149. Luke(2)
After all the tests were over, Luke stayed overnight at the Imperial Inn. Because the results of the test come out after a day.
The next day, Luke headed to the academy again and saw a list of successful applicants on a large bulletin board.
In order, from the top, from class A to class F, the successful applicants were written in rank order.
[Chief – Richie Winchester]
[Second Seat – Tia Roseberry]
The top and bottom seats were, of course, aristocrats. Of course it has to be. Even by birth, nobles had more magical powers than commoners, and there was bound to be a difference between aristocrats who trained with good teachers in a good environment and commoners who had nothing.
Luke lowered his head slowly. His name wasn’t in class A, and of course he wasn’t in class B either. I didn’t care though. Because I didn’t even want that much. In the first place, his purpose was admission. All you have to do is pass the F class.
His name was not even in Class C. Class E… Unfortunately, there was none. Not being able to see that far, Luke became impatient. Class F only had the lowest 10 students.
While looking down to check the list of the last 10 remaining, I was able to spot a name that stood out.
[Class F-Arthur Passed]
‘Looks like that person passed.’
A fate I met by chance at the exam hall yesterday. I was sure it was the same commoner. I congratulated myself at the sense of kinship I felt somehow, and lowered my gaze again.
I wonder if it’s not possible to see my name that I can’t see even if I look down… With a trembling heart, I reach the end of the bulletin board for successful applicants.
[Class F-Luke passed]
‘······!’
Even though I was last, I wanted to sit on the floor right away. But I couldn’t. To those around them who had no choice but to go back with sad faces, even though they were the last, they couldn’t show any boastful behavior.
I cleared my mind, strengthened my trembling legs, and looked at the bottom of the bulletin board for successful applicants. At the end of the bulletin board, it was written what the successful applicants should do.
It was written that the entrance ceremony would be held tomorrow, and until then, it was written that each person could rest in the dormitory or walk around the academy according to their rank.
Luke was few, but he had some luggage, so he thought of leaving it in the dormitory and looking around the academy.
The dormitory Luke will go to is the Jogarton dormitory. It was a dormitory for the bottom 10 people. The location was marked on a map, so I headed straight to the dormitory.
Luke, who had been fantasizing about everything, was able to realize the reality when he arrived at the dormitory.
“…this is a bit.”
Inside the dormitory where such a sound comes out naturally. No matter how class F, the treatment was too much. A desk and a bed. The space between them was so narrow that one person could barely pass.
“No. Let’s take a look at this.”
How many people have gone back without seeing this? If you don’t like this dormitory, why don’t you get stronger and move up to another dormitory? First of all, congratulations on being admitted.
dump. I threw the little luggage I had brought with me on the corner of the bed and lay down on it.
I think so.
-smart.
Someone knocked on the room he was in. I wonder He just entered school today. Who would come to such a corner from a place where no one knew.
Since I knocked, it would be right to open it. Luke got out of bed and slowly opened the door.
“···who are you?”
“Hello, hello… eh?”
In front of the door was the red-haired man I saw yesterday.
“Arthur…?”
Come to think of it, we were in the same F class. It was obvious that the dormitory was the same, but I had forgotten about it.
“Uh… you… um…”
“Call me Luke.”
“Yes, Luke. Please take good care of me.”
Arthur held out his hand. Apparently we shook hands yesterday too…
‘What’s good is good.’
Handshakes don’t wear out your hands. We shook hands again.
“But what’s going on here?”
“Actually, I was looking for someone to go train with.”
Didn’t you just check the list of successful applicants…? It was only a short conversation, but I felt like I knew what kind of personality Arthur was.
“I went around asking the kids, but no one was there.”
“Of course not…”
“So how about you? Why don’t you go to training?”
Training… rather good. He is in a position where he has to work harder than anyone else in this academy. I was barely able to enter the school this time with pull-ups, so I had to move my body more when I could.
“Yes. Let’s go together.”
The two went to the training ground. Since the entrance exam was taken at the training ground the day before, it was not difficult to find the way even if you had just entered the school.
So the two met face to face at the training ground. The two drew their swords at each other. An ordinary longsword with nothing special.
Sparring is only effective when each other’s forces are evenly matched. If one side is too strong, there is nothing to learn from each other. In that sense, the combination with Arthur was a good fit.
