章 37: A New Turn [5]
"Grrrnnn!"
Finishing the last pushup with Evan leaning back to back over me, which made it a lot heavier, we had finally concluded the CQC session.
"That's it for today! Class dismissed!"
Doing these training sessions was hard enough as it was, but doing them with the added weights was just pure torture even if I somehow managed to get through it with sheer force of will.
It was even worse as I had to deal with an extra factor that attempted to detract my attention from training.
'She is still acting strange...'
After what happened this morning, Celine had been throwing me some obvious glances every now and then, but every time I tried to meet her gaze, she quickly looked away.
I realized that she was probably still affected by the events this morning, and although it had felt pretty good that she became a bit invested in my well-being, it was still strange that it even happened in the first place.
Even with the explanation that she had helped me when I passed out, we were still nothing more than classmates at best, and strangers at worst.
So I didn't feel particularly guilty about calling her out on it, but I also didn't want her to feel bad just because she wanted to help me out.
'Life is pretty complicated, isn't it?'
Interacting with other humans wasn't exactly my forte, but I had no idea that it would be this exhausting.
I did, however, very much look forward to getting the chance to fight an upperclassman and see how large the gap was.
I still had no idea who that George guy was or why he was well-known, and I honestly didn't really care. All I cared about was a chance to fight again, getting the chance to experience the impacts of flesh on my knuckles.
Because even now, after several days, the sensation of winning hadn't left my fist.
****
[Cerus' POV]
"Is something wrong, Celine?"
"Huh?! Ah, no! Everything's fine!"
For the first time in quite a while, I had the chance to eat lunch with Celine alone, but from before even, it was obvious that something wasn't quite right. I had known Celine for a very long time already, ever since we were kids, so it wasn't like I wouldn't notice if she had something on her mind.
'But it's rare for her to try and hide it...'
Seeing her desperately stuff her face with food, enough to make it hard for her to even swallow, I wasn't sure what the appropriate approach would be. On the one hand, I cared for her a lot and wanted her to be happy, but on the other, it wasn't up to me to force her to tell me anything that she didn't want to talk about.
In the end, I simply changed the subject, thinking that if she felt the need to, she would eventually come around and tell me.
"So, did you hear the rumors? Apparently, George Strad is going to duel some freshmen next week. I wonder who would be so ballsy to accept the duel after only one week at the academy. Must be..."
"COUGH!"
"Celine! Are you alright?"
"I'm... I'm fine... absolutely great..."
Out of nowhere, Celine had choked on her food, forcing her throat to release a large cough for her to be able to breathe again, but at this point, despite her efforts of trying to play it off, it was just too obvious for me to ignore.
"You know who the freshman is, don't you?"
With a very guilty look, Celine didn't even try to pretend anymore.
"...yeah. I know who it is..."
"So? Who is it?"
"It's... Ray. It had something to do with Ray making George upset yesterday, and this morning, George challenged him to a duel which that idiot immediately accepted."
"I see. Wait, how do you know all of this?"
It took me a moment to realize that Celine knew an awful lot about the situation, despite my knowing that she harbored a substantial amount of dislike for our black-haired classmate. So the fact that she knew what he had been up to this morning was pretty strange.
Somehow, as I said this, Celine's eyes grew several sizes as she began to resemble something akin to a scared animal, however, she still forced herself to come up with a very obvious lie.
"That... I just happened to be in the vicinity, to be honest. So I couldn't help but overhear their conversation."
If not for the fact that Celine was a pretty lousy liar due to reasons like her frantically fiddling with her fingers like she was doing right now, it could have been a believable explanation.
"Celine..."
"I-It's true! I just happened to be near them when George challenged him!"
'Why does she keep lying when she knows I don't believe her? But I guess there's no reason to force the subject either.'
"Haaa... okay, fine. So, Ray is the freshman who will be dueling next week? That makes sense, I guess."
In the end, I let her off the hook. If she had something she didn't want to tell me, she was allowed to keep it to herself. But it was also impossible for me to not be a bit worried as I still had some major suspicions regarding our classmate and what he was up to.
"Yeah, because he is an idiot! He didn't even think about it at all and he didn't even seem to know what a duel was!"
"He didn't know what a duel was? Are you sure?"
"I'm sure. Otherwise, he should have at least known that duels had stakes, but he didn't seem to have a clue."
"I see..."
Yet another bit of information had shown itself to me, helping me to get a bit of a better idea of who Ray truly was. His whole demeanor, his actions, and now his lack of knowledge, unless he was acting, were indicators of one thing; It was very likely that Ray didn't come from Abas, Jonum or Sevini. In other words, I couldn't stop my suspicions that Ray could be someone who had managed to escape from Laktom.
Even if a lot of people thought that Laktom was similar to the other nations, with the difference of simply being a bit more independent, that wasn't the truth of the matter. Laktom was very, very different from the other nations in terms of their political ideologies.
A nation where the sun was always blocked by heavy, dark clouds. A nation where political figures didn't just hold a majority of the power, they held all of it, as well as a nation where violence was nothing but a part of their everyday life.
'If that's true... then he is dangerous...'
****
[Ray's POV]
"Welcome. My name is Mr. Folm. Most of you might know me as either the mentor of class 1-A or as the teacher responsible for the freshmen's Close Quarters Combat course."
There were a lot of freshmen who had picked the Physical Skills Development course, which had led us to occupy the huge sports hall, part of the sports center that the gym was also part of. It was very reminiscent of the sports hall that I had PE in when I was young, only a lot larger and equipped with lines on the floor that I couldn't connect to any of the sports that I knew of.
The floor looked like it was made of varnished wood, but after taking a couple of steps, it turned out that it was actually made out of some kind of rubbery material that allowed for some leeway when pushing down on it.
"Now, due to the nature of skills, I have two more teachers to help me with teaching you. First, we have Ms. Sterling who is responsible for the unarmed combat course. If any of you feel like you want to learn or need to learn combat skills revolving around using your body as a weapon, she is very likely the best teacher to help you."
Pointing to his side, where Ms. Sterling was standing, her long red hair once again put up in a neat ponytail, she was as cheerful as always.
"Hello everyone! I am Pheobe Sterling and I will do my best to help all of you!"
After her introduction, Mr. Folm raised his arm toward the other teacher as well, allowing him to introduce himself.
"Good afternoon. I am Fredrik Peaut, mainly responsible for the specialized swordsmanship course. If you want to learn skills regarding weapon imbuement, I would say that I am qualified to teach you. I can also assist in a more general assortment of skill development, but as you can likely guess, swords are my area of expertise."
Wearing the same white uniform as the other teachers, I had never seen this man in before. With his straight back, short black hair, and glasses, his face was a bit sharper than the way he spoke. In many ways, he seemed like a very proper teacher to me, almost a bit too proper as he heavily contrasted the bubbly, almost immature, Phoebe.
"Then, let's begin. You all may do as you like, if you want to work with each other or if you work on skills by yourselves. If you need help, don't hesitate to come and ask us for guidance."
週次パワーステータス
-- 推薦
ランキング 
-- 推薦
チケット