While the students of Rumer were having dinner in their dormitory, a visitor arrived.
"Chelsea! How can you eat this!"
"Do you have a problem with my cooking?"
"Cooking? Is this cooking? Don't insult cooking!"
"What? You guys are dead today!"
"Hey! Run! She's using magic!"
"I'll tell Professor Halind everything!"
"Class President! Can't you just take charge of the meal? Your cooking is the best among us!"
"I just took a few party dishes from Seirun yesterday."
Before opening the door, the dormitory was filled with loud and chaotic noises.
Since the theme of this field trip was self-sufficiency, the students were responsible for each meal.
Of course, since most of them had grown up in comfort and had no experience with cooking, it was impossible for them to produce proper meals.
As a result, every mealtime at Rumer was a continuous series of chaos.
Hearing the students' complaints, Sena covered her face and turned her head, while Halind sighed deeply.
"Haha! The students are full of energy!"
Only Roon smiled kindly.
"I'll go in first and calm them down."
Sena awkwardly smiled and hurried inside.
A moment later, when it became quiet, Sena opened the door.
The entire class was now eating quietly and elegantly, as if nothing had happened.
"Everyone, hello."
"Hello, President Roon!"
The students of Class 5 greeted him politely.
Of course, they didn't forget to keep an eye on Halind.
"Haha. I'm not sure if I've disturbed your meal. I came here to inform you of an announcement."
"An announcement?"
Kai looked puzzled.
"Yes. You all know that many undead, including Death Knights, have appeared in the Fairy Forest."
Everyone's expression turned serious at this.
"So, the council held a meeting. I'm here to inform you of the results of that meeting."
The students of Class 5 looked at each other, puzzled.
"The Grand Council of Elsabekia is formally proposing this investigation request to Seirun and Rumer. We want you to work with Seirun to investigate the unusual situation in the Fairy Forest."
Everyone was surprised to hear this.
"Is this a formal request?"
"Yes."
A formal request.
Rumer's first-year students start request practice in the second semester and take on formal requests from the second year.
This meant the process was being accelerated by a year.
"Remember, this is an extension of request practice. If a situation arises that you can't handle, the request will be immediately terminated. Also, since it's a formal request in name only, there will be no compensation."
Some students looked disappointed, but the mood quickly changed.
A formal request!
It felt like they were finally being recognized as true Rumer students.
"Did the President come here for the request?"
Leo asked, looking puzzled, and Roon shook his head.
"No. Actually, I came here for you, Leo."
"Me?"
"Yes. This girl wanted to meet you."
Roon smiled and brought Eiran, who was behind him, forward.
"Aww, cute!"
"Class President! How do you know her?"
The students of Class 5 looked at the hesitant Eiran in amazement.
In response to Iliana's question, Leo answered calmly.
"She's Roon's granddaughter."
"Oh."
"Leo-sama. Have you been well? ...I came here uninvited because I was told to come and play."
"Welcome."
"Leo, you seem to be friends? Hi, I'm Iliana. Have you eaten dinner? Do you want to join us?"
"Hey, Iliana. You shouldn't offer that to a guest."
"Oh, right. Sorry."
Iliana and Kai cleared all the food from the table.
Chelsea glared at Kai and Iliana, choking them.
Eiran was very flustered by this.
The atmosphere was completely different from Seirun.
"Have you eaten?"
"No, I haven't yet."
"Then do you want to eat? The kids might complain, but it's not that bad."
"Hey, Leo! Don't feed her that! It'll ruin the school's reputation!"
"Die!"
"Choke! I surrender! I surrender!"
Chelsea started choking Kai persistently.
"Then, as a gesture of goodwill."
Eiran carefully picked up a piece of meat with her fork and ate it.
Eiran, who was chewing with her small mouth, said,
"The food is heartfelt."
"Right? Right? It's edible, right? They're the ones being picky."
Chelsea, who had been choking Kai, ran over with sparkling eyes.
Eiran shuddered at Chelsea's sudden friendliness.
Then Roon approached and smiled kindly.
"Eiran is also a Seirun student."
"Really?"
