Chapter 86: Interlude – Moonlight (2)

After the commotion at House Helios had settled, I left Yurina behind as she still had things to discuss with her mother and returned to school alone. However, waiting for me at the school was Professor Kane.

“You’re suspended for a week,” he said to me.

“No,” I replied.

Professor Kane slammed his desk, face flushed with anger. “No? What do you mean no, you brat? You skipped the observation class, went out without permission, and even stayed out overnight, and you really thought you would get away with it without any consequences?”

“

Hmmm!

”

How cowardly of him to use facts against me

, I thought.

“Professor Kane,” I said.

“What now?”

I said in a wistful, solemn tone, “I believe that life isn’t something you learn entirely from classes. There’s so much more to discover outside the narrow confines of the academy walls. The world has far more to teach us than what lies in a classroom.”

“Oh?”

“Surely, Professor, you must’ve had such a time in your life too.” I slammed the desk with fervor and raised my voice. “A time when passion burned in your chest! A moment when your soul was ablaze with purpose! When you chased ideals and dreams far greater than the reality in front of you! Those youthful days, driven by ambition and belief!”

“What’s your point?”

“Would you consider letting me off just this once?”

Professor Kane went silent.

“Guess not, huh,” I said.

Darn it!

Professor Kane’s expression twisted, turning shades of red and blue. “

Ha!

Haha!

Youth, you say.”

The objects around his office trembled as his fierce mana leaked out. This could get dangerous.

He looked at me. “Dale.”

“Yes, Professor?”

“Have you ever heard this saying?”

“What saying?”

“‘Youth is full of painful experiences.’”

“If it hurts, you’re just a weak man,” I replied quickly.

Why would pain be the definition of youth?

Professor Kane shoved his chair back and rose to his feet. “Haha. Well, you’ll understand once you feel it.”

I immediately used Wind Step and dashed toward the door of the faculty office. “See you in a week, Professor!”

“Get back here, you little punk!”

Heavy footsteps thundered behind me as I sprinted away at full speed.

***

After barely managing to shake off Professor Kane, I returned to my dorm room and let out a deep sigh, shaking my head.

“

Haah!

Suspended again.”

Nevertheless, I could call it a blessing in disguise as it gave me time to focus on my training. I had already been thinking it was time to double down on my training after everything that happened at House Helios.

Following the previous encounter with the Archbishop of Beasts, another Archbishop had emerged, plotting something from behind the scenes—the Archbishop of Depravity, Mephisto.

I tried to guess his goal behind the plot at House Helios. The most likely theory was that during the process of swapping Yurina’s soul stigmata, he intended to manipulate the procedure somehow and turn her into his puppet.

However, in my past life, Yurina had never become Mephisto’s puppet. If the procedure was meant to control her, it wouldn’t make sense that Yurina had ended up as one of the Final Five Heroes who fought against the Demon God until the very end.

“So maybe turning her into a puppet wasn’t his true goal...”

Or perhaps something else happened that had caused the plan to fall apart before it could be realized. After all, Mephisto had vanished in the middle of the war. Even among the heroes, theories about his disappearance were all over the place, but no one ever figured out the truth.

“

Tsk!

Times like these make my past-life memories feel useless.”

Now, with the future diverging from what I remembered, predicting anything had become even more difficult. With the Archbishops moving in the shadows, there was only one thing I could do: get stronger. I had to get so strong that no one would dare stand against me and that even Archbishops would tremble at the thought of facing me.

So, I sat down on my bed and slowly closed my eyes. “Well then, let’s see.”

I took a slow breath and formed a tiny Mana Bullet, smaller than a grain of rice, inside my bloodstream. At first, just creating one would leave me drenched in sweat. Now, it was effortless, like breathing.

The Mana Bullet shot through my veins and shattered my heart. My body floated slightly as my consciousness blurred for just a moment. Then, the Blessing of Resurrection activated, instantly regenerating my destroyed heart.

Ash-gray mist slipped from my lips like breath in cold air. Keeping my eyes closed, I waited quietly. A searing pain surged from my left chest and spread across my entire body like wildfire. Ignoring the agony, I focused my mind and pictured my mindscape.

Before me spread a mental landscape scorched by raging heat and fire. Flames blazed with such ferocity that they seemed ready to devour the world. I reached slowly toward the Primordial Flame. Then I commanded it to ignite.

The wild inferno began to compress, gathering gently in my palm under my will. A flame formed above my open hand. Compared to the first time I had done this, the difference in the flame’s size was huge. Then, I could only conjure a flicker of flame no bigger than a candlelight. Now, the flame dancing atop my palm was a blazing fireball the size of a head. It was a tremendous improvement, but still not enough.

More. More. More

, I said to myself.

I reached toward the fiercely burning flame, and a dry thirst scorched my throat. Until I devoured every last ember of that flame and until not even a single spark remained, I would consume it all.

