The Thorn Forest expedition was set for the following week.
That week passed in a flash — and yet, somehow, it felt dense with living.
At five in the morning, Matyos would head out to the grounds and jog alongside Professor Vilhelmine.
"You're here."
"I'm here."
That was enough conversation between them.
They ran the track as though they'd made a silent pact.
The next day.
"You're here."
"I'm here."
Nothing more after that.
They ran the track in silence.
The day after that.
And the day after that, and the day after.
There were plenty of mornings he wanted to quit, but he never did.
He ran in a kind of trance.
By around the one-week mark, Professor Vilhelmine had stopped going ahead — she was waiting for him instead.
Words weren't necessary anymore.
He exchanged a nod with her red eyes and ran.
"Hah — hah — hah…"
He pushed himself to his limit.
But he didn't just run blindly.
He watched Professor Vilhelmine's form carefully as she moved along the track.
Her running posture was impeccably stable. Worth studying.
Perhaps because he was staring so openly, she seemed to notice she was being observed — and subtly slowed her pace, showing him the textbook form.
Matyos stole her movements. The angle of her foot striking the ground, the unwavering center of gravity, the efficient use of muscle.
Tap, tap, tap!
His body felt considerably lighter.
His balance improved. His knees stopped aching as much.
[Stamina +1]
[Stamina +1]
[Stamina +1]
The more he ran, the lighter he felt.
His stamina was visibly climbing.
Was this the potential of a growing body?
Motivation welled up inside him.
He ran without knowing his limits. But that was arrogance. He collapsed mid-stride.
"I told you to be careful."
Professor Vilhelmine scooped him up in a princess carry and laid him down on a bench.
Then she sat beside him and kept watch.
"…I'm sorry."
"Be more careful next time."
"Yes."
"Drink some water."
"Yes, ma'am."
During swordsmanship class, Matyos sparred with Yuri.
Clang, clash, scrape!
He lost to her every single time. The gap in their levels was overwhelming.
Still, he kept picking up the sword.
He was getting crushed, but he was learning.
[Skill acquired: 'Basic Freestyle Swordsmanship Lv. 1']
He'd finally acquired a new skill.
Basic Freestyle Swordsmanship.
The beginning was what mattered.
He was still the weakest in the class.
The only opponents he could beat were Tiana and Joi.
Though Joi, of course…
"Ah. I fell again…!"
Let's just ignore the old bachelor.
Time passed like that, and before long, the day of the Thorn Forest expedition arrived. A week really did go by fast.
The area to be explored: the Thorn Forest.
A place where the unknown still breathed.
Their group had four members.
Matyos, Yuri, Ohen, and Demian.
The difference from the original story was…
'I'm in it instead of Sister.'
In the original, Yuri Ayende and his sister had been in the same group.
Nothing else had changed.
Since that day, he hadn't exchanged a single word with her.
…I'm disappointed in you, Sister.
That one sentence was lodged in his chest like a thorn, but he had no intention of reaching out first.
Haah…
Why did I say something that would cut so deep?
Regret washed over him, but there was no taking it back.
Fortunately, Ofilienne hadn't retaliated in any obvious way.
Whenever they happened to cross paths, she would pass by him with a vague, complicated expression — as though she'd forgotten her usual arrogance entirely.
There was barely any time to see each other anyway. He was a first-year; she was the top student of the third year. There was no time to exchange words.
They simply existed around each other, as if the other weren't quite there.
"Hey."
"Oh — you startled me."
He flinched at the voice behind him.
Yuri stood there in her academy uniform. Her short silver hair swayed in the breeze drifting out from the forest.
They'd arranged a meeting spot in advance via their watches. In front of the Thorn Forest.
"When did you get here?"
"A while ago. You?"
"Ten minutes ago."
Yuri greeted him and turned away. She crouched down and began studying a line of ants with great interest.
Having nothing better to do, Matyos joined her. It was surprisingly absorbing.
As they idled like that, the rest of the group gradually arrived.
"Hah, hah… thank goodness I'm not late."
Demian was drenched in sweat. He dabbed at his forehead with a handkerchief.
The last to arrive was Ohen.
"Heh."
The moment he showed up, he flashed Matyos a smug, insolent grin — as if he'd caught him at something.
What's his problem.
"I heard everything. They say the crystal ball didn't glow at all for you?"
"Yeah."
"Don't bother pretending you're fine. I heard Professor Kennedy couldn't hide his disappointment… says it all, doesn't it."
Ohen said this and curled the corner of his mouth into a sneer.
He seemed to think he'd landed a decisive blow — but Matyos felt nothing in particular.
Matyos pulled out his compass and met Ohen's eyes.
He had no interest in wasting time.
"Are you done? Can we get going?"
"Wh — huh?"
"If you've got nothing else to say, let's move."
"Uh — ahem. Fine…"
They stepped into the Thorn Forest.
