I'm Sorry, Meilin.
"Is this how much of a gap there is in our levels?"
"You are no longer the heir."
It was not a pleasant dream.
As Meilin read through fragments of memories she wished to forget, she snapped back to reality and opened her eyes.
The rough ceiling of a cave came into view.
The sound of crackling fire echoed in her ears.
It was a bit chilly, but she felt a sense of distance.
Rubbing her eyes, she slowly sat up.
"......?" She noticed she was wearing unfamiliar clothes.
It was a robe that was slightly oversized, and even when she stretched her arms, only the tips of her fingers peeked out.
Looking around, she realized she was indeed in a cave, and outside, rain was falling steadily.
Near the entrance of the cave, in front of a small fire, sat a man with a lean yet sturdy build, his upper body exposed.
Just then, he turned around and smiled brightly.
"You're awake?"
"Si, Simon?!"
Why is he half-naked again! Startled, Meilin quickly lowered her head.
It was then that she noticed her own attire.
"Wha, wha, wha, what is this?!"
Underneath the robe, she was wearing damp underwear.
Her face turned bright red as she instinctively covered her chest and crossed her legs.
In a defensive and curled-up posture, she trembled as she spoke in a quivering voice.
"Wh-where are my clothes?!"
Simon chuckled awkwardly and pointed with his finger.
Near the cave entrance, hanging like laundry, were wet male and female school uniforms drying on a vine.
"...... I'm sorry."
Simon cleared his throat.
"If you kept wearing your wet clothes, you'd catch a cold, so..."
"......!!!"
Meilin's face turned crimson, reaching her earlobes as she hit her limit of embarrassment.
Tears welled up in her eyes.
"Y-you perverted bastard!!!"
"Me, Meilin! Just be quiet for a moment...!"
She looked around, ready to throw something, but unfortunately, there was nothing within reach.
Simon, sweating profusely, stood up.
"I swear! Nothing happened! I even closed my eyes when I took off your wet uniform!"
"Hah, huff. Hah."
She shivered and covered her face with her palm.
Simon silently waited for her to calm down.
"......."
About ten minutes passed in silence.
Finally, ready to face reality, she removed her hand from her face.
Of course, her cheeks were still flushed.
"...... What happened?"
Simon explained the situation as if he had been waiting for her to ask.
While they were fighting, a high-level monster had intervened, and in the chaos, Meilin lost consciousness.
Then, as it began to rain, they sought refuge in the cave below the cliff.
'Everything fits.
There's no room for doubt.'
She knew Simon wasn't the type to do anything strange.
Still, the thought of a boy taking off her clothes...! She felt like she wanted to hide in a mouse hole from embarrassment.
Curling up, she sniffled and glared at Simon.
He quickly averted his gaze and pretended to scratch his head.
"...... Simon."
"Yeah?"
"Turn, turn around."
Meilin spoke in a barely audible voice.
"Turn around? Why all of a sudden?"
"Ah! Because I'm going to change clothes, you idiot!"
Startled, Simon quickly turned his back, staring intently at the fire.
She wished she could send him outside for a moment, but with the rain falling, there was no choice.
"Just stay still, okay? If you look back, I swear I'll really kill you!"
Though she seemed to be trying to sound threatening, her voice trembled, lacking any real menace.
It felt like a little puppy trying to threaten her while shivering in the rain.
Simon replied, trying not to show his feelings.
"Okay, take your time."
"......."
With her shoulders hunched, she awkwardly stood up.
Glancing at Simon, she pulled out a dry towel and fresh underwear from her spatial pocket.
Simon still showed no reaction.
"......."
She sighed in relief and clutched the robe around her.
Meanwhile, the one who was more nervous than anyone else was not Meilin, but Simon.
'W-why am I so tense all of a sudden...'
Contrary to Simon's usual values, the heart of the sturdy seventeen-year-old boy was racing wildly.
His eyes were fixed on the fire, but all his senses were helplessly focused on his hearing, as if trying to listen to what he couldn't see.
At that moment, the sound of fabric sliding was heard, and the robe she had been wearing fell to the ground.
