Chapter 26: Beneath The Academy Walls

The next day. Just like yesterday, after class, we gathered and strolled through the academy gardens, chatting.

“Oh, right, was today Regina’s first class?”

“Yes, it was…!”

“Regina, you’re in the Magic Department, right? So, how was your first Magic Department class?”

“Um, it wasn’t as interesting as I thought…it was all…things I already knew…”

Regina had chosen the Magic Department.

In [Arcana Academy], Regina was a student in the Swordsmanship Department like us, but Regina, freed from ‘fate’, wanted to try a new class.

Still, it was inevitable that it would be boring.

Regina was a magic swordsman who could handle both magic and swordsmanship. Her magic skills, honed through 999 regressions, were at least at the level of an archmage.

“Still, I…took first place in the Magic Department…!”

“Yeah. With Regina’s magic skills, that wouldn’t be difficult.”

Carefully stroking Regina, who looked up at me with eyes that seemed to be asking for praise, I turned to Yelena.

“Oh, right, Yelena. Regina.”

“Hmm?”

“I, I have to go somewhere a little early today. I have somewhere to be.”

It was still the first day of class, so there was no homework and no content to memorize. There wasn’t much progress made either.

Because of that, if not today, I wouldn’t have time to visit the adventurer’s guild.

Of course, if it was a financial problem, I could ask Yelena and Regina for help, but I didn’t want to do that. I had bad memories from my previous life about asking friends for help.

“Oh, is that so…?”

“Yes. It’s a personal matter. But don’t worry. It won’t take that long.”

“If it’s something I can help with, I can help. I have time anyway, shall I help?”

“Kya?!”

Yelena approached me and whispered. The lips of Yelena, who came close enough to touch my ear, made me involuntarily let out an embarrassing groan.

“Sian?”

“Ah, w-wait a minute…!”

Even in this situation, the beautiful voice that I heard again in my ear. The feeling of my mind going blank, I shuddered and grabbed Yelena’s arm to keep from falling.

Suddenly, my legs gave out. I had to stand up, but my legs were shaking so much, I leaned on Yelena.

For some reason, I felt like all the gazes around me were focused on me, and my face turned red automatically. No, maybe this wasn’t just a feeling?

“Augh…”

Even though it was a gathering of the top swordsman and the second best, and the top magic student. Moreover, all three were sufficiently beautiful girls. So the attention was not my illusion, I guess.

Overwhelmed by shame, I covered my face with both hands. I whispered so quietly that only Yelena and Regina could hear.

“I, I…my ears are a little weak, so when you touch them, be careful…please…”

I wanted to crawl into a mouse hole if I could, but unfortunately, this was in the middle of the academy garden.

So, I hid myself half in Yelena’s arms, as if to hide, and continued.

“You…understand?”

“Yes, yes. I understand….!”

“…Yes. I’ll keep that in mind.”

The fact that I had to tell my friends my weakness with my own mouth was so embarrassing. I couldn’t even notice that tears had welled up in my eyes, and I carefully looked up at Yelena.

Then, I gently stroked my cheek, the long and delicate thumb. Yelena gently wiped away the tears from my eyes, and added in her usual emotionless and chic voice.

“Tears, welled up.”

“Ugh?”

I was soothed by the cold yet warm touch of Yelena’s hand that I didn’t notice the hot gaze of Regina from behind. Nor did I see the slight movement of Yelena’s Adam’s apple as she swallowed.

I just stared blankly at the touch on my cheek, and quickly escaped.

“Ah, um…I’ll be going first then…!”

“Yes. See you in the evening.”

“Be careful on your way, Sian…!”

“Ooo…!”

The hill leading down to the autonomous district. I twisted my body, recalling the faux pas I had just shown in front of Yelena.

Even in front of a friend, I felt like I had become too relaxed.

“But, my ears…are really weak.”

However, it wasn’t like I had no excuses. It’s not like I wanted to be like this…!

At a young age, in order to survive as an adventurer, I gathered hidden pieces that were advantageous for detecting various presences.

