Book 1 Chapter 68

【68】67

That evening.

While the Lumerne students were eating dinner at the dormitory, a visitor arrived.

“Chelsea! How can you eat something like this!”

“Are you complaining about my cooking?”

“Cooking? Is this cooking? Could you please not insult cooking?”

“What? You guys are dead today!”

“Hey! Run! She’s using magic!”

“I’m telling Professor Halind everything!”

“Class president! Can’t you just be in charge of dinner? Your cooking was the most delicious among us!”

“We should have swiped some party food from Seiroon yesterday.”

Before opening the door, noisy sounds came from the dorm.

As the theme of this field trip was self-sufficiency, students were in charge of every meal.

Of course, since everyone had grown up pampered or had no connection to cooking, it was impossible for proper meals to come out.

Thanks to this, Lumerne’s mealtimes were a continuous series of commotions.

Sena covered her face and turned her head at the students’ disgraceful antics, and Halind let out a deep sigh.

“Haha! The students are full of life!”

Only Rune smiled a benevolent smile.

“I-I’ll go in first and calm them down.”

Sena smiled awkwardly and hurried inside.

After a moment, in the silence, Sena opened the door.

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

“Hello everyone.”

“Hello, President Rune!”

The students of Class 5 greeted him politely in unison.

Of course, they didn’t forget to keep an eye on Halind.

“Haha. I hope I’m not interrupting your meal. I came to see you because I have an announcement.”

“An announcement?”

Carl made a puzzled expression.

“That’s right. You all know, don’t you? The fact that a large number of undead, including a Death Knight, have appeared in the Fairy Forest.”

At his words, everyone made a serious expression.

“So, there was a council meeting. 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 Elsabekia Grand Council formally proposes this investigation request to Seiroon and Lumerne. Please join forces with Seiroon to investigate the unusual situation in the Fairy Forest.”

Everyone looked surprised at these words.

“Of course, it would be dangerous with just you who lack experience. So, I’ve put in a request to Seiroon. You will form a team with Seiroon’s upperclassmen to investigate the abnormal situation.”

“Does that mean it’s an official request?”

“That’s right.”

Official request.

Lumerne first-year students begin practical requests from the second semester and take on official requests from the second year.

That process had been moved up by a year.

“While it’s called an official request, remember that it is merely an extension of request practice. If a situation arises that you cannot handle, the request will be immediately suspended. Also, though it’s called an official request, it’s akin to an unofficial one, so there’s no reward, of course.”

At those words, some students looked disappointed, but that mood soon disappeared.

An official request!

It felt like they were finally being properly recognized as Lumerne students.

“Did the Grand Council President come personally for the request?”

When Leo asked with a puzzled face, Rune shook his head.

“No. Actually, I came because of you, Leo.”

“Me?”

“Yes. This child wanted to meet you.”

Rune smiled faintly and brought Eiran, who was behind him, forward.

“Cute!”

“Class president! How do you know her?”

The students of Class 5 admired the shy Eiran.

Leo calmly answered Iliana’s question.

“She’s Lord Rune’s granddaughter.”

“Ohhh.”

“L-Lord Leo. Have you been well? That… ha, he told me to come visit, so I’m being so rude…”

“Welcome.”

“You seem close with Leo? Hi. I’m Iliana. Did you eat dinner? Want to eat with us?”

“Hey. Iliana. You don’t give guests something like this.”

“Oh. Right. Sorry.”

Iliana and Carl cleared all the food on the table.

Chelsea glared and choked Carl and Iliana.

Eiran was very flustered by the sight.

The atmosphere was completely different from Seiroon.

“Did you eat?”

“Ah, I haven’t eaten yet.”

“Then do you want to eat? Even though the kids are picky and complain, it’s not inedible.”

“Hey! Leo! Don’t feed her that! It’ll damage the school’s image!”

“Die!”

“Cough! Surrender! Surrender!”

Chelsea began to relentlessly choke only Carl.

“Then, considering your kindness.”

