The Second Day of the Festival
"I have no excuses, Your Grace. For such an incident to occur..."
"How could you have foreseen it? Rise."
"Still, Sire..."
"I know full well you no longer act solely out of greed. There is no need to prostrate yourself on the floor as though you have committed high treason."
"I am overwhelmed by your benevolence, Your Grace."
Reviewing the delivery ledger for the academy's festival supplies, the Grand Duke offered words of comfort to the guildmaster of the Lewen Merchant Guild.
"What worries me more is the present shortage. Is there truly no way to procure more mana stones?"
"It is impossible, I fear. The naturally occurring veins within our territory are almost completely exhausted, and the high nobility refuses to deploy laborers into the mines. In all likelihood, they intend to corner the market and hoard every remaining cache to drive up prices."
"Tsk... What a headache."
"Given the scale of their coordinated movements across the provinces, I suspect their true objective was never the festival itself, but rather severing our supply of mana stones."
"It is a relief your caravan escaped intact, but of all things, they had to target mana stones... Yet we cannot afford to cancel this festival."
The fact that the high nobility had begun to make their move meant they were determined to sabotage the Grand Duke's initiative to empower the commoners and lower-ranking students.
More vexingly, if this continued, the academy's students—particularly those assigned to specific combat roles—would suffer a drastic drop in fighting capability.
"You are concerned about the Magic Armament Compatibility Test, aren't you?"
"Indeed. Conducting that test requires a massive quantity of mana stones..."
Two essential pillars existed to uplift the lower classes.
First was hosting the annual festival, reaffirming the academy's founding principles of freedom and equality.
Second was the Magic Armament Compatibility Test, which offered a substantial boost to the combat potential of frontline vanguards and support-class students.
Yet with the academy's existing reserves running dry, they were backed into a corner, forced to make a bitter choice between the two.
"What are your thoughts on the matter?"
"For now, I believe our best course of action is to let the festival proceed as planned."
As the Grand Duke racked his brains, the man currently working to reform the academy's rotting foundation stepped forward to narrow down the options.
It was Professor Muniherr, summoned to offer counsel on whether the noble coalition was orchestrating a broader conspiracy.
"I am inclined to agree. Halting an ongoing festival would only invite greater chaos and send public sentiment plummeting off a cliff..."
Even so, abandoning the Magic Armament Compatibility Test was out of the question.
As a sovereign ruler, his duty was to protect his people; as the academy's board chairman, his duty was to safeguard his students.
"We still have time before the compatibility test begins," Muniherr continued calmly. "I will seek alternative avenues in the interim. For now, release the academy's stockpiled stones and proceed with the festival."
"I am always in your debt, Duke Gelbarten."
"Think nothing of it. My duty is to sever the rot at its roots."
Placed on the scales against the looming compatibility test, the urgent matter of the ongoing festival had claimed the academy's remaining mana stones.
Muniherr assured the Grand Duke not to fret and urged him to trust the process, before bowing and departing alongside the guildmaster.
"Still... I suppose this could have been worse," the Grand Duke murmured to the empty room.
It was hardly an ideal resolution, but looking at it from another angle, they had at least bought valuable time.
The Lewen Merchant Guild had not been destroyed, preventing an outcome where the festival would fall under the noble coalition's sway and degenerate into yet another showcase of aristocratic discrimination.
Had that happened, the nobles would have tightened their grip around the academy's throat and steadily consolidated their influence. That catastrophe, at least, had been averted.
Moreover, despite the damage the guild sustained, discerning that the enemy's true target was the mana stones was a stroke of immense good fortune.
Knock, knock.
"Your Grace, it is Ophelia. May I enter?"
"Come in."
His daughter, who tirelessly bore the academy's burdens on her shoulders, walked through the door. In this formal setting, however, they stood not as father and daughter, but as board chairman and student council president.
"I have come regarding the matter we discussed previously, Your Grace."
"Ah. The Belshuar Ark requisition, was it?"
"Yes. I have compiled the necessary documentation to extend the loan period."
A high-tier artifact carried the risk of falling into ordinary hands or being turned toward nefarious ends, making the Grand Duke's direct authorization an unavoidable requirement.
Yet no matter what justifications were presented on parchment, a seasoned ruler responsible for an entire nation could always spot the inconsistencies.
"Even to your own eyes, this document must appear rather strange."
"..."
"Just who is it that requires the protection of an artifact forged by the Empire's greatest prime minister? Isn't it about time you told me?"
Explain yourself.
The unspoken demand hung heavy in the Grand Duke's piercing gaze.
The second day of the festival.
The vibrant, festive warmth that had swept through Revrant long into the previous night had finally died down.
