Chapter 17

“Even if we don’t pass, the studying we’ve done won’t just vanish. We’ll gain valuable experience. And if by any chance we actually pass, it’ll give us the courage to believe that we can challenge ourselves to endless other possibilities beyond just entering the academy.”

I was never going to just sit around passively.

“But just barely scraping by to get an acceptance letter won’t cut it. If we actually want to go to the academy, we’re going to need tuition money.”

“You mean we have to be exceptional enough to earn a scholarship?”

Theo chimed in, anticipating my follow-up remark.

It seemed he still remembered what I had said when I first brought up the idea of taking the academy entrance exam.

“That’s right. Isn’t that why we’re studying right now?”

“What are you going to do if only one of us passes—you or me?”

Theo asked, resting his chin in his hand.

“You always ask questions like that.”

“Because it’s the most important thing to me.”

“Fine. Then you must already have something decided. What would you do?”

“………”

Theo stared at me in silence for a brief moment. I could feel it clearly in his gaze.

Whatever happened, Theo would choose the option that kept him together with me.

“Yeah. I think I already know what you’d say.”

I replied to that gaze with a smile.

At that, Theo let out a faint smile as well.

“That’s right. Since my answer is so obvious, I want to hear your thoughts. Iris, what would you do?”

“I…”

If one of us were to fail…

“You’d choose to part ways without a second thought, wouldn’t you?”

Theo cut in ahead of my answer. There was a hint of laughter riding on his voice, but the gaze he cast sideways at me carried an undeniable, helpless resentment.

“Part ways? You always phrase things in a way that makes me out to be the bad guy.”

“Shall I use your phrasing, then?”

With those words, Theo widened his eyes and spoke:

“You’d choose to stay apart for a little while for the sake of each other’s futures, right?”

Delivered in a soft, sweet tone, Theo reverted to a cynical expression the moment he finished speaking and gave me a short, sharp nod of his chin.

“Are you imitating me just now?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“You’ve gotten a lot bolder, haven’t you?”

Unfazed, Theo shrugged his shoulders.

“My height has already surpassed yours by a long shot, anyway.”

Seeing Theo smile with such brazen shamelessness, I let out a hollow laugh.

Before I even realized it, Theo had grown out of being just a little kid.

***

“……If only you end up going to the academy.”

In the middle of the silence, filled only by the scratching sound of a quill moving across paper, Theo spoke to me.

“Hm?”

“If that happens, I might just hold you back.”

“………”

It seemed Theo had still been mulling over that conversation in his head even after quite a bit of time had passed.

“I know that if I do something like that, you’ll be disappointed in me. But I’ll still hold onto you anyway.”

“………”

“If something like that really happens… what will you do?”

At Theo’s question, I swallowed hard, a dry knot in my throat.

Up until now, Theo had always skillfully dodged questions that seemed likely to lead to an answer unfavorable to him.

Because of that, I couldn’t help but feel profoundly flustered by Theo’s question right now.

I had never dreamed that Theo would bring up such a sensitive topic so directly.

“What’s the reason you’re suddenly asking me something so point-blank?”

“Because I want to know what you’re thinking.”

Theo showed no intention of letting me brush it off vaguely.

The way he set down his quill and stared fixedly into my eyes felt heavy and oppressive.

I nervously bit my lip and averted my gaze from Theo.

“Can you really abandon me?”

Then, Theo’s mournful, pitiful voice drifted across to me.

“What?”

I failed to react smoothly and ended up completely flustered.

Theo’s statement was practically an attack on me.

On top of that, he was even wielding a weapon I could never possibly resist: pity.

“I’m not talking about just saying we should part ways for our futures on the surface—I mean, if a situation like that actually happens, can you really abandon me?”

“………”

“Can you throw me away, Iris?”

In the end, even as time ticked by, I couldn’t give him an answer.

Could I really leave Theo all by myself?

Truth be told, I had no confidence I could do that.

With my lips, I had said that parting ways wasn’t all that bad, and that staying apart for a little while for each other’s sake might actually be for the best, but…

If that kind of situation were to really happen—if Theo held onto me and begged me not to part ways—I…

“I hope you don’t do that.”

Watching me sink into deep contemplation, Theo reached out and took my hand.

The tangled, interwoven fingers felt almost as if they were binding us tightly together.

“……I think we should stop studying for today here.”

