Chapter 26: Everyday Life (1)

༺ Everyday Life (1)༻

She was all alone in the shivering cold forest.

Actually, she wasn’t literally by herself.

There were animals. The predators of the forest were trembling in fear next to her and thus, it might be possible to say that she was not alone since she was with the beasts.

The demonic beasts that used to be the target of fear were now frightened because of her. For some unknown reason or because of some shift in values, that inexplicable fear made her feel rather content.

Her scorching thirst and the shivering cold encouraged her to drink their blood but the thirst never went away and her heart was still cold.

I see... My heart, and my veins do not pulse anymore...

That was when the boy came looking for her. With a whole crew, he was probably here to subjugate her.

Right... It was a natural turn of events. The tiny sliver of rationality left in her mind allowed her to predict the outcome of her life as an animal.

“It’s fine. You can slow down.”

The hand tapping on her back was soft; and the touching skins conveyed warmth to her body. Her rationality which had been floating adrift settled back down to her body from the torrent of emotions.

“It’s fine. It’s fine.”

At last when she managed to remove the bestial instincts and regained her humanity—

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry... I’m... sorry.”

The only words that she could force out of her mouth was that of an apology.

Ah. Ahh...

Do I even have the right to ask for forgiveness?

Was Isabelle okay? What about junior?

As a girl who loved people more than anything else, her conscience and the sense of guilt gnawed at her mind with each passing day.

Without retaliating against the restrictive spell of Lady Josephine, Marie locked herself on the other side of iron bars.

When the boy visited her at the prison, she was in fact psychologically impoverished even though she didn’t show it on the outside.

What if I went crazy again?

There’ll be no turning back if I end up killing people...

Marie could still remember her own self when she had been driven by her instincts into constantly craving blood. The memories of her rationality being chased out and the separation of her mind and the body still gave her goosebumps.

She was a beast – a monster; and a demon.

She was the enemy of humanity who might suddenly start coveting blood. Was someone like her allowed to act like a normal person?

『Senior Marie. You’re a nice person. You’re kind, and you’re pretty... Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that I want a happy ending for you if anything. So... I want Marie Dunareff to be happy.』

She regained her usual state of mind in the blink of an eye. His words immediately sent all of her concerns flying out the window.

The words that he said while shyly scratching his twitching cheeks felt more sincere and earnest than anything else she had heard in her entire life.

And because she remembered the boy’s devotion of putting his body on the line to save her who had turned into a monster...

Marie knew that those memories would forever be etched in her mind until the end of her life.

How would she ever forget it? How would she possibly forget that intense and heated moment, and the sincere goodwill and dedication of the boy?

He was the one who warmed up her cold veins and allowed her tranquil heart to start beating again.

『Senior Marie. You’re a nice person. You’re kind, and you’re pretty...』

“Ahht...”

『It’s okay. You can slow down.』

“Aahhht...”

In a fit, she kicked the blanket off of her body. The cold dews of the night weren’t enough to cool down the heat pervading her body in the dead of the night.

****

Overall, there weren’t that many lessons at Merkarva Academy.

However, there were comparatively a lot more freshmen classes, which was probably because there were a lot of fundamental and essential skills like bookkeeping, camping and map-reading lectures, which were given out during the first year.

“Hey. Look at this.”

We were in the middle of a domestic lesson – after learning how to sew ripped clothes in the previous lesson, we were now working on creating rations to have during a mission.

“What do you... Puhup!”

“Jaeger. You... kukuk!”

“What is it?”

“Hoh, damn. That’s crazy.”

“Uwek... that’s disgusting. Boys are seriously just...”

“Don’t come here. It’s not funny.”

At the center of the mixed reactions from male and female audiences, Jaeger seemed proud of his creation.

In the middle of two balls of minced meat that you could swallow at once was a large mushroom which was easy to find in the mountains – that was Jaeger’s take on ration.

“How does it look, Korin! Don’t you feel like eating it?”

“Looks like something that freaking Park would love.”

“Who’s that?”

“Just some stupid guy out there. Anyway, you should do that when you can~. When you’re old, you can’t even make jokes like that even if you want to.”

