Chapter 236
Chapter 236
The group mission was over.
It was October, and had the perfect weather fitting the season of fall. It was cold enough for us to wear our uniform jackets.
While our clothes had changed to winter clothes, not much changed from before. The biggest change was that the female students’ stockings were changed to black.
The work I had to do for the Magic Research Society and my training with Ellen was back on track.
Unlike what Ellen feared, I wasn’t going to be so busy that I wouldn’t be able to train.
I would always have some time left, and I definitely thought that training myself was incredibly important.
So…
In other words, I could resume my early morning training again.
“Well.”
No matter how long I waited at the main lobby of the dormitory early in the morning Adriana didn’t show up. Perhaps it was because I hadn’t exercised with her in such a long time. She had visited me a few times and thoroughly nagged me before that, though.
Still, the time I had been injured was just too long, so I kind of thought that she wouldn’t be there and that I might have to do my early morning exercises alone, so I went on a run by myself.
Since I was all better, should I have told her that we could do the early morning training together again?
But what would she say to that?
‘So I have to?’
I could do it on my own, and so far, I had honestly been nothing but a hindrance to Adriana’s training.
She never actually promised me that we would always do our training together, so even if she didn’t show up and worked out on her own separately, I couldn’t do anything about it.
But how should I put it?
I felt somewhat… disappointed.
Like that, I crossed Temple’s campus in the Fall at dawn.
“Hello, Reinhardt! Let’s do our best again today!”
Ah, Ludwig, that punk.
Just what was wrong with that guy so early in the morning?
In the end, as I would rather die than go with that guy, I went to the second-year dormitory in the morning after I finished my workout.
“Where’s Adriana?”
“Erm. You’re asking where she is?”
I regularly talked with Redina due to the Magic Research Society, so I decided to ask her.
To be honest, she was the easiest to talk to.
I had been busy with the group mission up until then, so that was the first time we saw each other since then.
But why did she look at me like that?
“…She is dropping out.”
“…..What?”
Redina’s answer was outside of anything I could have imagined.
***
Adriana was dropping out. ..
It seemed like she had already left Temple.
Their group mission had ended on Friday, and like us, they were scheduled to rest at the mission venue until Sunday, and then they would return.
I was told that Adriana had asked to return early as soon as the mission was over.
However, as soon as they returned to Temple, Adriana seemed to have already disappeared.
That only confirmed the rumors that she had actually already informed the teachers of her intentions to drop out.
I was told that she had been consulting with the teachers about the matter for a long time by then.
Without telling a single one of her classmates, Adriana had been making preparations to leave Temple.
Of course, it was only natural that Redina was a lot more surprised about it than I was.
While she claimed that they were just good friends, she actually followed her around as if she were actually her older sister.
“What happened?”
“I… don’t know…”
She said that the theme of the second-years’ group mission was ‘Escape’. After each of them was scattered across an artificially made labyrinth, each having different starting points, they were supposed to break through various traps and escape the labyrinth while joining up with their classmates on the way.
It was Class A’s victory, and that included Redina.
“I really don’t know. She just… looked really upset throughout the whole mission.”
She had been thinking about leaving Temple for a long time, but just what happened during the mission to trigger it?
Redina looked as if she was about to burst into tears.
Adriana had left Temple without explaining anything to anyone.
‘If someone you think of as a precious friend suddenly wants to be more than just friends… What are you supposed to do…?’
Not long after our second semester started, Adriana had asked me something like that.
She had looked clearly concerned at the time.
Did the problem finally escalate?
Was that also something that happened in the fringes of the original novel?
I wasn’t that sure. Adriana had been influenced by me too much.
However, as it might have been something that happened in the margins of the story, I couldn’t be certain if it happened due to the butterfly effect.
“Never mind, do you know where she could have gone?”
I didn’t like not knowing why Adriana decided to disappear from Temple.
* * *
It was Tuesday.
Adriana had disappeared on Friday right when the group mission was over after she returned to Temple.
She had no place to stay in the Imperial Capital, so the only place she could return to was the monastery she was born and raised in.
The Artowan Monastery of the Saint-Owan Duchy…
She had told me that it was the place she was born and raised in before.
