Ellen had suddenly decided to start training with Loyar, so I mostly only sparred with Cliffman. Although some quite strange events had occurred, I quickly returned to my daily life at Temple.
Like that, it became July.
-What are you going to do during the vacation?
-Shouldn't you worry about finals first?
Kono Lint was excited, as our vacations were fast approaching; Erich advised him to first think about the final exams.
What had I done for the finals to be already so close?
However, after our final exam, we would be given about a month of vacation.
During his first vacation, Ludwig would go to Delphin's hometown, Talprad, to train his ranged weapon mastery. They would encounter events like fighting bandits.
Class B's Ludwig, Delphin, and Lanian had already become close friends, as intended by the original story, so their vacation event should proceed without any problems unless Charlotte suddenly decided to do something with all the Class B kids.
And even if the ranger training didn't take place, it wouldn't be such a big deal. Of course, as Ludwig got trained as a ranger in the original story, he got used to things like mountainous terrain and developed his tracking and hunting skills.
I mean, there weren't many incidents connected to military matters at that point, the slice of life part, so it would only become serious if there was another big deviation from the original development.
I didn't really study for the final exam. Some challenges related to the final exam appeared, but they were really similar to the ones before. I had failed the first time, so I didn't think I would succeed that time either.
Instead of studying hard for nothing like last time, I planned on relaxing.
After all, I hadn't really studied to get good grades but to get achievement points.
I wondered what I should do for my vacation.
I had no intentions of simply playing around. I could just train as I usually did, but I could still go out of Temple for longer periods of time, so I could take some more advanced actions, things I wouldn't normally be able to do.
I was thinking about spending my vacations completely differently from what Kono Lint, who only wanted to play around, was planning.
It was Wednesday, and I had just returned to the dormitory after all of my classes were over.
"Hey, Reinhardt."
"Huh?"
I turned around when I heard someone calling out to me; there were the four girls from Class A. The one who called out to me was Liana de Grantz.
What did they want?
Liana indicated towards the window with her chin.
"We're going out to get some dessert. Wanna join us?"
"W-why are you inviting him!?"
The face of Harriet, who was with her, immediately turned red, perhaps because she didn't expect it. Of course, Liana, who was very my-pace, just shrugged her shoulders.
"Just because."
She really didn't seem to have a reason.
The instant she said that, Kono Lint and Erich, who were chatting about their vacation plans, turned towards me.
Ah, I want to kill that fucking normie.
That was what their expressions conveyed. Ellen, who apparently wanted to hang out with me again after a long time, was also part of the group of girls. Adelia's expression showed uneasiness. She was still afraid of me.
Harriet's expression showed her obvious bewilderment at Liana suddenly pulling me into their plans.
Although Ellen and Harriet's attitudes towards me had changed a bit ever since the kidnapping incident, Harriet still had her unique aspects.
What should I do?
Hmm.
I felt the gazes of Erich and Kono Lint on me, emitting intense killing intent.
"If you're the ones buying."
"I was planning on treating the others anyway."
Hearing Liana's reply that she would pay for everyone as if it was natural, the faces of those two watching me distorted even more.
"Then I'll go with you."
I didn't really think much of it, so I just stood up from my seat to make those two even more upset.
"Th-that's! Then! Le-let's invite the others as well!" Harriet exclaimed, with her face slightly shriveled up. She probably simply didn't want to be around me alone.
Hearing that, the two bystanders' eyes lit up: 'Maybe they'll take me too?'
"Are you guys also coming?"
Liana turned towards Erich and Kono Lint, who had been watching the whole exchange from a distance, as if she didn't really care much.
The price for seven people's worth of desserts would be pretty high, but she was a Duke's daughter, so things were different.
"H-huh? U-us?"
"Ththat's…"
When she directly asked those two if they wanted to come, their faces turned bright red, and they started stuttering.
In the short period of time Erich and Kono Lint spent just looking at each other without answering, Liana took the lead.
