Chapter 124
There were three different outdoor pools.
One had a depth of 1.3 meters, another had a depth of 2.5 meters, and the last one was 4 meters deep.
The beginner, intermediate and advanced swimmers would be split into these three different pools respectively.
—Ahh! My feet aren’t touching the bottom!
—Calm down, don’t panic.
—I’m scared! Don’t, don’t let go! Please don’t let go! Do-don’t le-le-le-le—Gargle!
The teacher first checked whether each student could float in the water in the intermediate pool. Those who couldn’t were moved to the beginner’s pool, while those who could were kept in the intermediate pool. Those who were comfortable in the water were moved to the 4-meter advanced pool.
Beginners and intermediates were taught the basics of surviving in water, such as how to float and maneuver.
Each pool was immensely large and spacious enough for 22 learners.
Harriet, Riana, and others who lacked combat talents did not know how to swim, so they were not allowed into the advanced pool yet.
Naturally, Ellen, who was basically a mermaid in disguise, was in the advanced pool.
On top of that, there were four more from Class A in the advanced pool, including Vertus, Cliffman, and myself.
From Class B, there were three: Scarlett, Delphine Izadra, and Ludwig.
I had learned how to swim before, which was probably why I was still quite capable despite the change in my physical body.
“I have confirmed that all of you here know how to swim and have the basic fundamentals of swimming. Everyone also seems to be in good shape.”
The physical education classes at the Temple were tough and mundane, but I had to fulfill my nerdy fantasies, so I included swimming classes. During the two-hour swimming class, one hour was dedicated to instruction, and the remaining hour was left for free play.
You know, playing and squealing in the water and having fun. That was the kind of vibe I went for.
Therefore, we just had to endure one hour of class time, and the rest was easy.
In other words, that meant I had only written about the “playing and having fun in the water” part, and nothing about the actual training part. So I had no idea what kind of training was coming our way.
“From now on, you will be timed while you swim 1500 meters.”
‘... Pardon me?’
***
So much for playing...
“Ugh, huff... huff...”
After finishing the 1500-meter swim, I crawled out of the pool and sprawled out under an umbrella. Completing it without a single break was impossible. I was no professional swimmer, after all.
It had been tough, even after taking intermittent breaks.
“Reinhart, you seem very tired,” Ludwig said.
“... D-Don’t... speak to me...”
Ludwig didn’t appear to be as exhausted. His complexion was significantly better.
Ludwig had the stamina to play after the swim class. Because of his monstrous physical endurance, he hardly got tired after doing anything. Regardless of whatever harsh lesson you threw at him, Ludwig could handle it all.
It wasn’t just a matter of stamina, though. Swimming also required a lot of energy if one wasn’t proficient and moved inefficiently, which was another reason why it had been harder for me.
I only knew the basics of how to swim and was far from being a professional.
“Ellen was amazing at it. She didn’t seem tired at all,” Ludwig said.
“I know, right?”
Ellen had easily finished in first place, with Ludwig coming in second. Even though Ludwig was in better physical condition, Ellen was much better at swimming. It seemed like she hardly expended any energy while moving swiftly through the water.
In third place was Scarlett, then came Vertus in fourth. I was fifth, and Delphine came in sixth. Except for Ellen and Ludwig, all of us were exhausted, and were sitting about blankly.
The fact that I had finished the course at all was a miracle in itself. I’d even had to use my supernatural powers.
“Huff... huff... huff... puff... puff...”
Thud.
Delphine, on wobbly legs and seeming as if she was about to collapse, basically crawled towards Ludwig and then flopped down beside him.
“Delphine, was it too hard for you?”
“D-don’t... speak to me...”
Delphine uttered the same words as me and then lay face down like a corpse for a while.
With the 6th place decided, all that was left was the last 7th place.
—Pwak! I, I’ve got a cramp! Keuk!
“I’ll be right there!”
Cliffman had suffered a cramp from trying to swim with brute force.
