“Two weeks left. No, is it one week?”

Time at the academy passed quickly.

Several weeks had already gone by, and now only one week remained until the festival.

In one week, nobles would gather at the academy, and the Church of War would carry out its ritual.

“Hoo.”

Alon let out a sigh and looked out over the academy scenery right after the final homeroom ended.

It looked much the same as what he always saw.

Students whose classes had ended were moving around to do whatever they each had to do, or to play.

Seeing that preparations for the festival were already in full swing in the shopping district visible across the school buildings in the distance, Alon thought.

‘......The information we’ve obtained comes to about three things.’

First, the information Alon’s group had gathered while living at the academy over the past few weeks was this.

One was that Grand Duke Rollas’s daughter was the club president of the Guardian Social Circle, and that Rollas Tiya, that daughter of the Grand Duke, was suspicious in many ways.

Of course, her suspiciousness did not appear outwardly.

Even comparing her past behavior to her current behavior, they could find nothing suspicious.

From grades and school life to even her friendships, nothing about Tiya had changed from before.

Even so, the reason Alon’s group suspected her was because of the information Evan and Deus had brought back a few weeks ago.

‘......They said something was being planned inside the club room.’

The Guardian Social Circle’s club room.

Unlike the old school building, where most of the clubs were gathered, the Guardian Social Circle’s club room was located in the building at the far right end of the shopping district, and they had witnessed certain students who were not members of the Social Circle entering it.

And through repeated reconnaissance several times, they had confirmed that recently, certain students had been coming and going from there repeatedly.

‘......There are five students coming and going repeatedly. On top of that, aside from those five, only about two operating committee members use the club room at all, an extremely small number.’

In other words, putting together several pieces of information, there was a high chance that something was inside the Guardian Social Circle’s club room.

However, even after learning that much, Alon’s group had only continued surveillance and had not moved any further.

To begin with, their goal was not merely to wipe out the Apostles, but to ruin this ritual so that the karma of war could not appear.

On top of that, if they approached the club room any further and those people noticed something, that would be a problem in its own way.

If they ended up not performing the ritual because of that, then there would have been no reason for Alon’s group to infiltrate this academy in the first place.

Because of that, Alon thought of the group, who had set their current course as continuing surveillance on the club room while also looking for any other suspicious points, and soon moved himself as well.

####

The place Alon headed after class ended was not the dormitory, but the area where the professors’ offices were, a place he had visited twice before.

“Welcome.”

“Pardon the intrusion.”

And there, he was able to meet Yutia.

Woooong—

A familiar resonance rang out as Alon stepped inside.

Realizing that shielding magic had been activated, Alon let out a small sigh, and Yutia immediately opened her mouth.

“You’ve worked hard, teacher.”

“It seems to me you’re the one working harder than I am.”

“Is that so?”

“Isn’t it difficult for you to teach magic in the first place?”

Yutia was a cardinal of Rosario.

That meant she used divine power.

......Well, by now, he did understand to some degree that divine power and mana were not especially different, but that was only from Alon’s perspective.

Strictly speaking, for other people, there was a difference between handling mana and handling divine power, so when he said that—

“No, it’s all right. This is at a level I can teach.”

Yutia answered with a smile.

“You can teach it?”

“Yes.”

“......Did you learn magic before?”

The academy students’ achievements were not high.

Most were at the first tier to the second tier. At the current point, even the friend called a great genius at the academy was only barely about to cross from the third tier into the fourth.

But even so, in order to teach magic, one basically had to memorize all the basic formulas.

Formulas that would take several months just to memorize.

So when Alon asked in surprise, Yutia slowly answered with an, “Mm—”

“That’s right. I learned it a long time ago.”

“......A long time ago?”

“Yes. So I could teach magic to someone precious to me.”

Yutia’s words.

At that, Alon wore a strange expression.

‘Someone precious......?’

Who could that precious person be?

‘......Rine?’

While Alon was thinking that, Yutia, who had been watching him as if she found him amusing, smiled and continued.

“Shall we start heading out for now, teacher? We need to patrol too.”

Alon nodded.

After all, the reason he had come to Yutia today was for patrol.

####

The place Yutia and Alon were going to inspect after leaving outside was the shopping district, where the festival was being prepared.

To be honest, it did not seem likely that anyone could do anything in such a crowded shopping district, and they had already narrowed down the strongest candidate location.

Even so, they could not afford to be careless about checking it.

They were also considering the possibility that the other side had already noticed and prepared a trap.

“Teacher? What are you thinking about?”

As he was walking through the shopping district, he turned his gaze at the voice he heard, and there stood Yutia beside him, smiling.

At the same time, he felt the shielding magic surrounding both Yutia and Alon.

She was even maintaining it in this crowded place by making it small and precise enough that other people could not interfere with the shielding magic.

