After offering a greeting resembling a cupped-fist salute, Hwaryeong straightened from her bow and asked us,
“But what brings you all the way here at this early hour? Judging by your presence, it does not seem you came for training.”
“Ah, we were on our way to the main building to attend the entrance ceremony.”
“The entrance ceremony? At this early hour?”
At my casual answer, Hwaryeong tilted her head with a dubious look.
“From what I heard, there are still about three hours left before the entrance ceremony begins. Is there a reason you came out so early?”
“What? Three hours?”
“...”
Surprised by Hwaryeong’s answer, I turned to Isil, who had remained expressionless until now.
“Isil, did you know?”
“...Yeah.”
“Really? Then why did you come out early? I wasn’t told the exact time or place, so I came out early to get a sense of the area.”
“...I didn’t want to run into other people.”
“Ah.”
At Isil’s flat answer, I made an awkward expression and lightly scratched the back of my head.
So she came out early because she disliked people? Well, if she dislikes people, there’s nothing to be done.
And yet she just happened to leave her room at the same time as me.
Could this not be fate?
“Hm. Those who enjoy solitude are strong. You there, human with the silver hair, what is your name?”
“...Me?”
“Yes. You seem to be acquainted with Jin Prah here. In that case, it means you have an eye for people as well, so I think it would be fine to befriend you.”
“...”
Step.
Hwaryeong moved forward and approached Isil.
Then, giving her the same cupped-fist-like greeting she had given me, she bowed at the waist.
“I am Hwaryeong, eldest daughter of the Hwa family and captain of the Red Wind Unit. And you?”
When she greeted her, Isil only dipped her head slightly and answered in a small voice.
“...Isil. I don’t have a surname.”
“Mm. It seems you do not wish to say. If you do not wish to say it, you need not. Prying into secrets from the very first meeting is a vulgar thing to do.”
“...”
Perhaps she thought Isil’s answer was a lie, because Hwaryeong shook her head slightly with an expression of understanding.
Isil simply stared at her without the slightest change in expression.
At the strange atmosphere between the two, I held out the edge of my hand as if cutting between them, drawing their gazes toward me.
“Hey, since meeting like this is also a kind of fate, why don’t we go together?”
“Mm?”
“I mean, if you don’t have any plans after this. You haven’t been here long either, so you probably don’t have anyone to go around with, right? How about we look around the place together?”
“Hm.”
At my suggestion, Hwaryeong pursed her lips slightly, looking as though she was considering it.
Then, as if she had made her decision, she gave a small nod and opened her mouth.
“...Very well. I shall leave training at this point. I had already finished the basic training anyway.”
“...Since when were you here?”
“Mm? Four hours ago.”
At Hwaryeong’s frank answer, I saw Isil’s eyes widen as she asked the question.
Mine were no different.
Good heavens, four hours ago? Does this girl not sleep?
It was already an extremely early dawn even now.
When we stared at her with startled eyes, she spoke as if asking why we were looking at her like that.
“Why do you look so surprised?”
“No, you mean you’ve been training here since four hours ago?”
“Yes. Basic stamina declines quickly with even the slightest laziness. Consistent training is the greatest remedy for raising one’s level.”
“Do you not sleep?”
“No. Even for me, living in such a distant land is tiring, so I did sleep. Roughly two hours, I believe.”
“Huh.”
What was this, a forced march that would make even Napoleon’s sleep schedule weep?
How can a person sleep only two hours and then exercise for four hours?
As expected, was it because she was beastfolk that her physical conditions were somehow different from a human’s?
“Nngh! So where do you intend to go? We have quite a bit of time left, so I think it would not be bad to look around somewhere a little farther away.”
“...For now, I don’t know where the main building for the entrance ceremony is, so I’m going to go there first.”
“Is that so? Strange. Like the human who guided me, did the ones called professors? who guided you not tell you the location?”
“Haha, well, there are circumstances.”
“Hmmm.”
When I blurred my words and tried to gloss over it with a laugh, Hwaryeong thankfully let it pass with a face that showed little interest.
Phew, fortunately she wasn’t the type to interrogate every little detail.
I did feel like I could tell these two that I hadn’t received guidance because I had been talking with Mr. Bell, but if the fact that I had received that sort of special treatment? spread to others through their mouths, I might stand out for no reason from the very beginning of the semester.
I still didn’t know what the atmosphere here was like, and it would be troublesome to draw the attention of many students already.