"But she wasn't in class today?"
"Why not?"
"I couldn't talk to the Seirun students properly earlier, so I want to catch up now!"
The interest in Eiran increased when they heard she was a Seirun student.
Eiran's face turned pale as students gathered around her.
"Wait, wait! Excuse me for a moment!"
Eiran jumped up and hurriedly ran upstairs to avoid the crowd.
The students of Class 5 were flustered by this, and Roon's face hardened.
"Aren't you going to chase after her?"
In response to Leo's question, Roon said carefully,
"Leo, can you go after her instead?"
"Me?"
"Your presence gave my granddaughter the courage to come out of her room."
Roon was surprised when his granddaughter, who usually stayed in her room, came to see him today.
"I just wanted to see her interact with her peers, but I didn't fully understand her feelings."
Roon's words made Halind nod at Leo.
Leo went upstairs to find Eiran.
He realized the terrace door at the end of the second-floor corridor was open and went outside.
Eiran was crouching in a corner of the terrace.
When she met Leo's eyes, she stammered,
"Leo-sama, I'm sorry for showing such a pitiful sight!"
Leo, who was staring at the apologizing Eiran, thought of an elf girl.
'Verkia.'
Despite the passage of thousands of years, a fragment of her ancestor remained in Eiran.
And Verkia, like Eiran when they first met, was once dark.
'Somehow, I can't leave her alone, thinking of Verkia.'
Leo smiled bitterly and covered Eiran with his coat.
"But, won't you be cold, Leo-sama...?"
"Don't worry about me."
Ignoring the flustered Eiran, Leo put his hands in his pockets and leaned against the wall next to her.
"So, why did you run away from Seirun?"
"At first, I wanted to attend Seirun. I admired heroes."
Eiran, hugging her knees, said,
When she first enrolled, Eiran was in the intermediate class.
She had talent and worked hard, but Eiran didn't devote everything to swordsmanship and magic.
Eiran preferred reading hero tales to fighting.
Eiran, who loved heroes, was content just being in the same space as the hero candidates.
However, Eiran, born into the highest elf noble family, was a sufficient target for ridicule for lacking a goal and being content with the present.
The introverted girl struggled with the ridicule.
"When I found the life at Seirun too hard, I met someone like the sun."
"Who was it?"
"Lunia-san."
Eiran's face lit up.
"Lunia-san is amazing! She can do anything! She's always confident! She's kind to everyone! She's a real hero!"
Eiran's face shone brightly, like when she talked about hero tales.
In a sense, Lunia was the person closest to a hero among the peers Eiran had met.
Lunia's appearance was enough to captivate the heart of a girl who loved hero tales.
"So, I started admiring Lunia-san. She's amazing, different from me... I wanted to chase after Lunia-san."
The small goal of wanting to observe a great person up close.
Once the goal was set, her talent blossomed, and she quickly moved from the intermediate class to the advanced class.
"When I moved to the top class, Lunia-san treated me warmly. But... I started to fear Lunia-san."
"Why?"
"I think she started to dislike me after I made a big mistake during a duel evaluation."
Leo looked puzzled.
'Given her personality, she doesn't seem like someone who would do something to make others dislike her... Lunia isn't the type to dislike someone over a trivial matter... I should ask her about this.'
When she lost her goal and the admiration, the envy and jealousy of those she had surpassed remained.
When Eiran, who was thought to be clearly inferior, grew to a level incomparable to them, the envy and rivalry began.
'Did this become a trauma, making her fear her peers?'
While someone with Leo's personality might be cynical, Eiran was indeed too delicate.
"You seem to be treating me quite comfortably, despite being afraid of your peers?"
"That's because you give me a similar feeling to my grandfather!"
"Grandfather?"
Eiran, who had been smiling brightly, suddenly looked flustered.
"No, no! I don't mean you're old! I mean, you have... the charm of an adult... What am I saying!"
Eiran, babbling, buried her face in her knees, embarrassed.
Leo, who had been smiling at this, asked,
"Did you leave Seirun because you thought you were only a hindrance to others, not aiming to be a hero like them?"