Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 22: Apparently, Pharmacology Class Is Still Difficult Even in Their Second Year.
That morning, Ren had a dream. It felt like a continuation of the dream he had glimpsed on the day he received Ragna’s Emblem Contract.
It was unfolding in a hazy, dreamlike world.
“Finally, I found you,”
It was nighttime in some town when Ren Ashton spoke.
He spoke to a girl walking across a large bridge in the middle of town.
“You are…”
The girl who turned around was breathtakingly beautiful. Silver hair streaked with black swayed as she turned. Though this should have been their first meeting, she looked at Ren as if she already knew everything.
“Good evening, Ren Ashton,”
The girl greeted him.
“You’ve found me quite easily.”
“I don’t want to waste time. Just answer what I ask.”
“Oh, you’re a cautious one.”
The distance between the girl and Ren Ashton was about ten mel. For either of them, it was a distance that could be closed in an instant, barely a separation at all.
“But is it okay? If a fugitive like you walks so openly, you might get caught.”
“That might be true, but I wanted to talk to you.”
“I see,”
she responded thoughtfully.
The girl then said.
“Don’t worry. I’ll kill anyone who tries to interrupt our conversation.”
Ren Ashton insisted, “I don’t need you to do that.”
However, the girl merely laughed.
“Right. Let me introduce myself first.”
“No need. I already know about you.”
“Don’t be so cold. I wanted to introduce myself because I chose to. Can’t you at least listen?”
“………”
Ren fell silent.
She had the bearing of a noblewoman from somewhere. On the quiet bridge at night, the girl gave Ren Ashton an elegant curtsy. Then she smiled.
“I am…”
But then the world Ren was seeing blurred. The girl’s voice dissolved into noise, and everything began to recede. A sudden impact, like a blow to the back of his head, jolted him awake.
“Huh…!?”
Ren woke drenched in sweat. He sat up in bed, uncomfortable from the clammy feeling, and glanced at the clock on the wall.
It was just past five in the morning, and dawn was still dim outside. Ren removed his sweat-soaked shirt and got out of bed, his body weighed down by something more than simple sleepiness.
He stood before a painting depicting Cecil Ashton and the Corroding Princess.
“…I really don’t understand anything, Ancestor.”
Who was that girl in his dream, and why had Ren Ashton gone to meet her? He couldn’t help but feel that the dream had a deep, mysterious meaning.
After calming himself for a while, Ren left his room a little after six in the morning. On his way to the cafeteria, he encountered Licia, who had also finished getting ready. She approached him with light footsteps.
Perhaps because of the strange dream he had just experienced, Ren looked at Licia with a smile, delighted to see her.
“Licia.”
“Good morn—”
It’s okay. She’s here, and she’s fine.
“Um…?”
Startled by Ren’s sudden gesture, Licia looked down at the hand he had taken.
Yes. They really were holding hands.
Feeling Licia’s warmth put Ren at ease. Licia, meanwhile, was half-dazed by such unexpected happiness first thing in the morning. She wondered if she was still dreaming, but a light pinch of her cheek hurt, confirming that this was reality.
Still wrapped in that happiness, she thought another nap might feel wonderful.
A servant passing nearby murmured too softly for them to hear:
“Oh my!”
She sounded delighted.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
It had been less than two hours since they woke up.
“Hey!”
Since Ren didn’t immediately respond, Licia kept asking. They were walking along the main road of Elendil on their way to school. Ren and Licia were in their school uniforms.
“Well, yes.”
“Jeez, it took you so long to answer.”
Ren chuckled awkwardly, looking uncomfortable.
Licia looked up at him, her Imperial Military Academy bag in hand.
“Are you listening?”
“Yes, I’m listening.”
“Then tell me! About this morning! Why did you suddenly hold my hand?”
“That’s because I was half asleep.”
“…If you were half asleep, would you do that with anyone?”
Ren had never been half-asleep beside another woman in a situation like this, but Licia wanted to hear the answer from him.
“I wouldn’t.”
Licia sighed in relief, then stepped around in front of Ren, who still wouldn’t meet her eyes.
Ren promptly turned his face the other way, so Licia moved around to that side instead.
Their playful back-and-forth on the busy main road made passersby smile.
The sensation from that morning still lingered in Licia’s hand.
Giving up on extracting a clearer answer from Ren, Licia let herself daydream. What would it feel like, she wondered, to walk this familiar road holding hands the way they had that morning?
