Evidence (3)
Just how far ahead had he seen? Try as she might, Senia could not fathom it, leaving her tongue clicking in sheer disbelief.
He really is... an incredible guy.
By revealing Lumia's existence at the precise moment, he had brought the Sirens' false accusations to light. He had then presented rock-solid evidence that the Lemterte Plague could be cured with Hyplisia. Through this, he naturally forged a connection between the humans and the Sirens, resolving the crisis for both sides in one fell swoop.
There was so much more left unsaid—standing against Shanberesh, finding the subtle vulnerabilities in frontlines that should have collapsed and discreetly correcting them. Yet, despite knowing only fragments of the whole picture, her admiration remained boundless.
Every single one of these outcomes had stemmed from one person: Junon.
"A banquet, huh..."
The Principality had resolved to bestow lavish rewards upon those who fought valiantly against the Devourers, the source of the Lemterte Plague. To commemorate the day and honor the survivors who protected the realm's security and the future of humanity, a grand banquet was being held.
Yet to Senia, this gathering felt hollow.
Unwinding and celebrating was well and good, but knowing that the true mastermind's deeds had to remain shrouded in secrecy left a bitter ache in her chest. Even so, she had no authority to voice an objection on that matter.
If so, the least she could do was ensure that bottom-feeding scumbags didn't slither their way in. That was precisely why she had taken up a position outside the banquet hall.
There they are.
She found them.
Three slippery mudfish.
"Cain."
"Yes. I just spotted them as well."
"There are three of them, so let's take care of them in two batches. Understood?"
"Understood."
Those cowards, who had no right to hold their heads high, were about to set foot inside. Considering that the true hero of the hour would receive no public acclaim, there was no way in hell she would let vermin like them bask in unearned glory.
At the exact same time, Junon made his way to the hospital once more.
Though battered and bruised, he hadn't sought admission for himself; he had already pushed through the aches to visit Lumia earlier. The reason he was visiting now was that the comrades who had suffered the most were unable to attend the banquet.
"Huh? Junon?"
"What the heck? I was dead certain it'd be Henna and her crew..."
"What's that supposed to mean? To someone who came to visit you in the sickbed, no less."
John and Noel.
It was these two again.
"..."
"Why the long face? You're ruining the mood."
"We're not dead, you know! Still kicking, you jerk."
Junon had vaguely realized that the two spearmen had pushed themselves past their limits. They hadn't died, but their mana circuits were severely wrecked. Among the academy students stationed at the main army's rear guard, these two were the only ones whose conditions had deteriorated into the advanced stages of the plague, shattering their combat strength. In his frantic bid to delay the symptoms of infection, he had ended up driving them too hard.
"I'm sorry."
Thus, Junon's true purpose was an apology, not a casual visit. Because of his own shortcomings, he had forced them to bear an agonizing burden. He had no choice but to bow his head.
A brief silence hung in the hospital room. After trading thoughtful glances, the two carefully broke the quiet.
"The one who should be apologizing probably isn't you. Honestly, we've been thinking... maybe this happened because of our own laziness."
"Yeah, absolutely. Lazy doesn't even begin to cover it—we were downright rotten slackers. It's like you told us what questions would be on the exam, and we still flunked it! No, wait, it's more like you gave us both the questions and the answers, and we still didn't write them down right."
Hearing the phrase questions and answers, something sparked inside Junon's mind.
"Don't tell me you two..."
"You fought harder than anyone else. It doesn't sit right with us seeing you bow your head like this."
"We figured out what you were trying to do to prepare us. Teaching us those techniques, telling us how to strike the cervical vertebrae of those rat beasts... It was our own fault for being so damn sluggish."
"The situation was awful, too. We were spread out over a wide formation, so why the hell did so many of them break through our rear? How does that even make sense?"
"And on top of that, those bastards deserted! Those cowards are the real problem!"
"Ah, now that you mention it, that's right! I almost forgot about them?!"
They kept rambling, insisting that misfortune had merely piled upon misfortune.
"Anyway, you're the reason we survived this time, too. Even if things go south and we lose our mana circuits, even if we can never wield mana again, we have no regrets."
"Noel's babbling on and on, but I'll cut straight to the point with one sentence: thanks for keeping us alive, you bastard!"
Far from resenting him, they were expressing pure gratitude for having their lives saved once more.
Junon had assumed there was no one left in the academy who would take his side...
Perhaps that wasn't entirely true.
"So hurry up and get your ass over to the banquet hall. That's where you belong, isn't it?"
"Isn't it already starting?! Move it, man!"
"Uh, wait. No, I don't really want to go..."
Junon had no desire to attend. He knew that showing his face would only invite a fresh barrage of scorn and criticism. Yet, it seemed he had no choice in the matter.
"Hey! Don't you know Renias is waiting for you?!"
"...Renias? Why would she wait for me?"
"How should we know? Guess you're the only one who didn't hear. Word is, she got all dressed up to the nines today just to meet you."