The Saint-Owan Duchy was fortunately not too far away from the capital; it was home to both Harriet and Adriana.
After Tuesday’s classes, I rushed out of Temple. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to reach the Saint-Owan Duchy that day.
If it would take more than a day…
…I’d somehow manage. The disciplinary committee meeting was still on hold, but I could get away with skipping one day of classes with my one merit point!
If the disciplinary committee gave me a heavier punishment for committing such rule violations during my period of self-reflection…
I would have nothing to say.
Mr. Epinhauser would definitely stop me from leaving school.
There were some super-large warp gates located throughout the capital.
I asked Harriet some questions before I went out.
‘The Artowan Monastery? Where’s that?’
Harriet apparently didn’t know where it was. As the young lady of the grand duchy, she couldn’t possibly know every building in her territory, after all.
As such, I went to the Saint-Owan Duchy’s capital, Arnaca, using a super-large warp gate. It was really fortunate that I only needed one transfer.
“Pass.”
As I entered the super-large warp gate, I had a thought.
There were a number of them in the capital, so one got to use them right away, which was convenient.
The capital was somewhat special. In other cities, one had to wait for several days to even use one of those gates, you know?
So I could go through it right away there, but I would have to wait several days to use the gate to go back, right? I didn’t even have the Imperial Coat of Arms or anything like it with me either that time, right?
I wouldn’t just end up missing a single day, I might just skip the whole week, wouldn’t I?
I can’t do this now, can I?
“Ah, Aah?”
But my body had already been sucked into the super-large warp gate.
When I heard that Adriana had disappeared, I was too impatient to find her.
I felt like…
I didn’t think things through well enough.
* * *
* * *
Adriana, who once sighed about the possibility that Olivia might quit Temple, was doing exactly that.
To say that one could never know what a person might go through would apply perfectly to that situation.
Anyway, I had reached a place I didn’t think I would have to visit until the day before.
I thought that if I ever went to that place, it would be because of Harriet, not because of Adriana.
When I exited the warp gate, I was simply amazed by the scenery that greeted me.
Arnaca, the capital of the Saint-Owan Duchy, known for its highly developed magic.
It wasn’t as grand as the Imperial Capital, but it was still a great city.
“What’s this?”
I couldn’t keep my mouth shut when I saw the vastness of the city and the tall castle standing right in the middle of it.
The surrounding area was completely flat, but there was a towering mountain right in the middle of it.
Then there was the palace that seemed to have been cut out of half of the mountain.
It seemed so bizarre and overwhelming that I was wondering just how something like that was possible.
A white palace carved out of a mountain…
It was the place Harriet mentioned from time to time.
The White Palace, Arnaria.
It was a beautiful and magnificent palace that seemed overwhelming, yet elegant.
“Dang, if they could do stuff like that, they could’ve just given me some money.”
I knew that the Saint-Owan Duchy could be comparable to an average sized empire, but I didn’t know it was to that degree.
As I realized while we were in the Ancient Castle Epiax, Harriet didn’t just live in an average mansion, but in a big palace.
Just like there was a huge gap between a small apartment and a mansion, there was a gap between a mansion and a palace.
The latter was even more overwhelmingly different.
No matter how high one’s status was, as long as one was a student at Temple, it didn’t really show. After all, we were studying in the same environment, ate the same food, shared the same classrooms, and met daily as if that was just normal.
However, seeing that palace that seemed gigantic even from afar was eye opening.
She…
She actually was a princess…
I felt slightly… sorry.
I decided that I would be a little… you know… nicer to her when I went back.
If one grew up in a place like that, growing up looking down on everyone around her, it was only natural that one would turn out pretty spoiled and rude.
It was no wonder for a kid like her, who had been treated with utter care like a precious treasure, to cry just because her cheeks were touched.
The more I saw just how beautiful Arnaca and Arnaria were…
The more I realized just how much Harriet had to tolerate and how hard it must have been for her.
Even so…
All through my hard work, our little idiot had become a lot cuter.
I decided to put my new appreciation of her on pause for the moment. I was curious what the inside of Arnaria looked like, but I had nothing to do there. I wasn’t sure if Harriet might take me to visit it later, though.
I needed to find the Artowan Monastery.
