“The only thing this way is the thermae, though…,” Blade muttered.
After walking for a little while, Blade came across the giant open-air bath dug into one corner of the grounds. This was where everyone at the academy came to relax, although it became particularly crowded between the end of class and dinnertime, with boys and girls all washing away their sweat together.
As Blade walked along the perimeter of the bath, he saw someone through the bushes.
Ah. There he is.
He’d finally found Kassim.
The boy was lying very low, his head buried in the shrubbery. Branches and leaves were stuck to his shoulders and back, as if he was deliberately trying to camouflage himself. What kind of “training” was this? It looked like recon work to Blade. But whatever Kassim was up to, Blade didn’t want to get in the way, so he stealthily approached from behind, trying not to make a sound.
“Hey, Kassim—”
Blade waited until he was right next to him to speak up. It almost gave Kassim a heart attack, but he deftly managed to stay crouched even as he leaped a few inches into the air.
“B-Blade? Don’t scare me like that, man…”
“Sorry. Hey so, I wanted to ask you something.”
“What? You trying to peep, too?”
“Hm? What’s that mean?”
It seemed this “peeping” was part of Kassim’s daily regimen. Blade had no idea what kind of training it was, but that didn’t matter.
“No, I—”
“Hey, I get it,” Kassim interrupted. “Just shut up for a sec. You don’t have to give me the whole story, okay? You might be a super-being, but you’re still a man, aren’t ya? I totally get it! And nothing says ‘I’m a man’ more than this!”
Apparently, Kassim already understood Blade. And now the conversation was about masculinity for some reason.
“Here, take a look,” he said. “We can watch together. Best seat in the house. It’s my secret spot, but I’ll let you in on it. But don’t tell anyone, all right?”
Blade vigorously nodded. Getting clued in on a secret from a good friend was kind of exciting. But…what was this place anyway? All he could see was part of the bath, its steamy water stretching out into the distance. This place was practically a lake, after all.
Girls waded through periodically, parting the waters with their thighs as they passed. Kassim lay low in the bushes, staring intently.
What’s he even looking at? And where?
Blade didn’t understand one bit. If Kassim wanted to see some nude girls, for example, wouldn’t he be better off just going into the bath and looking at them there? A man’s incessant drive to see naked women was wholly alien to Blade.
“Hey… Hey…”
“Shhh! It’s getting good.” Kassim was totally focused.
A girl was crossing through the water, splashing as she walked… Was that Lunaria? Kassim’s eyes were glued to the spectacle. Lunaria had recently started attending Rosewood Academy, and right now, she didn’t have a stitch of clothing on her. Kassim was concentrating every ounce of his brainpower on watching her. Maybe it was particularly rare to see Lunaria nude, or something.
“……”
Blade crouched next to Kassim for a little while as the two of them stared at Lunaria’s naked body. Blade thought her body was the most, well, curvy out of all the girls at school. Kassim seemed particularly dedicated to watching her chest. But why wasn’t Blade panting like Kassim was, despite staring at the exact same body parts? Was Blade ill?
Suddenly, he remembered why he was here. “Hey, Kassim.”
“What? We’re gonna be in big trouble if they see us. Keep it down.”
That wasn’t really any of Blade’s business, though. “Hey, you know how, like, there’s a Hero, right?”
“Huh? The Hero King? Didn’t he come visit our school a little while ago?”
“Clay was talking about how much he wanted him to come back and teach us some more. What do you think, Kassim?” That seemed like a pretty good “test” question. Perfect, in fact.
“Oh, I don’t know. We probably can’t get him again, can we?”
“Why do you think that?”
“Well, I mean, like…”
Blade brought his ear closer to Kassim, eagerly awaiting his reply.
“…The Hero’s gotta be really busy, right? He probably doesn’t have the time to hang out with a bunch of kids like us.”
That wasn’t true. It just so happened the Hero was a kid, too. The same age as Kassim, in fact.
“Like, last time, the king had to grovel on his hands and knees to get the guy to come, didn’t he? It was a one-time special favor.”
Close. There wasn’t any hands-and-knees stuff. Blade hadn’t let it go that far. The king had been about to do just that, but Blade hadn’t wanted to see it, so he’d finally caved.
This meant Kassim was on the no list as well. Anyone who gave a normal response to a question like that was a no. Assured that his practical, innovative judgment method was totally infallible, Blade smiled triumphantly and left Kassim to his viewing.
Kassim was a no, and next up was… Ah, yes. Yessica and Claire were right there in the bath. Blade wasted no time walking through the thicket of bushes and jumping straight into the water.