Chapter 103: Darling... this place genuinely stinks
The human world revolved around the Augusta Empire, serving as the beating heart of human civilization. Its capital, also named Augusta, had been built upon the very village where the First Hero was born. Scattered around the empire’s core lay a number of vassal kingdoms, each with its own cities, villages, trade routes, and local governance, yet all still bowing to Augusta’s rule.
Eiros stepped off the ship alongside a thoroughly clingy Renessa. His gaze swept across their surroundings for a moment—the area where the ship had landed was, of course, a vast, clean, empty field, packed with all sorts of Imperial personnel already waiting.
Soldiers clad in silver and gold armor stood guard over the field, making sure every student was safe.
Supervisors and professors also organized the students into orderly lines before finally leading them out of that vast field.
From there, every student cheered with pure, unfiltered awe. Their gazes fixed on the distant sky, filled with magic carriages soaring overhead. They weren’t just flying randomly, either—there seemed to be designated routes they had to follow, given the sheer scale of the traffic.
And that wasn’t all—Eiros’s gaze studied a tower standing magnificently in the distance. Unlike the tower Estiel resided in back at the Academy, this tower here looked far more grand and extraordinary. It glowed with a faint, flickering golden light, accompanied by beautiful pale blue and white beams.
After that, all the students were guided toward an enormous mansion belonging to the academy. Clearly, they used this mansion every time students needed a break like this one.
A vast, luxurious mansion, complete with its own garden and field. Was there any other mansion out there that could match the quality of this academy mansion?
Probably not—after all, it genuinely had to be able to house a student body this massive in size.
Long story short, the students were given three hours to rest. They weren’t allowed to wander outside the mansion, since the entire vacation itinerary had already been carefully planned out by the professors.
All they had to do was follow along.
Given that, Eiros couldn’t rest at all. Instead, he sat in the garden, watching doves perched or hopping across the ground, gathered around a fountain shaped like the First Hero, depicted as a man holding a long, broad sword.
The reason he was here was, of course, pretty easy to guess.
"Erness, what exactly are you afraid of?"
Renessa was, oddly enough, deeply uncomfortable being here, and he had no idea what was actually bothering her. Because, no matter how many times Eiros tried to get her talking, Renessa just kept quiet.
But this time, unlike usual, Renessa looked at him listlessly, letting out a small sigh, pouting.
"Darling... this place genuinely stinks."
"....?"
Her gaze drifted off into the distance. Beyond the mansion stretched a vast city, packed with magnificent architecture—nothing like a modern city, but far more striking in certain areas of its own.
The road stretched straight, deep into the distance, sitting fairly close to Estiel’s massive tower—that was the Augusta Empire itself.
That was exactly where Renessa lifted her gaze, pointing in the direction of the Empire.
"The Empire’s full of people who don’t deserve to live. They should’ve been killed before—mmph...!"
Eiros clamped his hand over Renessa’s mouth, smiling nervously as cold sweat soaked his face.
Renessa looked at him with genuine confusion, while Eiros glanced around him:
"...People will think you’re a traitor to the Empire if you say things like that."
Yeah, that was a genuinely dangerous statement. Renessa seemed to understand that as she nodded, though her own pupils showed no trace of fear at all. She just let out a small sigh and hugged Eiros even tighter.
She kept doing that for a few minutes, then, as if satisfied, she stepped back and stood up.
".....?" That, of course, caught Eiros off guard, watching Renessa finally pull away from him.
But Renessa just looked at him and smiled sweetly. "Darling, aren’t you tired? You could go rest."
"What about you?"
"I’ll head back to my room."
Eiros hesitated for a moment, then nodded flatly. Honestly, he had no idea whether what Renessa had told him was actually true. Especially remembering that Renessa never once genuinely wanted to leave Eiros’s side.
And watching her walk off now, she was surely about to do something else again. Something dangerous, like hunting, or maybe something else entirely.
"...."
Watching Renessa vanish from sight, Eiros blinked a few times and rubbed his face in frustration. Of course, whatever he did, there was no way he’d be able to chase after Renessa to give her any kind of warning.
Right then, Eiros heard some commotion not too far from him. He got up and peeked at what was happening, spotting an elderly man wearing a neat black uniform.
Around him stood several guards in full steel armor, along with a horse-drawn carriage.
Along with that, the crown prince, Rein, and the princess of the Empire, Reina, were also there. Both of them looked notably different from usual—Eiros didn’t know why he felt this way, but genuinely, whether it was Rein or Reina, both of them seemed to be showing signs of discomfort.
Not only that, they looked genuinely tense. Back at the Academy, both of them always seemed relaxed and at ease, which made this shift look startlingly drastic on their faces.
After a brief exchange with the elderly man, both of them climbed into the magic carriage. The carriage rose into the air, following its designated route, then immediately headed off toward the Imperial castle.
Eiros recalled what Renessa had said about the Empire, then turned his attention back to the prince and princess’s expressions.
’There’s no way that’s just a coincidence, right...? Yeah, it’s probably just a coincidence.’
Eiros got up from his spot, but that lingering issue left his head genuinely spinning as he glanced toward the Empire.
’There’s no way the Empire’s going to become an event in the plot this time, right? That’d genuinely be absurd.’
Eiros let out a small laugh, pressing his fingers to his temples. Then, he decided to head into the mansion, maybe explore the surrounding area to find something interesting.
He could also try to find the others, though most of them were probably still resting.
In the end, over those three hours, Eiros just wandered around aimlessly, enjoying the mansion’s grand atmosphere, with no idea where Renessa had gone off to.
Eventually, he ended up gathering with the other main characters. And right then, an announcement came, calling for all students to assemble.
Long story short, for their first day of vacation, they’d apparently been given the chance to visit the tower where Estiel lived. Of course, they’d only be allowed to look around, since the place itself was packed with all sorts of history and specific artifacts, recorded only in historical texts.
That announcement got the students genuinely excited.
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