*
News of Emperor Rock’s arrival at the academy reached the board.
Yeah, sounds like an ordinary story.
Unless you didn’t know that the emperor is coming to tear me in half!
“Junior! What kind of crazy thing did you do this time!!”
“I’m not sure, Master.”
A scarred man sighed while looking at me. I was currently standing in front of Drake.
“This time, I couldn’t stop him from coming!”
His voice boomed like thunder.
It was loud enough to make me cover my ears.
“Enough, Drake. Do you think Licht-kun knew and acted accordingly?”
Next to us, Dennis was checking the magic circles here and there.
The academy’s Swordsmanship Training Hall.
This was the perfect place to hide from the emperor’s gaze.
Even Kainel could use the Holy Sword here without being discovered by the Hero Church, surrounded as it was by countless magic circles.
“Well, Licht-kun isn’t having an inappropriate relationship with the princess. It’s probably Rock’s misunderstanding.”
I couldn’t lift my head thinking of the situation where I almost kissed Pina yesterday.
For a moment, I was tempted.
The idea that the taste of my first kiss would be lemon-flavored was so naive.
I thought about leaving footprints on that first encounter.
“…. ”
I failed miserably.
“Junior. No, right?!”
“Ah, yes. I haven’t had an inappropriate relationship yet.”
Drake yelled at me as I was zoning out. Suddenly feeling guilty, I blurted out my words.
“Yet?!”
“I think I just heard something strange. Licht-kun.”
Ah, I messed up. Why do I keep doing this? My body acts before my mind.
“….”
Images of someone lingering and my heart racing.
I couldn’t control my feelings for Pina.
After meeting my father, I swore I would do my best, so maybe it’s only natural.
“I think I’ve made a lot of mistakes.”
There were dozens of things that popped into my mind. I had already shared an indirect kiss, hugged, and even shared a bath up north…
I’m doomed. If even one of those things gets caught, it’s going to be a disaster!
It’s a miracle my neck hasn’t been chopped off by the emperor yet.
“This won’t be resolved by hiding like this…”
All of this is my fault. If only I had boldly asked Rock for permission to date Pina when I met him.
I opened the visor of my helmet. Blocking one eye made my view narrower.
‘It would have been nice to be honest with Pina from the start.’
I squeezed my eyes shut and sighed. My throat felt unreasonably tight.
“Hah, you little rascal! Dennis!”
“Could it be that you were harboring feelings for Pina?”
Both of them looked at me with a dumbfounded expression. As if hiding here was the best option.
“The opponent is the famous ‘Rock Grancia.’ You can’t handle this. Pina might find a way, but…”
“I have a question. Licht-kun.”
After dismantling the magic circles at the Swordsmanship Training Hall and trying to reconfigure them in three dimensions, Dennis spoke up.
“A woodsman, who only chopped wood in the mountains, became the emperor of a nation with mere strength.”
A human male with ocean-blue eyes looked at me.
“What do you think made that possible, Licht-kun?”
“Talent, maybe?”
Seeing Pina’s strong physical strength or magic, she must have some special blood or another reason.
After all, she became the Nameless Saintess from such great power. It’s a reasonable deduction.
“Wrong.”
But despite my answer, Dennis shook his head.
“Then an artifact? Am I right?”
“You do worse than a student who runs out of time.”
Why? Is this not the correct answer? Didn’t she transform because of the potions of the sun or moon?
“The pure-hearted village youth becoming a hero of the battlefield was due to a trivial trigger.”
He spoke, tying together the flat magic circle into a ball like a sweater.
Dennis spoke as if he were talking about himself.
“When an Inrang tribesman falls in love, they can become stronger than anyone else.”
That race seems common in the game.
I’ve seen characters with wolf ears and tails in the village I visited and throughout the empire.
“Rock had a childhood friend he was close to since he was little.”
“Bellin Grancia… It’s been too long since I heard that name!”
Childhood friend.
In a way, it resembled the hero couple’s relationship.
“As the Hero Church’s atrocities deepened, their grasp extended even into quaint rural villages…”
Dennis sighed, holding a wrapped strawberry. Maybe it’s for his pregnant wife who’s suffering from morning sickness.
“To protect Queen Bellin, Rock rose to the position of chief of the Inrang tribe and began gathering people to confront the Demon Kings.”
Ten remarkable heroes gathered to oppose the Hero Church.
That was the Ten Heroes I learned about in class.
A group formed by the Wolf King wielding an axe and powerful beings like the Celestial Demon.
They began rewriting history as they tried to catch demon kings without the Holy Sword.
“You know the next part well, Licht-kun.”
I learned that Rock unified the four divided kingdoms into what is now the Grancia Empire.
“So, the Inrang tribe is a race that can become stronger than anyone else if they love correctly.”
