When did I pass out?
As I clung to my hazy drifting consciousness and opened my eyes, I found myself waking up in my familiar dorm room.
When I carefully retraced the final moments,
I came to a realization.
“So, they judged this to be minor injuries, huh?”
They actually just dumped me back into the dorm.
I passed out after fighting to the very brink—
And they tossed me here like this?
What a bunch of dirty, petty jerks.
“Oh! Johan, you’re awake?”
At that moment, Yuna suddenly popped her face into view.
I stared at her blankly for a second and quietly muttered,
“Scared the crap out of me…”
It was a real heart-dropper.
When you’re startled this badly, you can’t even scream.
“Yuna, how long was I out?”
“About three days?”
“What’s the situation?”
“No one died. You saw the enemy’s condition too, right?”
“Yeah?”
Well, considering even someone like me, the weakest in the Cradle, managed to wipe them out,
Most of them were just disorganized rabble.
The only ones worthy of being called real threats were Charybdis and Faust.
Charybdis had been tied down by Yuna.
And Faust was held back by Olga Hermod and the princess’s party.
What’s even more surprising was that Olga Hermod didn’t release the illusion magic she cast over the Cradle. Even while facing off against Faust.
Thanks to that, that bastard Faust still made it all the way to me, but…
All things considered, we handled it pretty well.
“How are the Headmistress and the princess’s party? Were they hurt badly too?”
“Not really? From what I heard, the Great Sage just vanished in the middle of it all.”
“So they didn’t manage to take him down, huh.”
Well, I had thought it was too fast to be true.
No matter how powerful Faust is, they were up against an Archmage.
And on top of that, the princess’s party was made up of people with natural talent for combat.
It wouldn’t have been easy to defeat them quickly.
Now that I think about it, even Charybdis was probably just an excuse to get to me.
That guy spies on others through the links of his chains.
And with enough links, teleportation was probably nothing for him.
He was the one with the most abilities in the entire Empire, after all.
“The most seriously injured person was your junior.”
“Ah, Dietrich… I totally forgot about him halfway through. But I guess he made it out alive, huh.”
“Disappointed? You said he was the Prophet’s puppet.”
“Just how shameless and heartless do you think I am?”
Sure, I know Dietrich was the Paladin prepared by Kult,
But he himself wasn’t a bad guy.
If anything, he was the textbook example of a kind and righteous knight—
Exactly what a Paladin should be.
“I should go visit him in the hospital later.”
“He’s already discharged and walking around.”
“Then never mind…”
Sheesh, the guy’s tough.
He was supposed to be worse off than me, and he fully recovered in under three days?
Then the others must’ve been discharged too.
So why was I the only one dumped back into the dorm like this…?
I laid back down on the bed.
My body still felt heavy.
“Tired?”
“Yeah.”
“Because of your ability?”
Yuna narrowed her eyes as she asked.
Right. Back when she asked about my ability, I had flat-out denied it, saying I couldn’t use it.
No, it wasn’t just denial. I think I actually snapped at her?
If she got upset because I deceived her so thoroughly back then… well, I guess that’s fair.
“Yeah.”
I answered honestly this time.
I’m basically not very physically strong.
So I get tired and worn out more easily than most.
Isn’t laziness just another form of efficiency, though?
“Wow… seriously, how could you? I thought we were friends.”
Yuna was now openly laying on the guilt trip.
With exaggerated gestures and a voice full of wounded betrayal,
Anyone watching might’ve thought I’d stolen the deed to her family’s house or something.
“And after all that, you—”
“……”
“You got all serious and lowered your voice and said, ‘If you don’t want to answer, just say so. Don’t try to dodge it’. And you even frowned while saying it?”
“…I’ve got no excuse.”
I’m sorry. Really. So please stop reenacting the whole scene while rubbing it in.
I was serious at the time, but looking back now, I just want to crawl into a hole.
“Puhihihi!”
Yuna finally laughed, seemingly satisfied after my apology.
