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Chapter 126: Cohabitation (1)

"So…."

In Professor Lucas\'s office.

In the heavy atmosphere, Professor Lucas, who had been quietly listening with his chin resting on his hand, slowly opened his mouth.

"A magic tool you accidentally obtained during an external engagement with Professor Elisha suddenly malfunctioned and exploded?"

"……."

"Is that true, Professor?"

Professor Lucas\'s gaze turned to Professor Elisha, sitting beside me.

Elisha, extinguishing the cigarette she had in her mouth in the ashtray, nodded.

"Yes, I confirmed it myself."

"Hmm…."

Lucas squinted his eyes suspiciously.

But it was only for a moment.

Lucas sighed deeply after receiving Elisha’s "What, do you have a problem with that?" look.

"Cadet Dale."

"Yes, Professor."

"Bringing unauthorized magic tools into the school clearly violates the rules. Are you aware of that?"

"I am…."

"Wait."

Elisha interrupted me.

"I was the one who instructed Cadet Dale to take the magic tool. So, the responsibility falls on me…."

"Professor."

Lucas\'s voice lowered as he continued.

"I understand that you want to defend Cadet Dale, but if you\'re involved in this, the issue becomes far more serious."

There\'s no need to question which would cause more controversy: a cadet smuggling in unauthorized magic tools or a professor doing the same.

I shook my head at Professor Elisha and opened my mouth.

"Professor Elisha is not involved in this. It was entirely my decision to bring the magic tool into the school secretly."

"…Cadet Dale."

In truth, the fact that the blame was shifted to the magic tool was already more than enough defense she had provided for me.

"Sigh."

Lucas sighed deeply and rubbed his forehead.

"Cadet Dale."

"Yes."

"This is an issue serious enough that you could be expelled for it."

"……."

My shoulders flinched at the word "expelled" from Lucas\'s mouth.

"But."

Lucas picked up a few sheets of paper from the table and continued.

"Considering there were no casualties."

He glanced at the papers in his hand as he continued speaking.

"And the fact that Cadet Dale acted actively to put out the fire after it broke out."

Although it was Senior Sophia\'s magic that ultimately extinguished the fire, I had tried using water magic to help put it out before that.

"And lastly, after reviewing the petition written by the cadets, along with an internal meeting of the professors, it has been decided not to expel you."

"…A petition?"

"Yes."

Lucas shook the papers in his hand.

"Cadets Iris, Yuren, Berald, Camilla, Juliet, and Albert all wrote petitions on your behalf."

"……."

"The Saint of the Holy Kingdom, the heir of the Sun’s Sword, the bloodline of the Ryu family, the future Sword of the Holy Kingdom, the son of one of the wealthiest families in the Republic, and the son of the ‘Hoover’ family, which operates the largest information guild in the Empire… No, this is insane. When did you get such wide connections?"

Lucas, holding the papers, looked at me with a dumbfounded expression.

"They all wrote petitions as soon as they heard about it, huh."

I clenched my fist, feeling a surge of emotion welling up in my chest.

In any case.

It seemed I had avoided the worst possible outcome.

"Oh, and one more."

Lucas pulled out one more sheet of paper and held it out in front of me.

"Cadet Sophia Evergreen also wrote a petition for you."

"…Senior Sophia?"

Surprised, I made a bewildered face at the unexpected name.

The same Senior Sophia who had glared coldly at me on the day of the incident, snapping, "This was your doing, wasn’t it?" had apparently written a petition on my behalf.

"Yes. By the way, when did you get close to the ‘Red Calamity’?"

"…Red Calamity?"

"I\'m talking about Cadet Sophia Evergreen."

"……."

Wait, was Senior Sophia\'s nickname during her cadet days ‘Red Calamity’?

"Cadet Sophia is famous for being cold toward other cadets… Anyway, you’ve got some talent."

Lucas shook his head in disbelief, clicking his tongue.

"…Ugh."

I swallowed hard, holding the petition Senior Sophia had written.

In a past life, maybe.

But now, we weren’t close enough for her to do something like this for me.

\'Far from being close, the last time I saw her, she told me to get lost as soon as she saw me.\'

Though I pondered over why she wrote the petition for me, no answer came.

"Well, anyway. Because of all this, it’s been decided that your punishment will be a one-week suspension, which coincidentally covers the rest of the semester."

"…Does that even mean anything?"

Since it\'s the final exam period, there are no more classes.

