Chapter 59

Chapter 59

On the Airship (2)

The tour of the ship’s interior was nearing its end.

It seemed we had walked around most of the places we could.

Yuri let out a long breath and began speaking.

“Whew... I should go unpack my luggage now too. It will be mealtime soon... You remember where the male students’ rooms were, right?”

“Yes, thanks to you. Then I will see you later.”

It had been more enjoyable because I was with Yuri.

Thanks to her, I had a good experience.

[ She truly is a good-hearted child. ]

Sierra quietly said this while watching Yuri leave.

In the corridor where no one was passing, I agreed with Sierra’s words and nodded slightly.

Like that, I parted ways with Yuri.

[ An airship... With this, one could reach the East in no time... ]

Sierra was looking out the corridor window. Beyond the glass, clouds were being parted as we passed through them.

There was a little longing in her voice.

The East was Sierra’s homeland.

Since she had become one of the dead in the end while secluded in closed-door training, it must have been quite a long time since she last went home.

However, because the East was too far away, it did not seem easy to go there.

“I should find some time to visit someone Sierra knew.”

For now, I had to go unpack my luggage too.

But my room was not in the direction where the male students’ rooms Yuri had told me about were gathered.

I wandered around roughly, then found a staff member cleaning the corridor and spoke to them.

“Are you perhaps a member of the airship staff?”

“Oh... yes, I am. What is the matter?”

“I was wondering if you knew which room uses this key.”

To the staff member, whose face was filled with question marks, I held up a key and continued speaking.

It was the key to the ultra-luxury cabin that Hubert Graham, the academy chairman, had given me earlier.

“Oh, if it is that key...! I will bring the manager immediately!”

The staff member examined the key, seemed to realize something, and ran off somewhere.

Had there been some kind of notice?

Not long after, a man in a suit who seemed to be the airship’s manager approached me from the direction where the staff member had disappeared.

“You are Student Zeto. I heard about you in advance from Lord Hubert. Please follow me this way.”

After the manager’s words, his polite guidance followed.

As I walked down the corridor after him, a large door appeared.

The manager took the key from me, opened the door, and began explaining the room.

“This room is the finest room on the airship. Originally, it was the room used by Lord Hubert, but Lord Hubert’s personal belongings have already been removed. Should you experience any discomfort while using this room, please press this call bell at any time.”

—Ding!

The manager pressed the call bell inside the room as he spoke to me.

“It seems he received information on me beforehand.”

He seemed to have rung the bell to let me know by sound where the call bell was located.

“Thank you for guiding me.”

“I hope you have a pleasant time on the way to your destination.”

Soon, the manager bowed to me and quietly closed the door as he left.

It was very neat work.

I thought this was what a manager should be like.

After he left, I immediately unpacked my luggage in the room and was talking with Sierra.

The conversation was mainly about the interior of the cabin.

[ At this level, it seems less like luxury and more like art. ]

“Is that so?”

Looking around the room, I did not think her words were all that wrong.

There was not a single object that was not flashy, whether gilded or jeweled.

Even the bathroom glittered brilliantly.

It was decor so extravagant that it felt somewhat burdensome.

For me, I would have been satisfied as long as the bed was high-quality.

In any case, mealtime on the airship was fixed, so I needed to go eat before I was late.

As I was about to leave the room, Sierra brought her face to my ear and opened her mouth.

Then her unique, gentle voice quietly rang in my head.

[ Eat comfortably. I shall enter the cursed blade for a while. ]

“...Are you truly all right with that? Will it not feel stifling?”

[ Whatever it may be, it is better than burdening my disciple as his master. Is eating not important? ]

Sierra placed particular importance on eating.

Well, if she stayed attached even while I ate, eating could be difficult.

“Then I will be back.”

[ Yes. Go carefully. ]

Then Sierra smoothly entered the cursed blade leaning against the wall.

After confirming Sierra had entered, I opened the door and headed to the dining hall.

The dining hall, not very far from the room, was crowded with students.

All sorts of foods gave off their own aromas.

I did not particularly see Yuri or Eisel.

I received a suitable meal and sat down.

Just as I was about to pick up a spoon, someone suddenly sat at my table.

“Mr. Zeto!”

“Let’s eat together.”

Crank and Lucia greeted me, and then Amon sat at the table as well.

Were they still going around together?

“Team 2 has gathered again.”

The easygoing Crank started the conversation, and I matched him by opening my mouth.

“Miss Lucia has not caused any incidents in the meantime, has she?”

“I-I was quiet...!”

Soon, Lucia looked elsewhere and muttered softly.

“...Quiet, my ass. I think I hit your head only twice.”

From Amon’s answer that followed Lucia’s, I could roughly understand the situation.

Because Crank always had a smiling face, I could not tell, but Amon definitely looked tired.

Should I help a little?

