40 – Suspiciously messed up grouping

The story of a relationship that has now disappeared.

“Hey, Naruto.”

While taking a break from training for the national team, someone called Naru.

Naru, who was sitting on a bench and fiddling with a bamboo sword, raised her head slightly and responded to the call.

“……?”

It was Chang-ho hyung, a senior national team member, who called Naru.

He handed Naru a bottle of sports drink and asked.

“Are you feeling better?”

“……?”

Naru tilted her head as if to say something at Changho’s question.

Seeing Naru like that, Changho sighed and said.

“You mean… you’ve been training all night for two days now… are you okay?”

“……”

Naruto nodded without saying anything.

Chang-ho looked at that figure for a moment at the dark circles around Naru’s eyes.

He made a confused expression and rubbed his chin.

“…That goddamn man. What are you making a 20-year-old kid do…”

“……”

Naru showed no reaction to the murmuring of the window.

Changho slightly hardened his expression at that figure.

“I’ll say it again, tell me if you’re having a hard time. I’ll be happy to help.”

“……”

“I’m your senior.”

“……”

Naru nodded emotionlessly at Changho’s words.

And Chang-ho looked at Naru and sighed lightly.

Probably, the naru would not ask for help no matter how hard it was.

This kid is so used to this crazy situation.

In this situation that surrounds you, you won’t even know how unreasonable it is.

‘And again…’

This child believes that his father really loves him.

The window sighed inwardly.

‘devil…’

Chang-ho looked at Na-ru, unable to hide the tightness in his chest.

“……”

Naru kept her mouth shut, sipping the sports drink Changho handed her.

It was a really young look.

At first glance, he looks like a 17-year-old teenager.

To think that such a delicate child is living a life that is nothing short of torture…

“……”

“……?”

As the window stared at him with a complicated mind,

Perhaps feeling his gaze, Naru tilted her head and met his eyes.

Like, ‘Why, brother?’ It was like saying.

As if it was nothing to him, Chang-ho shook his head and said.

“Come to think of it, Naruya.”

“……?”

“You know the book I lent you the other day. That… [The Hero Loved by Everyone] 4 books? Did you read all of them?”

ㅡ nod

When the name of the book [The Hero Loved by Everyone] came out of Chang-ho’s mouth,

Naru’s eyes, which had been turned off, shone brightly.

“You’ve read them all? Then would you like to borrow 5 books too? There are 10 of them.”

ㅡ nodding nodding

Naru nodded vigorously.

Changho smiled at Naru’s appearance.

“You shouldn’t have caught this on your father, right? I’ll secretly put it in your locker like last time.”

At Changho’s words, Naru waved her arms lightly and thanked him.

Changho stroked Naru’s hair.

Indeed, they were a friendly-looking brother and sister.

In the future, Naru of the future gazes at the empty window and draws a picture of this time in her head.

Then I mutter to myself.

sorry.

Life is ruined because of me

thank you and sorry…

my older brother

.

.

.

“brother…”

I woke up with a groan like that.

The first thing you see when you open your eyes is the ceiling of the Reynolds Academy dormitory.

Looking at the ornately decorated ceiling,

I realize that the scene I was just seeing was all a dream.

“……”

I look at the ceiling blankly, putting on a look of complete bewilderment.

…Why did I have this dream?

It’s been a long time since I fell asleep early without suffering from insomnia.

Why is the dream shaped like this this time?

With my mind entangled in a complicated way, I silently recite the name of the person in my dream.

“Changho-hyung…”

The echo of the three letters spit out of my mouth returns to me again through my ears.

And the echo that came back broke my insides.

ㅡ Chirit…

The area around the chest was sliced.

My heart, which felt the sharp pain, thumped thump-thump and sounded like it was going to explode.

As if trying to announce that he was running, with all his might, loudly.

“Whoa…”

I held onto my chest and let out a sigh.

It’s been a while.

The misfortunes of the past visited me.

The uninvited guest called the past, who had come in after a long time, did not feel very welcome.

“……”

I reached out my hand toward the ceiling with a dazed expression on my face.

Hands toward the ceiling, stretch my body as hard as I can.

but it doesn’t reach

That body was too far to hold hands with the ceiling.

To the naked eye, it shimmers as if it could be reached at any moment.

But that shimmer is actually too far away.

That’s why my hands can’t hold the ceiling.

Like, like the ties of those days that I couldn’t catch.

“Window brother…”

I mumbled the name as if rehearsing it silently, brooding over the contents of the dream.

.

.

.

“Then, I’ll go to class.”

“Yes, Bocchan!”

I left the dormitory, saying hello to Rachel, who was tying my messy tie.

As soon as I opened the door, a cool breeze embraced my body.

Autumn, which had entered November, had a calm chill.

I tremble slightly from the chill and take a step forward.

The blue sky with clouds engraved drop by drop created a beautiful color.

I stared blankly at the sky and was lost in thought.

Banquet hall raid incident and imperial visit.

A month has already passed since these two events took place.

I spent a quiet peaceful daily life in the time of a month that went by like a darting.

It was because there hadn’t been any other events during the month, and no additional quests had popped up.

Of course, the raid incident, and the splendid return of the explorers,

Although the world was a little noisy due to the explosion of various big news, but…

Well, Alan will take care of it.

“ha……”

I took a deep breath and stretched as hard as I could.

After being possessed by Raiden’s body, it rolled hard for a period of about two and a half months,

He seemed to be able to breathe a little now.

