Episode 27

“Sonia, breaking news.”

“What’s the scoop this time?”

“I’ve run out of things to do.”

Sonia sighed and poked me repeatedly.

“Isn’t it about time?”

“It is, but…”

Until the announcement of the results, Rustila and I decided to engage in some light exercise.

Of course, Ceti had sternly warned Rustila not to be alone with me… but that’s none of my concern.

What matters is that my relationship with Rustila isn’t bad.

At least she doesn’t form prejudices upon hearing my name.

Or scream and run away.

Or curse at me and spit before taking off.

… She wasn’t that kind of person.

A person without prejudices.

How refreshing is that?

Even if not for the purpose of being a teammate in a task force to prevent the destruction of the universe, she is my top choice for a friend.

Anyway, that aside, returning from exercise, there was still nothing to do.

Research on graviton bullets?

I’m doing it bit by bit.

But, calling it research, graviton bullets won’t just materialize by reading other people’s papers and reflecting on them.

You have to join the scientific community, conduct experiments, and go through the whole process. Even if you have a good idea, it’s nothing more than a fantasy in the brain if one cannot experiment with it.

Considering all that, I mean to say I’m bored.

Moreover, I’m anxious.

Honestly, no matter how much of a tough guy mindset I have, seeing the word ‘Rejected’ feels like my eyes are going to flip inside out.

The anxiety about uncertainty is a human instinct. It’s engraved in our DNA, so I couldn’t completely shake it off.

So, all the more reason to immerse myself in something else.

I dressed casually and went out to the meeting place.

Even though it’s called Stellarium Academy, not the entire artificial planet is used for educational purposes.

Some parts are commercial districts.

Some parts are industrial districts.

And some parts are residential areas.

Among them, there were places densely packed with military and medical facilities. Therefore, it wasn’t strange at all that there was a park available for everyone to use comfortably.

“… Aidel!”

I heard someone calling me from somewhere. Turning my head in that direction, I immediately felt a breath-taking sensation.

There was a girl wearing a white tracksuit.

The top was snug, outlining her figure perfectly. It seemed like she was wearing something a size smaller than usual.

The bottom was even more revealing.

Tight-fitting light gray leggings. Her beautiful legs were fully exposed. Elegant. Graceful. Enough to stimulate the carnal desires of many men.

Rustila usually wore her clothes, including cardigans, loosely. That is why they hadn’t noticed, but among her age group, she was incredibly mature looking.

“Here! Over here!”

It was hard to look directly at the girl waving her hand in such attire. So, I looked up at the sky. It felt like the South Korean police would come searching for me beyond the universe right away. Could that mean a return to earth?

Idle thoughts kept flowing out.

I took a deep breath. Cleared my mind of distractions. I calmed my body and soul. Water as water, fire as fire. Instead of the Heart Sutra, which I knew nothing about, I recited the pi theory to disconnect myself from the world and everything in it.

Euk.

It was then that this pleasant fragrance swept in like a tide.

“What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”

The voice was heard from close range.

Rustila was circling around me, her face filled with concern for me. I shook my head and returned to my usual self.

She soon smiled. She seemed to be in a good mood today.

It was strange. To see Rustila smiling.

Now that I think about it, her dark circles are gone, and her skin condition seems nice. She must have gotten a lot of sleep after the test time.

But there was a smile which couldn’t be explained with such simple biological factors.

I asked out of curiosity.

“All thanks to you.”

Rustila said, grinning.

“I did well in the interview.”

“…Really?”

It seems like the show where I destroyed androids worked well.

“Yes. Did you do well in your interview, Aidel?”

Rustila asked back. I couldn’t help but give her a bit of a bitter smile.

“Let’s walk and talk.”

It was none other than Rustila. The girl with Vega as her constellation. Lies simply wouldn’t work.

It would be better to speak the truth.

“I’m screwed.”

“Screwed? How much?”

“Well, I ended up saying too much in front of the interviewers.”

I briefly explained what happened at the interview.

Even as I spoke, my face was turning red. It probably wasn’t because Rustila, in her tracksuit, was looking pretty.

“Ah, that hurts my pride.”

“There’s no need for your pride to get hurt. Ah, more importantly, ahead…”

Rustila changed the topic. She probably thought I would fail.

“… I heard there’s a famous pasta place over there.”

“Really?”

“Yes. And over there, I heard the steak place is good. They say they make excellent fried potatoes on the side.”

We talked almost exclusively about restaurants while walking around the park.

It makes sense. If you pass, this whole area becomes a commercial district. Even I think there looks to be a lot of tasty things.

I thought about bringing my younger sibling here later. To resolve the resentment built in Ceti, I’d have to start with such things.

So, I matched the pace of Rustila’s mood, one round, two, and three rounds…

“…A bit, tough.”

