I Became the Academy’s Pink Airhead

I fell asleep again, then woke up.

‘…I took a short nap, so the situation should be resolved by now.’

Wind brushing my cheek and breathing sounds ringing in my ears.

The faint morning sunlight seeping through my closed eyelids awakens my hazy mind. Feeling consciousness gradually returning. Escaping from the abyss of dreams, I slowly open my eyes and a silver-white morning star greets me.

“…”

“…”

I looked at Hilde shining more brilliantly in the morning sunlight.

‘She seems to have matured a bit more than before. No, this face is actually the familiar one.’

The silver-white girl was still beautiful.

She seemed to have bloomed much more beautifully than before.

It was a noble and elegant figure like a silver lily grown in moonlight.

A girl like the moon rising in the night sky.

Silver hair filling my vision casts darkness like the curtain of night, and within it a girl resembling a crescent moon gazes at me tenderly. Two silver stars sparkle like jewels in the darkness.

Though morning had already come, it was a scene as if the moonlight of the night sky was still spread out. It was beautiful but went against the laws of nature, so it was very flustering.

Very…

Very flustering.

Because the posture Hilde had taken now was…

In vulgar terms, a ‘pouncing posture’.

‘What’s wrong with her.’

I met Hilde’s eyes.

“You woke up.”

“…”

“I missed you.”

“…”

“So I waited.”

“…”

Hilde was straddling the bed, looking straight at me lying down.

A posture completely covering my body while lying prone.

She spread her hands slightly at an angle so as not to make me uncomfortable lying down, but placed them in a space where she could extend them at any time to block my retreat.

‘The consideration of adjusting her breathing so as not to make me uncomfortable, and subtly leaving space for my arms and legs… is more burdensome.’

Perhaps because she was lying prone in an uncomfortable posture like crawling on all fours?

A faint blush was slowly rising on Hilde’s cold and transparent face. And her large eyes were gradually filling with moisture.

‘What’s wrong with her.’

Seeing that appearance, I was at a loss for words.

I wanted to clear up various misunderstandings or apologize, but.

My brain stopped working seeing the extraordinary posture Hilde was taking.

We looked into each other’s eyes like that for a while.

Though the sentence itself was certainly very romantic, due to my stopped brain, I didn’t know where to put my gaze. So I naturally looked at Hilde’s eyes right in front of me.

“…”

“…”

Eyes sparkling like the darkness and starlight of the night sky reflected in a spring made of mercury. Looking at those beautiful eyes, somehow I felt it wasn’t bad to reunite in such a perverse posture…

I was startled by the thought that flashed by for a moment.

‘What am I saying.’

Strange thoughts arise because my brain isn’t working well.

At this moment, I shouldn’t get caught up in the atmosphere too.

It felt like it would really degenerate into an irreversible situation.

I hurriedly opened my mouth to sort out the situation.

But.

Plop―

“…!”

On my face.

A drop of tear fell.

“…Eh.”

Hilde’s tear that fell on my face rolls down my cheek.

The coolness felt where the tear passed stabs my heart.

She who shone brilliantly like a noble crescent moon was crying.

My head goes blank.

Moisture flowing over her still cold expression. Somehow it was as ephemeral and faint as dew on lily buds, making my heart ache as if someone was gripping it.

Tears welling up on Hilde’s almost unmoving expression.

It was like…

Like the expression of an abandoned child.

Like an expression reproaching a friend who finally came.

My heart ached.

Facing Hilde’s wounded face, guilt crept up my spine. I never imagined that a few years of separation I thought was nothing would leave such a big wound.

Only after facing this face did I acutely realize what I had done.

‘Hilde…’

Hilde spoke in a tearful voice:

“I think… I was too late.”

“…!”

“I think… I found you too late.”

“Hilde…!”

She was crying because I had abandoned her and left. Yet far from reproaching me, she was regretting that she had found me too late.

‘You were… lonely alone. Not knowing how to approach… you just waited.’

I knew she was an awkward girl who didn’t know how to approach, but I didn’t teach her how to approach others. I just considered her a friend sharing similar experiences, and let that immaturity flow by as familiarity.

As an adult, I shouldn’t have done that.

‘You too… were just an awkward child in the end… I was too indifferent.’

Like a child unable to let go of a blanket in their hand, I should have known that you also had something to lean your heart on. I should have known that it was the friendship we shared.

‘You were… desperate enough to want to smell your friend’s scent again.’

As much as she was awkward.

I should have been mature.

I too was an incompetent… cowardly adult.

Even the things we could share the same view on, I used up hastily.

‘I want to… fight together again. But I need to become strong again for a while.’

I conveyed to Hilde words I had been holding for a long time.

“I’m sorry―☆”

“…Lara.”

“I’m sorry… for leaving you alone…☆”

“…Lara.”

“I was a coward… I thought… everything would be resolved… if only I left…☆”

“No…!”

I have a lot I want to say.

But the more I speak, the more my throat cracks and words don’t come out easily.

‘If I had been someone with a strong heart like Senior Frida…’

Containing that regret, I apologize to you.

“I’m sorry… for being weak.”

“No…!!”

Thud

Hilde, perhaps unable to contain her shaking heart any longer, buried herself in my arms and wiped her tears. My heart burns and aches as much as the moisture felt on my chest.

“Again…”

My voice cracks.

Due to thirst, my vocal cords cracking open don’t move well. So rather than saying many words, I decided to show through actions.

‘I’ll become strong again from now on, I’ll walk again from the beginning to where you are as the true strongest.’

Not the 1st year [Spiral] who wins cowardly through tricks.

