Chapter 106

Chapter 106

Worries

“...very...”

The induction ceremony was underway.

The members... or rather, my “seniors,” had given me sufficient explanation about how the proceedings worked, and at this point, Bernice needed only to say one final line for the ceremony to end.

“...”

But Bernice could no longer continue.

““...””

A cold silence drifted through the hall, steeped in emptiness.

Without moving an inch, I waited for Bernice’s voice, for her.

But what reached my ears soon after was not her voice, but the sound of her shoes walking out of the hall.

Bernice was abruptly leaving the hall.

“Saintess...!”

Ines’s urgent voice rang out, and Bernice brushed past me.

As she passed me, she was murmuring so quietly that I would not have heard it without straining my ears.

“...I am sorry.”

Bernice was apologizing to me.

Because my head was lowered, I could not see her face, but at the very least, I did not think she would be wearing a bright expression.

Immediately, Ines chased after Bernice as she left the hall.

“...What happened?”

Because the situation was too sudden, I chose to stay still rather than move carelessly.

As I remained in that posture and thought, Eclin approached me from over there.

“Mm...”

Eclin was choosing her words.

It seemed she was just as flustered.

Soon, Eclin scratched her head and opened her mouth.

“The induction ceremony... Let us say it ends... here.”

At her words, I, who had been kneeling, raised myself.

“Is that all right?”

At my question, Eclin raised an eyebrow.

“I may not look it, but I am the vice-captain, you know?”

“...More importantly, Vice-Captain, do you not need to chase after her?”

“The captain went, so it should be fine. Truthfully, I do not really know what the situation is either. Whatever it is...”

As Eclin continued, she turned her head, and her green hair swayed.

Her eyes were directed toward where Bernice had left.

“...An unprecedented situation has occurred, where a member could not receive the blessing during the induction ceremony.”

Eclin uttered those words softly, murmured, “How did it come to this...,” and let out a sigh.

“I am fine, but... I am worried about the Saintess. I wonder if something happened to her...”

“...She probably has not rejected your induction. I can guarantee that.”

Eclin patted my shoulder.

“Do not worry too much. Nothing serious will happen.”

When I did not answer separately, Eclin comforted me.

At her kindness, I smiled bitterly and looked back on what had happened a moment ago.

The restriction of Bernice’s authority.

She cannot utter lies.

The word Bernice had been unable to say until the end was...

...glad.

She was glad that I had joined the knight order, glad that I had become her sword.

It was nothing more than a formal phrase, but for Bernice, she would have to truly be glad in that moment to say it.

Then that meant she had not been glad just now... but it was difficult to rashly judge exactly why.

Had she truly been unable to continue because of the restriction, or was there some other reason she found it hard to speak?

For example, the energy she felt from my body.

There were countless other possibilities as well.

...Still, I did not think it was the worst situation, where she had suddenly lost favor toward me or turned her back on me.

“Judging from Eclin’s reaction too...”

More than anything, there was the one thing Bernice had said as she passed me.

That too must have been a clear truth, without the slightest trace of falsehood.

***

[ You could not tell her this time either. ]

While we walked through the darkness, Sierra, who was strolling beside me, tapped her lips with her fingers and said that.

It was the way back to the dormitory after the induction ceremony ended.

Shady was ultimately a spirit one way or another, so it would be difficult for Bernice, who had little to do with spirits, to recognize him. But Sierra was different.

Just as she said, I should probably explain this to Bernice someday, but the timing had not seemed very good this time.

“Well, something happened that made that difficult.”

I shrugged as I said that.

Because Bernice left like that, the welcome party was naturally postponed to next time.

Though it was called a welcome party, only Eclin, Ines, and Bernice would be there, but each of them could be considered a major figure within the knight order, so it seemed like a fairly important occasion to build favorability.

[ The Saintess is not someone one can easily grasp. ]

“Who could possibly understand the life of a Saintess?”

At my following answer, Sierra covered her mouth with her sleeve and faintly laughed in agreement.

I continued moving my feet while chatting with her.

The darkness through which I was walking was none other than inside Shady’s shadow.

Shady, the master of this world, was currently on top of my head, sucking in my life force.

“Food. Tasty.”

Shady, who was eating his “food,” uttered those words.

Tasty... Was there a difference between life force that tasted good and life force that did not?

I wanted to ask him something, but Shady still could only speak simple words, so it seemed difficult to get the answer I wanted.

Being inside the shadow was convenient in many ways.

Most important was that I could escape people’s eyes very simply.

Thanks to that, I could speak with Sierra freely like this.

When coming and going from the academy, when wandering around the city, and so on, I was using it well even in daily life.

But combat was still another matter.

The current “Shadow Hide-and-Seek” did not consume much of Shady’s power.

