The Academy had something called a Midterm Break immediately after the Midterm Evaluation Match, giving students time to recover.
The Midterm Evaluation Match was where students clashed using every bit of strength currently available to them.
Injuries and serious wounds were therefore inevitable, and time was also needed to treat the aftereffects of Death-Prevention Magic.
However, just as I had promised Lulu, I finished this evaluation match safely without being hit even ‘once.’
Naturally, I had no need to spend the recovery period relying on the church.
So I decided to use this rare vacation for something more meaningful.
“Greetings, Senior Lulu! I am Stella Arwen, a freshman who entered the Department of Swordsmanship this semester!”
“Y-Yeah. So you’re Stella.... C-Conrad has mentioned you a few times....”
It was the afternoon of the day after my evaluation match against Dike.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, I brought Stella and Lulu together and introduced them.
After all, they would eventually belong to the Kardia Subjugation Party and spend several years together.
I thought it would be good for them to start talking and become close now.
Unlike Stella, who had already formed her own sense of justice from a young age and was displaying talent with the sword,
Lulu might have seemed like nothing more than an ordinary student from the Department of Technology at first glance.
It could therefore seem strange that she was also a member of the Kardia Subjugation Party.
However, she was one of the irreplaceable members of the party, serving as both its scout and rogue.
In truth, Lulu had first joined in my previous life only as a temporary member to fill an insufficient headcount.
But after acting together several times, her absence began to feel increasingly significant, and she eventually became an official member of the Kardia Subjugation Party.
Because I remembered that, I wanted Lulu to join the party again this time without fail.
That made it important to introduce her now to Stella, who would one day be appointed the Hero.
“Senior Lulu, are you Senior Conrad’s friend? Or are the two of you in a special relationship?”
“S-Special...! No, we’re just f-friends! Ordinary friends!”
Unlike Stella, who approached her naturally, Lulu was quite shy around strangers.
Even though they were only exchanging introductions, I watched their conversation lapse into awkward silence several times.
Unable to stand it any longer, I took them to a restaurant where we could have drinks with dinner and tried to loosen the atmosphere.
A single glass of ale was enough to lower the guard of Lulu, who was nervous like an idiot.
“I’m telling you, it was fucking incredible! Conrad slammed a Mana Bullet right into the back of that Mad Dog’s head...!”
Sure enough, she had barely finished half a glass of beer before the alcohol loosened her up and her voice naturally grew louder.
“It was truly magnificent! I heard even the other upperclassmen in the Department of Swordsmanship have difficulty blocking Senior Dike’s greatsword, yet you stopped it with a Broadsword and even stabbed him in return!”
Stella matched Lulu’s newly energetic rhythm and began responding with even greater enthusiasm.
“It was hilarious watching that Mad Dog flounder around without being able to do anything! All he could do was swing his brute strength around blindly!”
“It was truly remarkable how you overwhelmed Senior Dike from beginning to end! I had no idea mages could fight that way at close range!”
Although the subject of their conversation was the embarrassingly lavish praise of me,
They had only just met, so there was little else they could have in common to discuss besides me.
I had no choice but to endure it.
“And you never said anything about reaching the Third Circle! You should’ve told me beforehand if you had something that important, you bastard!”
“You effectively overwhelmed him in swordsmanship as well as magic, did you not, Senior Conrad? Even I did not expect that much!”
The two of them, already united by the alcohol, began interrogating me for not telling them in advance about the trump cards I intended to use in the evaluation match.
“You never know. It would’ve been troublesome if word reached Dike that I could handle a Broadsword or use Third-Circle magic.”
I gave them a suitable answer while referring to how thoroughly prepared he was despite his size.
Until the evaluation match began, it had been far easier for me if Dike continued to regard me as a First-Circle mage.
The same logic applied to hiding my ability to wield a Broadsword.
“Still, that Mad Dog’s completely finished now. If he lost that disgracefully even after using an Elixir, he’ll practically get the lowest possible score, won’t he?”
“Probably.”
I did not know whether the fact that his opponent had been a mage would also count against him.
But after suffering such a pathetic defeat, he would probably receive a score little different from forfeiting.
Too many people had watched the evaluation match in real time for Professor Oliver to manipulate the result through misconduct.
“I was startled by the way you handled the Broadsword. Did you also learn the sword from our master, Senior Conrad?”
“Your master?”
“Ah, my father! I mean Professor McDowell, my father!”
Perhaps because she had been drinking, Stella’s verbal slips were becoming a little more relaxed than usual.
Fortunately, Lulu was also tipsy, so she did not immediately notice the secret Stella had carelessly revealed.
“Not from your father. I learned from one of his disciples.”
“I see. I thought your movements looked similar to the swordsmanship my father taught me when I was young.”
“....Well, they would.”
Of course they would. I learned it from you.
“Given the chance, I would very much like to meet your swordsmanship teacher one day, Senior Conrad!”
You probably meet her in the mirror every morning already.
There was no way she would understand that if I said it now, so I quietly swallowed the words.
“Come to think of it, how did you meet Stella?”
Once some time had passed and the atmosphere had begun flowing naturally, Lulu asked about my relationship with Stella.
“Huh? Didn’t I tell you?”
“You mentioned it before, but you glossed over it. You made it sound like it was nothing, so I thought you weren’t particularly close. But watching you talk today, that doesn’t seem to be the case....”
“Would it be all right if I explained?”
I had told her not to spread the story of what happened that day.
But it had already become famous enough, so it probably did not matter anymore.
