* * *
“You must have been really hungry. Well, today’s training was pretty intense.”
“……Uh, yeah.”
In contrast to his intense expression, Chester’s conclusion was so absurd that Ruite couldn’t even manage a laugh.
Thinking he had been nervous for nothing, Chester just vaguely agreed with him.
For dinner, the menu was different from lunch, which made Ruite quite happy.
Furthermore, just like at lunch, Chester handed over some of his own side dishes again.
Seeing as Chester had claimed to be hungry after the grueling training, Ruite gave him a skeptical look for the contradictory behavior, but Chester just shrugged it off, saying, “I’m not like you; this is plenty for me.”
After finishing the meal, they returned to their rooms.
Following the professor’s instructions to stay inside the dormitory and keep quiet after hours, Ruite was already planning his schedule: rolling around on his bed.
But as he sat on the bed, a question suddenly popped into his head.
‘Wait, didn’t I sit across from Chester and eat every single meal today?’
He had specifically joined the camp to make Chester feel more comfortable and minimize their time together, yet it felt like they had talked more today than they ever did back at the Academy.
Just as he was sitting on the edge of the bed, grappling with this realization, a knock sounded at the door.
Startled, he stood up, only to see something slide through the gap under the door.
Upon closer inspection, it was a scrap of white paper—torn haphazardly by hand.
The memo contained a single sentence:
[A fun event is about to be held. If you’re interested, gather in Room 301.]
“……Why on earth does Magnus love this kind of thing so much?”
Having been in the same class for so long, Ruite could now tell who wrote what just by the handwriting.
He almost crumpled it up and threw it away, but he hesitated.
The phrase “fun event” piqued his curiosity, and he had a nagging feeling that if he ignored it, Magnus would be incredibly petty about it once they returned to the Academy.
With a heavy sigh, Ruite stepped out into the hallway.
Recalling Harold’s warning not to wander around, he moved stealthily, but it seemed the professors hadn’t set up any actual surveillance.
He reached Room 301 with relative ease.
The moment he knocked, the door swung open, and Magnus beckoned him inside urgently.
“Great, is that everyone, including Ruite?”
Inside, all the students from Class 3 who had participated in the camp, including Rona and Colin, were already gathered.
“Lui, were you drawn in by the ‘fun event’ too?”
“No, I was just afraid of Magnus’s grudge. And I was a little curious.”
Colin then shared some information Ruite didn’t know: apparently, during last year’s sophomore camp, the students had also gathered secretly at night for a similar event.
Since Ruite hadn’t participated last year, he naturally had no idea.
“Magnus, that’s not everyone. Chester isn’t here.”
“Ah…… but do you think Chester would actually come?”
At a classmate’s comment, Magnus scratched the back of his head sheepishly.
“Did you put a memo in Chester’s room too?”
“For now, yeah.”
The room fell silent for a moment.
Everyone was clearly thinking the same thing: there was no way Chester would show up for something like this.
Just as Magnus was about to give up and proceed with the meeting, a knock echoed through the room.
Everyone exchanged anxious glances.
They might have been caught by the professor.
“I-I’ll go check.”
Magnus gulped and took the lead.
As his trembling hand turned the doorknob, every eye in the room was fixed on the door.
“Oh.”
Fortunately, it wasn’t Harold at the door.
However, the person standing there was equally unexpected.
“Che-Chester. You came?”
“You said to gather.”
“Uh, yeah. Come in.”
As Chester stepped inside, everyone’s eyes widened in surprise.
Ruite was shocked as well.
To think that the person who seemed least interested in ‘fun events’ would actually show up here.
Ruite, who had been staring blankly at Chester, locked eyes with him.
Chester stopped looking around, strode over to Ruite—who was sitting next to Colin—and took a seat beside him.
“Alright, now that everyone’s here, I’ll explain what we’re going to do.”
Three other classmates—Blair, Leo, and Davis—gathered around Magnus.
What they had in common was a lively, play-loving personality similar to Magnus.
“And that is…… we’re going to the ‘Ghost Woods’ starting now.”
