“…So, what did you want to talk about?”
After sending the others off, I headed to the park I often visited with Charlotte.
Come to think of it, this was the first time I’d talked with her here without any food involved.
“Well…”
Charlotte hesitated for a moment before finally speaking.
“U-um, first off… are you okay? You passed out yesterday.”
“As you can see, I’m fine. No problems.”
“That’s… good to hear.”
Before we knew it, the sky had begun to darken.
But Charlotte still hadn’t gotten to the point.
‘I can more or less guess what she wants to say…’
Knowing her personality, it wasn’t hard to figure out what this was about.
We hadn’t had a chance to talk after the tournament ended yesterday, so she probably felt the need to speak with me quickly.
“Eriol Valencia.”
Charlotte finally broke the silence.
“They say Joshua-sunbae was really a vampire, right?”
“So you heard.”
“Yeah, I only found out today.”
Charlotte let out a sigh.
“Eriol Valencia, I owe you an apology.”
“Why would you need to apologize?”
“Because I’m the one who introduced you to Joshua-sunbae.”
“…”
“If things had gone wrong, you could’ve ended up like Sabbat, a puppet to a vampire.”
She bowed her head as she spoke.
“I’m sorry. I truly mean it.”
“You have nothing to apologize for.”
“No, if I hadn’t introduced you to him, you wouldn’t have been caught up in something so dangerous.”
“If you’re going to argue it that way, then the problem started when I asked you for past test questions.”
“Th-that’s not it. I mean…”
“There’s no end if we start pointing fingers like that.”
I cut her off mid-sentence.
“Joshua’s the only one at fault here. He tried to use us. That’s all there is to it.”
“…”
“Understand?”
Charlotte looked conflicted for a moment.
But eventually, she gave a small nod.
“Okay. If you say so… then I’ll think that way too.”
“Good.”
I had expected she’d bring this up.
But Charlotte had no reason to carry a burden over this.
Joshua was the cause of everything—and he was already gone.
“And let’s not say stuff like ‘thank you’ either. We helped each other out this time, right? That’s enough.”
“Right… okay. I’ll do as you say.”
Charlotte was the kind of person who couldn’t leave a debt unpaid.
Hearing her say “thank you” over and over would’ve been exhausting, so this was the best way to wrap things up.
“But, Eriol.”
“What?”
“This is just a personal matter, so I hope you’ll allow me this one thing.”
“What is it…”
“Thanks to the tournament win, and doing well on the midterms because of those test questions… it looks like I won’t have to worry about being dragged home by my parents anytime soon.”
Charlotte had once said she’d be forced to leave the Academy if her grades didn’t improve.
She’d have to go back home… and enter into a political marriage.
“If you hadn’t reached out to me… I wouldn’t have gotten this outcome.”
“…”
“So at least for that… I hope you’ll let me say thank you.”
Her sincere voice left me at a loss for words.
“Thank you, Eriol Valencia. If you don’t mind… I’d like to stay on good terms with you.”
Under the blue moonlight, Charlotte bowed her head toward me—
Wearing a shy smile I didn’t often see.
After finishing up a few things, I was resting in my dorm room.
That was when a cautious voice came from outside.
“Eriol, do you have a moment?”
“…?”
I opened the door to find Senia, holding a small bag close to her chest.
“What’s up?”
“Um… would it be alright if we talked for a bit?”
“Oh, right.”
On the way back from dinner earlier, Senia had seemed like she wanted to say something.
“It’s fine. Come in.”
“Thank you.”
Senia stepped into the room carefully.
“I-I’m a little nervous.”
“Why?”
“Last time, other people were around, but now I’m alone in a boy’s room…”
“Ah. Should we talk outside then?”
“N-no! That’s not what I meant!”
“Then?”
“It’s just… ah, forget it. Never mind.”
Blushing, Senia cleared her throat.
“So, what did you want to talk about? Is it about the dungeon?”
“That too, but…”
“…?”
First Charlotte, now Senia—why did everyone beat around the bush today?
“Ah, that reminds me—what did you and Charlotte talk about earlier?”
“Charlotte?”
“The mood seemed kind of serious…”
Senia asked carefully.
“Cain and Milia said… they thought Charlotte might be, um, confessing to you…”
“…What?”
That was absurd.
“She was just thanking me for helping her out. We didn’t get a chance to talk after the tournament yesterday.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. She said with the good grades and the tournament win, she probably won’t get dragged home for a while.”
“I see… that’s a relief.”
“A relief?”
“I actually overheard once. That she’d be in trouble if her grades didn’t improve.”
“You heard about the arranged marriage too?”
“Ah, so you heard about that as well.”
Senia gave an awkward smile.