The skills were different, but the weapons were the same, and each other’s skills were similar. However, Luke was naked without magic, and Arthur had strengthened his body with magic.
After getting a few sums like that.
“Whoa… that’s good? Should I say something goes well?”
“It doesn’t sound like much, but… it’s as you say.”
It was a sparring where they could fill in each other’s shortcomings. I feel like my skills will improve a lot just by sparring like this.
At that time, Arthur asked as if he was still curious.
“By the way, Luke, you didn’t use your magical powers when you took the entrance exam yesterday, did you? Why aren’t you using them?”
“It’s not that I don’t write.”
I want to write but I can’t.
“I have no magic.”
“But it’s still that strong…?”
Usually, when someone said they didn’t have magical powers, they either sympathized with them or made fun of them. But Arthur had none of that.
“This isn’t enough. For our goal, we need to be much stronger than this.”
“What’s your goal?”
“Imperial Knights.”
“Your dream is grand.”
“If you’re going to laugh, you can laugh.”
Even if someone ridiculed me, I decided to prove it confidently with my skills.
“Are you kidding? Me? Rather, you can’t call it a dream if you don’t have that much aspirations?”
“·······.”
Not having any magical powers yet, nor what he was aiming for. If you ask me, I didn’t hide anything. But he was the first one who didn’t laugh like Arthur.
“Why are you suddenly silent? Are you sure you’re not tired already?”
“Kuheuhe… that can’t be.”
The sound of swords clashing was heard once again in the training ground.
***
From nothing but sword-wielding training, following the academy’s curriculum with good facilities and good teachers became a springboard for rapid growth for Luke and Arthur.
Shortly after entering the school, the two were able to rise to class E. However, growing up was easy, but living in the academy couldn’t be said to be easy.
The fact that Luke had no magical powers spread throughout the academy, and because of his ominous black hair, it was difficult for Luke to make friends.
And Arthur…
“That, please stop…!”
“Shut up! Commoners just do what I tell them to do!”
“Stop Bernard!”
It’s been a long time since the eyes of the nobility have been stamped because of the personality that can’t tolerate injustice.
“… Sheesh.”
A class E aristocrat with no skills but a dirty personality. Especially the trio of the fat man Bernard and the two skinny guys who were following him.
The trio’s notoriety is quite enough, but in the past, there was a history of conflict with Arthur several times, and then it was broken. I couldn’t fix that dirty personality, but now, if only Arthur saw it, he was busy running away even though he would click his tongue like that.
Luke said to Arthur who came back after being thanked by the female student.
“You are also very sincere.”
“You have power, but you can’t just watch things like that.”
Arthur was a man with a strong sense of justice. A person who cannot tolerate injustice and would rather help others even if he suffers a loss himself. It was a personality that he, who dreamed of becoming an imperial knight, should emulate.
“Then what are you going to do if something happens?”
“It’s better to do it now than to worry about it and regret it later.”
“Yes, yes. You must be.”
Luke pointed over Arthur’s back to the girl Arthur had just saved. She had the face of a girl in love for the first time.
“Are you going to confess again soon?”
“·······.”
Even though Arthur was stamped by the nobles, it was not the first or second time something like this happened. Every time that happened, Arthur helped out as if it was natural, and that there was a commoner female student there by chance.
It was enough action to win favor, and Arthur’s appearance is enough to be mistaken for a nobleman. So, I’ve received several confessions so far.
Actually, Arthur said he was sorry and rejected all of them.
“I envy the life of a popular man.”
“… don’t make fun of me.”
Luke laughed, saying it was funny, so Arthur quickly changed the subject.
“Okay. Let’s go to training soon.”
“Again? I’m going to win anyway?”
“It will be different this time.”
“Kuh-kuh… Yes, I’ll look forward to it.”
Arthur is the only friend, but I thought it was peaceful.
then.
***
A few months after entering the academy.
Arthur and Luke were sweating profusely from the training ground as usual. Now that the two of them have gone beyond Class E to Class D, the dormitory is much better than before.
The rooms were also close by, so the two met in the evening and often talked.
“Huh? What is this?”
Now, each of them goes to their dormitories and is about to rest. Arthur lifted a letter from the gap under his dorm door.
“Isn’t it a love letter again?”
Luke said as if he was used to it. Shy girls used to send love letters like now.
