Hero, Go To School! - Chapter 29

“……”

“The feelings you have right now definitely aren’t that of Ares, but that of Ian Zenor directed at me.”

I shrugged lightly, as if it were nothing, and continued speaking.

“Well, these kinds of stories are common, aren’t they? Childhood friends with one‑sided crushes and all that. Right? It’s just your body acting on its own, so don’t take it too seriously.”

Ian closed his eyes for a moment. His hand slowly rose to his chest. Long fingers moved languidly as he rubbed at the dirt‑covered surface of his skin.

“…If it’s not a curse, then yes. That sounds like the more reasonable explanation.”

Some of the tension seemed to ease from his posture. I let out a sigh of relief and nodded.

“Alright, so that settles it? Then at least go wash yourself.”

Ian dropped his gaze toward the hand I had extended. He moved his arm, as if he meant to take it, but in the end he never touched me and rose on his own instead.

I trailed after him, persistent, refusing to let my guard down. It took Ian scanning the bathroom several times before he finally began to bathe alone, without attendants.

***

Ugh, seriously. What is wrong with him?

I thought that as I looked at his back, watching him bustle busily in front of me. If I took one step, Ian shot ahead by two, sometimes three, constantly surveying our surroundings.

It felt like being escorted by an elite guard. Or maybe like walking beside a feral bear. Either way, strange.

And maybe it was a problem that I was starting to get used to it too.

Our destination was the side annex’s tutoring room. It’s not as if we were breaking through enemy lines to deliver classified documents.

Even as I stared at his back with a pitiful expression, Ian didn’t seem to care in the slightest.

Endure it. Just endure. Don’t get genuinely angry at a friend who keeps losing his grip on reality.

Besides, today was the first day of tutoring for academy admission preparation, something I had been waiting for.

I heard the teacher had been invited with great difficulty after the Zenor family paid an astronomical fee. Like a renowned doctor who could raise the dead, I hoped this tutor could revive Ian’s utterly buried social awareness and common sense.

The tutoring room was in the building closest to the main residence, where the Zenor family mostly lived. But the estate was so vast that, even after walking for what felt like a long time, the annex still didn’t seem any closer. The path felt unusually long and rough.

“Rear secured. Don’t worry about what’s behind you, and keep walking.”

“……”

Maybe it really was because of him.

The servants had adjusted to his extreme vigilance. The maids who once shrieked at the sight of him now merely went about their duties as if it were nothing.

“It can’t go on like this.”

The words slipped out into the air weakly. If someone kept telling him he was wrong, maybe his behavior would improve, even a little. But now? Everyone simply moved around him, accepting the situation without question. Not one of them stepped in to correct him.

Ian still refused to sit at the same table as the duke and duchess. He summoned every scrap of knowledge he possessed before every meal, slicing the food to ribbons before deciding what was safe enough to eat.

It would have been tolerable if his madness were his alone, but he dragged me into it too. Dishes meticulously shaped by the kitchen staff often ended up looking like sludge that had taken a punch from someone’s fist.

Thanks to Ian and his obsessive inspections, meals took at least three hours every time. Every morning, I woke to a scream instead of an alarm, and my daily life had started to revolve entirely around Ian’s absurd deliberations.

My nerves were shot from the constant barrage of his lunatic stunts. At this rate, I’ll die of stress before I’ve even stepped foot in the academy.

“Danger!”

Ian lurched, grabbing me and crashing forward onto the floor. With terrifying strength, he twisted himself mid‑fall, making sure his back hit the ground before mine could.

Muscle was muscle, but this body of his was like a landscape made of stone ridges and uneven earth.

My back!

A sharp crack snapped through the air, like my spine was about to give. Pain shot up through my neck and spine, ringing deep in my skull. His broad hand pressed firmly against the back of my head, smearing my cheek across his heaving chest.