After Chester left, Ruite finished changing in the now-silent classroom. The sting on the back of his hand where Chester had struck it had long since faded.
“Don’t smile, don’t touch…… Hm, there’s quite a lot I have to keep in mind.”
Ruite rubbed his chin, recalling the things Chester had told him not to do, then left the classroom. When he went out to the training ground with practiced familiarity, Dylan had already finished preparing and was warming up.
“Why are you so late?”
“I was changing.”
“Hello, Ruite.”
But there was an unexpected person in the training room as well. Lea, who had been warming up beside Dylan, came over and greeted him.
“Lea?”
“Ah, we ran into each other by chance in the dormitory lobby.”
“Dylan said he was going to train, so I asked if I could join too. That’s all right, isn’t it?”
Since he had already agreed to watch anyway, it did not matter whether it was one person or two, so Ruite readily nodded. Since one more person had joined, they decided that Lea and Dylan would spar, and Ruite would watch and give them feedback.
The two, who had warmed up in their own way, took over one side of the training ground and stood facing each other. When Ruite lightly gave the signal to begin, the two people holding training swords kicked off the ground at the same time and charged at each other.
The swords used by the Department of Swordsmanship were training swords as well, so of course they did not have edges, but the blades the two struck together with all their might gave the illusion that sparks were flying.
In the Department of Magic, swords were not the main weapon. In the first place, once someone became a mage, what weapon they mainly used was something each person decided for themselves according to their own preference or combat style. Swords, bows, and spears were the most common, and there were also mages who personally crafted and used special weapons.
There were also mages who did not use weapons at all and fought purely with their own techniques. However, at least within this academy, practical training was mostly conducted with practice magic swords and the like, so the movements of those who had learned professional sword usage were certainly helpful.
A total of three rounds of sparring continued. Each time a round ended, Ruite gave honest and unsparing feedback, and they had time to exchange opinions with one another.
And when the final round ended, the two, who had been full of energy at first, were quite exhausted after all and sank to the floor, breathing hard.
Ruite approached the two of them and handed them water.
“By the way, Lea, you’re really strong.”
At Ruite’s words, Lea smiled shyly. It was so different from the way she had overwhelmed Dylan during the sparring earlier with sharp eyes and heavy sword strikes that he laughed without realizing it.
“I told you, didn’t I? She’s not at the top of the Department of Swordsmanship for nothing.”
“Come to think of it, I heard you two went to Bellure Forge today?”
“Yeah. Dylan dragged me there, so I had no choice.”
“Ah, Lea. We met Chester there too. We even came back to the academy together.”
When Dylan suddenly brought up Chester, Ruite muttered inwardly, That idiot really has no tact. Bringing up that name so carelessly in front of someone who had already been rejected by Chester.
“Really? Ah, right, he’s in the same class as Ruite.”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
But unexpectedly, Lea looked completely fine. Apparently, Dylan’s words that she had wrapped things up well had not been empty after all.
“But Chester seemed to really hate Ruite.”
Dylan gulped down his water and kept running his light mouth without pause.
“Huh? Really? Since he delivered my letter last time, I thought they were fairly close.”
“No. Every time I talked about Ruite, he kept making this face……”
Ruite burst out laughing when he saw Dylan move his face as if imitating Chester. Of course, only the expression was similar; their appearances were as different as heaven and earth, so he did not think they looked alike at all.
“I’d only heard rumors about Chester’s personality too, but it really seemed just as expected.”
“But he was surprisingly kind to me. Last time, he personally told me he received the letter and that I didn’t need to feel sorry, and he was a little different from usual.”
“Huh? Really?”
Dylan asked as if he found that unexpected. Ruite leaned against the wall of the training ground and tried imagining Chester making a kind expression. But no matter how hard he tried, he could not quite picture it in his head, so he gave up.
“I think it’s probably something like this. He changes a little depending on who he’s dealing with?”
“Ah, I get what you mean.”
Dylan nodded, saying he understood what kind of personality that was. Lea had sincerely liked Chester and had confessed her feelings purely. Later, she had even sent him an apology herself, considering that her confession might have affected him, so even that Chester must have seen through Lea’s character.
“Then…… Ruite.”
“Yeah?”
“I guess Chester really does hate you.”