“Ghosts?”
Several classmates’ eyes sparkled at the intriguing topic.
“You saw it at the outdoor training ground earlier, right? There’s a long forest path leading out from the back.”
Ruite naturally searched his memory.
As Magnus said, there was indeed a path leading to the woods connected to the Knights’ branch grounds.
“I heard that the path is connected because the knights use that forest for special training.”
Magnus began drawing something on a piece of paper with a pen.
It was a simple map showing the connected forest.
The classmates gathered around him one by one.
“This area here is where the knights usually train. And there’s a rumor that ghosts appear every night in the woods right next to it.”
“Where did you hear that rumor?”
Chester asked a sharp question.
At the sound of his voice questioning the reliability of the story, Magnus pulled Davis’s arm.
“I-I’m close with a senior in the 4th year of the Magic Department, and his older brother is a knight here. I heard it from him; apparently, the ghost story is quite famous here at the Northern branch. There are even knights who claim to have actually seen it.”
Even so, when the doubt in Chester’s eyes didn’t vanish, Magnus stepped in again.
“I even probed the knight who was overseeing my training earlier! And he said the rumor was true! He said people around here even call it the ‘Ghost Zone’!”
With the added explanation, Chester finally retracted his gaze.
“Hmm, this area here is the Ghost Zone. If you keep walking deep inside, you’ll find a tree with an incredibly large and thick trunk. Rumor has it the ghost appears there.”
So, to summarize, the ‘fun event’ was roughly as follows: the classmates would pair up and enter the area of the forest opened for training.
They would walk along the path, reach the giant ancient tree, and then return.
“What do you think! Sounds fun, right?”
Listening to the story, Ruite had the trivial thought that even in a world like this, there were still ‘tests of courage.’
At Magnus’s words, some classmates looked frightened, but most seemed intrigued.
“But given the nature of the event, it’s not mandatory. Anyone who doesn’t want to do it doesn’t have to.”
Ruite was curious.
If there were ghosts in this world, what would they look like?
Would they resemble the ghosts he knew from his previous life?
Ruite didn’t raise his hand to opt out.
And Chester, who had been staring only at Ruite since he arrived, did the same.
“Great, then let’s pick partners!”
There were 12 participants from Class 3 in total.
Three of them raised their hands to opt out.
Thus, there were 9 participants in total.
They decided to proceed with two teams of two and one team of three.
Magnus—acting like a mini-Professor Harold—brought out a container from somewhere and told everyone to pick a slip.
Ruite picked first, followed by Chester, Rona, and finally Colin.
Everyone now held a piece of paper folded in half.
As Ruite tried to check the contents of his slip, Magnus held out his hand to stop him.
“Don’t check the numbers yet. We’ll open them once we get to the forest.”
At the suggestion that it would be much more fun that way, Ruite folded his paper back up.
Then it occurred to him that if they got caught by the professors or the knights before even reaching the forest, everything would go down the drain.
Surprisingly, however, getting to the forest was easy.
The dormitory was located near the training ground, so the short distance likely helped.
In any case, without being caught by the professors or the knights, the students of Class 3 successfully reached the point where the training ground connected to the forest.
“Alright, now open your papers. Those with the same number are partners.”
Magnus said in a lowered voice.
One by one, they unfolded their slips. Ruite also checked the number written on his paper.
It was number 4.
“Who’s number 4?”
Ruite held his paper up in the air.
Chester, who was standing a little further away, unfolded his paper.
The number he saw was 2.
“…….”
“Oh, I’m number 4.”
Just then, a voice caught his ear. It was none other than Rona holding a slip with the number 4.
As Rona moved toward Ruite, Chester reflexively called out to her.
“Rona, I’m sorry, but could you swap papers with me?”
“Huh? Why this?”
Rona asked a cold, logical question, saying it shouldn’t matter who the partner was since they just had to reach the tree and come back.
“Is there a special reason?”
“That’s…….”
Chester’s brain worked at high speed.
The mind that worked so well during exams or practicals was failing him today.
“……I just really like the number 4.”
* * *
