Part 15: Fishing (1)

The next day, I headed to the training rooms after school.

“Oh? Frondier.”

“Aster.”

I ran into Aster again outside the training rooms. Elin was beside him, too. She waved silently in greeting.

Come to think of it, they were siblings. Seeing them side by side, I could definitely see the resemblance.

“Training right after the practical exam? You’re dedicated, Frondier.”

“So are you.”

Aster smiled sheepishly.

“... I just mean that your reputation for being lazy sounds ridiculous now.”

Hmm. Well, I certainly wasn’t as slow as the Human Sloth.

“Anyway, doesn’t it seem crowded here today?”

I looked around. There certainly were a lot of people. With midterms just over, you’d think they could take a break. Were Constel students really this diligent all the time?

“... Frondier, you don’t know?”

I had no idea what Elin meant.

“Pardon?”

“I assumed you, of all people, would know.”

Still confused, I tilted my head. Aster glanced off to one side.

“Look over there.”

I followed his gaze to the public training room. Unlike the private rooms I usually used, the public room accommodated multiple people, and its reinforced-glass walls let people outside see in. It was a chance to impress the onlookers, and sometimes people sought feedback from them, too.

Inside was Aten Terst. And beside her was Runia Frisel, no less.

“Aten...?”

“You’re always together with Aten. That’s why I thought you knew,” Elin said.

It wasn’t so much that we were together as that Aten followed me around. I couldn’t bring myself to say that, though, so I asked Aster something else.

“Are those two competing?”

“No, the people around them have just decided it’s a competition. I doubt either of them is thinking about it.”

... Really?

Aster sounded unconcerned, being naturally kind and optimistic, but Runia wasn’t that optimistic. Even from here, I could see her stealing glances at Aten beside her.

Aster, can’t you see that?

“Watching them train will inspire the others, and they’ll encourage each other to improve. Yeah, it’s a good thing.”

Aster nodded as he spoke.

Aster, you’re giving them far too much credit. And you’re being far too optimistic...!

There were plenty of other people in the public training room besides those two. Almost all of them were working desperately to impress Aten. Otherwise, as someone who came here practically every day, I would have recognized them. Instead, every face was new.

“... Well, I’d better go train.”

“You’re not going to watch?”

“I’ve got my hands full looking after myself.”

And above all, I was afraid of getting caught in the crossfire.

* * *

“Feels like it’s been a while since I was here.”

I stepped into a private training room.

I’d come here every day to improve my Throwing skill, but midterms had kept me away. Today, though, I wasn’t here for that.

I raised my smartwatch and checked the notifications on its screen again.

[You have successfully woven an item of the ‘Chief Deity’ Grade.]

[Unique Skill ‘Weaving’ has leveled up.]

[‘Modification’ is now available.]

[Currently available Modification option: ‘Degradation’]

[Degradation: Removes one option granted to an object.]

At last, I could use the Modification I’d been waiting for. Its first ability was Degradation: removing one option. As you’d expect from an ability unlocked at the start, it was pretty useless. For me, though, in this particular case, it was exactly what I needed.

Fabrication

Grade - Divine

Chryselakatos

I wove Chryselakatos and checked its information.

[Chryselakatos]

? Grade: Divine

? Description: A bow made by Hephaestus, the god of smithing, and given to Artemis.

Ability Details >

- Women Only: At Artemis’s request, only women can draw the bowstring.

- Unerring Shot: Always hits the enemy the user aims at.

Now I would degrade Chryselakatos to remove its Women Only option.

Fabrication

Weapon Modification - Degradation

Target: Chryselakatos

[Option ‘Women Only’ has been removed.]

After confirming the message, I drew Chryselakatos.

“It worked.”

The bowstring that hadn’t budged before finally drew back. It was hard to believe it had been as rigid as a steel bar.

“All right, shall we test it?”

While I was at it, I wove Iocheira and nocked it.

My total mana had increased quite a bit lately. Repeatedly exhausting my mana was one thing, but perhaps expanding it with the Dragon Heart had helped, too. Of course, it was nowhere near what I’d had after swallowing the Dragon Heart, but this should put me around Constel’s average. It was practically another gift Aten had given me along with my life.

I set my usual target practice exercise to the highest difficulty this time. Dozens of holographic targets appeared, all moving too fast for my eyes to follow. What’s more, they even reacted to incoming projectiles and dodged them.

‘It’s still a god’s weapon, so I should get at least a few...!’

With that thought, I released the bowstring.

At the time, I had no idea. The bow Chryselakatos and the arrow Iocheira only became truly Divine as a set—and I had no idea just how powerful that combination was.

Chryselakatos

Unerring Shot

Iocheira

Falling Rain

The flying arrow split into countless more through Falling Rain, and every single one gained the effect of Unerring Shot.

The result:

CRRRASH!

An absurdly violent sound rang out, like rain punching through a window.

“... Huh?”

Every target shattered.

[‘Target Practice’ cleared on the highest difficulty.]

[Frondier de Roach has set a new record.]