He changes depending on who he’s dealing with. That was the conclusion Dylan came to after carefully chewing over those words. Chester, who was normally merely cold, acted outright curt in front of Ruite.
“Well, maybe?”
Dylan’s words were right. But if he answered with certainty, it was obvious they would ask him this and that, so he had no choice but to answer vaguely.
“Why does he hate Ruite? He’s kind of fun, like an old man in a young body.”
“Dylan, is that supposed to be a compliment?”
“Right. I don’t get it either. Ruite has a nice personality too. And he’s popular because he’s pretty.”
At the completely unexpected words, Ruite spat out the water he had been drinking. Fortunately, his aim was successful, and the water poured onto Dylan instead of Lea.
“Ah, Ruite!”
“Sorry. But Lea…… what do you mean by that?”
“Hm? You haven’t heard? You know, Witmore has that saying. That all the good looks in our year are gathered in the Department of Magic. Just counting the famous ones, there’s Chester and Colin, and also…… Ah, Harrison too. Anyway, the students often talk about you together with them. Among them, people talk a lot about Ruite being pretty.”
Lea smiled brightly. Dylan, who was sitting beside her, grumbled that it was unfair to judge everything by appearance. He did not forget to send Ruite a look of resentment and envy.
But those words did not exactly make him feel good. He was still a man, and yet they said he looked pretty. He had not even thought that once while looking at his face in the mirror.
Chester and Colin were extremely famous, and the same was true of Harrison from Class One of the Department of Magic. But for him to be included there. He was not particularly happy about it.
“Maybe I just stand out because my hair color is like this?”
Ruite awkwardly smiled for no reason and touched his hair. He had not seen a single person at Witmore with silver hair like his.
“Well, Ruite’s hair color is unusual.”
Dylan playfully messed up Ruite’s hair again. Lea laughed as if she found it amusing, watching Ruite flail at the air while telling him to stop.
“Should we start wrapping up?”
“Let’s.”
He could not shake the feeling that, somehow, they had only chatted at the end. Ruite also stood up after the two of them to help clean up. Just then, something that had been barely caught in his pocket fell to the side.
“Ruite, something fell.”
Thanks to Lea’s words, he noticed a medicine packet had fallen by his feet. It was the stabilizers and fever reducers he had received from Professor Philia after the accident during the practical test.
She had said it would be good to take a few stabilizers, but he had forgotten because he had been wondering whether anything would happen. Ruite picked up the medicine packet and put it back into the pocket of his exercise clothes.
Just then, loud voices came from the group using one side of the training ground.
Looking closely, they were fourth-year seniors. Since they were graduating seniors, they had probably gathered because they were forced to do self-directed practice even during this season when there were only morning lectures. Usually, professors occasionally patrolled to supervise such fourth-years, so they were surely slacking off by taking advantage of the gaps.
“Anyway, juniors these days don’t act like juniors at all. I told you before, didn’t I? What that rude bastard Chester did.”
At Chester’s name, not only Ruite but the other two also flinched.
“Hey, is it all right to just mention his name like that? He’s from House Callaway, you know? Let’s be careful. You never know.”
“Isn’t he basically an abandoned child anyway?”
“Really?”
“I only heard it in passing from my parents, but his older brother is incredibly outstanding. Maybe because the eldest son of the house was born with everything, they say the family doesn’t even pay attention to the second son.”
Lea and Dylan awkwardly exchanged glances. Perhaps they did not want to get involved in unverified gossip like that, because the two hurriedly began cleaning up so they could quickly leave the training ground.
“Ruite, we’re done cleaning up. Let’s go.”
“Yeah.”
As he followed the two of them and crossed the threshold of the training ground, Ruite’s steps slowly slowed.
“Guys, wait a second.”
And after asking the two for a moment, Ruite flung the training ground door open again. He glanced toward the group where Chester’s name could still be heard from time to time and shouted loudly.
“Hello, Professor Neo.”
Then the fourth-years who had been sitting around slacking off in the training ground jumped in surprise and began scrambling. Watching them hurriedly get into position while saying, “Hey, looks like a professor’s here!” Ruite quietly closed the door.
“What did you do?”
When Dylan asked, tilting his head, Ruite answered, “Nothing,” and merely shrugged.