87. Port Downtown
There are two ways to connect the academy built on the island with the mainland.
The first is a liner that runs between the mainland and the academy on a regular basis.
A variety of ships come and go from the academy, from sailboat-type liner made of wood and equipped with sails, to magic ships that are a bit expensive but move with their own power, equipped with the ‘Orion Engine’, the crystallization of ‘magical engineering’.
The second is the bridge connecting the land and the academy.
The price is much cheaper as you can come and go by carriage.
The downside is that the bridge is not very wide, so if people rush to it, you will immediately suffer from traffic jams, and that the boat is faster than the carriage.
A regular ship is affected by the weather as much as it travels by sea, but it can accommodate a lot more people at once and is faster.
What Lucia and I boarded this time was a ‘magic ship’ equipped with an Orion engine.
The interior of regular ships, whether sailboats or magic ships, was very fancy and refined.
Most of the test takers, who are not accustomed to such flashy things in their lives, said that just boarding a liner to enter the academy seemed like they had entered another world.
In the liner, we could see a lot of academy students going out, including us.
“Hey… Hey hey… They…”
“Isn’t that a freshman from the exchange meeting?”
“Looking at it up close, it’s really small.”
“He said he was badly injured, but he looks fine. It’s Russell.”
‘Next time I’ll have to rent a room or something.’
Because it doesn’t take too long to get from the mainland to the academy, the basics of a liner are seats.
Since it is a distance of two hours rather than spending days and days on a ship like a cruise ship, you can enjoy a short trip by sitting in a seat rather than entering a room.
It’s not like economy class, but there are no partitions, and Lucia and I were very conspicuous in a situation where we could clearly see who was where if we were interested in each other.
It was because both of them were the protagonists of the most recent incident.
Me, who beat up the students at Clover Academy until right before he turned into a demon, and Russell of the Five Pillars, who were seriously injured after confronting the Sword Master… The whispers and the glances in this direction bothered me.
I turned around to see if Lucia was bothered too…
“…Ah…”
Fortunately, it seemed like I was the only one bothered by this.
Lucia, who was seated right next to me because I boarded with her, sat up straight in her seat, fidgeting with her fingers and fidgeting.
“Lucia are you okay? Is she in any discomfort?”
“Ah… No, it’s not like that… Chi… It’s the first time I’m going somewhere with just the two of my friends… I’m nervous…”
“We were together at the academy.”
“That.. Is different from that..!”
I wanted to ask what the hell was different, but it seems different.
After the ship departs, it takes about two hours to arrive at the port.
I thought about going outside to see the sea.
“What is Russell?”
Someone who entered the room late raised his hand in this direction.
He is a handsome man with long dark green hair carefully braided.
Darker features and darker skin color indicated that warm southern blood was mixed.
He showed up with a lot of women on his arms, and they all were noisy and attracted people’s attention.
It was Nivas Perda, one of the Five Pillars.
“Hey, I heard that you’ve recovered, but I couldn’t find you. I’m sorry~ These days…”
Ferda, who approached after finding Lucia, stopped when she saw me.
Looking from behind, I can only see Russell’s head sticking out of her chair, and I’m invisible, so I guess she didn’t know I was there until she got closer.
Every single action scratched my nerves.
Ferda looked at Lucia and me alternately, then she grinned as if she saw something interesting.
“Hmm~ I see.”
“…What is that?”
“No no, I thought they had a close relationship… I didn’t expect it to be this close.”
From noble mtl dot com
Nivas Perda.
The eldest son of Ferda, who is in charge of ‘knowledge’, and a wizard like Albion.
However, since he studies more as a strategist, his fighting ability drops significantly compared to the other three families, just like Phrygia.
In the character setting house, it is said that he is a malicious person who approaches with a smile and collects the weaknesses of others and uses them at critical moments.
Excluding those settings, every single thing he says is annoying.
Lucia is also very wary of Ferda’s appearance.
Just as I was thinking of kicking it right away, someone put a face in front of me.
“Wow, so cute~ Who is Nivas? I want to hug you just once~~”
As soon as the girl with short light green hair who was holding Nivas’s left arm saw me, she rushed in and slammed her in the face.
I looked around me frantically here and there.
The girl had her ears pointed.
‘Elf…? No, you’re a half-elf..’
At first glance, the ears are so short you wouldn’t know if they were of elven blood.
The half-elf, a life form that should not have been born, is ostracized here and there, so I can only count on a handful of people I have witnessed in my life.
Ferda is a family that has the deepest relationship with elves in the Empire, but it is a strange sight to have a half-elf, one of the most despised beings in the elven society, beside you.
The half elf girl looked at me as if she were a puppy and then she stretched out her arms as if to hug.
“Ah..Ah yaya yaya yaya!!!!!”
“…Don’t mess with it.”
But as I pushed her face toward me, she let out her scream and was pushed behind her.
