Since the exam ended up being a complete disappointment to Yamato, he did not feel like doing anything at the moment. Just laying around aimlessly, waiting for something interesting to happen, which obviously was not just going to happen out of nowhere. So really, he wasn't waiting for anything or at least not expecting anything. If anything, Yuki might rush in, except she was already next to him spooning his head for some reason. One could mistake her for a neck pillow, though those were probably not invented in this world yet. He chose to ignore her since she did not seem to want anything other than that, and even though he felt like it was an awkward position to be in, it was not as uncomfortable as he first believed it to be. Professor Reed had mentioned a prize of soem sort for the class that graduates as class 1, but only if you reach class 1 at least once you would learn what it was. They would probably soon hear about that prize and then Yamato could decide if it was worth perusing or if it would be 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 believed that no new insight would come of it. She also seemed pretty sleepy, although since she hardly needs to sleep it was probably just laziness because of 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 beat children in 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 could possibly be useful that I can't do already… I'm the only useful thing in the world… You just need me and whatever the prize is will be underwhelming compared to me."
"Okay, whatever… Guess I'll find out soon anyway. What's the meaning of life?"
"Huh? What's with that all of the sudden…"
"You're divinity, so you would know, right?"
"I mean, yeah…? Is this your version of small talk? If so, it's cute and I love you."
"I'm just trying to pass time."
"Oh, okay. Do you want your meaning of life or in general?"
"Is there a difference?"
"Yes!"
"Mine then?"
"Your purpose is… To be with me forever and spend every second with me so I can love and shower you in affection constantly!"
"Ah, that makes total sense now…"
"Not convinced? Fine! Have the boring answer… 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."
"Uh huh… I thought about that already. What a depressing answer…"
"You are my meaning, Master~…"
"Yay me…"
"Eventually I'm gonna become your meaning too!"
"Per chance… What about good and bad?"
"What about it?"
"Are they real? Are they objective or not?"
"I'm sorry you are so bored that you ask questions you already know the answers to… If you would like, I will try anything in my power to entertain you in a to you meaningful way!"
"How perceptive and courteous of you… I'm not sure how you would do that though."
"I will do whatever you want me to!"
"Let's just… Go outside or something. Maybe we find something interesting."
"A date it is! How much outside though? Like, leave school grounds? Or just this room?"
"Let's leave town for a while."
"Ooh, like an adventure!"
"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 had a lot of things they needed to study for to keep up. Which even though they were not dumb, 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. An Arina… Well, Yuki already called it a date and therefore Arina would be misplaced.
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 for a while, though there was not much around besides a single mountain in the distance. Having no other goal in sight, they decided to go towards it and look around for a bit. After they found nothing, who would have thought, they decided to stay there anyway since it was quite quiet and relaxing. They sat down next to a tree, in the shadow since it was actually quite hot today. Yamato was still figuring out how seasons worked in this world, but if he got it right, it would be the end of summer or early fall, though they might be called differently or even have another season, who knows? Though it seemed that this one seemed to have the same amount of days in a year at least, meaning for this planet to orbit around its sun takes 365 days just like earth, which Yamato would be able to use to calculate all kinds of information about their solar system, though he would get to that later. Just as he was about to fall asleep, he heard steps in the tall grass, 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… If I had to guess, you did not want anything to disrupt our togetherness, which is why you didn't want me to notice?"
"Don't call me out! But anyway, 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 if they become targets for kidnapping so they can blackmail the parents. But it also makes you powerful enemies, so I'd assume they either know what they are doing and confident that they will get away with it, or are inexperienced and have no idea what they get themselves into…"
"Well, no parents to blackmail here… Man, they got like the worst students for their little thing! Can I kill them~? Please~?"
"I don't really care honestly… Do what you want."
"Ah, like Christmas… I wonder if this world has Christmas! Probably not…"
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.
Just as she was about to start, there was a loud cry coming out of said grass. Though it was short lived as it turned silent immediately after. Then 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 wasn't the one that didn't let them get away!"
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.
"What the heck?! I didn't sense it at all… What is that? It looks like a… Salamander? But it's huge! It's skin reflects my attacks? It looks so pretty too… It shines like a silver… 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 at just crawled towards them at an astonishing 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. It sounded like a mix of a trumpet and something shriller. If Yuki had to estimate, 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 they flying magic stopped working and Yuki had to use her wings to manually fly and catch Yamato out of the air.
"Master, this might 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?"
"Just a feeling…"
"Hm… 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 exit. In the end, he barely missed them as they rushed in the small opening which the salamander did not fit through, he only yelled another roar after them and stomped outside, trying to bite through the solid rock with its sharp teeth but not succeeding. 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.