That whole being in pain thing kind of made me feel like a king.

Of course, only because I had so many people around me who genuinely cared about me.

I mean, even Harriet was willing to sing a lullaby and pat me to put me to sleep when I asked her to, even though she was very embarrassed by it.

What happened the day after was even more shocking.

On a school day, Ellen came to visit me in the recovery room early in the morning and brought some chicken soup with her for me to eat.

“…When did you make this?”

“Yesterday.”

“Yesterday? Ah… I must have been asleep then.”

I thought that she had come by while I was put to sleep through Sleep Magic. For some reason, I thought she would scold me or beat me up in the worst case, but she actually came and brought food with her that early in the morning.

It was really cheating to do something like that all of a sudden. I tried to take a spoonful of the food from the bowl, but of course it didn’t work out.

Because my body wasn’t in its best shape, it was only natural that my hands were trembling quite badly, making all of it spill from the spoon.

“…”

“…”

For some reason, Ellen stared at me for quite a long time as if she was thinking about something.

Eventually, she took the spoon and brought it to my mouth without saying a single word. Somehow, her doing that without saying anything… felt weird.

“…Did you really cook that?”

That was the first thing that came to my mind as soon as I tasted it.

‘What the hell? Why is it so good?’

I couldn’t believe she actually made it.

“…”

When she heard my shining praise, Ellen stared at me.

Well, look at that mouth of hers. Well, well, well.

“I’m good at cooking.”

Ellened retorted as if she had actually been offended by what I’d said. She didn’t cook often, and yet she was that good?

Although she acted like that, Ellen gave me a couple more spoonfuls of the soup. When I finally emptied the bowl, she scooped some more from the pot into it.

“Eat more.”

“…Huh?”

Not “Do you want to eat more?” but “Eat more.”?

“You need to eat a lot to get better faster.”

Ellen forced the soup she’d cooked into my mouth with the spoon.

It seemed like torture, but in the end, it didn’t feel all that bad.

***

Being sick really made one feel like a king. Harriet told me that I should call her whenever I needed her, and Ellen made soup for me and even fed me herself.

However, I still didn’t want to be there because I was in pain, I just wanted to get better

It really **ing hurt.

Anyway, I couldn’t go to class for a few days, and it was even hard to just leave the bed.

The hardest thing was going to the bathroom.

I vehemently refused the offer of the (female) teacher on duty to support me, so I had to get there while using crutches.

It was fine getting there, but when I tried to get back, I fainted.

It was a good thing that I only fainted on my way back and not during the act.

I almost gained a new entry to my black history.

“Reinhardt, it’s nothing to be ashamed of if you’re unable to get out of bed as a patient.”

“…Teacher.”

“Well then, just put this on. If you go back and forth like this on your own and you faint, your recovery will be slowed.”

“P-please don’t.”

When I strongly objected to wearing diapers, the teacher on duty put a finger close to her mouth and looked at me.

“My, you were unconscious for four days, you know? What do you think you were wearing during that time?”

“!!!!!”

A terrible memory…

Although I couldn’t remember it, I had already gained one.

I…

I seemed to have forgotten about that. When I’d woken up, I strangely wasn’t wearing them, though.

Ah…

“I-I don’t want to wear those anymore, though! I don’t even remember wearing them, so it never happened!”

“Nooooooo!”

We ended up arguing like that for some time.

“Ehem.”

“Ah, Mr. Epinhauser.”

As the door to the recovery room opened, Mr. Epinhauser appeared.

“T-teacher! Save me! It’s still too early for me to wear diapers!”

The priest on duty let go of the pants of my patient’s gown when she noticed that Mr. Epinhauser had entered.

No, but it was somewhat weird for me to put it that way, that would mean that I would wear them later.

While I didn’t know whether I would have to wear them later on or not, the words had already left my mouth. The priest on duty looked at me as if I had promised him that I would wear them later and went back to the priest’s office.

“Seeing you acting like this, it seems like this isn’t that big of an ordeal for you. Number 11, your voice sounds quite energetic.”

“…N-no, I actually feel like I’m about to go crazy…”

“It doesn’t seem like it though if you still have the energy to say things like that.”

No, it really hurt a lot.

However, Mr. Epinhauser’s words that I wouldn’t be able to speak at all if it hurt that much were true, so I had no choice but to shut my mouth.

He looked at me as cold as ever—his face held little to no emotion.

While he seemed and acted rather coldly, Mr. Epinhauser wasn’t a bad teacher. He didn’t really scold his students, and he didn’t kick up a fuss or anything.

If he wasn’t a bad teacher, would that make him a good one then?

I wasn’t so sure about that either.

While he was stingy with his criticism, he was just as stingy with praise. Of course, he did end up giving me a merit point that one time.

Mr. Epinhauser performed his duty as a ‘teacher’ rather mechanically.

Did he hold any form of affection for his students?

I didn’t know.

He didn’t really discipline us, either. He would give demerits if what we did crossed the line and gave us merits if we did well.

