During lunch break, Emma suddenly stopped in her tracks as she heard a slow yet steady melody coming from somewhere.
The sound resonating from the strings of a cello is unmistakable; it must be Luke’s.
The club activities hadn’t officially started yet, and as the only member of the music club, Luke was practicing alone.
“Oh, if I had known Luke would be here, I would have come a bit sooner.”
Today, there were music classes during periods 1 to 4, and during the break, she was occupied with other tasks, so she hadn’t been able to make it to the club room.
It was only because it was lunchtime that she finally had a moment to spare.
But how could a child who had been so reluctant to come to school now be thinking about handling an instrument?
Emma clenched her fist slightly, convinced that choosing music had been the right decision.
“He’s improved so much overnight.”
However, the unpleasant noise that had once grated on her ears had transformed into a soft, lyrical resonance.
Had he practiced diligently at home, just like he had been taught?
To acquire this level of skill, effort was certainly needed alongside talent.
Handling an instrument was like that.
No matter how much of a genius one is, without effort, they cannot produce sound properly.
The human body can never move perfectly all at once.
That said, the fact that he had developed this much in just a day could certainly be called talent.
“Hehe, his rate of learning is almost enough to make me jealous.”
For a 10-year-old who had just started learning the cello yesterday, his sound was remarkably good.
Of course, objectively speaking, it was still elementary… but Luke was indeed a beginner who had only started yesterday, wasn’t he?
There was no need to be strict about it.
Emma opened the door to the music club room.
“Luke, how long have you been here?”
When Luke saw Emma enter, he stopped playing, and the pleasant vibrations of the strings came to a halt too.
The room fell silent.
Luke lifted his head slightly, looked at Emma, and smiled.
“Oh, Emma is here. I’ve been practicing since early this morning. How is it? Does it sound alright?”
“It’s excellent! I never thought you’d improve this much in just one day.”
“Haha, I don’t know how to respond to such praise.”
Luke wiped the sweat he had accumulated from practicing nonstop for half a day with the back of his hand and let out a sigh.
A thin breath appeared and vanished in the air.
His expression was one of considerable satisfaction.
Could it be the satisfaction of having practiced so hard he worked up a sweat?
…Wait, breath?
Emma suddenly had a grim thought.
“Now that I think of it, the clubroom is a bit chilly…”
It seemed that the temperature had dropped significantly today, possibly because of the rain.
Maybe it was because the weather had been warm for the past few days? Today felt particularly cold.
However, every room at Tiga Academy was equipped with heating devices.
So it shouldn’t be this cold.
Emma quickly glanced at the wall panel where the heating device controls were located.
“As expected, it’s turned off.”
Perhaps he didn’t know how to turn it on, or maybe it had shut off mid-practice without him noticing.
The important thing was that Luke had been sweating in this cold room for hours.
Emma immediately placed her hand on Luke’s forehead.
Startled by her action, Luke exclaimed, “W-What’s going on all of a sudden?”
Emma was shocked by the excessive warmth radiating from him.
“Luke, your forehead feels like a hot ball!”
“Oh, that’s…”
It was likely due to the ‘Fire’ buff spell he had cast on himself for single-target enhancement.
Since he had wrapped himself in warm magic, it was only natural that his temperature would be higher than normal.
“I’ve wrapped myself in magic,” he explained.
“Oh, I see. I thought you had some sort of… hand warmer.”
If there were indeed a magic item to keep warm, then such a temperature wouldn’t be strange at all.
Emma let out a sigh of relief.
A moment later, if not for Luke’s words, she could have continued to feel reassured…
“A hand warmer? Interesting, what does it look like…?”
There was no hand warmer.
——–
In the infirmary.
Luke lay in bed, now changed out of his sweaty uniform.
The school nurse, checking his forehead temperature with a thermometer, clicked her tongue.
“Wow, you have quite a high fever.”
“No, it’s just…”
He had dispelled the ‘Fire’ spell earlier, but residual heat left him with a still elevated temperature.
Besides, he felt embarrassed about being treated like a patient when he wasn’t actually sick, so his face turned slightly red.
“Even with such a high fever? Enough of the chit-chat, just rest. I’ll contact your guardian separately.”
Luke was startled and shouted, “Yerna’s busy, so don’t worry her for no reason!”
It was undoubtedly a busy hunting week, and since he wasn’t sick at all, it would definitely be a needless worry.
So contacting her wouldn’t result in anything good.
Instead, it would only distract Yerna from her work.
However, from the nurse’s perspective, Luke’s reaction looked simply like a child trying to hide his sickness.
Why was he trying so hard to conceal being sick?
“Fine… I won’t say anything. But instead, just rest. If you feel worse, make sure to tell me.”
“…Sure.”
As Luke sighed with resignation while watching the nurse pull the curtain and leave, he thought to himself.
“Uncomfortable…”
He sighed again as he watched Py wandering around the room.
“You seem unusually cheerful today.”
It was indeed unfortunate that he had to feign illness.
Luke suddenly gazed at the ceiling in thought.
“A sickness… Now that I think about it, it has been a long time since I’ve been sick.”
Once a person reaches Circle 3, they become immune to most ailments.
But how had Luke fared? Throughout his life, he had hardly ever suffered from illness.
Perhaps except for poison or chronic illness.
With a sigh, Luke closed his eyes.
“Lying here brings back memories.”
From his childhood, that is. Perhaps around when he was 7 years old.
He had once gotten a fever so severe due to overstraining himself while inscribing a Circle 2 in his heart.
He remembered it being quite serious.
He may have even been close to death.
At that time, the one who stayed by his side was Kail.
“Sigh…”
Luke’s sigh was filled with nostalgia.
