The following morning, at dawn, I headed to the public training grounds for my usual body conditioning.

I'd applied to rent a private training ground again this semester, but it was still vacation, so it wasn't available yet.

And there—

I don't know whether to call it bad luck... or simply fate.

The protagonist of someone else's novel had also come out to train before sunrise, and naturally, we ran into each other.

We trained together, then stopped by the dormitories to shower in our respective rooms before taking a carriage out of the Academy to eat breakfast together.

It really was unavoidable.

Fortunately, Reisir didn't cling to me afterward.

When I told him I intended to visit the professor who had helped me last semester before finishing the special-edition novel I'd borrowed yesterday, he accepted it without complaint.

In exchange, however...

We agreed to have dinner together.

Just as you'd expect from the protagonist of a novel written by a Korean. He's strangely fixated on sharing meals.

With that thought in mind, I made my way toward Professor Radvisin's laboratory.

Although it was still vacation, I never once expected to find the place empty.

According to Senior Blida and Senior Elska, research students don't treat vacations as time off.

They're apparently considered "the period when you devote absolutely everything to research and writing papers."

Naturally, the professor supervising those students ended up reporting to the laboratory every single day as well.

As expected, becoming a research student is a terrible life choice.

Lost in contemplation of that universal truth, I found myself standing before Professor Radvisin's laboratory before I realized it.

When I opened the door...

"The professor" did welcome me.

It just wasn't Professor Radvisin.

"Woooow~! Karvaldr, it's been forever~! The semester hasn't even started yet, and you already came to visit~??"

Anyone familiar with her peculiar habit of stretching the ends of every sentence would have recognized the speaker immediately.

It wasn't Professor Radvisin.

It was Professor Skati.

An encounter I had never expected.

According to the original story, she shouldn't have been here.

She should have been deep inside the Demon Realm, carrying out an Imperial order to assassinate a boss monster in order to save countless lives.

Yet here she was.

Quite shamelessly occupying a desk in someone else's laboratory while happily munching on snacks.

Even more astonishing...

Spread open before her was a children's fairy tale filled with adorable illustrations.

"Ughhhhhh..."

"Wooooah~!"

The senior research students, buried beneath mountains of papers despite it still being vacation, raised limp hands in greeting.

Compared to those zombie-like figures...

Professor Skati's life looked absurdly comfortable.

"Professor... why are you here...?"

After giving the senior researchers a brief nod, I turned back toward Skati.

Even to my own ears, my voice sounded thoroughly bewildered.

Skati, however, merely beamed.

"Grandpa Rabi told me I could come play whenever I got bored~, so I came to play~!"

That certainly explained why she was inside this laboratory.

It did absolutely nothing to explain why she was at Valhalla Academy in the first place.

Just as I was about to ask again—

"Oh! And I became friends with Blida and Elska too~! We never even survived a life-or-death adventure together, and I never saved either of them~! But they still said they'd be my friends! Can you believe it~?"

She suddenly brought up something I'd once claimed.

The theory that friendship required narrative weight.

She had just presented a perfect counterexample.

Was she teasing me?

Or bragging?

"Ah... I see."

"...Congratulations."

"Thank you~!"

"..."

"Friendship really is wonderful~! Karvaldr, I hope you become friends with that eyepatch boy soon too~!"

So she had been bragging.

Having reached that conclusion, I refocused on what I'd originally wanted to ask.

"Professor... are you planning to remain at the Academy from now on?"

"Hmm~? Of course I am~??"

Skati tilted her head.

Her wide, innocent eyes made it obvious she had absolutely no idea why I would ask something like that.

So Skati is staying at the Academy too...

Why?

Because so many combat professors had been dismissed that they couldn't afford to lose anyone else?

If they'd already been struggling to fill the vacant positions, perhaps they simply couldn't let go of the only combat professor who bore no responsibility for what had happened.

If that was the reason...

It certainly made sense.

"Haven't there been constant problems with the Demon Realm lately? Only the Awakened can eliminate boss monsters, and there are already so few of them. Among those, the number capable of frontline combat is even smaller. I assumed you'd be mobilized for Demon Realm operations, Professor. But if that's not the case..."

"Were you worried about me~?! Worried you wouldn't get to see me anymore~??"

When I vaguely explained my reasoning, Skati's eyes sparkled with delight as she leaped to her own conclusion.

"I wasn't."

"Ah..."

"So you weren't..."

Her shoulders immediately slumped.

No matter what I said, people always insisted on treating me like a tsundere.

Oddly enough...

Watching someone take my words this literally felt almost refreshing.

"By the way, has Professor Radvisin not arrived yet?"

"If you mean Grandpa Rabi, he's inside his office over there~!"

Professor Radvisin almost never used his private office.

He much preferred remaining in the spacious laboratory alongside his students than isolating himself in a cramped room.

If he had deliberately shut himself away...

He must have wanted to focus on something without interruption.