“Haha, for some reason, I feel Miss Lucia would survive even if she fell from the airship.”

“You can die on an airship...?”

At my words, shock colored Lucia’s face.

At that moment, perhaps noticing my intention, Crank rested his chin on both hands with a serious face and opened his mouth.

“Ahh... They did say that every time students ride an airship, someone dies...”

“H-hiik...”

The fork Lucia held trembled along with her body.

No student had died on an airship.

Probably.

It was only a “kind” lie meant to scare Lucia.

“This should be enough.”

The method for handling Lucia... was easy once you grasped the trick.

Excluding Lucia, the three of us simply left her trembling as she was and calmly began eating.

The meal was quite enjoyable.

Crank’s sociability and speaking skill were especially exceptional.

An extra.

In the game, Crank would have been only about that, but at least in this world, he was not an extra at all.

If anything, he was special in his own way.

By the time the meal ended, I could see Lucia completely deflated.

Still, perhaps she had eaten everything, because her plate was cleanly empty.

It was evening now, and Amon and Crank likely needed to rest comfortably too.

As the leader, I felt I had fulfilled my share.

After finishing the meal and parting from them, I was on my way back to my room.

“Were there any items to collect inside the airship?”

Occasionally, hidden items existed here and there on the map.

They would be minor items, but among them, there were many amusing ones.

Just as I was thinking about what to do next and about to open the door and enter my room...

“Zeto...?”

Someone with a familiar voice called me to a stop from the corridor over there.

When I turned my head toward the direction of the voice, she approached me, her neatly braided red hair swaying.

“I was looking for you. Did you eat?”

“Yes, I just finished eating and was returning. You were looking for me?”

“When we were walking around together, I didn’t see it, but there was an incredibly delicious restaurant. I wanted to go eat there together with you later, Zeto...!”

Yuri said this in a shy voice, her cheeks slightly red.

She was deeply interested in food. Perhaps she was similar to Sierra.

I remembered that when we had eaten together a few times before, seeing her eat well had been very pleasant.

“Haha, that sounds good. Was it that delicious?”

“Yes. Zeto, you need to know that taste too. More importantly, why were you trying to open that door? It really looks like somewhere you shouldn’t go in...”

“Uh... because this is my room.”

After my quiet answer followed, Yuri tilted her head and showed doubt.

“Your room, Zeto...?”

“Yes. The chairman prepared it with good intentions in relation to what happened in the Labyrinth this time.”

“You met the chairman?”

“Yes. Well, somehow...”

“I see... I thought he was someone hard to meet...”

“...Since you are here, would you like to look around?”

I suggested to Yuri that she tour the room and opened the door.

There was nothing to hide in the room, so it did not matter.

Since Yuri was very curious, it would be good to show her around.

Soon, Yuri hesitated briefly, then followed me into the room.

As Yuri looked around the room here and there, her eyes grew wide.

She did not ask any particular questions, but perhaps her curiosity had been stirred, because she examined the room closely.

“Can I sit for a moment?”

After looking around the room, Yuri stood in front of the bed and asked me.

“As much as you like.”

At my answer, Yuri sat on the bed, and I sat beside her.

Behind Yuri, I saw “Sierra” leaning against the wall.

Even though I had returned to the room, Sierra had not come out of the cursed blade.

Yuri rustled the bedsheets, then opened her mouth.

“The bed is quite wide...”

“It is needlessly wide. Wouldn’t it be roomy even if the two of us lay down?”

“Th-the two of us?”

“Yes.”

At my sly answer, Yuri lightly shoved my shoulder and opened her mouth.

“Th-there’s no need to imagine something like that, is there?!...Wh-what happens when a man and woman spend the night in one room together is... obvious...”

Perhaps embarrassed, Yuri stammered, and her voice gradually shrank as she continued.

“It’s obvious what happens...?”

Perhaps because I already had experience spending the night in the same room as women, I became curious about Yuri’s words, which she had let slip without much thought.

After that, as I sank into thought and did not give any particular answer, a strange silence flowed between Yuri and me.

“...”

Yuri, her head lowered deeply, continued fiddling with her neatly braided hair and staring endlessly at the floor.

In the end, she was the one who broke the silence.

“Um... Then I’ll get going...? It’s late too...! And I finished seeing the room...”

Yuri, rising from the bed and hurriedly trying to wrap up the situation, could not finish her words.

—Knock, knock.

Because someone knocked on the door.

At the sudden knocking, Yuri stopped mid-sentence, flinched, and froze.

I was just as bewildered.

“Who is it at this hour? I did not call the staff...”

I approached the door and spoke to Yuri.

“I will go.”

For now, a “friend” had only been looking around the room.

That was the truth, and it was not a particularly strange situation.

“Who...”

Before I could say anything while opening the door, pink hair entered my sight, and then, as if afraid someone might see, someone darted into the room like an arrow.