What a ruthless emotional assassin.
“Oh, right! Johan, look…. see this? Other people came by too.”
“Huh?”
I looked where Yuna was pointing. The shelf.
It was packed with stuff.
Just from a glance, they were clearly get-well gifts…
But why were there so many?
“Our classmates came to see you.”
“Why would they…?”
“You’re the only one who got hurt badly enough to need visitors. And this time, you stepped up yourself. I think that part left an impression.”
“I just don’t get it…”
Still, it feels nice.
I don’t have many people I’d call real friends, but doesn’t this mean there are more people who care about me than I thought?
Jeez, I don’t know what I did to deserve all this.
“…But why isn’t there a single name on any of these gifts?”
“They figured you wouldn’t remember their names anyway, so they just left them.”
“Ah, I see.”
At this point, I’ve come to accept it.
Maybe I should actually be more wary of the ones who do tell me their names.
After all, the people whose names I remember tend to either be terrorists or targets of terrorism.
Or, you know, maybe even the assassin standing right in front of me.
I should start being cautious of anyone who introduces themselves to me.
“Oh! But some of them do have names. Want to see?”
I took the fruit basket Yuna handed me. On it was the name “Lobelia” in small letters.
I wasn’t happy at all.
More than anything, the fact that Lobelia came to visit me in the hospital was terrifying.
What on earth was she thinking this time?
“And this one!”
While I was caught up in that thought, Yuna handed me a silk hat that looked pretty expensive.
A hat as a get-well gift?
What kind of lunatic sends something like this?
“This one’s from Lady Ariel.”
“……”
A strange chill ran down my spine.
This is… how should I put it…
Maybe it was because of what Lobelia said last time, but I found it hard to take Ariel’s gesture at face value.
Was this really just a get-well gift?
“Hmm, it kind of suits you though.”
“Black’s always been my color.”
“I don’t think so.”
I took off the hat Yuna had placed on my head.
I wasn’t going to throw it away, so I’d carry it around for now, but I had no intention of wearing it.
If I wore it around for no reason, Ariel might get the wrong idea.
I couldn’t afford to give her any room for misunderstanding.
“There’s nothing left to report, right?”
“Hmm, I think that’s pretty much everything.”
“Then I’m going back to sleep. You should get going too.”
“There’s nothing left to report, but I still have personal business to take care of. Get up.”
Yuna grabbed me by the collar and forced me up just as I was about to lie back down.
Ugh, I had no idea how many times I’d laid down and gotten back up at this point.
“Johan, how did you know my dad was weird?”
“Hmm…”
Well, fine. I admit it.
It was probably something she was genuinely curious about, considering how important it was to her.
Though I wasn’t sure it warranted dragging someone up who’d been bedridden for three days.
“Like I said back then. It just seemed like something you would do.”
“I see.”
Yuna was strong.
Not in terms of physical strength, but in the sense that her mind was rock solid.
If someone like her still felt guilty after all this time, then that person must have been worth it.
“And well, maybe it’s because I knew Charybdis was an Archmage?”
“Huh?! How did you know?”
I told Yuna about the letter Olga Hermod had kept. …Come to think of it, I wondered if Olga Hermod had actually foreseen how things would turn out.
Even with Faust around, the way she’d let Charybdis go so easily seemed suspicious, no matter how I looked at it.
She really didn’t let people rest.
“I see…”
“Are we good now?”
“Mhmm!”
Yuna gave me a bright smile.
It was the same silly smile she always wore… but somehow, it felt different.
There was a strange sense of dissonance. This time, it actually seemed like a real smile.
Not exaggerated, not an act. She was truly smiling like a fool.
“Johan, thank you. That wasn’t acting…it’s from the heart!”
“Well, I should get some thanks. Considering how much trouble you put me through…”
“You mean how much I’ve helped you all this time, right?”
“That’s true.”
I’d done my best because I owed her a lot.
If Yuna had been even a little more cold-hearted, she would’ve just said, “He’ll manage,” and left me alone.
