Became the Golden Sun of the Academy

22 – Group Tasks (4)

There are no animals in this snowy mountain.

It’s not because of the unusual environment where it snows all year round.

It is not because the academy has artificially adjusted it.

It’s just because one beast is the tyrant of this snowy mountain, driving away all who set foot on it.

“Looks like something dangerous over there keeps glaring at us?”

“It’s okay to stare.”

As I answered Lucy’s words, I calculated the distance between the bottomless cliff and the remaining land on the other side.

The distance is 3 m… ….

No, it must be a little shorter than that.

Anyway, it’s a distance enough to jump over.

“Wait, what are you thinking?”

As I looked at the cliff and took a sneaky step back, Lucy, realizing what would happen next, asked urgently.

Step by step without answering that question.

As I slowly speeded up, like an airplane taking off, he patted me on the back.

“Hey, you crazy bastard——”

And let’s cross the cliff.

“Aagh!”

That soon turned into a short scream.

The hand that had been tapping on the back was gripping the collar tightly before I knew it, and it was the same on the other side.

Not only did she not scream, it seemed that Anastasia was also startled.

Anyway, it’s time to take the two guys off your shoulders, who were sweeping away your surprised hearts.

It’s not because I ran out of energy while jumping over this cliff.

It wasn’t even because of Lucy’s resistance hanging from his shoulder.

Lucy and Anastasia were taken off their respective shoulders.

Unlike Lucy, who gets angry, Anastasia’s eyes are still blinking with her arms stretched out in front of her, as if they were hanging on her shoulders.

“Be alert.”

I’ve worked hard so far, now it’s time for you guys to work.

As I said that, I put the back of my cold hand on the guy’s cheek, and my eyes widened in silence.

“Now that we are all here.”

“Are you all here? Aren’t you still normal?”

I raised my head.

Following my gaze, the two guys next to me also raised their heads almost at right angles.

“No, this is enough.”

The explanation was insufficient, but I didn’t bother to add it.

It’s easier to understand if you see it yourself.

Patter…… !

Snowflakes fell through thick clouds that obscured the ridges.

As the sound of quick footsteps echoed in the mountain at the same time, the two of them each went on alert, even though I didn’t tell them to prepare.

Tadak, tadak.

The footsteps are getting closer.

And soon a black shadow was cast over the white cloud over the mountain.

─Wolves, snow mountains, protect.

A white wolf with its ferocious teeth bared out through the clouds.

* * *

There was one wolf.

Wolves were by nature different from other wolves and were weak wolves who would die soon if left alone.

— ….

One snowy day.

It was the time when I walked aimlessly to the shore of the lake to fill my water boat, as my hungry stomach growled today as I couldn’t catch any prey again.

─Ugh…….

As seen in the clear lake water where even the blue sky was reflected, he couldn’t be seen as a species like other wolves.

The only thing that sets it apart from being a wolf is its ears that grow on top of its head.

The face was round and the hair on the head grew unnecessarily long, but no hair grew on the rest of the body.

No matter how you look at it, it looked more like a human than a wolf.

“Oops.”

And there was a human who found a wolf culled from the pack.

“The beast of a wolf… …. Are you kicked out of the group?”

The woman, wearing a witch’s hat that looked like she came to the lakeside to drink water like herself, didn’t care about the wolf’s threat to expose her teeth, she squatted down and held out her hand.

“I am in a similar situation. Do you want to get along well?”

Saying that, she took off her hat, and on her head grew large, sharp horns, like those of her dragons.

She is a witch with dragon blood.

But she hid her appearance as a polymorph, and in the melted human society, she was called this, she said.

A hero who is one of the main players who led numerous battlefields to victory in the war against the demons.

The great sage, Raviel.

And she was the only one who understood the wandering wolf and became his family.

… ….

“Raviel.”

The wolf quickly learned to speak.

Although it was only at the level of interrupting words like a machine, it was a significant improvement compared to the days when I could only growl or bark like a wolf.

“Oh, did you remember my name?”

Raviel willingly built a cabin on a snowy mountain where no one set foot, and settled down for a wolf who, unlike herself, could not hide.

Thanks to her presence, the wolf, inexperienced in her hunt, could not starve, and could escape the cold in a warm cabin where her campfire crackled.

“Yes, wolf, did you do well?”

“Yeah, good job, good job.”

“As promised, are you giving me a name?”

“Of course not. I’ll give you a name you like, so wait a minute?”

The wolf respected Raviel, who protected her, taught her knowledge, and sometimes scolded her, as if she were her own mother.

As if in response, Raviel also cared for the wolf like a child and taught her a love she had never received in her life.

“By the way, Wolf, I have a question.”

The wolf brought a picture book that Raviel had brought him one day and flipped through the pages.

There was a drawing of a sleeping boy drawn on the page that the wolf spread out with both hands and lifted up towards Raviel.

In addition, next to the picture was written in large letters, ‘I dreamed a dream come true.’

The wolf pointed his claw at the phrase and asked.

“I had a dream, a dream come true. What is this, the wolf does not know. You have a dream, did you realize your dream?”

“Is it difficult to understand because it is an abstract concept?”

Raviel stepped down from her rocking chair and met the eye level of the wolf sitting on the floor.

