[Hated Hero, Taking Notice of a Suspicious Person]

The male student who had gone berserk—it appeared his name was Rick.

He was taken away by the teachers who had come rushing to the scene.

Tayte and I had gone back to the Central Academic Building and were now in the teachers’ room to give a detailed account of the situation.

“I see… it’s without rhyme or reason, huh.”

The one in charge of interviewing us was Mr. Walter.

“Yes. It felt like he had been robbed of his reasoning, and he turned a deaf ear to our words,” I said.

“…So, similar to Raul during the mock battle.”

“That’s what I thought as well.”

“Hmm…” Mr. Walter rested his muscular body against the back of the chair and gave a big sigh. “Raul and Rick… they are of different grades and element classes; I can’t see anything that may be a point of commonality between them.”

“In that case, is it possible that a third party poisoned them?”

“If that’s truly the case, then this is a serious situation. The Academy Homeville exercises rigorous inspections, and it is strictly forbidden to bring poisons in… When Rick wakes up, I have to bring along Mr. Timmons who is well versed in poisons to talk with him.”

“Ah, I see,” I gave a nod at Mr. Walter’s words, but at the same time, I felt a slight sense of discomfort.

I wasn’t sure if he had anything to do with this series of incidents, but… I couldn’t help but be worried.

This ‘Mr. Timmons’ that Mr. Walter mentioned.

His name… appeared in the original storyline.

I forgot which scene it was, but… if my memory served me right, he wasn’t directly involved with the Protagonist Raul and his party. But his name was brought up at some point along the storyline.

Hmm… when was it…

He had a hostile relationship with a girl who was a member of Raul’s harem if I wasn’t mistaken.

But if that was really the case, had he begun moving behind the scenes at this point?

…Well, there was also the possibility that it was just a person who happened to have the same name, so I couldn’t say for sure yet.

Besides, I couldn’t carelessly bring up my suspicion here.

Raul and his party had already graduated and were journeying by the time the name came out in the original storyline. Therefore, I couldn’t rule out the possibility that he hadn’t done any misdeeds around this time. I had no solid evidence pointing at him, too… even if I brought up my suspicion now, Mr. Walter wouldn’t believe it and it may backfire on me instead.

“If they were indeed poisoned… the culprit must be in the academy.”

“I-is there any chance that an outsider had infiltrated and administered the poison?”

“No, that’s unlikely.” Mr. Walter instantly denied Tayte’s conjecture. “If an outsider infiltrates the academy’s premises, the barrier that spans across the whole academy will detect it and give an alert to the teachers’ room. Hence my doubt.”

“Then, are you going to start an investigation from now on?”

“Yes, that is the plan. –Oh, look at the time. My apologies for holding you this late, and it’s right before the day off.”

“You need not worry about it. If anything, please tell me if there’s anything I can do to help.”

“…What in the world had happened to you, really?” Mr. Walter made a suspicious expression.

Well, it was a reasonable question, I supposed. Considering the original Barrett’s character, he wouldn’t have offered any help, without a doubt. He would more likely spout bunches of complaints and curses instead.

Though to be fair, I didn’t offer help purely out of good intentions, either; a part of it was because I wanted to raise the teachers’ opinion of me. I was also concerned about Mr. Timmons, whose name was brought up earlier.

Just like that, the interview ended in consideration of the late hours.

From the teachers’ point of view, it would likely be quicker to talk to Rick, the concerned party in this case, than to us, too.

We made our way to the dormitory through the same road again.

However, it appeared that Tayte was a little scared, presumably due to the incident earlier. So—

“Tayte.”

“Y-yes…?”

“Shall we hold hands?”

“Yes… Yess?!” Tayte let out a strange voice, surprised.

Without waiting for her reply, I held her small white hand.

“Ah… B-Barrett…”

“See, not so scary anymore now, right?”

“Yes♪.” The smile returned to Tayte’s face.

I wouldn’t let anything dampen this smile.

Hence why… I must uncover the truth behind this series of incidents.

Though I’d have to put it off for now, because—I had to concentrate all my nerves on our date tomorrow.