"Never mind. Let's go."
I felt sorry for those two, who couldn't even take a hint when it was being spoonfed to them.
If you continue to be like that, you'll stay single for the rest of your life, idiots.
That was what I tried to tell them with my eyes.
* * *
Reaper Scans
Translator – KonnoAren
Proofreader – ilafy
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I had thought that Ellen and Liana's personalities were slightly similar, but after comparing them, I felt how hugely different they were.
Ellen was just the calm type.
And Liana was the cool type.
It was the subtle difference between calm and cool.
"…"
-Munch munch
Ellen rarely showed any reactions.
"This is delicious. There's too much cream, though."
Liana showed her reactions, but she was quite blunt and straightforward. There was definitely a difference between being calm and just being straightforward.
"Yeah! It's so good! Try this, Adelia."
And then there was Harriet, who had big reactions to everything.
That was especially true when I teased her, but she was someone who had her heart on her sleeves to begin with. In the past, she had seemed incredibly rude, but with time her personality made a complete change, almost evaporating that aspect of her.
It might have happened because I strengthened her immunity to those things.
"Isn't it delicious? It's delicious, right?"
"Mhm, it's good…"
Adelia only expressed herself with a few words.
"Aren't you eating anything?" Liana asked me, who hadn't even touched his dessert yet.
"Reinhardt hates sweets."
Ellen, who had stayed quiet up until then, as fitting her personality, suddenly said something. Come to think of it, she was around when I told Redina that I didn't like sweets a long while ago; she seemed to have remembered that.
At that, all the girls turned towards Ellen.
Of course, Ellen was still eating her parfait even after she said that.
"Oh… You hate sweets?"
Harriet was curious because it was her first time hearing of it. I nodded at her words.
"It's not like I absolutely hate them, but I don't really like eating those things."
Come to think of it, the only classmates who knew that about me were Ellen and Charlotte.
"…You came here knowing that we would eat sweets, though, right?"
Liana looked at me as if I were crazy.
"I didn't really come for the desserts, I only came because you are buying."
Liana clicked her tongue at the absurd statement that I had gone there even while not liking sweets just because I'd get free food.
"Hey, you should at least eat what you ordered."
Of course, I only ordered a piece of cake, but I couldn't even touch it. At Harriet's remark, I nodded towards Ellen.
"It doesn't really matter anyway because she'd eat everything regardless."
-Munch, munch, munch
If there were leftovers, they would get absorbed into that girl's stomach anyway, so it didn't really matter that much.
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Ellen, who was treated like a leftover disposal unit, was still eating her own food without even paying any attention to us. The girls' faces showed a bizarre expression again at my words.
Ellen ate a lot. They knew that by then.
Those guys are pretty close, aren't they?
That was what their expression seemed to mean.
Of course, even though I didn't eat anything, I still drank my tea. Liana looked at me with her eyebrows slightly furrowed.
"You shouldn't say such weird things. It sure makes me wonder how one could become as twisted as you."
"You just have to try really hard."
"Pfffft!"
Adelia, who was drinking some iced tea, spat out her drink after hearing my absurd words.
"ah… I-I… I'm s-sorry!"
Fortunately, she didn't hit anyone with that, but she still cleaned up what she spilled with a tissue. She laughed at what I said, so she was scared that I would get angry. Even her ears turned bright red because she felt so embarrassed.
"B-but I sure am jealous of Ellen… She eats so much but doesn't gain any weight."
Adelia tried to subtly change the subject to divert attention from her.
"Adelia, if you train your body all day like her, you wouldn't gain any weight either, you know?"
At Liana's words, Adelia's face darkened.
"B-but Ellen has a combat talents… I'm majoring in magic…"
Adelia wanted to eat desserts just as wildly as Ellen did, but she seemed hesitant because she worried that she would fall into the hell of irreversible weight gain. She actually looked at Ellen, who could eat everything she wanted, with envy.
