Helmut: The Forsaken Child - H.F.C Chapter 112 (Part 1):
“Ah, Alea?”
“A 100 laps around the sports field. Even if your memory is terrible, you haven’t forgotten already, have you?”
“Alea, um, about that. Could you maybe reduce the number of laps… a bit?”
Sian lowered his voice in submission. His hands came together as if in prayer.
“Classes will end around five in the afternoon, so you can start then. You should be able to do more than fifteen laps in an hour, right? So it’ll take about seven hours. Of course, no magic allowed.”
As Alea spoke lightly to the point of being cheeky, Sian’s face gradually turned pale.
“No, Alea. It’s impossible to do 100 laps in just one day.”
Even for a swordsmanship department student, doing 100 laps was a challenging task. Among the second-year students, only Helmut would have been capable of performing it without much trouble.
“If you were going to divide it, I would have said to run 10 laps a day for ten days. Not 100 laps.”
Alea maintained a cold attitude that seemed impenetrable. Unless explicitly defined, it could be interpreted either way.
But between Sian and Alea, the one who had the right to decide the interpretation was Alea.
‘Should I just ignore it and run away.’
But he was afraid of the consequences. Alea would never leave him alone. Sian naturally became more submissive.
“The intelligent and merciful, head of the magic department, Alea!”
“I’ll allow you to use a healing magic spell.”
“Hey, Asuka! Helmut! Say something. I’m going to collapse at this rate! I won’t be able to see you from next week onwards!”
Helmut and Asuka pretended not to hear. Especially Asuka, who had avoided eye contact with a guilty conscience.
“We have to go have lunch and attend afternoon classes now! Let’s go.”
What remained in front of Sian was only Alea standing there emitting coldness. With a fresh face, she added.
“If you feel like you’re going to die, I’ll let you split it up. Although, it doesn’t seem likely.”
The determination to make Sian complete his assigned task regardless of the circumstances was evident. And so, Sian’s fate was sealed.
In the afternoon, after all the classes were over, Sian ran around the sports field dripping with sweat.
Since even running a few laps was exhausting for him, he became tired from using the healing magic spell as well.
He walked around the sports field at a slow pace.
Alea watched for a while and then disappeared after casting a monitoring spell, leaving strict instructions.
By the time it was completely dark, Helmut arrived at the sports field.
‘You also have a duty as a party to the bet to check if Sian is doing it properly.’
That’s what Alea had said.
The Greta Academy had lit up various places from sunset until dusk to provide light for the students who stayed late studying.
Of course, there were places where the light didn’t reach. Like the sports field.
However, there was enough external light to illuminate the area where people could be seen.
Helmut looked in the distance at the figure running around the track. His eyes easily penetrated the darkness.
It was undoubtedly Sian in terms of physique and appearance. But something felt strange.
It felt more like a foreign lump than a person. Helmut knew the identity of that strange feeling.
‘A shadow spirit.’
Since Alea could monitor from a distance using magic, it seemed Sian had arranged for a substitute. The trickery of a mage was sometimes quite convenient.
‘It looks almost exactly like the real thing.’
Except for the fact that it was running around the track at an unnatural, steady pace. From a distance, it would seem like he was fooled.
The shadow spirit didn’t seem to have the acting ability to pretend to be tired.
‘I can probably just pretend not to notice.’
Helmut turned away. It was enough for Alea to know that Sian was completing the assignment properly.
“Oh my, I’m exhausted! Look at my legs. They’re wobbly. It’s hard to even stand properly.”
The next morning, Sian, who was lacking in exercise, exaggeratedly complained in front of the dormitory.
He, who was seriously lacking in exercise, seemed to have lost some cheek fat overnight.
Later, he had a shadow spirit run around the sports field on his behalf, but at first, when Alea was watching, he really had to run.
Asuka asked with a curious look.
“So, did you really run for seven hours?”
It was a skeptical look befitting a swordsman who found it hard to believe that it took seven hours just to run a hundred laps around the track. So it was quite annoying.
Sian awakened his latent violent tendencies. But revealing it would be futile since the other’s physical abilities were too good. He could easily overwhelm him.
Sian directed his frustration towards Asuka, who seemed completely unfazed.
“Yeah, if you came, you should have seen it! If you had a conscience, you should have handed me a towel to wipe the sweat!”
“A towel? You’re saying some ticklish things. You’re not even a knight before a battle.”
“Or you could have told Alea that I would run instead!”
“That’s also a way.”
Asuka shrugged his shoulders.
“But she wouldn’t have bought it. She was itching to make you suffer no matter what.”
“So you made me suffer while you just stretched out and slept?”
“Standing guard there wouldn’t have changed anything.”
“Then do you want to do something for me now?”
Asuka snorted. But contrary to the reaction, he calmly said.
“Sure, got it. When the holiday comes, let’s go to that pub we went to last time. I’ll pay.”