IWSE 2

“……Yes. It will take some time.”

Her voice sounded dry as it emerged from her throat. Elodie’s fingers unconsciously brushed the tips of her fingernails, the ones that had been broken before.

“Those crazy bastards! Once we get out of here, I’m suing the academy!”

“My clothes are so heavy. They’re all wet!”

“……It might take about a week. I hope they come quickly.”

The beach was bustling with noise. Her amethyst eyes slowly took in the familiar scenery. The same students, the same atmosphere.

‘Back then, I thought we made a pretty good team.’

A swordsman, a spirit summoner, and even a healer. Everyone was considered one of the most promising talents in the Empire. But after everything she had been through, what Elodie saw now was…

[Stupid country bumpkin. This is exactly why provincial nobles are so hopeless.]

A jerk.

[S-scary! Elodie, could you walk in front of me?]

A crybaby.

[Hahaha. Is that really your only reason for disagreeing with my opinion?]

A dictator.

“Haa.”

They were all the very people who had used Elodie and then abandoned her. She wanted nothing more than to scream at them right now, but…

Her pale hand gripped her own wrist tightly.

“Ahem.”

Robert quickly brought the situation under control.

“There’s nothing we can accomplish by worrying about it right now. Everyone, let’s get moving.”

“Move?”

“We’ll have to stay here for a few days, so we need to prepare a campsite.”

“Ugh.”

His sun-like eyes gazed down at them firmly. He wasn’t interested in hearing any complaints. That was Robert Bavarian, the golden-blooded heir of the Imperial Family, praised by the entire Empire.

“There are four of us, so we’ll split into pairs.”

Although academy rules allowed them to speak casually to one another, no one dared to offend him. Everyone nodded.

Their youthful faces showed not the slightest trace of anxiety.

Elodie squeezed her eyes shut. The time she had left pierced her chest like the sharp tip of a pen.

Until death: D-517

The beginning of days that would be like hell.

An awkward silence settled between them.

Once again, Elodie found herself walking through the forest alone with the Imperial Prince.

[There are only enough emergency rations in our backpacks for two days. Elodie Fontaine and I will scout the area for anything edible.]

[Then what about us?]

[The remaining members will set up the dungeon tents and gather firewood.]

[……With Stefan? Just the two of us?]

Sylvia clearly wasn’t pleased, but there was no changing the assigned teams.

“Is this the first time we’ve spoken properly? I’ve heard quite a bit about you.”

“……That I’m good at studying, or something like that?”

“Haha. You’re more honest than I expected.”

The woodland near the beach was rather peaceful. The fair-faced prince confidently took the lead.

“Your magic is related to memory, isn’t it? Can you determine whether food contains poison?”

“If it’s a type I know about?”

Elodie answered casually as she followed behind him. Her violet eyes absentmindedly gazed up at the sky, pretending to search for fruit.

‘517 days with traitors. Can I endure it all over again?’

No. She didn’t want to endure it.

This time had to be different.

The only thing she could trust was her memory. Her fingers tapped lightly against her thigh.

“Elodie. Is your magic constantly active?”

“Ever since we ended up here.”

“Impressive. Magic of that nature is quite rare. I’ve also heard that it consumes very little mana.”

His lips curved into a smooth smile. His eyes were assessing whether he could make use of Elodie when he returned to the Imperial Palace.

‘Now I can read everything just by looking at his expression.’

Elodie immediately imitated Sylvia’s expression from their academy days.

“Thanks for the compliment! But…”

She narrowed her eyes into crescent moons and shrugged her shoulders.

“……I don’t have any powerful connections, and I don’t want to get involved in anything troublesome. I’m planning to return to my family’s estate after graduating from the academy.”

“That’s a shame. Inheriting magic is practically a blessing.”

Exactly. It was a valuable ability.

While maintaining her silly smile, Elodie secretly raised her middle finger behind her back.

‘You’ll be treating me like a servant in just a few days anyway.’

“There’s a red fruit over there. What about that one?”

“……Yeah, that kind is edible.”

“That’s a relief.”

Robert chuckled and turned to look at her. His golden eyes shone like torches in the sunlight.

As Elodie met his clear gaze, a memory suddenly surfaced in her mind.

[Something must have gone wrong. Otherwise, there’s no way they wouldn’t have come looking for me.]

Was that about a month later?

“At most, it should take about a week for the rescue team to arrive. Until then, I hope we can work well together.”

[W-why? Why isn’t anyone coming?!]