“The dream we’re talking about here is like this kid’s wish.”

“Wish?”

“Yes. I want to fly in the sky, or I want to breathe underwater like a fish. I’m talking about something that I wish for but cannot easily achieve.”

The wolf asked after hearing the explanation.

“Then, Raviel, do you have a dream?”

Raviel pondered for a moment at the wolf’s question, then nodded.

“Yes.”

She seems like she can do anything, but does she have something difficult to achieve.

She was Raviel like a god to herself, so the wolf pricked up her ears and listened.

“I want to create a world without fighting.”

She had only thought about it inside her mouth, but she had never said it out of her mouth, so Raviel said it shyly, as if she had heard something about her.

“Be it beasts or witches, a peaceful world without discrimination based on their race.”

It was a wish that the wolf had never even imagined, as he wished for nothing more than just staying with Raviel.

But after hearing her explanation, the wolf also imagined that.

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A wide world where you and Raviel don’t have to hide.

“But it’s ironic that you need strength for that peace.”

“Then the wolf will be the strength.”

The wolf thumped his chest with the palm of his hand.

“When you grow up, the wolf will protect Raviel.”

“Does he make a wonderful noise?”

Raviel smiled and stroked the wolf’s hair to the point of messing it up.

And that must be hard? She stuck out her little finger, not making a sound like it.

“Then shall we promise?”

“Wolf, I promise.”

The wolf put her own finger on her little finger, which Raviel held out to her.

Pressing her thumb against her thumb, she decided to make this her own dream.

Although, I can’t do that now because I’m small and weak.

If you want to protect Raviel, who is called the Great Sage, you will have to put in the effort to cut her bones.

I hoped.

Although it is not her own dream, she still hopes that Raviel, who has a bright expression like her child while talking about her own dream, will make her own dream come true, and she hopes that she can help him. I hoped it would be.

She hoped so.

The wolf’s world was all about this small cabin and Raviel, so that was the wolf’s dream.

… ….

It was the next day.

“…… Raviel?”

But the wolf soon realized.

That his own dream is more difficult to achieve than Raviel’s dream.

No, it’s an impossible dream that can never come true, regardless of whether it’s easy or difficult.

It was when I returned from hunting practice in the nearby forest, recalling the promise I made yesterday.

It was when Raviel, as always, kicked in the door thinking that she would light a bonfire and cook warm soup.

“… ….”

The wolf saw.

Seeing Raviel, who always greeted her with a smile when she came back, collapsed on the floor.

Staring at the ceiling with empty eyes, his soft hair hanging down on the floor like the silk he worked hard to groom every night.

In this snowy mountain where no one sets foot, the unbelievable thing happened that she, who was called her great sage, was attacked by someone.

“Raviel!”

The she-wolf ran straight at her.

When I looked at her as she fell to the floor, I noticed that her wounds were serious.

There was a hole in her stomach bigger than her hands put together, and blood pooled on the floor from her empty stomach.

Her blood poured out, her body was cold as if she was holding a snowman, and her heart was slowly preparing to stop.

“…… Are you here?”

It was like a corpse, but Raviel’s life was tough.

She struggled to raise her bloodied hand and brushed the wolf’s cheek, which was sobbing desperately without being able to properly say the emotion she felt for the first time in her life.

“I’m glad I wasn’t late. There was something I wanted to tell you. Didn’t I promise to give you a name?”

What she said, she couldn’t hear the wolf.

Her mind is gone, her tears cover her eyes, her own beastly cries cover her ears.

“■■…… That’s your name…….”

So, she didn’t hear her own name when she said it.

She couldn’t know what the only precious thing Raviel had left behind.

The only thing she remembers after that is that she made all the beings who set foot on the snowy mountain retreat to protect the cabin where her and Raviel’s memories are.

In this way, the snowy mountain has become an empty place where everything is rejected by a wolf whose name is forgotten.

* * *

“Are you awake?”

The spirit returns.

Memories that I thought I had forgotten passed by quickly like a kaleidoscope, and the feeling of being injected into my head is now gone.

Adele’s assimilation of her memories into the wolf’s head was finally over.

“… ….”

My body is cold.

My neck is heavy.

Something was holding him down in the snow.

‘Ah.’

The wolf remembered.

I was defeated.

Tried to chase away the intruders who set foot on the snowy mountain, but was completely overpowered by two girls stronger than herself.

Lucy is riding on the wolf’s back and holding her neck down, while Anastasia’s pet is holding her body and legs down.

No matter how much I struggled, I couldn’t see a gap to escape.

But none of that mattered.

The wolf raised her head and looked at Adele, who for some reason had placed her hand on her own head and retrieved her memory.

Looking up at him, he slowly and clearly spat out the human words he had practiced while living alone.

“Wolf, I didn’t hear.”

There was something I wanted back.

It has no meaning to be given alone, but it is valuable because Raviel built it.

“The wolf’s name given by Raviel.”

That was something that the wolf’s memory could not tell.

So, I wonder if he listened to the memory that haunted him.

Let’s ask if you want to.

“Do you want to know?”

Adele replied.

“Tina.”

For some reason, I’m sure it’s not a lie.

“It means peace in the imperial language. That is your name.”