Chapter 22
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Episode 5 - Hunting Festival [2]
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"And that's everything Professor Ashly said."
During break time, in the cafeteria.
As I finished eating the sandwich, I had also finished explaining Professor Ashly's announcement to Rinna.
"Competing against upperclassmen, isn't that too difficult?"
"Not for me."
If we're talking about second- and third-year cadets, the strongest would be a six-star, and that would be the student council president; the second strongest would be the third-year representative.
The strongest second-year would be the representative, with strength around five stars.
From that perspective, Holy Academy is a place where individuals destined to make a name for themselves in the future are born.
'Well, if we're talking about who will become the strongest in the Academy's history, it would be Lumina.'
Lumina, however, always leaves the Academy halfway through her third year.
If she graduated from the Academy, she would become the first eight-star cadet to do so.
Naturally, she would be considered the strongest.
'Whew, anyway, today I'll go take a look at the Golden Forest.'
I only have two objectives today.
First and most importantly.
I need to check the situation in the deep region of the Golden Forest.
'I want to take a look and see if I can find an anomaly, and maybe, just maybe, manage to prevent the appearance of the Demonic Beast.'
Although unlikely, I would at least like to prevent the Demonic Beast's appearance.
If there's no way to avoid it, then at least I need to find out where it currently is.
'A Demonic Beast is not born as a Demonic Beast; rather, it is a monster contaminated by the Power of Chaos. If I can figure out which beast will become contaminated, I could prepare an antidote.'
Any player would seek Lumina's help during this chapter; however, the Holy Land chapters and Lumina's actions are designed so they almost never interact.
In simple terms, Lumina cannot help the player clear the chapter more easily for other reasons.
Those reasons would be the interference of villains seeking to kill the children of the Five Houses.
'All the main characters are under constant surveillance by the villains.'
At any moment, they will try to kill them.
'So because of that, it's unlikely that Lumina will help, not until the Demonic Beast appears.'
However, there is a possibility that Lumina may not even come to help restrain the Demonic Beast.
In that case, Clementine appears as the second option; however, if she appears...
'Then it would be the first death of one of the main characters.'
This is the main reason behind my investigation in the deep region of the Golden Forest.
To prevent a possible appearance of the Demonic Beast.
The second reason for going to that place is simple.
'There's a necessary item there that will make things easier.'
Of course, finding that item will be difficult, since it appears randomly throughout the entire deep region.
'The three regions of the Golden Forest are far too large; just getting to the deep region takes a long time.'
With a sigh, I finished eating all the sandwiches I had, then drank the rest of the coffee.
"You're addicted to sandwiches and coffee. Don't you get sick of eating only that?"
Rinna muttered while looking at the coffee can in my hand.
"I'm a four-star, something like getting sick from ordinary food doesn't affect me, unless it's beast meat or something similar."
Rinna raised her gaze and said,
"You heard me."
As if it were obvious, I replied,
"When I said my senses are sharp enough, I meant it literally in every sense, so if I want to, hearing any noise from several kilometers away is easy for me."
Rinna's eyes widened, and seeing her reaction, I couldn't help but feel confused.
"Y-you mean that… you can hear what people are doing if you want to… and t-that even includes… when people are bathing…"
"...."
"Don't overthink it, I'm not a pervert. If anything, your imagination is the really perverted one, you know?"
I formed a smile on my face and continued.
"Unless you want me to secretly listen to you."
Rinna's eyes widened, then she stood up from her seat, turned around, and ran out screaming.
"!!!I'm not a pervert!!!"
Some cadets looked at Rinna as she ran out of the cafeteria, and before they could look at me, I had already disappeared from the place.
---
〖Is teasing others a fetish of yours, or are you naturally like this?〗
"Master, you should know how boring it is to be alone most of the time without at least joking around a little."
Although I think I probably shouldn't have done that, since there was a tiny problem.
No, I don't think it's a tiny problem, it's a huge problem.
'Shit, how am I supposed to know where the Golden Forest is?'
In the game, the route to the Golden Forest was never shown, since a loading screen appeared whenever you simply chose to go to the Golden Forest.
Since the Golden Forest map is extremely large, combining it with the Academy map would make it too heavy for most PCs.
'Ugh, this is a pain.'
Classes during this week end before the break.
So after leaving the cafeteria, there were no more classes.
Due to the Hunting Festival, half the day was free to go hunt wild beasts.
Walking through the Academy campus, cadets came and went from every direction while I looked at the perfectly maintained gardens.
'If only I could see this entire place.'
That was a thought that constantly crossed my mind.
Even though I could "see," everything was only in black and white. Even the color white was nothing more than lines outlining everything around me.
