3: Knowing Calamity, What Does the Traitor’s Back See?

Early the next morning, Kanata Age woke with the rising sun. Changing into a tracksuit, he headed out into the crisp morning air for a run. Before long, greenery began to appear along both sides of the paved path. This winding road through the forest encircling the training grounds was his favorite jogging course.

“U-Umm… Good morning, Kanata-san!”

“Hm? Why, if it isn’t Lecty. Wait, have you been matching my pace for a while now?”

Hearing a voice call out from behind him, Kanata glanced over his shoulder to find Lecty trotting up beside him.

Over her form-fitting Inner Suit, she wore a simple white shirt. The snug black fabric beneath was already wicking away the sweat beading across her skin.

“Huh. I thought somebody was keeping pace behind me, but I didn’t expect it to be you. Calling out to me on your own is pretty rare, too. Did you need something from me?”

“…Y-Yes! Umm… I-I’m so sorry to bother you in the middle of your training!”

“Don’t tell me Misora barging into your dorm room has made things awkward for you?”

“N-No, nothing like that… at all!”

Having blown up her own house in the middle of battle, a certain unfilial daughter was currently freeloading in Lecty’s dorm room.

“Hmm… Something else, then. Wait—is it your forehead where you bonked it on my lectern yesterday?”

Kanata leaned in close—close enough that their breaths brushed against each other.

With the face of her respected instructor suddenly inches away, Lecty bashfully averted her eyes.

“Hm? What’s wrong? Is something still hurting?”

“K-Kanata-san! U-Umm…”

“? What’s the matter, Lecty? Are you hiding an injury?”

“N-No, that’s not it! U-Umm… s-sweat!”

Flustered as she was by how close Kanata’s face had come, Lecty was even more mortified by the thought of how sweaty she was. For some reason, she couldn’t bear the idea of Kanata smelling her sweat.

Around Misora or Rico, it wouldn’t have bothered her in the slightest…

“Ah, my bad… Wait, do I reek of sweat right now?”

“N-No, not you… Umm, I-I’m the one who’s sweating buckets right now… so, umm… d-do I smell bad?!”

“Doesn’t bother me one bit. After all, your sweat’s just proof of how hard you’ve been working, isn’t it?”

As he leaned in even closer, Kanata’s face filled Lecty’s entire field of vision.

For a split second, she thought the tips of their noses had brushed together.

“…Yeah, looks like your forehead’s fine.”

She was anything but fine. Turning an even deeper shade of crimson, Lecty stared down at the ground.

“U-Umm… K-Kanata-san!”

“What is it? Feeling under the weather after all?”

“N-No, that’s not what I meant! U-Umm… there’s something I wanted to consult you about regarding our special training… W-Well… d-does training like that really have any effect?!”

As the troubled girl finally blurted out her question, Kanata’s expression grew slightly solemn.

“Hmm. Well, come with me for a sec.”

Following his lead, Lecty stepped just off the running road and sat down on the grass, while Kanata dropped down onto the lawn right beside her.

“Umm… Just like when you converted Misora-san to Mid-Guard before, are you trying to increase the number of positions each of us can play?”

Huh. So Lecty figured that being able to play multiple roles was how they’d get stronger.

“Even if we tried to add another Vanguard so we could use Two-Top dual-vanguard tactics, I think that would be… really tough for Misora-san. And even if I play Rearguard, there’s a limit to how much covering support I can provide with close-quarters weapons like my Magic Dual Swords—so our platoon won’t get any stronger that way! Trying to expand our positions is, umm… asking the impossible, isn’t it?”

Perhaps conscious that she was criticizing her instructor’s methods, an apologetic hesitance colored every word she spoke.

Naturally, Kanata wasn’t the sort of man to take offense at something like that.

“Huh, you’ve really been paying attention. Good girl, good girl.”

As if to cheer up the dejected girl, he reached over and ruffled her blonde bangs until they were thoroughly mussed.

“A-Auugh… K-Kanata-san!”

Right away, Lecty let out a tiny squeak, half embarrassed and half delighted.

“You hit the nail on the head, Lecty. Expecting Misora to perform the same Vanguard role as you—the heir to Eisenach-Style Magic Dual-Swordsmanship—is flat-out impossible.”

“Th-Then shouldn’t we call off that special training right away and—”

“Hmm, sorry, but I’m not calling it off.”

He replied evenly to the dumbfounded girl.

“Your observations were sharp, Lecty, but your conclusion’s off the mark. I’ve got a completely different goal in mind for this special training.”

“Uuugh… I-Is that so…”

“Still, you’re getting pretty close to the answer.”

Rising to his feet, Kanata brushed the grass off the seat of his tracksuit pants.

“Looks like putting you through this regimen is already paying off a bit. Plus, you’ve been keeping up with your daily conditioning seriously, too. Just like I said yesterday, you girls have the potential to become way stronger than you are right now.”

Eh? ‘Just like I said yesterday’…? Lecty’s eyes went wide.

Wait—don’t tell me Kanata-san—?!

“Alright, I’ve gotta finish my run, so I’ll catch you later.”

“W-Wait a second, Kanata-san! What do you mean, ‘just like I said yesterday’…? Don’t tell me you knew we were there in the café?!”

Jogging away with his back to her, Kanata definitely had to have heard her shout.

Yet without a single word, he pretended not to hear and continued down the path.

Think, Lecty. Think as hard as you can.

Figure out what it takes for you girls to grow stronger.

Watching his retreating back grow smaller in the distance, she felt as though it were saying those very words to her.

∆∆∆

Returning to the dormitory after his run, Kanata showered off his sweat, grabbed a light breakfast, changed into his school uniform, and headed out for class. On his way through the Dormitory Lounge, he spotted Chloe paging through a stack of documents with a troubled frown.

“Hm? You’ve got dark circles under your eyes. Did something happen last night?”

“Ugh! So it really does show… Don’t stare at me so closely. Anyway, take a look at this.”

“…Huh. Another assault last night?”

While Kanata skimmed through the report she handed him, Chloe stifled a sleepy yawn.

The fatigue from her late-night security patrols was clearly catching up with her.

“Just like the previous cases, the culprit stopped short of taking the victim’s life, but…”

“The attacks are getting more brutal each time, aren’t they?”

“Yeah. Maybe because the culprit keeps targeting skilled close-quarters fighters who are harder to subdue cleanly, last night’s victim required emergency surgery.”

Once again, the culprit remained unidentified—a shadowy figure whispered about among the students as the Phantom.

Every member of the Royal Guard except Kanata had apparently been mobilized for security patrols, yet they still hadn’t managed to pin down the perpetrator’s identity.

“Wait, Yuri’s doing security patrols too? Isn’t she busy serving as an instructor right now?”

“Yeah, she squeezes them in between classes during the day. Naturally, I couldn’t drag her into the late-night patrols too. I told her she didn’t need to help, but she insisted, ‘If Chloe-senpai is patrolling, then so am I.’”

“Sigh… She’s always been dutiful to a fault like that.”

Yesterday’s black coffee incident had been the exact same story. Hating bitter things as much as she did, there had been zero need for Yuri to force herself to match Kanata’s order…

Glancing up at the wall clock, he saw the hour hand pointing to seven.

Alright, if she’s coming, she ought to be showing up right about now. Kanata turned his gaze toward the hallway leading from the girls’ dormitory wing.

“Why are you staring toward the girls’ wing like that? If you’re looking for Yuri, she already finished breakfast and left for school. She said she was holding an early-morning meeting with her platoon…”

“Nah, nothing to do with Yuri. The girl showing up today is clumsy, thickheaded, and constantly spinning her wheels…”

Right on cue—

A crimson-haired girl in a Preparatory Course uniform came pounding noisily down the corridor toward the cafeteria, spotted Kanata sitting in the lounge, and made a beeline straight for him.

Slamming both hands down onto the table with a loud wham!, she leaned in.

“I get that you’re serious about helping us win! But that and this are two different things! Let’s do the kind of super-advanced training that the Royal Guard uses!”

Brimming with misplaced enthusiasm, Misora pleaded her case at top volume.

Wish there were a way to dial down her volume a notch, Kanata thought, wearing a thoroughly bothered look.

“How many times do I have to tell you that’s impossible? Instead of trying to copy everyone else, we’ve gotta do the training that fits where you guys are right now.”

Back at the café yesterday, he had praised E601 loud enough for them to overhear in order to give their confidence a boost.

On Misora, however, the medicine seemed to have worked a little too well.

“Look, you’re awfully fired up here, but aren’t you getting the wrong idea about something?”

“Wh-What do you mean, ‘getting the wrong idea’…?”

“Getting stronger takes effort, sure, but training that doesn’t match your current level won’t produce squat. Look at your Magic Swordsmanship drills before—all they did was wear you out without producing a shred of progress, right?”

“B-But still…! Doing weird training like yesterday’s won’t teach us any new skills at all! …Besides, isn’t special training supposed to be grueling and harsh?!”

“Grueling and harsh, huh… Tell me something: is doing training like that actually fun for you?”

“It’s not a question of whether it’s fun or not! To get stronger, the only way forward is to grit your teeth through the pain and claw your way up!”

Then, lowering her gaze slightly, Misora added in a quieter voice,

“If we don’t do that, it’s not just me… I won’t be able to get stronger together with everyone in the platoon!”

Her honest feelings slipped out.

It wasn’t just for her own sake—she wanted to keep growing stronger together with the squadmates she had right now.

