Chapter 71
Late at night.
Creak—
Leo carefully opened the window of his room at the inn.
Whoooosh—
A cold blizzard whipped past.
[It’s freezing! Close the window!]
Kirran, who was huddled up, trembling in front of a candle with a handkerchief wrapped around himself like a campfire, freaked out when he saw that.
“Don’t sleep. Stay alert.”
Leaving those words behind, Leo slipped out the window.
His destination was another luxury hotel where the second-year students were staying.
“As expected, you’re on the move.”
Meanwhile, Lunia, who was also watching the Lumene dorm across from her room through the window, smiled meaningfully.
‘I knew my hunch was right.’
Without hesitation, Lunia opened her window and stepped outside.
Shortly after Leo and Lunia left their rooms—
Click—
“Leo and Lunia left t-together…?”
Another window opened and Eiran stuck her head out.
Eiran, who had bravely joined Seiren today, had decided to stay here at Herdeum’s suggestion instead of going home.
And while unable to sleep due to nerves, she accidentally witnessed Leo and Lunia sneaking out.
“What’s going on? Why are Leo and Lunia…?”
For some reason, Eiran couldn’t take her eyes off the Lumene class representative and, although scary, the Seiren class representative, whom she admired, sneaking out late at night.
‘No way! A secret rendezvous?’
The imagination of a teenage girl in love with hero tales began to run wild.
Her face turned red as she covered it with both hands, unsure of what to do.
‘A student having such an improper relationship…!’
Completely misunderstanding, Eiran hurriedly got dressed and ran outside.
Leo, having reached the hotel where the Seiren second-years were staying, stood on the roof.
He hid his presence, gripped the wall, and drove his fingers into it.
Crunch—
The hotel wall was deeply gouged.
Using that method, Leo climbed down to the lower floor and sensed the presence inside the hotel.
‘Looks like Seiren rented out this whole place too.’
He didn’t sense anyone inside.
‘The students must be staying on the third floor?’
It was already late, so the Seiren students were fast asleep.
Scaling down to the third floor, Leo peered in through a window.
‘Nine in total. One’s missing.’
Narrowing his eyes, Leo counted the sleeping second-years.
Then he opened the window of a room that had luggage but was empty.
Click—
The window wasn’t locked and opened easily.
Perched on the window sill, Leo took off his shoes so as not to leave footprints on the snow-covered floor.
He checked the name on the school badge hanging on the wall—‘Rauta’.
‘So he snuck out after all.’
“Hey! What are you doing here?”
Just then, Lunia, looking flustered, spoke from the window.
“What about you? What are you doing?”
Leo, already aware Lunia was following him, replied nonchalantly.
“Is that important right now? If you get caught sneaking into the second-years’ dorm, what’ll you do? Hurry up and get out before—!”
Trying to drag Leo out, Lunia took off her shoes and approached him.
Unauthorized departure, unauthorized entry, and they didn’t even go to the same school—if caught, this wouldn’t end with just a warning.
Thud! Bang!
“Ah!”
Startled as she approached, Lunia accidentally kicked the table leg.
The table crashed to the floor with a loud bang.
Holding her throbbing toe, Lunia felt tears well up.
A moment later, knock, knock—a nervous knocking sounded at the door.
Panicking, Lunia looked at the door.
‘Wait! It’s not locked!’
If someone came in now, they’d be caught for sure.
Leo frowned when he saw that too.
“Hey! Rauta! What’s with all the racket in the middle of the night? You think you’re alone here? Let us sleep!”
An annoyed male student shouted.
Leo quickly left his shoes outside, closed the window, grabbed the frozen Lunia’s wrist, pushed her onto the bed, and pulled the blanket over both of them.
“Hey! What are you—!”
“Shh!”
As Lunia, her face flushed, tried to say something, Leo pressed a finger to her lips.
“Are you ignoring me?!”
Bang!
The door opened angrily.
Lunia felt her heart stop.
The bed was far enough from the door that, unless he approached, the student wouldn’t notice there were two people under the blanket.
“Still ignoring me even after I come in? So that’s it! The upperclassman doesn’t even want to talk to a lowly underclassman, huh?”
Grumbling, the boy, not seeing anyone, closed the door and left.
A moment later, Lunia, bright red, quickly moved away from Leo as she threw off the blanket.
“There was no need to hold me so close!”
Climbing down from the bed, Leo replied,
“If I hadn’t, it would’ve looked like two people were in the bed.”
“Well, still!”
‘Argh! Why is this guy so calm about everything?’
“Whatever! Anyway! If you tell anyone about this, you’re dead!”
Shaking her fist as if threatening him, Lunia made Leo laugh as he headed to the window.
“Seriously! Why did you come here anyway?”
“To find Rauta.”
Lunia paused at Leo’s answer.
“This is Rauta’s room?”
“Yeah. He snuck out. He must have headed to the Fairy Forest.”
“Why?”
Lunia looked confused.
“We’ll know when we get there.”
“Wait, you’re going to the Fairy Forest at this hour?”
“Yeah. You should go back to the inn.”