Since there was still time left before the hour was up, the physical education teacher made us swim another 1500 meters. The results were the same, except that Scarlett and Vertus switched places. Of course, since this was everyone’s second time swimming it, the times were significantly worse than the first.
The teacher finally decided we had done enough, and gave us time to rest.
“Now, you all can rest. Go ahead and swim more if you want to swim, or rest if you want to rest.”
But of course...
“Ughh...”
“After wringing us out like rags, how does he expect us to rest...?”
Splash!
Apart from Ellen and Ludwig, who dove into the 4-meter pool to swim in its depths, everyone else had had enough of the water.
***
I was supposed to start looking into that damned Demon God Cult and the revolutionary forces with Charlotte that day. However...
“Re... Reinhart... I don’t think I can do it today...”
“Yeah, I understand.”
“Maybe tomorrow... no, tomorrow seems even harder... Anyway, I’m sorry...”
“Go back and rest up.”
“Okay...”
Charlotte’s face was pale as she told me that she was done for the day and returned to the Class B dormitory, with Scarlett supporting her all the way.
In the same way that the advanced swimming course had been incredibly tough, Charlotte, who had been together with the intermediate swimmers, seemed to be completely drained of energy as well.
Though there had been an hour of free time after the actual lesson, the ones who truly managed to play were those in the beginner’s course, who only practiced floating in the water. Almost everyone else was utterly exhausted.
Of course, Ludwig went to play with them in the beginner’s pool, splashing around here and there.
The remaining plans for the day were canceled because of Charlotte’s exhaustion. The outdoor pool was available for anyone to use after class hours. Since the pool was in front of the building where the Royal Class’s common classes were held, it was possible that we would run into seniors there as well.
In any case, the important thing was not so much the swimming classes themselves, but that the pool had become available for use anytime, which meant that pool events could happen. Ludwig would likely go there often with his friends to hang out.
Life returned to its usual schedule.
More often than not, I would do physical training outside until dinner, and after dinner, I would practice swordsmanship with Ellen at the training grounds.
“... I might skip today.”
My whole body was tingling from all the swimming. It might get easier with time, but at the moment, it wasn’t.
Drip, drop...
Just then, it began to darken outside, and rain started to fall.
That seemed like a good enough excuse.
‘Let’s take a rest today.’
That was the plan, at least until I saw Ellen entering the training hall upon returning to the Class A dormitory. That changed my mind.
‘That’s right. Am I really the one who should rest? If that genius is working hard, what excuse do I have to slack off?’
I immediately changed my clothes and headed to the training grounds.
***
It felt a little different that day.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Whenever I sparred with Ellen, it was always over in a few moves. That day, though, our swords clashed numerous times, and I even managed to deflect Ellen’s downward strike and successfully pointed my sword at her neck.
“...”
It wasn’t just my steady effort that made this possible, however.
“... Are you feeling unwell today?” I asked.
Ellen did not seem like she was in her best condition. She didn’t seem to be able to concentrate. Even when I pressed forward, she parried half-heartedly and eventually lost the round to me.
“Just a little.”
Perhaps the swimming lesson today drained her stamina?
“Tired?”
But Ellen shook her head.
“No, that’s not it.”
Rumble...
Rain was pouring outside.
Come to think of it, it had also been raining the night she discreetly revealed her identity to me.
“Don’t tell me that rain makes your condition worsen.”
Ellen had seemed unusually sentimental on that particular rainy day. I never intended for Ellen to have a trait that made rain affect her negatively, but there could be aspects about her I didn’t know about.
In response to my question, Ellen shook her head.
“No, I actually like rainy days.”
If rain did not worsen her condition and she liked them, why couldn’t she concentrate?
Or was it precisely because she liked rainy days that she couldn’t focus?
“Want to take a break?”
At my question, Ellen nodded.
