Ian: “Those are famous words that always set up a flag, you know. You might’ve just doomed yourself.”

Noel: “…”

{No way, right? There wouldn’t be a THIRD incident already, would there be? I heard about death flags from Seiran and the other 4 constantly joking around with each other.

Saying things like, “Oh, watch what you say! You’re setting death flags for the useless Elite! Hurr – hurr – hurr~ Worthless brother Durr – hurr – hurr!”

...Back when I was forced to work hard during those two years of training. And they mentioned the word in passing, with each other, of course. They didn’t bother explaining anything to me. Only Aeron or Alianne ever do that.

Beatrice and Kifah for that one time only, as well. BUT I managed to figure it out in the end! I remembered and asked Aeron! And HE told me about the extremely terrifying, curse-like existence otherwise known as ‘Death Flags’. I don’t want one!}

Noel: “I’ll … Well then I’ll try and be careful. I don’t plan on setting one up anytime soon.

...Or ever, actually.”

Ian: “I sure as heck, hope that you don’t. You’ll end up implicating the rest of us too!”

Ian joked as Noel hurriedly made his way down the slope that led directly to the lake’s edge. Bubbles could be seen in the large body of water, but there was no movement. Could something have happened already?

No… would the flag work so quickly??

He was thankful that Aeron slipped him a family – made school uniform – one that doesn’t get wet, with matching waterproof sneakers and socks. He didn’t even have a need to change or take off his clothes and just jumped directly into the lake!

Elijah stared while wearing a dumbfounded expression.

It’s Autumn! Is Noel planning on catching a cold?? He still has to wear those clothes for the next 2 hours…!

Meanwhile, the detective girl walked over while switching moods in a noticeable manner between a desperately worried expression for her friend Halie, and a terribly excited and awe-struck expression from catching a glimpse of a freshman she always wanted to meet! There was a slight repressive aura as her focus glaringly shifted back and forth before landing on Elijah during one second, and Noel in the next. The strange thing was that, despite her friend ‘Halie’ seemingly tripping and falling into the lake with no guarantee of surfacing; she only initially began taking two steps in a hurry and shouting what sounded like ‘HAL-” from ‘Halie’ before coming to an abrupt halt from then onwards. She even remained stationary without showing any other signs of movement while Noel, Ian and Elijah decided who would rescue the girl.

...Even though they aren’t heroes.

While she finally resolved herself to move after donning a guilty and conflicted expression on her face, her direction was a contrary to Elijah’s expectations. Instead of heading on over to her fallen friend, she directly walked over to him and offered a deep bow. She was ignoring the predicament before her!

?: “I’m terribly sorry for your inconvenienced states by our newest intern, Halie. She’s going through some… problems as of recent, and can’t help resolving her worries long enough to focus on the path in front of her. She nearly implicated you in her rushed exit! Please forgive me… Elijah Abiko.”

Elijah: “You recognize me? It’s been a few months since the incident. I didn’t think I was still worth remembering! Hahaha!

(I’m clearly not.)”

?: “Nonsense! You are definitely-”

Ian: “Hey! Are you planning on CHATTING ALL DAY, or are you going to help fish out your friend!!

...Oh- uhm… no offense. Besides, a few seconds are passing and Noel, he’s not-”

?: “*Side-glances* Didn’t your friend already go to help her? I already fished her out of that lake nearly 20 times now. There was serious expression and concern from me at first, but…

I can’t help finding something adamantly wrong with her, now. My name is Eriona, a fourth year inside of Hero High School and Halie, who your friend is currently rescuing from fall number twenty-one, is my club’s newest freshman intern – a first year, just like you three. The rest of our club members are—”

Ian: “Hey, Elijah. Noel’s not surfacing. What do you suppose we should do? It’s only been 2 minutes and some seconds, but… if we act too late, couldn’t the two of them both drown?”