I was roughly getting a sense for the cost of each technique.

Among them, the technique with the highest consumption was Shady’s “Manifestation.”

It could be seen as making him into a “summoned beast” that had left the state of a spiritual body.

By rough estimation, its destructive power also seemed mighty... but the fact that some sinister black object formed in my head meant it did not seem like he could manifest in the same state as Shade, whom I had seen before.

It was not as if I lacked destructive power or martial strength, so I wondered whether there would be any use for it, but I was curious.

Call it a gamer’s curiosity.

When one obtains a new skill for the first time, does one not try using it even in an empty lot without a single enemy around?

“Unless it is an extremely urgent situation, I think I can try it when moving alone...”

I had to be careful when using Shady’s power.

It was openly suspicious-looking power, so if I could hide it from others, it seemed better to hide it.

The next “episode” was slowly approaching.

In this episode, I would have to fight alongside companions whose minds matched mine. It would be easy to think of it as something like a raid.

In any case, it seemed I would be traveling far, so would it not be better to experience Shady’s power at least once before leaving?

I went through the plan step by step and sorted out my thoughts.

As I continued walking while chatting with Sierra, we had reached the front of the dormitory before I knew it.

Shadow Hide-and-Seek allowed me to climb high floors without difficulty. Although I was inside a shadow, it felt as though the internal structure of the building was reproduced as it was.

Soon, my body emerged from the shaded shadow beside the bed.

I immediately threw myself onto the bed.

Sierra quietly approached me and stroked my cheek.

[...You look tired, unlike yourself. ]

Sierra’s gentle voice rang in my head.

“This fellow drinks so much blood.”

I rubbed Shady’s fluffy fur as he sat on my chest.

Having life force shaved away was not painful, but it did make me tired.

I wanted to simply lie on the bed like this and seek sleep, but in a little while, I had to head straight to the academy.

***

Meanwhile, that night, while Zeto was handling demons and undergoing the induction ceremony, Yuri Clementine was deeply immersed in “cooking.”

This was for the sake of personally making Zeto a “delicious” nourishing dish.

“...It is finished.”

Yuri pushed the bowl onto the table and gulped.

The kitchen was a chaotic mess, filled with traces of all sorts of cooking.

The dish Yuri had made had now left her hands.

What remained was an “objective evaluation.”

Then the blue-haired girl sitting at the table picked up a fork with an extremely serious expression.

Her hand was trembling violently.

No wonder, because inside the bowl, something hard to call food was wriggling.

The food was wriggling.

The girl wondered how such a thing was even possible, but after looking at Yuri’s face, she barely swallowed the question.

Soon, the food Yuri had made entered her mouth.

—Chew, chew.

The girl chewing the food tilted her head.

—Chew, chew.

After chewing a few more times like that...

“...”

...silence flowed.

Yuri pressed her lips tightly together and quietly waited for the girl’s, Lucia’s, mouth to open.

Lucia, who had a pure and kind heart, tried to smile as brightly as she could, but from the taste of the food that was difficult to describe in any way, her face had long since stiffened.

Soon, Lucia’s mouth opened.

“Huu...”

Lucia’s body trembled.

Whether it was because it was delicious or because it was not, that was the key.

“How is it, how is it? This time it is fine, right?!”

“A h-human should not eat this... no more... It is impossible...”

Lucia left those dying words and dropped her head onto the table.

—Thud.

The fact that she had tried to chew and swallow properly without spitting the food out was admirable enough.

“...Another failure? What on earth is the problem...?”

Yuri looked at the food and thought.

“I am certain I followed the recipe exactly this time...”

Cooking was not easy.

Yuri wanted to personally make Zeto a nourishing dish, but the taste was the problem.

Expecting to win his favor while serving him food that tasted bad was absurd even to her.

But no matter how much she tried, her terrible cooking skills showed not the slightest sign of improving.

And so, she had brought Lucia, who belonged to the cooking exchange group, over and was receiving advice.

“Mmm...”

Yuri took a bite of her own food, then frowned and let out a hum.

Even for the one who had cooked it, it was a difficult taste to endure.

But she thought she had figured out what was lacking.

“...Good, then one more time...”

“Eh...?”

At Yuri’s murmur, Lucia, who had somehow raised herself and was cleansing her mouth with bread, was horrified.

“M-Miss Yuri...! This is something I have been thinking for a while, but you do not dislike me, right? Right...?”

At last, Lucia grew teary-eyed.

Yuri tilted her head, as if asking what she meant, and gave her a bright smile.

That was right.

A “Clementine” would not break from something as small as this.

“...Hic.”

However, Lucia, who was responsible for the “objective tasting,” looked as if she would break before long.