The Academy’s Crude Pink-Haired Martial Artist

With a head thumping from Leona’s punch, I trudged down the path to the Academy. In between, I devoured chicken skewers, parfaits, cup bingsoo, and egg bread.

After munching on assorted snacks for a while…

“I’m heading to the office now, what about you?”

“I’ll just go see the kids.”

By the time the sunset gracefully settled, I arrived in front of the Academy.

“They must have been surprised; please take good care of them.”

“Does it really help if I take care of them to calm their surprise? Time heals all wounds, you know.”

“This girl never listens to her teacher! When the master speaks, you just say yes! Why all the chatter?”

“Wow, that’s so unfair. Shouldn’t you be taking care of me instead? I was the one who got the biggest shock!”

“Leona and I pampered you for two whole days. And you’re fine now; you’re an exception, aren’t you? You started gobbling down meat from the next day!”

“An exception? Ha, that’s just ridiculous! How did I even end up like this? It’s all your fault, Master…”

Seeing Leona’s fist clench, I immediately bowed my head.

“…Yes, understood.”

“Ouch, how annoying!”

Leona, flicking her tongue, stuffed a piece of egg bread into her mouth and walked on.

I followed her, shoving egg bread into my mouth like munch munch.

“Eliaernes.”

Eh?

“What’s in the Merchant Association anyway?”

Leona, who had been strolling slowly, suddenly stopped.

I was nom nom-ing on the egg bread eagerly.

“So, you were mumbling about that because you wanted to ask?”

“When have I ever mumbled? I never did that!”

Leona, sporting a smug expression, poked my forehead with her finger poke.

“Anyway, I’m not wrong, am I?”

“You’re seeing it correctly.”

“An empty Merchant Association?”

“Yes.”

“Why? I gave you the methods, right?”

“Well, maybe there’s a psychic out there who heard? Who knows.”

Though I said I didn’t know, I was intentionally being vague. I hadn’t yet solidified my ideation.

If I were to ask for something similar to what I had in my past life, I could easily fill it up and climb straight to the 7th Rank, but I chose not to.

Ideation is the process where a human’s will and desires take form.

From my guess, in Fabiana’s case, her desire to protect Silina likely evolved into the ideation that allowed spatial leaps.

As for Ashtar… well, ahem, there’s a misunderstanding there, but like Arisa, wishing to stand beside the brave Ronan might have been the force behind his various weapon manifestations.

Anyway, that’s what ideation is. It’s what humans strongly yearn for manifesting in the world.

I’m currently in a state of emptiness. There are several reasons for it, but the biggest one is that I feel I need to become even stronger than before.

I was strong in my past life.

Far stronger than today’s losers babbling about “six pillars” and such.

And the reason I became that strong was largely due to the role of ideation.

But even with that ideation, I still felt limitations.

Arrogance and the Demon King.

In battles against those two, I sensed a wall.

At that time, we had far surpassed humans.
In physical abilities, we had reached the ‘end’ where we could no longer develop.

But ideation was different.
Though the path ahead was visible, I couldn’t advance.

I don’t know why. Was it a flaw from the roots, or was the direction wrong? We all failed to realize it.

Because of that, I’m now pondering over it.
If it all started from the wrong root, now might be the time to change that root.
And if the direction was wrong, this is also the time to accurately realize and correct that direction.

That’s why… for now, I remain empty.

“Psychic… that’s unexpected.”

Though I said it languidly, Leona took it pretty seriously.
Am I feeling guilty? A little… no? Nothing to feel guilty about?
This kind of pondering isn’t guilt if you’re a psychic, right?

“You don’t have to worry too much. I’m a genius who shocks the world and defies even the gods.”

“Aren’t you embarrassed to say that about yourself?”

“Not at all; it’s a fact.”

“I sometimes feel a bit embarrassed being your teacher.”

“I’m embarrassed too… Ahem, why are you clenching your fist again? We’re not beasts; let’s use words. You keep doing this, and martial artists get a bad name.”

“Who’s bad-mouthing martial artists?”

“That… I don’t know?”

“At least no one has in front of me.”

“Every time, it’s punch first… Tsk. Alright, alright, just don’t worry too much.”

Narrowing her eyes, Leona then softly patted my shoulder.

“If it gets too tough, you can let it out to me. Don’t hesitate and end up down a strange path all alone.”

“I’ll just take your heart. After all, I plan to fill it up by the end of summer break.”

