Chapter 194

Summer break.

My short, fifteen-day vacation had come to an end.

'It was only fifteen days, but it feels like a month has passed...'

Maybe it was because I'd spent such an intense stretch of time.

It had been so packed that its brevity barely registered.

I'd passed through the sky island, stopped Blue Night, secured Lefil, and even recruited Lefil as an informant in the end...

It felt like I'd done nothing but work during my vacation, but it had been rewarding in its own way.

'Better to overwork myself in peace than rest while anxious.'

By the time I returned to the academy, the sweltering season seemed to be slowly retreating.

As summer departed, a cool autumn breeze began to slip in.

The falling temperature made the passage of time feel real.

Surrounded by autumn leaves turning red and gold, I crossed the tree-lined path and thought,

'Has it already been eight months?'

Eight months since I'd possessed this body.

To use a tired expression, it had been long in some ways and short in others.

My life had begun in spring, passed through summer, and reached autumn.

Winter, which still awaited me, would arrive in a few months as well.

So much had happened, yet I still couldn't believe a year hadn't even passed.

Whoosh-.

A refreshing breeze tousled my hair.

With the scent of autumn in the air, I walked through the academy streets.

"The weather's nice..."

I was alone.

It had been a while since I'd savored this kind of quiet.

I enjoyed spending time with the others, but I needed moments like this too.

Humans were animals who couldn't endure loneliness, yet spent their whole lives loving it.

"Hey! We're late! We have to run to the next classroom!"

"Come with me! I didn't even bring my textbook!"

As I walked, students' chatter drifted around me.

The ordinary noise curled gently around my ears.

Calm, comforting sounds:

"Ah... School's already starting? What kind of break is only fifteen days long?"

"Quit whining. The autumn festival's coming up soon, isn't it?"

"Forget the festival, extend the vacation..."

"What should we have for lunch...?"

"Come with me. We'll just grab something at the restaurants nearby."

"That professor's completely nuts, I swear. Filling every minute of class on the first day back..."

"...Hey, the professor's still behind you."

"I was just trying to turn that into a twenty-five-syllable acrostic poem, sir."

The passing scenery was peaceful.

So many students crossed my field of vision, chatting about this and that.

I even ran into quite a few familiar faces.

Sometimes I greeted them first, and sometimes they greeted me.

"What? It's the top student of Class E!"

"You bastard! You stole the young lady from us...!"

"Thanks to you, Class A is Class A without its top student! Do you know how much the academy's been making fun of us lately?"

"Take responsibility and join Class A with the young lady! You're the top student of the year, so why do you keep hanging around Class E?"

"Come quietly to Class A... No, please join Class A. Please! I don't want to hear people call us Class A in name only anymore!"

The Class A students noisily swarmed around me.

At the beginning of the semester, they had acted like final bosses. Now, they seemed to have fully embraced being comic relief.

Lately, they had often pestered me to join Class A like this.

"......"

"......"

"Ah, it's been a while, everyone from Class B."

"......"

"......"

"Everyone?"

The Class B students nearby lowered their eyes and passed by.

They seemed especially afraid of me, even among the first-years.

They had acted like that ever since I led their Idolz activities a few months ago.

I'd clearly made them shine so brightly, yet they ignored my goodwill and kept avoiding me...

'How ungrateful.'

I should pick a day and plan Class B Idolz Season 2.

The last people to greet me were the students from Class E.

They still called me by strange titles.

"Boss!"

"Did you enjoy good health over the break!"

"Big brother! We were just talking about you!"

The kids came rushing over in a crowd.

I responded to every bit of their noisy enthusiasm.

"I'm glad to see you too."

It felt warm.

At first, the academy had seemed stifling and inhuman, steeped in elitism. Yet I'd grown attached to even a place like this. I'd come to love it.

It felt like home.

"It's nice to be back."

These were all scenes I had protected.

This place and these people should have collapsed under disaster. Instead, they stood here unharmed, laughing and chatting as they lived their ordinary lives. Walking through the academy made that fact sink in.

That was why I liked taking walks.

They let me linger in the afterglow of an ending that had changed.

"Fuu..."

After spending the day like that, I returned to the dormitory.

