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When the academy classes ended, I met up with Michelle and stopped by the support academy’s tea house.

The place Elliot introduced me to was on the pricey side, so we couldn’t go there too casually.

Especially for Michelle who could eat a lot, the prices there was quite a problem. Thus, we instead frequently visited the cheap stores that were aimed for the support academy students who were mostly commoners and lacked financial influence.

“So as I was saying, Letina just went and pushed me out.”
“I could not forgive your slanders. I will have you know that I have properly grown too.”
“Okay, I’m sorry about that.”
“Ahahaha, with this, Cloud’s going to get envied even more.”

There were many other students who stopped by to eat like us, so we wouldn’t stand out even if we raised our voices a little.

Given such an environment, Michelle was laughing without holding back. Meanwhile, Cloud who came along was at his wits’ end.

“Please stop. My Guild training will just get harsher from that.”
“I was too busy trying to get back at Letina so I didn’t manage to explain the situation.”
“I really wish you had though!”

The red mark on my chest was the bruise from the boar’s attack from the other day. There was also Fina’s kiss mark there who attacked my breasts at every chance she got.

As such, suspecting Cloud was really misplaced there.

That said, rumors spread on their own. This time, too, Cloud simply ended up taking the brunt of the after-effects.

In fact, there were many students who knew me here, and they kept periodically stealing glances at our way.

“Well, being together with us is already considered a perk.”
“Is that really something you should say yourself?”
“Are you saying Michelle and I aren’t beauties?”
“It frustrates me that I can’t deny that.”
“Hey! I demand an explanation on why you omitted me just now!”
“Well, that’s because Letina’s still a chi-… No, never mind.”
“Grrr!”

As always, Letina was being noisy. She was always going at her own pace.

Her speech and conduct were one step short of coming out as annoying, but finding it unable to hate her came from her natural virtue.

I had a quiet nature, so our relationship had developed quite a bit.

“Still, I never thought that Teacher Cortina would take part in it too.”
“Yeah, she is a little festive as of late.”
“How should I put it… I used to think that she was harder to approach.”
“Really?”

I have only known about Cortina’s state ever since I arrived in Raum. Before that, I only knew how she was during my previous life.

I heard that being entrusted by her friend’s daughter had lifted her spirits quite a bit.

“Indeed. Lady Cortina from before was somewhat apathetic, or perhaps I should say negligent.”
“Did she really change that much?”
“She did. At the very least, I was certainly surprised when I saw her during the opening ceremony that day.”

If I remember correctly, she was in quite high spirits when she entered the classroom that day. Hearing that, Michelle looked to be curious about something.

“But I always saw Lady Cortina as a friendlier person, so that’s weird.”
“Calling it weird feels really rude to her, you know? But well, I can see why it is hard to imagine from her current self.”
“I see.”
“Lady Cortina, huh. Unlike Lord Maxwell, she hardly ever showed herself in public so I thought she would be a plain person, but she turned out to be a beauty.”
“Cloud you perv.”
“Why!?”

It seemed that Cloud didn’t use to hold much of an impression on her either. Which means, she only started an active lifestyle when I arrived here.

While discussing such things, we finally broke up for the day.

Cloud gave me the thank you letter—for sharing meat with them the other day— from the orphanage sisters, and then I parted with Letina and him.

Michelle’s arrows had been worn out today, so we decided to call it a day. Thus, the two of us instead went for the weapon store to replenish them.

She couldn’t use the full power of the Third Eye without special arrows, but the normal hunting bow that she usually used worked on normal arrows.

When adventuring with us, she used that bow most of the time, so its arrows used to deplete faster.

Naturally, she could make arrows herself, but in the end, the accuracy of the shots differed between arrows made by an amateur and a pro.

“Sorry about this. If I use the ones I make, the trajectory tends to be slightly off.”
“You are the most important shooter in our group, so it can’t be helped.”

With hands full of arrows, the two of us took the way home. Our legs were pretty unstable so we were walking with tottering steps.

Seeing two little girls carrying a lot of luggage, the nearby stall owners called out to us in joking voices.

“Hey Michelle, you aren’t going to buy anything today?”
“It would be impossible now!”
“How about you, Nicole?”
“I’ll get crushed if I carry any more than this.”
“I’d like to see that.”
“That’s cruel!”

Hearing my protests, the stall uncle started laughing loudly. For some reason, even the nearby stall owner started laughing.

They should be used to seeing me get crushed under something by now, so what was so funny now?

At any rate, we managed to reach Michelle’s house. But then, I felt something was out of place compared to the usual.

“Stop.”
“Hmm, what’s wrong?”
“Something feels… Wrong.”

The house provided to Michelle’s family was a normal detached house. Walls built with stone and a wooden door.

The windows weren’t using the luxurious glass, but instead were drop window types. Up to that, it was your everyday scene…

“What’s going on…?”

However, my intuition was giving off alarm bells that something was wrong. Surveying the surroundings, I finally realized what was different.

“The laundry…”
“Huh, oh you’re right. There’s no laundry out today. That’s strange.”

In Michelle’s family, both she and her father were active hunters. While her mother was in charge of butchering jobs.

In other words, they had a lot of dirty clothes accumulated every day. And they washed them every day and hung them on the second-floor dryer. But only today, they were nowhere to be found.

“We all went out for hunting yesterday, so there should be laundry.”
“That’s true. I wonder what mom’s thinking?”

I stopped Michelle and went in first.

She was currently targeted by various people. It was possible that some fool resorted to strong measures.

It was possible that someone would attack while entering the house.

I dropped the arrows and pulled out my self-defense dagger, and opened the door.

It was a dim room without lights.

A devastated room—and bloodstains.