Huh. So you were making all this noise because you’re thinking about your squadmates, Misora… Not just for herself, but wanting to grow stronger alongside her comrades—he liked that spirit of hers.

…Except for the part where she’s completely spinning her wheels, anyway.

“Man, I really hate that old-school meathead mentality where people think you only get stronger in proportion to how much you suffer…”

Misora’s face soured into a sullen pout.

Still, that reaction was well within his expectations. As her instructor, Kanata guided her toward what mattered.

“Instead of training where you only get stronger by suffering, don’t you think you’ll grow way faster with training where you get stronger the more you enjoy it? If something isn’t fun, you can’t keep it up for long, right?”

“Even if you tell me to enjoy yesterday’s training, how am I supposed to do that…? Besides, Yuri-san’s platoon looked like they were doing super advanced drills!”

“Our special training isn’t about adding new tactical patterns like Yuri’s platoon is doing. We’re aiming for something completely different.”

“U-Umm… Do you really, truly have a goal in mind?! I don’t want you getting fired like this! …There’s still so much more I, u-umm… want to learn from you!”

Stammering in embarrassment, Misora blurted out the words.

Truth be told, she was worried sick about Kanata.

“Who knows? Figuring out how this platoon can grow stronger is the homework I gave you guys, isn’t it?”

“B-But if we lose because of that, you’ll get fired…”

“I won’t get fired. Because you guys are gonna win for me, right?”

Though he tossed the line out lightly, there wasn’t a shred of flippancy in his voice.

He genuinely believed it. Sensing that instinctively, Misora blinked—then caught herself with a start.

“…Where on earth does that confidence of yours even come from?!”

“Hm? From believing in you guys, obviously.”

“~~~~~!”

“Seems to me you still don’t fully trust me yet, Misora, but I believe in all three of you. I seriously think you can win this. So even if you think you’re being duped, how about trusting me and sticking with my special training? Once you get through this regimen, you’ll have what it takes to fight a B-Rank platoon on even ground.”

“…Fine. I get it.”

It took a long beat before Misora answered. Countless thoughts were doubtless racing through her head. Kanata was branded a traitor, impossible to pin down, and frankly shady as hell. Yet when the chips were down, he had put his own body on the line to shield them, and as an instructor he had proven himself utterly sincere.

Not just empty words—an unwavering readiness to stake his life on what he believed in.

That single truth outweighed every doubt in her mind.

“I still have no clue what’s going through your head half the time, but even so… I’ll believe in you too.”

Leaving him with those words, Misora turned and hurried off toward the dormitory cafeteria once more.

As the tense exchange between instructor and student came to a close, Chloe—who had been watching quietly without interjecting a single word—spoke up in high spirits.

“Hehe. Just what sort of training are you putting those girls through?”

The reason Chloe hadn’t stepped in to defend or vouch for Kanata was simple: she trusted him completely.

Trust. No more, no less.

The very thing Misora’s platoon still lacked.

“Sounds like you’re running a pretty interesting training regimen.”

“Hm? Don’t go making random claims when you haven’t even seen it for yourself.”

“True, I haven’t seen it.”

Chloe let slip an angelic smile.

“Even so, if it’s training designed by you, Kanata, I know I can trust it. Compared to ordinary drills, yours always sound like so much fun.”

∆∆∆

Lunch break. Lecty made her way down to the student cafeteria on the ground floor of the main schoolhouse.

Ordinarily, she would have pulled her desk together with Misora and Rico to eat lunch in the classroom, but unfortunately she had forgotten her lunch basket at the dorm this morning. Her roommate Misora had offered to share a sandwich she had bought from the school store—“Here, you can have half of mine…”—but ever-diffident Lecty had politely declined.

For the past few days, Misora had been wolfing down her lunch at top speed and immediately rushing off somewhere on her own, only returning to the platoon room right before the bell rang to end lunch break.

Under the circumstances, Lecty figured she shouldn’t impose on her.

Leaving the classroom and heading down the stairs, Lecty arrived at the ground-floor cafeteria.

Rows of long tables capable of seating hundreds of students at a time were arranged neatly across the hall, packed with students chatting and laughing over their meals.

Lecty spotted the line of students queuing along the serving counter to pick up their ordered dishes.

Instead of joining the line, however, she stood staring into her open coin purse.

Just then, a wonderful aroma wafted across the room, tickling her nostrils. Sniff, sniff. Sniff, sniff.

What is that mouthwatering, rich scent?

Drawn by the appetizing aroma drifting from beyond the counter, Lecty wove her way through the crowd of students—

Only for a familiar voice to call out to her.

“Oh, if it isn’t Lecty.”

Standing behind the serving counter like a floor manager overseeing the lunch rush was Kanata, with a crew of roughly ten cafeteria staffers working under his direction.

“K-Kanata-san?! What on earth are you doing back there?!”

“Oh, the Logistics Department asks me to lend a hand here every now and then. So, what’ll it be? Today’s daily special—the beef stew set?”

“U-Umm… Actually, well… I don’t have much money with me today, so I was looking for something cheap…”

Looking terribly apologetic, Lecty tapped the tips of her index fingers together.

From that gesture alone, Kanata immediately grasped her entire predicament.

“Gotcha. In that case, why don’t you come back here and lend us a hand for a bit?”

Ducking under the Staff Only partition bar, Lecty stepped behind the serving counter. Following Kanata down a short corridor, she arrived at a combined break room and locker room adjacent to the kitchen. Pulling open a locker door, Kanata showed her two uniforms hanging inside.

“Alright, we’ve got waitress cosplay and chef cosplay. Which one do you want?”

“Th-Those aren’t cosplay… Th-They’re real work uniforms, aren’t they?!”

After agonizing over the choice for a long moment, she picked the waitress uniform.

∆∆∆

“…Y-You handle this entire crowd of students with only ten people?!”

A sea of students packing the dining hall was surging toward the counter all at once. Handling a crowd of this size with a staff of ten seemed completely unthinkable to Lecty.

Kanata, however, saw it differently.

‘Only’ ten people, huh.

The staffers working here were the kitchen crew Kanata had personally trained over the past six months while helping out the Logistics Department. Without a hint of panic or confusion, they were processing the mountain of incoming orders like clockwork.

One staffer ladled steaming beef stew from the kitchen stockpot, another plated the freshly baked bread and seafood salad, and a third arranged the dishes onto a tray and slid it across the counter to the waiting student.

From the moment an order was placed, the entire sequence took barely a dozen seconds.

“A-Awawa! K-Kanata-san! Everyone is moving like a flowing river!”

Like a veteran platoon of Sky Wizards brushing aside an oncoming swarm of Armored Insects, the kitchen crew moved without a single wasted motion.

“S-So, umm… what should I do to help?!”

“Hm? You’re wearing the uniform, so you can figure that out without me spelling it out, right?”

“I-I can’t possibly do that! I-I’ll only get in everyone’s way!”

“You’ll be fine. Give it a shot, and if it looks like you can’t handle it, I’ll step in.”

Kanata gave her a gentle pat on the back to send her out, but—

“U-Umm…”

Lecty let out a tiny, helpless whimper. Shrinking into a corner of the kitchen so she wouldn’t get in anyone’s way, all she could do was watch the other waitresses briskly carrying trays back and forth. Having no idea where to start, she had stumbled right out of the gate.

Thrown into an unfamiliar role, she didn’t know what to do—the exact same problem she had run into during yesterday’s special training.

“Uuugh… K-Kanata-saaaaan!”

She let out a pitiful cry, a few tears brimming at the corners of her eyes out of sheer frustration at how useless she felt.

Right away, Kanata tossed her a lifeline.

“Try looking around you a little more closely.”

“A-Around me…?”

“Yep. Whenever you’re stuck, shift your gaze a bit and observe what’s going on around you. There’s only so much you can do on your own anyway. So ask yourself: out of the things you can do right now, what would help this staff the most?”

Doing as she was told, Lecty looked carefully around the kitchen and counter.

Inside the kitchen, six cooks were plating and cooking with practiced efficiency, while at the counter the waitresses were relaying incoming orders briskly back to the line. Not a single person hesitated in their movements; their speed was far beyond anything Lecty could hope to imitate right away.

Even so, she spotted something she could do.

Clenching the hem of her apron skirt in both hands, she stepped up to the counter to follow their example.

“U-Umm… Wh-What would you like to order today?!”

Tapping her fingertips together, Lecty peered up at the customer through teary, upturned eyes.

She looked devastatingly cute.

Unfamiliar with the work though she was, the sight of her trying her utmost left a warm impression on everyone in line. One after another, hungry students began placing their orders with her.

Jotting the orders down on her notepad as fast as her hand could move, she hurried back toward the kitchen.

“E-Excuse me! O-One beef stew set, u-umm…”

Called out to by the flustered Lecty, a passing waitress glanced at her dubiously.

“N-Never mind! It’s nothing at all!”

C-Calm down, me…!

Blurting an order out to a waitress who already had her hands full would only earn her a brush-off. Lecty peered into the kitchen instead.

There, she noticed one of the six cooks standing in front of the large beef stew stockpot, focused exclusively on ladling portions into bowls.

“U-Umm… One order for the beef stew set, please!”

Calling out the order in a squeaky voice, she received the plated tray from the cook and hurried back out to the counter with it.

Heh. She’s looking around her pretty well now.

Watching from a short distance away, Kanata let the corner of his mouth curl upward.

That was the observational eye she had honed as a Sky Wizard.

So long as she calmed down enough to look, she could read who was doing what all around her.

