Chapter 29
HAVING FINISHED GETTING CHANGED into the school-issued swimsuit, they worked out a few more plans before finally going to where the pool was.
“This pool is huge…”
The indoor pool was very simply built and, yet, quite well equipped. The pool itself measured in at around one hundred sixty-five feet, which made it large enough to fit ten swimming lanes. The Alcait Academy pool was so large and impressive that it could conceivably even be used for the Olympics.
And crowded in this pool were the members of the swimming club. Some were racing to see who was faster, while others were simply floating above the surface like jellyfish. Others were testing out bizarre swimming strokes. While they were all in the swimming club, they were by no means all doing the same things.
But there was one thing they all had in common—they were all filled with youthful vitality.
“What can I say…? It must be great to be young.”
“Yeah, to be young again…”
The boys who were racing were both friends and rivals. Winning or losing, they would alternate between joy and despair. Regardless of how they did, they’d simply resolve to do better the next time and begin swimming again.
Meanwhile, there was a girl giving instructions to another girl. Looking closer, it appeared that the one being taught was the upperclassman. Perhaps the two were childhood friends. They seemed to be fairly friendly with each other, and the girl doing the teaching was poking fun at the other while wearing a mischievous smile. Struggling to stay above the water, the older student grabbed her swimsuit and nearly pulled it down.
Nearby, they saw students fooling around while warming up and getting yelled at by their teacher. On the diving board was a student who, despite managing to climb the ladder, was now frozen in fear. There were also students holding their swimming boards under the water, only to then launch them at their friends. Other students crashed into the water after attempting to ride atop multiple swimming boards.
In short, the pool was surrounded by classic displays of the kinds of things people did in the springtime of their youth. Thinking back on the good old days, Mira and Luminaria had no choice but to feel the weight of the years on their shoulders.
Mira and her companions marched toward the pool.
“It seems like we’re being stared at.”
“Yeah. But I mean, it’d be hard not to look at a group of girls as pretty as us three, right?”
Two of their group were cute and young, while the other was a bombshell. It was only natural that they’d attract a fair bit of attention. But Luminaria was attracting the greatest share of attention—all the boy’s eyes were glued to her ridiculously voluptuous figure.
Thanks to how much they stood out, someone else had noticed that there were students who didn’t belong to the swimming club at the pool. A man who appeared to be a teacher rushed over to see what was going on. He looked at Mira and then Luminaria before noticing Emilia in the back. He immediately asked, “Excuse me, I don’t think I recognize you two…but you’re Flores. Are these two your friends?”
Flores was Emilia’s surname.
“Yes, these two are…um…” Emilia said, her eyes darting around as she thought of an excuse to use.
“You must be Mr. Ringvelle. May I have a word?” Luminaria said, putting her hand on the teacher’s shoulder and beginning to whisper something in his ear.
He tensed up as anxiety washed over his face.
“…So, for that reason, if you could just not worry about us, that’d be great.”
“U-understood!”
Luminaria gently let go of Ringvelle’s shoulder, at which point he immediately straightened up as if someone had stuck a steel pole up his backside.
She then added, “And would you be a little quieter?”
Quietly and yet with every ounce of sincerity he could muster, he answered, “My deepest apologies.” Then, bowing deeply, he went on, “It’s a pleasure to have you.”
Mira and Emilia hurried after Luminaria, who walked off as if the problem had been solved.
“Hey, what did you say?”
What was behind the teacher’s sudden change? Mira wanted to know. Luminaria replied that it was really quite simple… She’d just mentioned a bit about who she was. In other words, Luminaria used her authority as one of the Nine Wise Men to cow the teacher into keeping his mouth shut. It was a Luminaria solution to a Luminaria problem.
Mira could only shake her head in exasperation.
Emilia simply tilted her head quizzically. Having picked up that she ought not to say anything about it, she refrained from asking for details.
With the teacher strongarmed into granting permission to use the facility, the three surveyed the pool.
“Hrmm, it’s just…”
Despite feeling dirty about wearing the borrowed swimsuit at first, Mira no longer felt quite so self-conscious. In fact, she now felt quite confident wearing it. But confidence and comfort were two different things. The chest area didn’t quite feel right, and so she had to keep adjusting it.
Noticing Mira’s odd movements and curious as to what she was doing, Luminaria asked, “Huh? What’s wrong?”
“How do I put this? This is making it hard to breathe,” Mira said, frowning, implying that her chest area felt tight.
“Yeah, I wasn’t gonna say anything but, she might be a bit of a…” Luminaria smirked while looking over toward Emilia with a chuckle, “…late bloomer.”
Having put on the borrowed school uniform, Mira did feel that the chest was a bit tight.
Luminaria was right on the money.