***
Ellen and I stepped out of the training grounds and onto an outdoor terrace. It wasn’t the teatime terrace where I often talked with Vertus, but was more like a sheltered external corridor. Since the rain didn’t reach that far in, Ellen and I found ourselves gazing at the rainy landscape, the view obscured by the downpour.
We could see students without umbrellas rushing around in the sudden rain.
Now that I was thinking about it, did this world have a rainy season or not? Since this place was so similar to Seoul, I wondered if it had a rainy season similar to the one in Korea.
The rainy season in Korea would often be around this time.
“I didn’t know you liked rainy days.”
Was she unable to concentrate on training because she wanted to watch the rainy landscape quietly?
“What about you?” Ellen asked suddenly as she quietly watched the rain fall.
I never expected such a question from Ellen.
“Me?”
“Yeah. Do you like it when it rains?”
It was quite unexpected for her to ask something like that.
“Well... I don’t think I’m particularly fond of it.”
I used to dislike rain because I feared that the rain would make me lose more of my hair, but at the moment, it hardly mattered to me.
Ellen nodded quietly and continued to stare blankly at the rainy scene.
“Are you close to Charlotte?”
“... Why bring her up all of a sudden?”
It was odd for someone who never seemed to care about my interactions with others to suddenly ask such a question.
“It’s just that I’ve seen the two of you speaking often.”
Though we weren’t extraordinarily close, Ellen must have seen Charlotte and I engaging in regular conversation several times. She probably knew that we had studied together in the Class B dormitory during the midterm period.
“I guess you could say we’re close.”
I was probably closer to her than I was to most others.
Her asking me these questions out of the blue was highly unusual.
Did she perhaps secretly care about me while pretending not to care? Was this something that slightly irked her even though she tried to appear indifferent?
Ellen turned her gaze from the rain and looked at me intently. “You guys are just close? That’s all?”
“...”
Why would she ask that? It didn’t seem like she was interrogating or pressing me for answers.
“Is there, perhaps, something more?” She asked.
“... Why do you ask?”
Was she inquiring about emotional aspects, like whether I had feelings for Charlotte? How would she react if I confirmed that?
However, I didn’t want to delve into that topic, and anyway, I didn’t feel anything else toward Charlotte.
“It’s just... all the different events that have happened along the way drew us together. But there’s nothing more than that,” I said.
“...”
Ellen lowered her head for a moment. When she lifted her head again, she looked at me quietly.
“You remind me of my brother,” she finally said.
“... What?”
I was taken aback by her sudden comment.
How could I, in any way, resemble the hero, Ragan Artorius?
Ellen was smiling.
Yet, it was the saddest expression that I had ever seen on her before.
She turned her gaze away from me and stared quietly out at the rain-drenched scenery.
“It was a rainy day like this.”
She looked like she was reminiscing about the past.
“My brother said he would be going away on a short trip. He had just returned from a long journey, but he said he would be leaving again soon. He came to say goodbye. He said that it might take a while, but that he would be back, and that there was no need to worry.”
Smiling, but unmistakably unhappy, Ellen shared that significant moment from her past with me.
“If he was going to come back, why did he leave his sword with me when he left?” She continued.
Ragan Artorius must have left to join the Great War, knowing well he might never return. Despite promising to come back, he’d left his divine sword, Lament, with Ellen, as if it were a keepsake.
She wasn’t saying that I was similar to the famous hero, Ragan Artorius. She was comparing me to her brother, Ragan Artorius.
However, it was still unclear how we resembled each other.
“He knew everything about me, but I couldn’t know anything about him. What he thought, what he intended to do, what he held precious. He didn’t share any of it.”
It was then that I began to understand why Ellen had brought this up.
Her questions about my relationship with Charlotte wasn’t her trying to pry into my feelings. She wanted to know what was the reason behind our closeness.
“I knew he cared for me and cherished me. But he never told me anything actually important.”
Ellen stared blankly at the rainy scenery.
“I don’t know anything about you,” she said.
Not long ago, Ellen had told me that she didn’t quite know who I was.
