Chapter 7: Lingering Warmth

Yelena’s skin was quite rough, unlike that of a noble lady.

Her fingers were full of calluses, proving what kind of life she had lived.

I carefully grasped her hand.

“Thank you.”

Yelena Frost was no longer a piece of data on the other side of the screen.

Having seen the girl’s true appearance hidden behind her expressionless mask, there was no way I could treat her as mere data.

I looked at Yelena, who still had her usual emotionless expression, and said.

“Please call me Sian comfortably.

There’s no need to be formal between friends.”

“Okay.

Sian.”

“Hehe…”

The reflexive smile that escaped me at Yelena’s voice was a natural reaction for a gamer who had spent thousands of hours on [Arcana Academy].

How could I hold back when my favorite character called me in such a soft voice?

I ended up smiling with a completely relaxed expression without realizing it.

Yelena, who was looking at me, muttered in a small voice with a somewhat relaxed expression for some reason.

“…Lift me up now.

I’m so tired, I have no strength.”

“O-oh, okay!”

The girl who was always like a machine, whispering in a slightly relaxed manner, looked strangely attractive.

Thinking that looking at her any longer would be bad for my heart, I closed my eyes tightly and pulled on Yelena’s hand.

Forgetting the obvious fact that Yelena, who had been training for nearly twenty hours without eating anything, must be very tired now.

“Kya?!”

“Ugh…!”

Two girls falling with a short scream.

However, perhaps because I was slowly getting used to Yelena’s unrealistic appearance, my response this time was quicker.

The Stigmata under my glove glowed in a dark light.

Moving two or more people with Blink consumed a lot of mana, but I had my sword now.

Closing my eyes tightly, I gathered mana to my Stigmata and pulled Yelena close.

“Wait a minute?!”

“Hold on tight!”

She must have been sweating all day from swinging her sword, but the scent of the girl that wafted through the air was strangely sweet.

Trying to ignore the sensation of the soft mass of fat felt on my chest, and listening to Yelena’s heartbeat through our close skin.

[Stigmata ‘Blink’ is activated.]

Before my mind could get any more confused, I quickly activated my Stigmata.

Dark particles surrounded us.

“It might be a little dizzy!”

At the same time, the two girls’ vision flipped.

The distance to the entrance of the training hall was instantly compressed.

A strange floating sensation came a beat later, and then my feet touched the ground.

I lightly landed on the ground and leaned my body against Yelena.

A feeling of exhaustion washed over me.

“Ugh…

This is why I didn’t want to use Stigmata together…”

“…Huh?”

Yelena let out a bewildered moan.

Perhaps it was because she had never experienced Blink using Stigmata before.

Yelena’s heartbeat seemed to be getting faster.

I think I was like that when I first got the Blink ability.

The sensation of space being compressed, the body floating in the air for a moment, and then being pulled back to the ground.

It took me almost a year to get used to that sensation and to be able to use Blink effectively in combat.

“I’m sorry.

It’s a bit dizzying at first.”

However, Yelena still didn’t respond.

It took me a while to realize why.

Right now, I was leaning against Yelena, very close to her.

It was a distance that Yelena would never be familiar with.

“Um, I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable…”

I quickly pulled my staggering body away from Yelena and apologized.

No, I tried to pull away.

Until Yelena’s arms wrapped around my body.

“…No.

You can stay like this.

You look very dizzy.”

“Huh?”

At Yelena’s strangely soft voice, my body trembled without me realizing it.

I wondered if the Yelena in the game, who never expressed her emotions, or who only gave a fake smile, and this girl in front of me were the same person.

At Yelena’s warm words of consideration, I looked up at her with dazed eyes.

“Well.

You just looked like you were having a hard time, so I let you lean on me.

I don’t have any other thoughts.”

Yelena’s words, unusually many.

And I was getting more and more embarrassed.

An awkward silence flowed between the two of us, and our heartbeats sounded unusually fast.

We were in a situation where we didn’t know what to say to each other.

Even so, I kept being conscious of Yelena’s touch, so we stood there in an awkward position for a while.

“It’s almost time to clean the training hall, can you all come out for a moment…”

And then, a savior appeared to break the awkward atmosphere between us.

Elin, who was looking around the training hall, slowly entered, and the sight of us embracing each other awkwardly came into her view.