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

Eiran, who was chewing her food slowly with small movements of her mouth, said,

“It’s a dish made with sincerity.”

“Right? Right? It’s edible, isn’t it? They’re the strange ones, aren’t they?”

Chelsea, who had been choking Carl, her eyes sparkling, rushed over.

Eiran flinched, seeing Chelsea suddenly approach and act so affectionately.

Just then, Rune approached and smiled kindly.

“Our Eiran is also a Seiroon student.”

“Really?”

“But she wasn’t in class during the day?”

“Why wasn’t she there?”

“I couldn’t properly talk with the Seiroon kids earlier because of studying, but I want to take this opportunity to talk in more detail!”

Interest in Eiran grew even higher at the mention of her being a Seiroon student.

Eiran’s face turned pale as she saw the students crowding around her.

“I-I! Excuse me for a moment…!”

Eiran, who suddenly stood up, hurriedly fled upstairs to avoid the people.

The Class 5 students were flustered by the sight, and Rune’s face hardened.

“Aren’t you going after her?”

Rune said carefully in response to Leo’s question.

“Leo. Would you mind going instead?”

“Me?”

“It was thanks to you that my granddaughter, who wouldn’t leave her room, was able to bravely come out.”

How surprised he had been when his granddaughter, who had been cooped up in her room, came to find him today?

“I guess I didn’t fully understand her feelings, merely thinking I wanted to see her interact with children her age.”

At Rune’s words, Halind looked at Leo and nodded.

Leo went upstairs, following Eiran.

And realizing that the terrace door at the end of the second-floor hallway was open, he went outside.

Eiran was crouching in the corner of the terrace.

Then, her eyes met Leo’s, and she spoke flusteredly.

“L-Lord Leo. I’m sorry for showing such a pathetic side of myself!”

Leo, who stared at the apologizing Eiran, recalled an elf girl.

‘Berkia.’

Even after thousands of years, fragments of her ancestor remained in Eiran.

And Berkhia, too, had been as dark as when she first met Eiran.

‘Somehow, she reminds me of Berkhia, so I can’t just leave her be.’

Smiling wryly, Leo draped his outer jacket over Eiran.

“I-if you do this, Lord Leo will be cold…”

“Don’t worry about me.”

Ignoring the flustered Eiran, Leo put his hands in his pockets and leaned his back against Eiran’s side.

“So, why did you run away from Seiroon?”

“At first, I wanted to attend Seiroon. 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 worked hard, but Eiran didn't stake everything on honing her swordsmanship and magic.

Eiran simply preferred reading heroic tales to fighting.

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

However, Eiran, born into the most prestigious elf family but content with the present without a goal, was sufficient to become an object of ridicule.

The introverted girl struggled with that ridicule.

“When I felt that life at Seiroon was overwhelming, I met someone like the sun.”

“Who is that?”

“It’s Miss Lunia.”

Eiran’s face brightened.

“Miss Lunia is a truly amazing person! There’s nothing she can’t do! She’s always confident! Kind to everyone! She’s literally like a hero!”

Eiran’s face shone brightly as if she were telling a heroic tale.

In a way, Lunia was the closest person to a hero Eiran had ever met among her peers.

Lunia’s presence was enough to capture the heart of a girl who loved heroic tales.

“So, I came to admire Miss Lunia. Because she’s an amazing person, different from me… I wanted to follow in her footsteps.”

A small goal: to watch an amazing person up close.

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

“When I got into Advanced Class 1, Miss Lunia treated me very warmly. But… at some point, I started to be afraid of Miss Lunia.”

“Why?”

“I think she started to dislike me after I made a big mistake during the duel evaluation.”

Leo made a strange expression.

‘Given her personality, she doesn’t seem like someone who would do something to be disliked… And Lunia isn’t the type to dislike someone over a trivial matter either… I should ask about this once.’

As she moved away from the admiration she had aspired to, all that remained was the envy and jealousy of those she had surpassed.

When Eiran, whom they clearly considered beneath them, grew to an incomparable extent, envy and vigilance began.

