“You guys... We’re in a place with ties to Lady Lara, you know,” Emmeline admonished the boys, since it was wrong of them not to nominate Lara for the position of strongest. They were all students in the academy she was involved with, and she was also the great Witch with no equal in terms of firepower.
“In terms of pure military achievements, the Dragonsbane Knight is also incredible,” Hagen said.
“That’s true. I’ve seen the list of evil dragons he took down, and it was amazing,” Connie agreed.
“I heard that the Hero’s party included a member of royalty hiding their identity,” Franz said, somehow surmising the truth.
“As if. What reason would they have to hide?” Hagen cut in.
If a royal had been one of the saviors of the world, the influence of their homeland would have increased tremendously after the war. However, there had been no such large-scale publicity, so thinking about it rationally, it was unlikely that any royalty had fought alongside the Hero. But Franz was, in fact, correct.
The amazing thing about Franz is that he makes you think it’s actually possible. Hagen knew how sharp Franz was, so he ended up thinking that maybe a member of royalty had been in the Hero’s party. It seems that he only proposed this as a joke, but just how sharp is he? Hagen was aware that he was poor at socializing, but he got along fairly well with Franz, who’d spoken to him on the first day of school. However, he hadn’t completely grasped the extent of their relationship.
However, Franz really was just a youth of little note. At best, he’d just been born into a slightly wealthy family and managed to enroll into the Magic Academy because he had a bit of talent for magic. Compared to those around him, he had absolutely no fate or destiny tied to his bloodline, nor ancestors of note, no matter how far back you traced his family tree. This was actually pretty strange considering the ones close to him, but he really had been born as just an ordinary human. But such anomalies did occasionally appear in any era. Like the ordinary village boy who’d saved the world seventy years ago, they could overcome even the most absurd forms of destruction with greater, even more illogical absurdities of their own.
Franz continued his conversation with his friends just like u-u-u-u-u-u-usual...
“Oh man. If only the Hero’s party would come tour the academy. Then again, even if they came, would they be incognito?” Franz laced his fingers behind his head as he wished for something truly extraordinary.
“Yeah. Otherwise, they couldn’t take a single step anywhere.” Just like Connie said, if the Hero’s party openly visited the academy, the commotion would turn the place upside down. In the worst case, all classes would be suspended, and everyone involved would be rounded up to prepare to welcome them.
“Come to think of it, Emmeline, has your mentor ever said anything about the Hero’s party?” Franz asked.
“The topic never came up, so they’ve probably never met.”
“That so?”
Or he hates them so much that he doesn’t even want to talk about them. Given how eccentric he is, someone who feels that way toward the Hero’s party...could exist, I suppose. Hagen could tell that Emmeline’s mentor was an odd one based just on her answer to Franz, and he assumed that said mentor was no fan of the heroes. Nothing good comes from remaining in isolation, never progressing. Hagen knew that when emotions were left to simmer without outside input, it could lead to actions and thoughts that defied common sense.
The Magic Academy was concerned about such closed-mindedness, so it proactively encouraged its students to interact with the outside world, lest all of their ideas be contained within the walls of the institute. It was thanks to that school custom that the academy had accepted Falke, an anomaly capable of using both swords and magic. The academy taught its students that swords were also a valid weapon, not just magic. Schools weren’t just places for students to study at their desks, but also somewhere to learn how to interact with other people, which was truly the foundation of this world.
“Hey, Hagen. Is something on your mind?” Franz asked.
“Don’t worry about it. I’m just at that age.” Hagen really had been pondering something, but since there was no need to go out of his way to bring it up, he just casually shook his head and cut his train of thought.
“What does that even mean?”
“Perhaps it’s a phase that just boys go through.” Emmeline seemed confused.
“Oh, that reminds me. The plan is still on, right, Connie?” Franz suddenly asked.
“Yes, it’s fine.”
“Nice, then let’s go to Lady Agnes’s house as planned.”
They weren’t discussing anything complicated; Franz, Hagen, and Emmeline were just going to take advantage of consecutive holidays to hang out at Connie’s place.
“I can’t wait. I wonder how incredible the game board at Lady Agnes’s place is,” Emmeline said.
“Indeed,” Hagen agreed.
As the two of them were pondering the game, Franz suddenly turned toward Connie.
“By the way, will your great-great-grandparents be there?”
“Huh?”
It was a very typical conversation. A few days later, they visited Agnes’s manor, struggled with the game board’s difficulty, and swung wooden swords in the garden. It was just another ordinary d-d-d-d-d-d-day...
The scene changed.
“Hey, let’s go shopping.”
The kids had left Agnes’s house before dusk and were on their way back to the dorms when Franz invited his friends to go to a section of town that was packed with stores.
“Say... We went to Lady Agnes’s house today, right?” But Franz suddenly stopped and confirmed the day’s events in a low voice.
“Are you feeling okay?” Hagen looked puzzled, unsure what his friend was talking about.
“Never mind, it’s nothing. More importantly, let’s go buy some legendary swords,” Franz joked after shaking his head a tiny bit and regaining his composure.
“Keep dreaming.”
“I’d also like to see if any new books on magic theory have come out.” Emmeline had business in a specialized bookstore.
“You bought some the other day, didn’t you?” Connie asked, a bit confused.
“What are you on about, Connie? Those were about the techniques of that day, like you said. I’m after the techniques of today,” she insisted.
“I see.” Connie sounded convinced.
“Come to think of it, you were saying that you wanted to go on a trip, so are you going to buy a golem carriage too?” Hagen asked Franz.
“No, buying a golem carriage for a solitary journey is a bit much, isn’t it? I think a stagecoach would usually suffice,” Franz replied.
“It might be a bit unmanageable,” Connie added.
Just like the two of them said, a golem carriage would be overkill for a solo trip, not to mention relatively expensive.
“If you buy one, I could modify it for you.” Emmeline came out with an unexpected suggestion.
“I’ll consider it as long as your modification is actually provably possible.” Franz could vividly picture her saying something like “This modification is perfect in theory.”
“By the way, has anyone been to the restaurant that recently opened around here?”
“Oh, I have. The food was delicious.”
“Really? Maybe I’ll go there next time.”
“Maybe I should go too. I’d like to try all kinds of tasty food...just so long as I don’t get fat.”
“You’ll be fine as long as you keep saying that.”
The friends continued their trivial conversation. Like the endless blue sky, their relationship should have carried on. But...the four of them suddenly stopped. In fact, everyone around them looked up at the blue sky.
“Where did that damned Udo go? Don’t tell me it was to the Arzyna Kingdom,” Derry wondered.
“Would they take him in?” Aldrick asked.
“Perhaps two narrow-minded parties would get along.”
A short time ago, the two of them were in Derry’s office, discussing the whereabouts of a dangerous individual.