Chapter 177

Chapter 177

Saturday morning.

Roan prepared for the off-campus volunteer work with a refreshed mind.

‘My health is fully restored, and I slept after studying, so my condition is very good.’

For reference, when he asked Bel and Charlotte to go out with him, they didn’t want to go, saying they were afraid they might see a portrait, so he had to reassure them a few times.

……Thinking of how Tady had been recruited, it wasn’t a completely impossible story.

Of course, if it went to that extent, it would mean Harden had set things up on purpose.

Seeing the two divine beasts half-asleep on the bed, Roan suddenly felt playful.

“There’s no rule saying there won’t be a portrait of the Principal just because it’s a dormitory room.”

[Hieeeek──!]

Kirreureut──!

The two divine beasts were startled awake, hugging each other and trembling.

Apparently, Hektor’s appearance yesterday had been quite shocking.

Actually, they would see much worse sights if they hung out with Demona and Hektor.

‘Well, they’ll gradually get used to it.’

Roan decided to look on the bright side.

At any rate, it was a relief that Bel and Charlotte seemed to have gotten much closer due to the portrait.

Roan finished his preparation and left his private room.

Since most daily necessities would be provided by the merchant group, he didn’t need much preparation.

It was also a short trip of two days and one night.

Meanwhile, in the living room, Demona and Hektor were out early, surprisingly.

“Roan! Don’t leave me behind! What if Professor Uli calls me again!”

“……How did you know?”

“Heeeeeek───!”

Demona was Demona as always.

“……But why is Hektor reading a book since morning?”

Hektor was reading with a thick book open, wearing a highly serious expression!

Roan found the sight of him even wearing glasses from who-knows-where quite annoying.

Hektor slightly lowered his glasses to glance at Roan, then looked back down at the book as he replied,

“To become a fine citizen of the Empire, one must devote oneself to studying. Of course, do not worry. I will make sure your send-off ceremony is held without a hitch.”

Apparently, the effect of his private audience with Harden was still remaining.

‘History and Branches of the Imperial Heresy Inquiry’

‘Why did Harden have to hide portraits in the library in the first place…’

Why heresy inquiry all of a sudden when he could just play all the Sacred Combat he wanted?

At any rate, Roan slightly raised an eyebrow at the suspicious word and asked,

“Send-off ceremony?”

Instead of Hektor, Demona answered.

“Uwaaaah──! If you are not here, Roan, we’ll be so bored~ We should at least see you off!”

“……I’m only going out for the weekend. Strictly speaking, I return tomorrow.”

“Still!”

Demona could not hold back any longer and clung to Roan, crying loudly.

Thud—

At that moment, Hektor closed the thick book, stood up, and resolutely stopped Demona.

“Stop it, Heretic. Roan has his own path to walk.”

Roan looked at him, wondering what was up with Hektor, and his face wrinkled heavily.

“……Just cry if you want to cry, Hektor. You look disgusting.”

The sight of Hektor’s rock-hard face turning bright red and tearing up as he tried to hold back tears was truly hideous.

To put it in comparison, it was like gathering shattered granite back together and pouring red glue all over it.

Hearing Roan’s words, Hektor only then began to wail at the top of his lungs.

“Uwaaaah! Roaaan, you mustn’t leave us behind!”

Demona and Hektor each grabbed one of Roan’s legs and cried.

That alone was enough to give him a headache, but.

Bawl bawl bawl──

Trickle trickle──

Eongeongi and Silsil were also crying, shedding tears and fluid,

Thump thump thump— Flap flap flap—

while Black Knight and Sparky were busy hitting and getting hit by each other, making the scene even more chaotic.

Roan looked down at the two of them in turn with disdain and asked,

“……How on earth did you guys live before meeting me?”

At that, Demona and Hektor looked up at Roan with puzzled expressions.

“Huh…?”

“Now that you mention it…?”

How did we actually live?

Roan wore an expression like someone witnessing the most pathetic sight in the world.

No, it wasn’t just ‘like’, it was exactly that.

Still, since he wouldn’t have to see them for a day, Roan exercised superhuman patience.

“Tsk. Let’s just go eat.”

“Ah, food! We should eat!”

“Don’t you think the weekend bread is a bit different?”

Demona and Hektor prepared to head down to the cafeteria, chatting and giggling between themselves as if they had never cried.

Creak—

As they opened the door of McGodal Room and went out,

“Hmm?”

“Huh?”

they happened to run into Trian and Garland, who seemed to be heading to eat breakfast.

Roan spoke first.

“Good morning.”

“Uh… Oh, right.”

The two wore expressions asking, ‘Why is this guy greeting us unlike himself?’

While that awkward standoff continued, Demona shouted from behind.

“You bastards! Are you going to keep showing that pathetic pride even on the day Roan leaves?”

“W-What?!”

“Great Demon King… no, Darc is leaving? Why?”

The two widened their eyes in surprise.

Where on earth was Roan, who had been attending school perfectly fine, going?

”Is he finally getting arrested? …But why?”

While Trian and Garland wore complicated expressions.

Roan lightly launched mana toward the back.

An ‘Argh—’ followed by a clattering sound echoed from inside McGodal Room, but Roan ignored it and spoke.

“I’m going on off-campus volunteer work for the weekend.”

“Ah… off-campus volunteer work. I see.”

“We heard from our mentor senior yesterday too.”

Only then did Trian and Garland nod in understanding.

‘Then he should have just said so, why did that Wicronon fellow exaggerate unnecessarily…’

As they thought that, the two suddenly came to their senses.

Come to think of it, if Roan left for good, it would be a gain for them, so there was no need to feel sorry, was there?

