28 – Retreat (4)
It was dawn before sunrise.
A dark room where even the moonlight does not come through the curtains that were tightly drawn to prevent anyone from peeking in.
Charlotte was the first to go to bed, and Adele’s sleep was disturbed.
“… ….”
She leaned over slightly and looked down at Adele’s face as she slept soundly.
Regular breathing and thumping heartbeat.
She fell asleep so deeply that she would never wake up even with a knife pointed at her throat.
Is the reason why she sleeps so defenselessly because she is tired from hanging out with herself today, or is it because she trusts herself as her escort?
Unknowingly, she decided that Charlotte would think she was the latter.
“Thank you for hanging out with me today.”
Charlotte murmured in her low voice as she recalled what had happened today.
Walking through the streets full of people, eating something to eat, and watching them play games.
It was an overlapping day when Adele, who had no interest in her when she was a child, suddenly reached out to her as if she had become a different person.
She said back then she wasn’t gambling like she is today, as she was young, and she was just lying in bed with Adele reading a book to herself who couldn’t read, but she felt the same from the experience. Did.
“Bocchan doesn’t seem to remember what happened at that time, even though he’s sad…… Well, it’s old enough to forget.”
Folding her fingers, she counted the years from that day until today.
I folded her fingers one by one, and the calculation was finished only after most of her fingers on her hands were folded.
Charlotte doesn’t have to calculate much, but she remembers, but she’s this old.
“The boy who changed after that day was bad, but the boy who kept me waiting and forgot this much was worse.”
She poked Adele on the cheek as she poured her displeasure to his face.
She wiggled her face at the stimulation, but not enough to wake her up.
“I barely endured it with memories of midsummer. She worried more than ten times a day about what to do if she didn’t come back. Do you think the young master knows how I felt?”
Charlotte rose from her chair, draped one knee over her bed and held Adele’s cheeks with her hands.
Her eyes, adapted to her darkness, sometimes reflected her longing and other times her resentful face.
“Since you came back…… I dare to forgive you.”
Platinum feet flowed over her face.
Adele’s face in her pupils got closer and closer, and she saw only her pale complexion.
… ….
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A quiet room where even breathing stops.
Thump…… Thud… ….
The heartbeat that grows slowly in it.
Thump thump…… Thump…….
Then Charlotte looked up in panic as her heart started to beat uncontrollably like her mad horse.
It was only a blink of an eye for her.
What was so urgent, her heart was in such a frenzy.
Now that she’s grown up, I thought she would be a little calmer, but her body just shook her head.
“…… Ah… ….”
Her face was hot because of her heart, which pumped her blood while beating wildly, not knowing how to calm down after her time.
But in the meantime, she felt a sense of alienation, as if her warmth on her lips was not her own.
Charlotte ran her fingers over her lips, chewing on the softness she had only been able to feel for a moment.
Shoot ah…….
The hull was shaken by the strong waves, and the curtains were also shaken.
A reddish aura that dispelled the darkness squeezed through the gap between the curtains and illuminated Charlotte’s face.
Her face was as red as the sun rising over the horizon.
* * *
Just like that, time passed and the day we arrived at the island.
“I wasn’t so trusting that I couldn’t even sleep properly.”
Adele, who was sitting in a chair reading a book, couldn’t help but say that when she saw Charlotte’s face when she woke up.
The face of Charlotte, who must have woken up from sleep, was pale as if she hadn’t slept at all.
“…… No.”
Charlotte shook her head as she sat on the bed, holding the duvet, and she replied, but the tiredness that could not be hidden even in her voice was not convincing.
Of course, that wasn’t a lie.
She said it wasn’t that she couldn’t sleep because she was worried that Adele would be attacked by an assassin while she was sleeping.
“Other than that, why can’t I sleep properly?”
At Adele’s question, Charlotte had no choice but to keep her mouth shut.
That would be too.
‘How do you say… ….’
She wasn’t the reason she could reveal to him why Charlotte couldn’t sleep.
‘I can’t sleep because of the smell in the futon… ….’
Of course I can’t say that my pounding heart at the smell kept me up all night with my eyes open, and I can’t even lie because I felt guilty for what he did while he was sleeping.
So, she was dumb and couldn’t say anything, just hanging her head down.
“You don’t even answer now.”
“… ….”
“Will you sleep better? It’s a little bit, but we still have time to reach the island.”
“It’s okay.”
Charlotte got out of bed with her hair tossed and tossed in her bed.
“The retreat begins before arriving on the island, so you should prepare.”
She was right.
The first test in this training camp, where the test is conducted over two rounds, is monster hunting.
Points are obtained by hunting monsters planted on the island by the academy and collecting evidence of hunting.
It’s a rule that gives extra points to the student who gets the most points during the period, but this monster hunting is quite tricky, so you need to form a team.
‘…… It’s the standard strategy.’
