I Start with a Bad Hand!

“I really thought you’d lost it.”

I buried my head in my soup bowl, trying to hide my embarrassment. Around me were my fellow archery club members, all with sand dusting their hair and shoulders.

“How did you manage to score all tens through that wind?”

Clara’s loud voice drew the attention of the other students in the cafeteria. This kind of attention… was not welcome. I gently grabbed Clara’s arm, trying to convey the need to lower her voice.

“Well… one of them was a nine.”

“Are you kidding? Nine is amazing too. I thought I was seeing things at first.”

“Because of you, the morale of our new members skyrocketed.”

“Yeah. You told us exactly where to aim considering the wind.”

“‘Wind isn’t something you beat; it’s something you calculate.’ Seriously, where did you learn such masterful archery wisdom?”

I felt like I was going to choke… Praise like this is supposed to be whispered behind one’s back. As I took another spoonful of soup, it felt like it was going down the wrong way. I awkwardly smiled, noticing Icarus and Agnes watching me from afar with disapproving expressions. Desperate for an escape, I mouthed to them, ‘Help me.’

The two exchanged glances and then turned their faces away with a smirk. What?

‘Help me!’

This wasn’t just a failed signal; it was outright rejection. Agnes, chewing on her salad with a mischievous look, just stared at me with an expression that seemed to say, ‘Yeah, right.’ Clara, dipping bread into her soup, grumbled.

“It’s still a shame we lost. You shot so well.”

“Exactly. How come the wind only acted up when it was our team’s turn?”

I had been gazing aimlessly in the direction of their table, but now I turned my eyes. I looked for the silvery hair that always fluttered in the wind. However, the familiar sight of Roxanne’s hair was nowhere to be found today.

‘Roxanne’s performance was indeed significant.’

Although our new members had a brief boost in morale, the strong wind had dampened their spirits. On the other hand, Roxanne consistently scored well. Thanks to her, her team ultimately won.

But that was…

“Wow, even the wind seemed to favor Roxanne.”

Every time Roxanne and her teammates stood at the firing line, the wind would suddenly die down. How was this possible? Everyone seemed to be thinking the same thing, and our team members were groaning, holding their heads. Roxanne had just scored another seven.

‘So that makes 14 points…’

At this rate, no matter what, our team couldn’t win. At that moment, my eyes met Icarus’s. Unlike my shrug of confusion, his face was set in a rigid expression. An unnecessary amount of tension seemed to fill him.

‘What…? Did he bet money on our team winning or something?’

Otherwise, there was no reason for him to look so upset just because we were falling behind. This was bad. If that’s the case, he’s about to lose it all….

I noticed his expression soften slightly as he mouthed, ‘It’s okay.’ But when I saw him stride towards his older brother, my own expression darkened.

“Degoph, can you check my stance for a moment?”

As I was about to approach them, one of our new team members urgently called me. The wind was picking up again.

“Ah, okay. Just a moment.”

I fixed the loose protective gear on the new member. Even as I worked, I couldn’t take my eyes off Icarus, who was confronting his brother with a rare coldness.

“Ah, the sand! It keeps getting in my mouth,” the new member complained.

“Just keep your mouth closed and it’ll be a bit better.”

The wind was getting fiercer. Just as Icarus had done, I wrapped my training jacket around the new member and sent them back to the firing line. Alone again, I brushed my hair out of my face, trying to see through the chaos, and found myself wondering.

‘…What is Elius’s power, anyway?’

I’d never thought about it or been curious. Powers varied greatly even within families, but if his brother could manipulate flowers, then maybe Elius….

As I watched the heated conversation between Icarus and his brother, I noticed someone brush past my shoulder. The touch was light enough to be accidental, but I followed the person’s retreating figure with my eyes.

“Why do people here always bump into…”

Wait…

I saw the silver hair. When I saw Roxanne walking towards the two of them without looking back, I was a bit surprised.

‘…Why does she look like that?’

Despite her exceptional performance that helped secure the victory for her team, Roxanne’s face showed no signs of pride, joy, or excitement. Instead, she looked… what? Not angry, but….

‘Why does she look so sad…?’

Actually, even ‘sad’ didn’t quite capture it. It was more like a deep melancholy, a look that didn’t fit at all with the triumphant moment she had just helped create. When she tapped Elius on the shoulder, the composed look on his face visibly crumbled.

‘What…?’

And then, the wind stopped. Completely. Not even a breeze. What’s going on?

Perplexed by the sudden change in weather, I looked up at the sky. It was only when Icarus hurried towards me, with an apologetic expression, that I realized.

‘Could it be that the wind was….’

