A Knight Hates a Love Triangle (1)
He hadn't particularly wanted to know. All the same, Lee Han had somehow acquired an informant nearly as well stocked as any regressor, and thanks to that he learned—entirely against his will—about Geomdung's love life. No. His history of divorce.
"In the setting, Judia Pierre is one of the orphans Cardinal Raphael saved during a pilgrimage. She entered the temple to repay him for that salvation, and then one thing led to another and she became an inquisitor, and one thing led to another again and she even took to dressing as a man. That's the setup."
"That 'one thing led to another' is really bothering me..."
"I-I'd like to tell you, but unfortunately I don't really know that part either. I only know the setting, and the basics..."
"..."
"I-I hate game spoilers, so I only made what the planning team told me to make. That's the only reason I don't know the details..."
"...Sometimes you seem useful. And then you don't."
"Th-that's too harsh..."
Lee Han had no patience for excuses, and he was merciless about it. The other man's face crumpled.
"...Fine. So how did those two end up getting married?"
"Oh, that I know."
"...You only know the weird parts."
"...A-anyway."
Derek began to let out what he knew.
"O-once Judia Pierre became a temple inquisitor, you can think of her as a spy character who infiltrates the revolutionary army—the force Young Master Roen leads. Like a proper spy, she steals information and offers everything she has on the revolutionaries up to the temple. And the new mission she was given, in the middle of all that, was to seduce Young Master Roen and 'eliminate' him."
"Eliminate?"
"From the temple's point of view, Young Master Roen, the revolutionary leader, would have been a serious irritant. And a honey trap is a classic, sure, but it's also one of the tricks that lands most often, isn't it? So..."
"...He fell for it?"
As far as Lee Han knew, Geomdung was not the sort of man a honey trap could take.
"Mmm. It wasn't easy, but one thing led to another again..."
"So what is that 'one thing led to another'?"
"...Yeah, what is it?"
"..."
"D-don't look at me like that."
"Damn 'one thing led to another.'"
"A-after that...!"
Taechang kept a nervous eye on him and told as much of Judia Pierre's story as he knew. Lee Han looked as if he were only half listening, and never once let his attention go.
"Of course there were all sorts of reasons Young Master Roen was seduced in the first place, and later, right before the wedding, Judia Pierre is exposed as a spy and exits in the most hollow way. So she's a villain who shows up in the very late game. Even so, the reason they call her one of the three great villainesses is that, for the plot, she's the character who did the most damage to Young Master Roen."
"Hmm."
"...The grudge wouldn't be a small one. What she did ran from sowing discord to scrambling their intelligence, and the damage the revolutionary army took because of it was astronomical. Above all, they say several of the knights Young Master Roen cherished died because of Judia Pierre."
"A justified thirst for revenge. I'll give him that."
"B-but in the end, that isn't this point in time. It's something from the 'future,' isn't it? Burning with rage over that is a little unreasonable..."
"...That's a pretty arrogant thing to say."
"Huh?"
Lee Han put the question to a man who was blinking, honestly unable to see what was wrong with his own words.
If.
"..."
"By your logic, maybe it is a dilemma. It's only the future, and it hasn't happened yet. But people aren't that rational an animal. Same way your face is terrifying right now."
"?"
"Look in a mirror, kid. Your face is vicious."
"..."
Derek, belatedly checking by touching his own face as he'd been told, startled himself.
He was astonishingly rigid.
Ah. So this is what he meant.
Derek admitted that he had been arrogant, and he thought he understood why Roen was looking at a girl who was still so endlessly young with eyes that wanted her dead. He understood that forgiveness was a careless piece of advice no one else had any right to toss out.
Still. Good thing he caught that he'd been wrong so fast.
It wasn't that Taechang was a bad sort, and had spoken carelessly for that reason. He simply tended to look at the world a little too brightly. That was the whole problem. Harmless remarks like that did, now and then, blow up into enormous fights.
He only does it in front of me. He wouldn't with the others.
Taechang's ability to communicate was so poor that talking to the rest of them was practically impossible. He only managed proper speech in front of Lee Han. With anyone else...
No better than a vibrating massager.
He probably wouldn't slip and say the wrong thing in front of other people all that often.
...Now that I think about it, the kid's pretty pitiful, isn't he?
Didn't that mean he didn't even have a single friend he could actually talk to? That was truly...
Oh. Right. He does have a girlfriend.
A smart one, and a pretty one besides.
...Not pitiful in the slightest.
Lee Han's stomach began to ache all at once, along with the realization that other people's happiness could be this unpleasant to look at.
He had to set even that gut-twisting mood aside for a moment. For no reason other than this.
"Funny, seeing a temple hunting dog sitting around like this."
"..."
"Ah. Now that I think of it, even 'hunting dog' is too good for the likes of you. Creatures who can swap masters whenever they please. Disgusting little rats."
"..."
"Going to keep ignoring me, are you."
"...I don't know why you've suddenly picked a fight with me, young lion. I don't believe I've ever earned your grudge."
"..."
"If you have a complaint, you're welcome to come at me. Provided, of course, that the knight gives his permission."
"...There will be a day when our blades meet."
"Is that so? I'll look forward to that day."
"..."
Crrk.
"...He's going to crack a tooth."
What was he supposed to do with those two? The Geomdung who always kept his cool was nowhere to be seen. In his place was a black-haired youth picking a fight with the veins standing out between his brows, and Red, taking every word of it without a flicker. Seen like this, really—
"What a mess."