“Go ahead, Stella.”
“It happened while I was still a prospective freshman....”
After receiving my permission, Stella began explaining the day we first met to Lulu in an excited voice.
She added a slightly embarrassing heroic flourish, but it was mostly an accurate account without any distortion.
“...And then Senior Conrad subdued the last one with his staff and sent all the other upperclassmen to the church!”
After hearing the entire story, Lulu stared at me with an incredulous expression.
“That story about someone teaching Oliver’s gang a proper lesson was about you?”
“Apparently.”
“You said last time that you didn’t know who did it.”
“I never said anything. You assumed on your own that I didn’t know and moved on.”
“........”
Lulu looked as though something had suddenly become pointless, yet also as though she finally felt completely relieved.
“Oh, come on. Then I worried for nothing. If you could take down seven of them, Dike must’ve been easy.”
“You were worried?”
“I-It was just normal concern because I didn’t want my friend getting beaten up somewhere. It didn’t mean anything strange....”
Worrying about a friend was perfectly normal. What strange meaning was she even talking about?
“You said you are in the Department of Technology, Senior Lulu, correct?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“Then how did you become friends with Senior Conrad?”
“H-Huh?”
Stella also seemed curious about why Lulu and I were friends despite belonging to different departments.
Lulu had already asked Stella the same kind of question, so she could hardly avoid answering in return.
“He just...saved me.”
“He saved you?”
“Ah, s-saying he saved me sounds a little strange. Maybe I should say he helped me...?”
As she said that, Lulu glanced at me and sent me a subtle look, as though asking me to explain in her place.
“Do you know about the great monster assault near the Academy last year?”
“Ah, I heard about it from my father. It was the incident where several thousand monsters suddenly attacked the Academy grounds.”
“Lulu nearly fell victim to them too. I happened to be passing by and helped her. That’s all there was to it.”
Subjectively, the memory felt as though it had happened eight or nine years ago, but the events of that day were still vivid.
The moment I found Lulu surrounded by three or four monsters that had emerged from the direction of the Academy guild, unable to move one way or the other,
I decided to do what I could and used magic against the monsters first.
The only magic I could use back then was First-Circle magic.
Even so, with enough charging time, it was sufficient to defeat low-grade monsters.
Fortunately, she survived among them with only a few injuries.
The Department of Technology did not teach combat skills during the first year.
Even such minor help must have felt desperately necessary to her.
“I told her it was nothing and she didn’t need to worry about it, but she kept clinging to me, saying she couldn’t live with a debt.”
“It might’ve been nothing to you, but I seriously thought I was going to die, you know?”
“That’s how we became close. That was the beginning of our friendship.”
“I see. As expected of you, Senior Conrad.”
“Anyway, the cloak I’m wearing now was her repayment for that.”
It was the first gift my first friend at the Academy had given me, partly for my birthday.
For several reasons, it was a somewhat special item to me.
“So that is why you always wear that cloak.”
“Honestly, I didn’t expect much after giving it to you.
With your miserly personality, I was sure you wouldn’t wear it at all until your old cloak was worn down to nothing.”
“....As if I’d do that.”
The fact that she had perfectly predicted what I did in my previous life showed how deeply we had known each other in many ways.
“Should I give you something as well to repay my debt?”
“There’s no need. Why are you taking it so seriously?”
“But would it not be shameless of me to receive your help and simply move on?”
“Shameless.... Ah, right. This.”
Thinking I might as well return it while I remembered, I pulled out the Broadsword I had used yesterday from beneath my cloak and showed it to her.
“This served me well. Thanks to it, dealing with Dike was easy.”
“I-I see. I am glad it was helpful.”
“I used it, so I’ll give it back. It’s an item you’re attached to in your own way, isn’t it?”
“Pardon?”
I was merely trying to return a borrowed item to its original owner.
Instead, Stella looked puzzled by my actions.
“Were you not going to continue using it?”
“I said from the beginning that I was borrowing it.”
“You never said for how long.”
“I only borrowed it because I needed it urgently. I’d feel bad keeping it any longer.”
“If you return it like that, will you go back to living without a secondary weapon, Senior Conrad?”
“No. I’ll have to buy a new one.”
The Midterm Evaluation Match was over, but I still had work left to do.
I still needed a secondary weapon for that.
I would probably have to obtain a new weapon with a similar feel.
“Th-Then instead of going through the trouble of buying another one, please continue using my sword from now on!”
“Huh? But this is something you’ve used since childhood....”
“It does not suit me anymore even if I keep it! And I am certain the sword itself would be happier with you as its new owner, Senior Conrad.”
“........”
“It may not be enough, but you may also accept it as repayment for saving me last time.”
I had no intention of demanding repayment for that incident, but Stella’s suggestion itself was quite appealing.
This sword I had borrowed from Stella was the very same Broadsword I had used in my previous life.
It was certainly far more useful than obtaining a new sword and becoming accustomed to it again.
Besides, acquiring a good sword would require no small expense.
“Then I’ll accept it gratefully. I happened to have another use for it anyway.”
“I-I am the one who should be grateful!”
“Then I’ll use it with even greater gratitude.”
I never expected to regain this sword in this manner.
It had begun with dealing with a troublesome matter, but the results were rather good once everything was finished.
I had become close to Stella far sooner than before, and I had concluded the Midterm Evaluation Match with a good score.
I had even introduced two people who, under the original course of events, would not have met until I graduated from the Academy.
It had been a Midterm Evaluation Match from which I gained quite a lot while resolving a bothersome problem.