“Right. You’ve got guts.”

Nya haha! chuckling, Leona turned around and continued on her way. I moved in the opposite direction while saying,
“Make sure to take care of the device.”

“Don’t mess up the one we give you this time.”

“Fine, I’m telling you I didn’t mess it up.”

“Don’t go messing around in the community for no reason. Well, you probably wouldn’t do that anyway.”

“…Why would I even do that?”

I’ve never once messed around in the community.
Yup. I… never did that.
The ones blocked are the ones who are wrong.

*

“Miss…!”

“El, Eliaernes!!”

“Eek!”

“Glad to see you seem fine.”

Having lain still for two days, my body felt stiff, so I came to my personal training grounds to work up a sweat before seeing the kids.

“…What are you all doing here?”

Yurasia and Stella. Pina and Silina.

Four kids gathered together eating something.
Though it’s fine if everyone is here, it looks quite awkward with Silina around.

“What? How can you say such cold words to friends you see after two days?!”

“Friends?”

Friends. Friends. Friends.
Perhaps it’s been too soon since I got out of my past life; the word “friend” feels so strangely awkward.

“Not… friends…?”

It didn’t take long.
Watching Stella’s dumbfounded expression, the clingy feelings I had faded away.

“Ha, friends, what nonsense.”

“Hey, saying that, but your body is honest? Your mouth is smiling big—whack!”

I playfully slapped Stella’s forehead with a smirk and walked off.

“Miss… are you okay?”

“Yeah. Didn’t I say I wasn’t lying down because I’m sick?”

“I heard that, but your expression doesn’t look too good…”

What’s wrong with my expression?
I raised my hand and touched my face.
Doesn’t it look the same as usual?

“I’m fine so don’t worry.”

“That’s a relief… Oh, please eat something else other than what I was eating!”

“No, I’ve already eaten a lot. I just want a bite of the pizza Yurasia is holding.”

I bit into the pizza Yurasia was holding and plopped down into a seat.
Then, I slowly examined each one of their faces.
I’ve heard they’re all fine, but still, you can never be too sure.

“Everyone looks good.”

That said, have they all improved reasonably?
Yurasia has been stuck at the 6th Rank for a while now, so discounting that, Stella seems to have a more stable flow of mana than before.
As for Silina… she looks like she’ll reach 4th Rank soon, and Pina—

“Oh? Pina, you reached 3rd Circle?”

“Eek!”

“Oh wow… should I throw you a party?”

Beaming, Pina nodded vigorously while tapping on the big device… what, a tablet?
However, she suddenly drooped her ears sadly.

[After the last incident… I did increase my circle, but I can’t be entirely happy about it…]

Following suit, Stella, and even Silina’s expressions darkened slightly.
And Yurasia too… Yurasia’s expression darkened a little bit; maybe she’s beating herself up for thinking she could have done better?
Well, with Yurasia, it’s understandable. She’s always been obsessive and compulsive about saving lives and rescuing others since ages past.

“What’s there to be gloomy about? I heard you guys kept everyone safe. You did great. We can have a little party.”

“Eek…”

“Ugh… but… some classmates died. Eliaernes, are you alright? You were there at the scene, right? It was… said to be terrible.”

“What’s there not to be alright about?”

I wiped the sauce off Pina’s mouth and received the Mint Chocolate Latte Yurasia offered.

“If I hadn’t been there, many more would have died. It’s easier if you think about the survivors rather than the dead.”

Of course, I don’t need to think so; I don’t fall into deep sadness or gloom.
I’ve experienced too much, heard too much, and seen too much of such occurrences.

“True enough, but you speak like you have experience with these kinds of things.”

The one among them least weighed down, Silina wiped her mouth and looked at me.

“Are you really okay?”

“I said I’m fine.”

“Your expression didn’t seem too good when you came in. Are you just pretending to be fine in front of us?”

“Why would I bother with such a nuisance? If I had been disturbed or worried, I wouldn’t have even come to see you.”

“Didn’t you know we were here?”

“Hey, I have some experience; do you really think I wouldn’t know? I had a rough idea from outside the door.”

I was just surprised to see them all gathered eating together.
Silina made a muffled sound, and Stella approached me while biting her lip uncertainly.

“Umm… Eliaernes…”

“What?”

“One of our classmates died.”

“That makes sense.”

“You know who it is, right?”