[Previous best: 31.5 seconds. Updating the best time with the current record.]

[New record: 3.14 seconds.]

“...”

What was with 3.14 seconds? Was that pi?

No, this was no time for idle thoughts.

The training room records were shared by everyone. In other words, before my attempt, 31.5 seconds had been the fastest time any Constel student had ever achieved. And I’d just broken it.

With 3.14 seconds.

And I wasn’t the only one hearing this announcement.

“...”

Without thinking, I glanced toward the outside of the training room.

I’d come here to avoid stray sparks. Now I had a feeling a giant fireball was heading my way.

* * *

To be honest, Runia couldn’t concentrate on her training at all. Naturally, the reason was Aten beside her.

‘Sh-should I have greeted her?’

She’d already stolen dozens of glances at Aten. Their previous encounter had been so unexpected that she hadn’t had time to take her in, but seeing her like this, she looked almost otherworldly. How could a person be so white? Her expression was so understated that she seemed cold.

A true Snow Woman.

‘Could she be angry? What if she is? Am I being clueless, carrying on practicing right beside her?’

Runia’s worries kept mounting without end.

Aten, however, was indeed barely thinking about Runia at all. Her mind was occupied with something else entirely.

‘I’m still weak.’

Her encounter with Renzo had driven home her helplessness. She could have used her youth as an excuse, but Frondier’s very existence shattered that excuse completely.

... She remembered every moment of Frondier risking his life to save her. Perhaps he hadn’t done it because it was her. Perhaps Frondier would have saved anyone. Regardless, he was the person who had saved her life.

She still couldn’t use reversion freely, and she didn’t know when she would be able to. For now, then, she had to develop her specialty, ice magic. Unless she improved as quickly as possible, she wouldn’t be able to stand beside Frondier.

Ice Magic, Formula Two

Rapid-Fire Enhancement

Frost Arrow

As Aten extended her hand, several pieces of ice floated up around it.

Aten was doing the High-Speed Reaction drill. Targets appeared and vanished after a set time. The higher the difficulty, the shorter they remained visible. Hitting them with projectiles before they disappeared improved reaction speed.

CRACK!

Aten’s speed was astonishing. Each target shattered the instant it appeared. She could easily have raised the difficulty much higher.

‘... Amazing.’

Watching her, Runia changed her mindset, too. Putting her pointless worries aside, she began to focus on her own training.

Her drill was Long-Range Arcing Fire. Unrivaled in mana manipulation, Runia was hitting distant targets while guiding her shots around all manner of obstacles.

With both girls concentrating, their training made quite a spectacle for those around them.

“Incredible. Just what you’d expect from Her Highness. Look at that speed. Even reacting that fast, she never makes the mistake of firing early. Her mind isn’t wavering at all.”

“I think Runia’s impressive. From where she is, those targets between the obstacles must look about the size of a fingernail, but she’s threading her shots right through.”

The spectators watching the pair each offered their own comments. Meanwhile, those training nearby redoubled their efforts, hoping to attract a little more of the princess’s attention.

In the midst of all this, they suddenly heard an announcement.

[‘Target Practice’ cleared on the highest difficulty.]

[Frondier de Roach has set a new record.]

[Previous best: 31.5 seconds. Replacing the best time with the current record.]

[New record: 3.14 seconds.]

Along with the announcement, the new record and its holder’s name appeared on the screen outside the training room. Whenever someone broke a record, every training room was notified like this. It motivated students to break records and encouraged competition.

This time, however, it wasn’t having the intended effect at all.

...?

Every student who saw the screen simply stared at it, placid and blank-faced, without so much as a change in expression. None of them had any idea what had happened.

The first to realize was Runia.

“... Huh?! What?!”

Her loud exclamation brought everyone to their senses.

“Wh-what? A new record? A new Target Practice record?”

“Who’s Frondier de Roach?”

“You know! ‘Frondier the Human Sloth’!”

“What? That guy?”

“N-no way. It must be a recording error. Isn’t it supposed to say 31.4 seconds?”

“Even 31.4 seconds would be a new record!”

Records couldn’t keep being broken forever. Human abilities had limits, and past a certain point, the intervals between new records grew longer. Everyone had believed the highest-difficulty Target Practice record could never be improved upon.

That was what the 31.5-second Target Practice record represented. It had stood for years, and there had been every reason to believe it would continue to stand.

That record had been broken.

With 3.14 seconds.

Naturally, nobody believed it.

They had already decided that 3.14 seconds was a recording error for 31.4 seconds, and some were suggesting this might be a different Frondier de Roach with the same name.

Aster and Elin could see the screen from outside the public training room, too.

“... Sis.”

“I don’t know.”

“I haven’t even said anything yet.”

“You were going to ask if a time of 3.14 seconds was even possible. I don’t know.”

Even Aster, who refused to accept Frondier’s bad reputation and tried to see him for who he really was, found this hard to believe. So did Elin, who had witnessed Frondier cut down a golem.

Only Aten, out of everyone there, simply gazed at the screen in silence and gave a small nod.