Chapter 74: Yuria (1)

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The day was bright and warm, and at night, the air was crisp with a cool breeze.

In other words, it was perfect weather for outdoor training.

In my past life, around this time, the yellow dust would’ve made masks a necessity, and outdoor activities would’ve been unthinkable.

Who would’ve thought I’d miss that yellow dust? Life is truly unpredictable.

Anyway, on a fine weekend like this, everyone seemed to head outside to the training grounds as if by some unspoken agreement.

It was no different now.

Standing in front of the main gate of the dormitory, I could see groups of cadets heading to the training grounds, each carrying their own gear.

“Huh? Senior Gerard?”

“Hey. Hi.”

“Hello, Senior Gerard!”

“Yeah. Hey.”

“Greetings, sir!”

“Yo.”

“Look, it’s Senior Gerard!”

“…”

Maybe because this was the girls’ dormitory.

The girls, moving in groups, rushed over to greet me as soon as they spotted me.

Then they giggled among themselves and drifted away.

I hesitated for a moment.

Should I listen or not?

I had some bad memories, and I felt like I might regret it, but eh, when did I ever care about that kind of thing?

I sharpened my hearing and eavesdropped on their conversation.

“This time, Senior Gerard caught another villain. He’s seriously amazing.”

“Right? I heard he saved Karina too.”

“I saw it with my own eyes.”

“What? For real?”

“Yeah. I was near the Blue Dragon Hall. It was absolute chaos. But then, bam! Senior Gerard showed up and turned the whole vibe around. I was just…”

Hmm. The praise for me still hasn’t died down.

It’s been three days; you’d think it’d cool off by now.

Despite that thought, my shoulders were practically soaring.

It was hard to keep the corners of my mouth from dancing.

“Are all the 888th class seniors like that?”

“No way. Don’t you know my mentor? Kalim, that guy. He’s so lazy… ugh, don’t get me started! Comparing him to Senior Gerard is almost offensive, honestly!”

Of course, of course.

Comparing me to that slacker Kalim is indeed an insult to me.

Was her name Rosaline? She’s got some sense.

The key point here is this:My reputation has changed drastically compared to a month ago.

A remarkable transformation.

Isn’t this exactly what people mean by turning over a new leaf?

Eavesdropping was a good call.

“I’m so jealous of that Karina girl. Getting caught up in something like that and earning merit points without even doing anything.”

“Ugh, so jealous! When’s that kind of luck gonna come to me? Should I just start following Senior Gerard around from now on?”

“Pfft! Go for it.”

“But doesn’t Senior Gerard seem kinda cooler lately?”

“Is your eyesight okay?”

Let’s pretend I didn’t hear that last part.

I glanced around.

Since this was the first-year dormitory, every kid I ran into greeted me, which was starting to get annoying.

Just then, I spotted a bench shaded by a tree.

I went over and sat down.

Plop.

“I should’ve waited here from the start.”

I was waiting for Yuria.

Normally, Yuria would’ve been the one waiting for me in front of the guys’ dormitory.

But today, it seemed like she was sleeping in or something.

So here I was, waiting for her.

Meeting up every weekend to train together had become something of an unspoken promise for us.

Of course, today I had another reason besides training.

I planned to subtly probe Yuria about her relationship with Ivan.

“But why is she so late?”

I pulled out my pocket watch.

It was already 20 minutes past our usual meeting time.

“Strange. She’s never been this late.”

Is she sick?

I walked back to the main gate.

Just then, two 890th-class cadets came out, and I stopped them.

“Hey, kids, hold on.”

“Oh! Hello, Senior Gerard!”

“Yeah, yeah.”

I brushed off the greetings and got to the point.

“Have you seen Yuria?”

“Yuria? Oh, are you waiting for her?”

“Yeah.”

“She already left.”

I was dumbfounded.

“…She left?”

“Yeah. It’s been over 30 minutes. I know because I’m in the room next to hers. Right?”

“Yup!”

“Uh. Thanks for now.”

I let them go and stood there for a moment.

Honestly, I was shocked.

This had never happened before.

She left? Thirty minutes ago would’ve been before I even left the dorm.

Thinking we might’ve crossed paths, I headed to the training grounds.

Passing the practice field where many cadets were running, I entered the training hall.

Yuria was there.

Sitting on a bench, staring blankly into space.

“…For real?”

I was about to call out to her when someone else ran up to her first.

It was Ivan.

‘…’

My steps toward Yuria stopped on their own.

I don’t know why I stopped, but I just stood there, watching them.

They were talking about something.

From the way Ivan occasionally burst out laughing, the mood didn’t seem bad.

No.

It was actually pretty good.

Their faces matched so well it was like a painting.

It was straight out of a youth movie.

I carefully turned around.

If I joined them, the genre would shift from a youth movie to a thriller.

‘So, she ditched our promise to come to the training hall with Ivan?’

It wasn’t an explicit promise.

As I said, it was just a routine that naturally solidified because we did it every day.

