By Zephyria 
I met his eyes for a moment, then furrowed my brow.
“Who do you think I am?”
It was presumptuous concern.
“Then that’s a relief.”
Ardian, hearing my rebuke, instead relaxed his expression and smiled gently. I don’t know what he’s so happy about.
Does this guy have a tendency to enjoy being scolded?
I narrowed my eyes even more, and around that time, Cloud, who had been staring at us, shrugged and turned to look at Polargehen. Polargehen, who had opened his pocket watch once, checked if all the children were gathered and said.
“Except for Ardian and Zeon… you couldn’t even last 15 minutes. Well, is that the obvious result? For the next week, students other than Ardian and Zeon will be ambushed by Cloud Hunter without warning.”
And he continued.
“You can use any method you want. Try to endure the time limit ‘at least once a week.’ If even one of you fails to endure it at least once… know that hellish penalty training due to joint responsibility will be waiting for you.”
Grumbling erupted from here and there. Each person’s skill level varied greatly, and enduring more than an hour against Cloud itself would not be easy, so tying that to joint responsibility was definitely unreasonable.
But within Polargehen’s words… there is an intention.
‘You can use any method you want.’
‘At least once a week.’
‘A sudden joint responsibility statement that sounds abrupt.’
And even the hidden defensive Magic Circle in the cave that activates conditionally.
It might be a wild guess. Unlike my thoughts, they might be remarks thrown out without any thought.
But if I think of all of that as clues and combine them, the intention of this survival is… that it might be a team battle, not an individual one.
If so, ‘Everyone must endure the time limit at least once’ means cooperate… and if they fail, it means there was a lack of cooperation, so there is reason in the statement that joint responsibility arises.
“I will give Ardian and Zeon separate assignments. The two of you stay behind for a moment, and the others can go and rest.”
Soon, Polargehen gestures for Ardian and Zeon to come over. Ardian, who was next to me, gave me a meaningless glance and got up and left.
“Ugh, I’m so tired.”
“My head is throbbing too….”
Except for the children who needed more treatment, they are returning to the villa to rest. Perhaps because they had been up since early morning, everyone’s faces showed signs of fatigue.
“Ray, are you okay?”
Around that time, Herman, who had come to my side, asked. Tom, next to him, made whining noises, asking to be worried about too.
I sighed softly and got up. And immediately after entering the villa’s hall, I told Tom and Herman to return to their rooms first, and I remained alone in the hall. I plopped down on the sofa in the villa’s hall, and the soft leather touched my back. It seemed to relieve some of the fatigue.
I leaned my head against the sofa and closed my eyes for a moment, drooping.
‘…I still have a long way to go.’
I was helpless against Cloud. I had raised myself to 4-star, but it was still hopelessly insufficient to compete with an 8-star.
‘At this rate, when will I be able to achieve my goal?’
Of course, my growth is still exceptionally fast. At this rate, I will be able to have the same peak as in my Mephisto days when this body is in its mid-twenties.
Nevertheless, I sometimes feel uneasy. No matter how capable a genius is, they can’t always be confident.
Even a genius like me has his own frustrations and worries.
It was then. I heard footsteps approaching and opened my eyes. It was Ardian who was coming this way.
“Can I sit next to you?”
“No.”
I refused outright. But he smiled brightly with his pretty face and sat down in the empty seat next to me.
I knew it. It was ridiculous that he always stubbornly asked even though he was going to insist like this anyway. I glared at him, and he turned to look at the lobby with an innocent face, as if he didn’t know anything, and continued.
“What were you doing here?”
“Can’t you tell even if you see it? I was resting.”
Then, just as I was leaning my head comfortably against the backrest again. His hand, which had suddenly come, touched near my cheek. It was my left cheek, which was stinging because of the remaining cut.
“Why didn’t you get this treated?”
At that, I quietly shook off Ardian’s hand.
Was he going to make such a fuss over just this much of a wound?
No matter how lenient I am with myself, if I made such a fuss, the title of Demon King would be ashamed and run away.
“This much will heal if I put saliva on it.”