Rustle.
Rustle.
Then came the sound of her damp underwear being removed.
His nose tingled.
Strangely, he kept swallowing.
Thud.
Finally, the sound of her wet underwear hitting the ground echoed.
It felt heavy, probably because it was soaked.
She had truly taken everything off.
If he turned around now, he would see Meilin without a single thread on her.
The moment he realized this, Simon's heart raced as if it had broken.
'I-I'd rather be outside.'
Unknowingly, he imagined her figure and had to shake off the overwhelming sense of guilt.
Meilin was his friend.
Having such shameless thoughts about a friend was a sin.
He had to regain his composure.
Desperately, Simon shifted the logs around the fire, trying to focus on something else.
Rustle.
Meilin finally dried her body with the towel and changed into the clean underwear.
After wrapping herself tightly in Simon's robe and buttoning it up, she let out a long sigh of relief.
She slowly approached the stiff Simon.
"Ah."
Then she plopped down right next to him by the fire.
Simon glanced over, and upon seeing her white legs peeking out from the robe, he quickly turned his head away in shock.
"What is it?"
Meilin giggled and poked his arm.
"Why are you more nervous than me? You big idiot."
"...... I wasn't nervous."
She chuckled and pulled her legs up to her chest, hugging them with her arms.
A calm silence settled between them for a moment.
"Aren't you hungry?"
Simon stood up.
He stirred the pot boiling over the fire and soon served a steaming bowl of soup to Meilin.
"It's meat soup."
It was the same recipe he had made with Hongpeng.
Her eyes widened.
She never imagined she would see real food on this island.
"...... Thank you."
She quietly accepted the bowl.
Her stomach had been growling for a while.
Cautiously, she took a spoonful and tasted it.
'Wow!'
It was exactly the same flavor she had enjoyed at Hongpeng's cabin.
She took another spoonful, then a third.
Simon watched her eat with pride.
"Simon."
"Yeah?"
Having finished the bowl, she looked at him with a flushed face and replied shyly.
"...... Thank you for saving me."
"Don't mention it."
She rested her chin on her knees and gazed at Simon.
"But why did you save me? Honestly, you could have just left me. I attacked you first."
Simon looked at her as if to say, "Why would you ask that?"
"You didn't really want to kick me out, did you?"
"......."
"That's the feeling I got. I couldn't just abandon a teammate I would be working with for the entire first semester over a trivial trouble."
Simon smiled and extended his fist.
"Isn't that right?"
She laughed shyly and bumped her fist against his.
"Ugh- I really can't do this!"
"Is there something uncomfortable?"
Instead of answering, she raised her right arm, which had been resting on her lap.
She opened a black magic circle and input a command, overlaying it on her tablet.
'Wait, that command is.......'
Simon was also familiar with the commands for the tablet.
Meilin's tablet opened wide like a mouth, and a tongue shot out several meters long.
She pulled out a large green orb that had been wrapped in the tongue.
"Meilin! What are you doing......!"
"What do you think? I can't just let this slide. I want my reward for saving you!"
They began to bicker back and forth, each insisting on their own point.
Meilin forcefully brought the orb to Simon's tablet.
His tablet eagerly absorbed it.
"Ah......!"
The points on the tablet surged dramatically.
Interpreting the numbers, it jumped from about 127 points to 260 points.
Simon jumped in shock.
"How much did you give me?!"
"Just left one point behind."
She casually continued to eat her soup.
"Isn't that only fair? I was supposed to be out of the game back there."
"But you......."
Simon said with a serious expression.
"Aren't you aiming for first place in this evaluation too?"
"......."
She silently gazed at the fire, then smiled.
"Hmph, of course! There are still two days left, right? If I hunt only named monsters, I can definitely aim for first place."
"...... Haha."
The atmosphere naturally lightened.
The two of them happily finished the meat soup from the pot.
Outside the cave, the rain continued to fall steadily.
Beyond the fire lay a steep cliff.
Still, the view of the island was splendid.
'It's warm.'
The more she thought about it, the more Meilin felt that Simon had found a great place.