I will become the 3rd year [Spiral] who walks the same path as you again.

‘So don’t cry. I’ll become strong again from now on.’

Perhaps because I hadn’t gotten up for a long time, it was hard to even raise my hand.

Though it was a shabby hand full of dark red bruises up to the elbow and extremely dry, I hoped it would at least be of some comfort to her.

With such feelings, I raised my hand that was still throbbing with bruises and wiped Hilde’s tears. Then Hilde looked at my hand with wide eyes.

Full of bruises.

Unsightly but.

A hand slowly advancing.

Did she read the will contained there?

Hilde just quietly looked at my hand.

“Someday… someday… we can… compete again…”

“…”

“Surely… someday… definitely…”

“…Yeah.”

I suddenly moved and held out my fist, which had an open wound

“Hilde.”

“…Lara.”

Hilde flinched looking at that fist.

As much as the time we spent together. Even without saying many words, there are emotions that can be conveyed.

True girls’ talk is exchanged by fists bumping together.

Tok―

Hilde put her fist against mine.

A fighter’s greeting.

This was how our friendship was.

I muttered with satisfaction seeing that.

“Promise―♪”

“…Pro, mise.”

Hilde looking at her own fist for a while.

Eventually she got off the bed and trudged towards the door. And before leaving the hospital room holding the doorknob, she looked back this way.

“…Lara.”

“Yes?”

Somehow.

A face that had hardened a little.

The hand holding the doorknob trembles.

Thump

Thump

Thump

I can feel Hilde’s heart pounding like it’s about to burst.

“…?”

I was looking at her with puzzled eyes.

‘What is she trying to say…’

After hesitating for a while, she opened her mouth in a solemn tone.

“Come to the .”

“…”

“I swear in the name of the World Tree.”

“…”

“I will let you enjoy the best things in the academy city where no one can touch you.”

“…”

What does she mean?

‘Now who would touch [Pink Spiral] or [Faded Spiral]…’

Could it be… to give conveniences to the poor ?

I couldn’t understand the exact intention contained in those words. But even if we brought our juniors to live a luxurious life in the golden street now, I wondered if it would be of even an inch of help for our journey.

Moreover, I didn’t want to urge Hilde, who had high prestige as the United Student Council president, to abuse her power.

‘Though I’m not certain since the original work is already broken, soon some furry beasts who fell for ’s temptation will pick a fight.’

If it follows the main story of the early part, a power struggle between and will begin. Even if it doesn’t flow exactly like that, the academy city is expected to become noisy due to ’s sudden actions.

I didn’t want to unnecessarily increase Hilde’s burden in this situation.

‘We’ll meet often from now on anyway…’

With such thoughts in mind, I quietly shook my head.

“It’s okay―☆”

“…Why?!”

Hilde bites her lip and looks with surprised eyes.

‘Ah… She just doesn’t want to be apart from me.’

Sensing that inner thought, I hurriedly made excuses.

“We each… have… important things… right now―☆”

“…”

“We’ll… meet again…♪”

“…”

A silence that continued for a while.

Eventually Hilde turned her head and answered.

“…I see.”

Thank goodness.

Hilde seemed to have not forgotten her position.

With a sense of relief, I spoke watching Hilde’s back moving away as she opened the door.

“We’re… still friends, right?”

“…”

Creak―

With the sound of hinges, the door closed.

But no answer came.

* * *

Always…

It was always like this.

Feeling upset about that, I ended up turning away and leaving.

“…”

Brunhilde recalled past events as she left the hospital ward.

“…”

What suddenly comes to mind is the parched touch of her sick mother’s hand.

The last touch caressing her cheek was surprisingly dry.

-Tomorrow… surely… we can meet again.

And that night.

Mother passed away.

‘Liar…’

The family treated that incident as taboo.

It was obvious that the fact that a woman of the warlord family that controlled the country had died from mere tuberculosis would invite all sorts of rumors.

That winter became as if ‘nothing’ had happened.

‘Liars…’

Brunhilde no longer believed in promises without assurance.

And spring came again.

After dreamlike time passed, the cherry blossoms she met again had withered.

But the withered cherry blossoms were still beautiful.

‘Even if withered… I want to have you.’

So she conveyed… the greatest ‘oath’ taught by the family. But she just shook her head and smiled an ephemeral smile.

“Each, precious thing…?”

I don’t understand what you’re saying at all.

Weren’t you and I the most special to each other?

Wasn’t our time supposed to continue for a lifetime?

That upset me.

-We’re… still friends, right?

The attitude of trying to confine our relationship to just those two shabby words was upsetting. And I was most upset with myself for foolishly just waiting without going to find her earlier, knowing I would regret like this.

Brunhilde just felt her insides burning up.

“Liar…”

If I turn back like this.

If I gather the fallen petals of the withered cherry blossoms and lock them up forever.

Could I make it possible to look back even a little?

Stop―

By the time she had left the temporary hospital ward several dozen meters behind. Unfamiliar female students’ voices reached Brunhilde’s ears.

-So senior has woken up?!

-When are you going to let us see her!!

Brunhilde saw their faces from afar.

Students with brown, orange, and navy blue hair.

Students wearing the same uniform as her.

Those riffraff running around the city center shining with fireworks that night.

Clara was so wounded in order to protect you.

“So it was you.”

And the group that directly wounded her.

“…Ratatoskr.”

Ah.

Now I understand.

Now I seem to understand.

The things weighing Clara down.

The things that wounded her so much and made her wither.

“…I see.”

Now… I understand.

Just staying still.

Nothing can be achieved.