[Event?]
“Mayday! Mayday!”
I clutched the communication orb while hiding beneath the desk and cried out mournfully.
“Your Majesty, are you abandoning me? Your Majesty, are you abandoning me?”
— I might have considered it if you had called me Hir.
THUD!
The instant Hildegard’s indifferent voice ended, a heavy tremor rang through the room as though something had stepped onto the desk.
I reflexively raised my head at that tremor.
“Found you.”
Kanibara’s upside-down head descended from atop the desk and met my eyes.
It was horror itself.
“Aaaaagh! Hir! Save me!”
— Oh dear. Even if I dispatch the Golden Mane Knights, they will not arrive in time.
The corner of Hildegard’s lips twitched beyond the communication orb.
She already knew this would happen!
Were they all in on it?!
What in the world had they talked about at the Imperial Palace?!
“Hey, teaching assistant. Where do you think you’re going, clutching a communication orb for private business while your professor is calling you?”
“Privately? Her Majesty the Empress and I—”
“If it’s not official business, it’s private.”
CLICK—
Kanibara waved a hand, and the communication orb lost its light.
Then Kanibara dragged me out to the sofa by the nape.
“You don’t want to catch up with me?”
“No, it’s not that......”
“You can be honest. I’ll stop if you don’t want to.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to.”
Kanibara was also a comrade who had roamed the continent and fought on the battlefield with me.
There was no way I would dislike seeing her again after so long.
It was just that what this woman meant by ‘catching up’ had a high chance of involving getting blind drunk.
“Could you just put the alcohol away?”
The thick smell of alcohol was already wafting from Kanibara.
“Alcohol? It’s a beverage. A beverage.”
“Since when has a liquid over fifty percent alcohol been a beverage......?”
“If you’re not drinking, just pour for me beside me.”
Kanibara threw herself down on the sofa and tipped an empty glass.
“Or should we hear our teaching assistant sing a song?”
How underhanded!
She was using the absolute gap in status between professor and teaching assistant!
But why was abuse of power abuse of power?
Because you had no choice but to accept it.
“I’ll pour your drink.”
I resented Hans, who had escaped through the window first.
I obediently filled Kanibara’s glass with liquor.
GLUG, GLUG, GLUG—
The golden liquid poured out, giving off an alcoholic smell strong enough to sting my nose.
“You still like alcohol. I told you to cut back.”
“After seeing me for the first time in so long, is that all you have to say?”
Kanibara looked steadily at me.
“Don’t lean your face in. You smell like alcohol.”
“Can’t you smell anything else?”
Kanibara placed an arm around my shoulders with a deep smile.
“Hey. Move away. It’s hot.”
“I said, can’t you smell anything else?”
“Me? I smell strongly of perfume. There, happy?”
Not for nothing did she walk around in only a tank top even in the middle of winter: her body temperature was incredibly high.
It felt like I was hugging a large dog in the middle of winter.
“So don’t lean your face in—”
“Is there anywhere else that’s changed? Look carefully.”
What?
Kanibara’s words made my thoughts freeze.
Cold sweat ran down my back.
Me, Lewis.
A man whose time without a lover was equal to the time he had lived.
Of course, that was not my fault.
I had merely been too busy saving the world.
It was true. I swore it to Teruna.
So I had no resistance at all to a question like that.
“Um...... You’re still the same......?”
No, really, Kanibara was still beautiful.
Why else would she have competed with Hildegard for first place in popularity polls, even though she was a character who had never been released?
There were even rumors that she was a secret character to be released when the game was on the verge of failing.
And the real person in front of me was on an entirely different level from the drawings I had seen.
If I lost focus for even a moment, I might break into a foolish grin.
But my answer did not seem to be correct.
“......”
Kanibara’s eyes fell slightly.
“K-Kanibara? I’m flustered when you suddenly ask something like that. Give me a moment to think......”
“Calling me ‘big sister’ won’t help.”
Oh dear. It would not help.
Hildegard forgave most mistakes if I called her Hir.
Sighing inwardly, I pulled my body back and put some distance between Kanibara and me.