Now, if she can just apply this to our special training this afternoon, she’ll be golden…

Thinking that to himself, he kept watch over Lecty. After a while, she trotted back over to him and gave a polite little bow.

“K-Kanata-san! E-Excuse me, may I ask you a question?!”

“Hm? What’s on your mind?”

“How is everyone working here able to move so briskly and smoothly together?!”

“Who knows? Well, the goal of the kitchen crew here is to serve food quickly and accurately, right?”

Kanata shifted his gaze toward the staffers working away across the kitchen.

“When people who share the exact same goal come together and keep putting in the effort, results naturally follow, don’t they? Even these guys are just watching what’s going on around them and doing the best they can with their own roles.”

Wait… Did he just tell me something super important right now…?

Having struggled to produce results during yesterday’s special training, Lecty couldn’t shake the feeling that there was a deeper meaning hidden beneath Kanata’s casual words.

Around them, the kitchen crew continued taking orders, cooking, and plating in seamless rhythm, keeping the long line of students moving without a single bottleneck.

Before long, the head of the student kitchen crew walked over to Kanata.

“Kanata-san, we’re safely past today’s lunch peak now, so you can leave the rest to us.”

“Gotcha. I’ll leave it in your hands, then.”

“““““Thank you for your hard work todaaaay!”””””

Every staffer with a free hand turned toward Kanata and bowed deeply in unison.

Just who in the world is Kanata-san, really?

In the Guardian Department he was treated like a pariah and a traitor, and across the Academy Floating City his terrible reputation never seemed to die down.

And yet… here among the Logistics Department students, he was treated with unmistakable respect.

“Go ahead and pick whatever dish you’d like, Lecty.”

“Eh?! B-But I barely did anything to help out today…”

Lecty glanced timidly toward the kitchen staff.

The crew leader offered her a warm smile.

“Any student of Kanata-san’s is always welcome here. Just let us know what you’d like.”

“N-No, I couldn’t possibly, u-umm… Th-Thank you very much! Then I’ll have the beef stew set, please…”

Moments later, a steaming, fragrant bowl of beef stew sat on the table before her.

Treated to an unexpected windfall, Lecty was in heaven from the very first spoonful, the rich flavor nearly melting her cheeks off. Beaming with a blissful smile, she enjoyed her lunch alongside Kanata.

∆∆∆

Altitude 4,000 meters above Mistgun. The Third Training Airspace.

To make matters worse, today’s lot-drawing had placed both Misora and Rico in the Vanguard—the worst possible pairing.

“N-No way! Why aren’t any of my shots hitting at all…?!”

“…Draw them in closer before you aim. That is precisely why you ended up bombarding your own house.”

“U-Umm, Misora-san, Rico-san! P-Please don’t fight!”

“Wh-What was that, Rico?! What about you, huh?! You’re probably just floundering around in an unfamiliar Vanguard role yourself—”

“Hmph. I have already shot down five targets. Do you have any questions?”

“U-Umm, Misora-san, Rico-san, a-are you listening to me?! Fighting isn’t good!”

“(Grrrrr!) H-Hey, R-Rico! There’s an enemy right below you—!”

“Hmm, so there is. I shall leave it to you, Misora.”

“Eh…?! Wh-Why aren’t you shooting it when you’re the closest one to it?!”

“I have already met my quota. Doing any more would tire me out, so you handle the rest.”

“Y-You little~~~~~!”

“A-Are either of you listening to me…?! I-I’m still back here too, you know!”

Viewed from the Rearguard, the two girls up in the Vanguard looked painfully unreliable.

To Lecty—who had the most experience playing Vanguard—the sight was doubly nerve-racking.

The Vanguard’s primary role was to draw the enemy’s attention onto themselves while whittling down the enemy’s numbers aggressively.

In other words—acting as the tip of the spear.

Yet Misora was simply firing wildly in every direction without landing a single hit on the Achernar-class Dummy Birds.

As for Rico… as usual, she was keeping her movements to the barest minimum.

Because she fired strictly according to her own personal rules, her attacks lacked Misora’s aggressive momentum.

Even so, she picked her spots with pinpoint precision, landing every shot right where it counted.

Leaving aside Rico-san, who is at least getting results, what Misora-san is doing isn’t how a Vanguard moves at all…

Lecty’s eyebrows drooped into a helpless, dejected frown.

“Hm? Something the matter, Lecty?”

Not missing her expression, Kanata called out from atop his Broom. Today he was observing the entire exercise from the Rearguard airspace.

“U-Umm… The Vanguard is supposed to be the point attacker who cuts down the enemy’s numbers. Yet what the two of them are doing up there is a little…”

“Huh. So that’s how it looks to you.”

Though his reply sounded nonchalant, a conspicuous grin tugged at his lips.

Heh. Looks like Lecty’s just about ready to figure it out, too.

“Umm, Kanata-san…”

“What’s up?”

“Playing Rearguard is… really nerve-racking, isn’t it?”

Heh, now that’s a sharp realization…

“Sure is. The Rearguard is the last line of defense—you can’t afford to let a single enemy slip past you. So if you can’t trust your Vanguard and Mid-Guard ahead of you, you’re left feeling awfully exposed back here.”

Directly behind the Rearguard lay the Floating City they were sworn to protect. Imagining what it would feel like in real combat if she couldn’t trust the squadmates flying ahead of her made Lecty shiver. So Rico-san—our Rearguard—has been facing this kind of pressure every single match.

The Rearguard was primarily responsible for defense and long-range support. Because a Rearguard only needed to focus forward and had a clear, unobstructed view across the entire combat zone, it was easy to see exactly how one’s squadmates were moving.

Misora’s artillery fire was erratic.

Frustration was filling her flight path with wasted motion, and her own breakneck speed was actively throwing off her aim.

Rico’s shooting showed very little enthusiasm.

Even so, her whimsical shots were unerringly striking enemy weak points at every critical juncture.

Inevitably, however, gaps began opening here and there along the mismatched Vanguard duo’s defensive line, allowing several Dummy Birds to slip through toward the Rearguard airspace.

Even as they closed in, Lecty kept thinking hard about the nature of the Rearguard position.

She racked her brains with everything she had.

Wait… Could it be that Rico-san keeps her rate of fire so low because she’s prioritizing pinpoint accuracy above all else?

Normally, Rico gave the impression of firing purely on a whim whenever she felt like it. Yet for a Rearguard, if every single shot wasn’t a guaranteed hit, enemies would slip past the final line of defense—putting the Floating City itself in danger. In other words, Rico-san was actually…

“Hm? Sure you want to just stand there doing nothing, Lecty?”

With a start, Lecty snapped back to her senses.

Seeing the Dummy Birds fanning out right in front of her nose, she blurted out,

“U-Umm… Kanata-san! M-May we please take a short break?!”

One look at the determined light shining in the depths of her blue eyes made it clear she wasn’t asking for a break just to catch her breath.

Huh. Looks like she’s got an idea.

When one of his students was about to try something interesting on her own initiative, Kanata wasn’t boorish enough to pry or get in her way.

∆∆∆

During the break. The forest encircling the training grounds.

Beneath the dappled sunlight filtering through the deep green canopy,

“U-Umm! Misora-san!”

“…Wh-What is it?”

Having failed to produce the results she wanted, Misora was sitting in a gloomy slump.

Playing Vanguard right alongside Rico had forced her to witness the gulf between their marksmanship up close. Frankly, her own helplessness left her feeling frustrated, ashamed, and—above all—pathetic.

Precisely because she had been giving it her all, her own inadequacy stung all the worse.

Had she been slacking off, she could at least have comforted herself with the excuse that she hadn’t been trying her hardest.

Poking at the dirt with a fallen twig, she let out a heavy sigh.

So even someone as energetic as Misora-san gets down like this sometimes, Lecty realized, discovering an unexpected side of her squadmate.

Wondering how best to cheer up someone who was feeling down, she mustered all her energy and called out brightly.

“You really are amazing, Misora-san!”

“…What part of me was amazing out there?”

“Keeping up such intense, high-speed flight while firing off Magic Cannon blasts non-stop—there’s no way I could ever imitate something like that.”

“…………”

“That’s why I think you’re truly amazing, Misora-san. Honestly, I felt really envious watching you.”

Misora’s hand, which had been listlessly scratching at the dirt with her twig, froze on the spot.

“D-Do you really mean that? You’re envious of me?”

“Yes…”

After a brief pause, Misora slowly sat up straight.

“H-Hey… Lecty, do you really think I’m amazing?”

Wearing a faint, uncertain smile, she asked the question in a small voice.

She looked as vulnerable as an abandoned puppy.

Even Misora—no, precisely because she was Misora—was practically drowning in anxiety beneath her bravado.

“Your Flight Magecraft is first-rate, Misora-san. Including your immense magic capacity, I truly admire you.”

Though the words had tumbled out on the spur of the moment, coming from someone as artless as Lecty, every syllable was the honest truth.

She simply wasn’t clever enough to invent flattering lies on the spot in a situation like this.

And Misora could tell that immediately.

“Hearing you say that makes me really happy, Lecty…! I’ve always had confidence in my Flight Magecraft, at least—even if Rico constantly makes fun of my aim…”

“O-On that note, Misora-san! A-Actually… there’s a way for you to shine in the next exercise! You see…”

Seizing that opening, Lecty shared what she had noticed while observing from the Rearguard—

How to engage when multiple targets closed in at once, how to time her artillery blasts effectively, and how to move in a way that made it easier for the Mid-Guard and Rearguard to protect the city behind them… Every word was packed with the condensed know-how Lecty had accumulated through her extensive experience as a Vanguard.

