Why Did I Have to Enroll

On Thursday morning, Ban Yu-won appeared quite sleepy.

That was understandable, since he had been in the Artifact Production Department's practice room until dawn with Mira, supposedly making artifacts.

The highlight was when Professor Campanella showed up at the end.

'Mira! And... Student Ban Yu-won?!'

When she saw Mira together with Ban Yu-won, her eyes widened in shock. After Mira bowed her head in apology, she burst into tears.

...After her tears subsided, she interrogated them about their relationship as if she were Mira's older sister, then served them tea while endlessly talking about her own (unrequited) love, and finally insisted they come to her first during the major exploration period in the second semester of freshman year before leaving.

To be satisfied with just asking to be visited first rather than demanding they join the Artifact Production Department - there's a limit to how timid someone can be.

"Sniff sniff, sniff sniff..."

"Ah- yes, Luciel. Take all the time you need."

Thanks to that, this morning Luciel was busy clinging to Ban Yu-won and marking him with her scent as soon as she saw him.

...This was also the biggest reason accelerating Ban Yu-won's fatigue.

Though it was fortunate that she didn't ask what happened or who he met at all...

"...Did you meet a girl?"

"Looks like you had quite an enjoyable evening."

And there it is - those words finally coming out of the other members' mouths!

"I just got some help making artifacts from a senior in the Artifact Production Department. There was nothing enjoyable about it, I'm exhausted."

"Ban, weren't artifacts something you could make just by blinking? ...Wait, Artifact Production Department?"

Light quickly caught on.

Ban Yu-won had been thinking lately that this guy might actually have pretty good intuition.

"Could it be... that senior Mira?"

"Yeah."

"..."

When Ban Yu-won casually confirmed it, Light's expression crumpled terribly for some unknown reason.

"Oh, I see..."

"What's wrong? Have you met her before?"

"No, I haven't. But... I don't really want to meet her."

Seeing Light's openly soured mood, Ban Yu-won looked at the others questioningly.

While Luciel remained focused on her marking, Dokgo-yeon spoke with an indifferent expression.

"Maybe they're jealous because she has a contract with a Constellation."

"Ugh."

"Hey, she's a third-year and we're first-years."

"But Ban's a first-year and he already has two sponsors. Is that why you're meeting with that senior too?"

At those words, Ban Yu-won realized Light was in a very annoying state.

What flashed through his mind was the image of Light curled up like a cat, squeezed square between a table and wall after their first exploration.

Back then he managed to soothe them with hot chocolate, but using the same trick too often loses its effectiveness.

"Dokgo-yeon, you handle this."

"You deal with it yourself. They're sulking because of you."

"Are you two my parents?! Ow!"

As Light shouted, Dokgo-yeon's lightning bolt struck their head.

She glared at the now subdued Light with a cold expression and said,

"All the exams will be finished this morning, right?"

"Y-yeah, but why?"

"When they're done, you two should go on a date or something."

"A date?!"

"Meow!"

At Dokgo-yeon's unexpected suggestion, not only Light but even Luciel perked up their ears.

Meanwhile, Ban Yu-won thought 'Even Dokgo-yeon has been influenced by this side to use words like date' which wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

"I'm a man!"

"So what if you're a man? Right, Ban Yu-won?"

"You're throwing this at me? Well... I don't mind."

While individual sexual preferences should be respected, crucially, Light isn't actually a man.

But whatever Light thought of Ban Yu-won's answer, they crossed their arms to cover their delicate frame and stammered.

"Y-you..."

"Light, they're just saying we should go hang out together. Just calm down."

"Oh."

Light finally closed their mouth.

They had realized they were overreacting.

Only Luciel seemed somewhat displeased with this turn of events, glaring intently at Dokgo-yeon, but was met with just a snort in response.

"You already went on a date last time. Today you have a special martial arts lesson with me all day."

"That's true, but, ugh. I want to go on dates too."

"Alright then, Luciel, want to play together on the weekend?"

"Yes!"

"..."

Seeing how easily Ban Yu-won pacified Luciel, Dokgo-yeon spoke in a somewhat disgruntled voice.

"You've gotten quite skilled at this, Ban Yu-won?"

"Don't say that, it makes me want to die."

