Chapter 552:
The Bear Goes to See the Magic Gathering
THE MORNING OF THE GATHERING, I changed into my uniform once again. After the gathering, we’d go home, so I’d be freed from my dress code soon. This might be the last time I’d wear a uniform.
Noa also woke up and got changed. This time, she didn’t need the extreme asphyxiation wake-up call. After we finished breakfast, we headed to the academy.
“Ha ha, I’m so excited!”
Noa skipped as she walked ahead of me, her excitement propelling her forward. I was excited too, of course.
“Let’s scream our lungs out for her,” I said.
“Yes!”
We crossed the long bridge and arrived at the entrance of the academy, where we saw Shia. Wait a sec... I didn’t think we’d arranged to meet her there today.
Noa ran over to Shia.
“Shia, what’s wrong?”
“I just came to pick you up. I didn’t want you getting lost.”
Shia patted Noa’s head.
“We wouldn’t get lost,” Noa pouted.
“I’m kidding. I was worried that Yuna’d show up in her bear outfit, and that she wouldn’t be able to get inside.”
We talked as we strolled.
“C’mon, Shia. I’m wearing the uniform just like you told me to.”
I held out my arms and showed off that I was wearing a uniform.
“It looks good on you. But you seem to hate taking off your bear outfit. I was worried.”
“Oh, yes, that’s true. Yuna didn’t want to change into a dress for Misa’s birthday party either.”
Et tu, Noa?
“I hate fancy dresses.”
Normal clothes were different. If I had to choose between a fancy dress and a uniform, I’d pick the uniform, hands down. Fina hadn’t wanted to wear her dress either, by the way!
“That’s why I worried you might show up in your bear outfit. I was waiting here just in case.”
“I promised I would, so I’m wearing it. I wore it yesterday and the day before, after all.”
“It’s you we’re talking about, Yuna. I can never know for certain.”
I hadn’t wanted to wear a swimsuit either, so I couldn’t blame them for their lack of trust.
“I came here to cheer for you, Shia. Of course I’ll do what you want. But are you sure they won’t realize I’m not a student?”
“The academy is big, and I don’t think anyone knows everyone who goes to the entire school. It should be fine.”
She was right. There probably wasn’t a single person who had an encyclopedic knowledge of everyone enrolled in the academy. Sometimes that would happen in manga or anime, where a character would know everyone by name, but it didn’t seem believable.
It might be possible if someone had a list of students with photos, but in a world without cameras, it was basically impossible to memorize the names of a ton of people, especially when you needed to know what they looked like too.
“Oh, also, I forgot to mention this yesterday, but you kind of made a name for yourself from the duel with Seleiyu, so be careful.”
I guess Shia’s classmates really had been watching.
“Yuna, would you like us to call you Youna today?” Noa joked.
I could tell from her face she didn’t mean it seriously. But not everyone took it that way.
“You-na?”
It seemed like Shia had forgotten all about my alter ego. Noa explained what had happened during the academy festival.
“Oh, that’s right. You did that when you fought on my behalf. It’s much calmer now, but everyone was asking so many questions back then and it was so difficult to shake them off. But since Lady Teilia was there to help and Lord Lutum became a teacher, they stopped asking around.”
The name of the noble who’d tried to force Shia to marry his son was Lutum. They couldn’t tell anyone that I’d been the one to defeat him after he started working at the academy. Also, according to Noa, His Majesty had placed a gag order on the entire affair. Lutum was also a noble. If he found out the students were talking about him behind his back, he might’ve held a grudge. I was still surprised he was keeping my identity a secret.
Then again, the only reason I’d attracted attention in the first place was because of Lutum. That was close... I almost actually felt a little grateful for a second there. Still though, I couldn’t believe Lutum was actually a teacher. I couldn’t even imagine it.
“Should I introduce you as Youna to everyone?”
“No, no need to introduce me at all.”
I wasn’t going to go around being like, “Nice to meet you. I’m Youna, Shia’s friend.” I wanted to just watch from far away, so there wouldn’t be any need to introduce myself to anybody. I was just a perfectly ordinary student from the capital, here to watch the competition.
“So actually, what are you doing for the gathering? Do you fight or something?”
“Nothing so dangerous. We just aim for targets or compete in tests of power.”