“…”
Her cheeks suddenly turned red, so she stopped thinking.
“Licia?”
“W-What is it?”
“Well, you suddenly looked in the opposite direction.”
“Don’t mind it. It’s just a matter of mood.”
Several passersby noticed the innocent, almost newlywed-like air between them and smiled.
The Hanging Garden was a combined hub for air and ground transportation. On the ground floor were platforms for magic trains bound not only for the Imperial Capital but for other regions as well. One of them was used by the Guardian Knight, which ran from the Imperial Capital to Eupheim.
Ren and Licia were headed for the platform where magic trains bound for the Imperial Capital stopped. This platform was more crowded with people in the morning than the others.
They stood together at one side of the platform, waiting for the magic train due in a few minutes.
“HAAAA…”
Ren, standing next to her, yawned.
Licia looked up at his face. He still seemed a little sleepy.
“Did you not get much sleep last night?”
“It was the usual amount of sleep, but I had strange dreams.”
“Scary dreams?”
“Hmm… Strange dreams, I guess.”
The answer was vague, but that was hardly unusual for a dream. People often forgot dreams as soon as they woke, so his uncertainty made sense.
Licia extended one finger and lightly touched Ren near the elbow, sending a pleasant warmth into him. She smiled, satisfied.
“Thank you. But it feels a little extravagant to use Sacred Magic just because I had a bad dream.”
“It’s not a big deal. I’m free to use my power however I want.”
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
They spent the time before morning homeroom in their classroom, then moved to a specialized room for their first lesson.
“Ren, are you okay?”
During their first class, Vayne, holding a bundle of herbs in his hand, approached Ren.
Herbology continued into their second year and was taught in a specialized classroom rather than their usual one. Even after taking their seats, students often had to get up to process herbs, moving between their desks and the shelves along the walls.
Ren had been staring at his reflection in the glass door of a cabinet. He turned when he heard Vayne.
“Sorry, I was lost in thought.”
He had been thinking about several things: the Demon King cult’s movements, why someone had tried to take the Ring of the Goddess of Water, and the priest’s actions. The dream he had seen that morning had also left him more distracted than usual.
“Well, it’s not because of your health, right?”
“I’m fine, don’t worry. Anyway…”
He collected the herbs and tools the herbology teacher had instructed them to use, then returned to his desk.
Licia sat beside Ren, while Sera and Vayne were across from them. Nemu stood between the four.
“For you second-year students, herbology continues to be a challenge. However, I hope you’ll approach it with enthusiasm this year as well. Today, we’ll start from page 56 of the textbook.”
With his back to the class, the teacher began writing on the blackboard.
“As I mentioned this morning, don’t push yourself too hard.”
Licia whispered the reminder to Ren.
“It’s okay. It’s just that I’m at a sensitive age, and… Just kidding. I really just had a bad dream.”
“Come on… don’t make weird excuses.”
Licia gave him a stern look for the clumsy joke, so Ren quickly corrected himself.
The teacher then said, “Well, let’s begin,” and the students started blending herbs at their desks.
The class had a comparatively relaxed atmosphere, and students were free to chat while mixing their preparations. What mattered was the result.
Like the students around him, Ren began preparing the herbs. He and Licia cut and crushed them, then placed them in the distillation furnace and checked their progress from time to time.
“Hey, Vayne, not that one!”
“Sorry!”
“Hey, Sera-chan, you’re wrong too.”
“No way!”
Across from them, their friends kept making one mistake after another. Ren and Licia laughed as their own work proceeded smoothly. Once all that remained was distillation in the furnace, they paused.
Licia watched Sera and Vayne from beside Ren.
“You’re going to be my enemy again this year, Herbology…”
“Sera, you don’t have to clench your teeth so hard.”
“No, Licia! Herbology is my arch-nemesis, so I can’t let my guard down for a moment!”
As if to prove that point, thick black smoke billowed from Sera’s distillation oven.
She hurriedly extinguished the fire and had to redo the previous stage without saying a word, gazing up at the ceiling with eyes devoid of light.
“Wow, Sera-chan! You never disappoint, do you?”
“It’s fine. There’s still plenty of time.”
Their trouble with herbology wasn’t a lack of ability so much as a mental block. The experiments were particularly difficult and failure was expected. Since mistakes during practice wouldn’t hurt their grades, this was probably the best place to make them.
