Chapter 58
The Royal Academy’s test is held for one week. Even though the motivation is high in the first half, the fatigue accumulates and then it doesn’t matter anymore, and in the end, it’s fatigue and exhaustion.
After everything was over, Emilia, who had collapsed on a four-person table in the courtyard, was steaming from her head. She fanned herself with her hand.
“Emilia, good work.”
“Ugh, Rebecca-sama… a reward please…”
“Ah, Rebecca, I also want a reward.”
“Rebecca, I beg of you too.”
Emilia was supposed to be the only one who approached me, but she was followed by others.
Emilia collapsed on the desk, still steaming, and glared at the speaker of the last voice. Sitting opposite her was His Highness who sat next to me.
“Unfortunately, but this is a privilege only for me and my good friend Melinda, who has been taught by Rebecca-sama. Outsiders, please leave.”
His Highness opened his mouth after taking a quick glance at the situation.
“If she taught you how to study, the one who should be rewarded is not you but Rebecca.”
“Ara Emilia, what shall we do? That sounds fair.”
“Fairness also please leave…”
Melinda was stirring things up, but Emilia had no fighting spirit. She seemed to have become quite tired.
I became genuinely worried and asked Emilia.
“Emilia, what would you like as a reward?”
As soon as Emilia heard that, she stood up with a loud sound as if she had been waiting for it. Melinda, who was sitting next to her on the same long chair, let out a scream.
“[test of courage], please!”
I don’t understand the meaning, but I know that I worried for nothing.
Four days later, three days into the summer vacation.
Most of the students had already packed up and gone home, but some of the people who were still in the dormitory were gathered in the girls’ dormitory cafeteria by Emilia.
And that was in the middle of the night.
His Highness sitting next to me makes a small yawn. It’s quite rare, but I don’t have the leisure to enjoy it. It’s all because Emilia is too serious about this gathering today.
“Everyone, thank you for gathering for the [test of courage].”
For some reason, Emilia doesn’t allow any lights on, so the candles placed in the center of the table were illuminating her face from below.
More than her face, the dark room, the fierce rain and wind outside, and the windows shaking violently, Emilia’s seriousness genuinely scares me the most.
I looked around, although I could not see much due to poor visibility.
His Highness is sitting next to me on my right, next to Melinda. I can’t see the person sitting next to her because it’s too dark, but it’s probably Fried.
Next to it, across from me, it’s too dark to see.
However, from the voice, it seems to be Gadd Maysen, Brian Marc, Kyaran Goudes, the three people who stayed in the dormitory and got caught up in it. It’s just a word of bad luck.
And next to me will be Emilia.
What exactly is going to start now?
In the first place, what is the meaning of [test of courage]?
“We’re going to tell each other a terrifying story now. When you extinguished your candle, your story was over. I’ve prepared one candle for each person, and the meeting will end when the last candle is extinguished.”
In short, it seems that we are going to have a scary story conference.
It is not an event because it is not in the strategy guide. It is Emilia’s idea.
Let’s begin. The order is whatever you want, but let’s start with me first. Have you ever heard of a [kappa]? It is a creature with a shell like a turtle and a head covered with a dish. There are various legends about [Kappa]——.”
I unconsciously swallowed my saliva. What should I do? The atmosphere is a bit scary.
However, these feelings faded away when Emilia continued her story with glowing eyes.
“It is said that [Kappa] were the downfall(result) of the [Heike warriors] in the [Battle of Dan-no-ura], but what would happen if they were challenged to a [sumo] match and defeated by [Kappa]?”
(TL: It’s too gibberish for me to understand)
Emilia collected herself strangely there.
“They will be robbed,” [she said], “of their [cherry blossom ball].”
——And then she said something else that nobody understood.
“Hey, Emilia.”
The one who interrupted the conversation was Melinda, judging by her voice. Because of the way the candlelight was gradually getting dimmer, everyone’s faces were becoming harder to see.
“Sorry, that specialist language is too much. I can’t seem to follow the conversation at all.”
“Eh?”
Emilia raised her voice! It seems like she finally realized that she isn’t scaring anyone.
“Ugh, I failed,” she muttered and blew out the candle.
Before anyone could think about who would go next, a voice came from next to me.
“When I was a kid, I went on my own to the depths of the palace basement.”
I turned around abruptly. Yes, it was His Highness. Was he unexpectedly excited about this?
“When I found a room that wasn’t on the map and went in, there were mountains of dead bodies. When I tried to go back, I couldn’t find it again. I heard later that there’s a room in the palace basement that thieves who got lost trying to break in end up in.”
It was as if everyone suddenly stopped breathing and no one said anything.
The only thing that could be heard was the strange, loud sound of the wind outside.
“Wait?! Scary, scary, scary!”
“What should I do! I don’t want to go to the summer evening party!”
Everyone starts to make noise all at once.
His Highness laughed softly and blew out a candle.
Then, someone’s voice says, “Then it’s my turn next.”
“There’s a story in the knights’ group. It’s said that a knight who couldn’t meet an honorable death, wanders around looking for opponents to fight at night. Because he leaves the flowing blood as it is, there’s often a red-black line that continues in the morning. You must never follow that. Because it’s connected.”
One candle goes out.
“I heard this story from a distant relative. He sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night, and when that happens, there’s always someone standing nearby. All he could see was a pair of white feet, but he slowly started to bend to try to see the face. He said that once he sees that, it’s over. ——He passed away the other day.”
Another one goes out.
“I heard this kind of story before. Somewhere in this Academy, there’s an artificial creature that was made by a student long ago, and it still lives there. When it gets dark, it comes out of the caves looking for that student. It’s said that it wants to find and kill them.”
“Oh, that story. From what I heard, that creature is made by combining a human and several living things and can live in water. So at night, it drips water from its body and wets the school building with its tears.”
Two more went away. In the end.
“By the way, have you heard about this kind of horror story? It’s perfect for something to sneak in, so be careful.”
One of the remaining two has disappeared.
“Huh…?
Whose voice was that muttering?
“Rebecca-sama, you haven’t spoken yet.”
Everyone stared at the candles.
“Hey, why——”
——Only one is left?
At that moment, with a loud noise, the door to the cafeteria suddenly opened.
“KI-Kyaaaaaaaaaa!”
“Wait, who’s been talking until now?!”
“Hey, who the hell is hitting me?!”
Loud voices are heard. After a few minutes of shouting, the lights suddenly came on.
Squinting in the unfamiliar light, everyone looked around.
Melinda, who was still screaming in Fried’s robe, Fried who was hugging her, Gadd with his sword at the ready, Brian who quickly ran away, Kyaran who was pretending to be calm but couldn’t hide her shaking, and Emilia who seemed to have fainted from fear.
There was quite a lot of chaos there.
Finally, I saw that person sitting next to me having a great time.
“…Your Highness.”
“What is it?”
“During a moment when no one was looking, you put out one of the candles, right…?”
“I thought Rebecca would be scared and cling to me.”
His Highness showed no signs of embarrassment.
“You even opened the door with magic. Everyone was so scared.”
“No.”
“Right——Wait, what?”
When I looked at His Highness again, he was staring at the door that had suddenly opened a moment ago.
“That wasn’t me.”
“…Eh?”
“Maybe something really did come in… Well, goodnight, Rebecca.”
“W-Wait, Your Highness! You’re kidding, right?!”
His Highness only replied with “Come on.” and tried to stand up from his seat.
After I got sent back to my dorm room while clinging to his arm, I realized “Oh, it doesn’t seem to have gone as His Highness thought.”
That night, of course, the four of us, me, Emilia, Melinda, and Kyaran, huddled together and went to sleep.
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