And the best among them was the passive skill I received from the elves as a reward. [Sound of the Wind]. It was a cheat ability that made my hearing as sensitive as that of the elves.

The problem was, this [Sound of the Wind] wasn’t a skill that only made hearing sensitive.

Elves have sensitive ears overall. So, to such and such sensations…their ears are quite sensitive.

“…So am I.”

And that was no different for me, who had received [Sound of the Wind]. It just looked different from the elves, but the reaction to stimulation was the same.

“Well, they’ll be careful next time.”

I lightly dismissed the worries that arose and slowly opened the door of the autonomous district’s adventurer’s guild.

The autonomous district adventurer’s guild was cleaner and more sophisticated than the guilds in other places.

Instead of the cozy impression of a place where all kinds of emotions always gathered, full of the smell of alcohol and sweat, and a friendly-looking receptionist, boys and girls dressed neatly were working as receptionists.

It was the appearance of an adventurer’s guild that I had seen countless times in the game. But as someone who had been active as an adventurer for five years, this appearance was rather awkward.

In the first place, the adventurer’s guild in the academy’s autonomous district was a little different from the guilds outside. As the academy was a place where all kinds of talents gathered, the guild also put its best foot forward.

“Welcome, did you come to apply to become an adventurer?”

“No. I came to pick up a quest.”

The receptionist, who mistook me for an aspiring adventurer because I was wearing a first-year uniform, flinched when I took out my rank badge.

Usually, gold badge adventurers are in their late 30s at the earliest, so I thought it was understandable that they would be surprised. I carefully poured mana onto the gold badge. Then, the part where my name was engraved shone brightly.

“Is this enough to verify its authenticity?”

“Ah. Yes, adventurer. The quests are posted over there. But it’s still early in the semester…so there won’t be any quests suitable for a gold badge.”

“It’s okay. I wasn’t looking for a difficult quest in the first place.”

The developers of [Arcana Academy] liked to hide high-difficulty hidden quests or hidden dungeons in the early areas.

So that users would look around the map they made one more time.

“Hmm…”

I slowly scanned the quests, recalling the hidden achievements that could be cleared in the adventurer’s guild and their rewards.

Since it was a branch created to encourage students to join the adventurer’s guild, there were no gold badge quests, or even silver badge quests, on the board.

I was quietly scanning the copper and iron badge quests that anyone could easily do, and I carefully took out a dusty piece of paper stuck between them.

A paper that had been posted for quite some time, without the exact reward written.

“This will be suitable.”

[Clear the monsters in the autonomous district’s underground sewer][Copper Badge or higher to accept] was written in small letters on the request form.

If it were an adventurer’s guild in some remote village, it might be different, but in the Arcana Academy autonomous district guild, where only preciously raised children gathered, it was a request form that would never be accepted.

There was almost no way that the children of noble families or wealthy families would jump into the sewers themselves. In the first place, even adventurers from commoner backgrounds were reluctant to go into the sewers.

“Are, are you really going to accept this request? Adventurer?”

“Yes.”

“If you give up on an accepted quest, you have to refund 50% of the quest reward. Are you really, going to accept that quest?”

“Yes. In the first place, I’ve taken on many quests like that, so you don’t have to worry. Besides, that’s the only practical quest available right now.”

The reward for the quest that followed this [Clear the monsters in the autonomous district’s underground sewer] was quite good.

Moreover, in the next quest, which was directly connected to the underground sewer, you could even meet one of the unromancable heroines, the Saint.

The Saint was also a very popular character. Perhaps that was why. Although she appeared in the original story only in the second semester of the first year, I wondered what the Saint would be like in this place that had become reality.

“I understand.”

Fortunately, since I had revealed the fact that I was a gold badge adventurer in advance, the receptionist didn’t say anything else.

In the first place, the criteria for promoting to a gold badge adventurer included quest completion rate and the adventurer’s credibility. They probably decided to trust that.

“Here, please sign here.”

I simply signed the paper that the receptionist handed me, looked at the clock one last time, and quickly moved.

If I wanted to enter before the curfew at ten o’clock, it seemed like I would be quite busy today.