If it was within the rules, we could do it, and if it wasn’t, then we shouldn’t.

He didn’t let his emotions affect his work.

I didn’t know whether you could call someone like that a good or bad teacher.

In conclusion, I liked teachers like Mr. Epinhauser.

He wouldn’t unnecessarily interfere with us.

He didn’t ask things like “Are you okay?” or say things like “I’m glad you’re awake again.”

He just said whatever he had to say, as usual.

“There will be a disciplinary committee meeting soon.”

“…Yes.”

“You will receive a summons as soon as you have recovered enough to move freely. Take note of that.”

I had crossed the line that time—and by a lot.

Mr. Epinhauser only said what he had to say to me like a machine. He didn’t say that I did something wrong or ask why I had done something like that.

That was why I didn’t say anything like “it wasn’t my fault” or something.

Well, I mean, it wasn’t like I hadn’t been at fault there.

“What part of what I did is subject to disciplinary action?”

“Two unauthorized duels with other classmates, and the use of supernatural powers during said duels.”

Fighting was permitted in the name of a duel, but we hadn’t gotten permission, and I’d used my supernatural abilities during those fights. While my abilities weren’t extremely dangerous like Pyrokinesis or Electrokinesis, they were still supernatural powers in the end.

Using supernatural power offensively like that was certainly one of the biggest violations of the school rules.

“Is there a possibility that I will be expelled from school?”

Mr. Epinhauser shook his head at my question.

“That won’t happen.”

He seemed rather certain about that.

It wasn’t that easy to kick a student of the Royal Class out of the school.

“However, this isn’t just an internal issue of the Royal Class. The Orbis Class is also involved. Besides you, two Orbis Class students are also being subjected to disciplinary action.”

It was problematic that I’d gone and picked those fights, but those guys who accepted those challenges were also quite problematic. Therefore, Lilka Aaron and Oscar de Gardias were also subject to disciplinary action.

“If this was just an internal matter, the disciplinary committee would be composed of Royal Class’ faculty, but since this matter involves both classes, the disciplinary committee will be formed by faculty members of both Classes.”

The trouble I caused that time was different from last time; it couldn’t be solved by the Royal Class alone.

Therefore, the faculty of the Orbis and Royal Classes would form a disciplinary committee and would hold a meeting for Lilka Aaron, Oscar de Gardias, and me.

I was rather sure it wouldn’t end well.

It wasn’t just the students of the Orbis and Royal Class who didn’t get along with each other, right?

Weren’t the teachers like cats and dogs as well?

However, in the end, they would still follow Temple’s rules.

No one would tell me something like I had to pay for raising my fist against the imperial family, right?

I didn’t know what the disciplinary committee would end up doing.

What I did know was that if I received an extended or indefinite suspension, I wouldn’t be able to stay in the dormitory for that period of time.

I knew that because I’d written a scene where Ludwig received that kind of punishment for an incident. He got caught up in an argument outside of Temple with his friends that turned into an actual quarrel, so he and his friends were suspended.

Later on, they found out that it was actually one of Bertus’s tricks

* * *

* * *

Anyway, during that suspension, Ludwig, Scarlett, Lanian Sessor, and Delphine Izadra took a short trip using the warp gates since they couldn’t enter Temple’s dormitory.

In fact, I did that because it was just too difficult to progress the story if they just stayed inside Temple, so I made them get suspended to force them out into the world. I’d just wanted to write about other kinds of incidents.

Anyway, I didn’t know whether those incidents would still happen to Ludwig, but they would actually hold a disciplinary committee meeting against me.

I wasn’t going to be expelled, but other than that, I didn’t know what kind of disciplinary action would await me.

Even if I ended up getting suspended, I didn’t really think that it would be that bad since I only had a bit of time left. There would be a lot of things I would have to do in that time.

***

There were quite a few people coming to visit me even though I was just lying in bed. Although I didn’t have that much energy to talk, some of the guys who came by would just chat among themselves while I lay there.

Although we weren’t actually that close, Ludwig even brought a bunch of his friends along to visit me.

He might’ve thought of me as his friend, but I actually didn’t reciprocate such thoughts, though, you know?

Was I actually surprisingly shy?

Anyway, not only Ludwig, but even Lanian Sessor came around. He even offered to play some comforting music for me.

It got rather noisy, but that wasn’t actually that bad.

I was the only patient in the recovery room anyway, so no one told them to leave even though the B-Class guys gathered in there and made a lot of noise. The priest on duty didn’t seem to care at all.

“Are… you in pain?”

Scarlett hesitantly asked me.

“…Yeah.”

I couldn’t just give her some empty words and deny it, so when she heard my confirmation, Scarlett closed her mouth and stared at me.

I didn’t have that much contact with that girl. We’d just taken some swordsmanship classes together during the second semester. We did do some morning training together, but we usually wouldn’t talk or anything like that.

But she seemed to have some difficulties dealing with me, but well, how should I put it? She seemed to have a good impression of me.

Quite a good one at that.

Why though?

I had a feeling, but I didn’t actually know.