‘But still, that’s a promise!’

My teeth gritted on their own.

No, getting petty about something like this at my age is ridiculous.

I shook my head vigorously and reminded myself of my original goal.

‘If this keeps up, that punk will steal Yuria from me.’

No way I’d let that happen.

Just then.

‘What’s that now?’

An unexpected scene unfolded before me.

“Kyaha! What are you two doing here!”

It was Rachel.

“Oh, no way, you two…”

“No! It’s not like that!”

“Come on, Ivan. Denying it so loudly just makes it more suspicious!”

I don’t know about suspicious people.

But it was definitely a shitty combination.

Why the hell did she pop up here?

“Anyway, let’s start training! We made a bet, remember?”

Rachel, bustling with energy, dragged the two of them somewhere.

The First Training Hall, reserved for swordsmanship specialists.

I followed them.

One punk was bad enough, but now with a masked fox joining in, my worries piled up like a mountain.

I didn’t know what kind of scheme innocent Yuria might fall victim to.

The three stood in front of a punch machine.

The punch machine was a combat magitech puppet repurposed for training.

As the name suggests, it’s a magitech puppet that throws indiscriminate punches forward.

By dodging it, cadets could improve their agility, evasion, and dynamic vision.

Rachel went first.

The punch machine’s eyes flashed blue, and it slammed its fists together with a bang bang.

Blue meant difficulty level 4.

And level 4 was no warm-up—it was a challenge even the 889th class, now in their second-year curriculum, struggled to last 10 seconds in.

So, the cadets who had been stealing glances at the trio since they entered expressed concern when they saw the machine’s eye color.

“Isn’t that a bit dangerous?”

“Yeah. Shouldn’t we stop them? She might get a scratch on that pretty face.”

“You just watch for now. If it looks dangerous, then we step in.”

“…Are you a genius or something?”

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

Unlike what they thought, Rachel wasn’t a fragile girl or an ordinary cadet.

At her core, she was a Dark Cleric who had stained her black sword with blood in countless battles, with a personality that went beyond an ordinary vixen to a nine-tailed fox.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

In the end, Rachel cleared the punch machine’s full 30-second duration.

Spinning around with a smug grin, Rachel’s sweat-dampened hair, red lips, and the beauty mark beside them combined with her flashy movements to exude a charm that made onlookers’ hearts race.

“…She’s cute.”

“Agreed.”

“She’s sexy.”

“That too.”

Idiots.

When you see a junior move faster than you, you should feel ashamed first, not fall in love.

“Now it’s your turn, Yuria!”

“Oh. Okay.”

I wasn’t too worried.

The punch machine was Yuria’s favorite training tool, and she excelled at it.

Ever since learning high-speed swordsmanship, you could say her days started and ended with the punch machine.

‘She cleared level 4 a while ago.’

But was I mistaken?

Pow!

An impossible anomaly occurred.

“Y-Yuria! Are you okay?”

“Yuria!”

People rushed to Yuria, who had been knocked back by a punch.

I just watched the scene silently.

I could still vividly recall Yuria proudly saying she’d completely mastered level 4.

Yet now, she’d been hit and knocked down in just 8 seconds.

A mistake?

“I’m fine. It’s not a big deal.”

“Yuria? You’re not trying it again, are you?”

“Yeah. I just got distracted for a moment.”

“Should we lower the difficulty then?”

“I’m really fine, Ivan.”

But Yuria got hit again and stepped back.

This time, even faster—7 seconds.

She didn’t fall, but she couldn’t easily lift her head after the hit.

Her expression was blank.

But I, who knew her well, could tell.

Her face was full of frustration.

“Sorry to you two, but can I train with the punch machine alone today?”

“Huh? Of course!”

“Do it.”

“Sorry for bailing when we planned to train together.”

“No, no. We totally get it. Don’t worry about us and go for it!”

And so, Yuria took over the punch machine.

She trained in a trance-like state.

The other cadets, who had initially been concerned for her, soon returned to their own tasks.

Before I knew it, I was the only one left watching her.

* * *

“So. After watching Yuria, what’s your conclusion?”

“She’s regressing. Definitely.”

“The reason?”

“Hmm. A change in her state of mind?”

At my words, Baron Tesda nodded.

“Certainly, a complicated state of mind can lead to regression in performance. What we commonly call a slump often starts there.”

“Exactly.”

I took a sip from the teacup.

The hot tea went down smoothly, leaving no aftertaste.

“How is it?”

“It’s alright.”

“You don’t know how to appreciate tea.”

Baron Tesda, whose hobby of tea ceremony seemed out of character, clicked his tongue.

“Just give me coffee or something.”

“Forget it. Keep drinking and wait.”

With that, Baron Tesda went to the kitchen.

He’d once promised to treat me to a meal, and today was the day.

I’d come to his house as soon as evening hit and told him about what happened earlier today.

A meal and some counseling on the side.

“But what could’ve caused a change in Yuria’s state of mind recently?”

Baron Tesda’s voice came from the kitchen.

