The Extra of The Lunerra

When Sue opened the door, there was a look of great hope on her face.

"Did you find something on Paul?"

But the answer was no. And as I shook my head from side to side, all hope shattered from her face.

After a brief moment, she sighed and her expression returned to normal. But then she studied me and her brow furrowed. Looking at me curiously, she asked in a low voice.

"What did you come for, then? You look like you’re in a hurry... you’re even sweating. Did something happen?"

With a deep sigh, I headed inside and Sue stepped aside to make way for me.

"Yes... yes, something actually happened. There’s something important we need to talk about. You’re free, right?"

Honestly... it doesn’t really matter whether she’s free or not. Why did I even ask?

"I’m free..."

As she slowly sank into one of the armchairs, this time, her face was full of traces of worry. But I didn’t let her speak, didn’t let her say anything else. I asked quickly as I took the couch opposite her.

"I need you to be honest with me, Sue. Don’t try to hide anything... this is extremely important."

The concern on her face suddenly multiplied many times over, bringing with it a tiny bit of fear.

"W- what happened?"

"That dungeon you entered with Adrian and Lucia... did you encounter a Lord as a boss?"

Her eyes widened in an instant, her lips parted, leaving her mouth open. She looked shocked, and that actually explained a lot... but I still waited for her answer.

Because I needed to be sure of everything.

"Y..."

She paused, swallowed, and exhaled deeply. Her expression became a little more normal, but it was still strange.

"Yes..."

"Lord of Attraction, right? Attracta."

Sue ran her right hand through her hair, pulling a strand out of her eyes and behind her ear.

"Yes..."

"And... you became her Apostle."

This time, she waited a little longer before answering.

And yet...

"Y- yes..."

The answer was the same.

I leaned all the way back on my couch, almost buried myself in it.

"Haaaaah..."

I put my hands to my eyebrows, wrinkled my forehead deliberately.

My mind was filled with different thoughts.

And... foremost among them was whether or not I should protect Sue.

Would it be more advantageous to hide her from the Lords or... to make sure they knew about Sue’s existence without having to deal with the matter too much?

And what about Attracta? She was a punished and shackled boss, after all... If she made Sue her Apostle, she must have some control over her. What if she uses her for malicious purposes?

"Did she offer to make you her disciple? Did she give you any orders? What do you think of her?"

"I... I had no choice."

I raised one eyebrow involuntarily.

"What do you mean? Did she force you?"

Sue quickly shook her head and shook her hands from side to side.

"N- no! I was... about to die..."

And then, she described what happened. One by one... without skipping any single detail.

The fall into that deep pit, the pain, the fact that she didn’t die, Attracta’s voice... her appearance. And finally, how they managed to get out of the dungeon.

And when she had finished telling everything... she was silent.

"So... the Lord you are an Apostle of is dead, but the power she gave you is unaffected... And lastly, she advised you to hide yourself because the other Lords might cause trouble?"

Sue nodded her head up and down instead of answering. And I... fell back into my thoughts.

The Lords haven’t noticed her yet. If they had, they would have acted already, I am absolutely certain. Sue... was never one to stand out too much, so they must have overlooked her for now.

’Sith... you can sense that Sue is an Apostle, right?’

With a flash of turquoise, Sith quickly appeared in front of me, nodding his head.

’If he can sense it, so can other spirits and Lords.’

’And is there any way to hide it, that feeling Sue gave, I mean.’

Sith hesitated for a moment, a thoughtful expression on his face, and waited in silence for a few seconds. Then his eyes turned back to me.

’What makes it clear that she is an Apostle is the movement of the mana around her, the direct motion of ’nature’, and the mana in her own body. So... we have to minimize its influence on the outside. If we do that and hide the mana inside her body, it’s fine.’

Hiding the mana inside her body is easy... I can ask the dwarves for an artifact to take care of that. The real problem is... reducing her influence on her environment.

Can that be solved with an artifact too? I’m not sure...

I took another deep breath, organized and sorted my thoughts, and looked up at Sue, who was waiting quietly where she was.

"All right, the cloaking thing is nothing I can’t handle. But... I wish you had told me sooner, Sue."

I feel... strange. A bit... uncomfortable that she didn’t tell me about something so important.

I know I don’t have the right to say that, given what I’ve been hiding.

I’m being a hypocrite right now.

But... I still felt bad.

Do other people, at least those I’m close to, feel this way too...?

"I... I wasn’t sure what to do. I’m sorry..."

I put a smile on my face. Then stood up calmly and slowly.

"It’s not a problem. Just... don’t hesitate to tell me if you encounter anything dangerous. Like I said, I’m... always here for you, okay?"

Sue nodded her head up and down gently. And I couldn’t help the smile widening on my face.

"Let’s talk about this again tomorrow. For now... I’d better see what I can do. Bye."