Oh, right, right. Trying to throw magical spells at each other would be dangerous.
“Would you like to participate, Yuna?”
“I’m not a real student, so no thank you. Also, if I were to complete, then I’d win every contest on my own.”
I was joking.
“Of course. You defeated Lord Lutum, so you would definitely overpower everyone here,” Shia said.
I’d said it as a joke, but Shia took me seriously.
“I guess we do something similar to a sparring match at the end. Well, to you, it’s probably child’s play, but it’s exciting for us.”
“I’m looking forward to seeing it then,” I said.
We walked over to the campus grounds as we talked. The area was about as the size of a soccer field and slightly concave so that it would be easy for people to watch what was going on. At the center of the field, I saw students in capital and Yufarian uniforms.
“There are a lot of competitors.”
“It’s about twenty-five in total, girls and boys. We have around the same number of students from Yufaria too.”
I couldn’t tell if that was supposed to be an impressive amount or not.
“If the gathering is meant to help students improve their skills, then isn’t it kind of sad that the students from the capital can’t see it since it’s being held in Yufaria?”
If people couldn’t see the competitions for themselves, it’d be hard for them to improve. As I looked around, I saw that most of the other students who had come to watch were wearing the Yufarian uniform.
“Don’t worry, we switch locations every year. Next year we’ll hold it at the capital.”
Right, it’d be unfair to the capital’s students if they didn’t.
“Shia!”
We looked over in the direction of the shout and saw Seleiyu running over.
“And Yuna and Noa as well,” she said, as she saw us.
“Of course, we came to cheer Shia on.”
“Yes, that’s why we’re here,” Noa said.
Yep, we wouldn’t have made the trek from Crimonia otherwise.
“I’m so very jealous.”
“Your family is coming too, right, Seleiyu?”
“Yes. I cannot embarrass them.”
“That’s how I feel too.”
“I’m sorry, Shia, but even if we end up competing against each other, I won’t hold back.”
“Shia won’t either! She’ll win!”
Noa answered firmly in Shia’s place.
So I guess Seleiyu’s dad and little brother were going to be here to watch too. I’d need to cheer for Shia extra hard on Ellelaura and Cliff’s behalf.
“Hee hee, neither of us can lose to the other it seems, Shia.”
“It’s just like Noa said. I won’t lose.”
Shia seemed confident too. Well, that was a better sign than being timid about it. They say each match starts with your mindset beforehand. By the same token it wasn’t as though you could win a match through feelings alone. Like if your opponent was just on a way higher level, or you were going after an OP boss, you weren’t gonna get far. I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve lost.
But if you were on the same playing field, then your attitude going into a match mattered a lot. Your mindset was what sustained you. Sometimes it could control the entire direction of a match.
While we were talking, someone called Seleiyu over from far away.
“Seems I must get going now. Shia, let’s both do the best we can.”
Seleiyu headed over to join the other students from Yufaria.
“She said her family was coming to cheer her on, but her mom wasn’t at their house. Does she work at the capital like Ellelaura?”
“...”
“...”
My casual question seemed to have put Noa and Shia on edge. Was I not supposed to ask?
“Lady Seleiyu’s mother is…no longer with us...” Noa hesitated slightly as she answered.
Ah, that explained it. I didn’t have parents in this world either. I guess they were still in my original world, but that was as good as them being gone. Fina had lost her dad, and the orphans didn’t have parents either. Seleiyu still had a loving father, and they seemed to be doing well enough as a household. I didn’t pity her or anything. I knew other people in this world had it way worse.
“She did pass away, as Noa has said, but I heard that she was murdered.”
“She was? I didn’t know that.”
Apparently, Noa wasn’t aware of the particulars.
“Well, it’s not the type of thing people would discuss. So don’t tell anyone, okay?”
“Yes, of course.”
“I won’t talk about it either.”
It’s not as if I had anyone to tell in the first place.
“Are you sure you should have told us that, Shia?” I asked.
“Noa is a noble too, so she should know, and I think it might put Seleiyu in an awkward position if you had asked her something like that directly, Yuna.”
She was right. I might have asked her about her mom casually. I was glad I hadn’t at dinner.
“I should get going too,” Shia said.
“Good luck, Shia,” Noa said.
“We’re rooting for you,” I told her.
Shia waved at us and jogged over to join the other students.