-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 45
Chapter Title: Chapter 4 First Day at the Academy (2)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“……”
Sei-an watched Jade swallow dryly for a moment, then stepped back and returned to his seat.
Everyone around them stared blankly at Sei-an, falling into a strange silence.
*Creak!*
“Hello, everyone.”
Just then, the classroom door opened, and Joy, the math professor for the first class, entered, greeting them cheerfully.
“Hmm? Why do you all look so dazed?”
However, seeing all the students sitting there with lost expressions despite his greeting, Joy tilted his head in confusion.
In his early thirties, he was the youngest professor here, and his handsome appearance made him popular with female students.
His straightforward personality also made him popular with male students, who regarded him like a friend or an older brother.
He always had enjoyable classes with enthusiastic student responses.
But today, the students' reactions were unusually lukewarm, which puzzled him.
“Oh?”
Then, Joy spotted someone he hadn't seen in a while in the classroom, and a moment of delight crossed his face.
“Sei-an! Hahaha, you’ve returned.”
Joy burst into laughter, genuinely pleased that Sei-an, who had disappeared due to an unfortunate accident, had returned safely. He welcomed him warmly.
“……”
But Sei-an merely bowed his head slightly with an indifferent expression in response to his words.
He had already realized in just one day that no one would approach him pretending to be close without reason, as he didn't know who they were.
“…Well, alright.”
Perhaps Sei-an’s reaction didn’t please him. Joy wore an awkward expression for a moment, then began to write a clearly difficult math problem on the blackboard.
“Alright, as a welcome back, I’ll give you a problem. Come up and solve it.”
*How childish. Is he getting revenge just because I didn’t greet him properly?*
Sei-an sighed briefly, thinking that professors, just like the dean, were truly people who lived according to their moods.
Then he rose from his seat and approached the problem Joy had written.
The students in the classroom finally showed faint smiles. Math was Sei-an’s weakest subject.
While he didn’t get very high scores in other subjects, Sei-an always scored at rock bottom in math.
The students watched him solve the problem, expecting another foolish display.
‘Haa.’
Only Kanto subtly frowned as he watched Sei-an go up to solve the problem.
From before, Sei-an’s most hated thing was to step forward in front of people and be embarrassed.
“……!”
“……!”
But a moment later, the students’ eyes widened in surprise once again.
Professor Joy was no exception. Sei-an had solved a problem that even advanced students couldn’t answer, with effortless ease.
“Is that sufficient?”
“Ah, yes. You may return to your seat.”
Sei-an bowed lightly to the dazed Professor Joy, then returned to his seat.
“You, what really happened to you?”
“What do you mean?”
“Math was your worst subject.”
Kanto spoke to Sei-an with a voice full of questions.
Even if one lost their memory, their personality and way of speaking might change, but the knowledge stored in their mind would not.
In fact, one would more likely forget knowledge they once knew.
‘How pathetic. Was he bad at studying too?’
Sei-an observed Kanto’s reaction and could guess that the previous Sei-an’s grades here weren't very good.
‘Instead of just fostering an inferiority complex about his brother, he should have accumulated some knowledge in his head.’
Sei-an clicked his tongue lightly and sighed internally. *Tsk-tsk!* He now felt pity for how utterly lacking they all were in some respect.
“What happened, I asked?”
“I studied a bit after the accident.”
“What?”
“What else is there to do at home besides study?”
As Kanto continued to press for answers, Sei-an vaguely brushed him off, deliberately avoiding his gaze.
“……”
Though questions remained, Kanto silently closed his mouth, sensing that Sei-an didn’t wish to say more.
‘How strange.’
Even so, he couldn’t stop looking at Sei-an with eyes full of surprise.
He wondered if a person could change so much just by losing their memory.
***
“Haa… It was an exhausting day.”
Dealing with each person who picked a fight was truly tiresome.
After class, Sei-an, wanting no more friction with people for the day, walked aimlessly in search of a quiet place.