It wasn’t because Ellen was slow to catch on. She understood clearly that she genuinely didn’t know who I really was.
Since she was the closest one to me, Ellen supposedly knew the most about me.
On the contrary, because she knew me best, she was also the only one who understood that she didn’t really know anything about me at all.
Ellen hadn’t been indifferent towards me.
She had thought about me more earnestly than anyone else.
Who was Reinhart? Just an individual from the streets with supernatural powers and a pretty obnoxious temperament.
Beyond that, she knew nothing else in particular about me. Nothing about my family, my background, or my past had been disclosed.
Ellen had come to realize, after much reflection, that she truly knew nothing about me. It wasn’t just a matter of her not being able to define who I was in a philosophical way.
Realizing she didn’t know who I truly was had led her to say these things.
She also realized that I had never shared anything about myself.
Was it not because of the rain?
Was it because of me that she couldn’t focus?
Did she think there was something suspicious about me?
“... You never even asked, though,” I said.
Ellen stared at me intently in response to my feeble protest.
“If I ask, will you tell me?”
“...”
“Why do you look at Charlotte with the same eyes my brother had when he said he was leaving on a long journey? Why, if you come from such humble origins, do you know so much and can do so many varied things? Why do you train every day as if someone is after you? Why are you so anxious? If I ask this, will you tell me?”
“...”
I could give her answers, but they would all be excuses. The real truth was something I couldn’t share with anyone.
“I’m Reinhart, and I come from a group of beggars on the streets. I am being raised to be the successor of a beggars’ organization known as the Rotary Club.”
I could say this, but this was a lie.
“I am not the successor of the Rotary Club, and in fact, am the son of the Demon King. I’m integrating myself into the human world to prepare for the upcoming ‘gate’ incident by attending the Temple disguised as a student.”
This too was a lie.
“I am the creator of this world, here to receive punishment, and I know the future of this world and everything that is going to happen.
“I am the one responsible for all the sorrow you have or will experience.”
This was the truth.
I was a person surrounded by layers upon layers of lies. It was impossible to tell Ellen the whole truth.
She wouldn’t believe it anyway.
“You can’t answer, can you?” She asked.
“...”
I could see what she was thinking. “I don’t know anything about you. You don’t tell me anything. Just like my brother did.”
Charlotte might not have realized that I sometimes looked at her with a strange look in my eyes out of guilt, but Ellen had known it all along.
That was why she asked me about it.
“Why would you look at Charlotte with such eyes if you’re just friends?”
“What’s the reason for looking at Charlotte with the eyes of someone who is speaking a terrible lie?”
That was what she was asking.
“...”
I couldn’t explain anything to her.
If she had already understood me to such an extent, she would see through any half-hearted lie anyway.
Ellen was still looking at me quietly.
“That’s why you remind me of my brother.”
Someone who cared about her but didn’t share anything important with her. Unlike the hero Artorius everyone praised, Ellen’s brother Artorius was such a person.
“That’s the feeling I get.” She continued, still looking at me. “The feeling that you, like my brother, might suddenly disappear.”
If the situation turned dire, that might actually happen. If it was discovered that I was a demon, I might have to disappear from the imperial capital. I might not even get the chance to say goodbye to anyone.
It seemed Ellen had thought a lot about me, and eventually ended up feeling that I was no different from her brother.
“I don’t want to go through that again,” she said.
The thought of me disappearing suddenly was merely Ellen’s imagination.
But I knew that this could indeed happen. Hence, I couldn’t assure her that it would never occur.
At that moment, it felt as if any words I said to her would be seen as a lie.
Ellen did not ask about the secrets I was hiding. Perhaps she thought that I wouldn’t answer her even if she asked.
Ellen smiled at me.
“Actually, I hate rainy days.” There was no reason for Ellen to like the rain that fell on the day her brother left.
“I dislike people like you.”
After that, Ellen stopped coming to the training grounds.
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