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That day, there was a lot of noise in the castle in the morning.

Apparently, one of the maids who worked at the castle was found in a miserable state.

Her name was Alks, Toriyama’s personal maid. With this revelation, suspicion turned towards him.

My classmates, who were making a fuss, seemed to have decided to gather before Toriyama’s room, but I, Yume Fumitsuki, did not leave my room.

My personal maid wanted to go, so I gave her permission.

Toriyama had the worst reputation among our classmates.

An awful person who had picked a fight with the king, looked at girls in a disgusting way, sexually harassed several maids, bound his classmates with contracts, and was even trying to lay his hands on the princess, and much more…

I couldn’t believe the amount of rumors that had spread in only two months.

But many people believed them.

I could see with my Appraisal skill that Toriyama’s status was rising way faster than others’.

By digging a bit, I found out that he’d trained privately both during the morning and night.

With this, I was sure that he definitely had no time to mess with girls.

Maybe I should have told someone about this strange feeling I had, but I just didn’t have it in me to do it. I was afraid that if I took his side, the bullying would spread to me.

However, out of a sense of guilt that I couldn’t shake off, I made one attempt to contact him.

As someone who acknowledged having communication issues —being self-aware of my social awkwardness— I couldn’t talk to Toriyama effectively.

I wanted to advise him to take it easy, but I couldn’t seem to reach him.

Instead, he offered me advice and even hinted at his own death.

Maybe I just wanted to ignore him being blamed by our classmates; that was because I didn’t want to confront the reality that even if I turned my attention to it, in the end, I wouldn’t do anything.

I was simply a coward that couldn’t protect him.

After my meeting with Toriyama, I contacted Fujiwara, as I was told, and asked him to tell me about his Spy skill.

Yesterday, too, I trained quietly, imagining myself like a ninja, focusing on everything from signaling to moving my legs silently and evading people’s gazes.

It was now possible for me to disguise myself and, although in a simplified manner, conceal my Status.

I guessed these training sessions were necessary for me to escape one day.

But until that day arrived, I had spent my time hoping it would never come.

◇◇◇

I found myself pondering how much time had elapsed.

My body began to move involuntarily.

(He’s dead…)

The choices for me now were to trust Toriyama and flee the castle as I acted independently, or not trust him and remain in the castle.

In essence, Toriyama had tried to tell me that the way it was now, the castle was dangerous.

That’s why I didn’t even need to ponder my choices. I couldn’t understand why he had to die. I couldn’t comprehend why he had to endure all that bullying.

It didn’t seem right to me that I, who’d been unable to help, should continue living comfortably. Yet, I slipped out of the room as if propelled by an unseen force.

Following Toriyama’s advice, I only took enough clothes so that I could disguise myself after I escaped.

I headed out of the castle, utilizing all the skills I had honed through my hard work. Although I was running, there was no sound. I made sure no one would notice me even if they passed nearby. Before I realized it, I found myself outside the castle.

Continuing to run and run, I traversed the town, scaled the wall, and halted upon reaching a forest where I could conceal myself.

My heart was pounding heavily, and my breathing was strained.

Yet, it’s somewhat impressive to consider that not so long ago, I wouldn’t have been capable of running this far.

“You’ve gotten quite good.”
“?!”

Someone suddenly called out to me, and I turned around without thinking.

A familiar, light-hearted voice.

Fujiwara, who was at the end of my line of sight, wore a serious expression despite the casual tone of his voice.

“Why are you here, Fujiwara?”
“With Toriyama killed, no one knows what would’ve happened if we stayed in that castle.”
“What do you mean?”

I had been training with Fujiwara, but we hadn’t discussed anything beyond our training sessions.

We didn’t know anything about one another outside of training. We were unaware of each other’s thoughts or what information we had.

“So, Fumitsuki, you acted without knowing what was happening?”
“All I knew was that Toriyama was going to die.”
“It’s strange that you only know about that. Did something happen between you and Toriyama?”

Fujiwara’s question made me shake my head without uttering a word.

I couldn’t break my promise with Toriyama. And even though I could speculate that the castle was likely dangerous, I felt ashamed to admit that I didn’t know why it was dangerous or what might happen.

“Well, nothing I can do if you don’t want to talk. What are you going to do now? Wait, actually, let’s first talk about what happened today. That will help us decide what we want to do in the future. What do you know about Toriyama’s skill?”
“I know the gist.”
“Then that makes it quick. Today, Toriyama was killed because of the first contract he made.”
“The first contract?”

I was left with the impression that Toriyama’s skill had something to do with forcing people to keep their promises.

The first contract he made in this world. The only one I could think of was when he spoke to me and told me not to talk about our discussion without his permission.

However, that somehow didn’t connect with the current case at all.