But no matter what anyone said, Yuna was someone with a lot of heart.
That’s why I felt I had to help her.
“Even so, thanks are still thanks. Yeah, Johan. Thank you again. It’s all thanks to you.”
“Of course, of course.”
“I’ll do better from now on!”
“Well, you’d better.”
“From now on, we’ll always be together! Right, my disciple?”
“Yeah, no, that’s not happening.”
“Aw, so close! You were almost mine!”
Let’s go our separate ways after graduation.
You can keep being the righteous assassin, and I’ll head back to the countryside and inherit my title as count.
“Can I rest now, then?”
“Seriously? You’re going to sleep more? You’ve been out for three days and you’re still tired?”
Did she just really hate the idea of me falling asleep again?
I had no idea why she was being so clingy today.
“Even if I don’t sleep, I don’t feel like doing anything.”
“You need to get up and move around. That’s how you get healthy again!”
“Yeah, but you still need to rest when it’s time to rest.”
“Tch…”
Yuna clicked her tongue and grumbled at my firm response.
“Yuna.”
“Mhmm!”
“Can you leave now?”
“That’s so mean…”
What’s really mean was you bothering a patient and talking for thirty minutes straight.
Unlike you guys, I’m not a superhuman. When I need to rest, I really need to rest.
Lately, I hadn’t even had time to breathe. I’d been running around non-stop, and the exhaustion had seriously piled up.
“Do you know how worried I was while you were unconscious?”
“I see.”
“When you fall asleep like that, it scares me… like you might never wake up again!”
“Yuna, you’re going to have to do better than that if you want to fool me.”
“Not even that works…”
Well, by now I had a pretty good idea of what kind of person she was.
So fake crying wouldn’t work on me.
We weren’t the type to fall for each other’s cheap lies.
“I’m bored.”
“…Ugh.”
Seeing how clingy she was being, it really did seem like if I fell asleep again, she’d take it pretty personally.
Then again, if she got upset, she’d probably be twice as annoying later. Maybe it was better to just go along with her a little.
“So? What do you want to do?”
“Johan!”
“Yeah, I’m listening.”
“Wanna go on a date or something?”
“Why?”
“Just because.”
Yuna swept her hair back and smiled softly. Her smile, free of any act, was truly beautiful.
She was clearly trying to seduce me.
So I…
“No.”
“……”
…turned her down.
Was she really telling me to go out right now, when even talking felt exhausting?
Ha! What a joke!
***
After actually being kicked out, Yuna stood there smiling as she stared intently at Johan, who had started to fall asleep again.
He really was such a consistent person.
“Hmph, did you think kicking me out meant I wouldn’t come back in?”
For the past three days, she had simply watched Johan. He wasn’t exactly someone with a lot to look at, but just being near him felt nice.
“Ugh, what a bad guy.”
Yuna grumbled as she poked Johan’s peacefully sleeping cheek over and over.
She hadn’t expected him to block her advances so thoroughly, even after she’d blatantly tried to seduce him.
But for now, this was enough.
After all, Johan was a coward. He’d probably just keep going in circles for a long time.
“Idiot.”
Yuna knew Johan well.
She had come to know far too much about him. Every one of his flaws and strengths.
And after learning every last thing about him, she came to a realization.
“You thought you understood me, didn’t you?”
And Johan too had come to know Yuna.
He had dug into her past, and now he could more or less guess what she was thinking.
But he didn’t know.
“The truth is, I don’t even care about the whole master and disciple thing anymore.”
He didn’t know that she was hiding her most important feelings from everyone.
That she was going to keep her most precious feelings completely concealed.
Sudden changes in a relationship always create noise.
Especially for someone like Johan, who was sensitive when it came to human connections.
So all she needed to do was slowly dye him in her own colors.
“I love you, Johan.”
And by the time he realized it, it would already be too late. By then, the wave named Yuna would have swallowed his heart whole.
Yuna smiled faintly as if she was looking forward to what was coming.
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