Chapter 157

Chapter 157

Needless to say, the professors of Akerandir did not make the students do these tasks because they lacked the ability to do it themselves.

“Cleaning the warehouse is also excellent training. Apply if you want to. The professor will like it. Maybe he will even make you the assistant class president.”

An assistant class president… If such a thing really happened, it would be quite a luxurious semester for Uli.

At any rate, Uli’s warehouse, where no one knew when or where what item would attack, was practically a dungeon.

Entering that place naturally led to an increase in stats.

…Though Roan had no desire to do so.

Uli responded to Roan’s words.

“Kedan, do you want to go too? If you volunteer, I can pay you. If you want, I’ll even give you the assistant class president position as Darc said. Heylick is also close with Kedan—”

“Hieeeek—! R-Riel and I will go, go eat lunch!”

Rafia instinctively grabbed Riel’s hand and hurriedly slipped out of the classroom.

It was truly a magnificent movement fitting for an Akerandir paladin aspirant.

It seemed like a voice saying ‘I should have learned stealth holy magic after all—’ drifted from the hallway, but that was not very important.

Uli tilted his head, muttered as if it did not matter either way, and left the classroom.

“Stealth holy magic is hard to use for making a legal living, though.”

‘I don’t think that’s what they meant…’

Thanks to that, the only students left in the classroom were Roan and Sion.

“I have something to do, so I will take my leave.”

Roan spoke first.

“I, I also have someone to meet!”

As if Roan was saying, ‘You obviously don’t have any plans, right?’ Sion shouted, blushing.

‘As if I don’t have any friends besides Darc!’

…Actually, she really did not have any.

If she hadn’t luckily had an appointment today, it would have been a rather lonely lunch break.

“Oh, is that so? Then I’ll see you in Professor Gulba’s class.”

“Hmph, I am definitely going to arrive right on time, just before the class starts.”

“Sure, sure. It must be nice to have a fruitful lunch break.”

Roan gave her a knowing look and left the classroom first.

Because it felt like he was ignoring her again, Sion felt a bit more aggrieved.

***

[Wow, it’s my first time coming this way! It’s so fascinating!]

‘Is there any place you *have* actually been to?’

[Ah!]

After retrieving Bel and Charlotte from the Divine and Spirit Beast Depository.

‘The application for external volunteer service was at Cayler Hall.’

Roan was heading toward Cayler Hall, a place he usually had no reason to visit.

Cayler Hall was a building in Akerandir dedicated to external affairs.

Usually, many faculty members resided there, and students only came in and out once in a while when applying for external volunteer work.

Therefore, by around Friday, quite a few students could be seen nearby.

The path Roan was walking was the main route connecting the student lecture district.

Most of them were returning students, not freshmen.

In the first place, freshmen did not know much about external volunteer work itself.

‘Seniors in clubs or mentors might have told them, but…’

After all, external volunteer work was a bit dangerous for freshmen who had just entered.

Rather, as the seniors went outside, many of the easy volunteer positions on campus were left behind, so it was not a loss for the freshmen either.

Although freshmen would also start applying in decent numbers starting next week.

‘In any case, if you don’t meet the standard, you can’t participate.’

The qualification standards for external volunteer work were quite high.

At any rate, Roan headed toward Cayler Hall, taking care to avoid being noticed by other freshmen as much as possible.

Fortunately, when Roan was alone, the seniors did not recognize him easily—

“Uh? Roan? It’s Roan!”

Or so he had thought.

A person walking from up ahead saw Roan and waved happily.

Roan frowned and looked at the face of the person calling him.

No, in fact, there was no need to even verify the face.

The bubbly voice, the atmosphere radiating from the person even from a distance, and crucially—

—Hello, Saintess!

—Have a nice lunch!

“Yes, you guys have a delicious lunch too~”

The woman who greeted everyone passing by warmly was none other than—

“Senior Yusina.”

Yusina.

Yusina asked with an overwhelmingly bright smile.

“Oh~ What an amazing coincidence! Why are you here?”

“I have something to do this way.”

Roan answered with a frown.

For some reason, just the energy radiating from Yusina made his skin prickle uncomfortably.

‘Is it because I’m a black mage?’

If it was the energy of a Saintess, it was understandable for a black mage to react to it…

Woooong—

It’s just because your personality is trash.

‘…Must you say it like that?’

Roan felt extremely displeased by False Divinity’s sharp remark.

“Wow! Are these the Abyss Dragon and the Heavenly Sword Peacock King? I’ve heard about them, but it’s my first time seeing them. Hello, guys? This is Locke the Moonlight Watcher~”

Yusina warmly greeted Bel, who was sitting on Roan’s shoulder, and Charlotte, who was walking beside him, and introduced her own divine beast.

Pururung—!

Locke flapped one of his wings in greeting.

[Master, who are they? I feel somewhat uneasy?!]

Because it possessed black mana instead of holy power, Bel seemed to feel an instinctive rejection toward Saintess Yusina.

With dignity—

On the other hand, Charlotte, fitting the dignity of the Heavenly Sword Peacock King, knelt on one knee to show respect to Yusina.

“Wow~ A divine beast greets people like this? So cute!”

Yusina giggled and made a fuss as she watched Charlotte’s greeting.

‘Do not act suspiciously or offend her. You could die.’

[Gasp!]

Bel was startled by Roan’s chilling warning.

Flap, flap—

Then, in a desperate bid to survive, it rubbed its head against Yusina, flapped its wings, and acted cute.

