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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 8
Chapter Title: Steps Towards Death
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“Arisa.”
“Yes?”
“Your brother.”
“Who?”
“Sei-an.”
“…”
“How did he suddenly change so much?”
“Well…”
This was the question Arisa had been hearing most often lately. The number of people asking about Sei-an had increased dramatically.
And most of those asking were girls. His recently transformed appearance had begun to capture everyone's attention.
Unlike before, his confident way of dealing with bullies, and the way he had protected Arisa in the dining hall a while ago, had garnered favorable reactions from the girls.
“It’s true! We really thought we were in big trouble, and our vision just went black!”
“Then Arisa’s brother appeared and saved us.”
Furthermore, on that day, the two other friends who had nearly gotten into serious trouble with Arisa and Aimela had spread the story of what they saw Sei-an do, further escalating the interest in him.
“Please introduce him to us later, okay?”
“Tell us more about Sei-an.”
“…”
As a result, Arisa had to answer questions about Sei-an and receive requests for introductions several times a day recently.
Yet, she didn’t find people’s reactions bothersome or annoying at all.
Instead, she felt an inexplicable joy that people recognized Sei-an as her brother.
“…”
Meanwhile, Aimela, who was in the same class as Arisa, wore an expression filled with complicated emotions.
She flinched and was surprised by her own surge of emotion when she saw the girls showing interest in Sei-an.
‘Why am I like this!’
And then, recalling Sei-an, who had passed by her indifferently, she couldn't help but feel her mood inexplicably sinking.
‘He was really annoying…’
Before the accident, Aimela had intensely disliked him constantly following her around.
The very fact that he, who was disdained by others, liked her and followed her felt embarrassing and irritating.
Because of it, she had ignored him, said she disliked him, and even uttered hurtful words without hesitation.
‘Haa…’
But now, seeing how much he had changed, Aimela couldn’t quite grasp her own feelings.
“Kyaaak!”
“Ugh!”
“...?”
“!”
“What? What’s going on?”
Just then, loud screams erupted from outside. It wasn’t just one person, but multiple screams simultaneously.
Students in the classroom all rushed outside, wondering what was happening.
“Let’s go too.”
“Oh? Okay.”
Arisa and Aimela, urged on by their friends, couldn’t contain their curiosity and headed outside together.
They wanted to find out what had caused the screams.
“It must be over there.”
Once outside, Arisa and her friends saw a large crowd of students gathered in one spot and quickly ran towards it.
“What’s going on?”
“I know. Everyone looks so serious.”
As they got closer, Arisa and her friends noticed the students’ faces were deathly pale, and with puzzled looks, they quickened their pace even more.
“...?”
*Whoosh!*
“!”
Just as they were pushing through the students to get inside and see what was happening, to witness the scene unfolding there, they were startled by someone suddenly grabbing Arisa’s arm, preventing her from seeing.
“Brother?”
“…”
It was Sei-an.
“Aaah!”
“Kyaaak!”
“Oh, my god!”
At the same time, screams erupted from Aimela and the other friends who had been trying to see the scene with her.
“...?”
Arisa, about to turn her head back with a questioning look, paused as Sei-an pulled her head into his embrace.
“Don’t look.”
“Brother?”
“…”
Sei-an held Arisa close, his gaze cold as he looked at the scene before them.
The corpse of a woman, her head shattered and blood oozing from her entire body, as if she had jumped from the building.
***
“Who was the deceased?”
“She was a scholarship student.”
“What?”
“The academy has a scholarship system.”
Due to the sudden incident, all afternoon classes were canceled that day. All the academy staff were preoccupied with investigating the deceased woman.
After escorting Arisa to her room, Sei-an returned to his quarters with Kantos and asked about the deceased.
Kantos, unexpectedly, knew quite a lot of detailed information about everything that existed in the academy.
And this time, too, Kantos did not disappoint Sei-an’s expectations, providing information about the deceased.
“A scholarship system, you say…”
“Commoners like you, who aren’t nobles, can’t afford the enormous tuition fees here.”
“…”
The very purpose of Juist Academy was, of course, to provide fair education to both nobles and commoners.
However, the fairness of the education only applied if the tuition fees were also paid equally.
“But there is one way.”
“A way?”
“Yes.”
However, there was a solution. A scholarship system existed at the academy where tuition fees were paid on behalf of students.
“If you achieve good grades on the initial exam, you get your tuition waived. Of course, you have to maintain those grades until graduation.”
Most poor commoner students, not children of nobles or wealthy merchants, lived at the academy by benefiting from this system.
“Then are you also a scholarship student?”
Listening to Kantos, Sei-an suddenly felt curious and asked Kantos a question. He asked if Kantos, also a commoner, was a scholarship student.
“No. I’m from a commoner family that’s relatively well-off, so I don’t really worry about my grades.”
At Sei-an’s question, Kantos chuckled and gave his answer, then continued speaking.
“The deceased was a scholarship student. She was someone who never missed first place, but…”
Kantos also wondered why she, who had always maintained good grades as a scholarship student, had suddenly chosen death.
“And she was so pretty too.”
Moreover, she was popular among the male students.
With her beautiful appearance, intelligence, and eyes filled with a subtle sadness that created a unique atmosphere, she had captivated many men.
On the other hand, she was often subjected to jealousy and envy among the noble girls.
“Why would she do something so useless as commit suicide…!”
Kantos clicked his tongue softly, speaking dismissively about her choice to end her own life, then suddenly paused and looked at Sei-an.
“No… I mean, that is…”
Then, with an awkward expression, he quickly uttered a defensive remark. As he was speaking, he had realized that Sei-an had made the same choice before.
