Chapter 1: Reunion

“……Ban?”

Students walked in a line down the academy corridor.

In a place usually unremarkable, a woman trembled, her eyes wide with disbelief.

“B-Ban? No, surely not, that can’t be… right? Right?!”

Perhaps it was because he had cast off the gas mask, which had been with him for years, feeling like a part of his own body, and now faced her bare-faced.

“……”

The man, receiving her unstable, trembling gaze, silently met her eyes.

He briefly looked back on his life.

An orphan from the back alleys. The Young Lady’s attendant. A mages’ experimental subject. A s*ave gladiator. And now, an academy student.

“…Hoo.”

But as if steeling himself, the man sighed, bowed his head slightly, and replied in a voice mixed with affection, resentment, longing, and anger.

“No. It is as the Young Lady suspects. Ban, your former attendant, greets you after a long time.”