Chapter 119: Interlude – Personal Meeting (1)

If this were a normal educational institution, the semester would have ended and vacation would have started the moment final evaluations were over. But Reynald Hero Academy had a peculiar tradition: a two-week-long “Final Evaluation Period.”

Simply put, while all regular classes were over, students were told not to return home or go on holiday until the results of the final evaluation were announced. They had to stay quietly at the academy. The reason for this terribly inefficient system was straightforward.

This evaluation was not the kind with a single correct answer. While party scores could be assigned based purely on results, determining the bonus points for individual contributions took far longer. Deciding who performed better or worse wasn’t something they could do in a day.

Moreover, it wasn’t just about time. Sometimes, the evaluators had to call in cadets to get further explanations about what had happened during the tests. Naturally, that meant keeping everyone on campus.

Thanks to that, this was actually the most relaxed time of the entire semester for cadets. With finals over and no classes to attend, most of them spent their days hanging around in groups, making plans for how they would spend the upcoming break. For me, it was perfect as I could just focus on training without distraction.

Today, as usual, I woke at 4 a.m., finished my mana training and basic physical conditioning, and headed to Yurina’s private training ground. Normally, we would warm up with a light spar.

I called out to Yurina. “Yuren?”

I used Yuren’s name in case others overheard.

Yurina turned her head sharply, as if she couldn’t even see me. Her lips were pressed tight, and her eyes were cold enough to radiate a “I’m mad” aura.

I approached her, looking a little awkward. “I told you, I’m sorry for not saying anything beforehand.”

She narrowed her eyes as she glanced back at me. “I’ve told you everything without hiding anything, Dale.”

She sounded sulky, and her expression was even more so. “But you hide things from me, like your blessing. You told only Iris. You’re always rushing into reckless situations alone. You told me to rely on our party, but when it’s dangerous, you don’t rely on anyone, except Iris. You only ever tell her.”

I had no words. Half the reasons she was angry seemed to be variations of the same complaint.

She continued, “Anyway! If you have something like that blessing, you should have told me first!”

Watching her pouty but fierce expression, I let out a wry smile. “Sorry!”

“You are really sorry, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Then you’re not going to hide anything from me anymore?”

Hesitation appeared on my face. “Well...”

Her expression hardened.

I sighed and continued, “I can’t tell you everything right now, but I promise that one day, I’ll tell you everything.”

“Before you tell Iris.”

“

Huh

?”

“When that time comes, you tell me before you tell Iris.”

I didn’t know what to say to that. With her arms crossed and a sly look in her eyes, Yurina made me chuckle.

“Alright,” I replied.

“

Ahem

. Good, then I’ll forgive you this time.” She covered the corners of her lips with her hand to hide a faint smirk, letting out an awkward cough. “

Ehem

. But in exchange for forgiving you, can you do me a favor?”

“What kind of favor?”

Yurina hurried into the locker room. “Just wait here for a bit.”

I tilted my head, waiting, until the door opened cautiously, and out came Yurina in her original form.

“Yurina?”

“

Ugh!

It feels so weird and awkward between my legs,” she said.

She was wearing an off-shoulder blouse and a flowing skirt.

I said, “That outfit...”

“Yeah. It’s the one we saw back in Valhalla City.”

No wonder it looked familiar. It was the one she had stared at absentmindedly in the women’s clothing section.

She lifted the edge of her skirt slightly, turning toward me. “They say it’s trendy among the female cadets lately, so I decided to try it. How is it?”

The blouse exposed her pale shoulders and a hint of her back, and the skirt’s cheerful colors paired with low-heeled shoes. She already looked stunning even in her usual training clothes. Now, the sight of her in this outfit was enough to make my breath catch and my skin tingle.

I gave her a thumbs-up, trying my best to hide the stir in my chest. “It suits you.”

“

Hehe

. Really?”

“Yeah.”

Yurina placed a hand over her chest, smiling bashfully. “That’s a relief.”

It was a devastating kind of charm I had never felt from her when she was in Yuren’s disguise. My heartbeat thumped louder and louder.

I turned my head slightly to avoid her gaze, my words stumbling. “S-so, what’s the favor you wanted?”

She stepped closer. “Why don’t we sit for a bit?”

She gently took my hand and led me to a bench in the corner of the training ground. Sitting close enough that our shoulders brushed, she tilted her head back, looking up at the ceiling with a faint smile.

“Feels like that day, doesn’t it?” she said.

I remained silent.

She meant the day she had revealed her true form to me for the first time. Back then, she had acted as though we were meeting for the first time, hiding her real identity. And I had seen right through it. After all, I had spent far too much time with “Yuren” to be fooled by such an act.

Suddenly, a thought came to mind:

Hmmm,

come to think of it...

I looked at her and said, “Yurina, you hid your identity from me back then, didn’t you?”