“I do not remember telling Kaen where the room was...?”

The one who had suddenly entered the room was none other than Kaen.

Recently, she had not been watching me.

Even on the airship, I had not felt anything in particular from her.

Then had she somehow seen me entering this room?

After entering the room, Kaen immediately looked at me and opened her mouth.

She did not even look in Yuri’s direction, so she had not noticed Yuri was in this room.

“Student Zeto, why have you not come to find me? My body...”

“Body...?”

Kaen’s words were cut off by Yuri’s mutter.

“Student Yuri...?!”

Only then did Kaen find Yuri and start in surprise.

I immediately opened my mouth to resolve the situation.

“Um... I was showing Miss Yuri the room.”

“Ah... so that was it.”

Kaen nodded as if she understood and answered.

However, Yuri herself did not understand.

“You are Student Kaen, who sparred with Zeto, right...? Why are you in Zeto’s room...? And what did you mean by body...?”

Yuri’s pupils were trembling as she spoke.

...It seemed she was imagining something strange in her head.

Kaen seemed to have thought I had brought information and come to my room.

Since I had not sought her out separately, she had come to me.

“Still, there was no need to rush this much.”

In any case, it would be troublesome if Yuri learned this.

But it seemed even more dangerous to gloss over it as the “matter that needs her body” Kaen always talked about.

“What should I do with this?”

The situation had completely tangled.

“Uh... um, so, you see, Student Yuri?”

Soon, Kaen seemed to have thought of a good excuse and began continuing.

Since I could not think of anything to say either, I had no choice but to bet on Kaen for now.

The ball was in Kaen’s court.

“So... Student Zeto and I... Ah, the sauna...! We decided to go to the sauna! So I said my body was itching. Ehehe...”

Together with a foolish laugh, Kaen’s somewhat shocking excuse followed.

Why suddenly the sauna?

Yuri’s thoughts were probably not much different.

Yuri leaned her head forward, as if she understood even less, and asked Kaen.

“The sauna...? Your body is itching...?”

“Student Zeto and I are both swordsmen who handle swords, right?! We were going to talk about swords... and have a contest to see who could endure the sauna longer, perhaps...?”

Kaen’s voice grew smaller and smaller as she continued explaining to Yuri.

Listening in silence a little longer, it sounded fairly plausible.

Kaen was quick with calculations.

“Zeto, is that true? A contest?”

After hearing Kaen’s explanation, Yuri looked at me and asked.

“...That is right. We decided to go to the sauna. Miss Kaen and I have competed over various things since the sparring match. I forgot for a moment, haha.”

“What? I never thought you would be interested in the sauna... Zeto. Then I’m going with you. If it is hot things, I am confident too...!”

At my reluctant answer, Yuri stepped forward, saying she would go with us.

“Sh-shall we? Then let us all compete to see who can endure the longest!”

Next, Kaen raised her arm with a foolish expression.

So it ended up like this after all.

I glanced at “Sierra” leaning against one side of the wall.

Wasn’t she able to watch the outside situation even from inside the cursed blade?

Even so, Sierra still had no reaction.

Remembering Sierra’s reaction to the sauna, perhaps it was better for her not to know about this.

Not long after, I, who had been glancing at the cursed blade, left the room as if dragged away by Yuri and Kaen.

***

Should I call it fortunate?

Perhaps because it was late, there was no one else using the sauna.

At least the changing rooms were separated by gender.

According to the explanation of the staff member in charge of the sauna, there were special undergarments for sauna use.

Still, there was no helping the fact that it looked like I was covering my lower body with a single towel.

The towel covering my lower body also seemed to have been made specifically for the sauna, because it was sturdy and thick, and looked unlikely to slip off or become see-through.

I did not know why anyone thought to create a mixed-gender sauna where people entered wearing only a single towel, but experiencing it personally did not feel welcome at all.

“What is happening right now...”

I checked the knot of the towel once more.

After taking a deep breath, I entered the sauna.

As soon as I stepped in, the hot, suffocating air struck my nose.

The heat I could already feel seemed suitable for drawing out sweat.

Behind the cloudy steam, I saw Yuri wearing only a single towel.

Soon, Yuri also found me.

“You’re here...?”

One sentence, spoken rather shyly.

The steam hiding her figure disappeared as if one layer had been peeled away, and her full appearance entered my sight.

Yuri, too, looked the same as me on the surface, covering herself with one towel.

The sensual figure Yuri had always kept thoroughly hidden beneath her uniform was now revealed.

A single towel looked precarious.

It could not hide everything.

As I approached her, Yuri seemed unable to decide where to put her eyes, her gaze wandering here and there before she opened her mouth.

“Student Ka-Kaen seems like she will be a little late. Her face was red even before entering, so I asked if she was all right, and she said she would go drink some water.”