But there was no way Kanibara would let me go.
She came even closer, driving me all the way to the end of the sofa.
“I asked whether there’s anywhere I’ve changed.”
O Teruna.
Grant me the wisdom to overcome this crisis.
If you dragged me all the way here, isn’t it only right that you give me at least that much wisdom?
As I fervently prayed while looking away from Kanibara’s gradually approaching face.
I saw the earring on Kanibara’s ear.
And the conversation I had shared with Hans yesterday came to mind as well.
“I didn’t say anything because I thought I might be falsely acting familiar, but...... You’re wearing jewelry?”
“Oh?”
Kanibara’s eyes rose again.
She was not angry.
Kanibara’s eyes were normally like that.
When her eyes lowered, that was the sign she was angry.
“A-And you’re wearing makeup too.”
“You noticed?”
“H-Haha. Of course.”
“Say it first next time. It’s okay if you’re wrong.”
“Okay. But why are you suddenly doing things you never did? Did someone you’re interested in appear— Huh?”
Kanibara abruptly seized my head in both hands.
And exerted force.
“W-Wait. It hurts! It hurts! You’re crushing my head! Aaaagh!”
“Do you really have to say that sort of thing? Huh?”
“Why are you taking your missed marriage prospects out on me?!”
“Why do you think?! Huh? Who do you think dragged me all over the place saying he was going to save the continent?!”
“Aaaaargh!”
Only after experiencing the plight of a can being crushed in a hydraulic press for a while was I freed.
“You made me even hotter.”
Kanibara tossed my limp, paper-like body onto the sofa and drank deeply from her glass.
“It’s just because your body temperature is high.”
There was no way a person who could lift a carriage with one hand would get hot from moving around a little.
I grumbled as I refilled the emptied glass.
The storm of teasing passed, and I felt utterly drained.
“By the way, what did you talk about with Hildegard yesterday? Did Hildegard give you permission to stay at the academy?”
“Permission, my ass. I don’t need that.”
“You sure are bold.”
Of course, there was no harm in Kanibara being at the academy.
Hildegard must have thought so too.
‘No. It might be too much overkill......?’
Other than the Eye of the Demonfolk that had wandered in by chance, not a single element related to the demonfolk had been found.
It was peace itself.
I even began to think the heroic tale of overcoming adversity and punishing evil had turned into a soft school-life story.
In that case, a force like Kanibara was practically a deus ex machina.
“What about you? Why did someone who spread a rumor of his own death and went into hiding come to the academy?”
At Kanibara’s question, I shrugged.
“I don’t know either.”
“So you’re hiding something from me. Does that mean you want another beating?”
“I’m telling the truth! If there were something, I’d be running around busily like before!”
When I hurriedly said that while covering my head, Kanibara nodded.
“That’s true.”
“I really don’t know. What Teruna wants from me. Sometimes I think it just likes watching me suffer.”
Unlike Hans, Kanibara did not point out blasphemy or anything like that.
Instead, she shrugged with an understanding look.
“Well, that’s the nasty thing about that god.”
The god gave trials but did not tell you what they were for.
Muttering that, Kanibara tipped the liquor into her mouth.
“Still, who knows? Maybe it’ll let only fun things happen at the academy to reward you for your hardships.”
Kanibara filled the glass she had been drinking from to the brim and handed it to me.
“Forget fun. I just wish it would send me home. Or stop bothering me.”
I drained the glass Kanibara gave me in one go.
The intense sensation, like raging flames, passed through my throat.
For a while, we shared liquor from a single glass without saying anything.
But only for a while.
The heat rushing into my head made me leap to my feet.
“Ugh. The mood got weird!”
Brooding would not solve anything.
No, it made things worse.
It was a truth I had discovered through ten years of rolling through hardship.
Rather than that, it was more productive to go wild and have fun.
“Professor! This teaching assistant will pour you another drink!”
“Ahahah! That’s right! This kind of mood doesn’t suit us! Pour more, teaching assistant!”
“Yes! I ruined the mood, so I’ll take responsibility!”
Maybe my cold had not gone away yet.