“I’m kind of in the same boat. I guess… we’re in similar situations.”
“Yeah… I guess you’re right.”
Senia had her own circumstances.
So it wasn’t surprising that she could empathize with Charlotte a bit.
“But, you know…”
“What?”
“Are you really sure… that’s all it was between you and her?”
“What are you trying to say…”
“S-sorry!”
Senia quickly lowered her head.
“Cain and Milia were talking like that too, and Charis seemed to agree with them…”
These little… seriously…
“No, I doubt they were being serious. Don’t take it so literally.”
“R-Really?”
“Yeah, they were probably just joking around for fun.”
“Ah…”
Senia looked like she was convinced.
“I’m sorry. To be honest, I don’t have any experience or knowledge when it comes to romantic relationships… I’ve only read about them in books.”
“That makes two of us.”
“R-Really?”
I didn’t have any girls my age around me, and I was never that interested in other people’s relationships.
Though I did enjoy reading romance stories in novels.
“To me, it always felt like something that only existed in books… It never felt real. So when I heard that Charlotte might confess to Eriol, my heart fluttered a bit.”
Senia blushed as she placed a hand over her chest.
“Anyway, I’m sorry for the misunderstanding. I’ll be more careful from now on.”
“There’s no need to apologize. It’s fine.”
After we wrapped up that conversation, I asked her again.
“So, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?”
“Ah, well…”
Senia’s expression darkened slightly.
“When you collapsed yesterday, it was Cain and Charlotte who helped carry you outside.”
“Ah, really?”
“Yes, I was the one in charge of gathering the equipment and supplies.”
“You must’ve had a rough time.”
“It was a bit hectic. We had to quickly gather everything—Your dropped gear, the daggers we’d thrown—and shove them all into a bag to get out of the boss area as fast as we could…”
Senia carefully opened her bag.
“But later, I noticed… something else got mixed in.”
“Mixed in? What do you mean?”
“This.”
She pulled something out of her backpack.
It was… a bone.
“Wait a second. Don’t tell me…”
There was no mistaking it.
It was a bone from the dungeon’s boss monster, the Drake Skeleton.
“I realized it last night, and I wasn’t sure what to do…”
Senia looked disheartened.
“If someone finds out I took this without permission… will I be punished?”
“Punished?”
“I didn’t know what to do, so I wanted to ask you for advice…”
So that was what she wanted to talk about.
She was worried because she had accidentally taken one of the skeleton’s bones and wanted to consult with me.
‘Senia probably came to the Academy against her family’s wishes. If she got punished over something like this, it could be serious.’
If it were me, I’d just return it whether I was punished or not… but for Senia, it likely wasn’t that simple.
“Senia, I don’t think you need to worry that much.”
“Huh?”
“I read the tournament rules. It said participants are allowed to take loot with them.”
“But wasn’t that referring to items from the item boxes during the trial?”
“Not necessarily.”
I recalled what Joshua had once told me.
“There was a time when a Baikon was the boss monster. Back then, someone took one of its horns as loot.”
“That really happened?”
The Baikon is a horned horse, similar to a unicorn but with some different traits.
“Anyway, the tournament rules never said you couldn’t take remains of monsters. So I don’t think it’ll be a problem.”
“Then…”
“You can just keep it.”
Senia looked a little relieved.
But she still seemed a bit uneasy.
“Do you want me to hold onto it instead?”
“Huh?”
“If it becomes an issue later, I can say I took it by mistake.”
“N-No, you don’t have to do that…”
“Actually, I’m kind of interested in it now.”
“Interested?”
“Looking at it closely… it doesn’t seem like just a random bone. It looks more like a fang.”
On closer inspection, it really did look like a fang embedded in a jaw, not just a loose bone.
If it was a drake’s fang… then it was one of those so-called dragon fangs, a valuable item.
“It’s not as high-grade as a true dragon fang, but it can still be considered a rare magical material.”
“Oh, I’ve heard of that before.”
“It may not be worth much since it was already used in a skeleton summoning, but it’s still a valuable item.”
If I had known, I would’ve taken all of the drake’s fangs after we defeated the skeleton.
“But Eriol, what are you planning to do with it?”
“What do you think?”
“I’m not really sure… I don’t know much about this kind of stuff…”
“Honestly, I’ve never formally studied it either.”
This time, I had fought many skeletons.
And even faced off against a higher-tier undead— a vampire-type.
So… I’d developed an interest.
“If I can use necromancy to make a fang soldier, wouldn’t that come in handy when we go into dungeons?”
“…!”
A fang soldier.
That was the term for an elite skeletal warrior created using dragon fangs—on a completely different level from ordinary skeletons.
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