His head was still throbbing. The uncomfortable pain made his face crease on its own. The view before his barely opened eyes was entirely white.
Ruite slowly blinked, then let out a deep sigh. It seemed that really was the case after all. Otherwise, there was no explaining that white ceiling.
“Is this heaven……?”
His last memory was facing off against the evolved monster. So had it ended like that after all? To think he would die so pointlessly. He had lived thinking only of getting his engagement annulled by Chester in order to avoid his destined death, but he had never expected to come to heaven because of such an unforeseen incident. Had he known this would happen, he would have eaten more delicious food.
Still, doesn’t heaven prove I lived rather kindly?
“If you’re awake, get up. Stop spouting nonsense.”
At the voice suddenly cutting in from beside him, Ruite, who had been lost in sentiment, turned his head with a “Huh?” An familiar face was sitting on a bed a short distance away.
“Mm, Chester, there’s nothing wrong with you. What a relief.”
And the person examining Chester in front of him was Professor Philia, the medical professor. With a relieved expression, she patted Chester on the shoulder.
“Ruite, are you awake?”
“Professor, is this reality right now?”
At that, Philia burst into laughter. Chester sighed and shook his head. Judging from the way he looked at him pathetically, fortunately, Ruite did not seem to be dead yet.
“Then would I be a ghost standing in front of you?”
Philia approached him with a bright smile.
“Ruite, this is the infirmary on the first floor of Witmore Academy. You are enrolled in Department of Magic Class Three at Witmore Academy. And you temporarily lost consciousness after being caught up in an accident during the midterm practical test. Do you remember?”
“Yes.”
After confirming that fortunately there was no issue with his cognition, Philia crossed through the inner door for a moment to look for medicine. The treatment room was divided by that inner door into an area with beds where students could lie down and an area where various medical tools and medicine were stored and basic examinations could be performed.
“Did you think you died?”
“When I opened my eyes, the ceiling was white.”
Ruite struggled to sit up.
“I thought this was heaven.”
“You have impressive confidence. To think you assume you’d go to heaven.”
“But I haven’t really done anything bad in my life, have I?”
When Ruite asked what reason there was for him not to go to heaven, Chester sighed again. Apparently having been told by Philia that he could leave, Chester grabbed his uniform jacket and stepped down from the bed.
“But Chester. Did I collapse before I even made it down the mountain?”
“Yeah.”
“Then who moved me?”
“……”
Ruite stretched his arms out wide, then frowned as though a sharp ache of muscle pain had hit him.
“No, my memory is kind of hazy, but I feel like I was being carried on your back……”
“Are you insane? Why would I carry you?”
Chester, who had been about to leave, shouted. Startled, Ruite flinched his shoulders and pressed a hand against his chest.
“Fine. If it wasn’t, then it wasn’t. Why are you yelling like that?”
“To begin with, why would I……”
Chester trailed off without completing the sentence. Seeing Ruite blink at him without any particular thought, he soon roughly opened the door and left the infirmary.
“Oh my, is Chester angry?”
Philia, who happened to be coming back through the inner door, asked with wide eyes. As she looked back and forth between the place Chester had exited and Ruite sitting there calmly, confusion showed in her gaze.
“Yes, well……”
“I wonder why he got angry. He was quiet until just now.”
Ruite stopped just as he was about to explain that it was probably because of him. That was because if he said that, Professor Philia seemed likely to ask several follow-up questions.
He must be furious.
Not only had Ruite dragged him into the site of an unexpected evolved monster incident, he had even stepped on the top of Chester’s head to land a hit on the creature. Honestly, at the time, he had thought that was the only way to land a proper attack.
But from Chester’s perspective, it was no different from someone he disliked doing that to him, so it was not strange for him to be angry.
“Anyway, you must have been shocked, right? I was so shocked after hearing the full story from Professor Harold too. It’s truly fortunate it was only this much.”
As she spoke, Philia briefly explained Ruite’s current physical condition.
Aside from the cut on his right forearm, there were no external injuries. Fortunately, that wound was not deep enough to require stitches either.
However, in that situation, he had abruptly released a large amount of magic all at once, and with his stamina depleted on top of that, his body had been unable to hold out. That was why he had collapsed.
Since he had launched two full-force attacks against an evolved monster, it was only natural that he had reached the point of magic exhaustion.
Still, there was no serious problem and he only needed to rest well, so Ruite felt relieved inside.
“But Ruite, there’s one thing I should tell you. You are, for now, an Omega.”
“Yes.”
In terms of secondary trait ratios, Betas were generally the most common, while Alphas and Omegas existed as minorities. Of course, that was the same even in Witmore, this small society of students.