Because Lucia’s arm, less than hers, seized her arm like a thunderbolt and tore it away from me.
Lucia must have been very angry. The half-elf girl’s arm, which she held on to as hard as she could, looked like it would break at any moment.
“…Ferda just accepts this as a fight with me, right?”
How angry she was, she spoke plainly, rarely uttering a word.
“Hey..! I know who that person is..!”
As soon as the other girl next to her saw it, she panicked and pulled the half-elf girl away from me and whispered something into her ear.
Ferda looked at her and she just laughed.
“I’m sorry, I couldn’t get my head around seeing how cute he was… I’ll warn you.”
“Her mouth goes well without moving a single step.”
“Didn’t he stop it instead of me? That’s how I learned.”
As I was glaring at Ferda, who didn’t look apologetic at all, the half-elf girl who had been listening to the whispers suddenly shouted.
“Eh, he’s the famous ankle hunter?? The guy who smashed Lemnos twice and hospitalized an entire class…? Really??”
“Voice loud fool…”
“It can’t be! There’s no way such a small and lovely person would do such a cruel thing..!! You’re fooling me again by saying I’m stupid!”
Hearing the words of the half-elf girl from behind, Ferda chuckled.
“Isn’t it fun? There’s no time to get bored when you’re by my side.
Still, I’ll give you a good piece of information to mean that I’m sorry.
Half of the lodgings on the downtown side are trash intended to feed the students, so it’s better to stay in a place you can trust.
What I recommend is the ‘Glory of the Sea God’ in the port.”
“…It’s nice there. You can see the sea from the terrace, and the seafood dishes are good at the restaurant~”
At Ferda’s recommendation, the female student who was silently sitting next to her heard something.
“And I like soft beds.”
“Doesn’t the sound leak out?”
“I feel the lighting too~”
Ferda and her women added their words one by one, as if they had recalled even memories of one night.
Lucia didn’t know the meaning of the word and didn’t show any reaction, but she seemed more satisfied with Ferda.
“…If it’s that good, would you like to stay there too? Then I’ll go somewhere else.”
“That would be fun, but unfortunately, I’m going to stay overnight at the ‘Golden Wheat Field’ next door, so don’t worry.”
If you look at other good places to stay, Ferda recommended a few good places.
Lucia was listening and she thought something was wrong and she told Ferda.
“…It’s your first outing, too. How do you know that..?”
“I have a way.”
Obviously, it wasn’t long before the freshmen went out, but it seems strange that Ferda knows the port so well.
It was as if he had been to this place often since before.
“Nemea seems uncomfortable, so I’ll move out of the way quickly. The downtown area isn’t wide, so maybe we can meet once or twice while passing by?”
With that said, Ferda waved her hand and walked toward the back seat, out of sight of us.
She looked at it and said with a frown on her face.
“Everything from one to ten is really rude.”
“…It was quiet for something like that, so I didn’t know..”
“Half-elves are hard to see.”
That’s that, and Ferda is different.
I’ll kick you if you really meet me on the main street.
———————————-
Ferda, who was seated at the very back of the audience, watched the crown of Lucia sticking out from the seat in front of her.
“Hmm… I guess you don’t know?”
“The invitation couldn’t have gone to them.”
Nivas Perda was surprised to see Lucia on this outing.
Though he didn’t show it outwardly, he had a deal to go through, not just go out to play.
Among her five pillars, Phrygia did not receive her invitation, and she thought only herself to participate.
Fortunately, it seemed like he was just out for a love business.
But she… I knew they were close, but it bothered me very much that she came out like a courteous little man.
“aaah, I wanted to get close to him…”
“You really…!”
Beside her, a half-elf girl wriggled her arms, her pointed ears perked up, though short.
She is a half-elf girl from the Ferda family who was abandoned by the elves since she was a child.
A thing that is the same inside and outside is a great weapon that can open a barred heart.
A little while ago, the dwarf… Judging by Atlas’ reaction, it didn’t seem that he was offended.
“Do you want to get acquainted with Nemea?”
“Yeah..! Was it Atlas? It’s cute, but it smells really good.”
Nina raised her hand at Ferda’s words.
I don’t know if it smells good, but it must mean I like it.
“If I let you, would you even be my best friend?”
“That’s… I guess I’ll have to try it.”
“Okay, I’ll allow it, so get to know me. Do whatever you want.”
“Ferda-sama…! It’s dangerous to leave Nina alone!”
“They say they want to get close. I can’t stop that.”
Atlas Nemea.
Among the freshmen, he is the most concerned person.
As far as is known, he is Nemea’s illegitimate son, but that alone cannot explain his strength.
Even Lemnos, who had reached the beginning of the advanced level of Expert, couldn’t beat him… Even the manager of Clover Academy, who was an advanced level no matter how you look at it, couldn’t touch him at all.
And most importantly…
‘The Count of Nemea can’t have an illegitimate child… Who are you?’