Releasing Theo’s hand, I began gathering up my books.

For some reason, I couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling that something was going terribly wrong.

I kept hoping that Theo would laugh it off and say it was all just a joke, but that ultimately never happened.

***

“Must be quite interested in history, huh?”

My movement of sliding my fingertips down the spines of the books came to an abrupt halt.

It was because of Frey’s voice.

“Not really, I’m just doing it for my studies.”

“Studies?”

“I’m going to take the academy entrance exam next spring.”

At my reply, I saw Frey’s expression shift in a peculiar way.

Seeing that, a dark premonition flickered in my mind that maybe I shouldn’t have answered so openly. Lingering doubts about him still remained, after all.

“That’s truly admirable. May I help you out?”

However, Frey gave a completely unexpected response.

I widened my eyes and turned to look at him.

“Have you ever studied for the exam yourself, Mister?”

“I don’t know if it directly correlates with the academy, but I did receive a foundational education.”

I clicked my tongue in slight lingering disappointment.

Still, anyone willing to lend a hand was more than welcome.

After all, there wasn’t a proper teacher dedicated to education within the orphanage.

“Then… if it’s not too much trouble, would you mind helping me a little bit?”

There were limits to how deeply one could study all subjects purely through self-teaching.

To put it bluntly, I was at a point where I’d gladly take a cat’s paw if it meant getting help.

“Of course.”

With a concise reply, Frey became my temporary private tutor.

Prompted by his suggestion that we start studying right away starting today, Frey and I settled down in the library and opened our books.

“This is probably the only book properly organized on history within the orphanage.”

Saying that, Frey selected a book, opened it to a page, and began breaking down and summarizing the crucial points step-by-step.

‘What the heck? Is this guy a top-tier private instructor or what?’

Strangely enough, Frey’s tutoring skills were extraordinary.

Because his lesson proceeded without any fluff, precisely like a master cram-school teacher, I had to move my hand rapidly to take notes without even having a moment to be surprised.

“So, after the negotiations between the Third Emperor and the High Priest fell through, the political factions split—and that’s the Latras Empire we have today.”

“That’s amazing! Thanks to you, I understand it so well now.”

Seeing me smile brightly while holding up my notes, Frey smiled back silently.

“You already know about the founding myth of the Empire, don’t you?”

“Well, anyone living inside the Hyliss Orphanage hears that until their ears bleed, so of course.”

“Then, I’ll tell you a story that isn’t very well known.”

“A story that isn’t well known?”

“Wouldn’t it be much more advantageous to know even a little bit of detailed background rather than just knowing things superficially?”

It was a rather out-of-the-blue suggestion, but hearing him put it that way, it made sense.

I obediently nodded at Frey and gave him my full attention.

“Long, long ago, in an era where humans lived like slaves under wicked demons, a goddess born alongside light appeared.”

In a soft, gentle voice, as if reading from a fairy tale book, Frey began to spin the tale for me.

“The goddess’s name was ‘Lilia.’ She descended from the heavenly realm to look after the humans who were living as slaves to the demons.”

Up to this point, it was a story I had heard plenty of times and knew quite well.

“She possessed a special power. The ability to purify any evil whatsoever, and the power to heal any injury.”

“She could heal injuries?”

That, however, was something I was hearing for the very first time. All I had previously known was that she possessed the ability to purify even the wicked hearts of demons.

Was this the little-known story he was talking about?

Looking at my astonished face with a calm expression, Frey continued his tale:

“Yes. Lilia, who had hair like spun gold and blue eyes, possessed the ability to heal human wounds.”

“………”

I closed my mouth in silence.

Frey was simply reciting an ancient myth to me right now.

So, feeling a strange, eerie sensation crawl over me at this moment must just be my imagination playing tricks on me.

As if to reinforce that thought, Frey turned his gaze away from me and kept speaking: “Using those powers to save humanity, the goddess began to feel a deep affection for the humans who followed her.”

The myth looped back into familiar territory that I already knew by heart.

“However, to protect humans from the demons continually threatening their lives, the goddess began to be reborn continuously in human form to safeguard them.”

“So that’s why there’s someone living in the temple who goes by the title of the living goddess.”

When I chimed in with the conclusion, Frey gave a light nod.

His expression remained serene as always, completely unreadable as to what he was truly thinking, yet no other strange vibes emanated from him.

‘Was it really just my imagination, after all?’