Book 1 Chapter 68

【68】67

That evening.

A visitor arrived while the Rumern students were having dinner at their dormitory.

"Chelsea! How can you eat this!"

"Do you have a problem with my cooking?"

"Cooking? Is this cooking? Don't you dare insult cooking!"

"What? You're all dead today!"

"Hey, hey! Run! They're using magic!"

"I'm telling Professor Halind about all of this!"

"Class representative! Can't you just be in charge of meals? Your cooking was the most delicious among us!"

"I just borrowed some party food from Seirun yesterday."

Before the door was opened, the dormitory was filled with a cacophony of shouting.

As the theme of this school trip was self-sufficiency, the students were responsible for every meal.

Naturally, since most of them had grown up sheltered or had no connection to cooking, proper meals were out of the question.

As a result, every mealtime at Rumern was a continuous series of disturbances.

Sena covered her face and turned away at the sound of the students' pathetic attempts at cooking, while Halind let out a deep sigh.

"Haha! The students are full of spirit!"

Only Rune managed to offer a good-natured smile.

"I, I'll go in first and try to calm them down."

Sena forced an awkward smile and quickly went inside.

A moment later, after the noise subsided, Sena opened the door.

The entire class was eating quietly and elegantly, as if nothing had happened.

"It's nice to see you all."

"Hello, Chairman Rune!"

The students of Class 5 greeted him in unison, with politeness.

Of course, they didn't forget to glance at Halind while doing so.

"Haha. I wonder if I've interrupted your meal. I came to see you because there's an announcement."

"An announcement?"

Kai looked puzzled.

"Yes. You all know about it. The fact that a large number of undead, including Death Knights, have appeared in the Fairy Forest."

At his words, everyone's expression turned serious.

"So, there was a meeting at the council. I've come to inform you of the results of that meeting."

The students of Class 5 looked at each other with puzzled expressions.

"The Grand Council of Elsalbekia formally requests Seirun and Rumern to investigate. We ask you to join forces with Seirun to investigate the abnormal situation in the Fairy Forest."

Everyone looked surprised at his words.

"Of course, it would be dangerous for you, who still lack experience, to go alone. That's why we've put in a request to Seirun. You will be investigating the abnormal situation as part of a team with the senior students from Seirun."

"Does that mean it's a formal request?"

"Yes."

A formal request.

First-year students at Rumern begin practical training for requests in the second semester, and take on formal requests from their second year.

This process was being advanced by a full year.

"While it's a formal request, please remember that it's an extension of your request training. If a situation arises that you cannot handle, the request will be immediately suspended. Also, while it's called a formal request, it's essentially an unofficial one, so there will be no compensation."

Some students looked disappointed at this, but the atmosphere quickly changed.

A formal request!

They felt like they were being truly recognized as Rumern students.

"Did you come all this way, Chairman, for the request?"

Leo asked with a puzzled look, and Rune shook his head.

"No. Actually, I came because of you, Leo."

"Me?"

"Yes. This child wanted to meet you."

Rune smiled and brought Eiran, who had been behind him, forward.

"Cute!"

"Class representative! How do you know them?"

The students of Class 5 marveled at Eiran, who was hesitantly stepping forward.

Leo answered calmly to Iliana's question.

"She's Rune's granddaughter."

"Oh."

"L-Leo-sama. Have you been well? You see… I was invited to visit, so I've taken the liberty of…"

"Welcome."

"You seem close with Leo. Hello. I'm Iliana. Have you eaten dinner? Do you want to eat with us?"

"Hey, Iliana. You don't give guests this kind of thing."

"Oh. Right. Sorry."

Iliana and Kai cleared away all the food on the table.

Chelsea glared and began to choke Kai and Iliana.

Eiran was extremely flustered by this.

The atmosphere was completely different from Seirun.

"Have you eaten?"

"Ah, I haven't yet."

"Then would you like to eat? The kids are a bit picky, but it's not inedible."

"Hey! Leo! Don't feed them that! It'll ruin the school's image!"