“Eh?! So that’s how it works…?!”

“Y-Yes! Umm… I-I’m so sorry for speaking out of turn!”

“You don’t have anything to apologize for, Lecty… If anything, I’m the one who should apologize for flying around so carelessly out there. I’ll be more careful on the next run. If you notice anything else from now on, please tell me everything, okay?”

Perhaps warmed by the bright smile Misora gave her at the end, Lecty found her own face breaking into a happy beam.

Together, the two girls walked back toward the benches near the training grounds where Kanata and Rico were waiting.

Come to think of it, why did I notice the difference between Misora-san and Rico-san so clearly today?

Her lunchtime shift in the student cafeteria flashed across her mind.

That’s right—it was because Kanata-san taught me to consciously look around me as I moved…

Because she had paid attention to her surroundings, she had naturally started noticing how her squadmates moved and struggled.

Still, helping out in the cafeteria had only been a stepping stone to give her that initial hint. The passing condition for this special training was the same as yesterday’s…

Come to think of it, until today she had always kept her eyes glued strictly ahead of her—because she was the Vanguard.

So preoccupied with the enemies darting right in front of her nose, she had never spared a single glance for what was happening behind her.

Assuming that was enough, she had never once paid proper attention to MRico- and Rico.

Struck by a sudden realization, Lecty walked straight over to Rico.

“Umm… R-Rico-san!”

“What is it, Lecty?”

“Playing Rearguard is an incredibly difficult position, isn’t it?! Watching everyone’s movements from the back made me realize just how hard your job really is!”

“Hmph. You finally realized it, did you? I expected no less of you, Lecty. …Though it seems that simpleton Misora still hasn’t a clue.”

After that, the special training began clicking into place almost like magic.

By keeping her flight maneuvers compact, Misora’s firing accuracy improved noticeably. Even more decisive, however, was the fact that Rico—as if communicating wordlessly with Lecty—went out of her way to lay down clever lanes of fire that funneled the targets for her.

I knew it. This is what we were missing. Watching the two Vanguards suddenly functioning as a cohesive unit ahead of her filled Lecty with a deep sense of reassurance. For our platoon to grow stronger, this is what we need—

The targets slipping through into the Rearguard airspace now arrived in tight, manageable clusters—and better yet, they were being herded straight into Lecty’s frontal arc.

Thanks to that setup, Lecty was able to cut down the incoming targets exactly as she pictured in her head.

“R-Rico-san! Th-Thank you very much!”

“Who knows what you mean? I haven’t the faintest idea what you are thanking me for.”

From the Rearguard, Lecty sent her heartfelt thanks forward to Rico in the Vanguard.

“Huh. Looks like you’ve figured out the point of this special training too, Lecty.”

Pat, pat, pat, pat.

Kanata ruffled Lecty’s bangs until her hair was thoroughly mussed.

“Y-Yes! U-Umm… K-K-K-Kanata-san!”

Blushing beet red, Lecty peered up at him through bashful, upturned eyes.

“Yeah, well done out there. You pass, Lecty.”

∆∆∆

Having failed to earn a passing mark on Day Two of special training either, Misora trudged along with the unmistakable aura of a defeated underdog hanging over her shoulders. Kanata was walking Misora and the other two girls home after school as a precaution against the serial attacker. Behind them, Rico and Lecty were chatting amicably, while beside him Misora walked with her head drooping listlessly.

“Sigh… Just what on earth do you want me to—Hyaun?!”

Without warning, something cool and soft was pressed against her lips—and the instant she tasted it, a gentle, milky sweetness spread across her tongue, rich enough to make her forget all her troubles in a single heartbeat.

Before she could stop herself, her tongue darted out to lick the soft-serve ice cream. Ah…! Pulled casually back, the cone went straight to its owner’s—Kanata’s—mouth.

“Quit overthinking things so hard. You’d do better to relax your shoulders a bit, you know.”

“…Is relaxing my shoulders important for passing your special training too?”

“Who knows? Though for all you know, the answer might be lying around somewhere way closer than you think.”

“Somewhere… close by?”

“Yep, super close by. So close you’re looking right past it.”

At a popular ice cream stand in the shopping district, Kanata had bought matching soft-serve cones for Rico and Lecty as well.

“Hmm, not bad at all. They must be using high-grade milk for this.”

“It really is delicious! But, u-umm… Kanata-san, are you sure it’s okay for you to treat us like this?!”

“Sure. All I can do is cheer you guys on from the sidelines anyway, so treating you to something like this is no big deal.”

So saying, he took another lick of his soft-serve cone.

Th-That’s the spot I just…! Realizing that Kanata had just licked the exact same cone he had fed her a moment ago, Misora’s face turned bright crimson, too mortified to point out that the two of them had just shared an indirect kiss.

“Hm? Something wrong, Misora?”

“N-Nothing at all…!”

There was no way she could blurt something like that out in front of Rico and Lecty…

Watching Misora press both hands against her burning cheeks in silent agony, Kanata simply tilted his head in puzzlement.

“Come to think of it, the stand guy gave me a freebie with the cones. Anybody want it?”

Held in his outstretched hand was a mascot keychain depicting a Meryl—a large breed of dairy cow—with a pair of wings sprouted from its back.

“What the heck is that…? Some kind of tacky winged Meryl creature…?”

“I have no interest in creatures that do not exist in reality. Furthermore, it is utterly devoid of beauty.”

“T-To be honest… umm… that mascot-san isn’t very cute at all…”

“Huh. Yeah, didn’t think anyone would find this thing cute.”

The keychain had been so unpopular that the shop was handing out its unsold overstock as freebies.

“This soft-serve is not bad, I must admit. Is their regular ice cream just as good?”

Coming from Rico, “not bad” was high praise indeed.

“Nah, even though it’s an ice cream stand, their soft-serve is what’s really famous here. Back in the day, my old squadmates used to pester me into stopping by here on the way back from training all the time. Their number-one bestseller is actually a cream puff made with specially selected ingredients, though it’s so popular it’s almost always sold out.”

A faint note of nostalgia colored Kanata’s voice. Watching his profile, Misora bit her lower lip with a sudden pang in her chest.

All of a sudden, Kanata felt terribly far away again. Back in those days—in a past she knew nothing about—there was a side of him she had never seen. And there was Yuri, who had clung so fiercely to that past in the café yesterday—

“For the record, I have never once considered you a comrade, Kanata-senpai.”

A crisp voice cut in with a flat denial. Turning his head, Kanata spotted Yuri standing nearby in her school uniform.

“Oh, hey, Yuri.”

“Please do not address me so familiarly.”

“Where’s your schoolbag? Aren’t you on your way home?”

“I merely stepped out to buy a quick snack. Unlike a certain traitor, I actually stay behind at school to train every day.”

Staying late for independent practice even after coaching her platoon, huh. That means she won’t be heading home until pretty late tonight. Remembering the serial assault cases, Kanata’s eyes narrowed slightly.

Turning her back on Kanata and his group, Yuri stepped up to the stand to pay for her order. Because this shop’s soft-serve was her absolute favorite treat, she always splurged and bought two cones at a time. Reaching into the pocket of her uniform jacket, she pulled out a slightly mature-looking beige wallet, opened it to check the contents—and froze solid.

She was completely out of cash. At the café yesterday, she had blown her entire monthly allowance slamming down that large bill to pay the tab.

“Umm, Yuri-san? That’ll be payment for two cones, please.”

“Eh?! N-No, wait… U-Umm?!”

The Economic Department student running the stand looked on in awkward confusion as Yuri broke into a flustered panic.

“Good grief, you’re hopeless. Here—my treat.”

Before Yuri could utter a word of protest, Kanata pulled his own wallet from his pocket, paid the bill in one smooth motion, and took the two paper-wrapped soft-serve cones from the clerk.

“N-Nobody asked you to treat me!”

Yuri would never willingly accept a gift from Kanata. Old-fashioned as it sounded, her pride refused to accept charity from him. Consequently, Kanata was left standing there with both hands occupied, a paper-wrapped cone in each.

“Well then, looks like I accidentally bought two cones by mistake. Anybody wanna help me eat ’em?”

“I-I am not childish enough to fall for such an obvious ploy!”

“Gotcha. Then I’ll eat one myself and give the other one to one of my students. Let’s see, eenie, meenie, miney, mo…”

Summoning all her willpower, Yuri tried to crush her girlish craving for sweets—yet thanks to Kanata’s theatrical teasing, her eyes couldn’t help tracking the cones in his hands. One cone went to Kanata himself. As for the second cone:

“Hmm. Decided. This one goes to…”

Gulp. Having only gotten a couple of licks earlier, Misora looked up with sparkling, expectant eyes—He’s definitely picking me!—only for Kanata to hold the cone out elsewhere.

“Eh?! M-Me…?!”

The recipient was a blinking, bewildered Lecty. Hesitating for a brief beat after taking the cone, Lecty timidly walked over to Yuri and held it out with both hands.

“U-Umm… Y-Yuri-san. Would you please take this?”

She offered the freshly received soft-serve cone straight to Yuri.

Here was a blonde younger student she didn’t even know, kindly offering to share her favorite treat. Truth be told, Yuri wanted to eat it—wanted to eat it desperately.

Yet she couldn’t cave in. With iron willpower, she held herself back. After all, that cone had been bought with the traitor Kanata-senpai’s money.

“H-How could I possibly accept that?! Isn’t that cone yours?!”

