The Extra’s Academy Survival Guide - Chapter 190

A large amount of gold and silver treasures were hidden in the underground wine cellar.

Dune, who was trying to find it to use as justification for Lortel’s dismissal.

The imperial convoy, who were running around to help him.

Taylee McLaure, who rushed to save Ayla.

And me, who took his attack. Who somehow managed to briefly regain consciousness, but eventually lost it again.

Those were the things I barely remembered.

I didn’t think that Taylee, who was in such poor shape and struggling to even breathe, would be able to deliver such a powerful blow.

Conceit truly was a sin.

For Taylee to land such an attack, despite being pushed to the extremes… I shouldn’t have taken it so lightly.

That was because Taylee McLaure’s willpower was much stronger than I thought.

However, there was no point in regretting the past. At that moment, I needed to somehow gather my thoughts and fix my wounds.

Thinking that, I opened my eyes.

It was a clichéd expression, but what I saw was an unfamiliar ceiling.

And like always, Lucy was there, sitting on top of my stomach.

“…Is this déjà vu?”

“……?”

“No, that’s not it. Last time, when I regained consciousness, it was just like this.”

“When you collapsed from overworking yourself last year?”

“Yeah. At that time, you unraveled my twisted magic power.”

“It’s similar this time as well…”

Whenever I looked at Lucy’s constantly dazed expression, I always felt as if I slowed down, too. Because of that, I was able to compose myself.

“Long time no see, Lucy.”

“…Yeah. It’s like coming back after a riot.”

I tried to move my body, but I was stopped by the pain that rose up from my chest.

Taylee had cut me across my abdominal region. Strangely enough, even though Lucy was right on top of me, I didn’t feel any pain.

At first, I thought it was because she was so light that you couldn’t tell her apart from a feather. However, even after taking that into consideration, I really did feel nothing from her weight.

“If I apply pressure on you unnecessarily, it will hurt. So, I used some weight-lightening magic.”

“Oh, I see. But if you didn’t sit on my stomach in the first place, you wouldn’t even have to use weight-lightening magic…?”

“That’s no good. Then it would be uncomfortable for me.”

“Is there a reason you have to sit on top of me like this to unravel my twisted magic power?”

“It’s easier to see your face.”

Her answer left me speechless.

She often spoke bluntly, but to be honest, that was seriously straightforward.

After she said that, it was as if she realized she had just thrown a fastball my way. She quickly gathered magic power into the tip of her finger, as if trying to quickly move on.

“Then, can I ask you some obvious questions now that I’ve woken up?”

“Yeah. You can do that.”

“Where is this place, how are you taking care of me, what happened after I collapsed, what happened with the imperial family, what happened to Taylee, did Ayla return safely, and what happened with the Elte Store?”

“Okay, I’ll answer what I know.”

Lucy’s characteristically blank eyes and sullen tone were still the same. However, it seemed that the number of words she spoke had increased more than usual, which was quite surprising.

It was probably because I had become quite close with Lucy at that point.

Compared to when she came to my camp to take a nap, we’d gotten to know each other quite a bit. At that point, we knew each other quite well.

Additionally, there was no one as reliable as Lucy when it came to a crisis… She was quite the reliable person for me to count on.

“This is Trix Hall’s infirmary. And I gave Taylee a real good beating.”

“……”

“……”

“…Is that everything…?”

“Actually, nothing has really been finished yet. It has only been about an hour.”

Since I was unconscious, I figured that quite a long time must have passed before I woke up.

However, first aid and Lucy’s magic treatment were enough for me to regain consciousness. Though, it still didn’t seem like my physical condition had significantly improved yet.

“But it stopped raining. And the morning sun is slowly rising.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. The night is over.”

I let out a deep sigh, covering my eyes with my forearm, which I struggled to raise.

So, that was what happened.

Only after taking a brief break did my mind start to move again.

“…This isn’t a situation where I can just lie still. I need to check that everything is being taken care of. First, I need to head back to camp, and…”

Just as I was about to finish my sentence, Lucy took off her witch hat and shoved it against my face.

For a moment, I couldn’t see anything. I could only feel the hat touching my skin.

“You can’t!”

“……”

“Rest.”

That short but firm expression of emotions was so uncharacteristic of Lucy.

