Chapter 285 Volume V - Chapter 3: The First Day of Summer
The first day of summer vacation... was not what I expected.
All the students at the academy were excited as summer vacation approached, eagerly awaiting the end of classes and the end-of-year ceremony. But... what's the difference from before?
I don't have to go to classes for two months, that's all... What's so exciting about that? I'm going to keep practicing every day, I'm going to keep transferring mana to this disk, and nothing else... I can't understand what's the difference between this and before.
Bored, I opened my watch and started looking at the media while sitting in my room.
The news was finally starting to move away from Aiden a little bit. Sure, I could still see tons of news headlines with his name in them, but they were relatively few in number. Instead, I could see new things, or things that had started, things that were old and now were starting to resurface.
For example, the rise of anti-bullying activists after the fall of the Malus Family. The man who represents them, Darrel Gavefrihet... He really looks like a nobleman with his purple eyes and golden hair. He appears on the news and gives speeches. Every time he's on camera, he gathers more followers.
But... for some reason I don't get a good feeling when I look at him, so I skipped his story and looked at another one.
The news of a possible war between the Cevilian Kingdom and the Elhair Republic was the first thing that caught my eye.
A war... Aiden was a soldier on the battlefield. If this war actually happens, will I become a soldier like him? After all, one of the two specializations I chose is Military... It's a possibility.
I decided to keep looking at the news. At least that's what I was thinking towards noon of the first day. I involuntarily let out an involuntary sigh when my watch rang and I saw Julian's smiling photo on the screen.
"Julian?"
"How's it going?"
"Fine... I guess. I'm sitting in my room and plan to go to the training rooms in a few minutes."
Julian didn't react much, as if he expected this from me, but he couldn't help the awkwardness in his voice. Nevertheless, he continued as if nothing had happened.
"I was going to go shopping for the summer festival and stuff, and I'm going to hang out for a bit. Do you want to come?"
My eyes drifted to the clock hanging on the wall.
Actually... it wouldn't be a big deal if I cut back on my training time for today.
"When do we go?"
Julian changed his tone as if he was smiling, even though I couldn't see his face.
"Half an hour if you're free. I'll meet you at the café at the academy."
"Okay."
We talked for another minute or so and then the call went off.
After taking a deep breath, I went to my closet and changed into casual clothes. I didn't think too much about how I looked and headed toward the café. After almost twenty minutes, I found Julian waving at me.
He was wearing a simple white T-shirt and capris that came down to just below his knees. His hair was tied back behind his head as usual. When I saw him, he smiled.
We didn't stay where we were for long. The first place Julian headed for was a store full of expensive clothes. The store employees greeted him with respect. As Julian tried on one outfit after another, he turned to me, confused about what to buy and what not to buy.
"What do you think?"
"They all look good actually..."
Julian looked at me for a moment, seeing that I was really thinking about it. Then a grin appeared on his face.
"You're right, they were all good. So... I'll buy them all!"
Julian paid for all the clothes with a card from his wallet while the store employee sweated like he had hit the jackpot. Finally, Julian put everything into his dimensional inventory and walked out of the store, satisfied, his eyes darting back and forth.
"We should eat something... My stomach is growling."
As I drifted from place to place with him, never staying anywhere in the academy for more than ten minutes... I was actually having fun. Spending time with a friend was enjoyable, as it should be. There was nothing wrong with that.
But every time I noticed my lips curving upward, every time I found myself smiling... I always thought of Aiden. That he's in a coma, that maybe he'll never wake up. The fact that I can be here having fun with Julian while he sleeps unconscious... It bothered me.
I looked at Julian's face as he made his way to a pizza place he had his eye on.
What does he think about this? He has a smile on his face that he hasn't taken off all day, he doesn't care much about his surroundings and how people look at him.
Is it abnormal for me to think this way?
"Oh?"
