* * *
Ruite, who had been leaning against the wall as limp as melting ice, reflexively tensed his body.
While a question about having a partner was natural enough in the flow of conversation, he hadn’t expected a point-blank question about someone he liked.
Ruite’s lips parted for a moment.
“I don’t.”
Even Ruite himself didn’t realize that it took a split second longer than usual for those words to clear his throat.
“Really?”
“Yeah. But why the sudden question?”
“No reason, just curious. You’re pretty popular, Ruite, but I haven’t seen even a hint of that kind of vibe around you. I wondered if you had someone else on your mind.”
“Now that I think about it, you’ve never dated anyone since we enrolled, right?”
Dylan narrowed his eyes, stroking his chin as if Rhea’s point was plausible.
“Are you sure there’s no one?”
“Dylan, you haven’t dated anyone since enrollment either.”
“Hey! Your situation and mine are different. I hate to admit it, but you’ve got the looks.”
“I really don’t have anyone. Why would I hide something like that?”
He didn’t have anyone he liked, and he certainly wasn’t seeing anyone—but he did have a fiancé.
Chester’s face, which he had forgotten for a moment, billowed back into his mind like a cloud.
Suddenly, Dylan’s ears perked up, and he snapped his gaze toward the door.
“What is it?”
Ruite and Rhea followed his gaze.
Now that they looked, the door to the sparring grounds wasn’t fully closed; a small gap remained open.
“Oh? Never mind. I just thought I saw someone standing outside.”
Dylan shrugged, figuring he had misheard.
“So, Ruite, you really have no one? If you’re lying, you’re a traitor.”
“I told you. Besides, I’m not interested in liking or meeting people right now. I have a much more important goal to achieve.”
“Huh? What’s that?”
“Graduation.”
To be precise, his goal was for Chester to successfully request the annulment of their engagement at the graduation ceremony.
Chester had been acting strange lately, but the necessity of reaching that goal remained unchanged.
He couldn’t follow the original route where he would end up dead.
“Ugh, what’s that about?”
Dylan’s reaction was lukewarm.
He muttered something about how graduation was guaranteed as long as your grades didn’t bottom out, and Ruite just played along with the carefree remark.
After chatting a while longer with Dylan and Rhea, Ruite parted ways with them and headed to the dormitory.
He was debating whether to study for exams in his room or the library when he ran right into Chester standing in the lobby.
As soon as he saw it was Chester, Ruite gave a small wave.
Immediately after, he felt a wave of self-consciousness at how naturally he had greeted him.
In the past, he had done everything possible to avoid interaction.
“Ruite.”
“Yeah?”
Chester suddenly closed the distance between them.
He was wearing his training gear.
Was he heading out for personal training since it was the weekend?
Or perhaps he had just finished.
“…”
“Do you… have something to say?”
After calling his name, Chester just stood there.
Ruite spoke first, feeling awkward standing in the middle of the lobby in silence.
“…Never mind.”
But Chester said nothing else and simply walked out of the dormitory.
‘Did he call me by mistake?’
Ruite turned toward the stairs.
He climbed at a steady pace, but his speed gradually slowed until he came to a dead stop on the landing.
“Wait, didn’t Chester just call me by my name?”
It had been so natural he hadn’t noticed at first, but he was certain.
Ruite muttered to himself, staring at the spot where Chester had disappeared.
In the blink of an eye, final tests arrived.
Once again, the Magic Department split the exams into theory and practical application.
The difficulty of the practical exam had increased.
During the midterms, everyone had climbed the academy-managed mountain together to take the test at once.
This time, it was an individual trial following a set course.
First, students had to knock down ten practice mana dummies in the sparring grounds using a specific level of mana.
Then, they headed to the back mountain.
There, they had to find and subjugate twenty 4th-grade monsters prepared by the professors before descending.
The grading criteria were speed in toppling the dummies, efficiency in finding and defeating the monsters, and the total time taken to complete the entire process.
While the midterm was just about racking up points by hunting, the finals required managing stamina and time as well, making it significantly harder.
Perhaps because of the major incident during the midterms, the academy had doubled the number of supervising professors this time.
Because the students took the test one by one, the process took two full days.
Chester’s test was on the first day, and Ruite’s was on the second.
