My Past Life is Riddled With Many Sins - Chapter 103
“Spare clothes, gloves….”
Regina, who had woken up at the crack of dawn, compared the notice with the contents of her bag, checking to ensure she hadn’t forgotten anything.
Though she had never experienced ‘rigorous training’ during her time as Yekarna, she had gathered enough information from the chatter of other students to have a rough idea of what the event involved.
“My older brother, who’s a graduate, formed a team of a swordsman, a wizard, and a priest to hunt wild beasts.”
“Our cousin, who took magic classes, carried a fellow student while marching, with the magic students continuously using heavy magic.”
“My older brother did rock climbing and proudly came first among all the students who took swordsmanship classes. Meanwhile, the magic students practiced flying magic by jumping off cliffs, and the priests healed any injured students.”
“My older sister went to the sea for survival training. She fished for food, foraged for plants, and even filtered seawater for drinking.”
“Hey, I’ll give you a special tip from my older brother: hide as much food as you can. If you end up with mental training, they’ll starve you for two days, giving only water and no sleep.”
The activities varied each year, but it seemed that they were set on making it a challenging ordeal.
‘It’s just for two days.’
How much trouble could two days bring? During her time as Yekarna, she had been on expeditions lasting months. It was common to go without food for a day or two when there were supply issues, and though she hadn’t drunk seawater, she had filtered muddy water before. Hunting monsters and climbing rocks were nothing new to her.
‘I’ll just pretend it’s a chance to get some fresh air.’
Because of that, she would be free from Crown Prince’s duties and wouldn’t have to hunt for devilkins this week.
With a light heart, Regina headed to the designated meeting spot at the academy’s fountain plaza, only to be met with a thunderous announcement.
“From now on, we will be forming five-person teams with three students from the swordsmanship class and two from the magic class, mixing first, second, and third-year students.”
The fourth-year students were nowhere to be seen; only the first, second, and third-year students were gathered, and a professor Regina had never seen before, who appeared to be the magic professor from his attire, made the announcement.
Regina reflexively scanned her surroundings. Among the second-year students taking magic classes, she spotted a familiar face, as expected. When their eyes met, Darien smiled. Regina awkwardly returned the smile and quickly turned her head.
‘Please don’t let me be paired with him.’
Unconsciously clasping her hands and silently praying, Regina hesitated. She worried that her dislike for Darien might result in them being paired together, just as a form of divine retribution from God who hated her.
She slowly unclasped her hands and decided to trust in probability. With so many students taking magic classes, the chances of Darien being one of the two students paired with her seemed slim.
The magic professor began using magic to display the names of each group in the air. Regina kept her eyes peeled for her own name or Darien’s tensely.
Group 17: Jonas Schmidt – Mia Weiss – Fathom Leroy – Regina Heather – Tobias Sefer
Unable to breathe, she clenched her fists after seeing the final member of her group. Although there was an odd person among her group, just avoiding her former husband from her past life felt like a victory.
“Please gather in front of the sign with your group number.”
After all the group lists were revealed, the students moved according to the magic professor’s instructions. Regina found the sign that read ‘Group 17’ and approached it, where Fathom, who had arrived first, nervously greeted her.
“Nice to meet you.”
Instead of responding, Regina stared at Fathom. He looked alarmed and covered his face with both hands.
‘No need to overreact without any darts.’
As Regina smirked and exchanged brief greetings with the three other members who joined, the magic professor’s voice was heard again.
“For your safety, priests from the temple will accompany you. One priest will be assigned to five groups, so make sure to remember which priest is assigned to your group. Priest Emmet will be in charge of groups 1 through 5.”
Having avoided the worst-case scenario, Regina clapped her hands with enthusiasm. For the moment, the world seemed truly beautiful.
“…Groups 16 through 20 will be handled by Priest Valen, who is also a student at this academy. Please give a warm round of applause to express our gratitude to Priest Valen for willingly volunteering for this training.”
Forget about how beautiful the world was.
“Hey, isn’t that your legitimate husband from your past life? First Consort Eldenberg. That’s what Darien told me.”
Fathom whispered next to the stunned Regina. Normally, she would have told him to be quiet, but today she just stiffly gazed up at the podium.
It felt like she had dodged a Gold Dragon only to have a Black Dragon show up instead. Honestly, she was most afraid of him among the seven guardians. The reason was exactly as Rupert of the Gilagon Peninsula had described.
First Husband. First Wife.
Even the most brazen philanderer wouldn’t be able to brush off such terms. Regina was no exception.
Facing Valen, Friedrich’s reincarnation, who was gazing at her silently, she broke into a sweat. Maybe it was because she had slept with Bliss and Lennon, but the cold sweat felt even more chilling.
To be completely honest, while Yekarna had pretended to be indifferent and met various men, she had always been conscious of Friedrich.
Thinking of him always made her feel like someone was gnawing at one side of her brain, and a heavy lump seemed to settle in her chest. She tried hard to ignore it…
She didn’t want to admit that even as an Empress, she felt diminished in his presence because of guilt. To compensate, she had tried to act more confident and reckless, thinking that would make her win against him.
‘It was a trashy kind of stubbornness.’