The others were waiting for me inside.

Gathering in my room had become as natural as a daily routine.

The only unusual thing was what they said to me the moment I returned.

"Viktor... Starting now, Viktor must drink with us."

"Pardon?"

An utterly unexpected situation awaited me in my room.

* * *

"Drinking? All of a sudden?"

"That is correct."

"Enough. You don't get a choice. Come sit down."

"V-Viktor... We've all been waiting for you to come back..."

The moment I returned to the dormitory, I was suddenly invited to a drinking party.

All I could do was stare in confusion.

The others were gathered around the sofas in the living room.

The table in front of them was piled high with brand-new bottles of expensive liquor.

"Well..."

There was nothing inherently wrong with it.

Everyone in our group was old enough to drink under Imperial law.

What flustered me was the drinking party itself, regardless of whether it was permitted.

'What is this? Did everyone like drinking?'

It wasn't even a matter of liking or disliking it.

If I remembered correctly, their only experience with alcohol was getting dead drunk on the liquor Lua had mistakenly brought on the school trip.

"Dad! You're back!"

"Yes, I'm back."

I picked up the bouncing Lua and fell into thought.

Maybe they hadn't been able to forget the taste from then?

Was that why this sudden drinking party had come together?

'And every bottle looks expensive...'

The liquor looked like it cost several million won per bottle.

My thoughts only grew more complicated.

'Where did they even get liquor this high-end...?'

My head was full of question marks.

Then the others began offering explanations.

"Well... Didn't we just get through a major incident? So we thought it would be nice to drink together in celebration..."

"Yes! We spend so much time together, but, um, we've never enjoyed this sort of indulgence among ourselves before!"

"I-I think it's a good idea too..."

"I told you, you don't get a choice. Sit down quietly and take a glass."

"Yeah. I like it too. If Viktor likes it, then anything is fine."

"I feel the same way, as long as Student Viktor is all right with it..."

The atmosphere was strangely awkward.

Their stiff reactions made it seem as though they were hiding something.

'What is going on?'

The most suspicious part was that Javert was among them.

'Anyone else, maybe, but Javert...?'

Even though she had softened somewhat, Javert was by-the-book to the core.

She normally didn't touch alcohol, or even a drop of any other drink.

Javert offering me liquor was about as impossible as Alice speaking without stuttering.

"Hmm..."

Before long, though, my question was answered.

Their thoughts came through the contract.

[I've never had alcohol in my life, but still... I want to see Student Viktor drunk...]

[Ugh, I feel like I've fallen for Student Caitlin's scheme...]

It seemed Caitlin was behind this whole incident.

She had likely tempted the others by asking whether they wanted to see me drunk.

Apparently, she still hadn't gotten over the proper dressing-down I'd given her for her drunken behavior during the school trip.

[We brought out all the liquor I've received as gifts from various places...]

[Is this too much? I only brought the strong stuff.]

The story behind the expensive liquor came out next.

They were bottles Javert had received as gifts from all sorts of places.

It seemed she had brought out every bottle that had simply been sitting around untouched.

Some even bore the imperial seal.

'Can we really drink this...?'

The thought crossed my mind for a moment.

Still, I couldn't turn away from the expectant looks in their eyes.

With reluctant resignation, I took off the mask I had been wearing.

"Well... Shall we just have a light drink to celebrate?"

"Good. A guy who backs out now isn't a man."

"You seem strangely excited, Miss Caitlin."

"Who knows? Maybe I am."

The others' eyes sparkled.

I accepted a glass and sat at one end of the sofa.

"I'll have a drink."

"Yes! I shall pour for Sir Viktor."

Glug, glug, glug-.

The glass filled, and the scent of alcohol spread through the air.

The smell alone was strong enough to remind me of the others' alcohol tolerance during the school trip.

'They'll be fine, right?'

A brief worry rose in me, but I quickly shook it off.

Javert was here too.

If things became too heated, she would stop them.

'I just need to be careful. I'll pace myself and make sure I don't get drunk.'

I brushed aside my stray thoughts and turned the glass in my hand.

It felt cold against my palm.

"Ahem... Shall we make a toast, then?"

Come on.

What could possibly happen?

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