As though snapping at someone she suspected of mocking her, Yuri sharply brushed Lecty’s goodwill aside.

“Uuugh… U-Umm… I-I’m so sorry! (Sniffle)”

“Whoa, look at that—an upperclassman bullying an underclassman in broad daylight. Hey, Yuri, do you really think a member of the Royal Guard should be bullying younger girls?”

Kanata’s loud, exaggerated accusation rang out across the street, causing seven or eight passersby in the shopping district to turn and stare at them.

Flustered, Yuri scrambled to defend herself.

“I-I am NOT bullying her! This girl just started tearing up all on her own!”

“Come on, Lecty just tried to give you a soft-serve cone out of the kindness of her heart, and you yelled right in her face. Any way you slice it, that’s why she’s crying.”

Having unexpected hostility directed at her must have been a terrible shock.

Painfully shy around strangers to begin with, Lecty stood there with tears brimming in her big blue eyes, sniffling pitifully as if she might burst into sobs at any second.

“…Fine, I understand! All I have to do is accept this cone, right?! Umm… I apologize for earlier. I didn’t mean to raise my voice at you.”

Reluctantly, Yuri took the soft-serve cone from her hands. Even so, Lecty’s expression remained downcast after having her kindness rejected and being shouted at.

“Your voice still sounds way too stiff, Yuri. You’re scaring her.”

“…Umm, it’s very delicious. Thank you.”

After taking a small lick of the soft-serve, Yuri offered an awkward, bashful smile. Seeing that, Lecty’s face brightened into a small, relieved smile of her own.

“Well, guess that’ll do.”

“…After goading me into this, how dare you say ‘guess that’ll do’?! Good day!”

Her temper flaring again, Yuri spun on her heel to march back toward campus—only to sense someone strolling right behind her. Whirling around, she found Kanata following in her footsteps.

“Wh-Why are you following me?!”

“Who knows? Just felt like heading back to school to knock out some of my backed-up paperwork.”

Telling Misora and the others to head straight back to the dorm without any detours, Kanata nonchalantly continued walking behind Yuri.

＊＊＊

“Just what do you think you are doing, staying behind until this hour?”

After finishing her independent practice, Yuri was walking back from the schoolhouse toward the dormitory alongside Kanata.

How long had it been since the two of them had walked down this road together so late at night? Even as a pang of nostalgia tugged at her heart for the days when they used to walk home side by side after training, she knew she could never go back to who she was back then.

“My paperwork happened to wrap up early, so I used the leftover time to watch your practice.”

Before she realized it, Kanata was no longer walking behind her, but right at her side.

Wearing an icy expression, Yuri delivered a pointed barb.

“A traitor certainly has plenty of free time on his hands, doesn’t he?”

Unfazed, Kanata tossed out a question of his own.

“…Come to think of it, why’re you using a Magic Sword again?”

“And what of it?! Is there some problem with me using a Magic Sword?!”

“Who knows? There is one thing I’d like to confirm, though.”

A sharp glint flickered in Kanata’s eyes.

“Is the reason you stopped wielding a Magic Spear because I was the one who converted you from a Magic Swordsman to a Magic Lancer?”

“…………”

“Thought so. Well, whatever.”

His curt reply felt like a cold shove away. He sounded so dismissive that she wondered if he had finally given up on her.

She had fallen silent because Kanata had hit the bull’s-eye.

No one knew better than Yuri herself that she was far stronger as a Magic Lancer. Yet she refused to touch a Magic Spear—because everything about it, from the day she first picked one up to every spear technique she knew, was bound up with Kanata…

“That’s a rather loaded way of putting it. If you have a complaint, why don’t you say it outright?!”

“I don’t have a complaint. You started out as a Magic Swordsman in the first place, after all.”

Recalling the form she had shown during her independent practice earlier, he continued,

“Still, habits that run deep aren’t so easy to shake off. Do you remember why I had you switch to being a Magic Lancer back then?”

“In our recent engagement against the Armored Insects, I fought all the way through with a Magic Sword. There is no problem whatsoever.”

She declared that flatly. During the recent invasion, Yuri had indeed fought through the entire battle as a Magic Swordsman—

And unlike Kanata, she had come through it without a scratch.

“Heh. You really are stubborn about stuff like this, aren’t you?”

“Wh-Who are you calling stubborn?! Are you making fun of me?!”

“Not making fun of you at all. It’s precisely because you’ve always poured such single-minded effort into your training that you have the combat skills you do today. Even if it doesn’t match your spearmanship, your swordsmanship out there was pretty impressive too.”

Though your old flaw is still right there, unchanged… Catching himself at the last second, Kanata swallowed those final words without voicing them aloud.

Even if he pointed it out to her right now, she was in no mood to admit to that weakness.

“Naturally! Unlike a certain spineless traitor, I haven’t let my skills rust!”

“Still, you’ve always been a fast learner when it comes to combat skills. Even back when I was coaching you, you hardly ever gave me any trouble.”

Ever since Yuri first joined their platoon, Kanata—her fellow Vanguard—had been the one to coach her personally. Having joined the squad precisely because she was captivated by his indomitable spirit, Yuri had respected and admired him more than anyone else in the world.

Being praised so unreservedly by the senior she had once idolized honestly didn’t feel bad at all.

The old her might have been moved to tears on the spot.

Now, however, things were no longer like that between them.

This man is a traitor, Yuri reminded herself sternly. If she didn’t keep her guard up, she felt as though she might be swept right back into the illusion of the past—

Even though those bygone days could never be reclaimed…

“Oh, right! There was one thing I taught you personally, wasn’t there?”

Kanata clapped his hands together.

“Do you still remember it, Yuri? Not a technical skill—I’m talking about the fundamental mindset of a Sky Wizard.”

“…Never give up, no matter the circumstances.”

Yuri murmured the words almost in a whisper.

“Yep. That’s what matters most. So long as you hold onto that, you’ll be plenty strong even without me around—and you’ll make a fine Sky Wizard.”

So long as one took to the skies as a guardian of the Floating City, any sortie could be one’s last.

Never knowing when one might fail to return was the inescapable fate of every student in the Guardian Department.

Ever since her very first real-combat sortie, Yuri had begun having bad dreams.

Nightmares, she supposed—dreams of friends and acquaintances who had flown up into the sky and never come back. Because Wizards were a race who did not—who could not—forget the memories of those killed by Armored Insects, they were able to mourn the deaths of their fallen brethren.

And by the same token, they were condemned to be tormented by those deaths.

Why couldn’t I save them back then…?

Even when she had never once given up on trying to save them, there were still lives she had failed to reach in time.

More times than she could count, she had been consumed by regret over those she couldn’t save and agonized over her own powerlessness.

“Listen, Yuri. There’s a saying about the responsibility borne by those with power: with great power comes great responsibility. Being strong means walking side by side with solitude—but even if I’m gone, you’ll be able to keep walking down ‘The Corridor of Sky Wizards’ on your own two feet, right?”

There was a burden that weighed heavily on even the strongest of fighters—the responsibility, the duty borne by those who survived:

Never forgetting the Sky Wizards who had fallen from the sky.

The stronger a Wizard was, the more fiercely that sense of loss and solitude ate away at their heart. Some Sky Wizards even had their minds broken by the weight of it and took their own lives.

Yet doing so meant fleeing from “The Corridor of Sky Wizards.”

Students of the Guardian Department had to carry the deaths of the fallen upon their shoulders and keep fighting regardless—

In order to protect innocent citizens.

“…Why are you saying something like that all of a sudden?”

“Who knows? Just felt like saying it, that’s all.”

Casting a sidelong glance at Kanata as he brushed the question off, Yuri tilted her head inwardly.

It had been this way ever since the old days: she could never tell what was going through Kanata’s head. Everything he said and did defied ordinary common sense.

Frankly, there had been plenty of times when she wondered if he had any motivation at all—especially since she had worked right alongside him as his junior in the Vanguard.

Take the very first special training he had put her through after she joined the platoon, for instance.

Back then, Yuri had admired Kanata so intensely that whenever she stood in front of him, she froze stiff with nerves and could barely get a word out properly. To cure her of that, for reasons known only to himself, Kanata had ordered her to dress up as a boy.

Because the order came from her beloved senior, Yuri—who had been far more obedient back then—dutifully wore a boy’s uniform, becoming an overnight sensation across campus as the mysterious handsome youth walking beside Kanata. At first, she had still been nervous just walking next to him; before long, however, she became so preoccupied with the rumors claiming Kanata had developed a taste for boys that her nervousness around him vanished completely.

Looking back on that absurd training now, a thought occurred to Yuri.

Come to think of it, no matter how outrageous Kanata-senpai’s methods look on the surface, there’s always a consistent thread running through them…

“I am asking why you went out of your way to watch my practice and meddle in my affairs tonight.”

“Who knows? Because you’re my precious—”

“Your precious what?”

“My precious—”

Perhaps it was a prank played by the wind. Right at that moment, a sudden gust swept down the street, drowning out the rest of Kanata’s words.

“Hey, Kanata-senpai. What did you just say at the end there…?”

Starting to ask, Yuri abruptly sensed something amiss and halted in her tracks.

“Eh…?! —N-No way!”

“Easy there. It’s just somebody with a weird fetish for wrapping themselves head to toe in a black robe.”

Standing directly in front of the two of them was a figure clad in the garb of a black mage.

Looking around, Yuri realized that every trace of other pedestrians had vanished from the street. Evidently, that sudden gust of wind a moment ago had been an advanced application of Flight Magecraft—a derivative technique, or a wind-based People-Clearing Formula.

