Arc 15: Fishing (3)

I checked the time in front of the Constel building. Noon. She should be here soon.

I had arranged to meet Aten. My excuse was that, since we had decided to work together from now on, we needed to discuss things like our roles in combat.

Aten had asked, ["What should I wear?"]

I had told her to choose for herself.

The reason I had invited her was that today was the day of the midterm retakes. The retakes themselves had nothing to do with me, but there was an event taking place around this time that I needed to catch. Only today would writing those summaries for Aten in the library to keep her from failing finally pay off.

After a short wait, I spotted Aten approaching from a distance.

"Aten, over... here..."

I trailed off as I watched her approach.

She was wearing a white blouse and jeans. Perhaps because I had only ever seen her in uniform, she looked strikingly different. She had always seemed the very embodiment of everything white and cold, but today she looked livelier and brighter than usual.

"Hello."

"... Oh, hi."

Aten greeted me as she always did. Her expression was no different from usual, either.

"... What do you think? Of my clothes. I've never worn this style before."

"You haven't? That's a surprise."

"What do you mean by that?"

"It looks so natural on you that it never occurred to me."

I had thought my impression that it differed from her usual image was just my own preconception, but apparently Aten herself had felt the same way.

"... Oh, I see. So why did you ask me here today?"

Her expression noticeably brighter, Aten asked the question.

"As I said before, if we're going to work together, that makes us a party. We need to decide our combat roles. There's plenty of other stuff to discuss, too."

That wasn't a lie. I had simply left out something important.

I had several reasons for coming here today. One was to improve Aten's relationship with Aster. If I was right, there was a good chance we would run into him today.

I wanted the two of them to get along better. If their future together would end in disaster, as Philly said, I couldn't exactly pair them up. But that didn't mean it was good for their relationship to remain so frosty. That held true even if Aten was in my party rather than Aster's.

Still, I knew she would never have come if I'd told her that.

"I see. So that's why we're heading to the training rooms."

Aten nodded, apparently satisfied with her own explanation.

... Well, come to think of it, we were heading in that direction. Now that a plausible explanation had presented itself, I found myself nodding along.

As we rounded the corner of the building, Aster appeared.

"Oh? Frondier."

"Hi, Aster."

Beside me, Aten went on high alert the instant she saw him.

"... Frondier."

"Yeah?"

"You weren't trying to arrange a meeting between Aster and me, were you?"

"Of course not."

Aten was as sharp as ever. But she couldn't prove it, and from her perspective, the idea was absurd anyway. How could I have known Aster would pop up here?

That was her perspective, though. In fact, I had known we would meet Aster here.

Not for certain, admittedly.

Today, a Sudden Quest would appear here, quite literally out of nowhere. A Sudden Quest that could only trigger with Aster present.

For a player, Aster was the protagonist, so naturally you came here to complete it. But as I'd mentioned before, there was no telling where Aster would go without a player controlling him. I had merely reasoned that, since he visited the training rooms every day, he was highly likely to encounter this quest.

There had definitely been a chance we wouldn't meet. Thankfully, we had.

I checked my smartwatch. It was almost time.

"We meet again, Lady Aten."

"... You can drop the 'Lady.'"

I quietly watched their exchange. Then my smartwatch chimed, and I checked the screen.

[A Sudden Quest Has Been Created.]

[Sudden Quest: Robald Goes Astray]

- Fed up with retakes, Robald attempts an escape.

- Objective: Stop Robald.

- Success increases your reputation within Constel.

- Failure slightly increases the likelihood of Robald's expulsion from Constel.

Just as expected. It was identical to the quest I had received as a player—in other words, when I had been Aster Evans.

"Frondier, are you heading to the training rooms too—"

Just as Aster said that, glass shattered above our heads.

CRASH!!!

Fabrication

Workshop No. 3

Grade - Common

Iron Shield

I wove a shield and swung it at the shower of glass. Hmm. Blocking shards of glass with a shield felt oddly nostalgic.

CLATTER-CLATTER!

After I swept the glass aside with my shield, a boisterous voice rang out overhead.

"Hahahaha! Sir! I'm going to have to get out of here!"

"Robald! Get back here this instant!"

"No! I'm sick of this!"

The three of us looked up. A boy was leaning out of a third-floor window of the Constel building, presumably from the room where the retakes were being held.

A shattered window, of course.

"... Oh, that idiot."

Aster put a hand to his head. Of course he knew Robald. They were classmates.

Robald Rief.

If Frondier was Constel's most incompetent student, Robald was its biggest troublemaker.

In a sense, he was both Constel's most transparent character and its most one-dimensional. Hotheaded, good-natured, headstrong, with the initiative and drive of someone made from half a spoonful of courage and half a spoonful of recklessness. Robald Rief was what you got when you threw all those sorts of traits together.

If there was anything that gave him some depth, it was that, when it came to fighting, he was a genius who surpassed even Aster.

"Hup!"

Without a moment's hesitation, Robald threw himself out of the fourth-floor window. I couldn't see inside the classroom, but I heard what sounded like screams. They must have thought they were about to watch someone die.

CRASH!

Robald landed right in front of the three of us. No Aura, and certainly no magic. He had simply dropped from the fourth floor and landed on his feet, relying on his body alone. That was all.

His physique made that utterly crude and dangerous approach possible.

"... Tch. Hurts more than I thought."

Well, that wasn't to say it was painless.

"... Robald."

Unable to watch any longer, Aster spoke up. Aten, beside me, was... well, she just looked dumbfounded.

