Part 5: Test (2)

“A lovely view, no matter how often I see it. Especially the arrangement of the mansion and courtyard. It really is... Hm?”

While admiring the carefully maintained landscaping of the Roah Estate, Ortel spotted something. Elodie looked in the same direction.

“Isn’t that Frondier over there?”

“It... is?”

Neither had imagined Frondier would be outside, and they tilted their heads in puzzlement. He stood in the middle of an open space on the estate grounds. His face was as sleepy as ever, but there was a rare hint of tension in his eyes.

Then—

“...!”

Elodie felt it. Frondier was drawing up his mana. His jet-black hair stirred lightly. She had no idea what spell he intended to cast, but it was a considerable amount of mana.

‘Did Frondier always have that much mana?’

He seemed to have more mana than she remembered, though she could not be sure, having paid so little attention to it before.

But what mattered was not his total mana, but how much he could use at once. You could not simply pour unlimited mana into a spell. Even if you wanted to strengthen a basic spell like Flame Arrow, any mana beyond its capacity would merely disperse. In other words, a spell that used a great deal of mana had to be correspondingly advanced.

‘What kind of spell does Frondier know that needs so much mana...?’

Elodie and Ortel watched him, equal parts tense and expectant. At last, he finished channeling his mana, and a cluster of light bloomed at his fingertips.

And then...

Nothing happened.

“... Huh?”

They rubbed their eyes and looked again, wondering if they had missed something, but nothing had changed. Whatever Frondier had or had not done, it was the same open ground as before.

There was absolutely nothing there.

* * *

I had no idea what this magic circle did.

Menosorpo.

I had come all the way out to the mansion grounds to test the magic circle I had earned for clearing the dungeon.

Simply manifesting it took a considerable amount of mana, yet inscribing it on the ground and activating it changed nothing. It was far more enormous than it had looked before, so I had gotten my hopes up.

I scratched my head.

“Do I have some kind of connection to invisible things?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

A voice reached me just then. I turned to find Elodie, with her father, Ortel, beside her. I bowed my head.

“It is an honor to see you, Head of the Richae Family.”

“Indeed. What an unusual sight, seeing you outside.”

Ortel sounded slightly impressed. The original Frondier would have stayed holed up in his room at the mansion with no intention of coming out.

“Staying in my room has started to feel stifling lately.”

I offered a plausible excuse.

Beside him, Elodie drew her brows together and pressed me.

“What did you mean by that? About having a connection to invisible things?”

Of all the things for her to overhear.

I thought fast.

“... Oh, maybe you haven’t heard. I saw a ghost when I went into a dungeon a few days ago.”

Good. Brilliant thinking on my part. It was no lie that I had seen a ghost called Slave.

“... Is that really what you were talking about?”

“I’m telling you, it is.”

Elodie pursed her lips and studied my expression, apparently still suspicious. But all she found was my languid face.

“Hmm, well, all right. You’ve even been to a dungeon. Working hard, aren’t you? You shouldn’t have any trouble with the Joint Mission.”

“Joint Mission?”

“Yes. We form teams with one student from each year and carry out missions in the field.”

“... Oh.”

Come to think of it, there had been something like that.

Since fighting monsters generally meant working as a team, the school needed to establish the students’ abilities and roles in advance. But a team made up entirely of first-years would be dangerous, so they formed groups of three with a second-year and a third-year accompanying each first-year.

The first-years learned from their seniors, while the older students taught their juniors, getting an indirect taste of what professional work would be like.

... In truth, though, the Joint Mission had never been much of an event when I played the game. I had been Aster Evans, after all. With abilities unrivaled among the first-years and a second-year and third-year at my side, it had been a straightforward affair.

But now I was Frondier.

Anything could happen.

“I hear you have to place in the top ten overall in our year. The Joint Mission gives bonus points, too.”

She had heard about that, too?

Leaving aside my need to rank in the top ten, she was right about the bonus points. The Joint Mission came immediately after the third-years’ Professional Work Experience. I would have to train until then.

Enough to avoid embarrassing myself, at least.

* * *

On the day of the Joint Mission, the entire student body of Constel gathered in the field.

The “field” was a dedicated area Constel had created for practical training. It was a managed zone within a set boundary, roughly the size of a village. Here, students carried out a variety of missions, including tracking, exterminating, and capturing monsters...

Once the teacher on the platform at the front finished that long-winded explanation, I drew a slip of paper from a container.

Team B.

I silently stared at the lot I had drawn.

For some reason, I couldn’t help wondering: Had the original Frondier drawn this slip, too? Even though I had chosen this one of my own free will?

... A pointless thought.

“Oh?”

“Huh.”

Looking around, I happened to spot her.

Quinier de Biet.

She looked at me, fluttering a slip marked “B.”

“We keep running into each other.”

“We do.”

There was something difficult to read in her expression as she answered my greeting.

Oh, right. She had been on her Professional Work Experience. Should I ask, just to check?