……Elodie nodded with a bitter expression.

“I hope we can work well together until then, too.”

“Once we return, I shall grant you an appropriate reward.”

“……I hope we can actually return.”

“Don’t worry. If danger arises, the Imperial flames will protect you.”

Liar.

Their reasoning was simple: if a rescue team came, they would most likely arrive at the sea where the students had fallen.

“Everyone, good work!”

Robert reached out toward the neatly stacked pieces of wood.

Whoosh!

In an instant, a huge bonfire sprang to life.

‘……I really do envy that ability.’

The Imperial Family’s hereditary magic was fire, one of the most useful abilities for survival.

As time passed, they would eventually find things on the island to start fires with. But during the early days, Robert and Stefan’s abilities had been invaluable.

“Anyone thirsty?”

A transparent ball of water floated beside Stefan. Stefan Bernard was a spirit summoner, a talent just as rare as that of a mage.

‘And his specialty is water, too.’

Without a word of complaint, Elodie held out her canteen.

“It’s fortunate we brought the survival backpacks with us.”

“Emergency rations taste awful…… I’ve never eaten anything like this before.”

Sylvia’s drooping silver hair swayed as she spoke.

‘Still, we should be grateful we have something to eat.’

Elodie diligently chewed and swallowed the energy bar she had broken into four pieces.

The survival backpacks were part of their dungeon training equipment. Without them, things would have been considerably more difficult.

“Ha. We should be busy smashing our way through the Veloa Dungeon right about now. What the hell is this?”

Stefan kicked a twig on the ground in irritation.

“Exactlyyy. Where on earth are we? Wasn’t the Veloa region a desert? Did we end up in a completely different region?”

“……It seems we’ve been thrown quite far away.”

Elodie agreed with Sylvia.

Watching her companions grumble, she couldn’t help but smile bitterly. Not a single one of them seemed to feel that they were in danger.

‘That’s how capable they are.’

Even if one was a dictator, another a jerk, and another a crybaby.

“Hah.”

Just as expected, the jerk curled his lips into a sneer.

Elodie already knew what he was going to say next.

“To think I ended up in this situation with Elodie Fontaine of all people.”

Gasp!

Sylvia covered her mouth.

“W-what’s the point of saying something like that?”

“Am I wrong? She was brought in as an emergency replacement. Things would have been much easier if Dalia, who was originally assigned to our group, had been here instead.”

……That was right.

Elodie Fontaine had been a replacement for the team member who was originally supposed to be part of their group.

‘I should have gone back one more day……’

Knowing what was going to happen made those words hurt even more than they had before.

“……But it’s not like we could help it that Dalia got sick.”

“Ahem.”

The prince gave them a subtle warning to stop. Both Stefan and Sylvia promptly looked away.

‘How foolish of me.’

In her previous life, Elodie hadn’t been able to say a single word in response.

What right did a country noblewoman who merely hoped to become a librarian have to speak up?

Even so, Elodie had done everything she could to help her companions.

Because she was weak.

Because she couldn’t survive on her own.

‘……But helping them didn’t work out anyway.’

Her violet eyes glinted ominously.

‘I have to get out.’

Mother was waiting for her.

[Elodie, do your best this semester, too.]

[And don’t forget to bring back some snacks from the capital!]

She had been given another 517 days.

Elodie had to survive.

She would survive and escape. Regardless of what happened to the other elites, she would return home and reunite with her beloved parents.

“Elodieee. Are you angry?”

“……No.”

She looked down at her smooth fingernails and gave a faint smile.

She had already seen the future. Elodie remembered everything, right down to the very last moment.

She was sick and tired of staring at the backs of her companions.

It was time to change her way of thinking completely.

‘I’ll have to do it alone. If it’s now, here, I can make it work.’

Robert brought the conversation to a close.

“Everyone must be shaken by this unexpected accident. Elodie, I hope you’ll be understanding.”

[The combat personnel are our top priority if we want to survive. Elodie, I hope you’ll be understanding.]

Of course. She understood.

Elodie grinned and nodded.

Just as Robert had said, this time, she intended to become one of the combat personnel herself.

‘Before becoming a librarian, I’ll have to become a thief first.’

Her goal in this life was to become a master thief.

She would steal everything her former companions had obtained in her previous life, one step ahead of them.

And……

‘I’m getting out of here.’

As if she would obediently die here!

The future thief’s innocent-looking eyes curved into a sweet smile.