"Die!"

"Gulp! Surrender! Surrender!"

Chelsea stubbornly continued to choke only Kai.

"Then, as a gesture of goodwill."

Eiran carefully picked up a meat dish with a fork and ate it.

Eiran, chewing with her small mouth, said, "I can feel the effort put into this food."

"Right? Right? Is it edible? They're the strange ones, aren't they?"

Chelsea, who had been choking Kai, came running with sparkling eyes.

Eiran flinched at Chelsea's sudden warmth.

At that moment, Rune approached with a kind smile.

"Our Eiran is also a Seirun student."

"Really?"

"But you weren't in class today."

"Why weren't you here?"

"I couldn't talk properly with the Seirun kids earlier because I was studying, but I want to talk more in detail this time!"

The mention of being a Seirun student increased the students' interest in Eiran.

As students crowded around her, Eiran's face turned pale.

"I, I'll be excused for a moment…!"

Eiran jumped up from her seat and fled upstairs, trying to avoid people.

The Class 5 students were taken aback, and Rune's face hardened.

"Aren't you going to follow her?"

Rune said cautiously to Leo's question, "Leo, would you mind going in her place?"

"Me?"

"This child was able to gather the courage to come out because of you, being able to meet you."

How surprised he had been when his granddaughter, who had been confined to her room, came to see him today.

"I, who had only vaguely wished for her to mingle with children her age, failed to fully understand her feelings."

At Rune's words, Halind nodded, looking at Leo.

Leo followed Eiran to the second floor.

He then realized that the terrace door at the end of the second-floor corridor was open and went outside.

Eiran was crouched in a corner of the terrace.

When her eyes met Leo's, she spoke in a flurry, "L-Leo-sama. I'm sorry to show you such a pathetic sight!"

Leo, gazing at the apologizing Eiran, recalled an elf girl.

'Berkia.'

Even after thousands of years, Eiran retained a fragment of her ancestor.

And Berkkia, like Eiran when they first met, was shrouded in darkness.

'For some reason, it reminds me of Berkkia, and I can't just leave her be.'

Leo smiled wryly and draped his outer jacket over Eiran.

"Th-this will make Leo-sama cold…"

"Don't worry about me."

Ignoring the flustered Eiran, Leo put his hands in his pockets and leaned against her, standing beside her.

"So, why did you run away from Seirun?"

"At first, I wanted to go to Seirun. Because I admired heroes."

Eiran said, hugging her knees.

When she first enrolled, Eiran said she was in the intermediate class.

She had talent and put in effort, but Eiran didn't stake her all on honing her swordsmanship and magic.

Eiran much preferred reading hero tales to fighting.

Eiran, who loved heroes, was content just being in the same space as the hero candidates.

However, born into the most prestigious family of elves and content with her current state without any goals, Eiran was an easy target for mockery.

The shy girl struggled under the mockery.

"When I felt Seirun's life was overwhelming, I met someone like the sun."

"Who was it?"

"It was Lunia."

Eiran's face lit up.

"Lunia is truly amazing! There's nothing she can't do! She's always confident! Kind to everyone! She's truly like a hero!"

Eiran's face shone as if she were recounting a hero's tale.

In a sense, Lunia was the closest to a hero among Eiran's peers.

Lunia's demeanor was enough to capture the heart of a girl who loved hero stories.

"So, I came to admire Lunia. Because she was a great person, unlike me… I wanted to follow Lunia."

A small goal of wanting to observe a great person up close.

Once a goal was set, her talent blossomed, and she quickly moved from the intermediate to the advanced class.

"When I moved up to Advanced Class 1, Lunia was very friendly. But… at some point, Lunia became frightening."

"Why?"

"I think she started to dislike me after I made a big mistake during the duel assessment."

Leo looked puzzled.

'Given her personality, it's unlikely she'd do something to make others dislike her… And Lunia isn't the type to dislike someone over a trivial matter… I'll have to ask her about this.'