“……”
Lunia crossed her arms, thinking.
“You’re thinking Rauta has something to do with this incident, aren’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“You’re wrong. That’s ridiculous.”
Even if Rauta was an annoying upperclassman, he was still a Seiren student.
Lunia didn’t like the idea of someone from another school linking a Seiren student to Tartarus.
Still, it was strange for him to sneak out to the Fairy Forest at this hour.
“That’s why I’m going with you. As Seiren’s first-year representative, I need to clear my upperclassman’s name.”
“Do what you want.”
Putting his shoes back on, Leo climbed up to the roof.
Lunia followed right behind.
“Fine, let’s go.”
The two of them left the city and arrived at the entrance to the Fairy Forest.
Arriving at the edge of the forest, Leo stopped and let out a small sigh.
“Are you going to keep following me?”
“Huh?”
Lunia was startled by the sudden question.
Rustle—
With the sound of someone pushing through the bushes, Eiran appeared.
“Eiran? When did you start following us?”
“I’ve been following you the whole time.”
“What?”
From the moment he realized Lunia was following, Leo had also sensed Eiran.
‘Eiran’s not the type to tattle.’
If Eiran had seen them sneaking out, she’d agonize over it alone instead of telling anyone.
He let it go, but now that she’d followed them, he had to ask why.
Lunia approached Eiran.
“Eiran, why did you come all the way here? Hurry back to the inn—”
“Ah…!”
“Huh? What?”
“N-no! Students shouldn’t be having inappropriate relationships!”
“……”
Lunia stared blankly at Eiran, who was shouting with a bright red face.
“What are you talking about?”
“I saw you! Leo and Lunia sneaking out and secretly entering another hotel room together!”
“Eiran! Wait! Listen to me. That’s—”
“O-of course, Lunia is beautiful! And, and Leo is really cool! I think you’d make a great couple! But you’re still just first-years! You can’t… you can’t just…!”
“Ugh! That’s not what happened, okay?! Leo! You explain it!”
Unable to take Eiran’s wild misunderstanding, Lunia yelled at Leo.
Veins popped on Lunia’s forehead as she saw Leo laughing so hard he was clutching his stomach.
“You think this is funny?!”
Still laughing, Leo let go of Lunia’s collar and spoke to Eiran.
“Eiran. You misunderstood. Lunia and I aren’t like that.”
“R-really?”
“Yeah. That was the second-years’ Seiren dorm. We were just checking something out and left right away.”
“Oh…”
Eiran let out a sigh and, a moment later, squatted down and covered her face.
“So embarrassing…”
“Oh, geez. Now I feel embarrassed too.”
Fanning her face with her hand, Lunia smiled at Eiran.
“Did you really come all the way here to stop me from having an inappropriate relationship?”
“I-I’m sorry. Did I upset you?”
“No. I’m just surprised. It’s not like I’d let romance distract me from my studies. And if it did, wouldn’t that be good for you?”
At Seiren, students kept a much closer watch on each other than at Lumene—if someone got distracted, it was good news for their rivals.
“N-no, not at all. Lunia, you’re the best. I hope you always stay at the top.”
Lunia was a little surprised by that.
‘She actually thinks that way?’
Lunia, from a prestigious family, had always brimmed with confidence.
But sometimes she found it boring.
There was no one in the Seiren first year who could rival her.
So when Eiran, who started in the intermediate class, suddenly caught up to her, she was thrilled to have a rival.
Even when others gossiped about Eiran, she just scoffed.
She never thought her rival would be swayed by such losers.
‘Come to think of it, Eiran was always alone.’
Lunia felt embarrassed at how she’d called Eiran a friend but never really paid attention to her.
“Eiran.”
“Yes?”
“Why didn’t you come to school? You weren’t really sick, were you?”
At Lunia’s question, Eiran hung her head.
“I wasn’t aiming to be a hero like everyone else. I went to school because I wanted to see real heroes up close.”
She admired heroes, but had never imagined herself as one. She just enjoyed watching them.
“I thought it was rude for me to go to school when everyone else was so serious about becoming a hero…”
“Rude? No way. That kind of thinking insults your own hard work.”
It was never easy to be second in the whole intermediate class.
Eiran was the center of attention.
But being shy and timid, she was afraid of that attention.
And then the jealousy and envy from her classmates became too much.
Feeling all alone, she ran home.
After listening to Eiran, Lunia let out a deep sigh.
“I want you to keep coming to school.”
“W-why?”
“Because you’re my friend.”
Eiran looked shocked.
“F-friend? You mean, you and me?”
“What?”
“You don’t hate me?”
“Heh.”
Hearing laughter behind her, Lunia shot a glare at Leo.
Turns out Eiran really hadn’t thought of Lunia as a friend.
“We are friends, got it? So ignore what everyone else says and come back to school! I need you!”
“Me?”
“Yeah. As my friend and rival, I want you to keep competing with me.”
Eiran’s face, stunned, broke into a bright smile.
Seeing that smile, Leo chuckled.
‘Kids really do grow up fast.’