In fact, it was rare for her to speak so firmly. Just as rare as it was for her to express her feelings.

She was a kid with a surprisingly carefree attitude… Just watching the world pass by, but not bothering to do anything about it.

“I can rest later. What I need to check on now… It’s too important… I need to make sure of it with my own eyes. I’ll be able to figure out the most important parts if I can just head to camp.”

“Remember the promise we made at the start of break, before we went to House Rothstaylor?”

Hearing Lucy’s sudden question, I pondered for a moment and nodded my head.

“I kept my promise. As you asked, I dealt with the eyeballs back at Rothstaylor Mansion. And I even went to the imperial court, promising your safety.”

“…Thanks.”

“You don’t need to say that. I just want the reward I was promised.”

Lucy’s expression, as she quietly removed the hat, was still the same. However, I had begun to be able to recognize even Lucy’s tiniest emotions, even on that expressionless face of hers.

Listening to her tone of voice and seeing the way her eyes lowered slightly, I could roughly read her feelings.

“I hate being lonely now. I need a reason to live for.”

I’d heard that before. What I had promised her.

When I thought of the girl named Lucy Mayreel, the word ‘alone’ came to mind.

She had a temperament that didn’t work well with others. Because she didn’t try to understand others, she didn’t want to be understood, either.

Nor did she try to put anyone within arm’s reach.

She knew the pain of loss, so she didn’t carelessly reach her hand out. For her to try and have someone by her side, it was the result of a very major decision she made.

Even though things were complicated for her, if you could understand it even slightly, then you couldn’t fault her.

That was because human emotions were subjective. You couldn’t simply say what was right and what was wrong.

“So, don’t get hurt.”

Lucy bent over as she buried her face in a pillow that was resting on my shoulder.

The way she held my head with those small hands of hers… It felt as if she was holding onto something she never wanted to lose. So, I had nothing I could tell her.

“In this world, there are always some experiences you don’t want to repeat again.”

And like that, I stayed still, without saying anything else… I then apologized to her slowly.

“I’m sorry for worrying you.”

* * *

I laid down like that for about ten more minutes. When I raised my upper body, I was able to control it again.

In any case, the wound Taylee gave me with his sword didn’t seem to have been all that deep. His hands were shaking just holding the sword, so it was a miracle that he could even land an attack.

I bled quite a bit because of the size of his attack, but the bleeding stopped after I was given first aid. There didn’t seem to be any other issues.

However, I was told that it would be difficult to remove the scar… Well, I’d just think of it as paying for my crimes.

“By the way, you gave Taylee a good beating…?”

Only then did I start to feel that something was strange about the timeline of things.

“You… He was already in an awful state… Yet you beat him up even more…?”

“I was so angry that I couldn’t think straight. I’m still growing. So, I held back and only punched him a few times.”

If Lucy had punched him without magic power, then a chestnut falling from a tree would hurt more.

If it was Lucy’s magicless punches, honey chestnuts or chestnuts would hurt more.

That was reassuring.

“Keuk….”

I somehow lifted my upper body up, sitting up straight. Lucy was sitting on the other side of the bed with jerky in her mouth.

It seemed that she had gone and brought over jerky from the cabin during everything. That girl really was something.

She swung her feet in the air as she took a bite. It looked as if she had suddenly regained her sense of taste.

“You’re not as blindly reckless as you used to be, though. Thinking about it, I realized that you also had your own intentions.”

“Intentions?”

“There’s no way you would let someone who was in as bad a shape as him land an attack on you.”

That was true. Taylee’s last attack was pure brute force, destroying everything around him without considering the target.

Just before he lost all of his energy and collapsed, he was desperate to defeat me. Thus, he put all his hope into that reckless attack.

It was obvious that something was strange, since I ran towards an opponent who would have been defeated if I had just run away.

“You were trying to protect that girl in the wooden shelter.”

“…Now that you mention it, do you know if she’s fine? To be honest, I tricked her a bit, so she ended up in a bad situation. I was worried that she would get hurt, so I ran out. Is she okay?”

After I spoke, Lucy didn’t answer me right away.

Lucy, who was muttering with the jerky in her mouth, suddenly moved closer to me. With her eyes wide open, she looked at my expression.

