漫画大王

Chapter 180

The fact that she was willing to use an incredibly expensive Teleport scroll just to get rid of an annoying guy showed just how absurdly wealthy the Granz family was.

Had I not stepped in and knocked some sense into Heinrich, he would have suffered an even harsher fate at Riana’s hands. His resentment toward me would surely have grown, and while the immediate satisfaction of seeing him being taught a lesson would have been nice, life at the Temple would have become more burdensome.

In the end, I didn’t stop by Airi’s pub in Rajak. She seemed to be doing fine on her own, and there was no need for me to visit a place where I had no connections and potentially leaving traces.

We rested at Riana’s mansion until Sunday and then returned to the Temple.

“It was fun, wasn’t it?” Adelia asked, reminiscing her good memories from the mansion.

“Yeah,” Harriet responded with a nod and a smile, although she seemed a little tired.

Of course, most of the other students had also returned to the Temple since the vacation was over.

A loud sigh filled the Class A dormitory lobby. It was Connor Lint, sprawled out on one of the couches, looking dejected. “It feels like we barely had any fun, and it’s already over...”

The Three Idiots had already gathered.

Kaier tilted his head as he looked at Erhi de Raffaeli. “By the way, Erhi, you look a little different.”

“Oh, really? I worked out a bit during the vacation,” Erhi said, flexing his arm as if it were no big deal.

It was surprising since he wasn’t the type to exercise; did he really work out during this vacation?

“I’m tired. I’m going to get some rest. Great job, everyone,” Riana said as she stepped into her own room, looking exhausted.

Even though we’d had fun, the journey back had been tiring, so everyone went to their rooms to rest.

“Good job,” Heinrich said in passing before heading to his room as well. It felt like the awkward tension between us had eased somewhat, though it hadn’t been entirely resolved.

“Oh, it’s Reinhart!”

“...?”

Erhi de Raffaeli, one of the Three Idiots, waved at me as he noticed our return. What was this? Why was he acting so out of character?

“Oh, yeah. Hey.” I responded.

“How’ve you been?”

“Just the usual.”

“So, how did your trip to the Dark Land go?”

‘Why was this guy acting all friendly now?’

“Nothing much happened.”

“Ah... really?”

He flashed a strange smile. I could guess the source of his newfound confidence.

Perhaps he thought that since he’d done some working out during the vacation, he could now overpower me.

I had thought that our confrontation was over, but that wasn’t the case.

It wasn’t just Heinrich von Schwartz... It seemed like, during this second semester, I would have to go a second round with those who had gained some unfounded confidence during the break.

These little noobs kept trying to rise up to me... Was this the fate of a villain?

***

Ellen seemed to have freed herself from her nightmares, and since sharing a bed with me was only supposed to last until the end of the break, I would send her packing if she came into my room again.

In the end, the summer break, which felt like it had just started, was over just as quickly.

The second semester of the first year had begun, and while there would be various changes, some things remained unchanged. For instance, the early morning exercises I always did with Adriana.

“Junior! Long time no see!” Adriana shouted.

“Yes, it has been a while,” I replied.

“I was so worried! I’m glad you’re safe!”

Adriana, her face radiant, warmly congratulated me on my safe return.

When she inquired about what had happened in the Dark Land, I gave her a vague answer. Although I had shared details of our journey with a few people, I knew it wasn’t something to boast about openly.

The regulars I always met in the early morning were still the same. There was Ludwig and Ellen, as well as Scarlett and Charlotte. Each one exchanged simple greetings in passing, while Charlotte looked at me with a strange smile, as if she knew everything that had happened.

“Reinhart! Long time no see!” Ludwig exclaimed.

“Yeah, same here.”

Ludwig must have undergone ranger training over the vacation. His personality seemed unchanged, but there was a noticeable difference about him. It felt like the naive part of him had disappeared.

“Wasn’t it dangerous?”

“I managed.”

“Thank goodness.”

It was almost like a ritual: everyone who saw Ellen and I would ask about our experience in the Dark Land. After all, it was indeed something noteworthy.

After exchanging greetings with those I hadn’t seen in a long time, I finally left the dormitory with Adriana.

“Senior, what did you do during the vacation?”

“Well, I attended some faith training and did various volunteer work and prayers. It was a fulfilling time,” she said, smiling.

Adriana had had a busy and enjoyable vacation. The fact that she found joy in helping others made me think about how vastly different she was from me. Sometimes, I found myself feeling a deep sense of respect for her.

“Wow, you really have changed, even though it was just a month of vacation.”

“H-Hey, watch where you’re touching!”

Adriana nonchalantly touched my arm, leaving me slightly flustered. It seemed my muscular gains were quite evident.

“Oh, uh, sorry,” Adriana apologized, her cheeks turning slightly red when she realized I was feeling uncomfortable.

We continued with our early morning training after a month-long break.

“Wow, you’ve made a lot of progress. Did you keep up with your training throughout the vacation? I couldn’t manage to.”

Though it had been a while since I trained with Adriana, I had been training early in the mornings with Ellen. Of course, the past week had been more about relaxing, but despite all my efforts, I had yet to catch up to Adriana, and in the end, I was the one who grew exhausted first.

“Huff... huff...”

“Wow, you’ve really worked hard. I’ll give you credit for that,” Adriana said, not sparing her praise, even though her stamina was still naturally much better.

Even though my own endurance could not match hers fully, I was at least able to keep pace with her until she started to feel slightly tired.

After finishing our early morning training, we sat on a bench to rest for a bit.

“It feels good to exercise after a while,” she said with a sigh.

‘Feeling good from exercising?’

I had been consistent with it, but it wasn’t something I particularly enjoyed.

