I must be crazy...!
The professor said we’d get demerits if we were late....
And I accidentally fell asleep.
When they said they’d stay with me, I should have just said yes.
I found myself grumbling a little to myself for no real reason.
If I’d stayed with them, they definitely would have woken me up.
But...
Do I really have the right to expect that?
Being with them is certainly fun.
It is fun, but....
Every time I keep facing them....
"My, she must be some country bumpkin if she doesn’t know basic etiquette at all."
"She’s so lacking in refinement that she doesn’t even realize what kind of offense she’s committing."
What I heard before.
The sharp looks from those girls jabbed into my chest, and it hurt.
This academy was very different from the place I came from.
It was not the kind of place where, if I smiled, everyone smiled with me.
There were certainly people here who smiled when I smiled, but there were also people who did not smile at all and instead poured out cutting words.
But maybe those young ladies were right.
Just as they said, I really am just a country girl.
A rural noble from the Floria baronial family.
I had no intention of denying that.
Of course I do not think it is a wrong way to live.
I am very proud to be a Floria, and very proud to be my father’s daughter.
But....
That is why I want to ask.
I do not understand why they are so kind to me.
I am nothing at all.
Why would people like them show favor to someone like me...?
Asdel, who came from the Holy Kingdom.
Charles, who came from the Karl Kingdom.
And even Ars, who came from Getia.
At first, I did not know who they were.
I just thought they were nice people.
They did not look like bad people to me.
They were people who treated me kindly.
And when I entered the academy, I learned that they were all incredibly remarkable people of very high standing.
And then I understood why those people had looked at me that way.
They must have thought I was terribly rude and presumptuous....
Right....
Who do I think I am?
Let’s think of it in a better light.
If I had nodded when they offered to stay with me, I would only have been causing them trouble.
I cannot take advantage of their consideration....
Shaking my head firmly, I clutched my books in both hands and ran toward the dormitory.
They said a huge wolf comes out at night, right?
I had heard that some cadets had even been attacked, though not seriously injured.
It was not fully night yet, so it was not that dark, but it would be soon.
Just then.
From the thicket filled with the chirping of insects, I heard a rustling sound.
No way..., a wolf?
Something burst out of the rustling bushes, and I squeezed my eyes shut.
"Hm? What are you doing out here?"
It was not a wolf.
What reached my ears was not a wolf’s howl, but a human voice.
When I opened my eyes, I saw a black-haired young man around my age standing in front of me.
"Why are you wandering around outside at this hour? It’s dangerous to be here."
"I’m sorry. I accidentally fell asleep."
At the sight of him, I let out a sigh of relief.
Thank goodness.
It was not a wolf.
#
The man before me was none other than Dante de Astoria, the Empire’s third prince.
As one of the Empire’s subjects, I worried that failing to greet him properly might be rude.
"This is Lumea, isn’t it? If people speak to me that formally even here, it just makes me uncomfortable."
He did not seem to think much of it.
His voice sounded like that of a close friend, carrying neither pretense nor ulterior motive.
A very kind person.
"Wait, nobody woke you up? Isn’t that a bit much?"
He was the kind of person who would get genuinely angry on behalf of someone as insignificant as me.
At least, that was how he looked to me.
But why was Dante here?
He was not carrying anything, so unlike me, it did not seem like he had stayed out late studying....
"More importantly, Dante... why are you here?"
"Ah, I was waiting to look at the stars. Taking a walk while looking up at the stars in the night sky is part of my routine."
Stars?
"But if a professor catches you, it’s demerits...."
"Haha, that’s true, but if I don’t do this, I can’t fall asleep at all."
Dante said that while scratching his cheek.
"Is it because you have insomnia?"
"More precisely, it’s because of dreams."
Dreams.
With a troubled expression, Dante said it quietly.
Does he have nightmares?
How terrible must they be?
Dante looked at my face once.
Then he forced away that troubled look and smiled.
"Don’t worry. It’s been getting a little better lately...."
A lie.
That was a lie.
