Retribution (3)
Leaving Ariel behind with a shell-shocked look on her face, I slipped out of the dormitory.
I couldn't afford to go soft now.
If I harbored any foolish, ulterior desires here, my head would be on the chopping block before I knew it. Frankly, I didn't have the stomach to date someone of her standing. I saved her life, and now she wants us to put our necks on the line together? We certainly weren't close enough for that kind of loyalty.
I appreciated the sentiment, but there was simply no way.
...To be completely honest, I didn't even appreciate it that much.
"T-That's not it... I just wanted to properly say thank you, that's all..."
Ariel had clung to the very end. Her teary-eyed expression was pitiful beyond words, but a hard limit was a hard limit.
"There's really no need for anything so grand. A simple 'thank you' is more than enough."
"Still..."
"Who knew hearing a single 'thank you' would be this difficult!"
"Ugh...! ...Th-Thank you."
"You're very welcome. All settled now, right? Take care, Lady Ariel."
It stung my conscience, but I had no choice. I pushed Ariel away, carving out the guilt festering in my chest.
Having been flatly and mercilessly rejected by Yohan, Ariel couldn't conceal her utter shock. Among the countless thoughts swirling through her head, one question rose above all others:
What's so wrong with me?
Even Ariel knew she had been dumped. She was well aware of how obvious she had made her feelings. Yohan hadn't merely dropped hints—at this point, he had openly kicked her to the curb.
Truthfully, she had secretly believed that she was somewhat out of Yohan's league. It was her innate aristocratic pride—a mindset natural to the scion of a ducal house. Well, it was high time for some introspection.
"It's not that he hates me."
Ariel engaged in the uniquely rational logic typical of noble bloodlines. There was no way he could hate her. Therefore, there had to be another reason.
Her line of reasoning was somewhat skewed, but she wasn't entirely wrong. After all, what Yohan feared was the very prospect of being entangled with her.
Ariel remembered that clearly. Back at the beginning of the semester, merely offering him a greeting would make him cringe and recoil in horror. While one could chalk it up to Lobelia's overbearing attitude, at his core, Yohan built walls around himself.
Yet Ariel also knew the reason behind it. Yohan had confessed that he put up walls between people because he was terrified of farewells.
"Sir Yohan likes me."
It was a breathtaking leap of logic devoid of any prior hint. Yet that, too, was the quintessential reasoning of high nobility.
Ariel recalled the words Yohan had poured out to convince her. Going so far as to expose his own darkest vulnerabilities just so that she would live? There was no other explanation for that than love. That was Ariel's conclusion. Even if the man himself vehemently denied it, she would still believe it.
"He definitely said it felt overwhelming."
Perhaps the prince who saved her was simply intimidated by the illustrious pedigree of Duke Ether's house. Well, it made sense. The Damus family might technically be a county, but outside the early founding days of the Empire, they had never prospered. Now they were practically forgotten, left neglected on the remote frontier.
In truth, when broken down, the actual political clout of Count Damus was at best on par with a viscount. She could completely understand why her background felt oppressive to him.
"Sir Yohan is a coward, after all."
Could someone from such an insignificant family dare to love the princess of a ducal house?
Ariel firmly believed that had to be what was going through his head. Her prodigious intellect possessed a dazzling talent for interpreting every circumstance in her own favor.
Yohan liked her. However, House Ether burdened him. In that case, if she resolved the issue of her family, everything else would fall right into place. Having reached that summit of deduction, Ariel's soaring leaps of logic finally ground to a halt.
"Phew..."
Ariel let out a deep exhale and swallowed dryly. The instant the phrase 'forbidden love' sprouted in her mind, Ariel grew so mortified she nearly choked on her hiccups from hyperventilating. Of course, what was truly embarrassing was her own runaway delusion.
However, once Ariel set her sights on something, she was relentlessly tenacious. So much so that when she had first begun studying magic, Lobelia, watching from the side, had practically recoiled in disgust at her obsession.
Though no one was watching, Ariel buried her burning face in both hands. There was the fresh, innocent charm of a girl falling into her very first love. Yet within those peeking eyes gleamed an unmistakable, burning obsession.
With the written exams out of the way, I finally attained peace.
There had been moments when I worried Ariel might cling to me and make things troublesome, but ever since that day, she hadn't shown her face once.