* * *
The Artowan Monastery was, unfortunately, not located in the Duchy’s capital.
It felt like I really had to start looking for her with no clues at all. If things were going to be like that, I was more than sure that I wouldn’t be back by the next day.
Luckily, the Artowan Monastery wasn’t located in some rural village without a warp gate. If that were the case, that would have cost a lot more time.
I found its location by asking at a temple of Towan that I decided to stop by.
I arrived at Elsion, another big city located in the Saint-Owan Duchy, after going through a medium-sized warp gate in Arnaca. I wasn’t sure what kind of city it was, but it was certainly huge.
There were no such things as information desks there, so I had to ask around again as soon as I arrived there.
Mana trains only existed in the Imperial Capital, so I had to go there either by foot or by wagon.
Those were the only means of transportation in that city.
But shouldn’t it have been possible to at least set up a tram or something?
“……”
So, after finding out the location of the Artowan Monastery, I stood up dejectedly.
A monastery wasn’t the same as a church. It wasn’t the kind of place believers usually frequented.
It appeared to be located outside of the city’s bounds. Therefore, it would take a long time to get there, no matter if I decided to take a wagon or walk there.
That was when it hit me that I was actually living in a really nice place.
Mana trains…
Mana trains are really such a convenient invention…
With those thoughts flying through my mind, I started to walk diligently.
* * *
I didn’t take a wagon; I didn’t even know where to find one, and I’d just waste more time simply looking for one.
I was quite confident in my stamina, so I walked through the streets of Elsion at a slightly faster pace, leaving the city.
I followed a road leading to the outskirts.
I never would have imagined that I would roam the outskirts of the Saint-Owan Duchy’s first major city until that morning.
The day had already grown dark because the distance was just too overwhelming. While there was no sunlight, I had no problem distinguishing my surroundings due to the moonlight and the night vision my supernatural power could grant me.
I wondered what I would do if I came across a bandit or something, but I did have Tiamata. Even though it was a Holy Sword, it was more than capable of cutting through people with ease.
There shouldn’t have been any problem, even if I met one, because I could just kill them.
I felt like I had become more and more unfamiliar to myself when I caught myself having such thoughts so casually.
Even walking a few kilometers at quite a fast pace wasn’t a problem for my level of stamina. I wasn’t injured anymore, either.
I became quite a different person, qualitatively speaking, compared to how I was in my first semester.
The one who contributed the most to that was Ellen, followed by Adriana.
However, if we went by who helped me out first, that would be Adriana.
I was the type of person that no one could see in a positive light. I’d used cowardly and shameful methods to make my senior step down after I got beat up.
And yet Adriana had tried to talk to me, even though I seemed to be nothing but troublesome.
And she even helped me to put up a fight in the duel I recklessly agreed to.
Although the reason I gave her for acting the way I did was that if I didn’t go that far, my classmates would bully me for being a weakling.
Adriana was someone who would even reach out her hand to someone one would be better off not touching like me.
She was the first one to help me.
She kept working out with me and never stopped helping me become someone that could be described as a person.
She had helped me even before Ellen.
I didn’t know what happened, but I really wanted to know why Adriana needed to leave Temple so badly.
I could see a building on top of a hill at the end of the road from a distance.
There were no other buildings around, so I was sure that it was the Artowan Monastery.
* * *
The term “ancient castle” suited that place much better than Epiax.
Epiax seemed like a palace built in a splendid and sophisticated architectural style, so it didn’t feel rough or rugged. Of course, the scenery of the snow garden surrounding it gave it an eerie and gloomy atmosphere.
The enormous but barren appearance of the monastery before me seemed to reflect the ascetic lifestyle of the people living in it.
Monks living in monasteries were different from priests residing in ordinary churches, which were open to the public.
They were people who solely focused on their own religious practices and cultivation rather than how they appeared to the public. They were a community of faithful people walking their own religious paths while keeping their distance from the secular world.
A monastery was a place where such nuns and monks lived.
Adriana had grown up in the Artowan Monastery.
So it would be a convent, so to speak.
Which meant…
-This is an area that is off-limits for men.
“No, wait!”
-We will never open the doors for you.
Men weren’t allowed to set foot in convents.