The handling of mana was far too delicate to belong to someone who had only used or practiced magic once or twice.

“......It seems you didn’t just teach magic. You used it for a long time too.”

“Mm— I suppose I did?”

Seeing Yutia smile as she answered, Alon turned his gaze forward again.

The shopping district was still crowded.

“By the way, this is the first time the two of us have walked together like this, isn’t it?”

“So it is.”

It had already been three weeks since Alon’s group started patrols.

However, even over those three weeks, Alon had not gone on patrol with Yutia.

That was because Yutia was not a student, but a professor.

Since it would look strange for a professor to frequently wander around with a student, Yutia had limited the frequency of her patrols to about once a week, unlike the others in the group.

Because of that, it was only now that the two of them had been able to move together for the first time.

And Alon had been waiting for this moment.

‘Teacher.’

‘I’ll give you the real answer to your question the next time the two of us are alone.’

‘I don’t want to be a liar to you, teacher.’

Because Alon had not forgotten Yutia’s words.

“By the way, I heard the children have been approaching you in all kinds of ways lately, teacher?”

As he was organizing his thoughts, Yutia’s voice reached him.

“......Approaching me?”

“Yes, especially Rine.”

At Yutia’s smiling words, Alon, for some reason, turned his gaze to one side.

Certainly, as she said, recently Penia and Rine had been moving in that sort of way in a strange fashion.

And especially Rine.

‘Mm—are you not ready yet? Or should I make an opportunity for you?’

She never did it when several people were together, but when they were alone, with a small smile and even with her ears reddened, Rine would subtly offer her cheek to Alon.

As he was recalling that sight—

Tap.

Yutia’s finger lightly poked the back of Alon’s hand.

“You were thinking about Rine, weren’t you?”

She was still smiling, but for some reason, there was an air about her that felt a little displeased.

Alon answered.

“......I wasn’t.”

“.......”

For a brief moment, he felt puzzled at himself over why those words had come out that way when he could have simply answered honestly that he had been thinking about Rine.

Then Alon realized that at some point, he had passed through the shopping district and arrived at the clock tower.

“Shall we go up?”

“Here?”

“Yes.”

There was no particular need to climb the clock tower.

The group had already taken turns checking the inside several times, and above all, there was no space inside the clock tower suitable for performing a ritual.

However—

“......Let’s.”

Because Alon had a conversation he wanted to have with her quietly, he soon nodded, and climbed the clock tower with Yutia.

And so, after some time passed and they reached the top of the clock tower.

“.......”

Alon reached the rooftop of the clock tower, which, for some reason, was not locked and was instead open, and was able to look down over the entire academy at a glance.

A vast view, for an academy.

How long had he been looking at it?

“Teacher.”

Yutia suddenly looked at Alon and opened her mouth.

“Yes.”

“You remember, don’t you?”

“......Do you mean the answer to my question?”

“As expected, you remember.”

Yutia spoke with the setting sun hidden behind the mountainside at her back.

“Are you planning to answer me?”

“Mm—of course? I told you, teacher, didn’t I? That I don’t want to be a liar to you, at least.”

Yutia stared directly at Alon for a moment, then opened her mouth.

“I think you’ve probably guessed already, but the Wandering One didn’t help me.”

At those words, Alon nodded.

Because she was right.

And he had a rough idea of what kind of story would come from Yutia.

“......Memories of the first cycle?”

As if feeling her out.

And yet with a strange certainty in his words, Alon spoke.

At that, Yutia was not surprised.

Rather, as if she had known Alon would say that—

“That’s right.”

She nodded.

“Strictly speaking, I learned it under circumstances completely different from now, though.”

“.......”

Yutia’s acknowledgment.

Not excessive.

Not passive.

Just calm.

At that, Alon closed his mouth.

There were many things he wanted to ask.

There were so many things he was curious about right now.

Even so, Alon could not easily open his mouth.

The reason was—

“.......”

Because sadness had fallen over Yutia, who had always shown Alon a smiling face.

Of course, that sadness showed only for an instant.

But that instant was more than enough time for Alon to notice Yutia’s emotion.

......What in the world had happened?

That thought circled through Alon’s mind.

He wanted to ask.

But at the same time, he did not want to ask.

Alon did not want to see that expression she had shown in her eyes for a single moment again.

Like a strange compulsion, that thought circled through Alon’s mind.

And within that short span of time, Yutia, who had recovered her expression again, once more smiled at the corners of her mouth like usual.

“As expected, you really are kind, teacher.”

He could see Yutia’s smile with the setting sun at her back.

There was no longer any sadness in her red eyes.

She was only smiling with her eyes, as always.

“Kind?”

“......You looked at me and couldn’t ask recklessly, didn’t you? Maybe that’s why—”

Yutia spoke as if recalling an old memory.

“We were lovers, weren’t we?”

She said it calmly.