And a remarkably potent one at that, if it could take effect even near Wizards.

“Well, well. I didn’t expect there to be two of you. Though the one I wanted to meet tonight is Yuri.”

“Good grief, guess we don’t have a choice. Step back, Yuri, I’ll handle—”

“There is no need to trouble yourself, Kanata-senpai. I shall handle this myself. Stay out of this, Senpai.”

Before the words had even left her mouth, Yuri stepped forward. Extending her right hand, she materialized a double-edged Magic Sword out of thin air and leveled it in a middle guard.

“This person’s business is with me. Therefore, I will be the one to bring him down. Besides, I am no fool to lose to an amateur like this.”

Narrowing his eyes, Kanata studied the black-robed figure closely.

The man was holding his Magic Sword loosely in one hand, as casually as if it were a walking stick.

His stance was sloppy, and the aura around him lacked the sharp edge of a honed warrior. There was no tension in the black-robed man’s posture—if anything, he radiated a frivolous, playful air, as though this were all a game to him.

Even though the opponent standing before him was none other than Yuri Flostre of the Royal Guard…

“Are you not going to come at me? Then allow me to make the first move!”

I’ll end this in a single strike.

Even someone less skilled than Yuri would have reached that same conclusion from the man’s amateurish stance.

Yet something nagged at the back of Kanata’s mind. Tracing that faint sense of unease to its source, he suddenly realized what was wrong:

This man showed zero trace of the wariness, tension, or fear that any fighter naturally felt when facing a superior opponent.

“Yuri, don’t let your guard down!”

Kanata barked the warning—but it came a fraction of a second too late.

“Eh…?!”

The startled cry came from Yuri herself as she lunged in to strike.

The slash she had been certain would land squarely had sliced through empty air.

“Guh!”

Sensing a presence right beside her left flank, she whipped her blade around in a compact horizontal sweep to intercept him.

Yet as though he had completely read her trajectory, the black-robed figure danced effortlessly clear of the blade.

“Your swing was so slow I nearly dozed off waiting for it.”

Mime-yawning in theatrical mockery, the black-robed man launched his counterattack.

Closing the distance in the blink of an eye, he drove his Magic Sword straight at her.

Instinctively recoiling from letting an opponent inside her reach, Yuri leaped sharply backward.

No—you shouldn’t give up ground that easily there.

Watching from behind, Kanata grimaced inwardly.

Yuri hated sword-locking. Crossing blades at a distance close enough to feel an opponent’s breath subjected her to an overwhelming sense of claustrophobic pressure.

Whenever an enemy slipped inside her guard, she had an ingrained habit of leaping backward. From the standpoint of maintaining a margin of safety, that reflex wasn’t necessarily a bad habit—but for a close-quarters Magic Swordsman, an aversion to locking blades was a fatal flaw.

Because a clash of blades was more than a contest of physical leverage; it was a collision of wills.

The resolve to never yield. The resolve to impose one’s will upon the opponent.

In close-quarters combat, even mental dominance that carried no physical force had a decisive impact on the outcome.

“Ah, why won’t you accept my love, Yuri?”

Ordinarily, her backward leap would have bought her more than enough breathing room to reset her stance.

Yet while she was still airborne, the black-robed man was already towering directly in front of her, his Magic Sword raised in a high overhead guard.

“…! He closed the distance that easily…?!”

Scrambling in mid-air, Yuri brought her Magic Sword up like a shield. One blow, then a second—each impact slammed into her guard like a battering ram, sending a bone-numbing shockwave up both arms.

When the third, full-swing overhead strike came crashing down, her guard buckled under the overwhelming force, and she was slammed violently into the pavement.

“…Tch!”

The impact drove the air from her lungs in a single gasp as a dull, throbbing ache radiated through her entire body. Using her Magic Sword as a cane, she forced herself back onto her feet.

“Oh-ho? I suppose a single combo isn’t enough to put you down after all.”

His voice rang with undisguised glee.

Hidden beneath the deep shadow of his hood, his face was impossible to make out—yet even Yuri could tell how thoroughly he was relishing this.

“Hehe. You mustn’t pass out on me just yet, my beloved Yuri. If you lose consciousness already, you won’t be able to accept my love.”

“Stop spouting nonsense! I don’t even know who you are!”

The very next instant, the man’s figure vanished from her field of vision.

Where is he?! Where is he coming from?!

Frantically, Yuri searched for his presence. Right? Left? Or from above?

“Behind you!”

At the sound of a familiar voice, Yuri twisted her neck around—just in time to see the black-robed figure lunging at her back. Snapping her right wrist over to flip her Magic Sword into a reverse grip, she drove a sharp backward thrust straight behind her.

The tip struck the flat of the attacker’s blade, sending the black-robed man’s Magic Sword spinning through the air until it embedded itself in the asphalt.

“I knew that without you telling me! Please keep your unasked-for advice to yourself!”

Unbelievably, Yuri turned her head to glare at Kanata—right in the middle of combat.

Kanata couldn’t stop himself from shouting at her.

“Why the hell are you looking at me in the middle of a fight?! Eyes front!”

“Guh…”

“Well then, how do you like this?”

Having lost his sword, the black-robed man swept his empty right arm horizontally through the air.

Vwoosh!

A high-pitched shriek of torn air split the night.

As an unseen force whipped past her cheek, several strands of Yuri’s dark-navy hair fluttered to the ground—and a heartbeat later, the steel rolling shutter of a shop behind her was shredded to ribbons as if it were wet paper.

“…K-Kamaitachi?!”

One of the advanced derivative techniques of Flight Magecraft.

Caught off guard, Yuri forced her focus back onto the enemy before her. With Kanata watching right behind her, she refused to put on an unsightly showing.

Dodging blades of killer wind concealed by the darkness of night was a feat of supreme difficulty. One slash, then a second—

Each time Yuri swept her Magic Sword to deflect them, bursts of compressed air detonated against Kanata’s cheeks behind her.

Relying on honed instinct and combat experience, she was sensing the invisible blades unleashed by the black-robed man and neutralizing them mid-flight.

Reading only the whistle of the wind and the faint stir of power, she pinpointed the trajectory of each Kamaitachi and met it with a perfectly timed slash of magic.

Swordsmanship flatly impossible for any ordinary Wizard.

Yuri was proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was worthy of the Royal Guard’s name.

Even so, she hit her limit on the third consecutive Kamaitachi, her blade a fraction of a second too late to come back around.

O-Oh no!

Just as that thought flashed across her mind, a familiar broad back filled her entire field of vision. With a short Dagger materialized in his left hand, Kanata casually sliced the invisible wind blade to pieces as if it were the easiest thing in the world.

“I believe I told you to stay out of this!”

“…If I hadn’t stepped in just now, you’d be dead.”

Kanata’s voice came out low, suppressing a surge of anger. Left without a single word to say in reply, Yuri bit her lip in silence.

In stark contrast to her, an exuberant voice rang out across the street.

“Ahahaha! Just when I was a hair’s breadth away from making Yuri mine, you had to go and get in my way… You’re going to pay dearly for that!”

Raw, undisguised murderous intent locked onto Kanata.

Sweeping both arms back and forth, the black-robed man unleashed a rapid-fire barrage of Kamaitachi. Moving with almost mechanical precision, Kanata severed every single one of them cleanly.

Not once did his focus slip; not a single opening appeared in his guard. Like an unshakable iron wall, Kanata shattered every gust of killer wind with his Dagger.

Standing there was the very image of the Sky Wizard once hailed as Chronos, the Black Master Swordsman.

“Huh. So you can read the wind blades cleanly, can you?”

Growing bored with repeating the same attack, the black-robed man yanked his embedded Magic Sword free from the pavement and vanished on the spot.

High-speed movement fast enough to create the illusion of teleportation.

Caught blind on the first exchange, even Kanata might have been in danger. Having already watched the trick from the sidelines, however, dealing with it was child’s play.

Unhurriedly, Kanata angled the blade of his Dagger behind the nape of his neck. A split second later, steel rang against steel as his Dagger parried a lethal slash aimed straight at his cervical vertebrae from directly behind.

It looked as though he had known all along the exact spot the man would target…

“Hmph! Don’t get cocky just because you got lucky and read me once!”

Once again, the black-robed figure vanished into the dark. From all around them rose the acrid stench of scorched rubber—doubtless the soles of his shoes burning friction marks into the asphalt as he kicked off the pavement.

“I’ll give you this much: you’re fast as hell. Under cover of darkness, even Yuri can’t track your movements cleanly.”

Hostility seemed to boil up from every direction at once.

Even under assault by an enemy moving too fast for the eye to follow, not a tremor of unease showed in Kanata’s stance.

Attempting to catch him off guard, a slash came plunging down from high overhead in front of him—only for Kanata to catch the blade on his Dagger as if he had been waiting for it.

Locking blades, Kanata glared straight into the eyes hidden deep inside the black hood.

“Too bad every move you make is pure amateur hour. That’s why you can’t beat me.”

“D-Damn you!”

Driven into a frenzy, the black-robed man launched a flurry of strikes from all directions at speeds no ordinary human could perceive.

Yet Kanata’s breathing never even quickened. Matching the frantic barrage blow for blow, only his left forearm holding the Dagger blurred at high speed, deflecting every last strike effortlessly—

As though he were humoring a child throwing a tantrum.

“You can’t beat me. I spent years grinding away day and night to hone these skills. Did you seriously think the proof of a human being staking his life on his craft would lose to some half-baked amateur trick?”