"Dressed up to the nines... to meet me? What kind of nonsense is..."
"You'll have to go see for yourself to find out! How the hell would we know?!"
"Just go, you idiot. If you're genuinely sorry to us, walk into that hall with your chest puffed out. Got it?"
"And go beg Renias for forgiveness on your knees, alright?"
"S-Sure..."
Shoved out the door by their relentless badgering, Junon finally took his leave. Left alone in the hospital room, the two exchanged a satisfied high-five.
"Nicely done, Noel. Bringing up Lady Renias was a stroke of genius."
"Right back at you, John. Nobody changes the subject quite like you."
"...Wait, what do we do about that Renias lie, though? He's gonna figure out it was total bull in two seconds."
"Who cares? We got him out of here, didn't we? If it looks like he's coming back to rip our heads off, we'll just run for it then."
Meanwhile, a group of three students walked toward the banquet venue. The uneasy, guilty expressions plastered across their faces were impossible to miss.
"Ugh... we're not going to run into anyone there, are we...?"
"So what if we do? We have to act completely brazen!"
"I-Is that so?"
"If we chicken out and run away, people will think it's even weirder! That's why we have to shamelessly show our faces!"
The three students reached the vicinity of Alios Hall, where the banquet was underway. Having dirty consciences, all three were trembling with tension, but one among them was particularly on edge.
"I'm telling you right now, if you keep shaking like that once we're inside... Huh?"
"Where did Miki go...?"
The guy who had been shivering uncontrollably and making things awkward just seconds ago had suddenly vanished into thin air.
"Don't tell me he bailed?"
"Dammit, what the hell is he thinking?!"
"It shouldn't be too late. To reach Alios Hall, you have to pass through the main avenue no matter what."
"Right, let's find him. If he's quivering and running away, he should be easy to spot."
They stepped out onto the wide avenue, but with crowds of guests streaming toward the hall, picking out a single person proved difficult.
"Haah... Did he really run away? Spineless coward. Leon, you better not run off, too, got it?"
No answer came.
"What the... Leon? Where the hell did you go?!"
Was he playing some kind of sick joke? But how could someone vanish right in the middle of a crowded thoroughfare?
Only now did a chill creep up his spine. Something was terribly wrong.
Seeing his companions disappear one after another felt unnatural. The moment he tried to spin on his heel to flee—
A hand shot out from the decorative ornamental shrubs, yanking his body inward with immense force.
"Mmph! Mmphh!!"
His mouth gagged, he was dragged ruthlessly into a hidden blind spot. The assailant dumped him unceremoniously onto the dirt, reuniting the ringleader with his two missing cohorts.
When the gag was yanked from his mouth, as if daring him to speak, he immediately bristled.
"Pwah...! What the hell is this?! Do you realize this is kidnapping?!"
"You look like arrogant nobles looking to pick a fight, but you picked the wrong targets!"
"T-That's right! We have every right to enter that banquet hall!"
They put on a brazen front, pretending their hands were spotless.
They had no clue where the victory in that subjugation campaign had originated. They didn't consider why this banquet was even taking place, nor did they reflect on whose sacrifice had allowed them to walk on their own two feet today.
It was enough to turn anyone's stomach, but for once, it was Senia who stepped forward first.
"Did you enjoy rabble-rousing the crowd, you cowardly deserters?"
The shrill shouts demanding their release died in an instant. The single word deserters brought their brains to a screeching halt.
"What? Did you think nobody knew you ran away like dogs? With nothing but mush between your ears, your brains couldn't possibly fathom it, could they? You brainless bastards."
"Brainless...?! Where did this crazy b-bitch come... f-from...?"
As the woman pulled down her mask, the ringleader's sentence fractured into stunned silence.
They had assumed their abductors were mere nobles venting petty grudges, but they were fatally mistaken. Before their eyes stood a core member of Team Tembris—the elite vanguard credited with slaying Shanberesh. Naturally, terror froze them solid.
Yet, as sly as a rat, the ringleader who had once successfully hidden his faults through slander desperately churned his thoughts to find an angle.
"W-Wait! Listen to me! You know how it is too, Senia!"
"How what is?"
"Y-You heard the reports, didn't you?! The Lemterte Plague's symptoms get worse the more you're infected! Staying in that meat grinder and fighting was pure suicide!"
"Exactly! That bastard Junon, he knew about it all along and kept it to himself while forcing that weird, suicidal combat style on us!"
Foolishly, they tried to wiggle out of their predicament with impromptu lies. Seeing Senia silently listening, they mistook it for an opening, heaping on exaggeration like cheap seasoning.
"Besides, I saw that guy before the cure was even announced, and he was completely fine! Walking around on his own two feet without a single blue spot! How could he be the only one unharmed unless he had an angle?!"
"I-I saw it too! He cooked up some slanderous scheme just to save his own skin! Which means... yeah! We were being used!"