Kail and Luke were long-time friends.
Since they were very young.
But Luke was a noble, while Kail was a commoner.
Despite being a lord and vassal, Luke and Kail genuinely respected and trusted each other.
“I miss you. A specimen like you doesn’t come by often.”
He was quite the sturdy fellow.
Thanks to that, he occasionally used him as a subject for magical experiments, but it was okay since he also used Luke as a training partner for swordsmanship.
“If only I could go back to that time.”
Luke recalled the moment when Kail sacrificed himself.
The figure of the man who drove the holy spear into the heart of the Demon King.
The substitute hero who bore the burden of the mission abandoned by the ‘Hero’ of the holy spear.
The ‘Hero’’s great deed.
“If I had been more perfect back then, you wouldn’t have had to die like that…”
Overwhelmed by an unbearable sense of regret, Luke let that lament escape his lips.
The prophecy that three ‘Heroes’ would defeat the Demon King…
However, apart from Renie, the other two heroes had abandoned their duties.
They claimed they didn’t want to die becoming God’s playthings, did they?
Isn’t it a laughable statement?
If the hero themselves has abandoned their duty, all that awaits them is a meaningless death.
“Sigh, if I could, I would want to get up like this…”
But it was obvious that it would only lead him to lay back down again, so perhaps it was better to take a nap and wake up instead.
Luke closed his eyes.
——–
“Hey, Luke. What are you thinking so deeply about?”
A wrist marked with stitches. Tough calluses. Long, thin, braided hair.
Sharp eyes and a solid physique, with scars etched across his face and body.
It was a very familiar face. To the point of being tiresome.
“Oh, Kail. What do you want?”
Kail shrugged, thinking that Luke was acting a bit strange today.
“What are you doing? Did you forget to make herb medicine or something? Can you really make it like that, with your mind wandering?”
Indeed, he likely wouldn’t worry about Luke, Luke thought with a smirk.
“Sorry… I’ve been a bit tired lately.”
“That’s all due to a lack of exercise, you silly.”
Then Renie, who had been watching from the side, spoke up.
“Hehe, don’t tease him too much. Irushi is bound to be the most fatigued among us.”
“Well, that’s true.”
“It can’t be helped. Renie, you’re immortal so you don’t even need sleep… and Kail, you’re already half a hero, so you’re probably strong against fatigue. But I’m just an ordinary human. I merely have 8 Circles inscribed in my heart.”
“Hey, is that really ordinary?”
Luke casually countered Kail’s banter without raising an eyebrow.
“I’m the most ordinary among us.”
“That’s true, there’s not just one 8 Circle magician in this world.”
“Well, that’s true…”
Kail muttered, scratching his head.
At that moment, the pot used for making the herb medicine burst forth with a puff of smoke, signaling completion.
Luke gestured to lift the liquid, mixing it well.
The fluid floating in the air sloshed a few times before gradually shifting from blue to green.
And when he snapped his fingers, the green liquid flowed back into the pot, simmering gently. Renie took a strand of her hair and dipped it into the liquid, while Luke gestured to Kail.
As Kail instinctively held out a cup, Luke filled it to the brim with the now red liquid.
Once the cup was full, Kail immediately brought it to his lips and gulped it down.
“Ugh… It’s bitter as hell. Can’t you make it taste better?”
“That’s the best I can do, you know that?”
“Bull, it’s seriously bitter. You drink some of it too.”
“I’ll pass. It’s best to avoid unnecessary consumption.”
“Shut up.”
Luke stored all the items he had used for alchemy into the space and tidied up the area.
It was just a single gesture.
Renie was looking down at Luke as he cleaned up when she murmured in a voice tinged with sadness.
“…I’m always sorry, Kail.”
“Enough. We didn’t start this expedition to hear that.”
“That’s right. More importantly, we need to move quickly. If we don’t find a place to rest in the next three days, this expedition will fail.”
“Yes… Kail, are you really okay?”
“I, Kail Propston, have nothing to lose but my own life. Of course, I’m fine.”
Kail got up from the rectangular container he had been sitting on and slung it over his back.
Inside the container was, of course, the Holy Spear.
The weapon directly crafted by God, capable of defeating the Demon King.
However, it was a weapon imbued with immense divine power that only the ‘Hero of the holy spear’ could wield.
It should undoubtedly have a sacred appearance, but…
It resembled that of a mortician instead.
Was he carrying the death of himself or the death of the Demon King?
Though he didn’t know it at that time, he was carrying both.
——–
The school nurse approached the bed where the restlessness had ceased and gently parted the curtain.
She needed to check the condition.
“…”
Fortunately, the boy lay peacefully asleep.
He had a rather tranquil expression, but the murmurs he had made earlier lingered in her mind.
Had he thought she wouldn’t hear?
But the nurse was a bat-hyun, whose mother had exceptionally keen hearing.
Thanks to that, she had the benefit of being able to hear heartbeats without a stethoscope…
However, the downside was that she also heard many unnecessary things.
Usually, she filtered that out with earplugs, but at this moment, she had left them off in case of an unforeseen situation.
“The words in daylight are heard by birds, and the words at night are heard by mice…”
A bat was both of those, didn’t it?
Optimized for eavesdropping, one might say.
Anyway, she pulled the curtain back down and returned to her seat while recalling Luke’s murmurs.
When he spoke of being a specimen, she wondered what he meant.
Him claiming another’s death was his fault certainly did not sound like something a 10-year-old boy would say.
It was too grave to pass off as something insignificant.
“…It’s probably best to contact his guardian.”
Well, even if the boy had asked her not to…
Calling his guardian was obviously the right thing to do rather than ignoring the child’s words.