*
After the students had fully entered the forest.
Rustle.
"…"
Two masked figures slipped out from behind a tree like shadows bleeding through cloth.
The masked figures looked at each other.
A nod.
They exchanged a glance, then followed Matyos's group into the forest.
*
The Thorn Forest lay on the outskirts of the city. Trees of a dark, charred hue greeted them with a gloomy air.
The blackened trunks rose in shapes that looked like screaming figures, and there was not a single birdsong — not even the faintest trace of an insect.
Matyos checked his compass and pressed forward.
Somehow, during their earlier discussion, he'd been elected group leader.
He didn't particularly want the role, but there was no getting out of it.
Demian and Ohen kept glancing around nervously.
Yuri, by contrast, walked in silence — her black academy-issued cloak billowing behind her, one hand resting on the hilt of her sword, eyes fixed straight ahead.
"H-hey, Matyos! Are you sure this is the right way?"
Ohen asked in a voice edged with a metallic tremor. He kept hunching his shoulders and looking around, as if something might leap out at him from behind at any moment.
"We already surveyed the outer edge. We need to go to the center."
"W-well, yeah, but…"
Ohen kept grumbling like a dog that needed to relieve itself.
"What, are you scared?"
Matyos said it without turning around, and Ohen bristled.
"S-scared?! Let's just go already."
His tone was all bravado, but the hand gripping his sword was trembling visibly.
The Thorn Forest was no ordinary forest.
Simply walking through it and breathing felt like being crushed under a strange, oppressive weight.
The thick air seemed laced with invisible needles that pricked at the throat with every breath.
"Um… why is it called the Thorn Forest?"
"Ignorant commoner. You don't even know that?"
Demian swallowed dryly as he asked, and Ohen puffed himself up with an air of superior knowledge.
"Because this forest is the grave of the Thorn Witch. When she died, she scattered her curse across this place."
"A curse…"
"Nothing too dramatic. The atmosphere is just gloomy and breathing's a bit uncomfortable, that's all."
Yuri asked without any particular inflection.
"Who killed the witch?"
"Uh — huh? I don't actually know that…"
Before Ohen could finish looking embarrassed, Demian asked another question.
"Are there… ghosts?"
"Ghosts, my — you're such a cow— AAAHH!!!"
Ohen, who had been walking along without a care, suddenly convulsed.
Matyos turned to see what was happening — Ohen was screaming and dropping to the ground where he stood.
"What? What's wrong?"
"A g-ghost!!"
He was shaking like a leaf, pointing at something.
"Where?"
"There!"
Ohen jabbed a finger at a spot.
Yuri drew her sword halfway in a flash — but where the blade pointed, there was nothing but a gaunt, gnarled tree root.
No ghost.
"N-no, it was really there…!"
Demian stared at Ohen with narrowed, pitying eyes.
He'd been acting like nothing scared him, and he turned out to be the most frightened of all.
"Hey, fatty. What's with that look?"
"…N-nothing."
Demian lowered his head.
Ohen's family had a distinguished lineage.
Not on the level of Moretti, but certainly enough to lord it over a commoner.
Matyos shook his head and kept walking.
He knew what Ohen had actually seen.
'So it's here, then.'
The Thorn Witch was dead. Her death had spread the curse.
And the one who had slain the Thorn Witch was Rosuka. The ruler of that era had sought a mercenary willing to subjugate her.
The Thorn Witch had dwelt here, harvesting the souls of the living. Countless innocent lives had been extinguished.
With those stolen souls, she had struck bargains with demons and been granted ever greater power.
But no one had accepted the commission. It was a death sentence. Rosuka was different.
He had slain the Thorn Witch without asking for anything in return.
When the Thorn Witch died, an enormous surge of Demonic Energy had flooded this forest.
Left unchecked, it would have transformed into a Demonic Realm.
— I'll stay here. Rosuka.
A 'friend' of Rosuka's, who had feared that future, had chosen to remain.
What Ohen had seen was almost certainly that 'friend.'
"Let's survey the area and get out."
"How? Just split up?"
"No — just in case, let's go in pairs."
It was a cursed forest. A thousand years might have weakened the curse, but there was always the possibility of something unexpected.
They settled their groups with a quick game.
Rock-paper-scissors. Matyos and Yuri both threw rock; Ohen and Demian threw scissors.
"Damn it. Stuck with this pig."
Ohen muttered a curse under his breath.
He'd apparently wanted to go with Yuri. He dragged the fidgeting Demian away with him.
"Meet back here in an hour."
"Got it."
The group split in two and headed east and west.
Matyos and Yuri moved off alone toward the west.
"So what exactly are we supposed to investigate?"
"Any anomalies unique to this forest."
"But hasn't everything already been documented?"
"That's true, but that's not what the professor is after."
"Then what?"
"What we see and hear ourselves."
