Chapter 76 - A Rumor That Isn’t a Rumor (1)

And so I arrived at my room in Aurora Hall, my dormitory, and immediately collapsed onto the bed as if I had fainted.

“Ughhhh…”

As soon as I lay down on the bed, a zombie-like death rattle escaped my lips.

After all, so many things had happened during the dawn that it was hard to summarize in a single word. My body was exhausted.

Well, I still felt a sense of accomplishment. I also had the feeling that I had once again changed the flow of in a good direction to some extent.

I predicted that this would probably be the sweetest, most honey-like sleep I'd had since falling into the world of .

“Well… that thing from earlier is a little unsettling…”

The incident at the school gate did weigh on my mind, but… well.

I didn’t know. It wasn’t a terribly important matter, so the thought was pushed to the back of my mind.

More important than that were the final exams starting tomorrow, and above all, the drowsiness from fatigue was overtaking me.

“What could… possibly happen…”

I fell asleep just like that. Mumbling such sleep talk.

Come to think of it, I felt like I had said this phrase, ‘what could possibly happen,’ once before. When was it?

Well, it wasn't that important.

***

‘Damn it.’

I had just woken up from a truly sweet slumber to face the Monday of final exams, but I wasn't in a good mood.

Did I mess up my finals for some reason? That wasn’t it. On the contrary, I could proudly say that I had prepared diligently and took the exams without regret.

Then you might ask, what was I complaining about after successfully resolving an incident and even getting some rest…

Such a question would be immediately resolved by listening to the sounds heard while strolling through the campus in the morning.

-Did you hear that story? About Arien-ssi and…

-Yeah. The one about them staying out all night and coming back together?

-They said the atmosphere seemed really good…

Yes, it was that kind of story. The story about me and Arien being spotted at the school gate yesterday morning had already spread everywhere.

‘That was fast.’

For a rumor to spread this quickly about something that happened in just one day, and a holiday at that.

Should I call them scary teenagers, or were the students of this Archenia Academy particularly zealous?

Either way, it was a scary thing.

‘Was I too complacent?’

I should have thought about this kind of thing in advance… I couldn't deny that I hadn't paid enough attention to my conduct.

Arien, for her part, was attracting attention because of her position as the next Magic Tower Master.

I, too, tended to draw people's gazes because of my birth and my actions.

I should have considered that if the two of us were caught in a situation where we had stayed out all night, it would cause trouble, but I was too focused on solving the immediate problem.

-Did you hear? They say they're in that kind of relationship…

The spectacle was not just that the story about me and Arien had spread, but that it had been magnified and reinterpreted to create all sorts of baseless rumors.

Even when I went to the classroom to take the exam.

-I knew it. They've been sticking together so much lately, it was obvious.

-I saw them too. They came to the library together almost every day, so could it be…

-Then the staying out all night thing is also really… like that?

Good grief.

Thus, in the rumors, Arien and I had already become a couple who had gone all the way.

‘…Of course, in this case, I have nothing to say even if such stories come out.’

Circumstantially, it was almost certain that we had stayed out all night together. And it was true that we had stayed up all night together.

“Haa…”

My head was a mess. Well, it wasn't like my plans were ruined or I was at a disadvantage because of this.

And even if it were true, it wasn't like I had committed a crime… but still, it was a bit much, wasn't it?

Above all, it wasn't even true.

Well, it wasn't because of the gazes of nameless people that I felt this discomfort.

I was already used to those gazes that looked at me like a monkey in a zoo. But…

‘The problem is the reactions of the people around me.’

Hmm. Well, I hadn't done anything to be criticized for, and I hadn't committed any crime, but I couldn't help the strange looks.

In Yuna's case.

“...Hey, that… is it, is it true?”

As we came out after taking the final exam for the same class, Yuna asked.

Beating around the bush a lot. No wonder she was squirming uncomfortably in her seat in the classroom…

I thought about her words for a moment.

‘How do I explain this?’

The crazy thing was that I couldn't tell her what had happened as it was.

Let’s think about what I did during the dawn. Not only could I not prove it, but proving it would cause even more problems.

By now, yesterday's factory explosion would be under investigation by the authorities, and if I gave them even a slight trail to follow… there was no telling how I'd get entangled.

‘Well, neither the Prince nor Ad Astra would actively make a move, but…’

Well, anyway. I let out a small sigh and said flatly.

“Absolutely nothing of the sort happened.”

“Right? It was just a baseless rumor like always, then-”

Hmm.

If she was asking if it was a complete rumor, well, that wasn't quite right either.

In any case, it was true that we had stayed up all night together…

Uh. Hmm.

“……”

“...Hey, hey. Your eyes are darting.”

Gasp. Was it that obvious?

“Me?”

Come to think of it, even in my original world, I was the type who couldn't lie.

“That's the classic expression of someone who just lied…”

Yuna said, looking at me with a sullen expression.