Dante said it with a smile, trying to reassure me.
But my eyes were telling me he was lying.
"You’re very kind, aren’t you?"
"P-Pardon?"
Dante looked at me again and answered with a smile.
"I think I understand why those three keep following you around."
Is that so....
I do not really know either, whether I am kind.
I just smile, that is all.
When I smiled, people smiled with me.
When I was sad, they cried with me.
So I simply smile because I do not want to see other people sad....
Can someone like me really be called kind?
"I like stars."
As he kept walking ahead, he said that.
"Even when I’m tormented by nightmares, even when I lose my way there, the stars are always hanging in the night sky."
As he spoke, he matched his pace to mine and kept going.
"That’s why I look at the stars before I sleep. No matter how lost I get, I can just follow the stars hanging above the night sky. And I really want to meet that star someday. The person who became my star in those dreams."
The person who became his star?
"It was only a voice, but that person always became a signpost for me in those dreams. Well, I always woke up to the same ending in the end."
Dante walked on again with that troubled look on his face.
But at the same time, he also looked strangely relieved.
Like someone finally confessing a story they had kept buried for a long time.
I was curious.
About what kind of person had become Dante’s star.
About what kind of dreams he had been having.
But if I asked about something like that, it would surely only trouble him.
I carefully folded up my curiosity and tucked it away again.
"You should consider it an honor. Even my brother has never..."
At that moment.
The atmosphere around Dante changed.
He stared ahead with a stiff expression.
Come to think of it.
Since when had the sound of insects disappeared?
It was incredibly quiet.
"Iris.... You know how to use a sword, right?"
Dante manipulated mana and created a sword of frost, then pressed it into my hands.
I nodded without thinking and took the sword.
After confirming that I had it, Dante created another sword.
As if answering that action, a black shadow appeared.
A huge wolf with ash-gray fur and blue eyes, just as the rumors said.
The source of all those rampant rumors stood right before my eyes.
But.
"Well now, looks like this time it brought friends."
The beast that appeared this time was not just one wolf.
Two more shadows emerged behind it.
A leopard and a lion, both about the same size as the wolf in front of us.
The three predators slowly approached, surrounding us as if to cut off every escape.
"Iris, I’ll draw them away. You run the other way and bring the professor on duty."
"But..."
"There’s no time."
Dante spoke firmly and took his stance with the sword made of ice.
But.
The leopard and lion blocked the route as if they had no intention of letting anyone pass.
Right. At this point, it’s all or nothing anyway.
I...
swallowed once and took my stance.
"It’s all right. I can fight too."
"...You."
I can fight.
Even if it has not even been three days since I first held a sword.
I still studied hard.
And I definitely watched those two spar with my own eyes.
I can fight.
My legs were trembling.
But I could not leave Dante here and run.
I steadied my breathing.
And focused my mind.
As Dante and I both took our stances,
Grrrrrraaaaah!!!!
As if taking that as its signal, the wolf lunged.
The killing intent that beast gave off.
The moment I saw the gaze carrying it, the terrorist attack on the train flashed through my mind.
My thoughts froze, my hands shook, and I could not move my body.
Even when the wolf came right up to my face, I still could not move.
All I could do was—
"Aaaahhh—!!"
Like an idiot, I just screamed and squeezed my eyes shut.
But.
Fortunately, the wolf’s attack did not reach me.
"ᚠᛁᚱᛖᛒᚨᛚᛚ ᛁᛴ ᛴᚩ ᚹᚩᛏ."
With a whoosh, scorching heat passed between the wolf and me.
"Are you okay?"
Dante had summoned a fireball and blocked the wolf’s advance.
"I’m okay."
But the problem was,
Grrrr!!!!
Grrrr!!!!
the wolf was not the only thing there.
Perhaps thinking this was their chance,
the lion and leopard behind it lunged at the same time.
I pulled myself together.
Just like I had learned in class, I swung my sword the way those two had when they sparred.
I blocked the leopard’s claws.
And Dante blocked the lion’s fangs.