On the second attempt, Sera and Vayne seemed to get the hang of it. They reached the distillation stage much more smoothly, and this time no smoke came out of the furnace.
Relieved, Sera and Vayne wiped the faint sweat from their foreheads.
As they continued the experiment, they also engaged in casual conversation.
“The Imperial Castle Conference is coming up soon.”
Sera brought it up.
It had come up in their conversation with Charlotte and others the other day.
Many of the Leomel nobles would visit the Imperial Capital, and the conference was a valuable opportunity for them to discuss various matters and share information.
In Legend of the Seven Heroes, Vayne revealed himself to the nobles as a descendant of Hero Ruin, relying on the power he had displayed at the end of the battle with Ulysses Ignat and later confirmed in Windea. It was part of the sequence leading into the conclusion of Chapter 1 of Legend of the Seven Heroes II.
At the mention of the Imperial Castle Conference, Vayne’s expression turned uneasy.
“Hey, Vayne.”
“Yeah… it’s almost time.”
Vayne answered with a sigh.
In the Legend of the Seven Heroes, Ren Ashton, who belonged to the general class, wasn’t present in this situation. Instead, the remaining four were having a conversation. Right now, Ren was here and participating in the conversation.
“You look nervous. I heard you and the others are attending. Are you going to have to speak in front of all those adults?”
“H-How did you know!?”
“Just a feeling. You looked nervous.”
“Yeah… just as you guessed. I’m not good at speaking in front of crowds, and now I have to address nobles from all over the empire.”
As a descendant of Hero Ruin, Vayne wanted his voice to be heard. Nor was that merely the wish of the Hero Houses: nobles from the Neutral Faction and the Imperial Faction also wanted to hear what he had to say. Vayne was extremely nervous, but when the opportunity came, he accepted it readily. Ren admired his friend’s determination to step forward.
While not wanting to dampen the mood, Ren changed the topic slightly.
“The Demon King cult is up to something again. You all should be careful.”
“You knew about it too, Ren? But don’t worry. If something happens, we’ll fight too.”
“That’s right. We won’t just stand by silently.”
Finally, Nemu added.
“The Hero Houses have continued fighting both inside and outside Leomel ever since the Demon King was defeated. That won’t change.”
It was almost a duty of the Hero Houses. The special title of Hero House had been created in honor of the Seven Heroes who defeated the Demon King, and one of its fundamental purposes was for those families to continue acting as heroes. Leomel had many nobles who were also soldiers; nobility was no excuse to hide somewhere safe. Especially now, with the Demon King cult threatening the country, people looked to Vayne and the others for courage.
Ren believed in Vayne and the others.
The Demon King cult had been active lately, but beyond that, Ren was reminded that this part of the story was approaching its conclusion.
Legend of the Seven Heroes II, Chapter 1: “Bloodline of the Hero.”
Ren had one event in mind that should occur soon. At the same time, the exchange with the silver-haired girl from his dream lingered in his thoughts.
The bell announcing the end of class rang a few minutes later.
“All right, that’s it for today. Make sure you clean up before you leave.”
The middle-aged teacher dismissed the class.
The students finished cleaning and filed out one by one, chatting more energetically than usual. Ren and Licia remained behind while organizing their textbooks and notes.
As Vayne was about to leave the classroom with Sera, Ren called out to him.
“Oh, right.”
“What is it, Ren?”
“It’s about the Demon King cult. They might stir up trouble again, and somewhere in Leomel could be thrown into chaos.”
“We know. We’ve been thinking about that all along.”
“…So, you see—”
It was less a warning than advice.
Ren told him a few things he hoped would keep Vayne and the others from losing their way.
When the conversation was over, Vayne left the classroom with Sera.
Ren and Licia remained behind and resumed their conversation.
“What should we do in the afternoon?”
“Today’s classes end in the morning, right?”
The students were so lively because, due to the teachers’ schedules, every grade had no classes that afternoon. Normally Ren and Licia would stop by the Lion’s Holy Office on the way home, but as they considered what to do instead…
“Ren-kun! Licia-chan!”
Chronois’s voice came from the classroom doorway as she leaned her face and upper body inside.
She had suddenly come to ask them a favor. Apparently there was something she wanted to find in a warehouse in one corner of the academy.
“I’ve asked Fiona-chan too, but I want to borrow your strength as well.”
Ren and Licia could hardly refuse Chronois’s request. They both nodded.