Robald looked up at the voice calling him. Recognizing Aster, he grinned in greeting.

"Oh, Aster. What's up?"

"That's my question. What are you doing? No, what have you done?"

Robald scratched his head sheepishly.

"Well, hahaha. I failed, so I have to take the retakes, but I'm so sick of them. I'm making my escape."

He flashed a cheerful, carefree smile as he spoke. His face was so radiant that you could almost forget he was doing something bordering on criminal.

"Robald, Her Highness is watching."

"Urk."

Robald noticed Aten standing beside me.

This was one reason I had brought Aten: she made it easy to stop Robald's escape.

Normally, by this point the player would have grown fairly close to her. Aster and Aten were both hard workers, so visiting the training rooms together provided a good pretext for encountering this event.

Naturally, this Sudden Quest had nothing whatsoever to do with Frondier. It was an event that established Robald and Aster's relationship. Handle it well and they became rivals; handle it poorly and they became bitter enemies. That made it fairly dangerous for a Sudden Quest.

With Aten present, however, it could be cleared without trouble. She reduced the risk of Robald and Aster becoming enemies.

"... Tch, right. Even I can't make a disgrace of myself in front of Her Highness..."

Robald sighed as though admitting defeat, then said,

"...except once in a while!"

And lunged at me.

... Huh?

Fabrication

Workshop No. 17

Grade - Common

Wooden Staff

I hastily pulled a woven weapon from the Workshop and swung it. It was the staff, the melee weapon with the longest reach that I owned.

And then—

THWACK!

A clean hit. The blow struck Robald squarely in the temple.

THUD.

Robald went down.

[Sudden Quest Complete]

- You have successfully stopped Robald.

The quest notification chimed with absolutely no sense of timing.

Yes, I knew I'd stopped him, but...

'This isn't how this is supposed to go.'

Sure enough, Aster and Aten were staring at me with wide eyes. Normally, with Aten present, Robald would obediently listen and abandon his escape. I had no idea why it had turned out this way.

'Was it because of me?'

I didn't know what Frondier's presence had stirred up in Robald, but he must have gotten some strange idea into his head.

Things had gone a little off plan, but I'd stopped him. That was what mattered.

... Right?

* * *

We took Robald to the infirmary. After an awkward greeting with Malia, we laid him down. A short while later, a teacher arrived.

He scowled the instant he saw my face. It was Ales, famous at Constel for siding with commoners. Frondier would be precisely the sort of person he hated most.

"... Good work, Aster. And Aten."

Ales turned his gaze toward me while thanking Aster and Aten.

"Sir, Frondier was the one who stopped Robald."

Aten made her displeasure clear.

"... I see."

Ales looked a little flustered. Had he not expected her to take my side?

Just then—

"Gasp!"

Robald woke up. He was noisy even when regaining consciousness.

We broke off our conversation to look at him. Malia had said it was a mild concussion, so we'd expected him to wake soon, but still.

Robald looked blankly around, then spotted me.

"..."

"...?"

He immediately fell silent. At the sight of me, a flash of anger crossed his face, followed by confusion. His eyes shifted as though he were deep in thought.

Then he asked me, "You're Frondier, aren't you?"

So he did know me.

"Yes. Frondier de Roach."

"... I'm Robald Rief."

He offered me his hand.

What kind of conversation was this?

I shook it anyway.

Robald gave me a challenging grin.

"I'll pay you back for this humiliation next time."

"Sure. I'll have something new ready for you."

He gave a short scoff at my provocation, but his smile remained.

Whatever else he might be, Robald liked strong people. From his perspective, being knocked unconscious by a single blow from me apparently raised his opinion of me instead.

Even though it had been a fluke.

"Robald, why did you suddenly go after Frondier?"

"Well, see, I'd heard rumors that Frondier was dragging Her Highness around with him."

... Dragging her around?

It was true we'd been spending time together lately, but that made it sound bad.

"That he'd found something to hold over her, you know."

"..."

"So I figured if I got a hit in on him while making my escape, Her Highness might think better of me."

At Robald's brazen declaration, Aster sighed and asked,

"... And while she was thinking better of you, she'd overlook your escape?"

"Exactly! Two birds with one stone. A thoroughly rational decision, you could say! Hahaha!"

... Rational, yet idiotic.

"Robald."

Ales called his name, adding a sharp glare for good measure.

"Breaking a window and attempting to escape. I can't let this one slide."

"Urk. I'm sorry, sir."

"I'll be contacting your parents later."

Robald's face instantly went cold with dread.

"P-please, anything but that!"

"Take this opportunity to reflect on your unruly behavior at school."

With that, Ales turned away. I thought he would leave without another word, but he glanced at me.

"... Frondier, Constel will reward you appropriately. Well done."

His expression didn't look remotely approving as he left the infirmary.

I watched his retreating back for a moment.

"I'm going to the bathroom."

I stood up. When Aten tried to get up with me, I gently pressed down on her shoulder.

"I said I'm going to the bathroom. Why are you trying to follow me? Take this chance to get to know those two."

Aster, specifically.

Aten made no attempt to hide her displeasure, but sat back down. Even she must have realized how absurd it would be to follow me to the bathroom. Besides, the training rooms were in the opposite direction.

If she talked with Aster, she would come to recognize his decency. If they kept meeting like this, the spell Philly had cast would eventually wear off.

And in the meantime, I had to carry out my most important reason for coming to Constel today.

I handed a note to Malia, who was sitting in the infirmary. The message was brief.

'I'll begin now.'

Today was the day.

I was going to catch the rat inside Constel.