Scarlett said some more words like she hoped that I would get well soon.

All the guys from B-Class said a few words to me as well. Although we hadn’t started our activities as the Magic Research Society yet, its members, Anna de Gerna, Christina, and Louis Ancton also asked me whether I felt better than before

Huh.

The others’ reactions were quite favorable, considering that I’d picked a fight with a senior from the Orbis Class.

They comforted me even though I’d caused an incident. I thought that I’d lived like an outcast, so I wondered how that ended up happening.

***

Time passed as I continued to lay in bed.

Harriet told me that she would cast sleep magic on me if I couldn’t bear the pain, so I should just call her whenever I needed to. Olivia and Adriana also came by from time to time, and unexpectedly, even the little senior Redina paid me a visit, nagging me for always getting in trouble as if she was an adult even though she was younger than me.

I couldn’t talk back to her because she wasn’t really wrong.

I would only ever get into trouble with guys who were older than me…

However, I wasn’t actually just a year older than her… I was a lot older.

That was even more pitiful.

Redina also continued to nag me with her hands placed on her hips.

“It’s even more problematic since you barely succeeded by using Magic Body Strengthening.”

“Why? Isn’t it fine? I got hurt pretty badly, though.”

“Aren’t you going to cause bigger trouble now?”

“…No.”

“After you fought a third-year, you went and fought a fourth-year because you got a little stronger. Aren’t you going to fight a fifth-year next if you continue like that?”

“No, those weren’t my intentions at all.”

While it was me who’d picked the fight first, I didn’t have any plans on fighting the fifth-years. Redina just went on, shaking her head, saying something like “I don’t know what I should do with a junior like you.”

Although I hadn’t expected Redina to visit, while she was already there, there was something I wanted to talk about with her.

“Anyway, since you came here, let’s talk.”

“What? Talk about what?”

“Whether you’re still in that Exodium or whatever pla-hmpf!”

“Sh-shut up!”

Redina covered my mouth as her face turned bright red. Then she groaned.

That chuunibyou club Redina was the president of… She seemed to think that just mentioning it openly like that was fatal.

“N-not now! Don’t! Don’t even bring it up!”

It seemed like she’d stepped down from her position as Exodium’s president after she was discovered by Charlotte and me. After Redina lifted her hand from my mouth, I asked her a question.

“Then, what happened with your other delusional friends?”

“I-I’ve passed down the position to another… Th-they aren’t delusional!”

Redina huffed, perhaps because she thought that I insulted her friends.

“Well, it’s a good thing that you quit.”

Redina had a Talent that couldn’t be simply called a supernatural power or a magic related talent. No Casting. That was why she thought she might be a dragon.

I’d planned on talking to her about it later, but since she went there to meet me in person, though for a different reason, I thought I could tell her.

“I’m going to create a magic research club with some other first-years. Join us.”

“…A Magic Research Society?”

Redina tilted her head at the invitation to join my club.

No casting.

The only problem was that her magic power pool was rather small, but it was true that Redina was the owner of a great talent as well. She was already stronger than she was before, so she didn’t really have anything she could improve.

“Yeah, that’s it… Alright! Alright! I won’t force you to join, but it’ll be a lot more useful to you than you think.”

“No, I don’t even think of joining, so what do you mean with ‘Join us’? You’re my junior, so why are you ordering me around?”

Redina frowned, perhaps because the manner in which I’d asked her was weird.

Of course, I didn’t respond to those complaints at all.

“Ask Harriet for details. It’s kind of difficult for me to talk right now… By the way, do you know how to cast sleep magic?”

“Sleep magic?”

“Yeah.”

“I know how to cast it.”

As to not cause any misunderstanding, like with what happened with Harriet the last time, I mentioned it from the start.

When that Harriet suddenly started singing and patting me, I’d felt like I was about to lose my mind.

I couldn’t even say anything because I thought that she would strangle me on the spot if I teased her.

Seriously…

I felt a ticklish-yet-strange feeling when she did that stuff. It was hard to describe.

It wasn’t a bad feeling, but because I didn’t feel bad about all that, it felt even weirder!

“Cast it on me. I want to sleep a bit…”

“Is it that bad?”

“It is…”

Redina looked at me, saying, “I guess it does hurt a lot if you’re looking at me like that.”

Of course, sleep magic wasn’t some high-ranked spell.

And it wasn’t like one could just unconditionally put one’s opponent to sleep.

There weren’t any crazy spells that would knock out one’s opponents right away.

I had to accept its influence without even thinking of resisting the spell’s effects.

I could feel that it was what one called magic resistance, and I also knew the concept of giving up that resistance.

It might not be as strong as Scarlett’s, but everyone had some form of magic resistance, and so did I.

So in order to be affected by sleep magic, I had to fully accept its effects on me.

If the level of the spell was too low, I wouldn’t be able to fall asleep whether I gave up my resistance or not.

“Okay, I’ll put you to sleep now.”

I got ready to fall asleep by closing my eyes.

-Tak!

Red Sun!

I slowly lost consciousness.