Reading the man’s next lunge completely, Kanata sidestepped the blade and whipped his reverse-gripped Dagger upward in a counter-slash.

“…Guh!”

Dropping his Magic Sword with a clatter, the black-robed man clutched his lacerated right wrist and leaped backward to open the distance.

“Sorry about that, but I just severed the tendons in your right wrist. In your current state, you won’t be gripping a sword properly anymore.”

“…So it seems. Even so, a scratch like this is hardly enough to—”

Right then, it happened.

The black-robed man’s right arm began convulsing violently. It wasn’t trembling from pain or fatigue; rather, his right arm was thrashing around with a mind of its own, as though possessed by a separate living creature altogether.

“Tch, at my limit already, huh? Fine, then. I’ll let you off the hook here for tonight.”

Forcibly pinning his spasming right arm down with his left hand, the black-robed man moved to flee. Slipping wide around the poised Kanata, he found Yuri blocking his path of retreat behind them.

“I won’t let you escape!”

Yuri slashed at him, but her blade only sliced a shallow tear across the front of his robe. Weaving past her swing, the black-robed man caught her by the chin, tilting her face up as he leaned in close.

“I’ll come give you all my love very soon, so wait for me, okay?”

A twisted proposal from the mysterious assailant—and in the exact same motion, he drove his fist deep into Yuri’s solar plexus to knock her out cold.

Gritting her teeth against the wave of nausea, Yuri mustered the last of her strength to swing her Magic Sword—only for the black-robed figure to bound effortlessly clear with monstrous leaping power, vanishing across the rooftops into the night.

Once he had confirmed the attacker was completely gone, Kanata rushed over to Yuri’s side.

“Hey, Yuri! Hang in there—are you okay?!”

I-I’m fine! she tried to answer, yet her body refused to obey.

Through the narrow slit of her heavy eyelids, she caught a dim glimpse of Kanata’s face—pale as a sheet and beaded with cold sweat.

As her consciousness faded into darkness, a single thought drifted through her mind:

He looks just like someone suffering from magic depletion…

＊＊＊

“Wh-Why on earth are you in m-m-m-my room…?!”

“What choice did I have? If I tried nursing her back to health by myself in the boys’ dorm, it’d cause a huge scandal.”

A room inside the girls’ wing of Artemia Dormitory. Compared to the boys’ wing, the rooms in the girls’ dormitory featured a much more spacious layout: each suite came equipped with its own kitchenette, a living area, and a bedroom in the back roomy enough to hold twin beds without feeling cramped in the slightest.

Because the dormitory operated on a two-students-per-room policy in principle, every room was furnished with two beds.

Granted, not every student who enrolled in the Guardian Department made it to graduation; between department transfers, withdrawals, and deaths in the line of duty, it was far from uncommon for a student to end up occupying a double room all to themselves.

Stretched out on one of the room’s two beds lay the unconscious Yuri. Perhaps because she had been running on too little sleep for days, she was sleeping as soundly and peacefully as Briar Rose.

Still, why had Kanata shown up carrying an unconscious Yuri in his arms?

Kanata flatly refused to tell them the reason.

Letting her imagination run wild, Misora suddenly gasped as a theory struck her.

“Don’t tell me—! Did you kidnap the opposing platoon’s instructor so we’d win the upcoming mock battle by default?!”

“Like hell I did. Did you seriously think I was that dirty a coward?”

“Well, excuse me, I never have any idea what’s going through your head! Besides…”

Lowering her gaze with a worried frown, Misora lowered her voice to a whisper as she leaned toward Kanata, who was slouched back against the sofa.

“If we lose the mock battle, you’re getting fired. I refuse to let that happen… You know, there’s still a lot more I want you to teach me, and, umm…”

“I know. That’s important to me too. Right now, though, looking after her is just as important.”

…Does he mean ‘important’ in a boy-and-girl way?!

Like any girl her age, Misora felt a sudden ache tighten in her chest, though Kanata remained completely oblivious to her expression.

“Umm… Misora-san? This is a little awkward for me to bring up, well…”

Having just set a cup of tea down in front of Kanata, Lecty turned hesitantly toward Misora, who was lounging on the sofa as though she owned the place.

“What is it…?”

“Umm, this is actually my room, you know…”

“? What about it?”

“Look, Misora, I didn’t bother pointing it out earlier because it was a hassle, but just now you called this place ‘my room.’”

“And… what’s wrong with that?”

Looking genuinely baffled, Misora blinked in utter confusion.

Kanata let out a long, weary sigh.

“Anyway, sorry for barging in on you out of nowhere like this, Lecty.”

Shifting gears, he offered a sincere apology to the room’s actual occupant.

Branded a traitor by the city, Kanata had precious few people he could turn to in an emergency.

Originally, he had intended to carry Yuri to Chloe’s room—but unfortunately, Chloe had been summoned out on an urgent midnight call by Raven Nest, leaving her room locked and empty. The next place that had come to mind was the room of his own student, Lecty.

And so, carrying the unconscious Yuri in his arms, he had imposed on her here.

“U-Umm… W-We’re supposed to help each other out when we’re in trouble, so I don’t mind at all!”

Lecty assured him warmly.

“By the way, Lecty, you really should watch yourself around Misora. For all she acts like the voice of common sense, she’s a hardened criminal who blew up her own house with a Magic Cannon blast.”

“Y-Yes! Umm… M-Misora-san! This is, u-umm… m-my room, so if you hijack it from me, u-umm… I-I’ll be in big trouble!”

“Eh?! D-Don’t look at me like you’re about to cry! I know perfectly well that you’re the rightful owner of this room, Lecty!”

Right in the middle of their back-and-forth—

“Wh-Where… am I…?”

Over on the bed, Yuri’s eyelids fluttered partway open.

“Oh, looks like sleeping beauty’s awake.”

As Yuri blinked groggily, Kanata walked over to the bedside and called out to her.

“You’re in my student’s dorm room. I tried carrying you to Chloe’s room first, but it looks like she got called out on urgent business, so her door was locked.”

“Th-Then I need to… report in too—”

“Don’t push yourself. The fact that you haven’t even realized why Chloe got called out right now proves you’re in no shape to go anywhere.”

Ignoring his warning, Yuri tried to force herself upright, shoving aside the crisp white bedsheet.

That very instant, Kanata casually averted his gaze.

“M-My bad… I didn’t see anything, okay? Just put some clothes on first.”

Looking slightly flustered for once, he muttered the words under his breath.

A beat later, Misora and Lecty rushed over in a frantic panic to shove Kanata out of the bedroom—just as Yuri noticed an odd draft against her skin and glanced down at herself.

“—————?!”

Realizing she didn’t have a single thread on her body—that she was as naked as the day she was born—Yuri’s eyes went wide as saucers.

[Illustration: p159.jpg]

“Wh-Wh-Wh-Why am I completely naked right now…?!”

Letting out a mortified shriek as the situation registered, she scrambled to wrap the white bedsheet tightly around her body.

Her face had turned a shade of crimson dark enough that she looked ready to die of shame on the spot.

“D-Did you see?!”

“W-Who knows…”

“Y-You saw, didn’t you?!”

“Uh, I just said ‘who knows,’ didn’t I…?”

“Y-You definitely saw!”

“…F-For crying out loud, saw what exactly?!”

“~~~~~You really DID see! K-Kanata-senpai, prepare yourself!”

Robbed of all reason by a lethal combination of mortification and panic, Yuri cast frantically around for a serviceable weapon. Ordinarily, nothing of the sort would ever be lying around the peaceful room of someone like Lecty—yet by sheer coincidence, Yuri’s hand closed around the hilts of two Magic Dual Swords tucked right behind the pillow.

Not even pausing to wonder Why on earth are twin swords hidden behind a pillow?! the half-naked Yuri clutched the bedsheet to her chest with one arm and leveled the Magic Dual Swords in a flawless stance.

Bathed in waves of genuine bloodlust, Kanata and the two girls were backed all the way into the corner of the room.

“Geh! Why the hell did you hide live Magic Dual Swords behind your pillow, Lecty?!”

“I-I’m so sorry! Umm… Rico-san advised me to keep them there so I’d be ready no matter when Misora-san tried to pounce on me in my sleep…”

“Wh-What kind of lunatic advice is that girl feeding you?!”

“B-But Misora-san blew up her own house with a Magic Cannon blast, so I thought maybe she really might be a little dangerous…”

Eh?! Is that seriously how little Lecty trusts me?!

While Misora reeled from the shock, Kanata moved to talk the berserk Yuri down.

Having already recovered his usual composure, he spoke in his customary breezy drawl.

“Look, you didn’t change out of your sweaty clothes after finishing your independent practice tonight, right? We figured you’d catch a cold if we left you in them…”

“D-D-D-Did you undress me yourself, Kanata-senpai…?!”

“Well, I was the one who told them to undress you.”

“Y-You’re filthy, Kanata-senpai! I-I completely misjudged you!”

“How the heck do you jump to that conclusion?! And quit pointing those blades at my throat—obviously Misora and Lecty were the ones who changed you!”

“…I-Is that true?! You two were the ones who took my clothes off…?”

As Yuri’s piercing gaze swung toward them, Misora and Lecty nodded their heads up and down as fast as humanly possible.

“By the time you finished your evening practice, the dormitory shower rooms were already closed for the night, so you couldn’t wash off your sweat, right? We couldn’t just put you into Lecty’s clean bed drenched in sweat—especially after you broke out in a cold sweat getting hassled by that punk on the way home.”