Should I wait until he comes out?

Or would it be better to return later?

As I stood there debating, the zombie-like senior researchers suddenly erupted into noise.

"Uwo! Uwo! Uwo!"

"Uwooooo... Gwaaaaah..."

Of course, I only called them zombies metaphorically.

They hadn't literally become undead.

Still...

Watching them produce sounds even less comprehensible than Yor's meows...

I genuinely couldn't tell whether this was some kind of running joke or whether they'd simply become too exhausted to speak properly.

"They're telling you to hurry up and go inside~."

"...Did you actually understand that?"

"Or are you just guessing?"

"I understood it~."

"...How?"

"Because we're friends~, obviously~! The power of friendship~??"

"..."

Had Skati simply decided to play along with the senior researchers' zombie act and appointed herself their interpreter?

Or had she somehow genuinely deciphered those groans through the power of friendship?

I couldn't make sense of any of it.

One thing alone was certain.

These people were all strange.

Deciding it would be healthier to seek refuge with the only normal person here, I walked over and knocked on the office door.

"Professor. It's Karvaldr."

"I came to pay my respects. Do you have a moment?"

"..."

No answer.

When I pressed my ear against the door, I barely caught a faint groan.

"...Ugh..."

Had Professor Radvisin finally succumbed to zombification after drowning himself in research and thesis writing?

The possibility made me deeply reluctant to enter.

Still...

Given the professor's age...

I couldn't ignore the possibility that those groans signaled an actual health problem.

"Excuse me."

After quietly announcing myself, I opened the door.

"Ah... Lord Karvaldr."

"Welcome."

Fortunately, Professor Radvisin was still capable of speaking proper human language.

Unfortunately...

His complexion was dreadful.

The dark circles beneath his eyes were even worse than those of the senior researchers, and his once-plump cheeks had visibly grown thinner.

"You look terribly exhausted."

"Did something happen during the vacation?"

"Nothing of the sort."

"Then... is your thesis not progressing well?"

I'd known this day would come eventually.

After all, he'd insisted on writing a paper about the correlation between Ether colors and elemental attributes.

Naturally, his research had reached a dead end.

I couldn't help feeling sorry for him.

Without realizing it, I looked at the elderly professor with open sympathy.

"It's true that my paper isn't progressing particularly well."

"But that isn't the reason."

So his unhealthy appearance stemmed from something else.

Even so...

His paper really wasn't going well.

Should I suggest changing the research topic...?

No.

Finding out why he looked so haggard came first.

For now, I'd postpone any advice regarding his thesis.

"Then what is it?"

"Well..."

"Haaah..."

"...?"

"Lord Karvaldr."

"You truly are a kind and gentle student."

"W-Why are you saying that all of a sudden...?"

It came completely out of nowhere.

Anyone would naturally worry after seeing an elderly man looking so exhausted that he seemed ill.

I couldn't understand why that deserved praise.

Then the old professor said something even more bewildering.

"Lord Karvaldr..."

"Do you not resent me?"

"...Your professor?"

"What?"

Professor Radvisin was speaking perfectly coherent human language. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Yet I couldn't comprehend what he meant.

My head tilted on its own.

"On the day of the graduation ceremony."

"When you found yourself in danger..."

"Not one professor stepped forward."

"Myself included."

"I believed... you would resent us."

So...

He had spent the entire vacation tormented by guilt because he hadn't been able to help me that day.

The realization struck me as both absurd...

...and strangely heavy.

"Aside from Professor Skati, who couldn't even enter the auditorium, I was deeply disappointed in the combat professors."

"But I hold no resentment toward the academic professors."

"That includes you, Professor Radvisin."

Professor Radvisin taught Ether Attribute studies.

Naturally, he had developed his own ability through years of research.

But that was all.

He had spent his entire life behind a desk.

He had never experienced real combat, much less fought using his own ability.

And he's elderly.

As far as I knew, Professor Radvisin was now sixty-seven years old.

Questioning why someone of his age hadn't thrown himself in front of a monster would have been ridiculous.

Nor did this apply only to him.

Most of the Academy's academic professors were already well into old age.

Compared to them, Djúpr—despite already being in his early fifties—could almost be considered young.

"I understood perfectly well that even if I had stepped forward that day..."

"I wouldn't have been able to help."

"But does that mean I have the right to feel no shame?"

"A student found the courage to risk his life to save a friend."

"And I..."

"I failed to find the courage to save that student."

"If I felt no shame after that..."

"Could I truly call myself an adult?"

"Or an educator?"

"..."

"And resentment isn't an emotion that yields to logic."

"No matter how reasonable the circumstances, people cannot simply command themselves not to resent someone."

"That is why..."

"I spent the entire vacation consumed by regret and anxiety."

The elderly professor lowered his eyes as he quietly confessed what had weighed on him.

His measured words alone were enough to reveal just how deeply he had agonized over it.