“Isn’t it obvious? It’s because of Ivan.”

“Ivan?”

“Yeah.”

Ivan, the protagonist of this Academy story, could balance both work and romance, but Yuria couldn’t.

If this continued, Yuria might fall into a slump and self-destruct.

This wasn’t just about losing her to Ivan anymore.

“That’s sudden. Why does Ivan come up?”

“Haven’t you heard? Ivan and Yuria have been hanging out a lot lately.”

“Right. Chaser’s testimony, so it’s probably reliable.”

“When young men and women hang out together, what happens? Sparks fly, naturally.”

“Hmm.”

With a vague hum, Baron Tesda focused on cooking, saying no more.

So I got up from the sofa.

For some reason, my mouth felt bitter.

The tea had no flavor.

I figured I’d kill time by looking around the house until the food was ready.

‘But, well, there’s not much to see.’

The house was a high-end, three-bedroom residence, but it looked empty with hardly any furniture or belongings.

A house with only the bare essentials.

Kindly put, it was tidy; harshly put, it felt lonely and desolate.

‘He’s not exactly advertising his bachelor status, so why live so pathetically?’

If it were me, I’d rent it out or something.

‘Living alone in a house this big… huh?’

As I scanned the room, my eyes landed on a picture frame on a shelf.

Inside was a black-and-white photo of a ‘sword-wielding woman’ smiling brightly at me.

In front of it was a small red bottle, like a ruby.

I muttered to myself.

“Poinsettia…?”

Poinsettia.

A type of stimulant.

It lets you forget physical pain and fatigue for a while.

In simple terms, it temporarily turns the user into a berserker who transcends physical limits.

‘Why’s this here? I thought it was banned in the Empire long ago.’

Not only was its distribution banned, but the guild that manufactured it was destroyed, and the recipe was lost entirely.

I’d only seen it in the setting guide.

‘If I had this, I could survive one near-death situation.’

My brain, now fully steeped in thievery, surged with greed.

But only for a moment.

‘I can’t become trash like that.’

If it were anyone else, I’d have seriously planned the heist without a second thought.

But this belonged to Baron Tesda, of all people.

I cleanly let go of my greed.

‘The first person at the Academy to believe in me. Betraying him would be like giving up on being human.’

No matter how life-saving the item might be, my loyalty to Baron Tesda was more important.

‘Just don’t get into a situation where I’d need it.’

I stared at the frame for a moment before turning away.

“There was a brief trend among comrades to gift poinsettias. That’s from back then.”

Baron Tesda was standing there.

“Poinsettia is the fairy name for winter flowers. In fairy language, poinsettia also means ‘I love you passionately.’ Pretty cool, right?”

“…Yeah, cool.”

“Right? It’s quite romantic. Fairies, you know.”

Baron Tesda was smiling at the frame.

Was it my imagination, or did he look forlorn?

“Want it?”

I nodded.

“I’d take it gratefully if you gave it to me.”

“Sorry, but I can’t give it to you, even if it’s you.”

“…Then why ask?”

“To tease you.”

“…”

“What are you staring at? Come on. Food’s ready.”

We sat at the dining table.

I looked at the dishes.

A pie that looked like it would burst with sweet apple jam if poked with a fork, bread and soup with a savory aroma that made my mouth water, and springy spaghetti.

“Is cooking your hobby?”

“When you live alone, you naturally pick up this level of skill.”

There was a hint of melancholy in his reply.

“Don’t ask more. Just eat.”

“Yes. Oh? This is good.”

“Glad it suits your taste.”

It wasn’t just good.

It was genuinely delicious, beyond what words could describe.

I gave a thumbs-up.

“The best. Better than every restaurant on campus combined.”

Baron Tesda laughed.

“The tea?”

“That’s meh.”

“You can’t even fake a compliment.”

Chuckling, Baron Tesda suddenly asked with a serious expression,“So? What do you think of Yuria?”

What do I think?

I think of her as a reliable talent to groom as my right-hand woman in the future.

Of course, I didn’t say that.

“She’s a junior I care about, that’s all.”

“Really? That’s it?”

“Of course. Why are you suddenly asking that?”

“Didn’t you just say it yourself? When young men and women hang out, sparks fly?”

I did say that.

“But doesn’t that apply to you too?”

“…Huh?”

“In terms of hanging out, Yuria spends more time with you than Ivan. So, by timing and logic, shouldn’t you be the trigger for her, not Ivan?”

“Hold on, stop!”

I put down my fork.

I set it down so hard that some food splattered, but neither of us cared.

Something was going very wrong with this conversation.

“So.”

“Yeah.”

“So, what you’re saying, Baron Tesda, is that the reason Yuria’s state of mind is complicated… is because of me, not Ivan? That’s what you’re trying to say?”

Baron Tesda nodded.

“Exactly.”

I stared at him blankly.

“What kind of nonsense is this guy spouting?”

…Oh.

It was so absurd that I accidentally said out loud what I meant to keep in my head.

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