Out of the entire class, Kaito Dojima was the only one granted a private room. The reason, apparently, was because he was the "Hero."
There was a bed, a table, and a pair of chairs. The flame of the candlestick flickered atop the table, casting a faint reflection onto the curve of the water pitcher. Everyone else had been divided up and crammed into several large shared rooms. While a few had voiced their complaints to the kingdom's representatives, not a single person had directed their grievances at Kaito.
It was the night of their second day in this other world.
Kaito had told Gakuto and Miu to come to his room as soon as they finished their baths. The three of them needed to share their reports on how everyone had fared today and reorganize tomorrow's squads. Having finished his own bath first, Kaito sat on the edge of the bed and waited. The other two were taking a bit longer than expected.
From morning on, their day had been completely filled by the castle's itinerary. The morning had consisted of brief overviews of their respective classes and classroom lectures on combat tactics. In the afternoon, they split into vanguard and rear guard groups for practical training under the instruction of the castle knights. The rear guard was further divided into support roles and offensive magic roles, given their differing styles of combat.
Gakuto oversaw the vanguard, Miu led the rear guard as a whole, and Kaito, as the "Hero," supervised everything. It was not an arrangement assigned by the castle. Kaito had designed the structure himself, proposed it to the prime minister, and it had been approved without a hitch.
In truth, this formation was simply the most convenient for Kaito to keep the class in line.
Their day-to-day living conditions were guaranteed, at least in theory.
Meals and baths were provided by the castle, but the food was nowhere near as good as Japanese cooking. The cleanliness of the baths was also dubious at best. There were no showers, forcing them to scoop lukewarm water from wooden buckets and pour it over themselves. The provided soap and shampoo smelled awful and barely lathered. The bathing situation, in particular, had drawn endless complaints from the girls. Still, it was better than going without, so everyone endured it while grumbling the entire time.
Dissatisfaction with their daily life was rampant. Yet Kaito himself was relatively content with this new world.
The afternoon training had made one thing abundantly clear.
He was strong. Without a doubt, the strongest in the class.
(Well, I am the "Hero." It's only natural, really.)
Even as he called it natural, Kaito had mentally tallied the numbers three times today. The number of times the knights had stared in awe, the reach of his blade, the number of opponents he could clash with head-on. Gakuto and Miu were impressive as well, each standing a head above the rest in the vanguard and rear guard respectively. As long as the three of them ran things, they shouldn't run into any serious trouble for the foreseeable future.
Footsteps approached in the corridor, and the door swung open. Gakuto and Miu walked in. Both were fresh from the bath, their hair still damp. Gakuto still had a hand towel draped around his neck.
"Man, I'm beat. A bath didn't do a thing to wash away this fatigue."
Gakuto flopped onto one of the chairs, stretching his legs out.
Miu did not take a seat, lingering by the doorway with a scowl.
"I'm definitely going to have muscle aches tomorrow. And honestly, wasn't the water lukewarm today?"
"Yeah. It was."
Kaito nodded from the edge of the bed.
Miu pinched a strand of her hair, looking thoroughly exasperated.
"Using the shampoo here turned my hair into a bird's nest. And they don't even have conditioner."
"Must be rough for the girls. We guys don't really care about that stuff."
As the conversation turned to hair, Gakuto wiped behind his ears with the towel around his neck.
Miu merely shot Gakuto a side glare before sitting down in the remaining chair.
"Being crude is certainly an advantage in a place like this."
"Who're you calling crude?"
"Alright, that's enough... Let's get the report started."
Glancing at the two of them, Kaito stood up from the bed and spread a sheet of paper across the table. He wanted to finalize the new squad rosters tonight.
"Yeah, yeah. Where do we start?"
"First, with the ones who looked like they were struggling today."
Gakuto pulled his legs back and sat up straight in his chair.
"The vanguard's doing fine, more or less. They're mostly from the athletic clubs anyway. But setting physical stamina aside, two or three of them are already on the verge of breaking mentally. Their hands were shaking just holding a sword."
"The rear guard is even worse. One girl broke down crying right in the middle of the lecture."
Miu propped her elbows on the table.
"The whole 'we were supposed to be on our school trip' routine, right? Well, I get how they feel. I feel the same way."
"Of course I understand how they feel too. But whining won't change anything. It just ruins the mood for everyone else, so I wish they'd suck it up."
Gakuto spoke out of sheer annoyance, while Miu's tone was coldly dismissive.
Their temperaments differed, but the issues they raised were identical.
Why do we have to do this? I want to go home. I'm scared. I don't want to train.
Naturally, those were the complaints surfacing across the board.
Gakuto mimicked the voice of one of the complaining students, earning a swift "You sound nothing like them" from Miu.
Kaito wrote down the names along the edge of the paper one by one. Four names in total. Two from the vanguard, two from the rear guard.
"I see. I'll make the rounds and talk to them tomorrow. I'll start with the two from the vanguard and the girl who cried."
"There's an order to it?"
"Of course. It's best to start where it'll have the most impact. If one person pulls themselves together, the mood around them will follow."
Looking down at the paper, he continued.
"Is that everyone who looks like they're about to drop out?"
The moment the words left his mouth, he caught himself.
"...I mean, everyone who's having a hard time."
Even with the correction, the underlying meaning was the same. If he didn't evaluate them accurately, he couldn't form viable squads.