With the object of her admiration and goal moving away, what remained was the envy and jealousy of those she had surpassed.

As Eiran, whom they clearly considered inferior, grew at an incomparably faster rate, envy and caution began to surface.

'Is that what became a trauma, making her afraid of her peers?'

Someone with Leo's personality might react with cynicism, but Eiran was certainly too fragile.

"For someone who's afraid of her peers, you seem to treat me very comfortably."

"That's because Leo-sama feels similar to my grandfather!"

"Grandfather?"

Eiran, who had been smiling brightly, suddenly looked flustered.

"Ah, no! I mean, not that you're old! It's just… uh, you have an adult charm… Wh-what am I saying!"

Eiran, babbling incoherently, buried her face in her knees, embarrassed.

Leo, smiling at her, asked, "Leaving Seirun, did you think you were just a hindrance to others because you didn't aim to be a hero like them?"

"…Yes."

'She's so kind.'

The girl lacked the ambition of a hero.

'If she had completely given up, there would be nothing I could do.'

Recalling the clean Seirun uniform in Eiran's room, Leo said, "Do you like the story of Berkkia?"

It was a sudden question, but Eiran answered with conviction, "Yes! It's about my ancestor! I love it as much as the stories of great heroes!"

"Then you know why Berkkia became a great hero."

"Yes?"

"Berkkia became a hero because she admired and followed her great hero mentors."

"……!"

It is not always those with great dreams who are suited to be heroes.

'If you think about it that way, none of us except Lisinas are suited to be heroes. No. Me, Luna, and Dwenoh are definitely out.'

Leo said, thinking of his friends.

"Why do you care so much about what others think? You should just go down the path you want to go."

Eiran's eyes widened.

Seeing her eyes, Leo let out a hollow laugh.

'Despite the difference in personality, she's just like her ancestor.'

Eyes of admiration.

Even though she was outwardly prickly, Berkkia used to look at Kyle with such eyes.

Leo extended his hand, and Eiran hesitated before taking it.

"Let's go down, the Rumern kids are all good-natured."

Led by Leo's hand, Eiran returned to the first floor, where the Class 5 students welcomed her.

"Oh! You're back!"

"Sorry for making you uncomfortable."

"No, maybe she ran away after eating Chelsea's cooking."

"You guys!"

Chelsea glared, but held back, afraid of scaring Eiran again.

Eiran, who had been flustered by the unfamiliar atmosphere, soon found herself laughing uncontrollably.

Eventually, she naturally began to mingle with the boys and girls her age.

Rune looked moved.

"My granddaughter is getting along so well with her peers!"

"I heard that student Eiran is one of the top five students in Seirun's first year. Why did she leave the school?"

"Until recently, I thought it was because of a student I could never surpass, but that wasn't the case. The school atmosphere at Seirun was the problem."

"The school atmosphere?"

"As you know, Seirun has many benefits for senior students. Students with lower grades naturally fall behind."

"It's the same at Rumern, though."

"Yes, that's unavoidable due to the school's structure. However, Seirun has a much stronger tendency in that direction."

It was unavoidable, given that classes themselves were ranked.

"It seems that was a burden for my granddaughter."

Rune smiled bitterly.

"I attended Seirun and worked there as faculty, so I never thought of it as a problem. But Seirun's system wasn't suitable for my granddaughter."

Rune looked at Leo.

'I didn't understand Eiran's frightened heart. In that sense, meeting Leo… it truly was great fortune.'

Rune wiped away tears, feeling grateful to the human boy who had given his granddaughter courage.

Watching Rune, Halind said, "To rise higher, one must overcome it. Student Eiran has the ability, so she can overcome it."

"Yes. However, I've thought of a better method than that."

"What method is that?"

"Professor Halind."

"Yes, Chairman."

Rune, wiping his tears, adopted a serious expression, and Halind became serious as well.

"Does Rumern accept transfer students?"

Halind let out a deep sigh.

'He told me to send her away earlier, but now he wants her to come. Why are so many elves inquiring about transfers?'

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