Guiding the Male Lead out of His Trauma - Chapter 23.1
The annex, where the cadets who were still only first awakeners had gathered.
The annex was even more lavish than the main building, but bore clear traces of having endured many years.
Unlike the main building, which had been newly constructed for the academy’s use, the annex was originally an academy for young nobles.
Despite the time that had passed, the interior was still beautiful, but the atmosphere inside the annex was noisy.
Unlike the tense upperclassmen, the new students who had just entered today wore puzzled expressions, wondering, ‘Is this sort of thing really an everyday occurrence at a military academy?’
Rather than being gripped by tension or anxiety, they simply followed the instructions of their seniors in a daze, not really understanding the situation.
Among these still-naive students, Millia clutched her anxiously trembling arms.
‘What do I do? For the second awakening to happen so suddenly…’
If these kids had heard the full truth about what was going on, could they really be this calm?
It was clear that only a handful would be able to wait in such an orderly fashion.
If things went wrong, the entire academy could be turned upside down, there’s no way anyone wouldn’t be shaken.
But now was not the time to worry about others.
The person who was most shaken, emotionally, was none other than herself.
She placed a hand over her heart.
Because her heart was pounding so violently, it felt like sharp pain was shooting through her chest.
Ignoring it as best she could, she gripped her hands tightly, recalling the ominous mana she’d felt in the auditorium.
‘Sending someone who could die… Was it really the right choice to push them forward like that, all on my own?’
The Liliope Ortis she’d met for the ‘second’ time was quite different from the always-gentle person she’d known before.
She’d seemed like she was torn, worrying about Millia.
‘I think I can understand what she might’ve been thinking.’
Closing her eyes tightly, Millia was once again tormented.
She must have struggled with an impulse similar to her own. After all, they both shared the trait of having seen the worst possible future.
But there was just one crucial difference between Liliope and herself.
Liliope didn’t do it, she herself had to.
Liliope hadn’t sent someone into a place where they might die, but she, in the end, had.
No matter how many times she’d resolved not to regret it, the guilt she’d managed to suppress kept rising back up.
‘But I can’t step forward directly anymore. And…’
If it’s Senior, she’ll be able to do it.
It made her anxious that the Garden of Oaths was unusable, but she had prepared so much to help her senior.
Surely, this time, things would be different from the senseless death that had happened before.
They had to be.
As she thought this, Millia snapped back to herself.
She could taste iron in her mouth. The inside of her lip was torn up from worrying at it.
Delayed pain began to register, and her dulled thoughts went cold.
Then, the question, ‘Is this really okay?’ and a wave of guilt for having pushed someone else into danger crashed over her.
Was she just too on edge?
“You— You’re shaking so much.”
At the tap of someone’s hand and their words, Millia startled more than usual.
She turned around and nearly screamed.
“…Nothing’s going to happen, so try to calm down. Don’t do that, you’re making everyone nervous.”
A fellow first-year stood there, a head taller than her.
She looked up at the other’s face, eyes wide.
Of all the many cadets, the one who made her the most uncomfortable, the one she least knew how to deal with, was the one who had spoken to her.
“…Really, nothing is going to happen.”
Though he’d started the conversation, he was gripping his own hand even tighter than she was.
“…What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
A person who had once been broken, having lost his only family.
In her memory, Hyacine Ortis had always looked at her with disgust, as if she were some kind of bug.
“…S-Sorry.”
Millia let the words slip out, then quickly tried to cover for herself.
“It’s just, you looked familiar, somehow…”
As soon as she said it, she regretted it.
Now she probably just seemed like she was up to something weird.
And she’d basically opened the door for the conversation to continue.
Of all people, it had to be herself, the very person who’d dragged Liliope into this. And to the younger sibling of Liliope, no less.
It was unlikely, but if things went wrong…
She was afraid of just how much this person might come to hate her.
Especially since she had already experienced Hyacine’s hatred once before.
Even if it hadn’t been directed at her, but at Acteon Brondearn instead.
What scared her was seeing someone who’d already suffered once be pushed over the edge again.
Knowing she seemed awkward, she changed the subject.
“I hope no one gets hurt.”
Blurting it out, she realized it sounded like she was speaking to herself and fell silent, but Hyacine didn’t seem to notice.
He only nodded silently in agreement.
* * *
Mana that had begun to crystallize shimmered like a heat haze before gradually hardening.
Acteon looked ready to attack me at any moment.
Even though he’d clearly been unconscious right before my vision cut out, his body now radiated a primal menace. He staggered to his feet, barely giving me a chance to retreat.
Just keeping my eyes on Acteon made cold sweat trickle down my back.
He didn’t seem normal at all, did he?
I hadn’t even started guiding yet. There was no way he’d regained his senses on his own. No way something so convenient would happen.
As I let out a hollow laugh, Acteon’s hand, which was braced against the wall, slowly curled up.
When the blue veins stood out on the back of his hand as he clenched it against the wall, alarm bells went off in my head.
If I hadn’t hesitated, I wouldn’t have stumbled on something at my feet.
As I tried to widen the distance between us, I nearly tripped over something I hadn’t noticed.
My heart almost dropped out of my chest.
It seemed Acteon hadn’t even noticed me almost falling.
But I couldn’t be relieved just because I hadn’t drawn his attention.
Hidden behind the seats, I found a lump I hadn’t seen before.
“This is…”
Flinching, I stepped back to take a better look… and saw that it wasn’t just a lump.
“Professor Hession…”
He was the professor who had come in ahead of us to try and Guide Acteon.
If I wasn’t careful, I could end up just like that. The thought chilled me to the bone.
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