Only then did the full situation finally sink in for Yuri.

Her fury evaporating in an instant, she belatedly seemed to notice the Magic Dual Swords in her hands and tossed them aside. Still clad only in the bedsheet, she flopped face-first back onto the mattress, a few tiny tears of mortification leaking from the corners of her eyes.

To think Kanata-senpai saw me naked…

Taking pity on her, Lecty fetched Yuri’s uniform jacket from the hanger and draped it gently over her shoulders as she sat back up.

“Hey, Yuri. What’re you supposed to say to people who helped you out in a spot like this?”

Under normal circumstances, she would have thanked them immediately, but right now she was far too flustered for that.

“…You are the absolute last person I want lecturing me about manners, Kanata-senpai!”

Puffing out her cheeks in a sullen pout, Yuri turned her head away.

The shock of having been seen naked by the senior right in front of her still occupied ninety percent of her brain.

Sigh… What a hopeless girl, Kanata thought, reluctantly deciding to give her some space. Strolling unhurriedly over to the window beside the bed, he rested a hand on the frame.

“…Where are you going, Kanata-senpai?”

“Look, this is the girls’ dorm, remember? It’d be a huge pain if word got out that a guy was hanging around in here.”

“H-Hey, wait a second! You’re the one who brought Yuri-san here in the first place!”

“Just stepping out for a breather. I’ll be right back.”

Tossing that casual remark over his shoulder, Kanata activated his Flight Magecraft and stepped right out of Lecty’s bedroom window into the night sky. Even he couldn’t very well stroll brazenly out the front doors of the girls’ dormitory.

Watching Kanata vanish briskly into the night air, all three girls fell completely silent.

“““…………………………………… (Dead silence)”””

Without Kanata in the room, none of them knew how to keep the conversation going. To begin with, Misora and Lecty hadn’t even properly introduced themselves to Yuri yet.

The heavy, awkward silence peculiar to strangers meeting for the first time settled over the room.

Isn’t somebody gonna say something? Misora glanced toward Yuri, but feeling acutely self-conscious in her current state of undress, the older girl clearly found it difficult to speak first.

Guess it’s up to me, then… B-But what am I supposed to say to her?!

First and foremost, she needed to figure out what kind of relationship Yuri had with Kanata. Were they lovers? Or was she a femme fatale who had seduced Kanata into promising to throw the upcoming mock battle? Or something else entirely?

Misora fixed Yuri with a long, unblinking stare—

“Wh-What is it?!”

—which only succeeded in making Yuri bristle awkwardly. Complete failure.

Remarkably, the one who finally broke the suffocating silence was Lecty.

Perhaps her maid-cosplay training and today’s cafeteria shift were paying off: after bustling into the kitchenette to fetch a tray and a cup, she walked timidly over to the bedside and offered Yuri a warm cup of plain hot water to soothe her nerves.

“…P-Please have some!”

“Ah, umm… Thank you. I appreciate it.”

Clumsy as the icebreaker was, it immediately softened the tense atmosphere in the room.

In truth, so long as Kanata wasn’t around to throw her off balance, Yuri was widely admired and relied upon by younger students as a dependable older-sister figure. Thanks to that natural poise, she and Lecty warmed up to each other in no time.

The problem, however, was Misora. Having apparently thought of something, she was fidgeting restlessly from foot to foot.

“U-Umm… Y-Yuri-san!”

As Yuri took a quiet sip of warm water, Misora blurted out her question.

“Are you and that guy… u-umm, g-going out with each other?!”

“Wh-What on earth are you asking all of a sudden?!”

Nearly spitting out her mouthful of water, Yuri broke into a violent coughing fit.

Never in her wildest dreams had she expected a girl two years her junior to ambush her with a question like that.

After all, the relationship between herself and Kanata was—

“W-We are not in… that sort of relationship.”

“…O-Oh, really? H-Huh, I see…”

That ruled out one possibility. Even so, it was still too early for Misora to breathe easy.

If they weren’t dating, did that mean this girl really was a scheming temptress trying to wrap Kanata around her finger and talk him into resigning as their instructor—?

“Th-Then… what kind of relationship do you have with him, Yuri-san?!”

“B-Between Kanata-senpai and me?! Well, that is… umm…”

Her voice cracking slightly, Yuri ducked her head and bashfully tapped the tips of her index fingers together.

Watching that unexpectedly demure reaction, Misora felt an inexplicable pang squeeze her chest.

Though why her chest hurt like that, Misora herself still hadn’t a clue.

“U-Umm… Well, if I had to put it into words, Kanata-senpai and I are—”

“Huh. Looks like you three have hit it off pretty well.”

As Kanata casually climbed back in through the open window out of nowhere, both Misora and Yuri jumped as if they had been caught red-handed whispering secrets.

“? Were you guys up to something?”

“N-Nothing, nothing at all!” “W-We weren’t doing anything, Kanata-senpai!”

“Right, sure. Well, whatever. …Here, Yuri. Catch.”

With an almost gruff casualness, he pressed a small object into Yuri’s palm.

It was the ugly-cute winged Meryl mascot keychain he had received as a freebie at the ice cream stand earlier.

“What is this tacky-looking creature strap?”

“Eh? Wait, you seriously can’t tell? This thing’s a super-rare artifact…”

Acting as though he were genuinely shocked by her ignorance, Kanata suddenly put on a deadpan, solemn face.

“You might not have heard of it, Yuri, but back when humanity still lived on the surface, a legendary archmage poured every ounce of his power into crafting this crystallized charm of magic. When your back’s against the wall in battle, squeezing this strap unleashes something truly terrifying.”

Fixing the strap in her palm with a deeply skeptical stare, Yuri replied,

“As if a tacky, bizarre strap like this could possibly possess any such power.”

No matter what angle one looked at it from, it was just an ugly-cute freebie mascot.

Beside them, Misora and Lecty opened their mouths to call Kanata out on his blatant lie.

Before they could, however, Kanata shrugged dramatically.

“Whoa, you don’t believe me at all, do you? Fine, forget it, then—an artifact of this caliber is wasted on a doubter anyway. And here it’s an authentic S-Rank Relic officially appraised by the Relic Excavation Department, too.”

Assuming he was making fun of her again, Yuri bristled.

“Even supposing what you say were true, Kanata-senpai, why on earth would you entrust something so valuable to me?!”

“Hm? Because I’m worried about you, obviously.”

“~~~~~! …I-I hate the way you say things like that with a completely straight face!”

Anyone with eyes could tell his story about the strap was shady as hell.

In point of fact, it really was nothing more than an unpopular piece of unsold overstock handed out with soft-serve cones.

Yet Kanata had looked her straight in the eye and insisted otherwise.

And even though Yuri knew perfectly well that his story about the relic was a fib—

“Well, even if you think I’m duping you, try believing in me on this one. And whenever you look at that strap, remember what I told you earlier tonight, even if it’s just a little. What’s the number-one requirement for a Sky Wizard?”

Because he asked her with such clear, unclouded jet-black eyes, the fight drained right out of Yuri’s shoulders.

“The number-one requirement is…”

To never give up, no matter what.

The lesson Kanata had taught her so long ago. She had answered it without hesitation on their walk back tonight, and no matter what happened from here on out, she would never forget it for as long as she lived—

Because it had been taught to her by none other than Kanata himself.

Her thoughts drifting briefly back to the past, Yuri added silently to herself: Even so, Kanata-senpai… I really don’t need this ugly strap, you know.

She started to hold the mascot back out to him, but—

“Hey, I know Yuri-san’s famous and all, but since this is our first time meeting her properly, shouldn’t you at least introduce us…?”

Interrupted by Misora’s complaint, Yuri missed her chance to hand it back.

“Hm? Why bother with formal introductions when you three have already hit it off so well? Just a hunch, but I figured you girls would get along great.”

In truth, Kanata knew both Yuri and E601 inside and out—through his firsthand experience instructing both of them.

“‘Just a hunch’…?! What were you gonna do if we didn’t get along?!”

“Th-That’s right! You do everything far too carelessly, Kanata-senpai!”

“Well, I had a backup plan in mind just in case, sure, but everything worked out fine, didn’t it?”

“And what basis did you have for thinking we would get along in the first place?! You didn’t have one at all, did you?!”

“Who knows? My basis was ‘just a hunch.’”

Turning on his heel, Kanata walked back over to the open bedroom window.

He had confirmed for himself that the color had returned to Yuri’s cheeks, and the atmosphere between her and Misora’s group wasn’t hostile either. Everything had gone just as he hoped. A faint smile softened Kanata’s cheeks. What can I say? Every last one of them is my treasured—… Wait, right, Yuri already graduated from being my student.

“Alright, the pariah’s gonna make himself scarce before someone spots me. Catch you guys tomorrow. …Oh, and Yuri? Make sure you say thank you properly before you head back to your own room.”

Leaving them with that parting remark, he leaned out the open window once more.

This time, Kanata vanished into the night for good.

Without meaning to, both Misora and Yuri found their eyes lingering on the spot where his elusive, breezy back had disappeared. Even knowing they would see him again tomorrow, the thought that they wouldn’t see him again tonight left a faint ache of loneliness behind.

In the end, I missed my chance to give this back to him, Yuri thought, gazing down at the ugly-cute mascot resting in her palm.

Catching herself with a start, she hurriedly cleared her throat to salvage her dignity.

“…I neglected to say it earlier, but thank you very much for everything tonight, both of you.”