Ian?

“Ah… my head.”

I opened my eyes with a headache.

Where… am I?

Looking around, it seemed to be an ordinary inn room.

And I was naked, with the sound of someone washing in the bathroom… No, I don't hear anything. Thank goodness. I'm dressed, too.

I didn't remember coming into the room myself, so someone must've carried me here…

Let's think back to what happened yesterday.

Huben's fruit wine was delicious, so I kept drinking, then I cut off some punk's wrist and shoved gold coins into the bunny girl's chest…

“…Huh?”

Wait, what? I put money in her chest?

“Ah…”

I immediately buried my face in the pillow and screamed. Yesterday me! What the hell did you do?! You perverted bastard!

-Knock knock

“El. Are you awake? Come out if you are.”

“Yes…”

I shuffled to the dining room, my face red, and Ken asked with a worried expression.

“Are you all right? Your face is red. Did you drink too much yesterday?”

“No…”

“Kahahah! You remembered what happened yesterday, didn't you? You boldly stuck a gold coin into the bunny girl's chest… Cough?!”

“Shut up!”

I smacked Huben in the throat to make him shut up. Hm? Why did I hit his throat instead of covering his mouth? …It’s more effective, isn’t it?

“Cough, cough!”

…But seeing him clutch his throat and cough, I did wonder if I'd gone a little too far.

“…Are you okay?”

“Cough… No. I'm not okay.”

I looked at Huben's throat, which had turned red. I guess I went a little too far.

“You brought it on yourself. That's what you get for teasing a kid.”

“I didn't think you'd hit me that hard!”

“I'm not a kid.”

“A kid who gets drunk after one glass and starts acting all bold… Shut up.”

I raised a hand in warning, and Ken fell silent. Guess he didn't want to end up like that either.

“Ahem. Come to think of it, El. What are you going to do now?”

“Me?”

“Yeah. The commission's over, so there's no reason for us to stick together. But… if possible, I'd like to recruit you into our party.”

“Me?”

“Yeah.”

“I'm in favor, too, and everyone in our party wants you to join.”

“Oh…”

It wasn't particularly strange. If they'd seen me fight then, it made sense they'd make that offer. It wasn't strange, but…

“Hehe.”

It feels good to have someone want me around. It’s like I’ve confirmed once again that, unlike in my previous life, I’m useful.

“Look at El. El likes that, huh? I'm telling you, El's definitely a kid!”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Hmph. I'm not!”

But contrary to my words, the corners of my mouth showed no sign of coming down. I felt so strongly about wanting to join this party that I could hardly take it seriously.

“I'm really grateful for the offer, but… there's somewhere else I need to go.”

“Is that so? That's a shame. But if you change your mind, just let me know anytime. You're always welcome.”

“…Hehe. Thank you.”

They want me around that much… I feel like I could just float away with happiness. This is the good stuff.

“…Boss. El's eyes look kind of dangerous.”

“…Leave El be. They're probably just happy.”

“Wouldn't that make it worse?”

“…Shut up.”

Huben and Ken were going on about something, but it didn't seem important, so I just let it pass. More important was this drug-like happiness!

“Hehe.”

…

Sadly, the Dragon Hunters party left soon after talking with me. Apparently another wandering yong had appeared in the west?

“Welcome!”

After seeing the Dragon Hunters party off, I returned to the Adventurers’ Guild. I'd reported the commission's completion yesterday, but I had something else I needed.

“I'd like to get the documents to submit to the academy.”

“Ah! You mean the ones you asked about yesterday! Here you go!”

“Thank you.”

It was sort of a proof document. Like submitting a certificate of extracurricular activities to school.

A certificate proving that I'd taken a high-rank commission, made a major contribution to the party, and completed the job. With this, I might be able to get into Class B without taking the exam.

The academy had five classes, from Class A to Class E. Naturally, they were divided by grades, with thirty students in each class.

Of course, what I was aiming for was Class A. I mean, it’d be kind of bad if I couldn't get into Class A.

A Swordmaster failing to get into Class A? What kind of garbage game is that?

Anyway, that document was only in case of a one-in-ten-thousand—no, one-in-a-hundred-million chance. Honestly, I didn't even need it.

The academy's entrance exam was a duel. They used the application forms submitted at the start to divide the applicants into provisional classes, then had the students duel within those groups to gauge their level and assign classes.

For reference, if you lost your duel, you couldn't get into Class A. Even if you did well, Class B was the best you could hope for.

Well, winning didn't necessarily mean you'd get into Class A, either.

Anyway, my first goal was to put on a good showing in the duel and get into Class A.

Of course, I wouldn't fight at full strength. If I did, even the professors wouldn't be able to stop me.

So I'd impose restrictions on myself.

First, I wouldn't use any sword techniques. Vertical slash, horizontal slash, block. I'd only use those three. That should be more than enough at a student's level.

Obviously, I wouldn't use an Aura Blade, and I'd only use enough aura to keep my sword from breaking.

In other words, I'd fight with the absolute bare minimum of my abilities.

Though, honestly, even that was more than enough. They were students, after all.

Even with that much, I’d probably be stronger than a mid-tier A-rank adventurer.

So what I needed was information about the written exam, not the practical.

There was a written exam, after all.

Of course, I'd studied hard at the estate, so I thought I'd pass the written exam easily, but you never knew.

Maybe I should go to the library?

…

I decided to save studying for later and go sightseeing around the capital for now.

