Huge Holy 83 (Patreon)

83 - I have no concern or interest in romance games, so what?

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46 years old.

Am I crazy to feel that it's not a bad lifespan?
Would it be somewhat more understandable if I compared adventurers with athletes?
After all, even with skills and status, physical aging is inevitable.
Of course, some of the oldest active adventurers are nearly 80 years old, but most are in their forties or thirties... and most retire from adventuring in their late twenties to train younger adventurers.

In my case… I feel that aging is terrible.
For the time being, there are parts that can be compensated for like presbyopia and physical acceleration, but, my physical body aside, the presbyopia... the blurring of my field of vision is gradually getting worse.
Retiring as an adventurer... and what’s more, in my early twenties.
I don't know why. Before I knew it, I found myself picking up my pen and writing a letter to Midia.
That girl came along because she wanted to form a party with me.
In a sense, I wanted to see how she would react to hearing about my aging... I was just curious.

Early in the morning, I gave the letter addressed to Midia to the servant who delivered the newspaper to my room and asked him to send it.
The servant handed me one letter separate from the newspaper.
Also, he told me that the principal called and asked me to come before class.

The Letter.
I thought it was a letter from Midia, which she sent regularly――but unexpectedly, it turned out to be a letter from my parents.
The A Empire, which I entered for the purpose of being successful, has turned into a mess.
It seems that Ekaterina arranged to let them know I'm still alive, even though it's okay for them to have treated me as dead on their own accord.

...What the hell does she want? I sighed and threw the letter into the trash after checking its contents.

After finishing a proper meal in the cafeteria where the noisy students are, I head to where Ekaterina is.
I knocked on the door just to be polite and said, “Excuse me,” and entered the room.
Ekaterina was looking through the document in her hand with a straight face.
Before she asks what I’m here for... Maybe this was just a trick, but I thanked her for the letter from my parents.

“Principal. Um... Thank you very much for letting my parents know I'm still alive.”

“...No. It's not a big deal. Rather, I thought Josiah-sensei would have sent a message to your parents once you had settled down in I Confederacy.”

Aah. I didn't do it because I didn't care about them from the bottom of my heart.
I kept that sarcasm to myself.
Ekaterina handed over the document to me and abruptly said, “Congratulations.”
I immediately said, “Ha?”, and shed the rest of my words.
When I briefly looked through the documents, I found out it was about what we talked about before, that the government would be collecting opinions from various fields, and that they had been regularly submitting various ideas half in jest...

Ekaterina told the truth as it is without breaking her smile.

“It seems that they have adopted some of Josiah-sensei’s ideas.”

...What the heck? Just some? How misleading.
In my case, it's not that I'm happy to have my ideas adopted, but that I fundamentally don't like this woman (Ekaterina). I wouldn't be happy even if this woman praised me, and on the contrary, I would be angry if she scorned me.

Still, some, huh.
When I checked the documents, I found out that it was a technique formula to widely transmit geothermal energy, from the dwarf-style magic circle I devised as a follow-up on Zekkiro’s magic circle from before. It seems they adopted that. And of course I also devised some countermeasures for magic circle breaker here but...

“Huh, so the magic circle breaker countermeasure wasn't adopted?”

“Yes. Basili-sensei's proposal has been adopted for that one.”

“...I see.”

After all, am I no match for the wisdom of the elves?
They are a long-lived race, and they have been living with magic circles ever since they were aware of their surroundings. It goes without saying that they have abundant knowledge.
It's more annoying to be badly cheesed off.
While I was looking through the documents, Ekaterina touched my hand.

I was startled.
Now, I’m panicking in a different way, thinking that I might have made the worst expression on my face.
I was a little relieved when Ekaterina was looking at my hand with a smile on her face.
She wrapped both of her hands around mine and said.

“Have you gotten used to life here? Josiah-sensei.”

“...Yes. More or less. To the point that I’ll have to warn myself that... I need to remember what it feels like to be an adventurer next time when we investigate a dungeon during a field trip for fourth-year students.”

“Adventurer, huh? ...Are you still planning to continue as an adventurer?”

“I've sworn to my parents that I will be an adventurer for the rest of my life after all.”

That said, if I consider my [hobby], I don't have to continue being an adventurer, I just have to work hard at training new adventurers.
While I would be holed up in this miniature garden for about three years.
New adventurers would probably appear, and it's also possible for them to move to other countries to satiate their hunger for achievements.

But... Now, I’m worrying about Randy’s case.
If the information is well-known to the elves around Ekaterina and Basili, it seems unlikely that I will be able to satisfy my [hobby] until his case is resolved.

“Is that so?” says Ekaterina sadly.

“Josiah-sensei is still young, so why don't you think about another future?”

“Another? For example... what is it?”

“Marriage, or something”

Ha?
Marriage...?
Training children is... well, whatever. But, what the hell?
What will happen to my family lineage if I do? Won't my brat also be influenced by that shitty god? ...He's my kid after all. Probably. It's better not to. When I finish training my brat, I’ll probably get bored anyway.
Perhaps because I was thinking about various things in my heart, I ended up blurting out, “It's probably better if I don’t.”

Even Ekaterina, who was touching my hand, looked at me with a strange look on her face.
To dodge the issue, I said, “It’s about time for me to prepare for class, so please excuse me,” and quickly left the room.
Then, from behind me, I heard the sound of someone's footsteps heading towards the principal's office.

“Ekaterina. It's me. Open up,” I heard Basili's voice.
When I turned around a little, I saw Basili holding a bouquet of flowers, perhaps made up from the things in the school's plant room.
There's something strange going on.
Basili is usually dissatisfied with something, but...

Then, from a place hidden from view, a voice called out, “Josiah-sensei!”
It’s Nyanna, the one in charge of modern social studies.
She was calling out to me from the shadows while peeking at Basili, who is handing over a bouquet of flowers, and Ekaterina, who is receiving it.
Nyanna lets out an envious sigh.

“As expected, those two. It seems those fellow elves are passionate about each other, nya.”

“...Ah. Were they in a romantic relationship?”

“Eeeh!? Josiah-sensei, you didn't notice!!? I think there were some signs though, like that time at the salon...”

Was that so...? I didn't even try to notice because I wasn't interested.
Aah, no, wait.
That time when we were submitting the magic circle proposal to the government... I can't help but feel like there was something like that.

“I understand. I will be careful not to get in the way of these two.”

“No, no. You don't have to worry about it... look~. Don't elves have long lifespans? Humans like Josiah-sensei are frankly out of the question? Ah, I don't mean that in a bad way, nya!?”

“Aah, certainly...”

Haa, how troublesome.
I guess I’ll at least try not to touch them in order to reduce conflicts...This is why relationships and topics of conversation in closed places tend to develop into romance.
...Unfortunately, I never had anything to do with love, not in this life, not even in my previous lives.
Rather, I didn't come here to enjoy a romance game. Since we’re here anyway. I started talking to Nyanna about the ongoing political topics――especially those related to I Confederacy.

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