Suddenly, my mindscape trembled. Ash burst into the air, and my consciousness jolted awake from the mindscape. With a heavy breath, I opened my eyes. “What was that?”

Tilting my head, I tried to recall what had just happened in that subconscious space. The moment I had reached toward the Primordial Flame, driven by an overwhelming thirst, the flame, almost as if terrified, had hastily dodged my grasp and shattered the mindscape.

I wondered if I was just imagining this. The Primordial Flame, said to have burned the Tree of Creation in the age of myth, ran away from me. That made no sense. “That’s ridiculous.”

Chuckling bitterly and shaking my head, I checked the mana sealed within my soul stigmata. “It’s still growing steadily.”

While it didn’t surge all at once like when my body had been restructured, each death I endured slowly built up my total mana like a snowball gaining mass.

“Well, training’s done. Guess I’ll go stretch my body a little.”

I stepped out of the dormitory and made my way to Yurina’s private training grounds. Just then, a familiar voice rang out.

“

Ah

! Dale!” Iris dashed over to me. “Professor Kane said you suddenly went off without permission and even stayed out overnight. Did something happen?”

I couldn’t exactly explain the chaos that had taken place at House Helios. “

Ah!

Well. There was... some stuff going on.”

Iris narrowed her eyes suspiciously, clearly unsatisfied with the vague answer. “

Hmmm

? What kind of stuff? Don’t tell me... You stayed out overnight with a girl, didn’t you?”

“

Uh!

”

Technically speaking, I did spend the night with a girl—Yurina.

Iris grabbed me by the collar, eyes wide in horror. “I knew it! You bastard! Y-you! What kind of tramp did you go rolling around with?”

“No, wait.”

I thought,

Excuse me, dear saintess, your choice of words is a bit...

“Spit it out already!” she asked.

Seeing her eyes welling up with tears, I shook my head. “It’s not like that.”

Wiping her eyes, Iris stared up at me with narrowed suspicion. “Hmph! You’re not lying, are you?”

When I gave her a silent nod, she finally relaxed, letting out a breath of relief. “So, where are you going now, Dale?”

“I was just heading to Yurina,

uh

, I mean, Yuren’s private training grounds to warm up a bit.”

“

Oh

, right! You’ve been training there lately, haven’t you?”

Using the common training grounds attracted too much attention, so it was unavoidable.

“Would you mind telling me where that is?” she asked.

“Why the sudden interest?”

“Because you’re going to get caught up in training again and just grab some campus store snacks for your meals, right?”

“Well, that’s not wrong.”

That was indeed my intention, so I had no defense.

“

Hehe

. I’ll bring you a lunchbox after class, then,” she said.

“You don’t have to go that far.”

“Say that again, and I’ll pack you a traditional Holy Empire-style lunch.”

That meant a box stuffed full of greens with not a single piece of meat in sight.

“I’ll be waiting, then,” I said meekly.

Iris nodded in satisfaction. “

Hehe

, good. Oh, right. Please register me for access to the training grounds too.”

“Sure.”

Normally, only the owner of a private training ground could register someone for access. But Yurina had granted me not just guest rights, but administrator access. So, I could easily add Iris.

“Well, I’ve got class now. See you later, Dale!” she said, walking away.

“Yeah.”

After seeing her off, I walked to Yurina’s training grounds. As I reached the door, I tapped my Hero Watch to the scanner and stepped inside. And there she was, Yurina, in her Yuren disguise.

I was surprised to see her inside the room. “

Huh

?”

When she spotted me, she smiled brightly and waved. “Hey, you’re here, Dale.”

“Weren’t you staying home to talk with your mother?”

“I finished the conversation and just got back.”

“Then why come to the training grounds instead of the dorm?”

“

Hmm!

” She blushed faintly as she answered, “I figured I might run into you here. Haha. Just kidding.”

With a shrug, Yurina walked over to me. My heart thudded strangely in my chest, and I struggled to keep my voice steady. “Anyway, are you planning to stay like that?”

Yurina gave a wry smile and brushed her golden hair behind her ear. “It’s a bit awkward to suddenly be like, ‘Ta-da! I’m actually a girl,’ you know?”

“But isn’t it a shame? You finally get to live as Yurina again.”

“It’s fine.” She smiled softly and gently took my hand. “As long as you know I’m Yurina, that’s enough for me.”

She was standing very close. I avoided her gaze and cleared my throat awkwardly. “W-well, if that’s what you want, then I guess it’s fine.”

“

Hehe

. Then...”

Yurina reached up and unclasped the pendant from her neck. A soft blue glow enveloped her, and she transformed back into Yurina. Her silver hair shimmered, and a sweet scent teased my nose.

She brought my hand gently to her chest and smiled radiantly. “Looking forward to our time together, Dale.”

That smile, lit like moonlight shining through the night sky, was breathtakingly beautiful.