Chapter 34

Soon, it would be time for class.

It’s an obvious fact, but within the Academy, each person has different classes to attend, so the classrooms, as well as the buildings, vary.

Everyone has a designated classroom, but that’s only for the basic classes; they have to go to different places for their major subjects.

“Right after breaking up…”

In other words, they had only met for a short while before parting again.

Each was heading to their major classes.

Evan went to the Department of Swordsmanship, while Stella headed to the Department of Magic.

And I naturally ended up in the Department of Sacred Studies, where the clerics attend.

The Department of Sacred Studies.

Just by the name, one might think it’s a place where classes related to religion are taught.

Honestly, when I first heard the name, I thought it would be a discipline studying the religion itself.

However…

Though it’s called the Department of Sacred Studies…

“It’s just a church…”

It wasn’t anything else but simply the church located inside the Academy.

While it’s true that priests and nuns should purify themselves, pray to God, and live piously in the church to elevate their divine power, still…

“This, this isn’t…”

This is not the Academy life I wanted.

I wanted to attend classes alongside other students, compete with them while studying about the unknown world.

What clerics do in the church is all the same…!

“I-I didn’t know…!”

Except during classes when incidents occur, most of the time, only the texts indicating that classes were held remain, so I wasn’t really sure what was being taught, but isn’t this too much?

Rather, I was looking forward to what classes I would be taking…

Only then did I recall the existence of something that looked like a church inside the Academy.

It was so vague that I had completely forgotten about it, and only when I saw that church did it suddenly come to mind.

To be honest, given that it has almost no significance within the story, isn’t it even stranger that I remembered it after being in this world for over two years?

As I stood in front of the church, silently looking up, a woman sweeping the floor at the entrance noticed me and approached with familiar steps.

She looked at my face and, for a moment, made a stiff expression.

It seemed she vaguely noticed I was blind because my eyes were closed.

I decided to inform her in advance.

“[I’m fine.]”

“Oh… are you a new student?”

“[Yes.]”

The nun nodded at my response, stopped sweeping the yard, and led me inside.

Though it’s not the best time to say this in front of the church, I hope I don’t have to pray and sing during my time here.

It’s one thing to pray, but singing is really difficult, and I couldn’t do that even when I was in the cathedral, so I wonder if it would be okay.

Honestly, it’s not like I came here to worry about grades, but saying I wouldn’t be concerned about my performance would also be a lie.

In the end, it remains unchanged that what had been presented to me, despite my expectations of the Academy, was the same church.

Surveying the church space, which felt vaguely familiar, I secretly let out a sigh.

*

A week has passed since the incident.

The Academy was flowing remarkably peacefully, almost to the point where recalling the time when everything felt utterly hopeless was difficult.

Ariana probably judged that it would be too hard for the unprepared Academy to face the incident and wished not to mention it.

That choice was half-right.

It’s a place for learning to fully unleash their abilities in the future, but for now, they were merely students.

If they abruptly tried to combat demons invading the Academy, it would obviously lead to casualties.

Having such incidents occur in a place designed for learning would undoubtedly create numerous issues.

– Evan… don’t you think you’re overdoing it?

“This much is fine.”

– …

Though Estelle asked with concern, Evan dragged his heavy body toward the Academy.

On that day,

when he first faced a demon.

He felt powerlessness like never before.

Ariana is a saint.

However, before being a saint, she was just a girl of her age.

Wasn’t she single-handedly confronting a demon while throwing herself into danger?

Though the opponent was a high-ranking demon, far too strong for their current level, she bravely fought alone.

In contrast, he himself was so terrified when the demon stood right in front of him that he couldn’t fight back.

“I need to get stronger.”

Evan’s thoughts were simple.

He is a hero, and Ariana is a saint.

Though he has an absolute advantage over the demons, he struggled just to sever an arm and was helpless when the demon revealed its power.

Ariana not only blocked the demon’s attacks but even purified some of its magic, while he, with powers stronger than hers, barely managed to capitalize on the opportunity she created for him and almost succumbed to exhaustion.

He never felt his training was lacking before, but for the first time during this incident, he keenly felt his own inadequacies and powerlessness.

He recognized his inadequacy as a hero.

“I never want to see that kind of sight again…”

– Evan…

“I never want to see someone in my vicinity, no… I never want to see Ariana get seriously hurt again.”

To prevent that, he needed to become stronger.

Not by relying on Ariana to create opportunities but by standing together to defeat the demon and, eventually, the Demon King.

At that moment, he heard a voice next to him.

“You seem to think the same way as I do.”

Turning his head toward the voice, Evan saw Stella Starnamis, Ariana’s roommate and the top student of the Department of Magic.

“You…”

He wasn’t unfamiliar with her.

In fact, to be precise, he couldn’t not know her.

Thanks to her, he found Ariana facing the demon alone on the day of the entrance ceremony.

He later learned that she was the first to notice the fight with the demon.

“Ariana is like family to me… I want to protect her.”

He had thought that, but she lamented with a sad expression that she was the one who ended up being protected.

Yet, it was because of Stella’s expression that Evan could clearly feel how much she cherished Ariana.

The only connection they had was that they fought alongside each other against the demon, but that gave them a common purpose.

“Since it seems we’ll be seeing each other often, let’s get along well from now on.”

“Me too.”

Since they had a common purpose and had fought together, they quickly became close after their first conversation.

It was hard to believe that just a moment ago they hadn’t even made eye contact.

Unlike the Department of Sacred Studies, which was quite far away, the Department of Swordsmanship and the Department of Magic weren’t too distant, so unlike Ariana, who quickly parted ways, the two could walk together for a fair amount of time.

“… Ah, we’ve already arrived.”

However, despite being close, the time to part had come as their destinations were ultimately different.

As he looked at her, Evan suddenly recalled how he had grumbled beside Ariana that he didn’t want to go to the Academy.

Up until that moment, he had been wondering if it was really right to complain like that after experiencing such things, but after talking with her, that didn’t seem to be the case.

Evan casually asked, as if probing.

“… Didn’t you just say you wanted to go back to the dorm earlier?”

“Ah… that?”

To his surprise, instead of the anticipated startled expression, Stella answered with a somewhat annoyed look, as if she had expected the question.

“Well… I was just hoping to return to how things were originally.”

No, it seemed more like a shy expression rather than an annoyed one.

“… Ah.”

Only then did Evan understand Stella’s intention.

She wanted Ariana not to worry about her.

Thus, to show that she had sufficiently recovered from the shock and returned to her usual self, she had deliberately acted in that way.

“I’m going now. You do your best as well.”

Stella waved goodbye to Evan, turning her back as she moved toward the building.

As he watched her for a moment, Evan once again strengthened his resolve and walked toward the building housing the Department of Swordsmanship.