Betas made up the largest proportion, and comparatively smaller numbers of Alphas and Omegas existed. However, during student years, secondary trait reactions such as pheromone emission did not usually appear clearly, so there were few cases where students went around openly saying they were Alphas or Omegas.
Of course, it was not that saying so was forbidden, but it was rare for someone to attend the academy while specifically bringing up their own secondary trait. Except for the occasional Alpha students who ran their mouths to brag about having a superior trait.
Because of that, even within the academy, unless someone personally said so, people often did not know who was an Omega and who was an Alpha.
The academy also tended to discourage speculation such as “that person seems like they might be an Omega.”
It was to prevent discrimination based on secondary traits. Therefore, the people who basically knew a student’s secondary trait were the student themselves, their professor in charge, and Philia, the head supervisor of the infirmary.
“It isn’t yet the period when pheromones are released or major physical changes occur, but if your strength is suddenly depleted like now, you may develop a fever.”
Saying that, Philia prepared both stabilizers taken by Omegas and fever reducers for him.
“If your body feels very uncomfortable at all, come to the infirmary immediately, alright?”
“Yes, thank you.”
Ruite bowed his head to Philia and gazed beyond the window. When they had taken the test earlier, the sun had still been up, but at some point, it had begun setting and preparing to turn dark.
Philia said he could rest here as long as he wanted, but Ruite said he would return to the dormitory. After all, lying down here or lying down there would be the same.
Before he left the infirmary, Philia relayed that Professor Harold said he would hold their interview tomorrow, so Ruite should rest well.
It was probably because of the incident during this test, but right now, he did not want to think about anything complicated. It was fine to think about tomorrow’s matters tomorrow.
Like that, Ruite dragged his heavy feet back into the dormitory.
That was when a loud stomach clock rang from his belly.
Now that he thought about it, because he had collapsed and spent all that time sleeping, he had missed the chance to eat dinner. His head turned toward the cafeteria, but as expected, the lights had been turned off long ago.
With no other choice, he moved toward the smaller cafeteria.
The staff member glanced at Ruite, who had entered at an awkward time past dinner, but still greeted him with a soulless “welcome.”
He went to the counter where the bread was placed and roughly looked around, but as expected, there were not many types of bread left here either. It seemed the students had already swept everything away.
Just as he wondered whether a prestigious academy was allowed to be like this, fortunately, he spotted one piece of bread he usually enjoyed eating.
He was fairly lucky. Ruite smiled brightly and reached to pick up the bread, but a hand suddenly came in from the side and snatched it away.
“Oh.”
To think someone had so swiftly taken the one remaining piece of bread.
Ruite turned his head sharply with a somewhat resentful expression.
And his eyes met Chester’s directly.
“What. Why.”
As expected, a blunt voice came back.
Ruite looked Chester up and down. He wondered why Chester was here until this hour, but apparently Chester’s situation was not much different from his own. It seemed he had missed dinner because he had been examined and treated.
“Chester.”
When Ruite stared fixedly at Chester, he flinched and frowned.
“If you have something to say, say it.”
“No, the thing is. About dinner……”
As Ruite scratched his head awkwardly, Chester stared at Ruite, who had moved closer. He gazed briefly into the air, then nodded as though he could roughly predict what this was about.
“What about dinner. You want to eat together?”
“Huh? Ah, no. That bread.”
Ruite pointed precisely at the bread in Chester’s hand.
Chester looked back and forth between the bread and that finger.
“Do you like that?”
“……”
“If you don’t really like it that much, could you give it to me? That’s my favorite bread here, and there’s only one left.”
Upon hearing the real reason Ruite had stopped him, Chester unconsciously clenched his fist.
Ruite sent him a request with what he considered a gentle gaze, but unfortunately, Chester coldly walked toward the counter.
Watching his favorite bread move farther away, Ruite had no choice but to swallow his tears. He had asked politely enough, so Chester could have just given in a little.
Ruite swallowed his disappointment and was about to choose something else appropriate when something flew from behind him and struck the back of his head before falling.
“Ah.”
Startled, Ruite rubbed the back of his head.
When he turned around, Chester had already gone out the door, and at his feet lay a single wrapped piece of bread.
It was the very bread he had asked Chester to give him, the one he enjoyed eating most.
The staff member seemed startled and looked back and forth strangely between the place Chester had left and Ruite.
Ruite smiled awkwardly for no reason, then picked up the bread from the floor.
After that, he selected some other edible things as well and paid.
He was glad he had been able to get his favorite bread. Holding several pastries in his arms, Ruite headed back to his room in high spirits.