She felt relieved, full, and a pleasant drowsiness flowed through her body.
"Meilin."
At that moment, Simon casually spoke up.
"Can I ask you something?"
"If it's a perverted question, I'll kill you."
"No, not that."
Simon hesitated for a moment before continuing.
"Why are you so obsessed with being first?"
"......."
Her eyes hardened as she stared outside the cave.
"There’s someone I absolutely want to defeat."
"That person is probably..."
Simon interjected.
"Special admission student number two, Serne Aindark, right?"
"......."
Meilin's reaction to Serne was extremely sensitive.
He recalled the day they first became teammates, when just mentioning Serne's name had turned the atmosphere tense.
And when Hector called her "Serne's lackey," she had genuinely considered burning him alive.
"That's right."
She nodded, acknowledging it.
She relaxed her arms that had been tightly wrapped around her legs and leaned back comfortably.
"This is something I've never told anyone in Kizen, but I was actually the official heir of the Ivory Tower."
Not Serne, but Meilin? This was completely new information to Simon.
"I guess it was decided since I was young. So, I remember being quite proud when the people of the Ivory Tower treated me like royalty. Back then, I didn't realize how heavy the title of official heir was; I just thought it was fun to have adults bowing to me. I was naive."
"But then..." she continued.
"One day, out of the blue, the Lord of the Ivory Tower adopted a new daughter."
Simon quickly pieced together the context.
"That adopted daughter was Serne."
"Yeah. She was the same age as me and clearly brought in as my opposite. The reactions from the tower's people were naturally not good. They said things like, 'What do you mean adopted daughter? It's just a blatant scheme.' Since she wasn't even a legitimate daughter and had no legitimacy, my position as heir seemed secure. But..."
Her tone turned serious.
"Serne was a genius. No, she was a monster that couldn't be described with the word genius."
"......."
"She completed the transformation into the pitch-black form in just a week, something that took me nearly half a year. She understood even the most complex logic effortlessly, and for every one thing I taught her, she learned a hundred. The Ivory Tower valued bloodlines, but... in the face of Serne's talent, any issue became meaningless. Before long, regardless of factions or families, the entire Ivory Tower was filled with anticipation. They believed that when Serne grew up to become the Lord of the Ivory Tower, it would regain its former glory. And I..."
She smiled bitterly.
"I was pushed to the back. The adults constantly compared me to Serne. I was always the fool who shone a light on Serne, and I was humiliated in public settings. By the time I finally came to my senses..."
Meilin shrugged.
"I was just out of the picture. The elders even revised the tower's laws to officially make Serne the heir. Since that day, the way people looked at me changed completely. From the elders of the family to the servants, friends, and even my parents. Everyone gave up on their expectations of me."
"......."
"Then we turned seventeen, and due to the pact with Kizen, Serne went to study there as a special admission student. So I took the entrance exam on my own and got into Kizen."
Now Simon understood everything.
That was why she was so obsessed with being first, why she was working herself to the bone without proper sleep.
To surpass Serne.
To regain the recognition of her family.
In fact, Meilin's attack on him felt a bit lacking in reason.
But after hearing this story, he understood.
Simon was the special admission student number one.
The one who had pushed Serne, the one she aimed for, down to number two.
Of course, there was an enormous gap between Simon, who had just started learning dark magic, and Serne.
The difference between number one and number two was not just a matter of 'skill difference.'
Still, Meilin must have been burning with competitive spirit.
If she could defeat Simon, wouldn't that bring her closer to Serne?
"I will never give up."
She clenched her fist tightly.
"Everyone says it's impossible, but one day, I will reclaim what was taken from me. I will definitely do it."
Simon smiled gently.
"You can do it. I'll support you, Meilin."
"Hmph."
She snorted, but it seemed she was in a good mood, as a smile formed on her lips.
"Oh, and you know that all 961 first-year students are on this island for the survival evaluation, right?"
"Yeah."
"Serne is also on this island. If you meet her, avoid her at all costs. As someone who has watched her for years, I can tell you, the more you see her, the more you'll think she’s not human."