Or maybe it was because I had drunk strong liquor on an empty stomach?
I gripped the bottle like a microphone, steadying my mind as it grew dizzy with heat.
Memories of partying with Kanibara during campouts came flooding back.
“On the blue hills! With a pack upon our backs! The golden sun! Opens a festivaaal~!”
As I stood atop the table singing happily.
“Professor Katarina. I wanted to speak to you for a moment about the Exchange Meeting—”
The Chancellor opened the door and came in.
“......”
“......”
“......”
The three of us froze while looking at each other.
The Chancellor looked between Kanibara and me for a moment.
CLICK.
Then he closed the door and left without saying a word.
The heat that had rushed into my head went ice-cold.
“Ha, my life......”
I put down the bottle and covered my face with my hands.
“Ahahahahahaha!”
Kanibara’s pealing laughter rang through my aching head.
Alcohol! Bring alcohol!
I needed alcohol to disinfect this embarrassing memory immediately!
***
“Ugh...... Water...... Give me water......”
As I reached out while clutching my throat, which sounded as though it had rusted, a warm cup settled in my hand.
“It is radish juice mixed with honey. Drink it all.”
As the sweet liquid went down my throat, my pounding head and overturned stomach felt much better.
“Ugh......”
“Why did you drink so much when you cannot hold your alcohol?”
“A traitor doesn’t need to know.”
Even with my head pounding, I could vividly see Hans.
The sight of him sensing Kanibara’s presence and immediately launching himself out the window!
“Ahem.”
Hans cleared his throat as though even he found it embarrassing.
“By the way, why did you drive the Chancellor out? I heard he returned without being able to say a word.”
“I wasn’t driving him out...... And stop changing the subject.”
Of course, if I had encountered that situation, I would have done exactly what the Chancellor did.
In the sense that he had turned away without meaning to, it was not much different from having been driven out.
“But why did the Chancellor suddenly come?”
“These are the documents the Chancellor asked me to pass on to you.”
“Documents? For me?”
“Yes. Professor Kanibara was originally supposed to review them, but she does not seem like someone who would take care of something like this.”
When I looked over the documents Hans handed me, I understood what they meant.
“So he came because of the Exchange Meeting.”
The Exchange Meeting was an element absent from the game’s Main Story.
Of course it was. The protagonist enrolled while the academy was already in full operation.
It was not like now, before the academy had even opened.
“Humans are one thing, but elves and spirits are bound to feel awkward.”
“Yes. I heard that problems arose frequently even among the people dispatched for construction.”
Naturally.
Climate, religion, history, culture, and so on.
Even among humans, all sorts of problems erupted over these things.
How could it be stranger for problems not to occur when the races themselves were different?
That was why the Exchange Meeting had been planned: so they could get to know one another, even a little, before the semester began.
“But why must professors handle recruiting and supervising the Exchange Meeting?”
“......Is that not obvious?”
Hans looked at me as though thinking, ‘Has his insanity flared up again?’
“It is common sense that students need supervisors.”
“Some of the elves and spirits might be older than I am.”
“One must consider not age, but familiarity with the culture. And you know their mental ages are different.”
Hans was right.
The time of elves and spirits differed greatly from human time.
To put it extremely, there were times when they truly did nothing and let time flow by.
They simply existed in the same place, like plants or the wind.
Of course, they were not always like that. When they lived passionately, they were no less active than humans.
But an elf or spirit who had lived only fifty years was still a child.
Would it be fair to call their minds comparable to a human of around ten years old?
In other words.
“What a pain......”
The road of hardship stretched clearly before me.
A position supervising a group of teenage boys and girls of different races?
Ugh. Just thinking about it made me dizzy.
It was like having Labrador retrievers, border collies, and malamutes gathered in a pack.
“Can’t I just pass it off to another professor?”
“Are you not ashamed before Her Majesty?”
“No. Wouldn’t it be better if I just stayed still? What do you think would happen if Kanibara met the children?”
Hans flinched at my question.
Kanibara would say that an elf who had lived fifty years had lived long enough to drink.
She would shamelessly urge the spirits to try it too.