Morning broke over the capital, dragging the populace out of yesterday's memories and ushering them into a new day.
Yet one girl remained stranded in the evening that had just passed.
Standing by his side, she had watched him try to brush the whole thing off as if it were nothing—a casual dismissal that only churned her stomach with frustration.
He had insisted it was fine, but she was sharp enough to know it was anything but.
Getting struck across the face by that woman named Erika, only to have filthy water dumped over his head right after—how on earth was anyone supposed to just let that go?
And once their conversation had ended, she had seen the heavy sighs he drew, the weary, haunted look on his face as he lost himself in thought. Having witnessed all of that, she refused to look the other way.
Just how much does Senior Junon intend to endure?
"Milady Renias...? Where are you headed so early?"
"There is somewhere I must go."
"Where may I take you, Lady Renias?"
She did not understand why he had lied to her. Nor did she understand why he was willing to swallow such humiliation in silence. If he would not give her answers, she would seek them out herself.
Wondering where his young mistress could possibly be traveling at the crack of dawn, the coachman accepted the slip of paper she handed him.
"How long do you think it will take?"
"Hmm. It is quite a distance, so it should take roughly an hour. Do you need to arrive sooner?"
"Yes. As fast as possible, please. I do not mind if the ride is rough."
"As you command, Milady."
Yesterday's incident had reached no proper conclusion. The girl, still tethered to the shadow of the previous evening rather than the light of the morning, stepped into the carriage.
She had to confront someone and purge this suffocating fire burning in her chest before she could face today.
The carriage raced forward far faster than usual, finally screeching to a halt. A silver-haired girl of breathtaking grace stepped down onto the cobblestones.
Alerted to the arrival of such a distinguished guest, the mistress of the estate hurried out to the front gates, bowing with the utmost courtesy.
Though the lady of the house offered profuse apologies for the meager welcome, Renias paid it no heed.
After all, she had arrived completely unannounced without so much as a letter of introduction, and she certainly had not come seeking lavish hospitality.
Naturally, that left only one question: what had prompted the young duchess to storm their estate so early in the morning?
"I have come to speak with your daughter."
"Our daughter, Milady...? Do you mean Erika?"
"Yes. You may wonder why I did not simply send a letter, but the matter is of grave importance."
Though her expression betrayed her bewilderment, the countess promptly arranged a parlor. It was not long before Renias sat on the sofa, watching a young noblewoman open the door and step inside.
Closing the door with measured care, the noble lady offered a formal aristocratic curtsy.
"...May I ask what brings you here, Lady Lantana?"
The silver-haired girl sitting before her was the very same one who, just hours prior, had unleashed an aura of raw mana violent enough to whip up gale-force winds in a sheer display of intimidation.
To think that Renias would march straight to her family estate and wait for her on the parlor sofa.
"There is no need to address me with such stiff titles."
"...I am afraid I cannot agree, Lady Lantana."
Using such rigid etiquette felt undeniably awkward, but this was not the academy.
At Lebrant Academy, where equality was championed, age and school year took precedence. Here, within the halls of the Scherpen Estate, the stark reality of social standing reigned supreme.
Facing a daughter of a ducal house, Erika had no choice but to maintain formal deference.
Renias told her she could suit herself, then cut straight to the heart of the matter.
"You are well aware that the founding ideal of Lebrant Academy is equality, correct?"
"...I am."
Every soul living in the Grand Duchy of Ardelion was bound by disparities in social status and strength. Yet within the academy's walls, the Grand Duke had instituted that absolute ideal precisely to shatter those prejudices.
Every human life held equal value, and talent was vital to the realm regardless of noble blood or humble birth.
"Freedom and equality. Those are the very tenets upon which the academy was built."
"You know them well. Then you must also know there are those who flagrantly violate them."
"Need you even ask? It is just as you say, Milady. The high nobility who mock those ideals hold the academy in a stranglehold."
The high-ranking aristocrats. The faction that rebelled against the Grand Duchy's egalitarian policies, insisting that nobles should live above commoners as was their birthright.
Their faction, their scions, and virtually anyone attending the academy knew this harsh reality well.
So why is she asking me this?
The Scherpen family was an established faction loyal to the Grand Duke to begin with...
Just as the doubt began to swirl in Erika's mind, a cold voice struck her ears, making her shoulders flinch.
"Then if you understand that so clearly, why did you commit such a wretched act yesterday?"
It was the same voice from the night before.
The memory came rushing back—Renias's frigid, murderous tone, radiating overwhelming mana that crushed the surrounding air in sheer fury.
Yet Erika could not fathom what she meant by 'a wretched act.' Baffled, she asked in return.
