“I don’t like rowdy crowds,” I said.
As a former shut-in, I was anything but an extrovert. Especially when I was the center of attention. I didn’t know how to handle it. If someone was picking a fight with me, I’d take them on, but if they weren’t, I had no idea how to respond.
“Should you even be here after you worked so hard at the gathering, Seleiyu?”
“Ha ha. I don’t like loud spaces either, like you, so I ran away. That’s when I saw you.”
Apparently, that was why she came over to talk to me.
“I lost again, Yuna. I never thought that I’d lose against you in magic.”
“It was a close one,” I told her.
“It didn’t seem like it from my end. Even when we fought as a pair, we couldn’t take your flag.”
“It really was,” I said.
Truly, I was doing about as good as I could while still following the rules. Since using dangerous magic wasn’t allowed, I was barely holding on. The same could be said about Seleiyu and the rest of the offensive duo, though, so maybe it was all the same.
“I’d like to have a real match with you after all of that,” Seleiyu said.
“It’d probably end up a fight to the death.”
“Oh, yes. You’re right. A real match would end up that way.” Seleiyu smiled. “You’re an adventurer, aren’t you, Yuna?”
“Yeah.”
“Have you ever killed a person?”
“A person? I’ve injured people really badly before, but I’ve never killed anyone.”
Actually, I’d injured people pretty badly a few times. There were the adventurers I’d had a run in with at the start, the bandits who tried to attack us on the way to the capital, the merchants who tried to attack Morin and her daughter, the bandits on the road to Mileela, the guy in black clothes who kidnapped Misa, and a couple others. I’d left them half-dead—but I’d never killed anyone for real.
“Why do you ask?”
“No reason. Since you’re so powerful, I thought that maybe you had. I’m sorry if it was a rude question.” Seleiyu bobbed her head slightly in apology. “I was just wondering what kinds of emotions might lead one person to kill another.”
“That’s hard to say.”
I could beat people to a pulp, sure, but I could never make myself land the finishing blow. There was a big difference between beating someone to the brink of death and actually killing them.
“Seleiyu, what’s gotten into you?” I said. “Why would you ask something like that?”
I wanted to say it wasn’t like her, but I’d only met her a few days ago, so I couldn’t tell. I just felt like something was off.
“No reason. Please forget I asked.”
Seleiyu turned her back on me and left, as if trying to escape the conversation. I watched her as she walked away.
What was that about?
Once the feasting was done, we all headed our separate ways. Noa didn’t want to leave Shia, so we ended up heading over to where she was staying. Shia and the rest of the students were set up at a building on campus.
“Shia...” Noa started talking in her sleep.
I guess that the cheering had tuckered her out. She’d fallen asleep at some point while we were hanging out.
“Ha ha. Thank you for bringing Noa over, Yuna. I think I worked a lot harder thanks to her cheering.”
“It was fun for me too.”
The final match was super exciting to watch.
“We won the last one thanks to you.”
“I mean, it ended up a tie though.”
“That tie was the same as winning. I think we would have lost with anyone else on our team. I wish we could have won without needing to rely on your abilities, though.”
I got how she felt. This was a match between Yufaria and the capital academies, and an outsider had participated. It was kind of like cheating.
“The teacher also said that this would be good motivation for us.”
In that case, I was glad I participated.
The conversation turned to tomorrow. Apparently, everyone was going to use fabrication magic to make a pier so all the students could have fun swimming. Come to think of it, she’d told me to bring my swimsuit in case there was time to swim in the lake. I wasn’t going to dive in, but Noa seemed excited, so I’d tag along with her. There were other girls my age who were way more developed in certain areas, so there was no way I was going to change into a swimsuit and get in the water with them.
“All right. I’m going home,” I said.
The sun set while we were talking in Shia’s room, so I left the sleeping Noa to Shia and decided to head back to the inn.
“You could stay too if you’d like?”
“I’ll head back. I don’t want to worry the inn’s staff.”
We hadn’t checked in with the inn since leaving for the competition. They might worry about what had happened to us.
“But it’s already dark out. And you’re a girl.”
“I’m fine. You know I can look after myself.”
“That’s true, but...”
Shia still seemed worried.
“Remember, I have a pair of excellent guards to protect me. You don’t have to worry.”
I summoned Kumayuru and Kumakyu in cub form. If I ran into any danger, they’d alert me.
“They’re pretty cute, for bodyguards.”
Shia patted Kumayuru and Kumakyu on their heads.
“Since I’m here as Noa’s guard, I’ll leave Kumayuru here at least. Take care of Noa, okay?”
“Cwoon.”
Kumayuru crooned at me and curled up by Noa to watch over her. I held Kumakyu close.
“Well, I’ll be back tomorrow morning.”
“Okay. Please be careful on your way back though,” Shia said, the worry audible in her voice.
I nodded, then left.