Lumea Academy had a fairly useful “outing system.”
It was a system where, if you accumulated the points professors awarded, you could obtain a pass allowing you to leave the academy for a set amount of time.
Most ordinary students used their outing passes to head into the imperial capital for a nice meal, or to strengthen their friendships by gathering with their classmates.
Others took on simple quests at guilds near the academy to make up for a lack of pocket money, while some even worked themselves to the bone to earn next semester’s tuition.
The game had reflected that setting quite thoroughly.
Within the academy, unless you participated in regular events or entered [Dreamland] to beat monsters to death, there was no way to make money. To earn properly, you had to go outside the academy.
That did not mean outings were used solely to make money.
Just as there were students who went out to socialize, you could also build affection by going on dates with the male leads.
There were hidden pieces that could only be obtained outside the academy, as well as events you could only witness by going out... so even in the game, outings had been a fairly important aspect.
Which was why I was going out.
On the game’s standard route, during this precarious lull just before midterms, the Holy Maiden should have flamboyantly taken on the role of the main villain, wreaked havoc, and supplied us with a decent amount of experience.
But thanks to Professor Luke’s scheming, the Holy Maiden was holed up in the Holy Kingdom.
Of course, it was probably better that she was gone, since that bitch kept obstructing the heroine at every turn and was responsible for all that frustrating nonsense.
Anyway, perhaps because of that, those peeping toms in the sky—who usually shoved an Oath of Chivalry at me at the most goddamn inconvenient times—weren’t giving me one now, so I had no Dream Ticket.
Even sparring, my only source of experience, had been cut off.
Now, really... there was no answer but an outing.
Anyway, at the end of that fierce exchange of blades—
In the center of the training grounds, another frenzied storm erupted between the two of us. After the violent grinding of wood, our practice swords once again shattered spectacularly, bringing the long spar to an end.
"God, my whole body aches..."
The instant the tension left me, a groaning sigh escaped my lips. Angelica merely stared blankly at the hilt in her hand.
"...It broke."
Angelica muttered in a low voice as she looked at the broken cross-section of her practice sword, now snapped in half.
Sparring with Angelica was still brutal, and though I had finally managed to end it by breaking the practice sword, there was no chime announcing that I had leveled up.
"...We ended too early. Can’t we do it one more time?"
Angelica regretfully fiddled with the broken hilt, a glint entering her eyes.
Like hell we could.
"No. Didn’t I tell you that we’re going out today?"
"Still, I think we would have time if we skipped washing up..."
"How could we possibly do that...?"
What, were we supposed to go out on crutches?
Absolutely not.
I rolled my stiff shoulders and looked down at the broken practice sword.
This time, because we did not have much time, I had gone for the win from the outset using Mad Orlando.
Still, could I not end a spar without breaking a practice sword?
Honestly, it was overwhelming.
But if I did not go that far, losing my title was guaranteed.
No matter what the hell I did, the bad ending was guaranteed.
I did not know whether the day would ever come when I could defeat Angelica.
No, would there ever be a day when I did not break a practice sword in the first place?
#
The academy’s main gate was imposing enough to stir my heart every time I saw it.
Perhaps because I had not once gone outside since entering this place, the thought of leaving through those gates made me feel strange.
It was like setting out on my first leave.
After going through the strict verification procedure at the guard post and receiving our outing passes, I led Angelica out through the main gate. Spotting the two people who had arrived ahead of us in the distance, I happily waved.
Seeing me, Dante wore his characteristic neat smile and casually admonished me.
"You should not keep a lady waiting, Ian."
"Sorry, sorry. We got held up bickering in the back, so we were late."
Our outing party consisted of Angelica, Dante, and Dolnesia.
Angelica was our muscle, brought along in case of unforeseen trouble. Dolnesia happened to be going out for personal reasons, and our routes had overlapped.
Dante, meanwhile, had simply been recruited to balance the gender ratio.
Isabella declined because she had plans with President Eileen, while I did not even put Iris forward as a candidate because the Fan Club Trio had been weighing on my mind.
Outing passes were supposed to be used for dates, after all.
The first thing we saw after fully passing through the academy gates was a coachman and a carriage waiting for us in the square.
I did not know whether it was for the imperial household or the academy, but it was a luxurious carriage, lavishly decorated and gleaming at a glance.
...They used something this extravagant just for a trip into the city?
Wasn’t this a waste of the budget...?
Well, the academy’s budget was none of my business, but...
We climbed into the carriage one by one, and soon it rumbled forward smoothly toward the long-awaited streets of the imperial capital.
With the steady clatter of hooves, the academy’s antique scenery rapidly receded beyond the shaking carriage windows.
Before long, the light from magitech streetlamps struck the windows of the speeding carriage and stretched into long trails, eventually flowing away behind us as a single dazzling line.
As I absently watched the view outside, I eventually turned to Dante, who was quietly admiring the scenery reflected in the window.
Still... Dolnesia was one thing, since our routes happened to overlap.
Angelica clearly followed along without much thought, so there was nothing to worry about there.
"By the way, Dante."
