When Iris, who had briefly closed her eyes, opened them again, the brilliant golden eyes of the Holy Maiden were gone. In their place were her own distinctive blue eyes.
Proof that she had returned to being Iris, rather than the Holy Maiden.
What choice had the Holy Maiden made?
Had she chosen the path I suggested—becoming a teacher who would instruct and guide Iris?
Or had she chosen to simply stay out of this scenario and silently watch from the sidelines?
Honestly, it would have been perfect if she could play the role of a deus ex machina, appearing whenever there was a crisis to blast a path through it.
But considering the Holy Maiden’s stubborn response, that was probably too much to hope for.
I looked at Iris.
She wore a broad, refreshing smile, as though something had finally been lifted from her shoulders.
Had she spoken with the Holy Maiden in her inner world?
"Where’s the Holy Maiden?"
"She’s asleep inside. She said she used too much power this time and needed to sleep for a while."
"I see."
After hearing her answer, I nodded inwardly.
Apparently, the Holy Maiden had ultimately chosen the latter path: standing by and watching.
What a shame. Did that mean I could no longer rely on the Holy Maiden’s power from now on?
Then Iris’s cherry-like lips curved into a delighted smile.
"Actually, the Holy Maiden said she’ll teach me techniques herself! Ah, of course, we have to keep the fact that I’ve really become a Holy Maiden secret from the academy for a while... so I’ll have to practice in secret."
She said it proudly.
So she had decided to listen to me.
"Though she said she won’t possess me directly like she did earlier."
Iris scratched her head a little as she continued, looking somewhat embarrassed.
That was a little disappointing.
Well, I had expected it from the beginning.
I would just have to settle for Iris receiving the Holy Maiden’s skills instead.
Then was this over now?
The Holy Maiden had gone to sleep without saying goodbye, so it was probably over.
"Yaaawn—."
Kafka, who had silently listened to the conversation beside us, pricked up both wolf ears. Then she raised both arms high, stretched, and yawned.
Seeing how gaunt Iris’s face had become, it seemed everyone was exhausted.
We had talked enough. It was really time to go to sleep.
"Then, let’s go get some sleep..."
"Um, there’s something I want to ask you, Ian."
Just as I was about to speak, Iris looked me squarely in the eye and cut me off.
Something she wanted to ask.
I had a feeling I knew what it was.
There was only one thing Iris could possibly ask me right now.
"Go ahead."
"Yes... Ian, are you..."
Iris hesitated for a moment, as though weighing something.
Then, as if she had made up her mind, she nodded and continued.
"Are you a ghost, by any chance?"
Excuse me?
"Or maybe one of those spirits?"
No, wait. Just wait a second.
I could not follow this conversation at all.
What the hell had she talked about in her inner world...?
What was she trying to say?
"Ah!"
Then, as though she had realized something, she clapped her hands.
"You’re a reincarnator, aren’t you!"
"Cough!"
I must have swallowed wrong, because I immediately choked.
As I broke into a violent coughing fit, I stared blankly at Iris.
"What the hell are you talking about?"
It was not exactly wrong, though.
"But the Holy Maiden called you her junior."
As if she had caught me red-handed, Iris continued with a confident smile.
"And you’re overwhelmingly strong. There’s no way to explain it unless you’re a reincarnator, right? That’s exactly how it happens in novels!"
I wanted to slap a hand to my forehead, but I could not.
I had no idea whether this brat was serious or just making a joke to mess with me.
Looking into her eyes, though, she did not seem to be lying.
"Do you really think so?"
"So I was right..."
Iris gave an awkward laugh and scratched her cheek.
"Seeing how you spoke with the Holy Maiden, it really looked like you had known each other for a long time..."
Narrowing her blue eyes, Iris cautiously voiced her suspicion.
Hmm.
Would it really matter?
If I vaguely told Iris that I was a reincarnator, she would probably believe me without question. It would not cause much trouble.
The Iris I had seen in the art book and the game had that kind of innocent personality.
She would ask several times to make sure, but even if I revealed that I was a reincarnator, nothing much would go wrong.
Of course, saying, "This world was originally a game, and you’re a being made of zeros and ones!" was another matter entirely.
Still...
"That ring, you know? The one I gave you before."
I quietly pointed at the ring hanging around Iris’s neck.
"This ring?"
Iris looked down at the ring resting near the pit of her stomach.
"You received that from the Holy Maiden."
"From the Holy Maiden?"
Her blue eyes went round as she looked at me. I silently nodded.
I decided not to tell her that I was a reincarnator.
It probably would not cause a problem if I did, but I simply did not want to.
Because somehow...
It felt like admitting that I was an outsider.
That made me reluctant.
Of course, my true essence was not Ian de Logres, but a modern man from South Korea who had played through Dawnstar Academia twenty-nine times.
I was merely an outsider who had taken over Ian’s body, someone hovering on the fringes.
In a way, perhaps the remnant of the past that the Holy Maiden spoke of—the thing that obstructed those moving forward—referred to me.
Even if I had written no story in the game, I was no different from stealing the story this body should have written and writing it in his place.
So what?
It was not as if I had wanted to possess someone’s body, and there was no undoing spilled water.
Even if I was an outsider, the person here now was undeniably Ian de Logres.
That much was an unchanging fact.