"Right! Exactly! We realized we were being used as disposable bait and got the hell out of there! That treacherous coward was the problem all along!"
"S-So... you get it now, right? We just... hope the misunderstanding is cleared up?"
After letting them babble to their hearts' content, Senia exhaled a heavy, frigid breath and asked a single question.
"Then how is it that you three—who followed that 'weird combat style'—are walking around completely unharmed, unlike the main army soldiers who lost their mana circuits or are still undergoing agonizing treatment?"
"Huh...?"
The three were struck dumb, and Senia pressed on without missing a beat.
"You said it yourselves just now. It's caused by the Devourers' bodily fluids. The severity of the infection depends on how much of their fluid touches your skin. Yet your symptoms are merely in the initial stage—just a scattering of blue spots. Why do you think that is?"
None of the students who had stood beside Junon had understood his actions, but Senia saw through his intentions with pristine clarity.
"Junon must have ordered you to barely use your mana. Because you held your physical weapons and delayed deploying your Magic Armament for as long as possible, keeping your spellcasting to the absolute minimum, the infection stayed at the earliest phase. That is the sole reason the disease hasn't ravaged your bodies."
In their foolishness, they had failed to comprehend that critical distinction.
They had simply comforted themselves with excuses, claiming that while the main force at the front consisted of seasoned commanders and organized veterans, the student rear guard was untrained and doomed to fail.
"Junon was a coward trying to save his own skin? Don't make me laugh. The only cowards here were you. You wretched cowards who abandoned your comrades in the rear and deserted just to save your own miserable hides!!!"
"Guh-urgh...!"
Unable to contain her fury, Senia rammed the scabbard of her sword straight into the second student's open mouth.
The man who had stood silently beside her pulled down his mask as well.
"S-Shpare meee..."
The man was Cain. With a look of pure revulsion, he shoved his crumpled mask into the first conspirator's mouth, gripped the boy's jaw in a vice-like hold, and slammed his head back against the stone wall. The two of them looked ready to permanently shatter those treacherous jaws so they could never speak another lie.
"E-Eeeek...!"
Watching his two accomplices' faces contort in agonizing terror right beside him, the ringleader screamed at the top of his lungs, completely unhinged by fear.
"What did we do wrong?! We just wanted to live! Ordinary guys like me and them had no other choice! What could we do against monsters like that except run?!"
Cain and Senia's heads snapped toward him at the same time.
"You gifted bastards wouldn't understand! But we're not like you! Compared to people like you or Junon, we're just clumsy, useless cowards! What was so wrong about running away to survive?!"
Tears and snot streamed down his face as he wailed in bitter self-pity.
Just as he claimed, the three were utterly ordinary students whose names barely anyone knew, lacking even the notorious reputation that clung to Junon. Because this subjugation force had hastily conscripted green students to bolster their numbers, it was understandable that such terror might arise.
Even so, his excuse was an unforgivable fallacy.
"Talented? Don't make me laugh. Did you just call Junon 'talented'?"
"What else would he be?! You said it yourself, he knew everything! Isn't that talent in itself?!"
"You dare call it talent for someone who clawed his way forward, taking the contempt and curses of others as his only nourishment from the very day he enrolled?"
Indeed. Junon was a man who had known nothing but the scorn of the world.
He had lived saddled with shameful epithets: the weakest vanguard, the Class E failure.
Anyone else might have been flattered by the word 'genius,' but Junon was utterly divorced from natural talent. He had been dismissed as a broken tool, someone who could act as an expendable shield but could never swing a weapon to fight alongside others.
Though blessed with a unique magic known as Mana Shield, his offensive combat potential was virtually zero. Falling vastly behind his peers, incapable of mastering even foundational spellcasting, he had been forced to learn every single discipline that wasn't magic just to survive.
And...
Perhaps, Junon was someone who had already tasted death once before.
"If you genuinely believe that garbage, you aren't even worth beating. You pathetic waste of breath."
Swallowing her surging disgust, Senia turned her back and walked away alongside Cain.
Holding a professorship meant that, on paper, Muniherr was an educator.
Since his duty was guiding the academy's students, he had to ensure that Cain and Senia didn't cross an irreversible line. Thus, he had quietly watched the retribution unfold upon the three ringleaders who had incited the slander against Junon.
"They exercised admirable restraint."
He had trailed them out of concern that things might turn lethal, but they hadn't crossed that boundary. One might chalk it up to Tembris's discipline, but in truth, it was Junon's steady influence that had restrained the pair.
"However, I have no intention of letting this slide."
Muniherr observed the faces of the three trembling youths with a cold, piercing gaze, then pulled a leather pocket notebook and a pen from his coat.
[ Targets: Miki Dwallo, Leon Chedaka, Demian Trivel ]
Grounds for Expulsion: Desertion during active combat operations, inciting panic, and severely demoralizing allied forces. Having demonstrated a complete absence of the foundational ethics and virtues required of an academy student, there exists zero justification for their continued enrollment.