小嫂子的味道

The cold yet gentle breeze of winter brushed my hair as I was standing on the rooftop of the class B dorm building, and looking down at the colorful fest.

In the end, I wasn\'t able to fit there. I tried but it was of no use. You were meant to enjoy these sorts of events with your friends. Even if you wanted to, you couldn\'t wander around and go to each stall alone just to please yourself.

And if you wanted to do that—as I did—you\'ll eventually end up visiting every stall present in the fest and then there won\'t be anything left to do anymore. That\'s why I was up here.

"It\'s beautiful, won\'t you say?" Req said from my side, referring to the several hundred colorful magic lights gleaming and giving off quite a view.

She was floating in the air while eating a plate of spicy fried rice, and this was her second plate.

"It is beautiful, indeed. Quite full with people too," I replied as I leaned on the railing and gazed down.

I was randomly looking down at whatever I saw but there I caught sight of Anya. She was with Ellyn and Leon; can\'t say I didn\'t see that coming. She seemed to be enjoying herself, and I was happy to see that. At least someone was making use of this fest.

\'Still. Friends, huh? I had been so caught up in all the things going on with my life that I never really got the time to make any. Leave making aside, I didn\'t even have the time to think about it.\'

It was not as if everyone ignored me or I was invisible or anything. The students who sat beside me in the classes tried to start a conversation, but I ended them quicker than expected. Mostly because I didn\'t have time for it.

\'Friends. That was a luxury I didn\'t have in my previous life too, it wouldn\'t be of much importance in this life either.\'

My vision was suddenly bleached from the side as something very bright flashed in the distance. It was so bright that I had to cover my eyes to protect them.

When the flash vanished I causally looked in the direction where it had come from, since you didn\'t see things like this every day.

But there what I saw pushed my soul out of my body for a while. Right on top of the Coliseum, in the air was floating a dark and round object.

I was stunned, so much that it\'s impossible to describe it in words. However, I gained my composure soon with a few breaths.

\'There\'s no way that could be a portal. I mean, it was supposed to happen at the end of the first year. There were still six whole months left.\'

Even so, I wasn\'t able to just ignore it. Even if it was not a portal something inside me was urging me to go and check. Thus, I was set on the move.

"Come on, we\'re leaving," I said.

"Huh? But I\'ve only eaten three of the dishes. You said you\'d bring me more!" Req protested.

"I will. Later," I stated.

She had an unsatisfied gesture but then followed me anyway. The portal-like thing was levitating in the air above the coliseum and the flash had come from that way too. Thus I got out of the dorm building and deviating from the rest of the students in the fest, I walked in that direction.

It didn\'t take as much time as I should have to reach there. It was probably because subconsciously I had started running. Therefore in the span of around five minutes, I reached in front of the coliseum.

There weren\'t any guards or people from the staff standing outside. It was because most of the staff was busy with the fest and the coliseum was like a big playground thus there was no need for guards there.

Because of this, I was able to get inside pretty easily. I followed the shortest route, and that was the one from where contestants entered in the arena.

To my horror, as I reached closer I started to hear sounds of loud clashing and growling. With each step I took, my heartbeat increased. I didn\'t realize that I had also started sweating and my breathing was rough.

At last, I reached the end of the dark tunnel-like passageway that opened into the area. I slowed my pace and made sure to make no noise, concealing my presence. Walking close to the wall I peeked outside.

What I saw turned my greatest fear into reality.

That dark ball-like this was, in fact, a portal. And in the middle of the area was Ryfin, fighting against two four-legged monsters. Or rather I should say, demons.

The sounds that I was hearing were from his shining red sword as he defended and attacked the demons. The two of them were attacking him constantly, but he was able to hold his stance pretty well.

He was in a better condition…unlike me.

\'What the hell?! This couldn\'t be happening.\' The words resounded in my head and I felt my whole body going numb.

"Impossible," I mumbled. At the same time, my feet stumbled and I leaned against the wall.

\'This is wrong. This shouldn\'t be happening right now. I mean, it was supposed to start at the end of Leon\'s first year of the academy. But there were whole six months left before that. How could this happen then? No, this is bad. Very bad. More than bad.\'

The thing I was fearing more than anything ever since I came to this world was now right before me. And I was unprepared. I\'d thought that I still have time, enough time to prepare for it. But in the end, I was just a fool to believe that.

The only thing I had right now was the Requiem sword. And there were so many things that needed protection.

This was bad. Very bad. More than bad. So bad that for the first time in both my lives, I was truly feeling \'scared\'.

The dark ball-like thing was an inter-dimensional portal, the beasts Ryfin was fighting against were demons. The calamity was starting.