小嫂子的味道

The next day my whole morning was spent attending the closing ceremony of the academy and collecting some information about the practical exam. It turns out that including Emmeric and Wynfir, a total of six people were found dead.

Four from class D, and two from class C. There were no casualties in class A and B. Actually, class C would have also came out unscathed if it weren\'t for me. But we can\'t do anything about that.

And it was around twelve at noon, I was busy deciding what I had to take back home and should I left here. I didn\'t have much stuff to begin with so it was not that difficult. I packed two pairs of clothes and some daily use stuff, after that I was good to go.

The vacations will be of one month and will last from fifteenth December—today—to fifteenth of January. It was not really a long period of time hence I thought I\'ll buy anything if I need it at home. I always had my transaction with me anyway.

I stood in front of my bed as I stared at my backpack, for a whole long minute I did nothing but stared at it.

\'I was going home, wasn\'t I?\' somehow it felt unreal.

Perhaps I was too focused in that, that\'s why when there was a knock on my door I couldn\'t help but jump in surprise. After that I walked to the door, opening it I saw that Anya was standing there with a bag of her own; and it was much bigger than mine.

"You are coming, right?" was the first thing she asked, and from her facial expression I could see that she was genuinely concerned. Was I that unpredictable?

"Of course, I\'m coming. That\'s not the sort of thing you should ask," I said as I left from the front of the door and made way for her to enter.

She stepped inside and I walked after her, I went to my bag and shoved some of the stuff that was remaining on the bed.

"I was finishing packing up," I said as I closed the button of the bag when everything was inside.

"Done," I swung and hung the bag on my shoulder. Then I went to a corner of the room where the Requiem sword was lying, and as of now it didn\'t have a sheath. Since it only came when I wanted, it was only natural that I won\'t cover it in one when it\'s in my room especially when Req complains that it stains the beauty of the blade.

I held the sword in my hand, and then returned to where Anya was standing.

"Let\'s go," I said, and made we walked out of the room. Before leaving I made sure to lock everything properly, and went through everything in my mind to make sure that I was not forgetting anything.

Anya was walking in front of me in the corridor, and it seemed like the right time so I commanded Req to make a sheath for the sword. She hesitated, but then agreed.

A blackish smoke emerged from the sword\'s blade, and slowly covered it as it turned into a hard sheath. This time it also had a strap to attach it to my hip, and I made sure to do that.

"I was just wondering," Anya interjected. "But shouldn\'t you cover that sword? I mean, it can be pretty intimidation to some people. And we are still inside the academy campus so you\'ll be breaking the rules."

"But I have it in the sheath, what are you talking about?" I replied, sounding as honest as I could.

She stopped in her tracks and turned back to look at me, her gaze dropped to my hips where I had sword.

"You…really have it. Did I just hallucinate?" she questioned.

"Hmm, it\'s possible. Have you been getting enough sleep?" I asked in concern.

"Well, yeah. I don\'t think that\'s the problem. Though I\'m sure I saw it didn\'t have a sheath a few moments ago."

"It happens. I think you\'re just way too excited to go back to home, that\'s why you\'re seeing things."

"Something like that is possible?"

"I don\'t know."

She seemed confused for a moment, then probably pushed those matters aside in her mind and began walking again.

\'Damn, she\'s just too easy to tease. I can\'t get over this!\' I giggled internally as I thought of this.

We walked out of the dorm building, then went to the office to officially inform the academy that we were leaving the campus. And I\'d to say we had to wait quite a bit as many students were leaving for their homes and the line to fill the application was long.

But when it was done, we were finally good to go. All that was left was to walk out of the campus. Anya had already said goodbyes to her friends—probably Ellyn and Leon—and I didn\'t have anyone to say that to, thus we were done here.

We stood in front of the main gate, and showed the guard a paper we\'d received from the office. After verifying the contents the man opened the gate and we stepped outside, into the real world.

I didn\'t fell particularly different, as I\'d already escaped from the academy once, but Anya\'s eyes were literally shining as she gazed at the view outside.

The road was filled with wagons who transported all kinds of people, there were people wandering on the road too. After we walked on for a while and stepped into the city square, we saw many shops and stalls by the side of the roads. It was probably one of those big markets where you get things for a lesser price.

After she was done living in the moment, we moved to the main road and booked a wagon for out city.

The wagon\'s wheels rolled on the paved road, and hours later it finally crossed the wall which surrounded the whole city. We came out in the while, and leaving Sofrora city behind and heading for the Roswell city—our homeland.

(A/N: The upcoming few chapters will focus more on the slice-of-life side of the story and explore Zero\'s relation with his family and the bonds he\'d created after coming into the new world. I know that things were already pretty passive since the end of the labyrinth arc, but believe me, this will be the last of those parts.

The Zaforths academy arc was divided into several mini-arcs, and the winter vacation mini-arc is the last one and will mark the end of Volume 2. You can treat this last mini-arc as the calm before the storm. I\'ll leave it up to you to decide what the storm might be.)