Abandoned by my Childhood Friend, I Became a War Hero chapter 26

26 – Just the Two of Us in the Room

Just because all of the students’ classes are over, the instructor’s job doesn’t end right away.

I have to prepare for class the next day and write various reports before work. Instructors not only had to teach students well, but also had to thoroughly handle such minor administrative tasks.

In that sense, compared to Instructor Lyra, I was still half an instructor.

Even in the military, sitting at the head of a desk and rolling a pen was a young disease, and it was rare for me to talk to people, so of course I couldn’t be good at writing reports.

While I couldn’t even fill half of the paper I used to write on and my hair turned white, Instructor Lilya was writing the report as smoothly as flowing water.

Tadak, tadak-

Instructor Lirya’s side profile, as she took out her glasses and pounded her magic typewriter hard, did not look like a mature woman, but she did look like a skilled professional immersed in her work.

In the end, I had to enlist her help because I couldn’t finish her report until Instructor Lyra finished her work.

“Sorry for the inconvenience.”

“It’s okay! Wasn’t it a big deal? Even Instructor Graham will get used to it over time.”

Well. I was the one who had adapted and endured even in the land of the Ma continent, which is difficult for humans to live in, but I wondered if getting used to working at a desk would be a different case.

We left the office building and arrived at the tram stop. As I was about to enter the stop in the direction of the academy’s main gate, Instructor Lyria grabbed me and led me to another stop.

“Instructor Graham! She’s not there.”

“Hmm?”

This is the opposite direction from the entrance.

Since Fillion Academy itself is so large, there were other restaurants and cafes outside of the student cafeteria.

But I don’t know of any taverns, and that commercial district is near the main gate anyway, so there was nothing in this direction unless you had to turn around and go to the entrance.

“Where are you going?”

“You will find out soon. I’m leaving soon.”

Just as she said, the tram arrived at its destination shortly after.

No matter how I looked at the place I arrived at, it never looked like a bar.

“Jam! Arrived!”

Instructor Lilya smiled brightly and spread her arms wide.

I said with a short sigh.

“… Instructor Lyria. This is Garnet Red’s dormitory, isn’t it?”

“And it’s also where I have my room, the only place in the academy where you can drink alcohol.”

Wait. Are you going to drink alone in your room?

There are so many things to consider, I don’t even know where to start.

“It would have been nice if you had informed me in advance.”

“In that case, Instructor Graham wouldn’t have come, right?”

That’s right. No matter how much I lack common sense due to living in the military, I can easily imagine what it means to two men and women drinking in a room and how it will be seen by others.

So I was embarrassed. Among the instructors, I thought I was closest to Instructor Lirya, but no matter how close I was, were they close enough to invite a guy I’d only known for about a week to my room without hesitation?

Then Instructor Lilya put her hand on her flat chest and smiled somewhat sadly.

“Instructor Graham. Think carefully. Will there really be a bar in the system that will accept me?”

“… Ah.”

Convinced.

Instructor Lilya never seems to be of legal adult age, no matter who sees it. Of course, it was clear that any storekeeper would refuse a girl like that if she boldly asked for a drink in a bar.

“You just need to show your ID.”

“Of course I showed it. But I found out that everything was fake. Do you know how it feels when the institutional gendarmes scold Instructor Graham for not doing anything wrong? And even if you have someone you believe in, what do you do? To the other guests, it would look like a child drinking alone. Eventually, after a few days, I was banned from entering. Heh, heh… It’s not like I’m underdeveloped because I wanted to… A dirty world where there is no place to drink alone comfortably….”

A deep shadow formed on Instructor Lilya’s expression, and at last she muttered to herself with empty eyes like a person who had lost her mind. She seemed to have a lot of things piled up.

I opened my mouth shyly.

“That… I understand what you mean. Then you wouldn’t have to drink alcohol. Even a light meal nearby-“

“Eight! What kind of man talks so much? Let’s go up! Now is the evening time, so now is the only time to go up undetected!”

Instructor Lilya was much more reckless than I thought.

She forcefully pushed me on the back and headed for Garnet Red Dormitory. She was me who had never been pushed by an ogre by force, but her small touch was strangely unbearable.

The dormitory in Garnet Red felt like a home, unlike the opal black dormitory, which looked like a luxurious nobleman’s mansion. Of course, the scale was not comparable to that of a normal family home, but it was just the atmosphere felt in the building.

Unlike the opal black dormitory, which was just built and has only 9 people, the garnet red dormitory, which has been built for decades and is still home to hundreds of people, looks somewhat free-spirited and has a much clearer sense of life for the students.

As Instructor Lilya said, there was no one in the lobby because it was dinner time. However, from the direction where the cafeteria was supposed to be, the sounds of noisy conversations from students could be heard.

-hahahahaha!

The voices are full of laughter The Garnet Red students have a harmonious atmosphere overall and their seniors and juniors seem to be very close.

The opal black class creaks….

