Commendation
Commendation
After I went to see Mister Balkun, the days flowed by uneventfully.
Unfortunately, I couldn't get in touch with Shadow Foot. They said if I had only come one day earlier I could have met him, but as it happened, he had just left the capital on a request. They told me they'd pass along a message when he came back, but there was no telling when that would be, so it was a disappointing end in a lot of ways.
Other than that, it was just like we'd promised at meals—I'd meet up with people and just talk about things that had happened.
Honestly, the one who scared me the most was Ragnis, but instead of chewing me out over how reckless I'd been, she seemed more bothered by the fact that she hadn't been much help in that situation, and before I knew it the atmosphere had turned into me having to comfort her. Still, maybe her mental fortitude had gotten as strong as her body, because the news I heard from Sir Renisa was that she'd started taking the already brutal training even more zealously. At this rate, a little Yekaterina might actually be in the making.
Sheryl was just Sheryl.
Maybe because she'd seen me cut off the Archdemon's head with her own eyes from the beginning, she reacted the most indifferently. When I went into the academy to work and read through the things Seneran had left behind—which were no different from worksheets—and solve them, Sheryl would occasionally show up and ask about the stories from the West. I was curious about why she hadn't returned to her house this break... but it wasn't just her. My teacher had explained that a lot of students had stayed in the dorms this time to mix self-study with training, so I didn't bother asking specifically.
Seneran packed up all kinds of tools and, right up until the moment she left for Mandela Port with the Gaendal Party, she investigated, listened, and recorded the changes that had happened in my body.
"I told you not to use that in front of priests and wizards, and of all people you did it in front of the Hero and a saintess...?"
In the process, she heard the story about my fight with the Archdemon that I hadn't been able to tell her before and nearly had a seizure, but I somehow managed to calm her down and sent her off. With a threat that it was a long-term request and she wouldn't be back for about two weeks, so I'd better study hard.
A week passed like that, and now my days continued with me coming and going solely to the academy, solving the customized worksheets Seneran had left behind.
"If I'd studied this much in my past life, would my paycheck have been different?"
The more I studied, the more I realized I had no talent for magic, but unlike humans who were divided into Mana and aura, Demonfolk handled everything through Magic Power, so there was an overflowing amount I could apply. I didn't feel particularly let down, and I had no major trouble understanding it. That was only natural—if it were knowledge only a very select few could enjoy, magic wouldn't have spread this widely throughout the world.
It was just that it was a discipline for which the strange analogy of 'liberal arts sensibility math' seemed perfectly apt, and so it had the downside of leaning heavily on talent and gut feeling. I finished the morning's preset portion of studying, stretched long, got up and brewed coffee, then scooped up Laika as the little dog subtly tried to climb onto my lap and petted it.
The professor building was quiet. The ones voluntarily staying to study were the students, not the professors. Even my teacher had been staying with me helping me study up until a little while ago, but he'd stepped out on royal business and had already been gone for over an hour. There was no one in the other professor offices either, so for a while, the only sounds around had been the coffee boiling, the magic stone heater running, and the wind.
It was around the time the coffee finished that a new noise mixed in.
-Knock, knock.
To be honest, it scared the shit out of me. Even though I'd been paying some attention to the sounds around me, it took a little time to accept that I hadn't heard any presence, let alone footsteps.
I didn't want to be arrogant, but it was absurd. The marble floor produced definite footsteps unless someone deliberately and carefully walked.
I also really didn't like that I couldn't tell who was standing outside, since the building didn't have windows in the hallway or doors half-made of glass like schools from my past life. As if reading my mood, Laika, who had been in my arms, hopped down to the floor, and I pulled the sword I'd set aside a little closer before raising my voice.
"Come in."
I didn't bother asking who it was.
If, by some chance, the name of a figure I'd have to personally open the door and greet was mentioned, I'd have to do just that regardless of whether the name or identity claim was genuine. But if the person outside the door, whose presence was faint even now, deliberately ambushed me, things could get irritating for no good reason. It was better to just have them open the door and come in. Fortunately, whoever it was seemed to have no intention of testing the waters and opened the professor's office door and entered as soon as they heard my words.
And I had to be quite surprised when I saw the unexpected visitor.
"Ah, hello. It's been a while..."
Because the Empire's saintess, a person I'd never actually had a proper conversation with, had come in, carefully opening the door. Her name was... Teneasi, I think?