It was a sight that drove home, all over again, just how hideous a couple looked once it had broken badly.
To put nothing but the conclusion on the table, Lee Han refused Roen's proposal.
The reason?
Nothing special.
"People aren't things, Geomdung. And those kids aren't actually slaves."
"Judging only by what they are doing now, their lot is worse than a slave's."
"They're interns, aren't they?"
"...What, exactly, is an intern?"
"It exists. Lower than an assistant instructor. Anyway, they're under me for now, but that doesn't mean I own them. I'm supposed to use them properly and give them back later."
"...Are you certain you are treating them as people?"
"Quit nitpicking. If you really need that one, persuade her and take her. I won't stop you that far."
"..."
"If you want to hack her apart, say so. I'll set up as many spars as you like."
"...It is tempting, but I will endure. ...Still, I need to cool my head for a while as well. I will be absent for a few days."
"Skipping class with your head held high?"
Fortunately, Red—no, Judia Pierre—had her survival guaranteed for the moment. Lee Han clicked his tongue.
Complicated...
The old man asked me to look after her for now. Taechang says she's a villainess to watch. Geomdung wants her dead...
For Lee Han, it was nothing if not a headache.
Honestly. What even is that...
He stole a glance her way.
"..."
An assistant instructor who never spared a thought for the aftermath was chewing her out, and everyone else was suffering under the harsh holy law called the Sacrifice Barrier, and still she simply did her own work in silence. If the other inquisitors were obeying Lee Han because pain had broken them, she gave only the impression of obeying because she had lost. No will could be felt from her at all. She made anyone watching think of a doll, and he even doubted, a little, whether she had emotions to begin with.
A villainess, and an inquisitor... It doesn't suit her, does it?
Lee Han remembered. The moment she lost, she had put the muzzle to her own head and tried to fire without a moment's hesitation. An inorganic figure, with no will to live and no lofty cause.
Hmm. To do the work of a villainess, shouldn't you need at least some feeling?
He knew that much. He knew the air given off by people who carried malice, or who carried some cause. In the woman called Judia, he could see neither.
So if he had to sum Judia Pierre up in a single line—
"...She's an alien sort."
Someone who could be neither villain nor saint. Only endlessly out of place. That was Lee Han's verdict on her.
"...What does she look like to you?"
"Mmm. She does seem a little out of place, that's for sure. Should I say her energy is different? At first I thought it was holy power, but I don't think that's it either."
"Yeah? So that's how it is."
"Yes!"
"Hmm... But listen, Chick."
"Yeees?"
"...Why are you still here in the second semester?"
"..."
"Why go out of your way?"
"Uh, uh, b-because I want to take your class, Instructor?"
"..."
"C-could you say something, at least? Hehe."
"Was being a spell-monger always this idle a job?"
Lee Han poked the cheek of the magical girl—no, of Irene Windler—who was taking the sword faculty's class yet again in the second semester. Each time, that soft cheek gave under his finger and a shy look crossed Irene Windler's face, and a sigh rose out of him. There were plenty of other classes. If she wanted credits, she could have taken something else, and it was not difficult to guess why she was retaking his anyway.
And so.
Affection from a kid is a burden...
Working out, in his gut, why the chick of a magical girl was stuck to the sword faculty like a wad of gum, Lee Han felt his head spin. However much he might have wanted a romance, he did not want one with a kid plastered all over in troublesome settings.
A possessor, and a spell-monger. Young, immature, and a spell-monger. Above all...
...a spell-monger.
For Lee Han, the reasons to refuse the girl's affection overflowed until they felt heavy.
"Honestly. What sin did I commit..."
"Yes?"
"Never mind. Hurry up and register for another class. You still have time to change it."
"I-I don't want to! I-I want to be in the sword faculty too!"
"The top of the magic faculty?"
"C-can't I be an honorary student of the sword faculty?"
"...You think that'll fly?"
"Hnn..."
The chick's face crumpled, and her shoulders drooped. Watching her, his heart tried to soften. They had spent the first semester together, and a fondness that was not quite fondness had piled up between them.
...Should I just leave her be?
His resolve was weakening a little, and though her body was healthier than it had been in the first semester, looking at a frame that was still hopelessly frail made him feel sorry for her. He was about to accept it, but...
"...Ah, right. Instructor. That greasy old man asked me to give you this."
"??"
"I-I didn't want to pass it on either, but he kept asking, so I'm giving it to you... ...I'm sorry."
"..."
"I-it's all right, though, isn't it? Hehe."
"Don't smile, you."
"Ow!"
A press of the finger with a little feeling behind it sent the girl flying, but he didn't concern himself. Telekinesis would keep her from actually falling.
So the thing that deserved more worry than the girl was—
"I really should have driven that off sooner."
—his own situation, perhaps. Lee Han let out a low groan.
A pattern depicting the ripples of a lake. It was only stationery, and yet jewel-dust had been used for the ink until the page shed a strange light: an insane squandering of money. In the whole kingdom, only one house could spend a crest and gemstones the way other people spent ink.
And here was one more reason I should never have gotten tangled up in this...
A crest of lake-ripples, written in jewel-dust.
An invitation from the master of the ducal house.
House Galahad
Galahad. Lee Han looked at the invitation sent by the present lord of that house, and his head began to ache.