Because you could get ostracized in an instant.

Well, leaving aside whether Jaeger was going to be ostracized or not, it seemed that his love life at the Academy had just been rendered impossible.

“Seriously. Just boy’s stuff...”

“Let’s not talk to him.”

“...Yeah.”

Even Jaeger seemed flustered after sensing the reactions of the female students who accounted to roughly half of both the Knight and the Magic Department, but it was already far too late.

“K, Korin...”

“Umm... Please don’t come here. We are not that close, are we? Uhh, Mielle! Is that a pound cake? It does have a lot of calories, so I think it’s a great choice.”

“Korrriiiinn...! You traitor...!”

What was he even talking about? Of course you had to go with the girls in domestic lectures for good marks.

“Looks great. Can I have a bite?”

“Ehew~. Must be rough having a friend like that. Here you go.”

“Ohh, that’s refreshing. It will be even more amazing with tea.”

“Tea? Don’t you think it’ll be tedious to boil tea all the time when we’re outside?”

“Not necessarily. Tea bags are small and light, and it’s hard to have access to fresh water outside so boiling the water into a tea is a good way to filter the water.”

“Wow~. Thanks for telling me that. Do you want another bite?”

“I’ll be glad to. Ohh, this is seriously amazing. Mielle, I think you could even run a bakery.”

“Now that’s definitely an overstatement.”

“Korin?”

Marie’s voice was directed beyond her shoulders. When Isabelle stiffly turned her gaze to the back, she saw a boy who gave off a wild impression.

She had seen him before. He was the freshman student who that stupid Kane picked a fight with for no reason – he was a subject of caution who Marie had been greatly interested in these days.

“W, why are you here?!”

Marie asked as her golden pupils glistened and blinked cheerfully, in contrast with the gloomy look from before. During her question, she jumped out of Isabelle’s hug and hopped her way towards him.

Uhh...

The only thing Isabelle could do was watch the girl run forward in a hurry.

“You’re looking healthy.”

“Nn! It’s been a while!”

“Has it? We saw each other two days ago, didn’t we?”

What? What was going on?

Why was Marie talking cheerfully with that freshman who she met two days ago, instead of me, her friend whom she hadn’t met for a week?

More importantly, were normal students even allowed to visit her two days ago?

They seemed quite close as well, didn’t they? Why was that freshman talking casually to Marie, whom every 2nd year student was dying to talk to?

“Here. Congrats on your discharge.”

“Wow! Mashed potatoes! It’s my favorite!”

“Have that when you’re hungry, and this one here is also for you.”

“Tofu?”

“It’s given to people that come out of prison in hopes they live a pure life from now on1TLN: When people get discharged from prison, their friends or family would bring tofu. It’s white and it symbolizes purity. The common rule is to eat it raw without any condiments or sauces, because adding spices or other ingredients ruins the symbolic meaning of having a white tofu.. Well, it’s just an Eastern culture.”

“Wow~. Korin you’re so smart!”

Marie unhesitatingly dug into the white and unseasoned tofu.

Then, she gave a bright smile with bulging cheeks without even swallowing the tofu inside her mouth. Gazing down at her with a facial expression that wasn’t too different from Isabelle’s was the freshman boy.

“Why don’t you take your time? Slow down.”

“Uht, uuhht! Mhmm! Ahht?!”

As if those words overlapped with something from the past, Marie reacted like a broken doll. Her cheeks were deeply flushed in red as she took several steps back and immediately hid herself behind Isabelle’s back.

“Nn?”

“I, it’s... nothin... I mean, thanks for the tofu! It’s great! Ah, actually, I need to go somewhere with Isabelle!”

Marie blabbered gibberish while making up things that they hadn’t even decided on.

It was good that Marie had returned to her, but Isabelle couldn’t help but notice the meaning behind Marie’s gaze.

‘See you later, thank you. I’m a bit busy!’ saying that, Marie looked keen on sending Korin away and yet was constantly sneaking a glance at his face.

“Are you busy? Well, that’s unfortunate. Take care of yourself and see you next time.”