"Um, I'm sorry for showing up so suddenly like this, but... could we talk for a bit?"
What was more, she'd actually come looking for me, not on some other business. I tilted my head to glance behind the door just in case Siegfried had come too, but it was only Saintess Teneasi standing there all by herself.
"Stop right there, first. I'd rather not start waving a blade around for nothing."
That alone was a huge problem, so I stopped her first. Maybe she hadn't expected my reaction, because for a moment confusion flickered across Saintess Teneasi's face, but I still couldn't help but be suspicious of her sudden and unannounced visit.
No, was this actually the real person? I couldn't sense anything odd with my Magic Sight right now, but there were still so many things in the world I didn't know that I couldn't be certain.
"Right now, I can't understand the situation itself, with you, a saintess, coming alone to see me without the Hero. I'm sure I knew you'd returned to the Empire, and there wasn't even any talk of you revisiting. And you're even fully armed. If you can't clearly prove your identity, I'd like you to explain in a way I can accept from where you're standing."
To prove I wasn't making empty threats, I deliberately gripped my sword audibly. Teneasi let out a little squeak and hastily pulled something from her chest and held it out.
"Th-there's, there's a letter for, for that explanation. Would, would you accept it?"
"A letter...?"
What Teneasi held out was a letter sealed with a familiar white wax. The saintess had brought a letter from Esmue? As things became increasingly baffling, I needed to check it first, so I nodded and called Laika over from beside me.
"Laika, can you go get that?"
[Okay!]
As Laika trotted over, a truly complex mix of emotions crossed Teneasi's face. But soon regaining her composure, she carefully let Laika take the letter in its mouth, and I opened the envelope the little dog had fetched and examined the contents.
And inside, a short message was written in the unmistakable handwriting of Esmue I'd seen last time.
[I know not what thou didst witness during the Demon Dragon subjugation, but that unbelievably faint-hearted saintess says she wants a private audience with thee. Thou must later properly inform me of just what secret rendezvous thou hast had with another woman, daring to set me aside.]
It was truly short and had no other content, but it was definitely Esmue's handwriting. Either that, or it was an exquisitely precise forgery.
"...Why are you armed, and why are you suppressing your presence?"
"I ca-came in secret. I mustn't be, be seen."
"......Come in."
I called her in for now, but it was still a damned headache of a situation.
The reason was what I'd shown during the Demon Dragon subjugation? Then it was clearly because I'd taken the heads off the demons back then. The problem was, I had never, ever imagined that the conversation about it would take the form of a private audience with a saintess like this.
"Would you like some coffee?"
"Ah, yes. Thank you."
If she'd come with the intent of 'You use Magic Power, so you're a member of the Demonfolk. Die!', she wouldn't have come alone like this. Seeing that she hadn't even told Esmue meant she was faithfully keeping the request I'd sort of made in passing back then. But in that situation, she had something to confirm by coming to see me in secret, without the Hero? Even using some unidentifiable Divine Power to erase her own presence?
I had no intention of falling for some brilliant plot where a person who looked that timid got blinded by love and came at me with a kitchen knife. So, with my sword still beside me, I looked at the saintess. The saintess, who had noisily sipped her coffee and warmed herself up, showed her typical hesitant manner and slowly opened her mouth.
"Um, the reason I came... it's because of what you showed us last time in the ancient waterways..."
"I don't think it was just one or two things I showed you."
"Y-yes, it was. Th-the demons' heads... all at once... shing! and..."
She tried to make some awkwardly dynamic gesture, then belatedly realized she was still holding her coffee cup and started stammering, looking terribly foolish. But even that could be an act.
"I understand. I did think a day would come when we'd talk about that, but I didn't expect I'd be discussing it like this, with just you, Saintess."
"I-I thought so too, but, first of all, I thought it might be good for Zeke if I talked about it in advance, so I... I came like this."
"...What kind of story did you want to tell in advance?"
Her way of speaking was maddening, but she just stuttered—she wasn't inarticulate, so there was no discomfort in understanding her. The saintess paused briefly at my question, carefully placed her coffee cup on the side table, and then, clutching the staff she'd been holding against her chest, looked at me.
And then, in a perfectly smooth form of speech that was nothing like just moments before, she asked:
"Are you the champion of the Demon God?"
In that moment, I could have sworn her two eyes glinted with a silver light.