.
If someone as optimistic as him took it this seriously, it was best to assume that most of what he had said was true. I immediately felt a throbbing sensation in my head.
I had spent an entire week doing something like that? Why on earth?
Then a hazy pain arose in my brain. It was a frustrating sensation, as though I ought to remember something, yet couldn't recall it at all.
By common sense, this should have been an extremely serious matter. Yet for some reason, there was a part of me that accepted it as perfectly natural. That, more than anything, gave me an even more intense sense of wrongness.
As I continued to groan for quite some time, the worry in Leto's eyes grew even deeper. He soon began muttering to himself.
“Let’s see, what curses cause memory loss or a change in personality? A banshee’s wail, Pan’s lute, or possession by a high-level ghost……”
I had a feeling that if this continued, I would get dragged into something even more troublesome. Would they take me to one of the magic department's laboratories and subject me to all kinds of experiments?
It was the worst possible outcome just to imagine. I raised a hand to stop Leto before he could continue.
“Forget it, don’t worry too much. I mean… who would curse the second son of some insignificant rural viscount family like mine?”
At my insistence that it was nothing serious, Leto closed his mouth and stroked his chin. His gaze remained skeptical, but he seemed to think there was some sense in what I had said.
And he had a point. What reason could anyone have to cast a high-level curse capable of altering someone's personality on the second son of an obscure noble family?
When Leto's expression still didn't relax, I chuckled and tossed out a joke to show him that I was fine.
“Who knows? Maybe a graduate student specializing in curse studies, cooped up in a room all day, went insane and cast a curse.”
“Come to think of it, that checks out. If it’s a grad student, I buy it……”
Though I had meant it as a joke, Leto seemed to be seriously considering the possibility.
What in the world was graduate school in the Department of Magic like?
As I shook my head from side to side, Leto's hand landed on my right shoulder with a thump.
He wore a splendid smile, as though he was finally relieved.
“Good thing you’re okay. Honestly, I thought you might be able to skip the next lecture.”
The next lecture? The moment I heard that, I thought of where I was headed now.
My memories of the past week had been erased, but since all the lectures were scheduled according to the days of the week, the place I had to go hadn't changed.
And that place was the swordsmanship training grounds.
A dismayed, crooked “Ah” escaped my lips.
“I heard that Yurdina’s brat was discharged yesterday.”
As he spoke, Leto patted my shoulder a few more times with a warm smile.
“They say she’s grinding her teeth over it. Still, if you say there’s nothing to worry about, I’m relieved.”
No, that seemed like something I should worry about.
I thought that as I broke out in a slight cold sweat.
It was all too obvious how a beast wounded in its pride would react.
I felt like a pig being led to the slaughterhouse.