“Was the information useful?”

“... Yes. More than I expected.”

She hesitated, but answered honestly.

“E-excuse me...”

And there was one more person.

I was a first-year, and Quinier was a third-year. That left Team B’s second-year.

“This is Team B, right? I look forward to working with you.”

A boy approached, speaking in a rather listless voice. His chestnut hair was cropped short, but in contrast to that brisk haircut, his face was mild and kindly. His shoulders were narrow and his posture hunched, as though he felt intimidated.

I greeted him first.

“Yes. I’m Frondier. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Y-yes, I’m Edwin. A second-year.”

I froze at his name.

There was no way I wouldn’t recognize it.

“... Edwin? Are you, by any chance, from the Behertio Family...?”

“Hm? You know my family?”

Just as his question took me aback, a loud voice rang out from the front of the field.

“All right, once you’ve found your teams, begin the mission! As mentioned earlier, the time limit is three hours! Stay within the Temperate Forest area of the field.

“The monsters were placed here a day ago! Examine the field carefully, and you should easily find the traces they’ve left behind.

“Upperclassmen, take the lead in tracking those traces and teach the others how it’s done! Your own evaluations will also depend on how the first-years you’ve taught perform afterward.”

We learned how to track monsters in theory classes, but putting it into practice was another matter. During actual training, many students were thrown by the gap between theory and reality and failed to perform to their abilities.

The upperclassmen’s job was to dispel that confusion. As long as the first-years calmly assessed the situation and recognized the differences between theory and practice, they should be perfectly capable of applying what they had learned.

“Now, begin!”

At that declaration, some teams immediately dashed off, while others were still discussing their plans.

“Let’s go, too. Speed isn’t everything, but there’s nothing more irritating than having another team catch the monster you’ve been tracking.”

Quinier took the lead at an unhurried pace. Frondier followed her, with Edwin trailing behind in awkward steps.

‘... Edwin von Behertio.’

Honestly, I hadn’t realized he was Edwin. I had thought he was a commoner. His clothes were shabby, and his posture could hardly have been more timid.

But he was no commoner. Nor was he an ordinary noble.

He was one of the characters who possessed Divine Power: the Fallen Noble, Edwin von Behertio.

Edwin was a rather peculiar character. Because he had Divine Power, players heard his name often, but he was almost impossible to find in the game itself.

While Frondier disappeared from the story entirely partway through, Edwin was definitely somewhere in Constel, yet still difficult to locate. His presence was that faint.

“It’s nice to meet you, Edwin. I’m Quinier.”

“Y-yes...”

Even when Quinier spoke warmly to him, Edwin’s voice only grew quieter. That personality was part of what made him so inconspicuous.

“All right, this is where the Temperate Forest begins. Frondier, stay beside me from here on. I’ll teach you the knack of finding signs and tracking them.”

For some reason, Quinier was being kind to me. I didn’t know why, but it couldn’t hurt, so I decided to listen without complaint.

As I listened to her explanation, I briefly studied Edwin. He appeared to be making an earnest effort to find traces.

Edwin was quite a decent character. Like Quinier, he belonged to the “good” side, and above all, he possessed Divine Power. That alone increased his value as a character.

Edwin’s Divine Power came from Hephaestus, the God of Smithing in Greek mythology. He showed exceptional talent for working metal and had an affinity for fire, something no blacksmith could do without. Later, he could even use metal to create golems.

With all that potential, Edwin naturally rebuilt his family as the game progressed. Though it happened out of the spotlight, his restoration of his family’s glory was a foregone conclusion.

That was how it had gone in the game, anyway.

Could this boy, who looked like all the gloom in the world had been gathered into one person, really rebuild his family?

“Footprints are the easiest signs to find, and the most useful. Look here.”

Where Quinier pointed, I saw footprints far larger than a human foot. Leaves and fallen foliage made the trail patchy, but we could roughly tell which direction it led.

“Good. The prints are fairly clear, and judging by the short stride, it was walking. It looks like we’re the first to find them.”

Quinier sounded pleased. Then she gave me a mischievous smile.

“Now, does our freshman know what made these footprints?”

Her voice was half teasing. She probably expected me not to know.

Of course, I had no way of knowing what had made these prints. I could simply admit that, but it felt as though she were testing me.

If I passed this test, perhaps I could win her friendship. A wrong answer would cost me nothing, so why not take a shot? I did at least know what monsters had been placed in the field for this Joint Mission.

It felt strange to be the only student who knew information being kept secret from us.

What I could tell about these footprints was that they were damn big.

As for damn big monsters placed in this field, there was probably...

“... A Red Bear?”

At my muttered answer, Quinier and Edwin both turned to look at me.

“H-how...?”

“How did you know?”

Embarrassed by their astonished reactions, I gave a casual answer.

“As Quinier said, the footprints are big and clear. I just took a guess.”

That had to rank among the five most honest things I had said since coming to this world.

But neither of them seemed to believe a damn word.