“Now, since the conversation seems to be more or less over, shall we get going, Isil?”
“...Follow me.”
“Hm. I am curious whether there is a route different from the one I know.”
And so, with Isil leading the way and Hwaryeong and me walking side by side, we left the training ground.
Crunch, crunch.
Crossing the enormous training ground laid with fine sand, we slowly moved our feet.
Since it was still dawn, the monotonous crunching of the sand beneath our feet rang in my ears as we walked, and then Hwaryeong, who was beside me, suddenly opened her mouth.
“By the way, what department are you in? I sense something a little different from ordinary humans.”
“Us? We entered the Department of Mystics.”
“The Department of Mystics?”
“Yeah.”
Rustle, rustle.
Feeling the sensation of my shoes meeting the sand travel up through my feet, I slowly opened my mouth.
“The Department of Mystics is a department made to train mages.”
“Mages, is it? From the name alone, it is difficult to infer what that is.”
“Really? I guess beastfolk don’t have mages.”
“That is so.”
Hmm.
I briefly wondered how best to explain it to this red-haired beastfolk girl, who seemed to know almost nothing about human society.
In the meantime, we passed beyond the sandy training ground and arrived at a wide road paved with smooth flagstones.
Flowers of various colors proudly bloomed here and there, and white stone sculptures were arranged in rows. Arriving at that spacious place, I looked around for a moment before opening my mouth again.
“I don’t know the details either, but mages are people who resolve mystic creatures or mystic disasters that occur within the Empire.”
“Oho.”
“For example, demons, or beings that aren’t ordinary animals and possess special abilities... I was told they’re people who have the ability to oppose such things.”
“I see. It seems there are things like monsters here as well. Well, such refuse exists everywhere.”
“Monsters? Do beastfolk call mystic disasters and mystic creatures monsters?”
“Mm.”
Click, clack.
As we walked along the broad, well-maintained road, this time the sensation of hard stone traveled up through my shoes.
Having always walked dirt roads, I felt a strange emotion at walking on a paved road similar to those in my previous life for the first time, when Hwaryeong’s voice came from beside me.
“Such beings exist in my homeland as well. Ominous, grotesque things that ordinary peasants cannot resist.”
“Yeah, so beings like that exist even on another continent.”
At my answer, she nodded and continued speaking.
“Hm. In particular, such beings appear in great numbers during wars, which makes them even more troublesome. There are even several wars that stopped halfway and ended in an ambiguous state because of them.”
After saying that, Hwaryeong made a somewhat regretful face. Isil, who had been walking ahead, turned back and asked with an expression that seemed to say surely not.
“...Are you saying you think it’s a shame that wars were stopped because of monsters?”
“No. Rather than that, I merely find it unfortunate that a war that could have been won ended ambiguously due to external factors. Monsters are on no one’s side. They are merely strong beasts. I only regret the reality that the decree of Heaven over victory and defeat can be decided with the help of such outside forces.”
War, by nature, was an honorable arena where both sides clashed with all their strength. When things that were not even proper living beings, but refuse-like existences, trampled that honor into the ground, she said both the victors and the defeated felt unsettled.
In particular, those who lost a war due to the intervention of monsters would soon commit the despicable act of refusing to accept the result without hesitation.
“If one is defeated in war, the proper course is to surrender honorably in accordance with the will of Heaven. But if a convenient excuse called monsters appears, a war can easily drag on in an extremely sluggish manner. And in turn, the victor also ends up committing cruel acts against the defeated. In the end, it only leads to bad results for everyone.”
“Mm...”
“...”
“What is it?”
“No, nothing.”
“...”
It seemed Hwaryeong’s way of thinking was difficult for us humans to accept.
It would probably be better for both sides to simply think that beastfolk had a different view of war from humans.
Having exchanged wordless looks of agreement, Isil and I nodded at the same time and continued walking without saying anything.
After some time had passed.
As we walked along the well-kept road while talking about various things, a huge white building began to appear in the distance.
When we slowly walked up to the front gate of that white building, Isil stopped and pointed at the entrance with her finger.
“...This is the Academia main building.”
“Oho.”
“...Are you going in now?”
At her small voice, I thought for a moment before asking the two people who were looking at me,
“Have either of you ever been inside the Academia main building?”
“...No.”
“I have not.”
“Then let’s go in now. It’s not like we’re late, and they won’t scold us just for arriving early, right?”
And so, following my light decision, we slowly headed toward the entrance of the Academia main building.