“Huuh, my luggage has actually increased instead.”
“Right?”
Tana and Eve arrived at the dormitory, sighing at their luggage. It seemed they had packed a lot, as one of the wheels broke during the journey, making it quite a struggle.
“I really want to get inside and wash up.”
“It’s uncomfortable, but we still have a tough road ahead.”
“Huuh.”
The girls’ floor was on the 4th floor.
Climbing the stairs to the 4th floor felt like climbing a treacherous mountain for the two of them.
“Should we rest for a moment?”
“Sh-should we?”
As Eve and Tana sat down, chattering quietly, an upperclassman girl, Arni Duratan, passed them.
Having already unpacked and in comfortable attire, she glanced at the two blocking the stairs.
“Ah, sorry.”
“My bad.”
Seeing the two hurriedly push their luggage aside, Arni asked with an odd expression.
“What are you doing here?”
“It’s heavy.”
Since they were somewhat familiar from the same area, Tana answered indifferently, and Arni quickly lifted both of their bags with her hands.
“Let’s go, I’ll carry it.”
“Oh, oh?”
“Thank you!”
While Tana panicked and Eve quickly bowed her head as if they’d found a savior, Arni chuckled at their reactions and confidently ascended the stairs.
“Wow, that’s really impressive.”
“She’s carrying both bags by herself.”
“I thought only Daniel could do that.”
As she watched the two chatter, Arni wore a mysterious smile; it seemed she found it cute that they followed her like chicks.
At that moment, they passed the 3rd-floor boys’ floor, where a disturbance came from inside.
The three wondered what was going on but couldn’t enter the boys’ floor; they just peeked their heads in to check.
Inside, it was the female students causing a commotion.
“What are those crazy girls even saying! He already has someone he likes, they’re going to start dating!”
May Plov, with slightly longer auburn wavy hair, was shouting as if something was stuck around her neck.
“I realized it. Daniel’s heart might waver for a moment, he could like someone else. But he’s destined to come back to me.”
Rin, clutching her chest with both hands and making some cult-like statements.
“What does it matter who the master dates? Would May throw away all her belongings if she had a boyfriend?”
Elise appeared to be questioning if she was having the same conversation.
“Wow, what kind of situation is this?”
“Huh, is it a fight right from the start?”
“Elise?”
While Tana and Eve wondered why they were acting like that, Arni saw things differently.
Elise usually behaved elegantly, but here she was confidently addressing the boys’ floor?
It seemed she had some change of heart during the vacation.
“Isn’t that Daniel’s room?”
Upon Eve’s mumble, Tana jumped forward in surprise to confirm it. Indeed, it was Daniel’s room.
“……”
Tana subtly watched Eve, but Eve casually murmured as usual.
“Do you think Daniel is here? I want to greet him.”
“Uhm, does it not feel… anything?”
“Huh? What feeling?”
“No, since there are girls gathered in Daniel’s room. From what I heard, it sounds like they’re fighting over him, but doesn’t your heart flutter or anything?”
“Are you on that topic again? It doesn’t matter to me.”
“……”
How did it come to this?
Tana named Eve’s condition as the “Romance Reader Syndrome.”
Her state, watching her crush’s love life like a reader of a romance novel, seemed severe to Tana, and she wanted to treat it over the vacation, but…
“Failed.”
She had tried various pieces of advice or recalled her feelings when she liked Ares, but…
The effects seemed minimal.
“Is it a love story?”
Surprisingly, Arni, who was lifting the luggage, showed interest. As she moved up to the 4th floor, she cautiously asked.
“Um, it seems like Daniel is somewhat popular. Are you two like that?”
“Um, uhh.”
“I was rejected by Daniel.”
Eve said it nonchalantly, which caught Arni off guard, but Tana sighed and nodded.
“I’m just a friend, and Eve does like Daniel… does.”
“Well, you have a much more open attitude towards love than I thought.”
Arni was flustered at their confident demeanor. Regardless, they thanked her for moving their luggage and mentioned they’d buy her something at the café.
“……”
After a moment of contemplation, Arni blushed slightly, matching her red hair, and asked.
“If it’s okay, could you help me a bit too?”
“Hm? Is there something you need?”
“Unless it’s about stamina, of course!”
Even when the two readily nodded without knowing the details, Arni still hesitated, fiddling with the ends of her hair.
After a moment, she finally took a breath and mustered the courage to shout.
“Pl-please give me romance advice!”
*
While the students of Aios Academy were heading back with a sense of loss at the end of their vacation, there was a man moving in the exact opposite direction from the academy.
Daniel McLean.
That was me.
The stinky air seemed to press down on me, and the more I breathed, the more something heavy piled in my chest.
Having entered the Forest of the Demon Realm again after a long time, I needed a moment to adjust, but that wouldn’t last long; I quickly moved around like it was my home.
‘No need to hang around the entrance.’
I entered the Forest of the Demon Realm to gather herbs for Michelle’s illness. While they were rare outside, in the middle of the forest, they could be easily found, so I quickly filled my basket with herbs.
‘Thinking of Michelle in the future, I can probably cure her illness.’
Michelle, whom I met in my past life, was weak, but she didn’t take medicine, so if I developed a cure or took medicine regularly, it would heal.
‘I should gather enough for about three years.’
As I started stuffing the herbs into my bag, both on my back and waist, I heard a kreeek sound from nearby.
“Hmm, they still recognize the people who killed their master?”
Suddenly, huge bugs with markings on their backs rushed toward me. It seemed they recognized me as the one who killed their king, Apviel, and began charging with loud cries.
“Sigh, how annoying.”
There was no need to deal with all them right here.
Without drawing my sword, I began sprinting in the opposite direction. Near here, there was a reasonably good spot.
Thud.
Thud.
“Isn’t it interesting? They call themselves Red Skullos. They have a habit of piercing anything that enters their territory.”
A barrage of thorns rained down, flying out from a gigantic rose like a tree, aimed at me and the bugs.
Of course, I was used to it, making it easy to dodge, but the bugs behind me weren’t so lucky.
As I passed through the Skullos’ territory, next was the area of the Acid Giant.
Although it was called a giant, it seemed to have lost consciousness, drooling profusely, causing the ground to become muddy; stepping just made my shoes dissolve.
Here, I could navigate carefully while avoiding areas with less slime, but the bugs couldn’t.
Due to their bellies being on the ground, most of them melted away, leaving only a few behind.
I contemplated drawing my sword but didn’t bother and kept running, eventually arriving at the Silver Lake, one of the brighter spots in the Forest of the Demon Realm.
The lake, shining silver, was beautiful enough to make one exclaim, but in reality, it wasn’t that impressive.
As I got closer, the lake began to overflow and poured directly toward me and the bugs.
“Whooops!”
The area was wide, but since the speed was slow, I avoided it, leaving the bugs behind as they disappeared into the lake.
Though I casually called it the Silver Lake, in fact, it wasn’t a lake at all.
‘It’s a gigantic Silver Slime.’
It was just an absurdly gigantic magical beast made entirely of acid.
Well, it was fortunate that only simple magical beasts appeared since it was still early in the forest.
If bugs showed up by the mid-point, I could have unwittingly provoked annoying ones.
Just when I was about to head back to the spot where I was gathering herbs, I noticed someone slowly emerging between the trees.
Thinking it was another bug, I was surprised to see that it was a person, and even more surprising, a face I recognized.
“Daniel?”
“Adriana?”
The witch from the Black Forest, who survived Apviel and completed her goal of surviving. Having quit the academy, she returned to the forest and ran towards me, wide-eyed.