So I could only assume Fujiwara was talking about something from even before that.

Could he be talking about the time we were summoned, I pondered.

“……”

I figured it out. I’d finally figured it out.

The reason why everyone started treating Toriyama poorly. His first promise. The promise with the entire kingdom to ensure our lives, safety, and freedom.

If that’s what caused the uproar, it was because some people wanted to rescind this promise.

If there was a mastermind behind this, it would have been the Fraus Kingdom. After all, no matter how I looked at it, Toriyama’s contract favored us.

However, just how he was killed. The Fraus Kingdom couldn’t have killed Toriyama. If anyone could, it would have been someone other than a Fraus citizen.

A foreigner…

He’d been killed by our classmates.

The only logical explanation was for Toriyama to have committed suicide, but it was hard to believe he would take his own life after seeing him a month ago.

Furthermore, Fujiwara too had just explicitly told me that Toriyama had been killed.

The exchange between the king and Toriyama that started the whole thing was something Toriyama had done to protect us. Yet in return, he only got bullied and eventually died.

I couldn’t help but ponder what would happen to the castle with Toriyama gone, and how that would impact our lives.

I was sure that he wouldn’t have been killed if this had been known.

It might have been one of our classmates who’d killed him, but it was likely the Fraus Kingdom pulling the strings.

I could only vaguely imagine what the kingdom that wanted to kill him and make the contract void would do, but I was sure it wouldn’t be anything good.

That’s why Toriyama had told me to run away.

I didn’t know what it was, but tears were welling up in my eyes.

Was it grief over the death of Toriyama, sympathy for his tragic fate, or pity for myself for not being able to do anything about it?

Unable to control my overflowing emotions, I could only cry.

◇◇◇

“So what are you going to do now?”

Fujiwara asked me, after I had stopped crying and calmed down.

I was a little stumped by the question.

What did I want to do? Should I engage in a battle of mourning for Toriyama?

Toriyama had been betrayed by the classmates he’d done his best to protect. So it wouldn’t be surprising for him to hold a grudge against them, including me.

However, I didn’t think that Toriyama held a grudge against me, given that he himself had told me to run away.

Though that is just what I wanted to think. However, I could only convince myself of this, as he wouldn’t have told me to get out of the castle, where things were about to turn sour.

On the other hand, those who were left in the castle could be in for a ride in the future.

In a way, that itself would be a good way to avenge Toriyama. If that’s the case, then I might as well stay out of it, I figured. Besides, all Toriyama had told me was to run away. Surely, he didn’t want me to do more, I convinced myself.

“I‘m thinking of going on a trip.”
“Being this unsociable?”

I wanted to go on a journey to figure out what I wanted to do.

Yet, Fujiwara’s remark pierced through my determination like a nail through wood.

“This world seems to be a place where you can become an adventurer, and just looking at my status, I should be at least a D Rank. So I’ll probably manage. And I did learn a lot from you, Fujiwara.”
“Then I guess I’ll tag along. I want to figure out if there was any point behind Toriyama’s death.”

It was indeed sad to hear about the loss of Toriyama.

However, I couldn’t help but wonder if Fujiwara was really so close to Toriyama that he genuinely wanted to find the meaning behind his death. I’d never had the image of him being that kind of person.

“Did you get along well with Toriyama, Fujiwara? I guess that’s a given. We were classmates after all.”
“No, not really. But I could say that I was working in my own way to ensure Toriyama’s safety. Though the only thing I was able to do was help Toriyama slightly by spreading rumors. But in the end it was futile. I wasn’t able to fight against them.”
“Fight against who?”

The phrasing seemed somewhat strange to me, so I asked for clarification. It sounded as if Fujiwara was fighting with someone.

“We could go to town if we were on the top of the class during training, right?”
“Yes.”
“The ones to go would usually be Ichinari or Tsukihara, with Tsunoe going sometimes as well.”
“Isn’t that because they did well in training?”

Even though I said that I didn’t really believe it. That was because Tsunoe was part of the naughty girls in the class. In reality, she hardly trained, and I would often see her slacking with her friends.

“That’s not it. Yet she was still able to go to the town. The reason for that was because the kingdom had requested that of her.”
“Requested her?”
“You could say it was a plot to exchange rumors about Toriyama. But if you think about it, Tsunoe has the Incitement skill.”
“So that’s how the rumors about Toriyama spread so naturally.”
“You should know that Tsunoe’s love for gossip isn’t anything new. In short, I grew fond of Toriyama as I was researching things from the shadows.” Fujiwara lightly waved his hand as he spoke.

He seemed somewhat embarrassed.

“In that case, Fujiwara, let’s explore the world together.” I said.
“Great.”

And so, our journey around the world began.