However, Adele had no intention of earning points in such a standard way.
The retreat is a stepping stone that will bridge the gap with Anastasia, which has widened significantly, and allow you to advance to the top position.
There is no way to defeat Anastasia, who leads the legion alone with the standard method, so she had to choose a method that deviated from the standard method.
Only then can you defeat Anastasia.
* * *
“Ha ha.”
Aboard a ship where the sea breeze blows.
Leaning on the railing, Lucy sighed as she watched the island get closer and closer.
Holding her chin, in the past few days, she tried to calm her mind, but she didn’t work out.
It wasn’t a big deal, it was because of Kyle and her princess Veronica.
Perhaps it was because they were in the same group during the group assignment, the two suddenly became friends and continued to hang out while traveling on the cruise.
It feels like Princess Veronica is unilaterally dragging Kyle around, but it doesn’t feel like Kyle is rejecting it either, so there was no room for Lucy.
Even at the upcoming retreat, the two of them have already decided to eat as a team or something.
Of course, he’s under no obligation to tell me who he’s teaming up with, but I’m still saddened to hear that Kyle is teaming up with Veronica.
“Hey, pretty junior sighing?”
As I was sighing like that almost every minute, someone started talking to me.
I turned his head to see if he was someone I knew, and I saw that he was a stranger smiling broadly, carrying a huge backpack the size of himself.
“Junior, do you have anything to prepare for the retreat? It’s already a retreat that’s right around the corner, but there’s something I forgot and didn’t prepare for, or something I think I’m not prepared for.”
I wanted something, and it turned out to be a merchant.
I’ve heard of it sometime.
There is a trader who digs into the earnest hearts of students who are thirsty for the retreat, which is an opportunity for a turnaround, and sucks money away.
I thought the merchant in front of me was probably of that type.
“I don’t want to live——”
“Your junior has a lot of mana. He seems to use a lot of mana on a regular basis, but I’ll recommend this mana recovery potion to juniors like that.”
Lucy shook his hand and tried to refuse, but the salesman cut him off and grabbed his hand and thrust it into his face.
“Where are you looking and talking? That’s s*xual harassment—”
Lucy tried to protest by pulling her head back without realizing it.
“Ah, what about the same girls? I don’t deny it, so it seems to be true. I’ll sell it cheap so that our big-hearted junior will do well.”
The merchant also cut off those words and put a glass bottle of blue liquid in her hand.
“If you drink this potion, you can use magic for half a day without any problems? It is not a problem to get a high score at the retreat.”
And Lucy, who couldn’t keep up with her endless explanation, her eyes seemed to be spinning, and her heart seemed to be shaken when she heard it.
The merchant’s first impression of Hogu, which seemed like he would be defeated if hesitated, gave confidence, and the merchant continued his more enthusiastic explanation.
“…… Is this really that good?”
And this hukou was on the verge of being passed over.
“How much is it?”
“Since I decided to give it to my junior at a low price, I will sell it for 1 gold coin. How is it? Is this completely free?”
“One gold coin…… ?”
The merchant said it was cheap, but one gold coin was quite a lot of money for Lucy.
If you don’t spend extravagance, you can use it for over a month.
By the way, to burn that much money on one potion?
Since it was Lucy who wasn’t in a hurry with the score, it seemed that her hard feelings disappeared in an instant.
“Oh.”
Turning her eyes away from the potion, the thing that comes into her field of vision is a sword with only the head sticking out because she couldn’t put it all in her backpack.
Come to think of it, did Kyle say that she thinks she will have to change swords someday?
Lucy asked, pointing to the sword that glittered in the sunlight.
“How much is that sword?”
“Sword? It’s a bit more expensive than the black potion.”
The merchant spread his two fingers.
Everything beats the shocking price, but it was less than when I heard that a disposable potion cost 1 gold coin.
Perhaps it is because potions are superior in performance in a short period of time.
“Then give me that sword.”
Lucy opened her wallet, thinking of Kyle, who had been depressed since losing to Adele.
It contained enough money to buy a single sword.
Unfortunately, I have to give up buying potions.
“I buy both swords and potions.”
His shoulders trembled in surprise at the heavy bass sound coming from right next to him and the hand holding the gold coin extending over his shoulder.
“Oh, Mr. Surprise!”
Looking back, as expected.
The owner of that familiar voice was Adele.
“Hey, I decided to buy it.”
Is this guy trying to keep Kyle in check?
Are you here to play tricks again like you did before?
I thought you’ve changed a bit lately, but has your nature not changed?
With all those arrogant thoughts, she frowned and grabbed Adele’s shoulders, as if she had been robbed.
“When did you say it was stolen? Take it.”
Adele, who had already completed her payment and received her goods, was holding out her sword and potion to her.
“…… Ok? Yes?”
At that incomprehensible sight, Lucy involuntarily let out a dazed sound and looked back and forth between Adele and the object he was holding out.