Does it make any difference whether I’m suspended or not?

"Hmm. Who knows… Would it really be meaningless?"

Lucas, with a meaningful expression, trailed off.

While I tilted my head, wondering why he was making such a face, I quickly moved on to another topic.

"By the way, were any cadets injured?"

"Oh, are you worried about that?"

"It’s because it happened due to my mistake."

No matter the reason.

I couldn’t deny that I was the cause of the fire.

"Fortunately, no one was injured. Though there are cadets who lost belongings in the fire."

"May I personally compensate those cadets?"

"That’s fine, but the school probably already issued compensation for damages, no?"

"Even so, I’d like to give them personal compensation as much as I can. Of course, I’ll also personally apologize."

Since the incident was my fault, I didn’t want to just move past it without showing any gesture of apology.

Lucas folded his arms and looked at me with an interested glint in his eyes.

"Do you even have the gold to compensate them?"

"Well… I should be fine."

I managed to collect some byproducts from Behemoth’s corpse this time.

Of course, since it was so badly mangled to the point where it was hard to even recognize its shape, nothing like its horns, hide, or teeth remained intact.

But still, it\'s the remains of a Twelve-Eyed beast, isn\'t it?

If I sell it through Professor Elisha, I should be able to make quite a bit of money.

‘If only we had gotten a magic stone from Behemoth, we could have earned much more.’

What can you do?

Magic stones aren’t something you can easily get your hands on.

Especially the higher-ranked beasts—it\'s even more difficult with them.

‘Ah, and I should also pay back the money I borrowed from Juliet this time.’

To be honest, I was a bit harsh with him because I still remembered the way he bullied me in my past life, calling me a ‘doormat.’

But hasn\'t Juliet now changed so much that it wouldn’t be wrong to say he’s a completely different person compared to the past?

‘I can’t treat someone who’s changed like before.’

Juliet himself had asked me to treat him the same way as usual, but I couldn’t bring myself to be as harsh as I used to.

‘I thought the only person I’d ever call a friend in my life would be Yuren.’

I suppressed a chuckle and shook my head.

"By the way, have you found a place to stay?"

"A place to stay?"

"Yeah. In a week, it\'s going to be vacation, but you can\'t just sleep on the streets until then, right?"

"Ah."

Since I’d made such a big mess, I hadn’t even thought about my living arrangements.

"The other cadets have been provided with temporary accommodations by the academy... but if you go there, it might be a bit awkward, don’t you think?"

"…It would be, yeah."

As the one responsible for burning down the dormitory, I\'d definitely be met with cold stares if I entered the temporary accommodations.

"Ahem. Then I suppose there\'s no choice."

Professor Elisha, who had been sitting quietly next to me listening to the conversation, cleared her throat and glanced at me.

"I’ll take responsibility for Cadet Dale for a while…"

"Professor dormitories are off-limits to cadets, ma’am."

"Tch."

Clicking her tongue, Professor Elisha pulled out a cigarette.

Lucas, who seemed to have thought of a good idea, snapped his fingers.

"Oh, now that I think about it, you said you were close to Cadet Yuren, right?"

"Excuse me?"

"How about staying with him for a week? His dorm in Building A is spacious, after all."

"……."

Stay with Yuren for a week?

"Uh… about that…"

"What\'s the problem? You’re both guys, so it should be fine."

"No… it\'s just…"

We’re not both guys.

I swallowed the words that almost slipped out and quickly tried to think.

"Ahem, Yuren is the son of a noble, right? So, he doesn’t really like sharing space with others."

"Is that so?"

"Yes. Even during our last exploration mission, he insisted on sleeping in a private tent."

"Hmm."

With his arms crossed, Lucas nodded and turned on his Hero Watch.

"Well, I’ll just ask him directly."

"Go ahead."

Yuren—or rather, Yurina—will definitely decline politely.

‘No matter what, having a grown man and woman share a room for a week is just awkward.’

Even if it’s only for a week, living together is still living together.

There would be too many opportunities for conflicts, from sleeping arrangements to showering and bathroom use.

"Ah, Cadet Yuren? It\'s Professor Lucas. So, um... yeah. I see. Got it. I\'ll hang up now."

After finishing the call, Lucas turned to me.

"He said it\'s fine."

"Excuse me?"

"No, not just fine—he was practically shouting with joy about it."

"……."

And just like that, my week-long cohabitation with Yurina was decided.