There were three days left until the academy entrance exam. I'd study starting tomorrow, and have fun today!

As you'd expect from a capital, ‘Gaia’ was enormous. There was plenty to do, too.

“Step right up! This opportunity doesn't come around every day! Come see the capital's greatest acrobatics!”

Oh. There's a show over there.

I went to see it, and a pretty flashy performance was underway.

From fire-breathing without magic to dangerous acrobatics using precise physical enhancement.

…With enhancement like that, they must be about B-rank adventurers, right?

When the show ended, people began tossing money along with their applause,

Tch… It's a shame I arrived late and missed most of it.

“Still, that was impressive.”

“Right? It was really impressive!”

As I muttered, tossing a silver coin to the performers, someone beside me agreed. …Hm?

I turned toward the voice and saw a blond man with an incredibly handsome face.

Handsome enough to make even me, who'd seen plenty of handsome men and beautiful women, admire him.

But that wasn't what surprised me.

His face was a little different from what I remembered, but with that face…

“…The Hero?”

“Huh?”

He had the Hero's default face, after all.

But the blond man looked surprised for a moment, then quickly smiled and said,

“Oh. I'm not the Hero. I'm his son! I look so much like him that you got confused, huh?”

“Oh. Yes.”

His son?

Come to think of it, it had been twenty years since the Hero defeated the Demon King. No matter how slowly the Hero aged, his face couldn't be exactly the same as it was in his prime.

Besides, looking closely, there were subtle differences… It was definitely more believable that he was the Hero's son than the Hero himself.

“You look… exactly alike.”

“Haha! I get that a lot!”

Ugh. His voice was so lively. He had the aura of a total social butterfly…

“I'm Ian. What about you?”

“I'm Fr… No. I'm El.”

“El, huh… That's a nice name!”

“Haha…”

Wow. A social butterfly, all right. He was trying to charm me as naturally as breathing.

It was only a simple compliment, but that face saying it was kind of unfair. If I were an ordinary woman, I'd have fallen for him.

“You look like an adventurer. Is this your first time in the capital? Come with me. I'll show you around!”

“Ah… Yes?”

“We look about the same age, so let's speak casually!”

Saying that, Ian grabbed my hand and ran off.

“Wait… hold on…!”

I could pull away if I wanted to, but it felt wrong to do that to someone who was being completely friendly…!

…

Ian led me to the market.

Not just any market, either. It was enormous.

“Wow…”

“It's huge, right? There's a lot to see here, so I come here often, too.”

“It sure is… But could you let go of my hand now?”

“Ah! Sorry. I was holding it for a long time, wasn't I?”

Saying that, Ian finally let go of my hand. Honestly… shouldn't he be blushing and flustered in a situation like this?

Sadly, Ian didn't seem to have that sort of reaction in him. He just smiled casually and showed me around the market.

He even bought food for us now and then… Yeah. Honestly, it was really delicious.

“Oh, right. Why did you come to the capital? Just to take commissions?”

“No. I want to enroll in the academy.”

“Oh! I see! I was planning to enroll in the academy, too!”

“Really?”

“Yeah!”

Well, if he was around my age, there was nothing strange about him enrolling in the academy. And since he was the Hero's son, he was probably pretty strong, too.

“Let's get into Class A together!”

“Sure.”

“Oh! There's something fun over here!”

Ian laughed brightly and headed toward some kind of machine.

Let's see… a punching machine?

“Apparently, you hit it with your fist, and it calculates the force as a score and gives you a prize!”

“Ooh.”

They had stuff like this here, too. Could there even be an arcade?

“I'll go first!”

Ian paid and punched the machine. Judging by his decent form, he'd probably studied hand-to-hand combat, too.

-Bang!

With a thudding impact, the score started climbing.

It reached the maximum score: 999 points.

But Ian just looked as if he'd expected it.

“Congratulations! Your reward for scoring 999 points is this!”

The owner looked surprised for a moment, then quickly replaced it with a business smile and handed Ian a huge stuffed animal.

A… very big teddy bear. It looked about as tall as me.

“Impressive.”

“This is nothing! Here!”

Ian said with a bright smile, then held the stuffed animal out to me.

“…Huh?”

“It's a gift!”

“Uh… thank you.”

But this is way too big for me to carry around.

Unless I hold it up over my head, its feet are going to keep dragging along the ground.

Still, I couldn't exactly refuse a gift, so I accepted it and hugged it.

Ah. It's so soft.

It must've been a high-quality stuffed animal. Its incredible fluffiness made me melt.

If I were in my room, I might've kept hugging it forever.

“Thank you. I'll take good care of it.”

“Y-yeah.”

Maybe because I looked so happy after receiving the stuffed animal, Ian stammered a little as he replied.

Ah… So soft.

…

“That was fun!”

“It sure was.”

It felt awkward to carry the thing around, so I paid a small fee to have it sent to the room where I was staying, then spent some time with Ian.

Whether my shut-in powers had diminished or my stamina had simply increased, I still had energy left after playing outside. Was I finally escaping my loner, loser, shut-in hikikomori life?!

“I'm gonna get going! Let's both pass the academy entrance exam! Good luck!”

“Yeah. You too.”

Ian said that and took off. Now that we were parting, I felt a little sad.

Still, Ian seemed like he'd make it into Class A, so I'd see him again at the academy.

Thinking that, I returned to the inn, too. Ah. I love this stuffed animal.