“

Huh

?”

“You kept something from me, too, so why?”

“N-no! That was different!”

“How was it different?”

When it came to hiding the truth, it wasn’t really any different at all.

“

Uh,

W-well...” Flustered, she clenched her fists and blurted out, “At least you were the first one to find out!”

I wasn’t sure the order really mattered here.

Yurina continued, “A-anyway! No changing the subject all of a sudden!”

The moment the conversation turned against her, she puffed her cheeks and crossed her arms in an X over her chest.

I let out a faint chuckle at her stubbornness and nodded. “Alright, alright. So, what is this favor you wanted to ask?”

“My favor is...” She suddenly leaned in close. “Pat my head.”

“Your head?”

“

Mmhmm

.” Her cheeks turned faintly red as she avoided my gaze. “Is that not okay?”

“Well, no. There’s nothing wrong with it.”

I recalled that I had heard a similar request from her before, which made me wonder,

Does she... like having her head patted?

It was something I had never seen from her in my past life. Or rather, she had probably been hiding it all along, hiding her real self behind the blinding sun that was “Yuren.” And a person’s real face wasn’t always something ugly.

Pushing away the image of Seto that popped into my mind, I slowly reached out toward her head. Her soft silver hair slipped between my fingers. As I carefully moved my hand, I could feel a smoothness like stroking the finest silk.

“

Hmmm

. Like this?” I asked.

She closed her eyes as if savoring the sensation. “Y-yeah.”

I kept patting her head until she seemed satisfied.

She let out a muffled groan. “

Mmmmmm

.”

“Should I stop here?” I asked.

She peeked her eyes open and grabbed my sleeve before my hand could pull away. “J-just a little more. Just a little more, please.”

I was speechless. That expression was cheating.

“

Phew!

” Barely calming my racing heart, I finally withdrew my hand from her hair.

Yurina let out a wistful sigh as she watched my hand move away. “

Ah!

”

“That’s enough for today,” I said.

“

Tch!

”

“I’ll do it again next time.”

She smiled brightly. “

Hmm

, you promise?”

I turned my head to avoid her eyes, letting out a pointless cough.

She then asked, “Anyway, about that so-called Archbishop of Madness, that kid who attacked us.”

“

Ah

, yeah.”

Yurina’s eyes flashed cold as she ground her teeth. “He said he was going to kill you.”

A suffocating wave of mana burst out from her, shaking the entire training ground like an earthquake. “I’m not letting him go.”

Her body burned with a silvery glow, the sign that she had activated the Blessing of Moonlight. I stared, wide-eyed, at the torrent of mana radiating from her.

What the hell is this?

I had always known she had a massive amount of mana, but this was beyond anything I had ever seen. It was enough to make her old self seem almost laughable. It was not like she just chugged a barrel of some miracle elixir. The change was so sudden, so unreasonable, so shocking that it left me gaping.

Then I realized, I had never actually asked her what conditions triggered the Blessing of the Moonlight. If it wasn’t an elixir, the only plausible explanation for such a sudden surge was the blessing itself.

I asked, “Come to think of it, what exactly sets off that blessing of yours?”

“That’s...” Her shoulders twitched, and her voice trailed off. After a small cough, she abruptly turned away and stood up. “It’s a secret.”

“Hey, you said you weren’t hiding anything from me earlier.”

She gave a sly smile and shrugged. “Well, you’re still keeping things from me, aren’t you? I should at least get to keep one secret of my own. I’ll go and change quickly, then we can start training again. I’ve been focusing on fine-tuning my mana control lately, and you’re good at that sort of thing, right?”

“Well, yeah. That’s one thing I’m confident in,” I replied confidently.

In my past life, the one thing I had over Yuren was my precise control over mana.

“You’re doing this because of the feedback Professor Baldwin gave you before?” I asked.

“Yeah. That, and honestly, my mana’s been increasing so suddenly lately that I’m having trouble handling it.”

I kept quiet and glared at her.

“

H

-

huh

? Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked.

It was like hearing a close friend say, “Lately I’ve been having trouble because I suddenly have too much money. How should I spend it?” Even knowing she meant no harm, I still had the urge to give Yurina a good smack on the head.

I shook my head and got to my feet. “Never mind! Alright, I’ll drill you hard, so hurry up and...”

Just as I was about to continue training with her, the clear chime of my Hero Watch rang out, its screen lighting up. I checked the message and let out a bitter smile. “Sorry. Let’s continue training another time.”

“Why? Who’s it from?”

“Professor Baldwin.”

“Why would she call for you? It’s final evaluation season. Aren’t all professors busy?”

I exhaled a quiet sigh and turned toward the training ground entrance. “Well, it’s a personal meeting.”

There was still something I hadn’t finished discussing with Professor Baldwin, and it was something I had never told anyone before.