Elijah: “Hmm. Maybe we should check? If nothing’s wrong then we’ll at least confirm the situation. And at worst, they will surface right as we enter the lake – making our trip down there a fruitless one. We would have gotten wet in vain, certainly. But… who cares about that possibility when they might drown by us chatting away nonchalantly, and ignoring them?”

Ian: “I agree with you. Let me give it a g-”

Eriona: “...(They’re ignoring me, aren’t they?)

…Fine. Very well. I promise to lend an aid this time for your sakes… as well as hers. Even though she never appreciates it.”

Elijah: “Never appreciates it? What exactly do you me-”

…

…

…

Noel: “*PWAH!* *Huff* *Huff* Haah… Haah… Haah… Can… you… STOP FRIGGIN’ WIGGLING?! I am trying to save you!”

Halie: “Nnnh…! Let – Let me go! I have to… I have to investigate what’s down there! I need to see what’s-”

Noel: “I…Wha? You tripped and fell into the water and you don’t want to leave it??”

Halie: “I tripped at the SAME place, 21 times since school started. IT IS FATE THAT I FALL IN THERE! That I ...investigate why he suddenly changed so much…!”

Noel: “If you had STAYED in there, you most likely would have drowned! You were coughing worse than I was when I pulled you out! And your face was already changing color! Your respiratory system, your lungs… they clearly have never been trained for this sort of thing! Randomly holding your breath underwater is only bound to get you killed!”

Halie: “Let me drown then! *Sob* I… I can’t go on without knowing the truth…! Why he… *Sobs* Why he suddenly changed so much… in such a short time… I just can’t accept it! It makes no sense! Maybe death would be a good thing-!”

*PA!*

The girl was absolutely lost in her grief. She seemed to have been shouldering a deep wound in her heart and wished desperately to escape from the scene.

Yet…

After falling in the exact same spot for the twenty-first time in succession without fail… She could no longer move her body.

Rather, she no longer wanted to move.

Why was life so unfair?

She decided that… maybe just maybe… giving up was actually a blessing in disguise?

Yes… After all, it felt so, relaxing, so peaceful…

Until this rude little boy forcibly dragged her out. She tried to punch and kick but to no avail. Her fists hurt instead! Then she tried to grab hold of a stone after he let her go – assuming he’d already grought her close enough to the lake’s surface to swim the rest of the way.

the result wound up being that she refused to leave! She tightly hugged underwater stone while gazing around and as far as her weak eyes could see.

Out of patience, Noel opted for forcibly dragging Halie out of the lake. the result was as the other three spectated.

Maybe it was caused by her despair? Or maybe… just maybe, her despair led to a spiral of mistakes that threw her into a recurring cycle of self-punishment and chaotic deprecation?

Noel just didn’t know.

But he simply couldn’t tolerate her abhorrent and superfluous remark just now.

Noel: “You… You should be grateful that you get to live. Not everyone has such an opportunity!”

Repugnant memories flashed before his eyes at the drop of such a sentence. Those people on Watts’s island that he either directly or indirectly killed, however you want to look at it. That little girl’s father, back when he was first turning ten years old.

And even the two years following, during training where he was ‘trained’ to take the lives of countless murderous and bloodthirsty crime lords who had it out for his father. And when he didn’t he had to either ‘support’ or ‘watch’ his siblings do it.

Death was just too easy to bring onto others. This was the most valuable lesson he learned – one that he deeply ingrained far more meticulously than even his prior training at the time.

...Disgusting…

Halie was a smart girl. After Noel slapped her, the hysteria she’d been uncharacteristically blinded and clouded by faded. And following its dissipation, Halie came to a fast realization at who had initially gone out of their way to save her.

After all, she was also a freshman – one that attended the school assembly and gone out of her way to try calming the Realist Faction, only to be oppressively silenced by them in turn.

This boy who she mistakenly thought was her senior in club activities, Eriona…

Didn’t he look familiar?

In fact, wasn’t he a familiar face?

This guy… isn’t he that temporary speaker from the non – combatant dorms? the one that riled everyone in the Realist Faction up after verbally slapping all of their faces – Noel Tyler?

---