"Bye... take care."

And with that, I went out.

The first thing I did on my way back to my room was to call the dwarves, or rather Dorhud, which... I couldn’t do.

"Oh..."

With a tiny look of surprise on my face, I lowered my watch and looked at the person standing on the side of the road.

"Hello?"

He turned toward me as if he was waiting for me to address him first. He was smiling slightly, looking relaxed... unlike most people standing in front of me.

A lock of his white hair fell in front of him as his ocean-blue eyes focused on me.

"Hello."

I pulled my cane in front of me and put both hands on it.

"To what do I owe this encounter, Damian White...? I honestly thought you’d ignore me like you ignored everyone else."

Yes, I really did think that.

Because... Damian White, who was probably the most powerful student in the academy right now, was someone who didn’t take sides and was completely neutral. I didn’t think he would care about me even if I had the whole academy in the palm of my hand...

"I was planning to, actually. But..."

He straightened up from the light pole he was leaning against, stood in front of me, and widened his smile.

"I changed my mind a little."

I gripped my cane a little tighter than usual.

"Why, then?"

"Because I’m curious."

"Curious...?"

He nodded his head.

"Exactly."

And continued in a calm voice.

"When you faced Cassandra and Jack in the arena... you didn’t use everything you had. So... I’m curious."

He narrowed his eyes slightly, his body tensed slightly... as if he was about to attack.

"How strong are you, really? How far can you go if you use everything you have? How much of a ’danger’ are you?"

He prepared to strike, right in the middle of the campus.

And what I did was... simply sigh.

"I’m weak, for now."

Damian paused, frowning involuntarily.

"Weak...?"

"Yes. Too weak for the things I want to do, for my goals. And... I don’t want to fight against you."

Not because I can’t win, not because I’m afraid.

Well... maybe a little. Because Damian... he’s a really scary guy. Even if he doesn’t have Adrian’s potential, he’s way ahead of his peers.

Even if I were to win, it certainly wouldn’t be easy.

And... I don’t want to deal with him. I have enough to do to try to fight with a crippled body.

"Besides, I don’t think you jumping me in the middle of campus is going to help much."

Damian broke his stance, straightened up. It was hard to tell what he was thinking from the expression on his face, but... he looked a little annoyed.

"Do you have anything else to say...?"

His eyebrows furrowed even more, he seemed even more annoyed. But then he turned around and started to walk away.

"Let’s fight sometime. I’m not interested in anything else."

And... he just walked away like that.

All I could do was sigh deeply once again and mutter.

"What strange people the world is full of..."

*******

Nothing happened during the day when I spoke to Damian.

But the next day at the end of class was different... Because an interesting rumor had swept the academy.

Although... I wouldn’t call it a rumor.

"There are some people who think that I shouldn’t study at the academy simply because I’m a war hero, that this place has nothing to teach me and therefore I should be given my diploma early... is that it?"

Julian nodded his head up and down.

"And at the same time they claim that because I am so powerful, everyone in the academy is afraid of me, that I control too much of the academy and therefore cannot maintain a safe academic environment?"

He confirmed me once more.

"And finally, they say that I force everyone under me and threaten them if they don’t do what I say?"

Julian paused before nodding this time.

"Actually... come to think of it, they’re not so wrong about the last two, Aiden. Even the first one, if pushed a bit..."

I smiled and gave a small laugh, ignoring what he said.

"Jack and Cassandra are trying to kick me out of school, huh? What a convenient method they’re using... they seem to have accepted that they can’t do anything physically."

They were already making small, tiny movements behind my back. Like attracting people who didn’t like me, or even filling some parts of the academy completely with these people to make it harder for me and the people below me to move.

A couple of times they even taunted those who defended me. None of these incidents got too big, but there were some that I had to suppress because of a few idiots.

But... they took a bigger step this time.

"What do you think I should do?"

Julian folded his arms across his chest. His eyes drifted to the floor for a moment as he thought.

"Isn’t it always better to nip the head of the snake in the bud?"

"Hmm... you’re right, but that’s no fun either. Don’t you think our time at the Academy should be fun?"

Julian, for the first time, instead of laughing at my first sentence, which I didn’t expect from him, put on a serious expression.

"Honestly... no. I think it would be more useful to turn the academy into a place we can control politically while we have the chance."

"Oh?"

Julian sighed deeply. His eyes were on me this time, his expression the same.

"There will be plenty of time for us to have fun. But... I think what we need to do now, especially now that you’re a noble and you’ve gotten so much attention from others, is to stake our future."

This kid... he’s really changed a lot, huh? And without me having to do much of anything...

"Well..."

I leaned back in my chair, sighing slightly as I made my expression as serious as his.

"Let’s do it then. We’ve given Jack and Cassandra enough time..."