“I don’t think it’s this time.”
Certainly, there was a modest feeling to be a love letter. Arthur opened the envelope and unfolded the letter. Luke peeked out from Arthur’s side and checked the contents of the letter together.
Peeping into other people’s letters is a great impolite thing to do, but Arthur didn’t care too much about it because there were so many times like this.
It was a letter that I peeked at the contents lightly as usual, but the contents inside were not light at all.
The content of the letter was that Arthur’s parents had died… a letter containing an obituary.
“·······.”
“·······.”
Neither of them could easily open their mouths. When he had been silent for a while, Luke was the first to break the silence.
“Eh, this must be a bad joke, right?”
“That’s right, right?”
“Yes! Even if you don’t know what kind of guy he is, let’s find him and punish him.”
“…Yes. But I’ll go to my parents’ house tomorrow just in case.”
“okay.”
so the next day. As soon as morning came, Arthur explained the situation to the professor and left the academy.
According to Arthur, the distance between the estate where Arthur lived and the academy is a week by carriage, so I won’t be able to see him for two weeks.
There was a lecture even without Arthur, so Luke entered the classroom as usual and heard laughter from somewhere.
“Kick-kick.”
“·······?”
The three of them looked at Luke with a smile. Something was weird, but I didn’t care too much. Because they were always like that.
But their behavior only got weirder as time went on. They were strangely quiet. Obviously, without Arthur, it would be normal to be active as usual. They were strangely quiet.
Not only that, strangely, other commoner students started to notice Luke. Their eyes were filled with regret and guilt.
While those strange days continued. The time of two weeks passed quickly and Arthur returned.
The face of Arthur I hadn’t seen in a long time… I couldn’t say it was good even with empty words. I hoped that the obituary letter was a bad joke, but from Arthur’s expression, the contents of the letter must have been true.
“That… how was it?”
“I heard that you went to the market to buy something and got hit by a thug.”
“What about those rude people?”
“They ran away. The security forces tracked them down, but they say they’re missing now…”
After Arthur had finished speaking, even empty words could not be said to be good.
A situation in which the family disappeared overnight. No matter how bright and energetic a person was, he couldn’t help being like that.
“It’s fine···?”
“·······.”
I can’t even lie about being okay. Arthur went into the room saying he wanted to rest for a while, and Luke watched his pathetic back without offering any comfort.
Arthur’s personality has changed 180 degrees since then. He seemed unable to concentrate even during training.
There were many cases where the sword bounced off with a light attack and missed, and these days, they did not train at all. If it was the same as before, I would have said that we should train first.
What has changed the most among them?
“This baby! It’s so good!”
“Fuck again like usual!”
“·······.”
Arthur being beaten by a trio.
“…Arthur!”
Surprised by that, Luke goes to help Arthur, and the trio quickly run away. Arthur’s hair was messy, and his clothes were all dusty.
Luke immediately raised Arthur up and brushed the dust off his clothes. The moment he was about to ask if he was okay, Arthur stumbled and headed in the direction of the dormitory.
“Sorry. I want to rest a little…”
After he returned, he became a person who had lost all motivation.
“I’ll take you.”
“… it’s not. I’m fine.”
“But······.”
“Luke.”
Luke was unable to speak because of Arthur’s serious expression.
“I’m really fine. So you go into the classroom too. The lecture starts soon.”
“···okay.”
I wanted to give her some comfort, but if Arthur goes that far, it would be better to give her alone time. Without saying a word, Luke turned his back and entered the classroom.
***
Luke felt uncomfortable throughout the lecture. It was because Arthur kept popping up in a corner of his head. So as soon as the lecture was over, Luke headed to Arthur’s room.
-smart.
“Arthur…?”
-smart.
I knocked again, but there was no answer.
“Arthur? I’ll go in?”
It must have been inside, but Arthur didn’t respond. Are you so sad that you don’t even have the energy to move? If so, shouldn’t I comfort you as a friend? Thinking so, I turned the doorknob.
“······!!”
However, because of the scene reflected in his eyes when he opened the door, Luke’s heart sank and he missed the doorknob.
A chair in the middle of the room, a rope tied to the ceiling, and a limp body.
Arthur . . . was no longer of this world.
Well the hanged arthur in the mirror fight is answered