Hans must have had the same thought, because he looked troubled.
“There must not be any incident of students attending class after drinking. The academy’s standing......”
“It would be a blessing if she didn’t encourage them, saying that you should be able to swing a sword even while drunk.”
“Stop. That sounds so likely it scares me.”
Hans let out a deep sigh.
“For now, I will tell the Chancellor that you are refusing.”
“I can go myself. It’s my business.”
“Recover your health. A light meal will arrive soon, so do not forget to take your medicine.”
“Is there anything spicy instead of a light meal?”
Hans frowned at my complaint.
“You will upset your stomach. Why do you like spicy food so much?”
“It’s proof that my homeland’s soul still resides within me.”
“......You are still saying things I cannot understand. Rest.”
Just as Hans was about to leave.
The view flashed, and a Message Window I had not seen for several days appeared.
[M. Academy Tour Complete!]
[You have acquired 1 MP.]
[M. Exchange Meeting]
[Spend 1 MP to view the details?]
[Current MP: 1]
[Arcana Spirit Launch Commemoration Event!]
[Affinity Item Draw Event is in progress.]
[Event period: Imperial Year 1, 1.15 ~ 2.13]
The Academy Tour quest was finally complete, and a new quest appeared.
An opening commemoration event had appeared too, as though the original game and this world were somehow connected.
It was a good sign that the Main Quest had progressed this way, but.
The hangover that had only just begun to subside became worse!
“This is seriously driving me insane.”
Fine, I could accept that the Academy Tour quest had only been completed now.
Kanibara becoming an official member of the academy might have been the final step of the quest.
But the reward was 1 MP?
Who was that supposed to satisfy?
It said I needed 1 MP to view the Main Quest details!
But the quest-clear reward was 1 MP?!
Did it want me to gather points or not?!
I could see it plain as day: it intended to work me as a slave for the rest of my life!
“Does your head hurt badly?”
Hans, who had been about to leave the room, turned around and asked.
I must have looked rather serious, trembling as I was.
“I’m not okay...... Teruna...... Why are you doing this to me......?”
“Did that hangover come down from the gods? It is because you drank too much, Lord Lewis.”
Hans clicked his tongue as though he had worried for nothing.
“I will really be going—”
“No. Wait a moment.”
“......?”
Since the name of the Main Quest was [M. Exchange Meeting], I could not refuse to take charge of an Exchange Meeting group anyway.
‘Still, I have my pride! I can’t immediately spend MP so willingly!’
To escape the shackles of eternal slavery, I had to save every bit of MP I could.
So I skipped it without viewing the Main Quest details.
Instead, I touched the event Message Window.
‘It was an event that gave out affinity-related items at random, right?’
My memory seemed to be right, because a draw window appeared.
And when I lightly touched [Draw 1 Time].
SHFFFL—!
Three cards from the tarot deck I had left on the desk flew into the air.
“What are you doing? I have told you several times that fortune-telling is—”
“It’s not fortune-telling.”
I gave Hans a cursory answer and snatched the center card from the three.
The card then shone and transformed into an expensive-looking wine bottle.
“Ugh. A dud.”
Calbrehon Wine, 30-Year Vintage.
It was the finest wine that drinkers would go mad for.
But it barely raised the academy students’ affinity.
‘It raised affinity a lot if you gave it to a professor or a family head.’
Since things had come to this, I should give it to the Chancellor.
To apologize for the disgraceful behavior I had shown yesterday, too.
“Ugh......”
I held my head, which still throbbed, and rose from my seat. Hans strode over.
“Surely you are not going to drink with Lady Kanibara again—”
“I won’t drink! If I ever drink with her again, I’m a dog! A dog!”
“Then why are you getting up?”
“I’m going to see the Chancellor.”
“......?”
“I think I should participate in the Exchange Meeting after all.”
“A moment ago, you openly said it was a nuisance. Your whims change like soup boiling.”
“That’s just what I’m like.”
What else could I do?
The quest called Exchange Meeting had appeared right in front of me.
‘I’m really going to gather 1,000 MP, no matter what!’
But did that not mean I would have to work even harder?