Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The Entrance Ceremony

When we stepped into the auditorium where the entrance ceremony would be held, the gazes of the students who had already arrived began gathering on Yuri and me, little by little.

“Look. It’s Yuri Clementine.”

“So Clementine came too, just as expected.”

“Then all four elemental families are gathered in this year’s enrollment.”

“That look in her eyes is seriously fierce.”

“She’s damn pretty, though.”

First, it was because of Yuri Clementine, the young lady of a famous family.

“Who’s that next to her?”

“Never seen him before. Why are his eyes covered?”

“He’s probably blind.”

“But he’s wearing a sword.”

“Hope he doesn’t stab himself with it.”

Second, it was because of my unusual appearance.

I could hear a group of students who looked like trouble snickering as they looked at me.

It wasn’t that I was used to this sort of reaction, but I would probably have to get used to it from now on.

It didn’t really bother me.

It wasn’t as if I truly couldn’t see.

The fact that I didn’t recognize their faces meant they were “extras” with no major weight, and extras usually only had ability befitting extras, so their jeers did not feel like a threat.

I quietly checked Yuri’s reaction beside me, and her expression was not good.

Her red eyes seemed to blaze.

She looked as if her anger was one step away from erupting.

She probably did not like that they were mocking me, a blind man.

“Hah. There are people like that everywhere, aren’t there.”

But since this place held not only students but also instructors, letting her anger show would not make for a very good scene.

I stopped Yuri as she was about to approach them.

“I’m fine. This is my matter, so please don’t worry too much about it.”

“...”

Whether she understood how I felt or not, Yuri stared at me quietly, her lips pressed firmly shut.

Fortunately, her sharp tongue did not come pouring down on them.

Thinking of Yuri when her affection level was high, she could be a little prickly, but she was kind at heart.

She just got angry a bit often... in terms of disposition itself, she was someone infinitely close to good.

Yuri in the early part of the story did tend to get angry even more frequently.

Of course, thanks to that, the power of fire magic, her aptitude, was maximized. But I clearly remembered the sight of her one day undergoing inner growth and pouring out fire magic of even greater force through restrained anger.

Restraint.

That was the important emotion for her awakening.

If I helped her little by little from her side and she grew stronger a little faster, it would be a great help in the story to come.

“There’s nothing bad about an early awakening.”

Perhaps we were a little late, because once even the students who followed behind us had taken their places, the lights in the auditorium gradually went out, and attention naturally began to focus on the podium, the only place still shining.

“Welcome, students. I am Juliut Klaus, the twenty-first headmaster of Innocence Academy.”

The speech began with the dignified voice of the headmaster, who had stepped forward to the front of the podium.

In the game, I had only watched it without skipping during my first playthrough.

From the next playthrough onward, I had skipped all lines like these, so it had been a while since I heard this speech.

But its boring nature had not changed.

If anything, since my posture was not comfortable, it felt even more tedious.

I began looking around and checking the major characters one by one. Maybe because I was in the back, all I could see were the backs of their heads, but I could still distinguish them.

“That big guy over there is the one who used earth magic.”

Familiar-looking instructors also entered my sight.

The lineup of people was exactly the same.

...Except for one person.

That woman was nowhere to be seen.

Just in case, I looked behind me too, but I could not find her face there either.

Her hair color was so distinctive that there was no way I should have missed her...

“What’s wrong? Are you uncomfortable somewhere?”

Yuri, standing beside me, sent me a worried look after seeing me turning my head this way and that.

“Ah...”

Right, since I was blind, she wouldn’t think I was looking for someone.

It would be best to pay attention to details like this from now on.

“No... It’s nothing.”

“Hmm...”

Acting blind wasn’t easy either.

There were more things to mind than I expected.

What mattered more right now was...

“What if that woman doesn’t appear... or going further, what if she doesn’t exist in this world...”

Considering her peculiar “nature,” that thought was not too far-fetched.

She was the sort of character who could appear anywhere and from whom it would not be strange no matter where she appeared, but she always made sure to show her face at the entrance ceremony.

“This is troublesome...”

***

“And once again, I congratulate all of you on your enrollment. Now, I will explain the class placement exam.”

Before I knew it, most of the entrance ceremony events were coming to an end.

At the headmaster’s mention of the “exam,” I could feel the eyes of the bored students flash all at once.

“As always, for the sake of students who have likely come from far away, the class placement exam will be held after three days of rest.”

The class placement exam, bearing the long tradition and history of Innocence Academy.

Within the academy, no differences in status applied. The main influence behind that was the fact that the hero who defeated the Demon King in the past had been a commoner.

The only thing that could create differences between students was always “martial force”—in other words, the strength of the students themselves.

To put it simply, within the academy, skill was everything.

An educational system that ran on sheer meritocracy and encouraged competition.

When it was a game, I hadn’t thought much of it, but now that it had become reality, there were parts that felt rather cruel.

“I wonder what kind of exam it will be this time.”

Yuri, her gaze fixed on the podium, threw out a question that would not receive a clear answer.

“They said it changes every time, didn’t they? The exam contents.”

I merely played along smoothly.

Of course, I knew what the exam would be.

A deathmatch held in groups of ten within a virtual space created by illusion magic.

A ten-person battle royale.

“...It doesn’t matter. I only have to burn them all away.”

Yuri uttered those chilling words with an expressionless face, as if it were nothing.

This was her original personality.

She had been treating me strangely gently.