It was only natural for the protector to make such assessments. If he let go of them now, those four truly would fall behind. And if they fell, chances were high that the people beside them would collapse as well. The only person capable of preventing that was him—the "Hero."
(If I don't step up, who will?...Man, being the "Hero" is tough work.)
Thinking this way gave Kaito a quiet sense of satisfaction. Even though he had been summoned to another world and had plenty on his own plate, he was still looking out for his classmates. He truly was living up to the title of "Hero."
He wrote ordinal numbers beside the four names on the paper.
With the reports concluded, the other two leaned back in their chairs. From here, it was time for them to vent.
Miu had by far the most grievances.
"That bath... Do you think they even change the water? I went in third, and the water was already murky."
"Don't tell me that. I went in way after you."
"And there aren't enough buckets. What's the point of having one bucket for every two people?"
"Just share. Us guys are managing fine."
Miu shifted her crossed legs and pinched the tips of her hair again.
"We are sharing. And I seriously need them to do something about the shampoo and conditioner. It doesn't smell good at all, and it's ruining my hair."
"Didn't you bring your own conditioner?"
"Just travel sizes! Those will run out in no time, so everyone's stuck using what they give us."
"...Must be rough for the girls."
Gakuto repeated the exact same line, though this time the teasing edge was gone.
Miu didn't let it pass.
"Rougher than it is for the boys, that's for sure."
Kaito flipped the sheet of paper over and slid it into the middle of the table.
"Can you two drop it?"
"Yeah, yeah."
Gakuto gave a half-hearted reply, resting his weight against the back of his chair.
"Well, as long as we get fed and have hot water to soak in, we've got it good. It's not like we're sleeping out in the dirt."
"Could you stop sweeping it under the rug by saying we 'have it good'? Have you thought about what happens if this goes on for weeks? If we can't go home, this is our life forever."
"That's... well..."
Gakuto pulled the towel from his neck and crumpled it in his lap, unable to form a retort.
Miu complained about the drinking water as well. There wasn't enough provided, and if you got thirsty in the middle of the night, there was nowhere to fetch more. The food was bland, tough, and the menu was questionable. In the girls' room, the exact same complaints were echoing at three times the volume.
Partway through her rant, Kaito began jotting notes on the back of the paper.
"Alright, alright. I'll bring it up with them tomorrow."
"You can actually ask for stuff like that?"
"I will. They're the ones who summoned us, so the least they can do is guarantee our standard of living."
Miu looked up from the paper to meet Kaito's eyes.
"...You really are dependable with things like this, Kaito."
"What's that supposed to mean, 'with things like this'?"
"Exactly what it sounds like."
Without elaborating, Miu offered a faint smirk.
Still, Kaito knew he would have to choose his words carefully. Telling people from an entirely different civilization to simply "do better" probably wouldn't register. How often the bathwater needed changing, how many buckets were required, whether a water pitcher could be placed in every room—it would only become a productive discussion once he laid out hard numbers.
As the three of them tossed out ideas, half the page filled up. Bathwater rotations, bucket counts, room pitchers, salt, cloth. Gakuto drew a large circle around the "meals" section, only for Miu to snatch the pen away.
Moments like this were the only times that felt like their old world. Back in the classroom, the three of them had always bantered like this.
Yet the reality of their current situation afforded them no such luxury.
Just as Kaito was about to fold the paper into quarters, Miu gasped, catching his attention.
"Oh, right. About the rear guard squads—I've left practically all the support roles to Saeki."
"To Saeki?"
"Yeah. The girls in the support group just don't open up to me. Their answers are always short, and they won't even look me in the eye."
Gakuto nudged Miu's elbow with his balled-up towel.
"That's just because you're intimidating, Miu."
"Shut up....Though, that might be part of it."
Miu didn't deny it.
Kaito set the paper back on the table.
"Is Saeki handling it?"
"She's doing her best. But she's really not the type to take charge of a group, you know? It feels pretty precarious watching her."
"I see."
Kaito gave a brief nod.
That was another area he would need to keep an eye on.
Miu tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and looked down at the grain of the wooden table.
"Those girls were always close with Shirakawa, so I don't really have any connection with them."
There was no malice in her tone; she was merely reporting the facts.
However, she added one last detail. At the end of the day, Saeki had walked up to Miu as if to say something, but had closed her mouth and walked away without a word. Miu didn't know what Saeki had intended to say either. Kaito chose not to pry any further.
"...Understood. I'll speak with them tomorrow as well."
Kaito took the matter upon himself. If communication between Miu and the support group had broken down, they simply needed to insert an intermediary who could bridge the gap. It was just a matter of reassigning responsibilities.
Gakuto slung an arm over the back of his chair and stared up at the ceiling.
"Hey, Dojima."
"Hm?"
"Shirakawa's still not coming back, is she?"
"...Doesn't look like it."
Kaito nodded.
That was all.
Gakuto didn't press the subject, and Miu parted her lips as if to speak, only to fall silent. The flame of the candlestick flared briefly before shrinking back down.
Several ties that would have held everyone together if Yuna were here were now severed. That was undoubtedly what Gakuto and Miu had meant to say.
There was truth to it. But to Kaito, it was nothing that couldn't be fixed by shifting roles around.
"Alright, that's enough for tonight. Let's pick this up again tomorrow. If anything else comes up, let me know."
"Got it."
"Okaay."
The two stood up. Gakuto slung his towel back over his shoulder, and Miu slid her chair beneath the table. Their footsteps faded down the corridor as they rounded the corner.