Chapter 164 - Ti and Change
In many ways, the Exchange eting ended with a tumultuous and sudden incident, but…… since it's over, I'll be honest.
I, Yuna, was enjoying the Exchange eting quite a lot.
‘It's true that it felt sowhat unfamiliar, but in other words, it was new and nice.’
Since I've only attended for one sester, I thought that kind of luxurious? sophisticated? party would just be burdenso, but it was unexpected.
I don't think it was because I adapted better than I thought, or because it suited my constitution more than expected.
After all, there were so many people around who helped so that I wouldn't feel burdened.
From the Princess who gifted a dress, to Serene whom I t later but treated without reservation, to Pleta who accompanied and helped adapt.
And even that guy, Rain, who reassured when I was floundering without even being able to enter the party hall.
‘Rain…….’
Thinking of him made my head complicated. He was a guy who made complicated in many ways even on a normal day, but since 'that incident' happened.
“Ugh……”
It would be natural for a groan to escape my lips.
The incident itself was shocking, but a lot happened afterwards as well.
First of all, that guy, who was completely battered, naturally received treatnt under the care of the Princess.
Because of that, even though the academy had started, he couldn't attend lectures for about a month, but it seed the academic affairs side had made so arrangents for him.
I was also able to hear a glimpse of the circumstances that led to his battered state.
That while wandering around the Exchange eting, he 'happened' to encounter a suspicious person, and saw that suspicious person going underground.
That guy, Rain, guessing that the situation seed quite urgent, grabbed his weapon and followed him alone.
And as a result, he confronted the suspicious person who was trying to summon a monster in the basent, and although he stopped the summon, he was injured while trying to catch the escaping person…… that was the story.
It didn't seem like a complete lie. Upon investigation, it seems there really were signs of an attempt to summon a monster in the basent, and there were also traces of a fight.
‘But I have a feeling that's not all there is to it.’
An explanation of the sort that it happened because it happened, even though there are no flaws in the logic.
I could roughly tell. He must have gotten into that state again while trying to do sothing on his own.
‘Should I have followed him.’
Should I have stopped Rain who was about to leave, or should I have followed and helped him.
Such thoughts, or regrets, also remained, but it wasn't sothing to be ntioned importantly.
Regret is just regret, and ti cannot be turned back.
Ti flowed again, and Rain, who had finished about a month of hospitalization, returned to the academy.
I thought that with that, everything would return to square one.
His wounds had healed, and ti had passed.
There were many suspicious and curious points, but I had no doubt that ti would solve that as well.
But his appearance was a little different from my expectations. To be precise, he seed sowhat different from before.
‘What has changed?’
If you ask that…… ugh, honestly, it was hard to declare that this part had changed like this!
On the outside, there was nothing particularly different from before, and his actions themselves were also the sa.
But I couldn't help but feel a sense of unease from him.
It was as usual, but it felt like the result of him trying to act 'as usual'.
It seems I wasn't the one who felt that unease.
“Sir Rain, your atmosphere has changed a lot, hasn't it.”
One day in the second sester, after attending a lecture together, Serene said that to .
“He tries to hide it, but it's like he's beco sowhat more…… dark, that kind of atmosphere.”
I couldn't help but agree with Serene's words.
He seems to have beco sowhat dark.
It was extrely vague, but there was no better expression.
I can't pinpoint what part has beco dark, but I could definitely feel a darkness from him.
He was a guy who usually had a nonchalant expression about everything, but sotis had a look in his eyes as if living was painful, but it felt like that negative aura had deepened since the Exchange eting.
Rain, with that darkness in him, pushed himself even more harshly than in the first sester…… no, even more so.
Watching him, I thought, is it possible to live like that? It ant that he trained himself to that extent.
I had to just watch him, engulfed in that darkness, and that…… was a little painful.
Yes. I know. In fact, the way to resolve this pain was actually simple.
What happened, what are you thinking. Your expression is really bad.
All I had to do was ask like this.
I know the result. Of course, I didn't think he would ever open up to given his personality.
But I also couldn't deny that that was all I could do.
After asking that, I could feel at ease.
I did everything I could. He just chose not to answer.
Since it can't be helped, I should help him in a different way.
I also knew that it would turn out like that.
But the reason I couldn't put that series of actions into practice was for one reason only.
