Chapter 10: He is smarter than me

Only a few minutes left until the promised time.

The light streaming through the window had turned red, and everything was starting to get dim. The wind blowing in was getting colder. I closed the window, drew the curtains, and turned up the room's lighting.

I'd already finished making dinner. I'd used ingredients from the box, and they were all pretty high quality, so whether the food turned out good or bad was all up to my cooking skills.

I sat down on the sofa and looked around the room. Even though it was meant for one person, I'd been given three rooms plus a kitchen, washroom, and bathroom. I guess that made sense since this was a dorm that noble kids used too, but according to Gaia, the rooms on this floor were supposedly for commoner students.

I'd heard that the top floor had rooms used by duke's children and sometimes even royalty. I couldn't help being a little curious about how luxurious and spacious those rooms must be.

This room was decorated entirely in white and had a calm atmosphere, but anyone who knew furniture would recognize the high-end pieces at a glance. And this was supposed to be for commoners—crazy.

With nothing else to do, I leaned back against the sofa and stared up at the ceiling. The faces of the people who'd talked to me today popped into my head.

They'd looked like they were having so much fun talking together. I wondered if I'd ever be able to join that circle, and it made me anxious.

I didn't have much experience talking to people my own age. My only conversation partners around my age were my best friend Gaia and two childhood friends from way back. Everyone else was ten or twenty years older than me.

—And most of those conversations happened through a hood.

It wasn't like I'd never been to what you'd call a school or academy. Just for a short time, but I had attended one when I was little.

(...Monster, was it?)

I remembered those looks. Fearful, condescending, like they were looking at something disgusting.

If I closed my eyes, I could remember those days like they'd happened just moments ago.

The faces of my two childhood friends suddenly came to mind. One was a sharp-eyed boy with dark skin, short blue hair, and black eyes. The other was a boy with gentle red eyes and soft red hair that reached his back, tied up in a single bundle.

"...Toya."

I whispered the blue-haired boy's name. I wondered what he was doing now. He probably hated me for running away and leaving him behind.

And I thought about my other childhood friend—that scene from back then was burned so deeply into my memory that even now, remembering it stirred up powerful emotions.

"Renki..."

The sound of the clock's hands moving echoed strangely loud in the silent room. I slowly opened my eyes and shook my head hard. If I kept thinking about such dark things, Gaia would see right through me and worry.

I looked up at the wall clock. It was a clock without a second hand, but clocks were expensive items—not something ordinary commoner students could easily afford. Still, as students, they needed to know the time. That's probably why it was provided with the room.

I wore the wristwatch issued to Moonlight guild members almost constantly, except when bathing or sleeping. Gaia probably did the same.

For noble students, wristwatches were normal, but what about commoner students? Even if they were expensive, they'd find a way to get one if they needed it.

While I was thinking about this, the room's doorbell rang. I'd been sensing students' magical presence moving through the hallway, but I hadn't been paying attention to it, so I didn't notice that my best friend's presence had stopped in front of my door.

In ordinary commoner homes, door knockers were the norm. They didn't have magical devices (machines that ran on mana) like doorbells installed.

I couldn't keep them waiting, so I hurried to stand up and went to greet everyone at the door that connected to the hallway.

"Coming in!"

"We're intruding!"

"I'm coming in."

"..."

Rate came in first, and I gestured toward the room connected to the kitchen. He nodded like he understood and headed straight for the room where I'd laid out the food.

"Holy crap..." came a quiet voice through the wall.

After Gaia came in last, I closed the door and locked it. Gaia turned around and waited for me. I thanked him, and the two of us walked side by side into the room where the other three were.

The three of them were standing near the room's entrance, mouths hanging open as they stared at the table. I tilted my head, confused.

"Something wrong?"

Naoma and Rate turned toward me with movements as stiff as rusted machinery, making incoherent sounds as they pointed at the food on the table.

Lilith, on the other hand, had already sat down in a chair and was looking at me.

