Chapter 4: Club

Sacred Academy.

The setting of the original Sword of the Academy, and the name of the academy I currently attend.

It trains talents who can protect citizens from unidentified monsters that have been appearing since some time ago.

This was the founding purpose of Sacred Academy that I knew.

Swordsmanship, archery, spearmanship, etc.

Students took classes in their respective fields of talent and developed their skills in line with the purpose of the academy.

And this also applied to most of the clubs that existed in the academy.

Clubs.

In this world, they are also called clubs.

After regular classes are over, students all move to their own clubs and continue their club activities.

If the level of the club you belong to, is excellent, you can learn more from the clubs in the academy than you can from class.

“……Junior Lian.”

“Yes, Senior Tinia.”

“Did you miss class this afternoon?”

From that perspective, the ‘Book Appreciation Club’ that I belonged to, was a rather unique club in the academy.

Tinia Trishion.

In the original, she is not the heroine of the main character, but a third-year senior who appears as the main character’s assistant.

Female characters in this genre of novels usually only appear in two cases.

Either as the heroine or as a villain who is the main character’s enemy.

Tinia Trision is a very unique character who does not fall into either of these cases.

She has feelings for the main character, but it is not a rational feeling, but purely human-to-human feelings.

She appears as the main character’s assistant every time she appears, but as soon as the incident is over, she distances herself from the main character as if nothing had happened.

Of course, despite this setting, Tinia was quite popular.

The author herself said that she received dozens of emails asking to have Tinia as the heroine.

She is a character who does not form close relationships with the main characters in the original, and when the incident is over, she returns to her own reading club to read books.

The name of the club was strange to begin with.

Everyone is working hard to improve their skills, so why did they suddenly put the word ‘reading appreciation’ in the name of the club?

Of course, there are other clubs that encourage hobbies at Sacred Academy.

Those clubs are all just hobby clubs that students join as their second club.

It would be safe to say that no student has a hobby club like this as their main club, except for me and that senior here.

When I didn’t give a specific answer, the senior frowned even more and asked, “Answer me. Did you skip class this afternoon? ……Yes, you did.”

“Right? Are you admitting to skipping class yourself?”

“……There was a reason.”

“A reason. Is it a reason that will convince me?”

The senior seemed to have already declared that he would never let his expression soften until he heard the reason.

“……How on earth does this person know that I skipped class when we’re in different grades?”

I sighed inwardly at the ridiculous situation that had been going on since earlier, but I couldn’t keep doing this until the club time was over, so I explained the situation briefly.

“I see. Junior Lian, you went to the hospital.”

“….”

“However, my questions are still not completely answered. Rather, one more thing has been added.”

“……What is that?”

“Junior Lian hasn’t told me what hurts him that he went to the hospital for. I’m curious about that.”

Hmm.

Why is this person so curious about me today?

Of course, he’s usually the type of person who interferer in my affairs, but today he felt worse than usual.

‘… Or maybe my condition is just weird today.’

It was a thought that suddenly occurred to me.

I just thought that my condition was weird.

-A year at most.

After the doctor’s words came to my ears precisely, I thought that my condition itself was not good.

Maybe it was natural.

There aren’t many people who can stay calm when they find out they have a limited time to live.

Or they just scream that they don’t want to die.

I’m not yet ready to die, or I’ll make a fuss.

The general reaction would be like this.

Humans usually want to live long.

There’s a reason why the old saying goes, “It’s better to live in this world than to roll around in shit.”

In that sense, my condition was not normal even when viewed objectively.

I didn’t know why.

Maybe it was because I realized that all my efforts up until now were meaningless and I felt empty.

A sense of emptiness, a sense of loss.

I felt like these empty feelings were the only things filling me up.

A state of being filled with emptiness and calm.

In other words, a state of not feeling anything.

Perhaps that’s the sentence that best describes my current state.

With that in mind, I told my senior, “After finishing my morning class, my wrist felt a little numb. I went to see a doctor because of my wrist.”

“Wrist? What did the hospital say?”

“They said it was just a temporary symptom, so I just had to eat well and rest.”

“Thank goodness. Wrists are important to everyone, but they are especially important to those like junior Lian who use swords, so be careful.”

The gaze that had been piercing me until just now had disappeared, and the senior spoke with a kind gaze like a school nurse.

It was a very bad thought.

But for no reason, I felt like throwing a rock at him.

“That’s not something a senior who hurt his finger while cooking and couldn’t take a test for a while should say.”

The response came back very quickly.

“T-That was an unavoidable accident!”

“…”

“I wasn’t feeling well that day… Anyway, it was an accident!”

“……Yes. Let’s say that’s true.”

As far as I know, in the original work, when Tinia tried to cook, the main characters would have strongly discouraged her.

She works hard. You have to understand this much. How can a person be perfect?

As I nodded while thinking this, Tinia, whose face had become slightly red from what had just happened, opened her mouth.

“…….Anyway. I’m glad the hospital said it wasn’t a big deal.”

“Is this something even seniors would acknowledge?”

“Yes. There’s nothing we can do about the hospital. Rather, I’d like to praise my junior.”

“……A praise?”

“Yes. Going to the hospital when you’re sick is a very, very good habit. There are actually many people who can’t develop this habit.”

Was it a mistake?

There was a slight hint of sadness in Tinia’s last sentence.

It probably wasn’t a mistake.

Tinia’s own younger brother was currently hospitalized because he couldn’t go when he should have.

“…”

Was it because of the setting of Tinia in the original that immediately came to mind?

Suddenly, a question I had never been able to ask until now popped into my head.

“….Senior.”

“Yes, go ahead.”

“Why did you bring me here?”

A question I had been curious about, but had never been able to ask.

Tinia was always a bright character.

She was so bright that the main characters realized very late that she had a sore finger called her younger brother.

However, being bright didn’t always mean being stupid.

Tinia couldn’t have been unaware.

I wondered what kind of person I was right now, hearing rumors.

If things were as they were, Lian would have entered a delinquent club where problem children gather.

There, she would be increasingly branded a rascal, and her title would change from irredeemable to human trash.

However, before she could be deeply tainted, I was possessed.

Tinia was the one who brought me here after I left that club and had nowhere to go.

I was always curious about the reason.

Why did she bring Lian Trice, whom I had never met and whose reputation was the worst, to her club, which was like her own treasure?

I was curious, but I just didn’t ask.

I just didn’t think I was qualified to ask such questions, so I didn’t ask.

But now, things felt a little different.

Maybe it was because Tinia seemed more talkative than usual, or perhaps it was the diagnosis I heard at the hospital.

Today, it seemed like I would finally hear an answer.

And such deep concerns were so colorless.

“The reason I brought you here, my junior.”

“….Yes.”

“Well, is there anything special? It’s just that I, the club president, wanted to do it.”

“…”

“Sacred Academy Club Rule #3. The club president can choose the club member he or she wants. Surely, you don’t know this rule, do you?”

Tinia answered with a bright smile as always.

“…I see.”

I looked at Tinia like that and thought vaguely.

Maybe it would be regrettable.

It would be regrettable to lose the time we spent chatting and reading books together.

It was a very sloppy club that might be closed down at any moment due to insufficient members, but that thought suddenly occurred to me.

The first day of receiving the terminal diagnosis.

The first day passed peacefully as always.

As if quietly preparing for what was to come.