“It’s fine, I…I noticed the same thing when we were changing… I already know… I’m sorry the swimsuit is too small.” Emilia touched her hands to her chest, looking off into the distance with a look of despair in her eyes.
In terms of overall size, Emilia was a tad bigger than Mira. And yet, there was one department in which Mira had the advantage. She was the least—or second least—developed girl in that regard in her class, something that she appeared to be self-conscious about.
“Ah… No. I mean, you’re only fourteen, right? You’ve got time. Right? Don’t you think so?!” Realizing that she’d said the wrong thing, Mira rattled off the boilerplate words of encouragement and turned to the ridiculously buxom Luminaria for help.
“…Yeah, that’s true. You’ve still got plenty of time to grow. We’ll see how things go from here,” Luminaria murmured while staring at Emilia’s chest as if examining it. “I, for one, knew plenty of girls who developed quite a lot in their late teens…” she continued, throwing out several girls’ names. What’s more, she said this with a look that seemed to imply that she’d developed in the same way.
“Really…? Then I’ll do my best!”
Mira wasn’t sure just how much of what Luminaria had said had been serious. But it still seemed to have given Emilia a small measure of hope, as the expression on the girl’s face had brightened a bit.
Size wasn’t everything. Even small ones could be wondrous beyond imagining. And yet, the gulf between the haves and have-nots was vast. Of course, if she were to say this, it would definitely cause Emilia undue distress.
Having witnessed the kerfuffle that’d broken out between Kagura and Flonne over this very thing, Mira and Luminaria kept their mouths shut and let her hope.
Despite fretting over those naive troubles, Mira and her companions made their way further inside. Deep inside the facility was an area furnished with other pieces of equipment used for building one’s physique. After getting a better look at this particular area, Emilia called out, “Ah, that’s him!” while pointing to a boy.
The boy in question was Roger.
Mira and Luminaria went to get a look at this Roger, who was a member of Sven’s pervert squad. What they saw was a boy in swim briefs diligently doing pull-ups.
“Hrmm, that guy? I thought he’d look like a total pervert, but he doesn’t look that way at all.”
“Right? If anything, I get the exact opposite impression from him.”
The first impression they got of Roger was that he didn’t fit the profile, and certainly not while working out. Perhaps he worked out like this often, as his body was so toned that he looked like he could be the school’s representative at swim meets. He was jacked. Enough so to make them assume he was pretty popular with the ladies.
And while Mira and her companions could only see him from the side, even if he didn’t look exceptionally handsome, he did look strapping. He gave off the impression of someone who could be the leader of a group of friends. From the way he looked, it certainly seemed like such a thing was possible.
…And yet, there wasn’t a single person around him.
“That’s what I’m telling you. It takes a while to get to know what he’s really like. But lots of female students…even teachers, have been victims of his mysterious wind. Even Ms. Hinata said it’s happened to her before.”
While staring contemptuously at Roger, Emilia gave the list of charges.
At first glance, Roger didn’t look at all like a pervert. And it was precisely for this reason that he could commit his crimes while flying under the radar. He’d stare at girls and imagine them nude, and then, as if to check if he’d imagined them correctly, he used wind to blow their skirts up and expose what was underneath.
While he committed his crimes, he wouldn’t move a muscle, as if to make everyone think he had nothing to do with any of it. It took a long time for people to figure out what it was he was doing and that the gusts of wind that were blowing up skirts were manmade.
“It’s the perfect crime.”
“Is that wind some kind of spell? That’s pretty impressive if he can use it without anyone realizing it.”
Roger might be a pervert who engaged in sexual harassment, but he was also an evil genius. Having grasped this, Mira and Luminaria continued walking. When they got one or two steps closer, Roger finished his pull-ups and took a water bottle from a nearby bag for a swig.
He then let out a satisfied, “Ahhh,” and nonchalantly turned around, as if he’d felt someone else nearby.
“Huh? …Huh?!”
The moment he caught sight of the companions, Roger’s eyes lit up with joy to behold Mira and Luminaria. But his eyes quickly focused on Luminaria. His expression was quite serious, betraying no hint of perversion. It was difficult to imagine he was going full pervert-mode and fantasizing about them.
But the very next second, his poker face gave way.
Emilia had marched straight in front of Luminaria and grabbed his attention.
“Wha—?!”
And wouldn’t you know it? The moment Roger laid eyes on Emilia, a look of fright washed over his face, much like what had happened with Sven.
What’s more, what he did next matched what Sven had done as well. The moment he perceived Emilia’s presence, Roger ran.
“Looks like he’s running away, too.”
“That proves he’s guilty!”
“All right, shall we catch him?”
Having expected as much, the three hurried after him.
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