“…It’s quiet.”
Finding a tranquil spot where even the sound of the wind seemed audible, Sei-an settled down and let out a short sigh.
“……”
Sei-an was in a small garden located behind the dormitory.
Since there were several other gardens, this small garden, which looked forcibly created and had nothing to see, wasn't a place many people visited.
“Hmm.”
But for Sei-an, that alone made it an incomparably comfortable place. Sitting in the shade of a tree, feeling the breeze, Sei-an gently closed his eyes.
The wind, cooling the midday heat, felt very pleasant.
“Ha… I’m…”
And just like that, Sei-an unintentionally drifted off to sleep.
“…ian… Sei-an.”
“……?”
How much time had passed? Sei-an slowly woke to a voice calling him and looked around.
Kanto was standing there, looking at him. He seemed to have woken him up.
“Even in summer, you’ll catch a cold sleeping in a place like this.”
“Yes.”
At his words, Sei-an rose from his seat to return to the dormitory. Then he raised his head and briefly looked at the tree that had given him shade.
“What are you doing? Aren’t you coming?”
“……”
Kanto asked, puzzled by Sei-an’s actions.
Without answering Kanto’s voice, Sei-an lowered his gaze from the tree he had been looking at and bowed politely. Then, he finally moved his feet and followed Kanto to the dormitory.
“……? What was that for?”
Kanto, still puzzled by Sei-an’s action of bowing to the tree, asked again.
“Someone was here before me.”
“What?”
“It was a thank you for letting me share the space.”
“……?”
Sei-an finally answered his question, but even after hearing his reply, Kanto still looked at him with a questioning gaze.
From his perspective, there had been no one else there besides Sei-an.
“……”
However, Sei-an seemed to have no intention of explaining further and remained silent, and Kanto likewise said nothing more about it, quietly starting to walk towards the dormitory.
“Did he realize I was here?”
Meanwhile, after Sei-an and Kanto disappeared, someone quietly emerged from the spot.
A man in his early twenties, with messy dark brown hair that looked uncombed and disheveled clothes with buttons undone, lightly jumped down from the tree.
“……”
He frowned subtly as he looked at the space where Sei-an had disappeared.
He had never been discovered by anyone while resting there before.
But Sei-an had immediately noticed his presence.
“……”
That meant Sei-an had been soundly asleep, knowing he was there. The man recalled Sei-an’s appearance and made an incredulous expression.
“He’s a strange fellow.”
After quietly uttering his assessment of Sei-an, he quickly climbed back up the tree and resumed his interrupted rest, disturbed by the unexpected visitor.
***
“What do you mean by that?”
“He’s changed somehow.”
“What?”
Illnis scowled as he heard Rubin’s words. He was annoyed by Rubin’s habit of speaking abruptly, cutting off the beginning and end of his sentences.
“Tell me in detail what you mean.”
“That Sei-an guy has completely changed from before.”
“……”
Illnis looked at the others in the club, then at Rubin, who was excitedly spouting strange things.
“You tell me what happened.”
“Well…”
“His whole demeanor has changed a lot.”
“His demeanor?”
As if on cue, Horosha and Pilbe, along with others who had clashed with Sei-an in the dining hall today, began to take turns describing Sei-an.
“He’s somehow colder and scarier.”
“……?”
“His flustered demeanor is completely gone, and there’s a sense of confidence…”
“……”
Illnis listened to Rubin and then the others, his mind seeming to grow even more confused.
‘What could have changed about that Sei-an guy?’
He couldn’t understand why they were making such a fuss about how much a pathetic guy could possibly change.
“He must have lost his fear in the accident.”
He then came to a simple conclusion, letting out a small laugh.
No matter how much Sei-an, who always looked pathetic in front of him, struggled, how much could he really change?
“……”
“……”
However, no one who had directly seen and experienced him today agreed with Illnis’s words.