"Yeah? What is it?"
I casually called his name.
Dante turned gently from the scenery outside the window and looked at me.
Dante had accepted my invitation right away, but...
Considering he had joined the same club as Iris, it seemed like he had feelings for her too...
It bothered me a little.
He did not seem especially bothered by it himself, though.
I had not thoughtlessly made him waste an outing pass he had saved to use with Iris someday, had I?
"Are you really okay with this? You’re not just wasting a precious outing pass for nothing, are you?"
At my casually tossed, apologetic question, Dante shook his head with his usual refreshingly bright smile.
"Not at all. I had been swamped with my studies, so I happened to need a change of pace. Besides... no one had ever readily invited me to go out with them first before."
There was a subtle loneliness in the calm words he added.
Was that so?
Come to think of it, while we were not in the same department, I had sometimes felt that he seemed isolated when we shared classes.
At first, I had thought no one approached him because he was with me.
But thinking back on it, something from the setting book came to mind.
He was probably another genius type like Angelica, and that was why he spent his time alone.
Like the other male leads, he had plenty of admirers, but no real friends, and he was supposedly not good at getting along with other men either.
"So I’m grateful instead, Ian."
As he said that and softly crinkled his eyes, Dante’s face was so dazzling that even my heart was in slight danger—and I was a man.
Of all things, he had to have such a pretty face.
To shake off that pointless thought, I vigorously shook my head from side to side and turned back toward the window.
I’m not gay.
And, objectively speaking, was I really in any position to worry about him?
I quietly sighed and looked at my face reflected in the glass like a mirror.
I had been in this world for quite some time now—long enough to have adapted to it.
But I could never get used to this vicious-looking face.
Just look at my mug.
At least that guy was handsome.
It was the sort of vicious face that looked as though, if I merely stood still, I would grab someone and tear them in half.
Once again, I keenly realized just how angelic the club members, Dante, Iris, and Haede were, with hearts as vast as the Pacific, for willingly spending time with me.
Seriously, it brought tears to my eyes.
Not long after I resumed taking in the scenery slipping past outside the window—
One by one, splendid buildings began to appear beyond the glass, as though announcing that we were nearly at our destination.
#
At last, the carriage came to a stop, and the cityscape unfolded fully before us.
Perhaps because the academy’s facilities and scale were so absurdly immense, I was not struck with overwhelming awe.
Still, perhaps because this was a popular spot frequented by academy students, the shopping district was every bit as splendid and upscale.
The first person to speak after we got out of the carriage was Dolnesia.
"Then shall we split up from here and each take care of our own schedules? We all have different business to attend to anyway, so let’s meet back here once we’re done."
I did not particularly mind.
Dolnesia had not told us what she was doing, but I did not think her route would overlap with mine, at least.
Besides, since this was a weekday outing, our available time was quite limited.
"Hmm, but outside the academy, we never know when an unexpected situation may arise. Rather than moving separately, wouldn’t it be better in many ways for us all to stay together?"
At that moment, Dante gently put on the brakes.
It was a fairly sensible thing to say.
Going around alone was not without danger.
Not that I had been worried.
After hearing Dante, Dolnesia rubbed her chin for a moment before readily nodding.
"Hmm... I do not particularly mind doing that. The business I have to attend to will not take very long anyway."
When Dolnesia backed down so readily, Dante turned to me as though he had been waiting and made a suggestion.
"Then, Ian, let’s take care of your business first. You were the one who took the lead in organizing this outing, after all."
"No, wouldn’t it be better to take care of Dolnesia’s business first?"
When I casually shot back, both of them turned their eyes toward me.
No, I did not care which one we did first.
It was not as if the hidden piece would run away just because some time passed... or would it?
Dolnesia stared at me, then shook her head as though I were ridiculous and spoke with a deeply sighing tone.
"No, let’s just get the troublesome matter over with first. It will obviously be troublesome, so wouldn’t it be better to finish it first?"
...?
Dolnesia’s eyes as she stared straight at me were saying one thing very clearly.
‘...I’m going to get dragged into something troublesome because of this man again.’
That was fucking unfair.
You people are the protagonists.
I was the one who got dragged into things.
#
The place we arrived at after walking was a remote alley far removed from the glamorous city streets we had just seen.
Our companions’ reactions to the shabby scene before us were completely different.
First, Angelica, as always, simply stood there expressionlessly without a thought in her head. The others were not like that.
"Uh, um... Ian? Are you planning to drink here, by any chance?"
Dante looked with considerable bewilderment at the old sign hanging precariously from the wall and cautiously asked me.
"It seems Cassian still has not come to his senses, has he?"
Dolnesia, meanwhile, was glaring sharply at the sign with a cold face utterly drained of color.
She looked ready to devour the sign with her eyes alone.
It was understandable, considering where we had arrived.
This place with an old sign in some remote backwater corner—not the glamorous city streets we had been in just moments ago—
Unfortunately, was not some hidden restaurant.
It was simply a place where you could receive quests, visited by many academy students looking to earn pocket money or tuition.
A guild.
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