Other students passing by the hallway happened to stop.

─ Trian, Garland. Good morning. U-Um, what are you talking about with Darc?

Trian shouted, trying not to show his embarrassment.

“Darc is going on off-campus volunteer work! I was just about to warn him to go quietly and not cause trouble with his pathetic skills!”

─ A-As expected of Trian! I would never have been able to say such a thing!

─ Let’s hurry and eat breakfast!

The two disappeared in an instant, surrounded by their gang.

Roan frowned deeply.

‘Indeed, they say you can’t fix a broken person…’

He had thought Trian was a decent guy, but seeing him now, he was a villain through and through.

“Don’t worry, Roan! Since we are here on the path you walk!”

At that moment, Hektor clapped Roan’s shoulder triumphantly and laughed out loud.

Roan frowned even more and said,

“Please get out of my way.”

“???”

“Ah, I misspoke.”

“Ah, as expected.”

“I appreciate it, but I’ll be fine without you, so let’s go our separate ways.”

“??????”

Roan spoke thus and began to head down to the cafeteria.

Demona and Hektor stared at each other in bewilderment, then hurriedly began to give chase belatedly.

He only softened the words slightly, but wasn’t it the same meaning?

Did we just not understand?

“Roan is a bit prickly today.”

“Silly~ Isn’t it because he is going to be away from us for the weekend~”

“Ah, that makes sense!”

Hektor was deeply moved by Demona’s interpretation.

Roan, you sweet, shy fellow!

……If Roan had known their thoughts, the two would have surely been hit by curse magic and crawled all the way to the cafeteria.

They thus arrived at the cafeteria.

─ Don’t you think the weekend bread is a bit different after all?

─ The milk flavor seems a bit stronger.

─ That’s what Wicronon said.

─ Then that must be true!

The early-rising students were already enjoying a satisfying meal under the warm morning sunlight.

The Paneroa Hall cafeteria on a weekend morning was strangely languid.

It was even more so because a significant number of people left for off-campus volunteer work starting from the second week.

“Hi, guys~”

Just as Demona and Hektor were tearing their first pieces of bread, the female students also came down with their divine beasts.

Upon seeing them, as if remembering what they had forgotten, the two wiped their tears and replied,

“Kuh-heup… We are not doing well…”

“Today is too sad…”

“““??”””

The female students tilted their heads at the unusual demeanor of the two.

Did they get subjected to a punishment holy art since morning?

But that shouldn’t be a big deal, right?

They were subjected to it often on weekdays anyway…

And now, the female students were more worried about Roan, who might have suffered from the words of those two, rather than Demona and Hektor, who had developed immunity.

Roan shook his head and answered instead,

“They are acting like that because I’m away for the weekend.”

“Aha~ Roan is going on off-campus volunteer work too? You said you were going, right?”

Only then did the female students sit down, bringing their respective breads as if they understood.

‘They understand?’

Roan didn’t like even that very much.

Meanwhile, Roan, who was staring at Sion sitting in front of him, called her.

“By the way, Sion.”

Not only was she carrying a tightly packed backpack as big as her own torso on her back, but she had also hung all kinds of camping gear on the outside, which looked rather comical.

“Yes?”

“……There is still plenty of time before departure.”

“W-We have to prepare well in advance!”

Perhaps realizing her appearance looked strange even to herself, Sion blushed and raised her voice.

“For merchant group escort volunteer work, most supplies are supported by the merchant group.”

“Oh, is that so?”

Sion hesitated briefly, then muttered quietly to herself, ‘Then I’ll leave them in my room and come back.’

Rafia spoke from beside her in a slightly worried tone.

“Sion, now that I think about it, you didn’t seem to sleep well last night. Is your condition okay?”

“Ah, yeah.”

Sion nodded, but looking closely, she had slight dark circles and a tired impression.

“Well, it’s just that I’m nervous…”

At that, Demona, who was sniffing back tears, immediately blurted out.

“It’s because you’re going out alone with Roan!”

“W-What are you saying!”

Sion blushed even more than when Roan had pointed it out earlier, shouting.

Roan also smacked the back of Demona’s head for the first time in a while and said,

“What do you mean, alone. Senior Yusina, the professor, and the merchant group members are all going together.”

“H-Heeek─! Even a professor?”

“Isn’t that obvious?”

What kind of school would send students outside without accompanying them with a professor?

In fact, off-campus volunteer work was only in name; in reality, it was closer to a practical training for students’ real combat experience.

That was why freshmen were subjected to stricter standards.

Roan glared at Demona with a look of disdain, then gestured to Black Knight and Sparky, who were eating breakfast.

It was a signal to handle it on their own.

Hop— Flutter—

Simultaneously with Roan’s gesture, the two spirit beasts began to hit Demona at the same time.

“Argh! Why do these guys listen to Roan when they don’t even listen to me~ Stop it~~”

With Demona thus dropping out of the conversation,

Sion hesitated and revealed the reason she was nervous.

“Um… Aren’t you nervous and scared for no reason since we are going outside the school?”

Roan replied calmly,

“It has only been two weeks since we enrolled.”

“Huh?”

“Before that, we were always outside the school.”

“Oh, you’re right.”

Sion realizing there was absolutely no reason to be nervous at Roan’s mere two sentences!

Roan clicked his tongue and thought,

‘Looking at it this way, there isn’t much difference between Sion, Demona, and Hektor.’

However, Sion, roughly guessing what he was thinking just by him clicking his tongue, flared up.

“No, that’s not it! I meant it’s nerve-wracking to step outside after only staying inside the family and school until now!”

“Sure, sure.”

Although Roan readily acknowledged it, Sion’s mood did not improve much.