Julian's eyes suddenly shifted to a point ahead and I involuntarily turned in that direction, only to find two pairs of eyes staring back at us, two blood red, the other two dark blue.
"Lucia, Sue!"
Although I was a little surprised to see two people from our study group, I didn't find it too strange. On the contrary, like Julian, a slight smile appeared on my face.
Lucia was wearing a white blouse over straight jeans, her black mask on her face as usual. Sue was wearing a light blue T-shirt with a skirt that came down to her knees.
"What are you doing?"
Julian moved quickly toward them. And I followed behind him.
"We were hanging out, nothing much... What about you?"
" Same. We did some shopping, had lunch, and now... here we are."
Julian and Lucia continued to talk amongst themselves. I turned my eyes to Sue, who remained silent.
Her eyes had lost some of their former brightness. Her face, which usually held a hint of a smile, was now flat.
I knew why, of course. Sue... She was one of the closest people to Aiden in the group, after all.
"How about together, then?"
"Sure."
Julian and Lucia finished their conversation and turned toward us. I gave them a smile of approval and Sue curled her lips up slightly in the same way.
Being together again, apart from Aiden, Celine, and Alice, felt like a group reunion.
And that feeling was... nice, to be honest.
So, this meeting that we started with Julian continued with Lucia and Sue. We went to the leisure centers of the academy, we visited places I had never been to before, like the aquarium. And there... I learned that Julian was a bit afraid of fish. I don't know why but he looked at them with a frown and kept his distance.
After the aquarium, we went to the amusement park. I saw and experienced things I had never seen before. I really enjoyed myself as the hours went by one after the other.
But... the place that left my mouth open the most was definitely the amusement center which had several games.
What we experienced there was... humiliation in the truest sense of the word. Sue, to no one's surprise, played games like table hockey so flawlessly that it seemed impossible to really see myself as the strongest of my peers.
What's more frightening was that she did all that absent-mindedly. All her movements were reflexive rather than thoughtful, sometimes not even focusing on the games. And yet... she completely crushed everyone who played with her. Not only that, but she managed to attract the attention of the people watching us, and got game offers from random people.
She beat everybody. There wasn't a single player she didn't crush. One after the other, she was putting everyone she came up against to the ground in a way that made them never play table hockey again.
After a while, Julian realized that things were getting too big and took Sue away from table hockey. We left the playground, although a few people followed us through the crowd.
As it was approaching dusk, what we did was walk calmly through a large central square. This was the most crowded part of the academy. Not just people, but holographic screens and all sorts of things were everywhere.
"That was fun, huh?"
Lucia nodded at Julian's words, and Sue sighed softly, in a way that no one could hear but I couldn't miss.
"It was."
There wasn't much more we could do about today. We were nearing the end of our day, and the direction we were heading was toward the dormitory buildings, even though no one had specifically mentioned it.
"We should do these things more often. It's a great stress reliever, but let's not go into the amusement center again, if possible."
At Julian's words, Sue raised one eyebrow and looked at him. Julian continued without holding back.
"It's okay to crush us, but it's not okay to crowd us around like that... Actually, now that I think about it, it's also not okay to crush us that much. You could have pitied us..."
Lucia grinned, and Julian returned the same grin since he had intended to make fun of her all along. Sue let out a deep sigh.
"I'm sorry. I was just... a little distracted, that's all."
She struggled a little, as if she couldn't choose the right word, but eventually gave up. Julian and Lucia said nothing more as if they had more or less understood what she was talking about.
As they approached further into the center of the square, Julian suddenly let out a deep sigh. His eyes narrowed slightly and his lips flattened.
"Aid-"
He was going to say something. He was probably going to try to comfort her. Whether he would succeed or not was unknown.
But... what he was trying to say at the very beginning was suddenly interrupted before his lips could move. The next second, the whole crowd froze as if time had stopped.
All the noise disappeared. Then... out of nowhere, the whole world suddenly turned purple.
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