Still, telling Iris that I was a reincarnator would not come out of my mouth.
So even if a chance to reveal it came later, now was not the time.
The word reincarnator, lingering on my tongue, would have to be swallowed back down for now.
"Hmm, is that so?"
Iris murmured quietly, her tone suggesting that she was not entirely convinced.
Well.
At any rate, it was not a lie that she had received it from the Holy Maiden.
"Then did you give me this ring because you knew I would become a Holy Maiden?"
Clutching the ring around her neck as though it were precious, Iris whispered softly.
"You told me it would be a great help to me."
Faced with her earnest question, I could not readily answer. I only watched her in silence.
Was she testing the waters?
The question suddenly crossed my mind.
But knowing Iris’s personality, she was not the sort to play such little tricks.
Still, it would be better to brush this off.
"You look very much like the Holy Maiden. I wondered if there might be some connection, so I gave it to you."
"...Is that so?"
I had only said it offhand to evade the question.
In truth, the Holy Maiden did look very much like Iris.
Then again, since she had possessed Iris’s body, perhaps it was only natural that they looked identical.
Even so, it seemed to be enough of an answer for Iris.
Still clasping the ring around her neck as though it were precious, she gave me a bright smile.
"You don’t have to keep wearing that anymore."
I pointed quietly at the ring in her hand.
Perhaps because it had poured out all of its power during Iris’s dramatic awakening earlier, the ring was no longer radiating the warm energy it once had.
In other words, it was just an ordinary ring now.
A plain, ordinary ring with no abilities and no sparkling gem-like decorations.
"It’s okay."
But Iris firmly shook her head.
"I’m going to keep wearing it."
Keep wearing it?
It seemed like it would just get in the way.
Like a child unwilling to have a beloved toy taken from her, she kept holding the ring tightly as she looked at me.
"This is also the bridge that connects my teacher and me..."
Her careful fingers, stroking the ring, were full of affection.
"And more than anything, it’s the first gift you ever gave me, Ian."
Still, it was just an ordinary ring with no abilities.
It did not even have any ornamentation, so it would be awkward to sell.
"It’s just an ordinary ring. It isn’t even fancy, since it has no decorations."
I gently chided her, but Iris merely smiled sweetly and shook her head.
"Oh, does that really matter? What matters is the heart of the person who gave it to me."
The heart of the person who gave it, huh?
Well, if she said so, there was nothing more I could say.
Still, I wondered if it would just take up an accessory slot for no reason.
Could you wear multiple necklaces at once in real life?
#
The next day, classes were canceled.
Of course, considering the commotion Arghalia and I had caused and the fact that the library had nearly been demolished, it was only natural.
Fortunately, Professor Silves was the only one seriously injured, and there were hardly any others who had been hurt. They said even the professor would recover after some rest and treatment.
Unlike in the game, Arghalia had caused that much chaos, but in the end he had not killed anyone.
Why had he acted differently from the original story?
I thought about it for a while, then shook my head.
The person who could give me an answer was dead, after all.
Still, I needed to think about the future.
I did not know whether it was because reality had been patched or not, but Arghalia acting differently meant that my knowledge of the game might not work from here on out.
By the way, I had expected my name to show up in some tabloid article alongside some fucking inflammatory headline.
But surprisingly, the press was incredibly quiet.
I had spoken separately to the second prince and Dante, but perhaps because the disturbance had happened in the middle of the night and there were no witnesses, not a single shitty article appeared anywhere.
And since it was also a major incident in which the Iris Fan Club Trio—important people from foreign countries—had been injured, things outside the academy would probably remain very noisy for a while.
But that was none of my business.
The imperial family would be the ones suffering over it, not me.
Well, just like in Dawnstar Academia, they would sort it out on their own.
There was, however, one unexpected aftereffect that surfaced in a completely different place.
From that point on, my interactions with Iris began to increase noticeably.
Iris had said she was having a hard time because Dante, Haede, Isabella, and Dolnesia kept relentlessly bombarding her with questions about the Holy Maiden.
She had told me that earlier, while we were eating together.
Was it because the Fan Club Trio were all lying in beds in the infirmary?
I had been grabbing something from the cafeteria to stave off my hunger when she came rushing over from somewhere with Haede, sat beside me, and kept talking to me.
Haede did glare at me several times with eyes like daggers, asking what the hell I had done.
How the hell would I know?
This was troublesome.
I had thought that, since we belonged to different clubs, we would not have to see each other except during lectures. I wondered if we were going to get tangled up for no reason.
And she said she was having a hard time?
...Sorry, but—
Smack—! Smack—!
I think I’m having a harder time right now.
Because I was currently sparring with Angelica.
But something was strange.
Yes, this was definitely strange.
No, it was strange. Fucking strange.
As I knocked aside Angelica’s wooden sword, I thought to myself.
I had fought and defeated Arghalia, a Sword Master, twenty-nine times.
Sure, I had been covered from head to toe in every kind of buff at the time.
But even if the system did not display it, shouldn’t my swordsmanship or something have improved dramatically?
That was how it worked in novels, wasn’t it?
But then—
"Ian, there’s an opening."
I barely managed to parry Angelica’s wooden sword as it suddenly thrust toward me, staring at its tip.
Why did I still seem exactly the same?
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