小嫂子的味道

"If that\'s the case," I said as I put my hands above the table and interlocked my fingers. "I might end the world for forcing me to do something which I don\'t want to do."

"Oh, scary scary. I\'m shivering so bad right now," he said, clearly making mocking me.

Though I couldn\'t blame him for this, I was the one who gave him the chance after all. 

"Still, putting the jokes aside. Why don\'t you want to be a hero? Isn\'t that the sort of thing young boys dream of being," Ryfin asked. 

"Well…" his words made me remember none other than my own father who had the dream of being a hero in his teen years. "Those who dream of that have not seen the real world and are still living inside their fairytale fantasies. And those who are aware of the reality but still strive to be a hero are what you call naïve."

"Oh? That\'s some perspective you\'ve got there. What makes you hold that philosophy?" he questioned. 

"Are you seriously asking me that? What is a hero anyway?" I said. "You can say that a hero is a symbol of hope for the people in despair, an idol, someone the people can look up to, someone who can give the people a sense of security and safety. 

"But I don\'t believe that to be the case. You only find those types of heroes in books—they don\'t exist in our world, they can\'t."

"Then what do YOU think a hero is?" he asked, leaning back in his chair. 

"Nothing more than a strong soldier whom the government officials can push the responsibility on, someone whose death will be celebrated as a \'sacrifice\'. Or in simpler words, a sacrificial pawn," I stated. 

Most of what I\'d said was bullshit and I didn\'t mean any of it—I was just spouting the things he expected me to say. However, one thing that I truly believed in was that heroes were people who could prove to be quite useful if you knew the correct way to handle them. 

"All right I get it. You carry some deep philosophical stuff too. Not that I get any of it though," he said, stretching his arms. 

"Then why\'d you ask?" 

"No reason. Just killing time I guess?"

"What?!" 

"Huh? I mean, you refused to have some idle chat before so I had no choice left but to go at it in a roundabout way," he clarified. 

"You…" I sighed. However, after that, I instantly realized my mistake. 

It\'s not that he was outwitting me—well, maybe but that was not entirely the case. The reason he gets me to do what he wants every time we meet is because I get so worked up while dealing with him. 

I should be cautious of him but I get overly cautious and that diverts my attention. 

To put it simply, I get so busy trying to locate the hidden mines that I end up stepping on the obvious, visible ones. 

But now I realized what mistake I was making and planned to not repeat it. Thus I adjusted my approach and decided to talk to him about one thing that piqued my interest. 

"There\'s something I want you to tell me," I said. 

"You want me to TELL you? Not something that you want to ASK me?" he queried. 

"Take it however you want."

"Ah well, not that it matters. Fine, I\'ll tell you whatever it is that you wanna know."

I let out a breath and shifted back in my chair. 

"When I used the magic circles to teleport myself here, I was transported in mid-air instead of to the receiving magic circles. Why was that?" I asked. 

"That huh. Well, it\'s not complex really. Once we confirmed that everyone had been transported inside the city, a barrier was cast that covered the entirety of Havenreach. It\'s a barrier that stops those demons from entering the city but along with that it stops any kind of teleportation as well—we can\'t have those demons teleporting inside after all," he explained. 

"But I did reach there though, the teleportation was successful," I mentioned. 

"As I said, the barrier only blocks teleportation inside Havenreach. But you can still teleport anywhere in the space within the borders of the receiving magic circles—which also includes the space above the barrier."

"So that\'s how it works huh…" I mumbled. 

"Oh and by that I remembered, do you still have the book you borrowed from me?" Ryfin asked. 

"No, I used it for teleporting myself here. How could I still have it?" I replied. 

"What? You don\'t know? You can pick up the book once the magic circle expands."

"Well, I certainly had no way of knowing that," I answered. 

That was a lie. That book was important therefore I\'d grabbed it right before I teleported. Since I didn\'t have access to my own room right now I\'d told Anya to hold onto that book. 

"That\'s too bad, it was a precious book, you know," he said, probably to himself. 

"Now, if you have nothing else to discuss I will be taking my leave," I said as I stood up. 

"Don\'t forget your ID card, it\'s important here. The card also works as the key for the door lock to your room so make sure to not lose it," he informed. 

"And where is my room?" 

"The room number is written on the card, but finding the room in the dorm buildings is up to you—ask someone for help if you can\'t find it."

I looked at the card and at the bottom left corner, my room number was written. 

\'691 huh…Why do I always get these types of rooms…?\' I thought to myself. 

As I was looking through the card my eyes fell again on my class, class 1A. 

"Do you really think I\'m strong enough to be put in class A?" I asked innocently.

"Now, now, that\'s not really a good joke. You fought against those demons and made it out alive. If that is not enough of a proof of your strength then I don\'t know what is. In fact, put this class A in your situation and most of them will be dead," he said. 

\'Well, it was worth a try.\'

After that, I turned around and began to leave. However, just when I\'d taken a few steps Ryfin called to me again. 

"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you this but there\'s more evidence to prove that you\'re worthy to be put in class A," he said. 

"And what that might be?" I asked as I stopped in my tracks. 

"Those teleportation magic circles, I\'m the only one who can use them. Many people have tried but even with the book, they died since the magic circle was too complex for them to handle."

This made me turn toward him, rather instantly. 

"The strain on their brain was too much, combined with mana exhaustion their heads went boom," he gestured an explosion with his hands as he said that. 

\'This bastard! He let me take that book knowing full well that it could\'ve killed me!\'