I said, gasping for air. Rustila, who had been walking effortlessly beside me, tilted her head.

“It’s only been four laps, right?”

“Wait. I feel like I’m going to die…”

“We need to complete ten rounds.”

Ah, damn it.

By the time I completed five rounds, I began to feel a severe pain in my legs. By the time I completed six rounds, it turned completely impossible to converse with Rustila.

And by the time it was seven rounds…

“Yah, is it alright for a man to be this weak?”

Rustila pushed me from behind. There was no time to feel my pride being hurt. It was so damn hard.

“Eight laps now. Hang in there a little longer.”

Strange. It wasn’t this hard when I was trying to cut down the monster’s heads.

“Nine laps. Just one more.”

Now my head was completely blank. Sweat poured down like rain. Just from jogging a bit, my stamina was all drained.

Actually, this was my first time doing aerobic exercises with this body.

“Ten laps!”

“Huff, huff… that is all. Huff… right?”

“For a first-timer, you have good stamina. Let’s go for one more lap, no, two more laps.”

“…Ah.”

I saw a demon.

Right. Thinking about it, Rustila was, by nature, a soldier.

If she was a soldier, even during exercises, she treats people like soldiers. Just pushes them. Uh?

Damn it, did I make a mistake…?

“15 laps! Impressive, right? At this rate, you could do twenty too!”

About 10 minutes per lap. Repeat that fifteen times. In other words, run nonstop for two and a half hours at a speed of 8km/h.

My heart felt like it was coming out of my mouth. The internal organs were twisting within. A cool sensation filled the lungs, neck, back, forearm. There wasn’t a spot that wasn’t damp.

Save me.

Was it because I thought that?

“Yah, you, what’s with you?”

A voice of salvation came for me.

It was from the woman jogging on the other side.

She walked up to me and Rustila and stopped. Silver hair danced in front of my dizzying vision.

“What are you doing here?”

It’s a familiar voice. Just hearing it gives off a distinctly prickly feeling. I had been looking at the ground as I walked, but slowly lifted my head.

There stood a girl dressed in a sports tee and dolphin shorts.

She was short, but her body was perfect. As if sculpted by a god. It was enough to make anyone feel she was a noble.

Zelnya von Adelwein.

I tried to call her, but I couldn’t even speak. My throat felt parched. A metallic taste could be felt in the back of my throat.

“…Who?”

“Who do you think?”

Meanwhile, a standoff between the two girls began.

“You can’t possibly not know who I am, can you?”

Zelnya was the first to attack.

“…Really, who are you?”

“Ah, you… right. I know you. The girl who was in the same test room as this guy.”

She pressed on with a rude tone, even though it was her first time meeting Rustila. After all, looking down on others is Zelnya’s prominent trait.

But she didn’t know.

Who she just provoked.

“Well, I don’t need to explain who I am…”

“…”

“…What’s the matter. Why aren’t you responding?”

“…”

“Amazing. Not even a flicker of surprise upon seeing this hair and these eyes.”

“…”

“You don’t know I’m a direct descendant of Adelwein?”

Each for 1 second, 5 seconds, 7 seconds.

The time it took for Rustila to activate ‘Heart’s Eye’ and ‘Quick Eye’, fully analyzing the opponent.

“You’re a bad one. Aren’t you?”

Rustila struck back. A cool and heavy blow. Zelnya’s face turned dumbfounded as if she had been hit.

“What?”

“Let’s go, Aidel. I think you’ve jogged enough.”

Rustila grabbed my arm and pulled me along. This was Rustila’s tendency to avoid a place when encountering a villain.

“Yah, wh-what? Are you ignoring me now? For real…!”

From behind came the sound of footsteps, thud thud thud.

Zelnya came close to me and provocatively said,

“Did you get yourself a girlfriend in the meantime? You seem so carefree even though you haven’t passed yet!”

Girlfriend.

I’m too exhausted to even argue about such a comment. Besides, there was never anything good about getting involved with Zelnya.

Leave me out of this, chapter boss.

I need to take a break for a moment…

“Hey, you. You do know that the announcement is coming up soon, right?”

“Aidel, should we have an early lunch?”

“What? Look at this? Are you just going to ignore me?”

“That ‘Le Carbonelle’ you mentioned earlier seems like a good choice.”

“That pasta place? It’s terribly bad.”

“It’s better to wash up and eat since it’s hot.”

Zelnya, perhaps feeling provoked, picked a fight with every word Rustila said.

At this point, my mind began to clear up a bit.

And I couldn’t help but find it strange that Zelnya was being more passionate and aggressive than her usual self.

Yes, it is odd.

Was she always this persistently clingy?

…Just as I was thinking this, such a message popped up before my eyes.