The exam had ended up being a complete disappointment for Yamato, and he found himself not fully knowing what to do. If anything, Yuki might rush in, except she was already next to him spooning his head for some reason while he just stared at the ceiling. She did not seem to have a problem with their lack of objective, and was content just existing like this. Because she did not seem to want anything other than that, he chose to ignore her. Even though he felt like it was an awkward position to be in, it was not as uncomfortable as he first believed it would be. Professor Reed had mentioned a prize of some sort for the class that graduates as class 1, but only once you reach class 1 at least once you would learn what it was. He was confident they would soon hear about that prize and then he could decide if it was worth persuading or a waste of time. As he thought about what it might be, he felt like it might be fun to listen to Yuki's idea's, even if he assumed that no new insight would come of it. She also seemed pretty sleepy, though since she did not really need to sleep anyway it was probably just laziness, fueled by how comfortable she was.
"Hm? I don't really care about that thing, Master. To be honest, I already forgot all about it already… I just thought it would be fun to beat children in school exams and I wanted you to be in the best class too."
"But if you had to guess. I mean, maybe it could be useful to me? Wouldn't that mean you'd consider it valuable too?"
She yawned as she shifted to tighten the cuddle around him.
"Mhm… Don't be silly… What possible use could that prize have that I can't already provide you with… I'm the only useful thing in the world… You just need me and whatever the prize is will be underwhelming compared to me... Or was your friend intent to make me offer myself as your prize~?"
Her voice got a little less sleepy and more teasing at that last part, though she would get back to being lazy right after.
"Okay, whatever… Guess I'll find out soon anyway. Did we get homework or something?"
"Not that I'm aware of. But if we did, I'll just copy it from Arina and then give it to you, so don't worry about it."
"Okay… What's the meaning of life?"
"Huh? What's with that all of the sudden…"
"I just figured, it's something I never asked you before. Even though it's probably the most natural thing to ask someone divine."
"Is this your version of small talk? If so, it's cute and I love you."
"I'm just trying to pass time. And don't patronize me."
"I'd never! But back to your question, you should know the answer already."
"Is that so?"
"Yes! Your purpose is… To be with me forever and ever and spend every second with me so I can love and shower you in as much affection as possible!"
"Ah, yeah that figures…"
"Not convinced~? But it's such a beautiful purpose… Well, if you want my serious opinion on the matter… Meaning is a made up concept, and thus life has no such thing. God was the first creation, after all, so what would his meaning be? The answer is whatever he wanted. And he wanted more life, I guess. Or whatever you interpret the creation of more life as. If you want a definitive answer, I'm afraid there is none. So you'll have to make with the purpose I gave you~!"
"What a downer…"
"You are my meaning, Master~"
"Yay me…"
"Eventually I'm gonna become your meaning too!"
"Perchance… I suppose I'm hoping for that…"
"Oh, really?"
"Yeah."
"Please elaborate on that."
"Just because I don't feel a certain way about you doesn't mean I want to."
"It's pretty werid though. It kinda implies there is a pretty strong feeling already. Are your feelings for me that strong that they confuse you~?"
"Interpret it how you want. Let's just go outside or something. Maybe we will find something interesting."
"A date it is then! How much outside are we talking? Like, leave school grounds? Or just this room?"
"Let's leave town for a while."
"Ooh, like a trip or an adventure, even!"
"Yes, Yuki… Just like an adventure."
And so, the two of them left town all by themselves. The twins would have asked to come along, but since they were now actually attending school, they har a lot of studying to do to catch up. Which even though they were quite gifted, turned out to be a full time job for them. And they could not afford to leave for a couple of days or more just on a whim. And Arina… Well, Yuki already called it a date and therefore Arina would be misplaced. Unwanted, in Yuki's terms.
