Ruite glanced at Chester, who stood firmly in front of him. Saying they had simply run into each other while passing by would not be quite right; it was more accurate to say Chester had blocked the path Ruite was trying to take. Dylan seemed to sense something strange too, because he kept looking back and forth between the two of them.
Ruite was currently thinking hard. Why, for what reason, had Chester blocked his path again with such a displeased expression? Ah, was it that? Because he had tried to pass by without greeting him? Was he angry, thinking something like, How dare someone like you ignore me after running into me?
“Ah, hello?”
After his thoughts reached that point, Ruite awkwardly raised a hand and greeted him. Lightly ignoring Dylan’s sharp look that seemed to ask what that awkward greeting was supposed to be, Ruite awkwardly lifted the corners of his lips toward Chester.
But apparently, this was not it either, because Chester neither returned the greeting nor said anything at all. It would have been a little easier if he had at least treated him bluntly like usual. But when he simply glared at him without saying anything, it felt like sitting on pins and needles.
Just then, someone called Dylan’s name from far away. It was one of the blacksmiths from Bellure Forge, and it seemed Dylan had left something behind.
Only then did Dylan move away from Ruite, saying he would be right back before heading toward the forge again. As the two of them coincidentally ended up alone on the street, Ruite began uselessly watching Chester’s mood.
“What are you doing here?”
A voice finally came from Chester’s mouth, which had seemed as if it would never open, as though it had been glued shut. His voice was still nothing but stiff, but it was at least better now that he was saying something.
“Dylan said he had something to do and asked me to come with him. What about you?”
“Why should I tell you that?”
Even though he had asked first. It was not as though Ruite was sincerely curious about why Chester was here. Just as Dylan, a Department of Swordsmanship student, was interested in swords, Chester might have come out because he wanted to look at magical tools. He had just come out of a magical tool shop earlier too.
“Hey.”
Chester’s way of addressing Ruite was fixed. Not Ruite, not Everhart—just “hey.”
“Yeah.”
“I think you need to start living with some thought in your head.”
“Why are you picking a fight again all of a sudden?”
Had anything happened just now besides them running into each other by coincidence? Ruite did not think he had done anything deserving of such words from Chester. He had tried not to even acknowledge him at first, and since Chester had said he found it irritating when Ruite smiled back then, he had even made an effort not to smile on purpose.
“This is outside the academy.”
“I know.”
Surely he was not so stupid that he would not know even that. Did Chester perhaps think of him as an incredible idiot?
“That means this isn’t a place where only students, professors, and academy faculty members are present. It’s a place where any number of unspecified people pass through.”
Ruite stayed still. He had no idea what Chester was trying to say.
“What are you going to do if someone from my house or yours is among them?”
“People from our houses? Then I’d greet them.”
What was so difficult about that? But apparently that was not the answer Chester wanted, because he let out a deep sigh. A breath thick with irritation scattered into the air.
“Do you think people from our houses would look kindly on someone with a marriage partner sticking that close to another man, and unnecessarily so at that?”
At first, Ruite wondered what he was talking about, but then he suddenly remembered the joke Dylan had been making earlier. Dylan was naturally sociable, so he often played around by clinging to people he was close with, and Ruite was no exception.
So was Chester now asking whether people from both houses, who might appear who knew when, where, or how, would see him and Dylan joking around and think badly of it? But who would look at that and think in such a way? Wasn’t it obvious at a glance that they were just close friends?
Still, if he broke it down piece by piece, Chester did have a point in his own way.
“In any case, the marriage arrangement is currently proceeding between both houses, so I’d like you to conduct yourself properly from now on. I don’t want my name being carelessly dragged through other people’s mouths within my house because of you.”
It was more difficult than he had expected. Inside the academy, which was practically an isolated organization, he had to work hard not to offend Chester so rumors would not spread through campus. But outside, he had to worry about where and when people from their houses might see him.
“Fine, I understand.”
Still, as long as Chester brought up annulment, Ruite could endure annoyances like this. After all, it was no exaggeration to say that half of his fate currently rested in Chester’s hands.