But then,
the wolf charged again, as if aiming for another opening.
Dante tried to block it by swinging his sword, but—
Snap.
"Of all times, now?!"
Something made a breaking sound, and Dante hesitated in panic instead of swinging his sword.
He clearly had to swing to block it.
But for some reason, Dante could not.
The wolf’s claws were about to reach him.
And it was already too late to use magic before then.
Then was Dante going to die?
Die?
No.
I do not want to see someone die right in front of me.
My feet moved before I could think.
I threw myself between Dante and the wolf to take the attack in his place.
And then, even faster than that—
Grrrgh——!!!
Something flew in at incredible speed and struck the wolf in the head.
Just like that, the wolf’s attack was thwarted.
And the thing that had flown in was—
"A red... apple?"
An apple.
An actual apple you eat.
Out of nowhere, an apple came flying in and stopped the wolf’s attack.
Who in the world—?
"I never thought that apple from back then would end up being useful like this."
"Ris, are you okay?!"
Familiar voices came from the direction the apple had flown from.
Standing there were Ian and Haede.
Maybe because I was so relieved to see them, the strength left my body before I knew it.
#
I really did not expect that apple to be useful like this.
The reward I got from the [Oath of Chivalry] after my talk with Isabella was, unbelievably, an apple.
At first I was so dumbfounded I almost just ate it.
But I kept it around just in case, and now it ended up being used like this.
As expected, the protagonist who got attacked by the wolf was Iris.
But.
Where the hell had that trio gone, and why was Dante here instead?
And maybe because something was hurt somewhere, Dante was not moving very aggressively.
The wolf showing up now is higher level than Dante, sure, but it still should not be enough to injure him already...?
More importantly, how am I supposed to deal with that wolf first?
The lion and leopard lunged toward them.
I immediately equipped the shield I got from sparring with Angelica from my inventory.
Then I drove it straight into the side of the wolf, which was still dazed from the apple I had thrown.
Thud—!!!
Grrrgh——!!!
The wolf yelped, and for a moment the leopard and lion faltered too, if only slightly. I seized that opening, grabbed the wolf by the leg, and hurled it toward the leopard and lion.
The lion and leopard were knocked flat after taking the wolf’s body head-on.
Using that gap, Haede and I rushed over to them.
"You okay, Dante?"
"Uh.... Yeah. I’m okay."
That was a very unconvincing response.
Whether something was bothering him, or as if he absolutely could not let anything stimulate him any further, he moved his body very slowly.
Did Dante have some chronic illness?
No, that cannot be it.
"Ris, are you okay?!"
"Yeah, I’m okay."
Haede immediately ran to Iris to check whether she was hurt.
And Iris smiled at her as if to reassure her that she was fine.
Iris seems okay too.
But this guy definitely does not seem okay. Is he actually hurt somewhere?
"Can you stand?"
"Ah, yeah. I can get up on my own."
He seems weirdly flustered.
He is talking faster, and his face looks red too.
Whatever.
Suppressing the wolf comes first.
I am not taking out the black sword because it could kill the wolf, so I am just using this shield.
I could kill it if I wanted, but the reason I need to subdue it is because that is how I get the hidden piece.
And in this fight, there is no need to bother dealing with the leopard and lion.
[Dotore’s Experimental Subject, She-Wolf]
◈ Level: 45
◈ Danger: A
◈ The target is currently in pain.
[Leopard]
◈ Level: 25
◈ Danger: C
◈ A duplicate summoned by the she-wolf.
[Lion]
◈ Level: 25
◈ Danger: C
◈ A duplicate summoned by the she-wolf.
Because, just as [Insight Eye] showed me, the leopard and lion are only duplicates.
That was also why, when I hit the wolf hard, the lion and leopard suddenly stopped moving.
In short, they are duplicates created by the wolf’s skill, so if you just beat the hell out of the wolf, they disappear on their own.
That is how you deal with this wolf.
You just beat the hell out of the wolf and it is solved.
Though damn, so it was female.
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