“A-A dragon is acting cute? Roan, I heard you had a talent for Holy Combat, but to think it was to this extent…”

However, for some reason, it seemed to have had the opposite effect.

Yusina looked at Roan skeptically even while finding Bel cute.

Roan frowned and said,

“It is not that I have a talent for Holy Combat.”

“Eh? Then what?”

Yusina asked, wondering what he meant.

Roan was about to say, ‘It’s not Holy Combat, I just like divine and spirit beasts,’ but decided it sounded too pathetic and stopped.

…In the first place, regardless of Holy Combat, this was simply the result of Roan threatening Bel.

“Anyway… I have things to do, so I’ll be going.”

“Ah, really? If you have work, then it can’t be helped. See you later~”

Yusina waved her hand, making a show of looking disappointed.

[Goodbye! I am absolutely not a suspicious dragon!]

Bel, on whom the threat had worked all too well, kept shouting this until the moment Roan set off.

‘Why did she let me go so easily?’

Meanwhile, Roan nodded and passed by her, feeling a bit suspicious.

Normally, if it were Yusina, she would have started chattering with ‘Where are you going?’, ‘Why are you going there?’, ‘Can’t I come with you?’ and wouldn’t have stopped until they reached Cayler Hall.

‘Well, she’s only like that to me; Yusina isn’t that free either.’

Yusina possessed a suspiciously high level of goodwill toward Roan.

However, in the original “God & Devil,” she wasn’t to this extent.

She was a friendly eccentric who succeeded Harden, helping out a bit when help was genuinely needed but never approaching first.

Furthermore, as a fourth-year student about to graduate and a Saintess, she would be busy with various tasks.

Just as Roan took a few more steps,

[Master, that person is still following us.]

‘I know.’

Bel asked, sensing something strange.

‘Of course she is.’

“…Are you free?”

Roan turned around and asked.

Standing there was Yusina, following Roan at a distance with a sly smile on her face.

“Huh? No, I’m super, super busy?”

“Then go on your way.”

“Ah~ It just so happens that where I’m going is in this direction~”

Yusina’s smile, which she tried to make look sly, grew even deeper.

“No, in the first place… Phew, never mind.”

They had met while she was coming from the opposite direction, so there was no way her destination was this way.

However, given Yusina’s clumsy nature, there was a possibility she had gotten lost.

Roan decided to walk a bit further.

Step, step, step—

“Where is your destination?”

“My, even a Saintess has privacy.”

“…”

Step, step, step—

“Why don’t you go ahead?”

“Ah~ I just like walking slowly~”

“…”

Step, step, step—

[Master, isn’t that person strange?]

‘I think so too.’

Yusina followed, walking when Roan walked and stopping when he stopped.

In this manner, the two of them walked together without truly being companions, finally arriving at Cayler Hall.

Since they had come all the way to Cayler Hall, there was no possibility of going to another building, so Roan frowned again and asked,

“Are you going to apply for external volunteer service?”

“Yes. You too, Roan?”

“You followed me, didn’t you?”

“Eeeeh~?”

At that, Yusina retorted, raising her eyes as if wondering what on earth he was talking about.

“Roan! I’m really disappointed if you think that?”

Disappointed, my foot.

No matter how he looked at it, Yusina had definitely followed him.

However, Yusina spoke with a genuinely dark expression.

“I got fined a lot this week, so I need to earn money… And! I’m a fourth-year and you’re a freshman! You coming here is what’s strange. Don’t you think?”

Indeed, if the Saintess was cleaning toilets like Demona, it could potentially escalate to the level of the Holy Emperor’s Palace getting involved.

“…”

Roan had nothing to say.

This was because Yusina’s argument and reasoning were entirely valid.

“Speaking of which! How did you know to apply for external volunteer service here? The seniors wouldn’t have told you.”

Yusina glared at Roan suspiciously and asked.

Since nothing good would come from continuing this topic, Roan slipped inside Cayler Hall.

Yusina followed closely, trying to catch him on something.

“Huh? I asked how you knew about the external volunteer work.”

Roan quietly called out to Yusina.

“Senior.”

“Yeah?”

“How did you end up getting fined? Does the Holy Emperor’s Palace know?”

“…Ahem.”

Yusina, who had been chattering, fell silent instantly as if her mouth was stuffed with honey.

Casually—

The two of them exchanged glances, neither speaking first.

It was a silent agreement to let it slide since bringing it up wouldn’t benefit either of them.

Roan turned his head back and led the way toward the external volunteer management office.

Yusina tilted her head in confusion as she followed behind him.

‘Come to think of it, this is really strange. How does he even know the management office is this way?’

Giving him the benefit of the doubt, let’s say he heard about the existence of external volunteer work from here and there.

But how on earth was he navigating straight to an office he had never been to in a building he was visiting for the first time?

Yusina was dying to ask the reason, but she could not bring herself to do so.

‘If Cardinal Sicrito finds out that I got fined a lot, it will be a bomb of nagging. Ugh…’

Cardinal Sicrito, the one who had brought Roan to the academy.

He was also the figure who had cared for and managed Yusina since she was young.

So, although Yusina respected Sicrito, she wanted to avoid listening to him lecture her for three hours about the dignity and responsibility of a Saintess.

Creak—

When they opened the door to the external volunteer management office, the clerk inside stood up to greet them.

Aside from the two of them, a few other students were already inside.

—Have you come to apply for external volunteer service?

“Yes.”

—Ah, the Saintess has also arrived.

“Yes~ You’ve been well, right?”

—Please look around as much as you like. And please understand that applications for freshmen may be canceled depending on the judgment of the accompanying professor.