"Aren't you going to sit?"

At Lilith's laid-back comment, Naoma and Rate looked at each other with a strange expression and headed toward their chairs.

Gaia followed them with his usual blank expression, and I sat down too. Lilith immediately picked up her fork and knife, took a bite of hamburger, and her eyes went wide.

She froze like that, and seeing her, Naoma and Rate reached for the hamburger too.

"Damn, this is good!"

That was Rate. Hearing that, I breathed a sigh of relief. I realized I'd been nervous for no reason about serving food to people I'd just met today.

"...Thank you."

It made me really happy when people said the food I made was delicious.

When I smiled softly, Rate, who'd been looking at me, froze up for some reason. Lilith and Naoma, who had stopped eating, and even Gaia, who'd been eating elegantly by himself, all stared at me and went rigid.

What the hell was going on? I tilted my head, but the four of them stayed frozen. I was at a loss and opened my mouth.

"Wh-what's wrong...?"

Gaia was the first to snap out of it. Looking at the other three, he broke his usual expressionless mask with a wry smile and smacked Rate on the head.

"Ow!"

Rate's body jerked, and he looked around before meeting Gaia's eyes.

"Take care of Naoma."

Gaia pushed the still-dazed Naoma onto Rate, then grabbed Lilith's shoulders and shook him hard.

"Huh? ...Wait, was I staring?"

"Yeah."

The two of them had a conversation with no descriptive words, making the mystery even deeper.

When I looked at Rate, he was smacking Naoma hard on the head.

"Eek!"

Naoma let out a small scream and immediately glared at Rate with sharp eyes.

What dwelt in those pale green eyes was—anger.

….

"A seal?!"

Gaia shot to his feet and knelt in front of Lilith just like I had, pressing his finger to her forehead.

Gaia wasn't as sensitive to magical power as me. But through grueling training that had left him bloody and battered, he'd managed to develop at least some ability to sense magic.

"...There's definitely something there."

Gaia collapsed back onto the sofa, completely drained. I who was naturally sensitive to magic, couldn't understand—but for Gaia, who lacked that natural gift, probing someone's internal magical power was apparently an act that scraped his nerves raw.

"I thought something was off, but I never imagined she was actually sealed..."

Gaia muttered under his breath, probably without realizing it.

"Off? What do you mean?"

Rate, who clearly didn't understand what me and Gaia were doing or talking about, questioned Gaia.

"Beastkin should excel in either physical ability, magical quality, or magical quantity."

"...That's news to me."

The person in question looked completely bewildered.

"Same here."

"Me too."

Rate and Naoma exchanged suspicious glances as they agreed with Lilith's words.

"Oh right... They don't teach detailed information about the beastkin at the academy."

The beastkin face persecution.

There were other races besides humans, elves, dwarves, and others, but among them, only the beastkin suffered persecution at human hands.

The persecution of the beastkin began when they were envied by a certain great noble, and it continues in the shadows even now.

The persecution of the beastkin had been going on for so long that no one knew when it started. But it became clear during an incident that happened before Sakika was even born.

Because of this, detailed information about the beastkin was no longer taught at the academy. The official reason was to prevent those who learned about the beastkin from persecuting any who might be hiding in the cities.

But the real reason was different. The great noble who had initiated the persecution wanted to hide their motives.

"If people knew the characteristics of beastkin, some idiots might start persecuting any beastkin hiding among humans."

When Naoma asked why, that was Gaia's answer. There was no way he didn't know the real reason, but he wouldn't say it—Sakika knew it was because speaking it aloud would make him feel sick.

"Huh, I see. Still, you sure know a lot about this stuff."

Naoma narrowed her already slanted eyes, and Gaia glanced over at Sakika.

"Just so you know, Sakika's smarter than I am."

Gaia lifted the corner of his mouth with what looked almost like pride. It was unusual for someone who was normally expressionless.

"Smarter than... Gaia...?"