*

Ban Yu-won always stayed with Light in their dormitory room, perhaps because of that, they rarely had chances to have heart-to-heart talks just the two of them.

Since he'd been thinking they would eventually need to solve the holy sword-related issues together, Dokgo-yeon's suggestion was welcome to Ban Yu-won as well.

11:30 AM.

After perfectly completing and submitting the answer sheet for the final subject of this midterm, Ban Yu-won frowned at Light who had covered their face with both hands as soon as they left the exam room.

"Don't tell me..."

"No, I wrote most of it. I wrote most of it, really. But towards the end, I couldn't concentrate well..."

Light glanced at Ban Yu-won as they said this.

Of course, he responded sternly.

"You're not planning to use me as an excuse, are you?"

"I'm sorry, I apologize."

"Whatever, if you messed up the midterm, you can make up for it in the finals."

Ban Yu-won headed to Ronica with Light, thinking he should start the study period a week earlier than now for the final exams season.

"So what are we going to do? ...What did you do with Luciel? And with that woman?"

"Why does it matter what I did with other people? Let's just do whatever you want to do and have fun."

Though he said it coolly, he hadn't done anything special with Light either.

Feed them delicious food, trick them into wearing clearly feminine clothes by calling it androgynous fashion, and then run out of ideas.

The current time was 3 PM.

While contemplating whether to take them to a café, Ban Yu-won grumbled.

"How can the culture be this backward? Despite having everything else..."

"Ban, what's that?"

Light, who had become quite cheerful after having money lavishly spent on them, pointed to a large building on the main street.

"Ah- that's a movie theater. Like how Tike films our videos, it's a place where they show videos filmed by others with cameras."

"Let's go!"

"I knew you'd say that."

The metropolis Ronica has a movie theater.

Since they have cameras that can film videos, it's natural that there are movies, and of course it's natural that there are movie theaters showing those movies.

The problem is...

[The right hand of Constellation Black Flame is with me. I shall burn you all and establish their justice!]

[Dr-dragon...! A massive dragon made of Black Flame!]

The protagonist boldly showing off the Constellation's superficial abilities (the Chancellor would probably like it).

[All they desire is my soul, and the suffering of villains like you!]

[Arghhhhhh!]

A protagonist who seemed clearly scammed by their Constellation.

[But what about the power of Constellation Smiling Flower's Fragrance?]

[Smiling!]

[Flower's!]

[Fragrance!]

And even supporting characters blatantly promoting seemingly weak Constellations.

"..."

About 30 minutes into the movie, Light, who had been staring blankly at the screen, quietly pulled Ban-Yu-won's hand and left the theater.

Then he burst out yelling.

"What was that?! Why are the characters just mindlessly praising Constellations without any context!"

"Maybe because it's a movie sponsored by Constellation contractors? By the way, other movies are the same. Especially in romance movies, the scenes where they deep kiss using abilities supposedly granted by Constellations make me cringe."

"This is the worst!"

Ban-Yu-won thought the same, which is why after first visiting out of curiosity, he never came back again.

But the timing wasn't good.

Light, who was already stressed about Constellations, had reached his breaking point.

Looking at Light who was wearing nice clothes but making a gorilla-like expression, he let out a quiet sigh and.

"Want to go relieve some stress? This stays secret from everyone else."

"...Huh? That, well, um, I..."

He made an offer he had never made to anyone before.

Light hesitated with his pupils shaking upon hearing those words, but when he pulled his hand firmly, Light followed along pretending to give in.

30 minutes later, the two of them were sprinting through a cave full of goblins.

"This is very different from what I was thinking! ...But it does relieve stress!"

"What were you thinking?"

"I'll never tell, even if I die!"

They asked Eve and Lilith to lure all the dungeon monsters together, then charged through while swinging their weapons excitedly.

Not only could mere goblins not even scratch them, but being able to cut down several with each strike made it incredibly refreshing.

Some prep work was needed, but their kind familiars took care of that for them!

"Hyaaaah!"

Light swung his spear magnificently, as if trying to release all the stress that had built up during exam period.

He was so excited that only about three goblins were left for Ban-Yu-won's share.

"Huff, huff..."

After breaking through the goblin-infested section and running for a while, they charged straight into the boss room. Light vertically sliced through the Goblin Warrior who had been posing dramatically inside, then planted his spear in the ground and stopped, letting out a satisfied sigh.

