Klana was feeling good today.
For her, even walking outside the church was a happiness. Everything was a new landscape, and new people.
As a saint, Klana was loved wherever she went. The overflowing attention from the outside world felt a bit overwhelming at first, but as she got used to it, she came to like it.
Above all, she was currently doing the task assigned by the abbess.
The outside world was beautiful. At least more so than the dull interior of the church. Was this what it felt like to be unbound from shackles?
She felt somehow liberated.
But that feeling didn’t last long.
What should I do if I’m all alone?
Klana had never done anything without someone else’s command.
She had never learned to think for herself.
So she kept walking the halls of the academy aimlessly. Although she was a student at the academy, she hadn’t enrolled in any department.
She didn’t have the mana to enter the Combat Magic Department, and it was ambiguous to send her to the Swordsmanship Department.
Thus, she was classified as a special student, free to attend classes.
But having never thought for herself, Klana didn’t even know what classes she should take or what to do by attending a class.
This was the result of the abbess raising her with flawed education, caring for her far too much.
Klana was drifting at sea in a small boat. Without a compass or a map.
I don’t know.
Having learned nothing about this world, she knew nothing at all.
She was just wandering.
*
Beautiful flowers are inevitably entangled with insects.
Especially for an innocent girl like Klana, who knew nothing.
The Imperial Academy had quite a number of beauties. First-year Iria and second-year Sera were both fairly decent-looking, aside from their personalities.
But the two mentioned were a dangerous touch.
Everyone knew what happened to the insects that approached Iria and Sera, unaware that they had thorns.
Thus, their next target was decided to be Klana. She was wandering around, looking clueless and innocent.
As per the abbess’s instructions, she was simply following the footsteps of Ariel when some delinquent-looking guys approached her.
Coincidentally, they pressed in on Klana, who was standing in a corner of the academy.
“Hey, do you have a boyfriend?”
“Huh? No, I don’t.”
“Then how about having some fun with us after class? What class is the saint taking?”
“Um… I’m attending the Basic Swordsmanship Course today.”
That was a lecture Ariel was attending. She didn’t know what it was, but she followed it to complete the task assigned by the abbess.
To carry out her command, she had to get close to him.
And.
“Good, I’m attending that class too. Want to go together?”
Coincidentally, the delinquents surrounding Klana were also students of the Swordsmanship Department.
Klana wore a slightly troubled expression. Getting friendly with delinquents wasn’t something the abbess had commanded.
She wouldn’t do anything unassigned. Plus, she knew even Klana could tell their approach was with impure intentions.
Their expressions were sinister, and the touch on Klana’s arm was slimy.
For the first time, Klana felt the emotions of discomfort and fear after stepping outside.
Having just emerged from the warm greenhouse, she had a lot of immature aspects in many ways.
Outside the world, while there were beautiful things, there were also things that were not so beautiful, which she learned anew.
“I, I have somewhere I need to be…”
This was her own way of refusing.
Before coming to the academy, she had been taught by the abbess not to follow strange people.
The strange people the abbess talked about were probably like them. Klana sensed this instinctively.
However, Klana didn’t know how to refuse strongly. She had no way of knowing.
So she couldn’t push them away. And this was the result.
“Where do you have to go? We’re just asking you to hang out for a bit. We’re not that bad, right?”
“Uh, uh…”
Seeing Klana’s ambiguous reaction, the delinquents clung to her even more.
Klana, terrified by the treatment she was experiencing for the first time, was on the verge of invoking the blessing of the holy.
Gah!!
With a thud, a sound resonated as something was hit.
The rough-looking man who had laid a hand on Klana flew through the air.
Did someone come to help her? The man who was kicked moved little, stunned by the sheer force.
Klana slowly raised her head, which she had bowed deeply.
She thought of the face of the hero who had spoken to her, but it wasn’t Ariel who helped her.
Considering how kind he was to everyone, he rarely resorted to violence against ordinary students.
The person who saved Klana had a much colder appearance and a youthful face. His long silver hair flowed gracefully.
He had hair of a color resembling hers, though slightly different.
Contrasting the blue, his red eyes sparkled.
“Damn… who are you?”
The kicked man scratched his head and turned irritably.
“Ugh!”
But he quickly lowered his head again, as the person he shouldn’t face at the academy stood in front of him.
“Iriya! Run!”
“…”
They were nothing special, so it didn’t take long for them to flee.
Perhaps because of the spar with Amelia, many had started running at the sight of Iriya.
Regardless, Iriya turned his gaze towards Klana.
He reached out a hand to help the fallen Klana back up.
“Are you okay?”
“Whew…”
To Klana, Iriya appeared as heroic as the hero himself who had come flying to save her.
Iriya sighed softly as he looked at Klana, who was tangled with insects.
Was she originally like this? Probably not. Though Iriya had lost his memories, Klana’s current demeanor felt rather awkward to him.
She couldn’t have been a complete fool.
How much has the plot changed?
The most suspicious thing was certainly Sertia’s death.
Based on the circumstances so far, Klana’s enrollment in the academy would occur after Sertia’s death.
If so, Sertia couldn’t have escaped death in the original novel either.
However, due to Iriya’s intervention, Sertia had died sooner than she was supposed to.
Because of that, it was reasonable to think that Klana had come to the academy unprepared.
Iriya was witnessing with his own eyes the aftermath of the chaos and the butterfly effect he had created.
Watching Klana in trouble, Iriya hesitated for a moment. Should he help her or not?
Probably, the events that should have unfolded in the original novel had gotten tangled because of him. This was an inevitable occurrence as long as Iriya existed in this world.
So, did it concern him that everything had gone so awry?
Was this situation a loss for him? Or was it something that had no connection to him as a third party?
*
In conclusion, it wasn’t without its concerns.
Iriya had to end this world and return to where he originally belonged.
If things continued like this, he might not witness the end of this world. That was not what Iriya desired.
Not seeing a conclusion and getting trapped in this world was what he feared most.
So he decided to act.
If he had come out knowing nothing about the outside world, it would only show her the harshness of reality.
Having also grown up in the back alleys of the unknown world, Iriya knew that the quickest and most certain way to learn was to get hit while being unaware.
Iriya recalled his past for a moment and thought of the etiquette lessons he learned in the back alleys.
“Um… thank you for saving me. May I ask what your name is…?”
“Thankful, are you?”
“Y-yes.”
Klana looked at Iriya’s face with sparkling blue eyes.
“Then pay me. Don’t you know there’s no such thing as a freebie in this world?”
Iriya responded with a cold expression.
“Uh… what?”
Klana’s face turned pale with disbelief.
It seemed she doubted her ears. She blinked several times and tilted her head.
Iriya stood in front of the flabbergasted Klana, recounting the survival skills he learned from his past friends in the back alleys one by one.
“In this world, you need to be wary of white things, unfounded kindness… Ah, and surviving means you’re strong.”
Iriya was white, offered unfounded kindness, and was strong because he survived.
Thus, he was demanding money.
This was Klana’s mistake for not being wary of the three danger signals.
Klana washed her eyes and looked at the person in front of her again.
“What are you doing? Hurry up and give me the money. Do you want to end up like those guys?”
The white-haired girl in front of her was not the hero. If there were a descendant of the demon king, wouldn’t she resemble that?
Tears welling up in her eyes, Klana opened her wallet.