“Hmm. Shall I put saliva on it for you then?”
“…….”
“Just kidding. What if germs get in?”
Ardian lowered his eyes and chuckled, crumpling his brow like paper and baring his teeth. He was really annoying.
“Don’t get hurt.”
Suddenly, I felt a faint Mana wave from Ardian’s hand as he said that. Simple healing Magic flowed out through his hand and neatly restored the wound on my cheek.
“Because I don’t like it when you’re hurt.”
“…….”
Why is it?
For a moment, I felt uncomfortable with his gaze on me and averted my eyes, pretending not to notice. Whenever I feel this inexplicable discomfort, I can’t properly face him.
Just in time, Zeon, who had returned to the villa late, was seen entering the hall. He paused for a moment after discovering us and then bowed to me as if to give us space and left.
I don’t know if it’s just my imagination… but since the festival day, Zeon seemed to be avoiding Ardian a bit. If he didn’t care whether they were together or not before, he recently seemed to be conscious and awkward about it.
Well. It’s not like there’s a reason to be close, but.
Anyway, I don’t know the reason, but I also felt uncomfortable being with this guy, so I got up to return to my room. Then, Ardian, who was holding the end of my sleeve and looking up at me, had eyes that were as round and pitiful as a young child.
It was an expression that was obviously made up.
“Are you going in already? I want to be with you a little longer.”
I glared at him and shook off his hand with my lips tightly closed.
When I turned around, Ardian didn’t seem to have any intention of being stubborn anymore, chuckled and got up from his seat with me.
Having returned to my room like that, I fell asleep for a while, and when I woke up because the outside was noisy, I opened my eyes to a voice waking me up.
It was Herman, Zeon, and Tom who had come to have dinner together.
To fill their stomachs, the children gather one by one in the dining hall. The meal was quite satisfactory. Afterwards, while listening to the usual chatter of Herman and Tom, I was going up the stairs when I saw a large group gathered in the villa’s hall.
At first glance, it seemed that all of Class A except for Ardian were gathered.
“Oh, there, there! You guys come here for a second too!”
Melicsa, who had a knack for noticing passing presences, turned around and waved her hand, urging us. The children, who had been putting their heads together and talking about something, all turned to look at us.
In the end, I was the first to take a step towards them, and Zeon quickly followed, and Herman and Tom, who had been hesitating, belatedly followed. As I got closer, Melicsa, who was grinning slyly, pulled me down to sit and continued the words she had been saying.
“So, to say it one more time, let’s divide into several groups and act together, that’s what I’m saying. It’s reckless to face Cloud Hunter alone, so let’s at least do this to buy time!”
I wondered what they were gathered here to talk about, but it was related to a plan to buy time from Cloud.
It was unexpected.
I thought Melicsa would be the type to act alone more than anyone else… but she was actively discussing cooperation.
Anyway, this was an interesting part for me as well, so I started to focus on their story.
In the middle, the story about the caves and Magic Circles hidden in the mountains by Hawkrun also came to the surface. So, when I told them that it was Magic that could only be completed when three or more people activated it at the same time, everyone had the same opinion as me on that part.
We were organizing how each of us would move the moment Cloud attacked, but before we knew it, we deviated from the topic and started talking about other things, and it became noisy.
There was nothing more to gain by being mixed in here any longer, so I got up from my seat. I headed to the terrace pierced on the right side of the villa to rest for a while… but there was already someone there.
“Ah.”
Clona Meridia was the one who turned around with wide eyes, startled by the presence. As I looked at her, she fidgeted restlessly. I don’t know if it’s simply because she’s shy or because she’s awkward.
I ignored her appropriately and sat down on the chair on the terrace. There was no reason for me to give up my seat, and if she was uncomfortable, she would leave first.
But Clona hesitated there for a long time. When I looked at her again, she rolled her eyes and, instead of avoiding the spot, spoke to me instead.
“Um… Raymond, I have a question.”
Hmm. It seemed she had something she wanted to ask me.
I gestured generously to tell me, and Clona shyly lowered her gaze and smiled slightly.
“Before, you said you were dating Ardian, right?”