When I looked at her without saying anything, she noticed my gaze and needlessly turned her head.

“...That is what Father told me.”

“Haha... He sounds like a fiery person...”

As a briefly awkward atmosphere passed between the two of us.

Applause rang throughout the auditorium.

The headmaster was giving his final greeting and leaving.

The entrance ceremony was over.

An end was another beginning.

Now that I had finally entered the academy, there were many things I needed to do over the remaining three days.

When I looked around, staff members were helping students with their dormitory assignments.

Since the male dormitory and female dormitory were separate, it was now time for me to part ways with Yuri as well.

I bowed my head to Yuri and expressed my thanks.

“Thanks to you, I was able to come to the academy comfortably.”

“No. Thanks to you, the way here wasn’t boring for me either.”

“...Since this is fate, let’s get along from now on.”

I said this as I offered Yuri my hand once more.

There was nothing bad about becoming close to her quickly.

Now that the game had become reality, forming good relationships in advance was a necessary process if needed.

“...Get along...”

Yuri looked at the hand I had offered and mulled over my words.

“...All right.”

In the end, she took my hand.

We shook hands once again, then went our separate ways.

“Now I just need to end up in the same class.”

The major characters inevitably had exceptional abilities, so they were bound to receive high scores on the exam.

In the game, the player could almost always enter the class with high-ranked students, but...

Now it was different.

“I’ll grow as much as possible over the next three days.”

***

As the name implied, there were a total of four families among the continent’s four elemental families.

The four elements were fire, water, wind, and earth.

The four elemental families referred to a group of families that displayed outstanding talent in those common elemental magics, each of them so representative as to be called exemplary.

The Caligus family of earth magic.

The Windless family of wind magic.

The Aisin family of water magic.

And the Clementine family of fire magic.

The only daughter of Zeras Clementine, the current head of that Clementine family.

Her name was Yuri Clementine.

The Blazing Flower.

That was the epithet given to her because of the beauty she had possessed since childhood and the characteristics of the Clementine family, famed for its fire magic.

Because of her peerless position as the sole heir of the powerful Clementine family, as well as her beauty, many marriage proposals had followed her since she was young.

Men approached Yuri Clementine simply for her face, her figure, or the value of her family name, but to her, that was not a welcome thing.

Love.

The love stories in fairy tales her nanny had told her when she was young were sometimes heartbreaking, and at other times, unbearably sweet.

Yuri Clementine longed for that sort of love from fairy tales.

But at an early age, she ended up realizing that the men who approached her did not come bearing anything called love.

It began from then.

The time when Yuri Clementine became quick to anger and, as a bonus, displayed talent in fire magic.

She knew very well.

If she flared up like fire, men could not approach her and would leave.

Time passed before she knew it, and the day of her academy enrollment arrived.

“Hey! Where do you think you’re looking when you walk...!”

...For the first time, she met a man she could not get angry at.

She had bumped into him on the street, and despite knowing that she too had been at fault for not paying enough attention, the fact that he was a man—something she found uncomfortable—was enough to provoke her anger...

“I’m sorry. I wasn’t paying attention...”

The man named Zeto, whose eyes were covered by a pure white bandage, was “blind.”

No matter how she was, she could not get angry after colliding with a blind man. She felt that would not be right.

That day, for the first time, she was able to exchange more than five words with an unrelated man outside her family.

At first, it was curiosity.

Even though he should not have been able to see, the sight of him walking just fine without relying on a cane was simply fascinating.

“It’s perception.”

Perception.

The ability that allowed him, despite being blind, to walk around alone and swing a sword properly.

“As expected of the young lady of the Clementine family.”

When he praised her, it felt different from the praise of other men she had heard until her ears nearly fell off.

Perhaps it was because he had praised knowledge she had gained from history lessons she disliked.

What mattered was that she could not sense the same ulterior motives from him as she did from other men.

His smile felt strangely clear and transparent.

Yuri did not find talking with him all that unpleasant.

He never once said anything that irritated her, and above all.

“I’m fine. This is my matter, so please don’t worry too much about it.”

Unlike her, he was calm.

Even after being looked down on, he did not get angry.

Unlike her, who often grew angry even over trivial things.

Yuri Clementine suddenly realized.

She, who had found every man uncomfortable, had unknowingly felt at ease while she was with him.

Zeto was blind.

To Zeto, her beautiful appearance was useless.

For someone who could not see, beauty had no value.

Strangely, because he could not recognize her beauty at all, she could feel so comfortable with him.

“Thanks to you, I was able to come to the academy comfortably.”

“No. Thanks to you, the way here wasn’t boring for me either.”

It was time to part with him now.

Without realizing it, Yuri felt slightly reluctant to part like this.

Was it because her conversation with a man, such a rare thing, had felt comfortable?

Then Zeto spoke after hearing Yuri’s answer.

“...Since this is fate, let’s get along from now on.”

“...Get along...”

Let’s get along.

It meant friends.

A friend.

Since childhood, Yuri Clementine had kept men at a distance, while women were busy envying and resenting her, so unfortunately, she had no one who could be called a friend.

She did not even have a female friend of the same sex, and now a friend of the opposite sex?

But as she watched Zeto hold out his hand with a pure smile.

“Right. Having one friend... wouldn’t be a bad thing.”

“...All right.”

Yuri ended up taking his hand in a daze.

It was the day that, for the first time in her life, she gained someone called a “friend.”