I felt a slight twinge of guilt. Still, if I wanted to survive, there was no helping it. Just being known to have ties with her would put a massive target on my back. For all Lobelia's warnings about her being tenacious, Ariel was surprisingly quiet. Well, she was sensible enough, so she must have understood my predicament.
"Yohan, let's head to the training grounds!"
"No."
"Why not?! Hang out with me once in a while!"
"Why on earth would we go to a training ground to hang out?"
Yuna had joined Class F after the exams wrapped up. Considering her true combat prowess, thrusting her straight into Class S wouldn't have been out of place, but circumstances didn't allow it. If someone like Yuna, who hadn't sat through a single evaluation, suddenly entered Class S on special privileges, complaints would erupt everywhere. Even if the students held their tongues, their noble parents would raise hell over preferential treatment. And so, Yuna ended up in Class F.
I had briefly wondered whether she'd manage to adapt, but she ended up fitting in even better than I did.
"You don't get enough exercise, Yohan. Come on, I'll teach you one of my special techniques."
"What do you mean I don't get enough exercise?"
Believe it or not, I was a skilled fighter capable of manifesting Sword Aura, even if it was still a bit unstable. Do you have any idea how much grueling effort went into achieving that? I might have lost a little muscle recently, but I was in plenty good shape. In the first place, faithfully following the Cradle's basic curriculum naturally packed muscle onto your frame. Which meant simply attending class was more than enough.
"You sure have a lot to say, Yohan."
"I barely said anything."
"You swallowed an awful lot of words inside."
"Ha, unbelievable..."
She saw right through my thought process. Strange. Yuna claimed that I shared the exact same mindset as her, yet I couldn't read a single thought inside her head.
"You're really not going? For real?"
Yuna stopped and stared straight at me. Looking at me with the eyes of a puppy left out in the rain, she melted my resolve.
"Ugh, fine. Let's go."
She was, after all, my one and only friend. She had helped me out plenty of times in the past, so humoring her this much was the least I could do. That was how you maintained a smooth friendship. Besides, considering what I had said in front of Olga Hermod, I couldn't back out now anyway.
"Yay! Let's go, Yohan!"
Beaming, Yuna tugged at my hand. Her boundless energy felt like it was siphoning the life right out of me.
Dragged along by Yuna's grip, I arrived at the training grounds, which were crowded as usual. However, unlike regular days, the atmosphere seemed somewhat subdued.
"Hey guys, did something happen? You all look pretty serious."
Yuna sociably strolled up to a cluster of chatting students. Seeing her bright, sunny smile, the students shrugged and answered.
"There've been a ton of terrorist attacks near the Cradle lately. We went out over the weekend and got caught right in the middle of one—it was a nightmare."
"Really? Are you okay? Who's stirring up trouble this time?"
"It's Under Chain."
"Yeah. The ones I ran into were from them too."
"Haven't they been popping up everywhere lately? Feels like every single incident traces back to dark mages."
Sightings of Under Chain began spilling out from every direction. I had quietly holed myself up inside the Cradle lately, so I hadn't realized how chaotic things had gotten outside. Was that why Ariel and Lobelia hadn't been around—because they were busy? I knew clean-up duty after an Under Chain terror attack was an absolute headache, considering they tainted the very earth with the stench of death.
"And what about that guy recently?"
"That guy? Ah, you mean that Lich? Didn't they say he's rampaging out in the open, but they still haven't managed to catch him?"
Now that was somewhat surprising. The Cradle sat close to the Imperial Palace, meaning whenever an attack broke out, detachments of the Imperial Knights were deployed. Their sheer military might was the primary reason various underground factions chose to lurk in the shadows rather than act openly.
Yet someone was running rampant in broad daylight and still hadn't been caught? It meant he either possessed absurd confidence in his own prowess or had thoroughly read through the Empire's response protocols. And the only reason that was possible had to be Under Chain's 'Great Sage.' If the Great Sage Faust was personally lending a hand, this was no minor affair.
"Great, now I have an excuse never to step outside. I'm staying glued to the Cradle for the foreseeable future."
"Smart move, Yohan. That suits you. You're weak, after all."
"What was your name again?"