All eyes were fixed on me.
“The Executioner dispatched from the Holy Kingdom came to find all the students in our class. But… the master, the Flame Sovereign, and Princess Fabiana helped us refuse their interview.”

“And?”

“And… we learned that the family of one student, who was believed dead along with us, went to the Eustetia Duchy.”

I tilted my head to look at Stella.

“Fine, they pushed back the Executioner, but who filled in the details after that?”

Actually, I don’t need to ask.
I already have an idea.

“…Professor Adelia told us.”

“That’s a pointless thing to do.”

As I clicked my tongue in agreement, Stella, who had been mumbling, suddenly clutched my sleeve tightly. Pina also approached, teary-eyed, while Silina quietly diverted her gaze to hide her expression.

“Clavel… transformed into a demon?”

“Yeah, something like that.”

Though the phrase “transformed into a demon” is somewhat misleading, I couldn’t be bothered to explain and just nodded vaguely.

“…So, then you…”

“So I killed her.”

I finished Stella’s hard-to-say words.
With that, Stella’s head fell heavily. Pina’s tears began to flow once more, and even Silina’s complexion darkened.

And Yurasia, biting her lips, stared at me with eyes full of fear, despair, and dread.
Yurasia was the only one fully conscious at the scene.
So I understand why she has those feelings, but doesn’t this seem a little excessive?
Yurasia is not that scared a person…

“Why, how did it end up like that?”

“Umm…”

How should I explain this?
I don’t even know where they start or how deep their knowledge runs.

“The magic inside her went berserk. They call it the Remnants of Gluttony…”

I paused for a moment.
It’s the Remnants of Gluttony forcibly triggered by Nucleksyrol. And Stella had seen Clavel burn Nucleksyrol and pretended not to notice before.
If I tell Stella it was because of Nucleksyrol, this ditzy girl will surely feel guilty.

A lot of unnecessary things to worry about.
I clicked my tongue inwardly and opened my mouth.

“Some bastard must have implanted the Remnants of Gluttony inside Clavel. And whatever happened, it went berserk this time.”

I don’t know if they understood or not, but I continued speaking.

“Whatever it is, no need to know the reason. Once the Remnants of Gluttony inside her go berserk, she’s no longer human. She might even be more dangerous than a human. Since someone you used to know has changed so, it’ll make it harder for you to kill.”

So.

“Someone harboring the Remnants of Gluttony should either kill themselves the moment they realize it or quietly cross into the Demon Realm; that’d be the best for both parties.”

Otherwise, they’d either devour someone precious to them or end up dead at the hands of their loved ones.
I didn’t bother to say the latter part.
Even without my saying, it seemed they sincerely understood.

“…You’ve been through a lot, Eliaernes.”

“Eek…”

“We’ll see what we can do to help the victim’s family that’s moved to the Duchy.”

“Hey, you guys! Don’t just sit there moping; get your stuff packed. We have our break next week.”

“It’s more like a suspension than a break.”

Silina, laughing bitterly, stood up.

“Are we proceeding with the plan?”

“Yeah.”

“…Alright. I’ll leave it to you.”

“Sure, take care of yourselves.”

“Take care of your own self.”

Silina took out a piece of paper from her pocket and handed it to me, waving her hand as she left.
Stella wiped Pina’s tears and sniffled, and there was Yurasia.
Standing there quietly, her head was bowed.
Why is Yurasia’s concern bothering me so?

-They must have been surprised; please take good care of them.

Leona’s words flashed through my mind.
How should I take care of them?
What would Yurasia like?

“Yurasia.”

“…Yes?”

“Shall we sleep together tonight?”

“Uh… s-sleep together?”

Wha ha!

Stella, who had been munching enthusiastically, suddenly perked up her head. Even Pina followed suit.

“Why? Don’t like it?”

“N-no, I’d love to! I want to sleep together!”

“I-I too! I want to sleep together!”

[If you don’t mind, I could sleep in the bathroom and join you too?]

The gloomy faces of the girls brightened up in an instant. I found myself smiling at the sight of them.

“Then let’s throw a party for Pina to celebrate. After all, there won’t be any classes till summer break is over. Let’s put training aside for now and have some fun.”

But at my words, the faces of the three girls darkened drastically.

“Ugh… Eliaernes… you too…”

“Uh, Miss, are you really okay?”

[It seems that Eliaernes-nim was having the toughest time of all… yet pretending to be fine for us…]

“These girls are just impossible, even when trying to do their best.”

---