“Huh…”

I rummaged through the front pocket of my coat and pulled out something.

It was a small box that looked like a pack of cigarettes.

And inside, there were thin sticks that looked like cigarettes.

It was the ‘Shimmacho’ that Milliam sent in a large wagon last week.

I looked at them for a moment, then pulled out one of them and put it in my mouth.

After that, I took out my magic lighter and put it on the tip of the stick.

ㅡChakak, Chiik…

As the lighter lit the end of the stick, a thin stream of smoke rose from the stick.

“Write…”

As I inhaled, I could feel the smoke of the shimmacho entering my lungs.

A fresh scent like a slightly herbal scent lingers on the tip of the nose.

“ha……”

As I exhale, white smoke stretches out into the air.

At the same time, the complicated feelings that were weighing down the inside are washed away a little.

“This is really nice…”

My heart was stuffy because of the sh*tty dream, but I felt refreshed in an instant.

It is clear that otherworldly antidepressants are several steps beyond their modern counterparts.

Or maybe it’s something completely different.

As I watched the smoke break in front of me, I heard a familiar mechanical sound.

ㅡTitling!

[Due to the side effects of taking ‘Shimmacho’, you get ‘status abnormalities (hallucinations, auditory hallucinations)’!]

ㅡTitling!

[Skill ‘Spirit of Iron’ resists ‘status abnormalities (hallucinations, auditory hallucinations)’!]

[‘Status abnormality (hallucinations, auditory hallucinations)’ is nullified!]

Hey, it’s the ‘Spirit of Iron’ as expected.

Performance sure.

I smiled, feeling a little better, and let out another smoke.

then-

“brother!”

“Raiden!”

—-The voices of two familiar people came from behind.

I slightly turned my head to look at it.

“Ariel, the princess.”

I gently waved my hand, and Ariel jumped up and hugged me.

“good morning!”

“Okay, good morning.”

Ariel, clinging to my body, purred and melted as I stroked her hair.

Let me laugh at that cute face,

Lucy followed and greeted her.

“Raiden, good morning!”

“Good morning, Princess.”

I greeted her face to face and walked together.

In the past month, if anything has changed in my life, it’s Lucy.

She was a part of my daily life.

After that incident in the imperial family,

Lucy treated me like she used to treat Raiden.

Thanks to that, a person named Lucy was added to the realm of my life where only Rachel and Ariel existed.

Of course, going with me didn’t seem to harm Lucy.

Because of the image she has built up over the years, and because she is the princess of an empire with overwhelming power,

The students didn’t even try to reject her.

It was just that when I approached her, everyone would sneak away.

‘Well… To be honest, Raiden is the next most powerful person after Lucy.’

I don’t know how bad his image is that everyone is sneaking away…

When I was muttering that in my heart, biting my bitter taste,

Lucy, who was following my steps, clapped her hands as if she remembered something.

“Oh, right! Come to think of it…”

“…? What do you mean?”

“We’re going on a school trip next week, right? Have you checked with Joe?”

“……Yes?”

Educational Travel?

What does that mean…?

As if I was saying something, I tilted my head, and Lucy asked me with a slight surprise.

“I bet you didn’t know we were going on a school trip…?”

“Ah, yes…”

Come to think of it, it seems that there was a school trip event in the original work as well.

Was that the right time?

I asked, tilting my head slightly.

“When are you going?”

“Next Tuesday.”

“……Three days later?”

“I really didn’t know…”

I grabbed my throbbing head.

No, why didn’t I know about this?

……

…why is it, it’s because we don’t listen to class during class and let’s play.

I sighed lightly and inhaled the sage that was biting in my mouth once again.

“Huh… But what do you mean by Joe?”

“When we go on school trips, we divide our activities into groups. Don’t you think it would be fun?

“Hmm…”

It’s a group activity… I think it’s really uncomfortable…

I groaned inwardly and retreated.

“Did the princess check it?”

“Huh? Of course. I checked as soon as I came out last night.”

“You’re not in the same group as me, right?”

“Ugh… unfortunately…”

“Um…”

I quietly rubbed my chin at Lucy’s words.

Well… To be honest, as long as I’m in a different group from Lucy, I can say that the grouping is ruined no matter what.

Lucy is the only person I’m close with during my sophomore year.

Since field trips go by grade, there’s no way I’ll be in the same group as first-year Ariel.

It would be uncomfortable to be in the same group as someone.

“It should be on the bulletin board over there, would you like to check it out?”

Lucy asked, pointing to a bulletin board near the carriage stop.

I nodded to him.

‘I’ll have to check first…’

I muttered that to myself and headed to the bulletin board with the two of them.

On the white bulletin board, various notices were listed.

In the meantime, we are looking for a notification about the ‘2nd grade school trip grouping’,

Among them, I had to find the name ‘Leiden Lisit’.

It’s been a little over 3 minutes since we’ve been staring at the bulletin board.

“found!”

shouted Ariel, pointing to one of the bulletin boards.

I turned my gaze to the direction Ariel was pointing and looked there.

There was, indeed, an article with my name on it.

I quietly read the team members’ names written below my name.

[2nd grade field trip groups: 4 groups]

1. Leiden Resit

2. Maharet Pillar

3. Golden Sun

4. Violet

“……Wow.”

I blankly looked at the schedule.

Then he hit his forehead and murmured.

“It’s been organized…”