“Oh my, sorry.

Should I come back later?”

No.

She wasn’t a savior.

That was a bomb.

A huge bomb.

Without even thinking about hiding my rapidly flushing cheeks, I quickly jumped out of Yelena’s arms.

“N-no!

It’s not what you think, teacher, I just caught her when she was about to fall…!”

“Hehe, Sian is always so interesting.”

I stopped talking abruptly and froze when I saw Elin looking at me as if I were a cute creature.

So, Elin-sensei just threw out those words as a joke, and I shouted like that because I felt guilty for no reason?

I silently raised my mana.

I was a little dizzy from carrying Yelena with my Stigmata earlier, but I could still use my Stigmata once or twice more.

“Ugh, ah…”

“Sian, are you okay?”

At Yelena’s indifferent voice from behind, as if nothing had happened, I ended up running away by activating my Stigmata without realizing it.

Elin muttered as she looked at the spot where Sian had disappeared.

“Oh dear, was I too harsh?

I should apologize next time.”

“…?”

Yelena looked at Elin, who was muttering with an embarrassed expression, and had a curious look on her face.

The girl, who had only known the sword, couldn’t understand Elin’s joke.

Yelena also couldn’t understand why Sian suddenly blushed and ran away.

Nevertheless, for some reason, Sian’s stuttering appearance was quite cute.

Thinking that it was a good thing, Yelena looked at Elin.

“By the way, were you with Sian?”

“Yes.

I wanted to talk about the areas where I was lacking in the duel.”

“Oh, I see.

Honestly, I came back because I was worried that something might have happened between you two, but was it an unnecessary concern?”

“…She’s a hard person to hate.

Sian.”

Every time she looked at Sian, she felt strangely warm inside.

Was this what people usually meant when they said someone was cute?

But she was also someone who had absolutely no sense of personal space, suddenly embracing her and then getting embarrassed and pulling away.

A truly strange child.

Thinking that, Yelena slowly moved her feet.

The next day.

7 AM.

Unlike usual, when I would go straight to training after waking up, I took a deep breath of the morning air and went out to the field.

If the first two days of the class placement test evaluated individual skills through duels, the third day, today, was the day to evaluate survival skills.

The third day’s test, conducted in a ‘battle royale’ format, was a simulated battle using the forest north of the academy and a large-scale magic circle.

Hundreds of students would be randomly dropped into the forest and fight until the last one remained.

It was a test format that was quite familiar to me, who had memories of my past life.

It was natural, since the creators of [Arcana Academy] were probably people who had lived in the 21st century like me.

“…So, I need to move as fast as possible.”

Because there was something I needed in the forest north of the school where the third day’s test was taking place.

My mana stat was D-.

Without my sword, I couldn’t activate all five uses of my Stigmata, Blink.

Stigmata were monsters that devoured mana.

It would be solved if I kept carrying my sword, but this was Arcana Academy, the Empire’s top academy.

Of course, they wouldn’t allow a student to carry a real sword outside the training hall.

I muttered, looking at the sword on my waist.

“Even today, all we’re given for the test are practice swords with special magic engraved on them.”

The enemies weren’t gentlemen who would only attack me when I had my sword.

So, it would be better to have a contingency plan.

I organized my thoughts and headed to the field.

Students were standing in front of a large-scale space transfer magic circle.

I quickly found the temporary Class A.

“The third day of the academy class placement test will take place in the northern forest.

You will be transferred to a random location…”

Letting the explanation that I had heard countless times on the screen go in one ear and out the other, I checked my physical condition for the last time.

My physical condition was always good.

Stigmata users rarely suffered from minor illnesses.

Everyone seemed to be looking for friends to act with, but I wasn’t interested in that.

I had to move alone to get the hidden piece in the first place.

[Academy 1st Year Student’s Training Practice Sword][2]

[Special Ability: Durability]

“The sword’s condition is fine too…”

The explanation was slowly coming to an end, and the large-scale transfer magic circle was shining with a humming sound.

I, who was prepared to fight as usual, stepped into the transfer magic circle.

No, I was about to step in.

“Hey.

You, commoner wench!”

“…?”

Before a noble-looking boy, who looked like a third-rate villain, came with his gang and surrounded me.