What Professor Generica wanted from them wasn't new research findings.
She would never assign first-year students the task of discovering new anomalies — that was the domain of specialists.
"The experience of exploring a mysterious place firsthand, with your own senses… that's what she wants."
"I see."
Reading about something and actually experiencing the phenomenon firsthand made a world of difference in learning.
They wandered here and there, directly investigating the anomalies.
The absence of living animals was something they'd already noticed; a new finding was that nothing cast a shadow.
And in one part of the forest—
"…What's that?"
"Where the Thorn Witch died."
A clearing shrouded in deep shadow. Thorns of all sizes jutted up without any discernible pattern.
It was a kind of grave — the Thorn Witch's body had transformed into thorns upon her death.
"Should we investigate that too—"
Matyos grabbed Yuri's shoulder as she moved to approach the Thorn Witch's grave.
Creak…
In an instant,
a massive thorn shot up toward Yuri's chest at an unnatural speed, stopping just short of her.
Yuri stepped back warily, and the thorn seemed to lose its vitality, retreating to where it had been.
"It's the curse. Getting close is dangerous."
"…Thank you."
Yuri let out a cold sweat.
"Be careful."
Yuri gave a small nod.
They investigated a few more things after that, and when the time came, they headed back to the agreed meeting spot.
"…"
"You don't look well. What's wrong?"
"…I drank too much water."
"Go take care of it, then."
Yuri nodded. She picked up her sword and disappeared somewhere into the forest.
Left alone, Matyos sat at the base of a tree, chewing on a strip of jerky as he scanned his surroundings.
It was about time.
'Where do I find her? She's definitely in this forest…'
That was when it happened.
There was a faint rustling sound, and then a weight as light as a feather settled onto his shoulder.
"How strange. How do you have Rosuka's star?"
He turned his head. Perched there was a tiny girl — small enough to fit in one hand — staring at him with eyes full of curiosity.
'She's here.'
The real reason he'd come to the Thorn Forest.
Rosuka's 'friend.'
He met her starlight eyes and answered.
"I read a book he left behind."
"A book? A book… Ah. That's what you mean."
"I heard a friend helped with it."
"That's right."
The girl gazed into the distance for a moment, as if lost in memory.
Then she turned to him, her water-colored hair swaying gently, and smiled a bright, open smile.
"I'm 'Shu.' Nice to meet you."
"Matyos."
"Matyos. You smell like Moretti."
"Does that bother you?"
"It's not that — the scent is just very strong."
A bloodhound, is she.
"Fair enough, but I'm not from the main family. Do you know our founder?"
"Just… I saw him a few times. That person taught Rosuka quite a few things."
It was a story unrecorded in any history book.
The depth of years this being carried settled over him like something tangible.
"That's the first I've heard of it. How long have you been alive?"
"I haven't counted. But I remember the Emperor. He unified the continent. It must have been Karl."
Karl was the first Emperor of the Empire.
He was celebrated as the greatest figure in history — the one who had united the fractured empire into one.
"…That's an incredibly long time ago."
In other words, the spirit before him had been living in this forest since the founding of the Empire.
That was fifteen hundred years.
"Who is the Emperor of the Empire now?"
"The 157th Emperor, Friedrich the Great."
"That much time has passed…"
A deep, quiet loneliness pooled in Shu's eyes. Perhaps she was thinking of old friends who had long since returned to the earth.
After a long silence, Shu opened her mouth carefully.
"Um, Matyos. Would it be alright if I came with you?"
"Fine by me, but what about the forest?"
"The witch's curse has weakened. It won't be a threat to humans anymore."
"Then why were you still here? You could have gone somewhere else."
"I had nowhere to go. What would I even do, leaving this forest?"
Matyos didn't ask her anything more.
Instead, he quietly extended his index finger toward her.
"Alright. Let's go together, Shu."
Shu stared at his finger for a moment, then broke into a radiant smile and wrapped her small hand around it.
"Hehe. Thank you."
"Can other people see you?"
"Hm? Others can't see me. Not unless I choose to show myself. Your girlfriend won't be able to see me."
"Girlfriend?"
"The silver-haired girl."
She meant Yuri.
"She's not my girlfriend. Just a classmate. We came here for a school assignment. There are two others to the east."
"She's just a classmate for now."
"She's not, I'm telling you. But you must have been pretty bored — going around startling people like that."
"?"
"Don't give me that innocent look. I saw everything. You nearly made Ohen wet himself."
"Who's Ohen?"
"The one who looks a little bit like he has no manners."
"I startled him?"
Shu pointed at herself with one finger. As if she had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.
Something felt off.
The conversation wasn't adding up.
"…You were definitely the one who—"
"I'm showing myself to you for the very first time right now. I have never revealed myself to any other human."
"Then what did Ohen see that scared him?"
"It wasn't me."
"What?"
"Hm?"