"I do not understand what you mean, Milady."
"You feign innocence. The one who struck Senior Junon across the face, the one who poured water over him—it was you, Lady Erika. Does someone who understands our founding ideals so well truly intend to deny that such conduct was utterly wretched?"
At first, Erika had wondered what brought her here, but now she was entirely certain.
This, too, had to be part of Junon's insidious scheme. If he was going to play his hand like this, she saw no reason to hold back.
Why on earth had she let herself be shaken by his pathetic claim of having been murdered by a member of the Tembris party? It was nothing more than a transparent lie.
"I am not feigning innocence. I confronted him to uncover his hidden motives because I had ample justification to do so. That man is far more rotten and depraved than he appears on the surface."
"...What did you say?"
"I do not deny that the high nobles and their spoiled children who trample on the academy's ideals are in the wrong, nor do I defend the corrupt professors allied with them. But that man harbors an agenda far darker than any of theirs."
He was not merely someone who disregarded a few school rules.
"He is a man who will exploit anything and anyone to achieve his selfish ends. Wickedness knows no class, Milady. Yet he is someone entirely incapable of achieving anything through his own power."
He was the traitor who would one day lead the hopeful pillars of the principality into slaughter just to secure his own survival, a monster who would cast aside the very comrades who fought beside him.
"Which is why he uses anyone around him who can be manipulated. And once their usefulness runs dry, he drags them down into ruin alongside him."
To reach his goals, he wouldn't hesitate for a second to deceive an innocent, pure-hearted girl who offered nothing but smiles and cheer to those around her.
"I must tell you, Lady Lantana, you are being thoroughly deceived by him. Is it not obvious? He is too weak to face me himself, so he manipulated you into doing his bidding."
If this girl had stormed the Scherpen Estate as his proxy, Erika refused to take a single step backward.
"I hope you understand that my actions were not the bullying of a weakling, but the rightful punishment of a wicked scoundrel."
This was no longer just about the Tembris party.
He had seduced the purest gem of the academy, using her aristocratic authority as a weapon to threaten others.
Wrong had to be set right.
And yet.
"...Are you finished speaking?"
The fury radiating from Renias was terrifying, far worse than the night before. It was as though someone had deliberately stepped upon her reverse scale.
Even without releasing the crushing weight of her mana, the sheer, piercing brilliance in Renias's eyes caused Erika to instinctively recoil.
"You are no different from the noble coalition. To think you would hide behind such pathetic, petty excuses."
Blinking in sheer disbelief at the absurd reaction, Erika was struck utterly speechless.
Even after laying bare his true nature, she refused to listen? Just why?
"Lady Lantana, did you not hear me? That man is merely using you—"
"You are so utterly weak and foolish that you aren't even worth comparing to Senior Junon."
"...What?"
"We are done here. Excuse me."
Without sparing her another second, Renias turned on her heel and strode out of the parlor.
The entire reason she had visited the Scherpen Estate was to bring a proper conclusion to what had happened to Senior Junon.
The House of Scherpen was an established pillar of the Grand Duke's loyalist faction. They were not supposed to be the kind of people who judged others by combat role or aristocratic pedigree.
She had thought that the daughter of Count Scherpen, known far and wide as a holy healer, would likewise possess an open mind—someone who could be reasoned with through honest dialogue.
That belief had brought her to the estate's gates.
Yet it had been a complete delusion. The woman looked down on him not merely as a liar or a cheap swindler, but treated him like a vile criminal who had committed some unforgivable sin.
There was no way that could be true.
The Senior Junon that Renias had seen with her own two eyes was stronger and more resolute than anyone else, a man who looked several steps ahead even when cornered by terrible circumstances.
His discipline was unmatched, spending the vast majority of his days immersed in grueling training, and his skill was undeniable.
Was that all? Even when it meant taking losses himself, his innate consideration for others proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he could never be an evil person.
Erika Scherpen is just deranged.
Telling herself that, Renias focused on quelling the boiling heat rising in her chest, just as she had the night before.
"Milady?"
"Ah... Yes? What is it?"
"We arrived at the academy more than ten minutes ago. You had not stepped out for so long that I grew concerned... Has something happened?"
"...No, it's nothing. I'll get down now."
She had been so absorbed in suppressing her mounting anger that she hadn't even realized the carriage had stopped.
Now that she was back on academy grounds, it was time to leave her temper behind.
"...Aren't you here way too early? It's great that you're motivated, but I don't recall telling you to show up at the break of dawn."
"Just because. I happened to wake up early today, that's all."
She couldn't let him see how upset she was.
Just for today... she would wear a cheerful mask in front of him.