Then with a somewhat relieved expression, he said to Ban-Yu-won.

"Humans are really cruel, Ban. Killing other creatures just to relieve stress."

"Hey, is that really what you should be saying right now?"

To betray him like this after enjoying it the most himself.

Ignoring Ban-Yu-won who wore an expression of disbelief, Light sighed again as he pulled out his spear and turned around.

"Ban, let's have a duel."

"Sure."

"If I win, tell me in detail what happened with that woman."

Seems like he was really bothered about Mira.

Ban-Yu-won asked with a smirk.

"Then if I win?"

"If you win..."

Light pointed his spear blade at him with sparkling eyes.

"Then you'll listen to my story."

"You know Light, that's what we call an unfair deal."

"Here I come, haaaaap!"

Light charged forward without even waiting for him to get ready!

Ban-Yu-won hurriedly blocked his spear with a sword drawn from thin air.

―Clang!

"What's that, a holy sword?"

"Just upgraded it a bit!"

It was more than just a simple upgrade, but he couldn't show it properly or Light would get upset again.

The two clashed their weapons fiercely, neither giving an inch.

―Clang! Claaang!

When they first entered the academy, Light's skills had been overwhelmingly superior, with a difference like heaven and earth compared to Ban-Yu-won.

But Light sealed away his holy sword which, though overwhelmingly powerful, would sometimes go berserk and induce abnormal behavior, and instead mastered the spear, causing his combat ability to actually decrease.

Meanwhile Ban-Yu-won, who was growing faster than anyone across all dimensions, not only had his physical/magical conditions enhanced through awakening his innate power, but also had systematic swordsmanship directly injected into his body by Dokgo-yeon, making him a completely different being compared to two months ago.

―Clack! Ching!

Now as they fought with all their might, they were engaged in an intense and thrilling battle of equals.

"Hey, aren't you going to use your familiars?"

"That wouldn't be fair!"

Most likely, if Ban-Yu-won were to fight using every means at his disposal against Light, who gave up the holy sword he had spent more than half his life with and was competing with the spear he learned since entering the academy, it wouldn't produce an acceptable result.

That's why he too was competing with martial arts alone.

Since it was a skill they both learned after entering the academy.

―Perhaps that's why, every time they clash, he can't help but think of 'her'.

"Dokgo-yeon is really amazing."

"What, are you jealous of Dokgo-yeon now?"

"How can I not be? Without my holy sword, I'm nothing, while you all..."

"Nonsense."

To be honest.

If it had been Light from last week, even fighting under the same conditions, Ban-Yu-won would have had the upper hand.

But now that's not the case.

What this means is that over the past week, Light's growth exceeded Ban-Yu-won's.

Of course, this only applies to combat skills, and Ban-Yu-won had been particularly busy with other matters this past week, which somewhat slowed his combat ability growth, but.

"Still, the fact is you're getting stronger quickly."

The two faced off with their weapons locked.

Light exhaled his heated breath and glared at him through gritted teeth.

His face showed he couldn't accept those words.

But Ban-Yu-won ignored that and continued speaking.

"You're plenty of a genius even without the holy sword. No, maybe the holy sword was actually hiding your true talent."

"That's not enough, that level..."

"The more you work at it, the more you'll grow from here on. Once you can acknowledge that you're amazing even without the holy sword, you'll probably be able to handle it too."

"Don't talk like you know everything when you don't."

"Yeah, I actually don't know much."

Ban-Yu-won pushed Light back forcefully.

"Ugh... haaaaap!"

He let out a sharp yell and thrust his spear, but Ban-Yu-won easily noticed the slight trembling of its tip.

This was the timing he had been waiting for.

Taking a deep breath, Ban-Yu-won simultaneously unleashed the principles of flow and counter to deflect his spear widely, then pointed the executioner's greatsword at Light's completely exposed chest.

"So tell me. I'll listen to everything."

"...Sigh."

Light dropped his spear and plopped down on the spot with a small sigh.

"I can't be completely honest, but."

"I know. You're a liar after all."

"...I really hate you."

As Ban-Yu-won put away his sword and sat down next to Light.

Light began to speak, pouting his lips but complying nonetheless.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!