“Ruchika, are you skipping again?!”
“Sorry, Leonie. Give the professor a good excuse for me, will you?”
“I will not! Just go to class like everyone else!”
“But our next one is with Professor Aliza, right? Yeah, no thanks.”
“Ruchika!”
Despite receiving a harsh scolding from Leonie as she made a sour face at me, I decided to skip class as usual. After Nor’s rebuke, I had done my best to attend all the other professors’ lectures, but Professor Aliza clearly had it in for me. Simply having to deal with her made me exhausted. Plus, her lectures were super fast-paced and hard to keep up with.
I slipped out of the school building and lay down on the lawn of the courtyard. The sky above was blue. It looked like summer was almost here. As I enjoyed the feeling of the late spring breeze, I closed my eyes, and the next thing I knew, I had fallen into a deep sleep.
When I opened my eyes, it was dark outside.
Ah, looks like I did it again. I had not only skipped Professor Aliza’s class but all my remaining classes for the day. Whoops. And I even sort of liked the practical training course I missed.
“Eh, whatever.”
What was done was done. I would just have to go apologize to the teacher later.
—If that’s how you feel, then why don’t you just attend class in the first place?
I can’t help it. Professor Aliza’s classes are agony for me.
I had to admit I wasn’t exactly a serious student, but there was definitely a problem with Professor Aliza’s attitude, too.
“……Hmm?
When I arrived at my dorm room, I noticed something strange: I could sense someone inside. It shouldn’t have been Leonie; at this hour, she was usually still out studying by herself and wouldn’t be back until later. On top of that, the door was ajar. Leonie would never do something so careless.
A thief, maybe?
—Do you want to know what I think?
No, I wanna see this for myself.
I was getting a little worked up. Yeah, I knew it was inappropriate to be excited at a time like this, but I just loved when things happened that were out of the ordinary. Especially now, when my daily life had been so boring. Getting to catch a criminal in the act sounded kinda fun.
I quietly opened the door and peeked inside. I didn’t hear anything, but I could sense someone else’s mana within the room. Then I heard some kind of groaning voice going “Uhh…” and “Hmm…” Maybe the thief was struggling to pick out what to steal.
The room was about twenty square meters large and was made for two people. There were two beds and two desks, one for each person, but not much else in the way of furnishings. That meant there weren’t really any places to hide. Since there was a window, someone could leave from it. But on the other hand, that was the only place to escape, so it’d be easy to chase the intruder. All right, here I go.
“Don’t move! How dare you try to steal from me and Leonie’s love nest! Surrender and come quietly, or else I’ll— Wait, what?”
“Ugh…”
When I stepped into the room, I could see there was no robber in sight—only Leonie, collapsed on the floor.
“Wait, Leonie?! What’s wrong?!”
I rushed over to her, took her into my arms, and gave her a sniff. She didn’t smell like she was sick. I couldn’t see any external wounds on her, either, so she didn’t appear to be injured. Only when I stared hard at her face could I see she had deep, dark circles under her eyes. From the looks of it, she hadn’t gotten enough sleep. Her cheeks looked hollow, too. Which meant—
Looks like anemia caused by sleep deprivation.
Well, that’s no good.
“Nnh…? Ruchika…?”
“Are you awake? Just stay still for now, and I’ll carry you to your bed.”
I took Leonie into my arms and laid her in her bed. Her body felt unbelievably light, which made me even more worried.
“I’m sorry to burden you like this, Ruchika.”
“Don’t sweat it. More importantly, you should get some rest. You haven’t been sleeping lately, have you?”
“…”
“If there’s something on your mind, I’m happy to listen. Or if it’s something about me, I can go get Nor.”
“No…that’s all right.”
Hmm. She didn’t seem all right in the slightest.
“Leonie, you don’t have to trust me if you don’t feel like you can, but I hope you’ll at least let me pry into this once. I know we’re not partners yet or anything, but we are roommates.”
“…I’m sorry.”
“I’m not looking for an apology, either.”
We were both quiet for a while.
“It’s just…some things…haven’t been going well…”
Falteringly, Leonie began to speak. I fixed her blanket and gave her a look of encouragement, trying to get her to keep going.
“Ever since I enrolled at the Hero Institute, I’ve been messing everything up…from practical training to my relationships with others…”
“I have a feeling some of that’s my fault.”
“That’s not what I’m trying to say…”
“You’re right, I’m sorry. Keep going.”
I apologized for interrupting, and she nodded back at me.
“I’ve been doing the best I can. But I still haven’t been getting any results. Even though…I’m the daughter of the Almighty Hero.”
“Leonie… Just because you’re a hero’s daughter doesn’t mean you can do anything and everything.”
“I know that. I know I’ll never be as good as my mother. But I can’t even manage to do the minimum of what’s expected of me.”
“I don’t think that’s true. You’re too hard on yourself.”
For example, she undeniably excelled at book learning. When I tried bringing this up to her, however…
“People expect strength of hero cadets first and foremost. Even if one has the knowledge, it means nothing in the end if you aren’t able to apply it.”
“Hmm…I think you’re taking everything too seriously, Leonie.”
Yes, I had said the exact same thing about strength to Nor earlier. But hearing it from Leonie made me want to tell her that wasn’t entirely true.
—Love sees no faults.
No, that’s not it.
It was just a hunch, but I was getting the feeling that being a hero was a lot more complex than I had been making it out to be. Or at least, I was starting to feel that way as I watched Leonie struggle like this.
“I’m not taking it seriously enough. Especially when I’ve gone and exhausted myself like this, obsessing over nothing but a hobby of mine,” said Leonie.
“A hobby?”
“Ruchika, can you please get that for me?”
I picked up the object Leonie was pointing to.
“Is this…some kind of magical device?”
“Yes, it’s convenience magic…,” she answered, a bashful look coming over her face.
Convenience magic was an umbrella term for of magic that saved people time or effort in their everyday lives, such as magic that cleaned the body or boiled water. The Hero Institute didn’t place much emphasis on the field, but it was extremely helpful for the general public and was probably the type of magic that had the largest number of regular practitioners.
“I bet this device…is for boiling water? Considering that the pot has a spell circle engraved into the bottom.”
“So you can tell?”
“Yeah, since magical devices were a part of demon culture, originally. To some extent, at least.”
Demons specialized in magic and magical devices. After humans defeated the Demon Lord and made peace with the demonkind, magic culture spread from demons throughout humanity, and now humankind had developed its own culture of magical devices. For example, in lecture, I learned that Gear hadn’t come from demons originally but rather had been developed by implementing and expanding upon demons’ magical device technology.