Wham! The gigantic magic circle in his hand began to mix. The three-dimensional magic circle spun as if meshing like gears.
Dennis reduced it to a size that could be held in one hand and started to approach me slowly.
“If Rock-hyung puts his mind to it, he could obliterate this entire academy.”
The footsteps getting closer sounded like a death sentence.
“..I’ll ask again, Licht-kun. What do you think of Pina?”
Now, his sharp gaze, which seemed sober, felt like it was criticizing me.
What is the relationship between Pina and me? Can the state window express what we are correctly?
She’s undoubtedly the person who saved my entire life. But I wonder how she sees me.
At first, I thought it’d be fine to be just friends.
If I could just be there to watch over her, that would be everything.
But my desires grew over time. Is everyone’s heart the same?
What do I think of her?
..Could this be the nearest correct answer?
“I have feelings for her.”
[Lee Soo-hyun♡Pina Grancia 17% ‘NEW!!’]
In that moment, a status window appeared before my eyes.
Through the transparent window, I saw Dennis’s lips curling into a smirk.
That was surely forming a line of satisfaction. Was that a satisfactory answer?
“Yeah, saying this makes it worth hiding it from others.”
Opening a three-dimensional magic circle in front of him, Dennis began to open capsules with both hands.
The once colorful magic circle was unified into a blue light.
“No matter how capable you are, you can’t cause a ruckus at an event at the academy!”
“My point exactly. Drake.”
I couldn’t shut my mouth as we observed the rapidly rotating satellite and the three-dimensional magic circle creating dozens of shining rings.
Soon, like a soap bubble bursting, it lost its shape and went bang!
“We should hold a sports festival. It’s autumn, after all.”
The words that came out of Dennis’s mouth were filled with doubts. Emperor Rock must be racing towards the academy right now.
What are you planning to hold? An autumn sports festival?
“A sports festival? Didn’t you cast a spell to turn this place into a bunker?”
I thought so, but it seemed to be quite a large-scale spell just to talk about a sports festival, which led to my misunderstanding.
“Doing that would leave this place as the only remnant after sweeping through the academy.”
That’s possible.
In this game, there hasn’t been a single character to defy Emperor Rock’s power.
Even the Demon Kings of the Hero Church have hidden for nearly 20 years, fearing the emperor.
That’s how serious it is.
“….”
“There’s a famous saying, Licht-kun.”
He placed one hand on my shoulder. It was a sign of reassurance, but the ominous killing intent slowly crept up my neck.
“To hide a tree, you hide it in the forest. So how do we hide Licht-kun?”
By hiding in the crowd.
“If I hide among people, even if he tries to find me, he wouldn’t be able to attack me, right?”
Announcing a sports festival would invite outsiders, and naturally, the focus on me would fade.
“Right. He’s not the type of person who would act without discerning the situation.”
Dennis nodded in agreement.
Even if the emperor has come to take care of me at the academy, he wouldn’t act recklessly among all those people.
“Truly, a hero chosen by the God of Wisdom, Akasha! Dennis!”
“I’m the substitute, but…yeah. Right?”
They praised each other for coming up with a brilliant idea while linking arms.
But is this method really correct?
A sense of unease was tightening around my heart.
*
Pina was tightly closing her eyes. She couldn’t understand why she was like this.
‘I can’t sleep…’
No matter how much time passed, she couldn’t fall asleep.
Even when she relaxed her body and tried to control her breathing, something remained unsettled deep inside her heart.
There was a small ripple in that heart.
Just like small ripples create big waves. A continuous sense of longing was emerging.
He said the first kiss wouldn’t be lemon-flavored.
So that means he had actually experienced it?
If he did, with whom, when, and where did he have it?
Questions followed one after another. She tossed and turned in discomfort.
Eventually, Pina touched her lips with her own fingers.
“….”
There was no sensation. It had felt electric when that guy kissed her before.
What was this feeling?
When Licht was around, she felt endlessly relaxed, as warmth seeped through her entire body.
But without him, it felt like she was spending a harsh winter alone, and the emptiness felt so vast.
Because of this, Pina came up with various ways to win him over.
But perhaps her knowledge from books wasn’t enough.
Lacking experience, she consistently found herself outplayed by Licht.
This was why she had thought of Licht as a womanizer disguised under the helm of the Black Knight.
Even with her eyes closed, sleep wouldn’t come.
She bit her lips, fearing someone else might take him away. The more she thought of him, the more her heart raced.
Pina found herself begrudging her father for the second time.
If only her father Rock hadn’t barged in suddenly, what might have happened?
..Maybe their lips would’ve met?
The taste of lemons that was sweeter than usual.
Even now, it felt like the candy they had shared lingered in her mouth.
That memory had become an intense recollection she couldn’t forget, even if she wanted to.