'The life of a blind person is truly empty.'
Soon, I entered a pavilion with a lake in front of it.
The reason I entered this pavilion was precisely because of one thing.
'Maybe she'll come, even if she sees me here.'
I was certain she would come here first, then head to the Golden Forest, and that was when I would follow her.
Sitting in a chair, I noticed the pavilion was not very spacious.
There was a table and four chairs in the center. The entrance was behind me, while the front faced the lake.
When people think of a pavilion, some imagine a sort of "tea time" for noble women to show off, gossip, and so on.
For others, it would be an ideal place to play board games, especially for the elderly, and lastly,
'It would be for those who prefer to be alone or those who have too much on their minds.'
Or simply for loners like me.
In any case, as the minutes passed, I soon heard footsteps.
They stopped for a few seconds, as if hesitant, but eventually continued walking.
Soon, she entered the pavilion, took a seat in the chair across from me, then placed the book she was carrying on the table.
She opened the book and began reading.
The person sitting in front of me was none other than Diana Arsene.
She is the only daughter and heir of House Arsene.
She is someone who has lived most of her life in solitude; from the day she was born, she had never seen the outside world.
'House Arsene is more like confinement.'
Diana is the kind of person who does not know how to make friends, talk to others, or build friendly relationships.
In short, she is antisocial, not because she wants to be, but because she does not know how to begin.
If not for the Academy, she would probably still be locked away inside House Arsene.
'Her only hobby: reading books.'
To her, a book is like exploring the outside world.
Since her family does not allow her to leave the house, she became addicted to reading books about the outside world in order to avoid the despair of feeling alone every day.
'Judging by her emotions, she seems quite nervous, hesitant, and… bittersweet.'
Naturally, Diana is the type of person who rarely hates anyone, but becoming her friend is even more difficult.
In the game, simply becoming friends with Diana would grant you generous rewards from the reward system.
'But that's a game setting. Will the Mission Window really give me a reward?'
Still, Diana doesn't see me the same way everyone else does; she simply wants to at least talk to someone.
'Then… let's begin.'
Because of my almost nonexistent emotions, I didn't feel nervous or anything like that.
After taking a breath, I opened my mouth and said:
"You're Diana Arsene, right?"
Instantly, she froze in place. Judging by her emotions, it was complete chaos.
'Ha, I didn't think the reaction in real life would be stronger than in the game.'
Her lips parted slightly, and in an almost inaudible voice, she said:
"Y-yes…"
To me, it was as clear as day.
Still, after seeing her own reaction, Diana hid her face behind the book like a frightened cat.
"Aren't you curious how I know who you are?"
Out of all the characters, Diana is probably the most curious about me, even more than Lumina.
That would be Diana. It was unlikely she had ever seen a visually impaired person like me before.
'Especially because I'm a swordsman; to her, I'm an entirely new discovery.'
"Y-yes."
Smiling faintly, I said:
"You know that every person has unique traits and traits that can be acquired through training, right?"
She nodded, but quickly replied:
"That's right."
"Well, in my case, my senses have been trained beyond Maximum Mastery, so I can distinguish every person's heartbeat."
Of course, there's more to it, such as body scent, breathing rhythm, and several other details.
The Senses of the Nine Heavens is a trait that no one except Adel can possess.
Normally, that trait would be called
Anyway, Diana nodded and said:
"T-that's… amazing."
As if showing off, I said:
"Of course it is. I'm awesome, aren't I?"
For the record, this is not my actual personality.
I couldn't "see" her face since she was hiding it behind the book, but I could still perceive her emotions.
Especially her happiness, which stood out strongly.
'So my joke made her laugh, huh.'
Good, we're on the right track.
Even so, I still can't find much to talk about with her; it's genuinely difficult to hold a conversation with Diana.
But despite that, I decided to talk about the outside world.
"Even though I can't see, there's a place I could call a 'fantasy.' That place is known as the Floating Continent or the Sky Islands."
Diana slowly stopped hiding her face behind the book and began staring at me, absorbed in everything I was saying.
Anyone would think I'm a complete chatterbox, but just this once, I changed my personality into something like that.
Anyway, Diana nodded along and would rarely say things like "yes," "cool," "amazing," and so on.
She never said a full sentence, just a single word each time she opened her small mouth.
She was Rinna's counterpart.
After several minutes, I finished speaking and said:
"I think an hour has already passed. Uh, do you think you could guide me to the Golden Forest?"
This time, without stuttering, Diana said:
"Yes."
I stood up from my seat, and she did as well. Then she took the lead and said:
"Over here."
Nodding, I followed her.