What a joke. Is it possible for someone to be this petty? Just as I was frowning and about to approach the two of them, an announcement rang out.

“Team 2, victory!”

Cheers erupted, containing a sense of joy that hadn’t been there at the start. It seemed like these academy students had indeed bet on the match. Otherwise, some wouldn’t be discreetly pulling items from their jackets and handing them to the beaming students.

“Sorry.”

I turned my head at the sudden apology. Despite the calm tone, his face was etched with an indescribable expression. I understood why he was apologizing, but I couldn’t accept it. Just as he was about to speak again, I cut him off.

“Don’t apologize for something that’s not your fault.”

Apologies only matter if they come from the person responsible. And it’s not like Icarus knew. Judging by his initial reaction, he must have thought it was just a normal gust of wind.

‘Icarus wouldn’t have expected his brother to act so low.’

With that thought, I looked around for the dark-haired protagonist from the original story. But like Roxanne, Elius, who was often seen in the student cafeteria, was nowhere to be found today.

“At least it calmed down towards the end.”

“Yeah. Well, everyone had fun in the end, so it’s all good.”

Despite losing the game, our team’s new members didn’t seem too down. After all, it was this bet that had motivated the archery club members, usually as scattered as grains of sand, to gather regularly. The opposing team, relieved from the task of cleaning the range, was in high spirits as well. Everyone except Roxanne, whose feelings I couldn’t guess.

“So, everyone, don’t quit.”

In the end, the whirlwind of a match, which the senior members of the archery club had intended as a subtle pressure tactic, left behind a sense of dissatisfaction, like sand in the wind.

***

“Is it fun to abandon us and have lunch with others?”

“What’s unfair about it? And the archery club isn’t ‘others.’ You even played a friendly match with them.”

“But there were some people I didn’t know. It was awkward to be there. Isn’t that right?”

Agnes, grumbling, looked up at Icarus beside her. Icarus, gazing down at me with a calm expression, accepted her complaints without any fuss.

“It’s unfair.”

“Ah, why are you both acting like this?”

Caught between the two of them, I was being pushed back and forth in the narrow space. Feeling like my shoulders might get crushed, I tried to slip away. Suddenly, I noticed something was missing.

‘Wait. Where did it go?’

A cold sweat ran down my back as I stopped abruptly. Agnes’s cheekbone collided with my shoulder due to my sudden stop.

“Ah! What’s with the sudden stop?”

“Hold on….”

“What? What is it?”

“My bow…. Where did I put my bow?”

Wait, I had switched to the communal bow, and I remember placing it in the temporary tent’s bow rack. But there was not enough space, so I moved it to a chair… And that’s where my memory ended. No wonder my shoulder felt so light….

‘I thought it was because the match ended well, but it was actually because my bow was missing.’

However, my companions didn’t understand my distress and continued to follow me, teasingly.

“That’s what you get for leaving us behind. It’s the judgment of the bow, the price of betrayal,” Agnes said, spouting nonsense.

“It’s broken anyway. Why not just get a new one?” Icarus added, making my frustration grow. What the heck…? Finally, I stopped walking.

“You two go ahead. I need to go back to the archery range for a bit.”

“Why? We can come with you.”

“No, it’s fine. I’ll be quick. Just grab a spot in the practice room.”

I hurriedly changed direction. What started as a brisk walk turned into a near sprint by the time I passed the nearly empty training ground.

‘Even if it’s broken, it can be fixed. And it’s a gift. I can’t just lose it.’

I picked up speed, recalling the shy look on Klaus’s face when he gave me the bow. But when I arrived at the archery range, I couldn’t find my bow anywhere. I checked each firing line and the ground inside the temporary tent, but it was nowhere to be seen.

‘It’s not here… Where could it be?’

I ruffled my hair in frustration. Sitting down on a chair in the tent, I tried to retrace my steps. Could it have been mixed up while we were cleaning? We did tidy up together today.

‘Who could have taken it?’

Even after searching every corner of the now-empty archery range, my bow was nowhere to be found. I collapsed into the chair, thinking hard. There was one place I hadn’t checked yet.

‘Wait… the archery equipment storage.’

It wasn’t too far from the academy. As soon as I realized this, I started running towards the storage, ignoring my slightly labored breathing.

‘What if it’s not there either?’

How was I going to explain this to Klaus? Feeling a pang of guilt, I quickened my pace. I ran towards the equipment storage, hoping my bow would be there.

And there, I finally found what I had been searching for.

My bow, now broken into two pieces, and…

“…What are you eavesdropping on like a little rat?”

Dietrich’s third unresolved regret.