Chapter 39

The late hours before dawn.
At a time when winter’s chill drifted through the empty air, the boy’s eyes opened.

“Haa……. Haa…….”

He had had some kind of strange dream.
In a darkness where nothing could be seen, he had spoken with someone.
The contents of the conversation were faint as well.
He remembered resolving not to forget.
But as dreams did, the more he tried to recall it, the fainter it became.
Recently, this had been happening repeatedly.
It was the same dream, but when he woke up, he forgot everything.

“Mm…….”

Feeling uncomfortable, Serpens got up from the bed.
His feet had no strength in them.
He drank the glass of water on the drawer and left the room.

An inn near the Academy.
It was a place they had stopped by to eat dinner, but because of the sudden snow, the two had decided to stay for the night.

“The snow stopped.”

Serpens came down to the first floor.
Outside the window, he could see the scenery of Baros turned pure white.

Clatter.

He opened the door and stepped out.
The fierce wind tried to make him close his eyes.
It had little effect on Serpens, whose eyes were already half-closed after coming out from sleep.

“It’s cold.”

He walked over the snow to wake himself up.
He didn’t want to feel uncomfortable because of a dream he couldn’t even remember.

The snow sank softly and soaked the boy’s ankles.
The threat of frostbite he had not felt in a while.
He wondered if he should return to the inn.
But since it was certainly effective at driving away his sleepiness, he decided to endure it a little longer.

The softly bright sky.
The sun had shown itself a little, but it could not have much effect, creating a dreamlike atmosphere.

“Haa…….”

Serpens warmed his hands with his pure-white breath.
He curled up from the cold and began enjoying some time alone.
Just as he decided to spend a little more time like that before returning.

“Hey!”

A bomb-haired boy covered in snow approached.

“Freak?”
“Oh! You remembered my name.”

It would have been impossible not to remember.
Was that reddish-brown bomb hair not too intense to be easily forgotten?
And his advice about the princess.
Serpens had been planning to thank him if they met in relation to that.

“What are you doing here at this hour? Isn’t this the time when all Academy students are supposed to be in that place called a dormitory?”
“Rather than all, the expression ‘almost all’ would be correct.”
“Mm?”

Freak shook his head hard.
Snow fell off with a patter.
The top of his hair looked wet and slightly flattened.

“As you can see, Baros has more eccentric weather than other places. Also, since it’s located near the northern end of the continent and beneath a mountain range, it isn’t a good place for people to live.”

Serpens nodded.
His feet were turning toward the inn regardless of his will.
Seeing that, Freak grinned.

“Let’s go back to the inn first.”
“……Yeah.”

It didn’t take long to return to the inn.
That was because Serpens hadn’t gone far in the first place.

Freak opened the door and greeted the staff as if they knew each other well.
Judging by the atmosphere, it seemed they had known each other for a long time.

“Do you stay here often?”
“It’s not that I stay here. This place is my home.”
“Really?”

After they sat down, Freak asked the employee for a few dishes.
When Serpens said he was not hungry, Freak waved his hand and said he was buying.

Serpens blinked.
Even so, he didn’t leave his seat.
When he opened his eyes, Lucas had been nowhere to be seen, as if he had disappeared somewhere.
As long as he stayed inside the inn, eating breakfast in advance didn’t seem like a bad idea.
Besides, was there any need to refuse when someone said they would buy?

“You could count the people who don’t live in the dormitory at the Academy on one hand. Cases of being an Academy student while living in Baros like me are very, very rare.”

The two boys sat at the table and talked about this and that.
From trivial conversations to words of thanks.
Serpens gradually found this conversation with someone his own age, which he was experiencing for the first time, more and more enjoyable.

Until now, he had barely ever spoken with anyone his own age.
If anything, there had only been fights.
Arguments over ownership of stolen food or sleeping spots.

At some point, a smile settled on the boy’s lips.
It was not a smile with any special reason.

Before they knew it, the food came out.
Serpens picked up a piece of bread placed before him.

“So, why did you tell me to be careful of the imperial family?”

Serpens asked.

“Seeing you ask that, I guess the princess came to find you after the sparring match ended?”
“Yeah.”

Freak swallowed the meat in his mouth with a gulp.

“She’s always like that. She’s desperate to put skilled people under her.”
“Why?”
“You can never know the inner thoughts of nobles down to every detail. But if I had to guess…… succession problems?”

Succession problems.
He had heard something similar before.
Someone he had met when he first went to Killip Gorge.
He remembered that Rail Navigatou had also been caught in that problem.
Was it a problem nobles had to go through no matter what their position was?

‘By the way, I wonder if Rail’s doing well?’

Serpens was not interested in the succession fights of nobles.
No matter who won, they had no interest in beggars.
They only saw them as problems to be dealt with, not as fellow humans who needed help.

‘Still…….’

If someone had to inherit the position anyway.
He found himself hoping it would be someone he knew.
After all, he might receive help from Rail someday.

“She made that kind of offer to me too. I refused because I have no desire to live a grand life, but some people live rather difficult lives.”
“Difficult lives?”
“Did you hear the offer?”
“No. I just refused on the spot.”
“Smart thinking.”

Freak snickered as if he felt refreshed.

“The offer the princess gives, calling it an opportunity, is to become a knight under her command. She says she will provide financial support and a proper environment until you become a knight, so serve under her.”
“Mm……. I’m not training because I want to serve under someone.”
“Financial support is bigger than you might think. She supports not only Academy tuition, but all sorts of other things too.”

Serpens looked at Freak with blank eyes.
Freak answered those eyes by shrugging.

No matter how much money they give, I’m not the kind of person who can serve under someone.

The two boys laughed quietly.