‘Did that eventually become a trauma, making her afraid of her peers?’

Someone with Leo’s personality might rather be cynical, but Eiran was definitely too sensitive.

“For someone who’s afraid of her peers, you seem awfully comfortable with me?”

“That’s because Lord Leo feels like my grandfather!”

“Grandfather?”

Eiran, who had been smiling brightly, was momentarily flustered.

“Ah, no! I didn’t mean old! That! Uh, you have the charm of an adult… Wha-what am I saying!”

Eiran, rambling incoherently, buried her face in her knees as if embarrassed.

Leo, who was laughing at the sight, asked.

“Did you leave Seiroon because you thought that, unlike others, you, who didn’t aim to be a hero, would only be a hindrance to them?”

“…Yes.”

‘She’s kind.’

The girl lacked the ambition a hero should possess.

‘If she had completely given up, there's nothing I could do for her, but…’

Recalling the clean Seiroon uniform in Eiran’s room, Leo spoke.

“Do you like the story of Berkhia?”

It was a sudden question, but Eiran answered vigorously.

“Yes! It’s the story of my ancestor! I like it as much as the stories of the great heroes!”

“Then you’d know. Why Berkhia could become a great hero.”

“Huh?”

“Berkia could become a hero because she admired the great heroes who were her teachers and followed in their footsteps, right?”

“…!”

It is by no means only those with grand dreams who are suited to be heroes.

‘If that were the case, none of us, except Lysianas, would be fit to be heroes. No. Luna, Dwayno, and I would definitely be out.’

Recalling his friends, Leo said,

“Why do you care so much about what others think? You just have to go your own way.”

Eiran’s eyes widened.

Seeing her eyes, Leo let out a wry laugh.

‘Her personality is different, but she’s just like her ancestor.’

Eyes full of longing.

Even though she acted aloof, Berkhia used to look at Kyle with such eyes.

When Leo held out his hand, Eiran hesitated, then took it.

“Let’s go down, the Lumerne kids are all nice.”

Led by Leo’s hand, Eiran came downstairs and was welcomed by the Class 5 students.

“Oh! She’s back!”

“Sorry for making you feel pressured.”

“No, maybe she ran away after eating Chelsea’s cooking.”

“You brats!”

Chelsea glared, but held back for fear of scaring Eiran again.

Eiran, who had been completely flustered by the unfamiliar atmosphere, soon began to laugh without realizing it.

Soon, she naturally began to interact with the boys and girls her age.

Rune made an emotional expression.

“My granddaughter is getting along so well with her peers!”

“I heard that student Eiran is one of the top five students in Seiroon’s first year. Why did she leave school?”

“Until recently, I thought it was because of a student she absolutely couldn’t surpass, but that wasn’t it. The atmosphere of Seiroon school was the problem.”

“School atmosphere?”

“As you know, Seiroon offers many benefits to advanced students. Students with lower grades are naturally weeded out.”

“The same goes for Lumerne, though.”

“Yes. That’s unavoidable given the structure of a school. But Seiroon has a much stronger tendency.”

Since the classes themselves were graded, there was no other way.

“That seems to have been a burden for my granddaughter.”

Rune smiled bitterly.

“I attended Seiroon and worked as a teacher there, so I never thought of it as a problem. But Seiroon’s system didn’t suit my granddaughter.”

Rune looked at Leo.

‘I didn’t understand Eiran’s scared heart. In that sense, meeting Leo… was truly a great stroke of luck.’

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

Halind said, looking at Rune.

“To rise, one must overcome such things. Student Eiran has the skill, so she will be able to overcome it.”

“Yes. But a better method just occurred to me.”

“What method?”

“Professor Halind.”

“Yes, Grand Council President.”

Rune, who had wiped his tears, made a serious expression, and Halind also became serious.

“Does Lumerne accept transfer students?”

Halind let out a deep sigh.

‘Before, he told her to leave, but now he says she’s coming. Why are there so many elves asking about transfers?’