Consequently, there was zero contact between them throughout the testing period.
Ruite found no opportunity to resolve the questions he had about Chester.
All he knew was from overhearing classmates whispering on his own test day that Chester had recorded the fastest time the day before.
Before he knew it, the final exams were over.
“You all worked hard on the exams. Starting tomorrow, you have a month-long vacation, so get some rest.”
At Harold’s words, cheers erupted in the classroom.
Ruite felt a refreshing sense of liberation, but his eyes drifted to the seat next to him.
Chester wasn’t at the academy today.
He had heard somewhere that there was a family event or business he had to attend.
Since it was just a day for announcements, skipping wasn’t a major issue.
“Alright, that’s all for the notices. Everyone staying in the dorms has submitted their applications, right?”
“Yes!”
“Good. See you after the break.”
The classroom became a beehive of activity.
Excited students rushed out to begin their vacation.
Ruite was no different.
As he stepped outside the main building, brilliant sunlight poured down.
Though he squinted against the glare, he looked up at the sun that seemed to be burning with its own energy.
With the start of vacation, the weather had turned sweltering.
Summer had fully arrived.
“Rui.”
Colin approached from behind and tapped Ruite on the shoulder.
“Ah, Colin.”
“Are you heading straight to the mansion?”
“Yeah, that’s the plan.”
“Me too. Man, we saw each other every day, and now we won’t see each other for a month.”
“We all live in the same capital anyway.”
The Houses of Railguns, Everhart, and Callaway all maintained their primary residences within the capital.
“True.” Colin grinned and told Ruite to visit his mansion if he had time.
“Have a great break, Rui!”
“You too.”
Ruite waved back at the cheerful Colin.
As he walked past the school gates, he saw a familiar carriage.
A servant was waiting in front of the carriage emblazoned with the Everhart coat of arms.
“Ah, Young Master!”
“Kio, it’s been a while.”
Kio, a servant of the Count’s house and Ruite’s personal attendant for a long time, welcomed him with a bright smile.
“Did you do well on your exams?”
“Kio, that’s a forbidden question to ask a student.”
As Ruite snapped back with a sensitive face, Kio burst into a small laugh.
“I’m sorry. I haven’t seen you in so long, I was curious about everything. You couldn’t make it to the last dinner with the Duke of Callaway, after all.”
‘Right, that happened.’
Chester had been so insistent that Ruite shouldn’t come that Ruite had feigned illness to get out of it.
In that sense, it had been nearly half a year since he had properly returned to the mansion.
Kio opened the door, and Ruite climbed in.
“I will take you straight to the Count’s estate, then.”
“Yes.”
As the carriage began to move, the academy grew distant through the window.
Now that the tension of the finals had finally bled away, his body felt heavy.
In the end, he hadn’t confirmed anything with Chester.
Vacation had started with his questions unanswered.
They likely wouldn’t see each other for the next month unless something specific happened.
Ruite stared blankly at the sunlight hitting the ground before shaking his head vigorously to clear his thoughts.
‘Well, I can deal with the Chester problem once I’m back at the academy. Right now, there’s something much more pleasant ahead.’
Vacation. A month of sweet, free time.
He decided to focus only on eating, sleeping, and resting. Just as that thought crossed his mind, the carriage passed through the entrance of the Everhart estate.
“Young Master, we have arrived.”
‘The moment I get inside, I’m going straight to bed without looking back.’
However, Ruite’s wish was not to be easily granted.
The moment he stepped through the door Kio opened, he heard the sound of something rushing toward him.
A split second later, a mass of black fur lunged directly at Ruite’s face.
“Mph.”
He felt something warm and soft against his face.
Meow—.
And then, the sound of a cat.
“Hey, Blue. It’s been a while.”
It was the cat kept at the Count’s house.
Despite the name “Blue,” the cat was a beautiful creature with pitch-black fur and mysterious golden eyes.
Ruite habitually grabbed Blue’s torso and pulled him away.
“Have you been good?”
Blue let out a cute meow in response.
He was a very energetic cat who greeted Ruite enthusiastically every time he saw him.
As Ruite stroked Blue’s fur, he heard hurried footsteps coming from deeper inside the house.
* * *