‘This sharp-witted girl.’

To think that Yuna's intuition, which was described as a psychic power in the original , would be used in this way.

“Are you sure nothing happened?”

Somehow, I was in a situation where I was being interrogated.

Poke, poke.

She was poking my side with her finger.

“...It is true that we were out together until dawn for a certain matter.”

I decided to confess a certain amount to Yuna. After all, relationships with the main characters were more important than anything else in changing the world of .

“I can't tell you everything due to circumstances… but it's true. At least, nothing like the stories circulating now happened.”

…The whole situation of me explaining this kind of thing to her in such detail seemed ridiculous.

Anyway.

“Hmph.”

To my words, Yuna had that dry reaction.

I thought she'd be a bit more like, kyaak kyaak.

“That’s a rather cool reaction.”

“No, well…”

Scratch, Yuna scratched her head awkwardly.

And what she said was.

“What's the point of pressing further? You said no.”

Well, that was also true. This was also very Yuna-like, in a way.

Sometimes when I saw her, I felt like Yuna's words had the power to convince people.

“True.”

In any case, I was convinced and nodded my head readily.

After that, well.

“Then I'll be going. I have consecutive classes.”

“Yeah, I’m gonna go get some food with a friend-”

Just as I was about to part with Yuna and head to another classroom…

Tap tap tap-!

“Yuna!!”

With the sound of running from afar, a girl called out Yuna's name as if shouting.

‘This voice is…’

It wasn't familiar, but it was a voice I had definitely heard somewhere before.

Guessing the owner of the voice, I turned my head, and there…

“...Shasha?”

As Yuna had said, it was Shasha, one of Yuna's friends.

“Yeah, yeah! You're hungry, right? Here! Let's go eat!”

“Uh, but we could just meet at the student cafeteria, why go out of your way…”

“Ah- you were that hungry! Let's hurry up and go!!”

“Wh-what's with you…?”

Yuna also looked clearly flustered by the obviously unnatural and exaggerated tone.

And seeing how she kept glancing over here…

‘I’ve been marked.’

Yuna's friends in the original , Shasha, Kaylee, and Michel, had a tendency to be overprotective of her.

My guess was that they had heard the rumors about me and thought… I was some kind of dangerous guy.

I think that's why she was trying to separate Yuna and me so quickly.

I wasn't sure, though.

“Anyway, let's go!!”

“U-ughhh…”

And so, Yuna was dragged away by Shasha.

It was fine since I had my own things to do, but… it seemed clear that my image in Shasha's mind was shattered.

The next acquaintance I met was Serene. We ended up having a meal together after the same class ended.

After the last Ad Astra invasion, for some reason, she seemed to feel a sense of distance from me, but… well, it seemed time had solved that.

“How was descriptive question number 7 for you?”

“Ah, the one about the use of mages in mobile warfare. That one…”

We were talking about things like that. How the exam questions were, how we solved this problem. That sort of thing.

As Serene was originally a diligent person, we were able to have a pretty informative conversation.

‘By the way, she's not reacting.’

Since Serene was also surrounded by all sorts of people, I thought she would have heard the rumors about me… but she was treating me as usual.

Not that she was the type to be swayed by rumors just because she heard them.

‘As expected of Serene. She's unshakable.’

That was the conclusion I came to seeing Serene. Should I say she was a ray of light in this world where human scums were particularly prominent? Serene's role in was originally like that.

I felt relieved and continued my conversation with Serene.

“Ah, I'm sorry I couldn't make it to the training yesterday and the day before. Something came up over the weekend…”

As I brought it up…

“Cough.”

Serene, who was drinking water, suddenly started coughing as if she had choked.

“...Serene-ssi?”

“Ah, yes. I'm listening. The, the weekend, you say…”

She quickly composed her expression and became nonchalant again.

“……”

I feel like a somewhat unnatural reaction just passed by.

‘She must have just choked by coincidence.’

Hmm, it's Serene, of all people.

As I was thinking that and about to return to the topic.

Rattle rattle rattle.

I heard a sound of something trembling intensely.

“...??”

And when I followed the source of the sound with my eyes.

“Fufu, it's alright. You always train diligently. Two days is nothing.”

In contrast to the voice that was the very picture of serenity…

Rattle rattle rattle.

Serene's hand, holding the fork, was trembling like crazy.

Could it be that even Serene was agitated by this incident?

I hadn't done anything wrong, but for some reason, I felt a pang of guilt. I felt a little guilty…

‘For the Serene to show such a reaction.’

Was the news about a close acquaintance such a shock? Well, this would have been a first for Serene too.

Hmm.

But I wonder if it's something to react so strongly to… well, anyway.

Wasn't Serene trying her best to act nonchalant?

I thought that the right thing to do was to pretend I didn't notice, so I just quietly ate my food.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.