On the day of the field trip.
The Constel sports field was neatly lined with a number of buses prepared in advance.
To get to Cropolis, one needs to take an air train, but to actually reach the train platform, one must take a bus.
The students of Constel boarded the buses in sequence according to their class.
“……Yes?”
Aten stopped mid-step into the bus and turned around.
Behind her, Frondier was waving his hand, with Kora standing next to him.
“The next bus?”
“Yeah. The volunteer activity is a separate event.”
Jane nodded her head.
“Student Frondier will wait for the next bus and go with the other teachers. I told you, didn’t I? It will be hard to run into each other during the field trip.”
“Still……”
“Student Aten, please get on now. We have a busy schedule until we arrive in Cropolis.”
Aten reluctantly boarded the bus, still looking back at Frondier with an anxious face.
Frondier was still waving his hand with a smile.
“Don’t worry. The next bus will be here soon.”
“……Okay.”
With no other choice, Aten turned her head and boarded the bus.
As the bus slowly started along with the others, Frondier breathed out lightly through his nose.
Meanwhile.
“Aster, look at this! Our news is on Wizard View!”
Inside the bus of Class 2, Lunia excitedly showed the screen of her SagePhone to Aster sitting next to her.
As she said, the news was buzzing with stories of Constel’s field trip.
Lunia’s eyes sparkled as she spoke.
“The students of Constel are likely to become famous Pros or hold high positions in the future, so there’s a lot of interest in the region designated for the trip.”
“Come to think of it, I seem to have heard something similar from a senior I know.”
Aster said, looking at the phone screen with Lunia. Indeed, Constel’s field trip was a major topic of interest in the Empire every year.
Particularly, there was high interest in the first-year students who would be making their public debut under the name of Constel.
Not only the news but also various media outlets were covering stories about them.
“Ah, what? Ahaha! There’s even a story about you, Aster!”
“Ugh.”
The community was also buzzing with stories about Constel, making Aster a famous topic of gossip. His exceptional skills and talent, coupled with his outstanding appearance, were reasons enough for him to be the talk of the town.
Aster turned away, feeling a bit embarrassed.
“There’s a story about Elodie too, and oh my, even Miss Aten. What, nothing about me? Hmm……”
Lunia pouted her lips, trying to find stories about herself by navigating through the screen.
“……Oh?”
Suddenly, she realized something odd and her hand stopped moving.
“Why? Did your news come up too?”
When Aster asked, Lunia shook her head.
“No, but there’s something about Frondier.”
“Huh?”
“Quite a lot, actually.”
Aster took another look at Lunia’s phone.
It displayed Frondier’s name, face, height, weight, and even which family he belonged to.
Most of it consisted of praise for Frondier and some even seemed like worshipful writings.
Lunia became sullen and said,
“What the heck, when did he become popular in Cropolis?”
“Something’s off.”
“Huh?”
Aster stared at Lunia’s phone for a while, then, feeling uneasy, took out his own phone and started scrolling.
There indeed was a lot of posts about Frondier. In terms of frequency, they were just behind Aster and Elodie.
Moreover, despite the praise for Frondier, there was a blatant lack of information about him.
Photos of Frondier from all angles—front, side, back— and an unusually high number of mentions of his name.
“Elodie, about Frondier.”
“Yeah. I saw it too.”
Elodie, sitting diagonally behind, nodded at Aster’s words. She was also checking the posts at the moment.
The sudden release of information about Frondier was unnatural. They weren’t particularly secretive details, but still.
‘Is someone trying to make the citizens of Cropolis remember Frondier?’
…But then again.
“But, Aster.”
“Yeah?”
“Why are you telling me about Frondier? If you want to talk about him, Selena is there too.”
Elodie narrowed her eyes and looked at Aster, who tilted his head and scratched his cheek.
“Right? Why did I do that?”
Elodie was more dissatisfied with Aster’s response than with any clear reason he might have given.