‘Because the way he acted as usual, looked so desperate.’
With all that darkness in him, or while swallowing the pain, he was acting as his 'okay self'.
Maybe he was even deceiving himself with that.
But if I were to open that gap and look inside, if I were to make him face his own darkness and himself?
I can't see the future, but I knew.
‘He would surely be in pain, that kid.’
That was the reason I couldn't look inside him.
I already knew the answer that would co back, and I also knew the pain that would accompany the answer.
That was all.
The sense of unease that Rain was spreading around him was not just that.
After the Exchange eting, after his discharge, one thing had changed…… and that was his skill.
Kaaang-!
I could feel it every ti the usual night training session was repeated.
‘……He seems to have gotten unbelievably strong.’
Of course, it wasn't because I had an eye for it. I was still a chick when it ca to seeing martial arts.
But it was more like…… a feeling that each of his movents had beco incomparably smoother than before.
A feeling as if he had gotten used to each movent of extending his sword.
I was a little puzzled because in his duels with the other training session mbers, he was showing the sa record as before.
About a month later, I asked Elwin to resolve that question.
About Rain, doesn't it seem like he's gotten stronger since he was discharged? - I asked.
And the answer that ca back was.
“Yes, I felt it too. His understanding of swordsmanship has certainly improved so suddenly that it's puzzling. It's to the point of being questionable. It's not like he had ti to train while he was hospitalized. Even if it were possible, there's no way he could improve that much.”
“Right……?”
“And perhaps, Sir Rain is trying to hide it. I could faintly feel him going easy.”
“Huh?”
That was it.
The words that he had suddenly and puzzlingly improved his skills, and that he seed to be going easy to hide his strengthened self.
‘Why?’
That question kept ringing in my head.
Why? What happened to make him get so strong all of a sudden?
Why? Why is he hiding it?
But no answer ca back to that question. Just like the question about Rain's change.
It seed that everyone had reached the sa conclusion, and so everyone kept their mouths shut about him going easy.
There must be a reason for deciding to hide it.
Not digging into it would be a consideration for Rain.
That was the context.
‘It's frustrating…….’
Because I couldn't know anything, I could only feel frustrated.
And, I could only wait for him to one day tell about that strange change himself.
Ti passed like that.
A month, a month, and another month…….
The midterm exams were over. Unlike the first midterm exam, which was sowhat clumsy because it was my first ti, I was able to finish it quite well.
The sa was true for the final exams. I had sohow gotten used to passing such exams, and the sa was true for my friends around .
Anyway, the sester ended again like that.
My daily life was also quite enjoyable. I beca closer with not only Shasha, Michel, and Kaylee, but also Serene, Arien, Khan, and Elwin.
I was also leading a fulfilling daily life, occasionally going out to play with Rain when sothing ca up.
Yes, everything around was certainly going well.
But, sowhere in a corner of my heart, a sense of frustration remained unresolved.
Ti will solve it naturally. Maybe it was such a complacent thought.
***
Why does the road I've run on look so short when I look back?
When I ca to my senses, I had finished my second sester after entering the body of Rain Enlight.
‘Already?’
It wasn't that such a thought didn't cross my mind. But it was also definitely not that I had spent my ti lazily.
No, it might be more appropriate to say that I couldn't spend it lazily.
‘Ever since the Exchange eting incident.’
The over one thousand regressions I experienced during the Exchange eting.
The pains I experienced during that series of regressions remained with like a scar, or like phantom pain.
The pains of regression would occasionally speak to whenever I indulged in the luxury of idleness.
-Is it okay to be like this right now?
-If you let your guard down like that, who knows when those pains will repeat?
It's not that I actually heard such voices…… but I might have clearly felt the sensation of those pains repeating.
That's why I ran desperately. Even more so than during the first sester, which I had prided myself on living so diligently.
Perhaps that was the reason why I didn't have a proper mory of the second sester.
Is it a good thing, or a bad thing?
Well.
Ti flows.
Change cos.
The speed at which those two laws were carried out was so fast, and I also thought that I wouldn't be able to keep up with them.
But I couldn't fall behind. That ant pain and death for .
Therefore, I ran desperately.
So as not to fall behind, or be caught up by, ti and change. Desperately.
My body and mind were left with all sorts of scars…… well.
It was still bearable for now.
Or maybe I had just grown numb to it.
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