“Aht. Nn? Umm... okay...”

Isabelle did not miss the look of regret that flashed past her eyes.

This can’t be!

Isabelle’s instincts warned her that this was that thing.

She had no idea how that freshman was able to deceive this lovely and adorable highest-achieving student of the 2nd year Magic Department, but the animosity that rose inside her from the sense of betrayal that she received from Marie was instead pointed at the man.

He looked like a wolf and a bad guy who would have made countless girls sad.

In her eyes, his wild appearance suddenly appeared to be that of a delinquent; his muscular body looked like that of a savage bully of the Knight Department; and his easy-going and considerate actions as that of a fully-experienced playboy.

Isabelle pitifully gazed at her friend but without understanding the message implied by her gaze, Marie simply lamented in regret.

“S, see you later...”

There were so many things Isabelle wanted to say after seeing Marie shyly force out her words of farewell after the boy was pretty much gone, but swallowed most of them back.

“Marie.”

“N, nn? Why?”

“Men... are all wolves. Be careful.”

“Umm? Is Korin also a wolf then?”

Geez. Is that who you immediately thought of? Are you not even going to try to hide it?

“Wolf... wolf... Nn. That’s a cool animal.”

The advice that Isabelle gave in fear that this innocent and unaware girl might make a mistake ended up bringing about a reaction that was completely different from her intention.

****

I heard that the special dormitory where Marie would be going into would be a building that had a mixed appearance of the western and the eastern continents. It was probably going to be the same dormitory as the one Hua Ran was in.

I could only hope that Marie would be fine at the special dormitory away from her friends, and be on good terms with the one and only other person that would be living there with her.

“Hmm~”

My stats had an explosive increase after resolving Marie’s incident. 100 points... that was the same as leveling up 20 times. I also earned 15 points through several missions on the weekend, and that summed up to 115 points.

Besides, both the Aura Rank and the Mana Rank went up by one level.

Even though the equal distribution of stats meant that my stats wouldn’t be distributed efficiently, the sheer amount of stat gain was enough to make my body incomparably different from before.

Now with this, my physique was at an okay level.

As long as I raised my Aura Rank and consumed the Mandrakes that were growing up nicely... I should be able to use the Sixth Style before the final boss fight of the 2nd Arc.

Considering how I could only use the Sixth Style near the end of the previous iteration, it was a ridiculous growth speed.

In the upcoming 2nd Arc, my individual strength would also become extremely important, so I had to reach the sufficient level as soon as possible.

‘Huhu. I have Mandrakes.’

Just thinking of the three Mandrake brothers that should be growing nicely at the dormitory made my heart race!

‘That much should be enough. The concerns are the Murderer of the City of Fog and the King of Iron Mountain... as well as dealing with that traitor.’

The Murderer, John Doe, was a key that would link me to Lunia Arden. It will be through this event that Alicia will grow into the True Alicia mode.

Alicia Arden was the key character of the 2nd Arc’s storyline. She needed to learn Domain Severance and defeat the final boss of the 2nd Arc, ‘King of Iron Mountain’ with the help of Sword Master Lunia Arden.

And because I had to deal with that bothersome guy by myself, I had to save my strength as much as possible during the fight against the King of Iron Mountain.

Well, there was still some time until this would happen. The ‘Murderer of the City of Fog’ incident which had acted as the catalyst that awakened Marie in the original storyline hadn’t even occurred yet.

However, there was the chance that the events would happen earlier than scheduled like what happened recently, so I had to prepare as much as possible ahead of time.

“What is Alicia even doing these days?”

She used to come to the training rooms a few times on the first few days but I couldn’t even see her shadow these days.

That talented yet weak-minded and untraining genius – when exactly would she start wielding her sword properly?

Because I knew of her talents and her circumstances, I simply waited for the time being.

Footnotes:

1TLN: When people get discharged from prison, their friends or family would bring tofu. It’s white and it symbolizes purity. The common rule is to eat it raw without any condiments or sauces, because adding spices or other ingredients ruins the symbolic meaning of having a white tofu.