“Why did you warn me?”
“Because you looked like you were working hard to live?”
“What?”
“How old are you?”
“Thirteen.”
“Wow……. You’re young.”

The corner of Serpens’s mouth awkwardly rose, and a bit of white teeth showed.

He had the nerve to say, ‘Wow, you’re young,’ while having the same youthful face as him.

“Anyway, someone younger than me coming to the Academy is proof that he has worked pretty hard to survive. I didn’t want to let someone like that fall for a noble’s game.”
“You could have said that from the start. I seriously thought you were a weirdo.”
“If I had said it that way, you might have fallen for it instead.”

That possibility existed.
He had refused because he had Lucas as backing, but others might fall for it immediately at the words ‘princess’s support’.

“As long as you did not fall for money, that is enough. Money is an incredible temptation.”
“Is that so?”
“Well, you might dislike money for some reason-”
“I like money.”
“……Yeah.”

Freak, who had paid for the food, rose from his seat.
Serpens quietly watched him put his outerwear back on.

“Ahh, I’m still a student, you know. Attendance is important.”
“That must be hard.”
“It’s a little better if I think of it as taking hardship now instead of later.”

Freak patted Serpens’s shoulder.

“Since you won the match, are you leaving Baros?”
“Yeah. I was told we would move somewhere else today.”
“Told you would move? Ah, you had a companion. The person carrying the greatsword?”
“That’s right.”
“What does he do? Is he something like your master?”

Serpens hesitated to answer.
Even now, he could not explain to others what Lucas was.
Just an incredibly strong person.
Someone warmer than he seemed.
Was that about it?

“……Yeah.”

The first day they came to Baros.
He recalled what Principal Frost had said at the Academy.

If one gave teachings, that person was a master.
Teaching was not something that could only be given intentionally.

“He is my master.”

Lucas had given teachings to Serpens.
Teachings he had given intentionally.
And things Serpens had realized by watching him.
That was why Lucas was Serpens’s master.

“Nice. Let’s meet again if we get the chance, Mister Genius.”
“Genius?”

Freak went out the door.
He briefly looked back and waved.

“Yeah. You genius bastard.”

On a snow-covered meadow.
A carriage was steadily making its way forward.

Serpens and Lucas.
For once, silence flowed through the carriage the two were riding in.

‘Me, a genius……?’

The reason for the silence was that Serpens had not opened his mouth.
He was organizing his thoughts on his own.
Freak’s one remark.
That one remark had been circling in the boy’s head for hours.

‘This is strength I barely built after working myself to the bone, and it all gets reduced to the word genius?’

Lucas liked that silence.
He was not admiring the scenery outside the window.
That was because he too had thoughts he needed to organize on his own.

Around the time the carriage left the area defined as Baros.

“Lucas.”

The boy opened his mouth.

“What is the standard for a genius?”
“…….”

Lucas looked at the boy.
His eyes seemed to ask why he was asking something like that now.
But Serpens stubbornly continued his question.

“Because I heard someone call me a genius.”
“Who said that?”
“Freak.”
“……?”
“You know. The reddish-brown bomb hair we saw at the Academy.”
“Ah.”

Serpens quickly followed up.

“Does my growth seem that fast to you too, Lucas?”
“……It does.”
“Is it enough to be called a genius?”
“……It is.”
“I see…….”

Serpens frowned and rested his chin on his hand.
A posture of deep thought.
But before long, the corners of his mouth began to twitch.

Thwack.

“Oof.”

A brief cry rang through the carriage.
Serpens clutched the back of his head and twisted his body.

“Do not become conceited. The world is full of people stronger than you.”
“Ow……. I wasn’t being conceited!”
“Conceit must be pulled out by the roots. It is like a weed, and once it starts growing, it grows without end.”
“Seriously. You admitted it too, Lucas!”

Serpens fixed his left hand to the back of his head.
A simple knuckle rap.
Even so, pain rushed in as if he had been struck by a rock.

“I have no intention of hiding that you have talent. But it is not talent so outstanding that you should get full of yourself.”
“……What exactly is that talent?”

Serpens grumbled.
He could not accept the fact that he was some incredible genius.
In the boy’s mind, geniuses were people with innate talent.
He thought he was different from people like that.

“I hate hearing the word genius. I would rather hear that I work hard to a foolish degree.”

That didn’t mean the word genius made him feel bad.
What the boy disliked was being defined by the word genius.
The matter during yesterday’s sparring match had been like that.
Was it not unfair for his effort to be called merely by the word gifted bastard?

“Effort comes before talent.”
“Then why can’t people who only work hard beat geniuses?”

Serpens rubbed the back of his head a few times, then let go.
It throbbed a little.

“Every person has talent of a different shape.”
“Talent of a different shape?”
“…….”

Lucas looked into the air for a moment.
Could he say it in a way Serpens could understand?
Let him try to make it as simple as possible.

“People each have a bottle called talent. That bottle has a different width and height for each person. A person’s strength and growth follow the same principle as filling that bottle with water.”

Serpens bit his lower lip and raised one eyebrow.
It was a face trying to understand.

“The more water one fills into the bottle, the more a person grows. Sometimes, there are bottles with no major flaws, shaped well for being filled with water. We call them geniuses.”
“Mm…….”
“But a bottle is useless if it is not filled with water. Only in the process of being filled does a bottle finally fulfill its role.”

The boy nodded.

“How much water you pour in, and how precisely, comes first. That process is what is called effort. The shape of the bottle comes after that.”
“……I understand.”

Lucas opened the window.
His outstretched fingertip pointed toward the endless sky.

“And there are countless geniuses in this world.”
“…….”
“There is only one reason one cannot defeat them. It is because one has not poured in enough effort to defeat a genius.”