“Did you take a break from training all through the vacation?”

“Yeah, I was busy,” Adriana nodded, explaining that she hadn’t had the time to exercise because she had been praying and doing volunteer work.

“Actually, it was a bit tough,” she said softly, punctuating her words with a small nod.

“Tough? In what way?” I asked.

“Well... I felt kind of lost, you know?” she replied.

The Olivia Lance incident had dented her belief in the Order of the Holy Knights, and it seemed Adriana had been wrestling with whether it was right for her to continue maintaining her faith.

It appeared she had put a lot of thought into it over this vacation.

“The thing is, I couldn’t quite figure out if I was struggling with my faith itself, or if I was just trying to find an excuse to give up on it. I couldn’t make a clear decision,” she explained.

She wasn’t sure whether her doubts stemmed from a genuine place, or if she was just looking for an excuse, and that indecision weighed heavily on her. I couldn’t completely grasp what she meant by that.

“Now, though, I think I’ve figured it out,” Adriana smiled at me. “So, I’ve decided not to give up.”

She had pondered the question deeply over the vacation and had made a choice. Although I couldn’t understand her entire thought process, she had clearly decided to hold onto her faith.

It was not my place to tell her whether her decision was right or wrong. In any case, it seemed that Adriana had found an answer to the questions she had been wrestling with throughout the vacation.

*

Adriana had decided not to abandon her faith, and she hadn’t shared all of her complicated thoughts with me. There was no way for me to figure out what she hadn’t told me.

When I finally walked into the classroom after such a long while, it felt like an oddly new thing. I had already seen the girls and Heinrich during the vacation, but it was my first time seeing Vertus, Cliffman, and the Three Idiots in a while, although I had briefly encountered the Three Idiots yesterday.

“Long time no see, Reinhart,” Cliffman greeted me in a friendly yet still somewhat awkward manner, and I nodded in response.

“Yeah, you too. How have you been?”

“Same old... So, what about your trip to the Dark Land?”

“Nothing much happened,” I replied as always to the standard inquiry, but from the back of the room, I heard stifled laughter.

—Snicker.

—Giggle.

—Why did he even go there?

It was the Three Idiots.

They were laughing at me, sharing the same perspective as Heinrich had adopted at first. They saw me as an empty bag of wind who returned from the Dark Land with nothing to show for it.

Why did they have to be so irritating? Was the start of the new school year making their heads itch? Were they trying to provoke me into hitting them?

“Reinhart,” Vertus said.

“Long time no see.”

I did not have much of an exchange with Vertus. He was just sitting there, wearing an enigmatic smile as he watched the guys subtly mocking me from behind.

“You did a good job out there.”

“...”

Vertus had a look that indicated he already knew what Ellen and I had been up to during the break. It would be pointless to deny or downplay my experiences in front of him, so I just shrugged.

Creak.

“Take your seats,” said Mr. Effenhauser as he entered the classroom.

“The second semester starts today. The first thing to handle is course registration. Submit your forms by today.”

While some might have already completed this, I hadn’t, so I needed to fill out my registration form by the end of the day.

As always, Mr. Effenhauser delivered his instructions simply and directly, without any superfluous words.

“The major events of this semester, aside from the midterm and final exams, will be the group mission and the Temple festival. Detailed schedules will be announced later. Today’s first class will be a physical scan.”

Like a piece of well-dried jerky, the man expressed no concern, nor did he offer any pleasantries or ask us how we had been. I thought that that was the end of his announcements, but then Mr. Effenhauser pulled something out from his pocket.

“A-2 and A-11, new adventurer IDs from the Adventurer’s Guild have arrived.”

They were our new IDs.

I then remembered that the Adventurer’s Guild had decided to upgrade both our adventurer ranks, and that the guild was supposed to send the updated IDs to the school.

The mention of the Adventurer’s Guild left many students looking puzzled, except for those who already knew about the situation.

Mr. Effenhauser inspected the IDs before handing over one each directly to Ellen and me.

“You have been promoted from F-rank to B-rank. This is quite an exceptional occurrence, which shows that the incidents you handled out there were very significant. You should feel proud of yourselves.”

In a rare gesture, Mr. Effenhauser gently patted our shoulders. He wasn’t the type to do such things, so not only was I surprised, but the eyes of the rest of the students also widened in shock.

Mr. Effenhauser had previously inquired if we needed psychological counseling after what we had gone through, thinking that we might be suffering from guilt or trauma. This was his way of offering some form of comfort, and he wanted to make sure we knew that it was right to feel proud rather than ashamed of our actions.

“There is also an additional reward. Each of you will receive one hundred gold coins.”

A drastic increase in adventurer rank from F-rank to B-rank, and along with that, an additional reward of one hundred gold coins each.

Aside from those who knew the details, everyone looked bewildered. Since I had said that nothing had happened, they couldn’t comprehend why the Adventurer’s Guild would offer such a significant increase in rank.

And then there was the material reward. An immense additional reward of one hundred gold coins each.

It had to be the combined reward for both the extermination of the Klitz Point bandits as well as for resolving the cursed sword incident.

Everyone realized that my claim that “nothing much happened” was a lie, and that we had clearly resolved some major and unusual events.

Heinrich and the Three Idiots looked especially flustered. They had been treating me like a worthless coward who had done nothing, but the way things had played out clearly showed that that wasn’t the case. It seemed there was no need for me to take any direct action anymore, and that they would naturally be intimidated on their own.

“Regarding the item that was entrusted to the Temple, I have something to discuss with you. You and Number 2, come to my private office together.”

There was another matter: the cursed sword.

It seemed there was something he needed to tell us regarding that as well.