As I stared at her, wondering what the problem was, Lucy flopped back down onto the bed as if she didn’t care any longer.

“She’s fine. After the convoy arrived, she opened the door of the wooden shelter and came out herself. She looked completely shocked as she ran out, crying and hugging that swordsman.”

“……”

“But that swordman’s expression was rather bewildered. He must have realized that you ran out to protect her.”

…Was that so?

From Taylee’s point of view, it might have seemed strange for me to do that.

Running forward to stop Taylee was like risking my own life.

No matter how precious Ayla may have been to my Celestial Magic research, it must have still been strange to see me risk my life to protect her.

That must have been what Taylee was thinking.

“But that girl told a funny story.”

Suddenly, after saying that, Lucy got up again. Unlike before, when she got up in my face, she sat with her back to me.

Holding her knees, she put her head on top of them… she then grabbed the overly long sleeves of her school jacket.

“The Holy Blue Dragon Velbrok.”

I went silent for a while.

“She was making a fuss, saying some unbelievably strange things. Saying that an ancient dragon from the myths would suddenly be resurrected and destroy Acken island. I would have also doubted what she was saying, thinking it was just nonsense.”

“……”

“…If I didn’t remember what happened during the Joint Combat Training.”

What I didn’t take into account…

Act 3’s boss battle was completely skipped.

Because it was skipped, Lucy Mayreel was able to look for a new reason for her life after falling into loneliness. Those blank eyes of hers were able to shine once more.

The effects of the variable known as Ed Rothstaylor had greatly changed the existence of the girl named Lucy Mayreel.

Above all else, Lucy was a girl who had confirmed the existence of the Holy Blue Dragon Velbrok through that time loop.

“Why are you trying to deal with it on your own?”

“……”

“You should have told me, too.”

In fact, even though Lucy could join in, that didn’t mean it was an opponent we could beat.

It was the final boss of the entire scenario, so tremendous that even Lucy couldn’t do anything about it.

The destruction of the holy blue dragon, which descended over the sky of Acken Island. It was a burden that weighed heavily on my shoulders.

“I thought you wouldn’t believe it.”

“Of course I wouldn’t believe it… If things were the same as before.”

A variable who had twisted the storyline of .

All because of Ed Rothstaylor.

To be able to know what happens in the future. To tell them that I could somehow vaguely see the future.

Even if I told everyone such a ridiculous statement, no one would believe me.

That was because I started from the very bottom.

A point where no one trusted me. People only mocked and criticized me as I was forced to carry all of my problems on my own.

“However, it’s no longer the past.”

You always notice change belatedly.

It was like climbing a mountain. Before you realized it, the scenery behind you changed. Only then did you realize just how much you’d climbed.

There were some facts that could only be learned after looking around yourself once more. In that sense, change was rather ironic.

I still remembered my first day in the forest.

There was no place for me to sleep, so I laid down in a wooden shelter made of trees I forcefully stuck together.

The occasional sound of bugs in that quiet forest. A landscape with no one else around.

There was no source of light as I sat alone in the dark, waiting for the sun.

I looked at Lucy as she spoke about the pain of loss and loneliness, but…

In fact, I was the one who was closer to loneliness than anyone else.

However, to rediscover myself after I had come to ‘take things for granted’…

“I will believe whatever you say, and I will help you.”

Perhaps because Lucy had said something unlike her usual self, I felt that something had changed.

At that moment, I seemed to understand why Lucy had to sit with her back facing me. It must have been too embarrassing to say those words while looking at me.

I couldn’t even imagine what kind of face Lucy was hiding. Still, I was understanding of her and didn’t try to look.

When I looked up, there was only a rough wooden ceiling above me.

* * *

“Let’s go to the Elte Store.”

Eventually, I crawled out of bed.

Lucy—who looked at me unhappily, with her cheeks inflated—said that she was going to accompany me because she was worried about my safety.

No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t stay there and sit still.

At that moment, I needed to see how things turned out with my own eyes.

Taylee and Ayla. Lortel and Dune. Princess Penia and Princess Persica. And even Deputy Headmaster Rachel.

Between everyone’s entangled interests and beliefs, where did I end up standing?

And most importantly…

Whether it was Dune or Lortel who was now sitting as the deputy director of the Elte Company.

I needed to find out what happened.