“Chester, you’re heading back to the academy now, right? Then come with us.”
“How does the conversation turn into that?”
Chester furrowed his brow. He looked genuinely unable to understand.
“We’re still inside the plaza, and like you said, people from our houses might be around. Even if I’m close to Dylan, if we’re together, then what you’re worried about won’t happen, right?”
For a method he had just thought of, it was a fairly decent suggestion. But perhaps Chester truly found it unexpected, because his lips moved several times. He looked as though he wanted to refute him thoroughly, yet could not seem to think of anything to say aloud.
Coincidentally, Dylan returned with his belongings just then and approached the two of them. Since he apparently had not expected them to still be together, he asked Ruite with his eyes what was going on.
“Chester said he’s heading back to the academy too.”
“Oh, then are we going together? I don’t mind.”
A friendly personality was convenient at times like this. Even though Dylan was not particularly close to Chester, he nodded readily without showing any discomfort at the one sentence Ruite tossed out.
And so, an unintended combination was formed. Somehow, the three of them ended up walking side by side inside the plaza, and Ruite deliberately placed Dylan in the middle, keeping distance from Chester.
“You’re Chester, right? I’m Dylan Bredelin, a third-year in the Department of Swordsmanship.”
Perhaps excited by the opportunity to speak with one of Witmore’s famous figures, Dylan began with an introduction.
“Ruite and I are dorm cafeteria friends.”
“If I’d known you’d steal my food every day, I never would’ve become cafeteria friends with you.”
“How cold. Deep down, you like eating with me the most.”
Dylan burst into hearty laughter and thoroughly ruffled Ruite’s hair.
“But you two are seatmates, right? You must’ve gotten a bit close.”
Standing in the middle, Dylan looked back and forth between both sides as he asked.
“We’re just classmates, that’s all.”
Ruite summed up his relationship with Chester in that single sentence. His tone made it clear he did not particularly agree with the idea that they had grown close. And Chester did not offer any objection to those words.
“Chester, what’s he like usually? He doesn’t bother you in class, does he?”
“Hey, why are you asking Chester that?”
Dylan asked Chester various questions as though he were Ruite’s guardian. Neither of them noticed the very faint crack that appeared on Chester’s previously expressionless face.
“There’s nothing for him to bother me about. I have no interest in him in the first place.”
When Chester cut him off flatly, Dylan seemed a little flustered and scratched his head. He was clearly thinking inside, So his personality really is just like the rumors say.
“He sprawls out asleep during lectures, always comes to class with the back of his hair sticking up, and keeps calling Colin in an irritating way. Rather than bothersome, he’s closer to annoying.”
At the smooth, uninterrupted words, Ruite naturally touched the back of his own head. Had his hair ever stuck up? He learned a fact even he had not known through Chester’s mouth.
“Ah… I see.”
Dylan gave an appropriate response and subtly leaned toward Ruite. He brought his lips near Ruite’s ear and whispered.
“Chester really seems to hate you. Did you do something seriously wrong?”
Dylan deliberately covered his mouth with his palm and whispered into his ear so Chester would not hear.
“Who knows.”
If the problem was that he was Chester’s troublesome political marriage partner, then maybe that was the problem. If there was anything he had done wrong, it was probably that the original Ruite had liked Chester passionately. But he could not explain those circumstances, so he answered indifferently, and just then, Chester suddenly stopped walking.
Because of that, the other two gradually slowed and came to a stop as well.
“What’s wrong?”
Dylan looked puzzled as he gazed at Chester, who stood one step behind them. But Chester said nothing. He looked back and forth between the two of them as before, then slowly started walking again.
However, Chester did not walk in a straight line. He moved to the side, pushed his way between Dylan and Ruite, and stood exactly in the middle as if separating them.
Earlier, Dylan had stood in the middle with the other two on either side, but now Chester was walking in the center. It was not a significant action, but Dylan seemed to find it quite strange and tilted his head. Ruite, however, walked toward the plaza exit with a face that showed no particular feeling or thought at all.