-Munch munch munch
Seriously now.
It really was pretty annoying seeing such a thin person doing that in front of others. Why did she have to eat as if she had nothing when she had basically everything?
It was driving me mad as well, that punk!
I usually wouldn't feel ashamed of things, but I felt really ashamed when I was out eating with her.
There were times when I wanted to slap the back of her head to make her stop shoving food in, but one didn't touch a dog while it's eating, right? So I held it in.
…I held it in because I might actually die if I had really slapped her.
"Anyway, where are you guys going during the vacation?"
Everyone began to ponder after hearing Harriet's question.
"Hmm… I think I'll stay in Temple."
It seemed like Adelia wanted to stay in Temple. It wasn't impossible for us to just stay in Temple during our vacation. Since we were part of Royal Class, we would receive full support, even during our vacation.
At Adelia's words, Harriet tilted her head.
"Why? Don't you want to go home after such a long time?"
Adelia's face turned red at Harriet's words.
She seemed a little embarrassed.
"…I can't do any magic research at home."
"Why can't you research ma… ah. S-sorry… R-right…"
Harriet mumbled without thinking properly and then quickly apologized, realizing her mistake.
Adelia was a commoner, and Harriet was the young lady of the Saint-Owan Duchy.
It was impossible for commoners to have facilities to research magic in their homes. Harriet couldn't even imagine a life without such things—she just took it for granted.
In Temple, they were friends, but they wouldn't even be able to make proper eye contact anymore once they graduated. Both Adelia and Harriet had remembered it at that moment.
Adelia blushed out of embarrassment, and Harriet blushed because she thought that she hurt her friend with the words she unwittingly uttered.
Temple was a place where people who would never have met on the outside could easily meet and become friends.
Temple was the only place in the whole continent where I, a beggar, and Adelia, a commoner, could talk about our vacation plans with the daughter of a Duke.
Anyway, it seemed like Adelia would be staying there for the entirety of the vacation to use the magic research facilities.
"But isn't it better to take a little break from that, though? Do you just want to continue studying for your whole vacation?"
At Liana's question, Adelia just shook her head.
"Uhm, I… I don't have that much time to master my magic crafting to get my enchanter's license before graduation."
"Enchanter's license?"
As far as I knew, her talents were summoning magic and magic crafting, right? She was trying to learn enchanting instead of summoning magic?
Why was she trying to study something other than her own talents?
And what was that about a license?
My question made Adelia's face turn even redder as if she didn't want to answer. She somehow seemed to be embarrassed by the smallest things.
"Enchanting brings in a lot of money."
Liana gave an answer in her stead with a sullen expression.
"Enchanting pays well?"
"Do you think a wizard who can chant the Fireball spell or the one that can make Fireball scrolls earns more money?"
"…I'm not sure?"
"In order to make money, wizards specializing in destruction type of magic either try to become court wizards or escorts for noble families. The pay varies greatly depending on who one serves, and there aren't many open spots. Since the Demon World War ended, there had been no demand for these wizards. I mean, you'd even have to fight for your life in some situation if you take on that job, right? Enchanting, however, is safe and earns you money quite easily."
Thinking about it, what Liana said was actually quite obvious.
Magic Scrolls were items that enabled anyone to simply use magic, and the guys who made them would be raking in tons of money. On the other hand, wizards specializing in destruction-type magic would have a hard time getting jobs and earning money.
The Demon World War, where those wizards were most needed, had ended.
"…What? Doesn't that mean that all those wizards specialized in destruction-type magic would become unemployed?"
"Hmm… I guess so?"
As the War had ended, the demand for fighting power had sharply decreased, so many wizards had become unemployed.
"…Couldn't all of them become enchanters then?"
It was safe and made a lot of money, so wouldn't it be the best for all of them to learn that?
"What are you talking about?"
It was Harriet, not Liana, who answered me that time.
She looked at me as if I were an idiot.