Once they had passed the city walls, Yuki felt uneasy for some reason. Though she could not exactly pin point what it was, she did the responsible thing and ignored it so she could focus on Yamato completely. They walked off road for a while, though the terrain was not exactly even and had a lot of sections where they had to fly across. Eventually, they spotted a small mountain, and having no other goal in sight, they decided to go towards it. After they found nothing besides claw scratches on the walls, which neither Yamato nor Yuki could identify, they decided to stay there anyway since it was quiet and had a good view. Yuki also declared she would kill anything that bothered them. They sat down into the shadow of a tree since it turned out to be rather hot today. Yamato was still figuring out how seasons worked in this world, but if he got it right, they should be mostly identical to those of his old world. Just as he was about to fall asleep, he heard steps in the tall grass around them, maybe 30 meters away. He only noticed the direction it came from and nothing more, but it was enough to make him focus. Yuki seemed to have noticed them as well, though she did not seem too worried. It looked like her plan would have been to wait until Yamato was asleep, take care of whatever was coming, and then act as if nothing happened. That assumption was based on her trying to sooth him into sleep despite him already getting up, at which point she gave up.
"Oh, look! There is someone over there!"
"Right… I get that you didn't want to disrupt me, but please just warn me whenever danger approaches. Even if you can take care of it by yourself."
"Okay, I'm sorry, Master… They seem to be bandits… Maybe we shouldn't have left in our uniforms. They seem to be quite the attention attractors."
"I mean, most students of the academy are nobles, so it makes sense that they become targets for kidnappings and stuff for blackmail. But it also makes you powerful enemies, so I'd assume they either know what they are doing and are confident that they will get away with it, or are inexperienced and have no idea what they got themselves into…"
"Well, no parents to blackmail here… Man, they got like the worst students for their little scheme. Sucks to be them. Or do I need to let them live?"
"I don't really care honestly… Do what you want."
"Ah, yay~"
She walked towards the grass in which the bandits were hiding, and was considering how she would do it. After all, Yamato did not let her go all out often, so she was excited about this opportunity. Maybe she could use them to test how much of her strength had truly returned.
Just as she was about to start, there was a loud cry coming out of said grass. Though it turned silent again almost immediately. There it was again, this time she could hear some other noise as well. Though she could not quite pinpoint what it was yet, it sounded painful. As she went over to look, all she saw was bloody grass and dirt, with some ripped run down clothing on the ground. Besides that there was nothing there.
"Master, no one's here!"
"You literally just said there were bandits… Did they run off that fast?"
"No… It doesn't look like anyone got away…"
"Then what's the problem?"
"I'm not sure what happened here, is the problem."
Yamato came over as well, and as he did, behind him appeared a giant creature, which Yuki immediately attacked and pulled Yamato away from. Though her attack seemed to have bounced off with no affect on the salamander-like creature.
"What the heck… I didn't sense it at all. What even is that? It looks like a… Salamander? But it's huge! And more importantly, it looks so pretty too… It's skin shines like silver, yet also pitch black from a different angle… What an interesting creature. I wonder how it tastes like… If Master likes them, I will hunt them down so we can eat it everyday!"
She fired her next explosive attack at the ground next to the salamander, so the explosion would hit it instead of the projectile. Though to her surprise, it did not even flinch, but only looked interested at the fire before crawled towards them with remarkable speed. She flew up with Yamato, trying to get some distance, as the salamander let out a roar that was unlike anything she ever heard. If she had to describe it, then the sound was like a mix of something as deep as a trumpet and yet also incredibly shrill. She estimated that it was about 120 dB loud from where they were, which was maybe 25 meters away from its head. The creature itself was about seven meters tall and at least 20 meters long. The roar seemed to have other strange properties, as their flying magic stopped working and Yuki had to use her wings to manually fly and catch Yamato out of the air.
"Master, this is gonna sound weird coming from me, but we might be better off retreating for now…"
"We can't lead it to the city, it will follow us."
"How do you know?"
"The marks on the walls, it's posture… It seems terrestrial. It might consider us a threat and keep going until it killed us."
"Hm… We are in a bit of a predicament here then… Oh, now that we are in the air, I think I see a cave over there!"
"Let's go there and see how we go from here…"
They rushed towards the cave, though the salamander seemed to notice their intend and try to block the entrance. However, Yuki proved faster and it barely missed them as they rushed in the small opening which the salamander did not fit through. Only sending another roar after them and stomping around outside, trying to bite through the solid rock with its sharp teeth but they remained barely out of reach. The roar was eachoing through the walls, and Yuki quickly cast a sound barrier so they would not go deaf. Seeing as it did not seem like it would leave, they went further into the cave.