Instructor Lyria’s room was on the 3rd floor like mine. There’s no way I wouldn’t notice if someone approached anyway, but Instructor Lilya headed towards her room, quieting her steps, as if telling her students that they should never be caught.

From noble mtl dot com

Jumping! Awesome… Instructor Lilya carefully opened her own door so that she could not hear her. She was just having her drink with a co-worker, and it felt like she was doing something that shouldn’t be seen, which made her feel a little weird.

She let out a sigh of relief as she strained her shoulders after entering her room.

“Whoa, I’m relieved that I’ve arrived now.”

“Then excuse me.”

“Sure. Come in without reservations… Oh.”

She opened her door first, and I followed in, so naturally we got closer as if we were closely attached to each other in the narrow hallway.

Looking up at me, Lilya’s shoulders stiffened again.

A situation where you are alone with a strange man in a small room. The distance we unintentionally became close to each other.

It must have been that he invited her and suddenly realized how strange the situation was.

Her eyes trembled with tension.

“Uh, um, how to say…” .”

“You can leave now.”

“Oh no! It’s not like that… It’s not that I find Instructor Graham strange, but… This room is not as well soundproofed as I thought. I’m not really saying anything… Uh, I thought you should know….”

“What are you talking about?”

“Yeah, just like that. That’s right, alcohol! I need to prepare a drink. Sit back! But don’t look around too comfortably!”

What the heck are you talking about?

Could you say that if you’re going to drink and do weird things, you can scream? If you’re worried about that, you shouldn’t have invited her in the first place.

Or is it an important story?

Instructor Lilya took out alcohol and snacks from the magical refrigerator. I leaned against her wall and looked around her room lightly.

Instructor Lilya’s room was not tidy here and there, such as disheveled blankets or clothes hanging on the sofa, but overall it was clean.

On the neatly organized desk, specialized books such as tactics and history were packed. Even in her own room, it seemed that she did not neglect to review her major.

And there was something very peculiar about the bed.

What is that? Teddy bear?

It’s almost the size of a person.

As soon as she thought that, Instructor Lilya kicked her blanket with her foot and covered the doll with the blanket in an instant. Then, dyeing both cheeks red, she put an unsolicited excuse into her mouth.

“Ha ha ha ha! This, this is so… Gift! It’s a gift from a student! It was given to me by a student, so throwing it away isn’t it!? So I guess she just left it in her room….”

“… I didn’t really think about anything.”

Actually, I wondered if it was necessary to hide the fact that I like cute things, but I don’t think there’s a need to be honest.

Instructor Lilya noticed me standing there and pointed to a chair at her table.

“Instructor Graham, don’t stand there, sit down.”

After hesitating for a while, I sat down at the table following Instructor Lilya’s guidance. The drink she brought out was sparkling wine that even women could drink lightly.

There was no toast. Because it wasn’t a place to celebrate. Instructor Lyria tilted her wine glass and drank her drink, and I also drank. It was sweet and carbonated, so it was good to go down my throat. The advantage of not being very drunk even if you drink a lot was a bonus.

Instructor Lirya asked in a soft voice if the tension from before had eased considerably after drinking.

“How is the instructor job? It must be the first time in my life.”

“It doesn’t matter at all. I just do it because it has to be done.”

“Like doing a mission in the military?”

“Similar.”

“How long have you been in the army?”

“I started when I was 14, so this is exactly 20 years.”

“Have you been on the battlefield all this time? From the moment you enlisted until now?”

“… Yes. That’s right.”

“Wow, that’s great. And I think it must have been very difficult.”

She said as she poured wine into an empty glass.

“I don’t know what kind of life Instructor Graham lived. President Heinkel didn’t bother to tell me. If you enlisted at the age of 14, you wouldn’t have graduated from an academy like I did, so of course you would have started as a low-level soldier, but to have survived the battlefield and been promoted to captain must have crossed the line of death… What is that much? I’m curious about his identity, but he won’t answer me if I ask him, right?”

I said as I lightly sipped my drink.

“If you know that much, you will know everything.”

“Lies. I know when I see it. That Instructor Graham is a very good soldier. Even though they are talented people whom the president has brought in, they have no academic background, family name, or honor, so the only thing left is, of course, their skills.”

I was going to ask how to reconcile with the student, but why did he just talk about me?

The sparkling wine is quite low in alcohol, but Instructor Lilya was drinking at a fairly fast pace. She kept pace with her, so I sped up my wine too.

I can’t just drink all the time, and I’m starting to feel uncomfortable with the question, so I quickly get to the point.

“You told me that you could see why Gwynn did that.”

“Already? I was going to say it after I got a little more drunk… Mmm. All right.”

Instructor Lilya pulled out a new bottle of wine.

Perhaps it was just an excuse that I wanted to talk, and maybe I just wanted to drink.

“Did I tell you earlier? Instructor Graham is a very good soldier.”

Instructor Lilya stared at me with a slightly reddened face.

“I think, that’s where the problem lies.”