Are you picking a fight with me? I might lack raw strength, but I still had an entire count's household backing me. If force failed, I'd simply lean on authority. Go on, say that one more time.
"Asking for someone's name isn't like you, Yohan. Please don't do that."
"..."
Seriously, what in the world has my reputation become? What am I to you people? Don't tell me there's a rumor circulating that anyone whose name I learn ends up cursed or something?
"Whatever, forget it. So what's the deal with that guy anyway? You all seem to know something, so fill us in."
"Yeah, I'm curious too! Who on earth is he? Does anyone know his name?"
"Uh, not completely, but..."
Students gathered closer. Tales branched off into other tales, and fragmented pieces of intel bubbled up simultaneously.
"He's definitely a Lich."
A Lich. A mage returned from death. Whether he had willingly plunged into the abyss of dark magic or manifested through natural corruption, I couldn't say. But if he belonged to Under Chain, the former was vastly more likely.
"He's stripped down to bare bone, so nobody recognizes his face, but the magic he uses is supposed to be really unusual."
"Ah, I heard about that. It was magic imbued with the supernatural trait Wave, right? Wasn't there someone famous for that?"
"Yeah, he was a war hero, pretty sure. Heard he died a few years ago. Got assassinated, didn't he? What was his name again...?"
"A mage with the Wave trait who was assassinated a few years back..."
As everyone pieced together their fragments of knowledge, a single cohesive picture took shape. Was this the power of collective intelligence? Yet the one who snapped the final piece of the puzzle into place was none other than...
"Charybdis."
It was Yuna.
"It's 'Charybdis Salos.'"
At first, I hadn't realized who had spoken. However, the sheer chill embedded in that single line was so terrifying that I whipped around—only to see her.
Yuna wore an expression I had never seen on her face before. No explanation was needed.
Oh, damn it...
I just stepped on a landmine. I knew there was a reason I didn't want to come to the training grounds.
I brought the uncharacteristically shaken Yuna straight to the Alchemy Workshop. It was the first time I had ever seen her fail to maintain her poker face.
"Huh? Yohan, is that you?"
"Instructor, step outside for a moment, please. We have something important to discuss."
"Hey, why are you having an important discussion here?! This is my space!"
"Please, act your age."
After practically shoving Instructor Georg—who had been lounging across the sofa in the corner of the workshop—out the door, I guided Yuna to a nearby chair.
"What do you want to do?"
Piecing together what we had just heard, the man named Charybdis Salos was the target Yuna had assassinated. And there was a high probability that assassination was her revenge. I had no idea what that vengeance had meant to her, but seeing her current somber state, it would have been far better if the past had stayed buried.
"Yuna, what do you want to do about this?"
"...Yeah. What should I do?"
Yuna seemed subdued, a stark contrast to her usual self. There was a quiet, aching sorrow to the sight of her.
"The timing really is funny."
"How so?"
"The exact moment I finally started thinking I wanted to stay here... my past grabs me by the ankles."
"...That's not your fault, is it?"
"Do you think so?"
I wouldn't know all of it, despite the time we spent together, but Yuna had likely spent her whole life drifting without a place to call home. Yet, through a twist of fate, she had received my defense, earned Olga Hermod's recognition, and become a student at the Cradle. A distinct, solid footprint had finally been stamped onto a life that had once been utterly directionless.
I had seen her treasuring her student ID, keeping it close to her chest and pulling it out whenever she had free time just to look at it. To her, it must have carried immense meaning.
"Maybe my karma's just coming back to bite me."
"He probably deserved to die. Just look at him now. You killed a bastard who goes around committing terror attacks—there's no need to beat yourself up over karma or whatever."
"Yohan."
Yuna blinked at me, her tone laced with genuine surprise.
"Are you actually comforting me right now? You, of all people?"
"...Seriously, what kind of monster do you guys think I am?"
I know how to comfort people too! No matter how selfish of a bastard I am, isn't that taking it a bit too far?
"Pfft, hehehe! Just kidding, just kidding."
"Not funny."
"Right, right. Not funny, got it."
Grinning, Yuna began to tease me. Back to her usual self. Whether she had sorted out her feelings so quickly, or whether she was actively schooling her expression to fool even me...
"Well, my revenge ended in the past anyway. I shouldn't let it bother me."
I had no way of knowing just yet.