For the Days Ahead
Although she had only suffered stage one Mana Exhaustion, Adele still remained confined to the hospital.
To be precise, her discharge had been postponed for certain reasons. And having been told that a caregiver was needed, Junon once again found himself heading back toward the hospital ward—though whether she truly required someone to nurse her remained an open question.
"Excuse me."
"You're here early. My little girl is still in dreamland."
"...I should keep my voice down, then."
"What does it matter if she wakes? More importantly, by the time I opened the door yesterday, you were already gone. You could have at least stayed long enough to let me thank you properly."
"I couldn't intrude on a reunion between mother and daughter."
"Even so, how could you walk away without letting me offer a single word of gratitude after receiving such help? It's quite disheartening."
"Haha..."
The daughter lay fast asleep, resting her head peacefully on her mother's lap. Even lost in slumber, she nuzzled against Lewena's hand whenever it brushed over her, clinging to it tightly. There was no need to ask how desperately she had longed for the woman beside her.
Last night, after Junon had left them alone, tears must have poured like rain between words kept hidden for far too long. The evidence was plain enough in the dried, crusty traces still clinging to the corners of Adele's eyes.
"She cried until she ran out of strength, curled straight into my arms, and fell asleep," Lewena murmured. "That's why her face is still such a mess."
"I don't think it's strange at all. It's only natural."
Lewena let out a soft chuckle. "Is that so?"
How many years had passed before she could finally see her mother again? With what desperate resolve had Adele shouldered the dirty work of the Count Coutelli household all this time? For a girl with nowhere else in the world to turn, who had clung desperately to that abusive noble house simply to have a place where she belonged, this reunion was beyond anything words could measure.
Which was precisely why Junon had something to say while he was here.
"How about stepping down as guildmaster and dissolving the Lewen Merchant Guild entirely?"
"...Why do you say that?"
To her ears, the suggestion must have sounded absurd. Now that she had her daughter back, wanting to rebuild the guild and secure a comfortable future would be the normal response; telling her to dismantle it outright made no apparent sense.
Yet there was already a precedent, and they could not afford to be careless.
"Adele might become a target again. That's why I'm advising you to disband."
"A target...? But the count's house has already fallen."
"The Coutelli family isn't the end of it. They're merely part of a larger faction."
The force that had blatantly tried to sabotage the academy festival was not just the Coutelli family, but the collective Noble Coalition. Naturally, someone like Adele, who was intimately tied to their secrets, was an eyesore they would want eliminated at the first opportunity.
They would not dare strike at Adele directly in the wake of such a public disgrace, of course. But with Lewena by her side and a merchant guild under her command, avenues of attack would present themselves in abundance.
"The Lewen Merchant Guild holds no real martial strength," Junon pressed. "You must hire escorts from the outside, and you lack the formal protection of a titled noble house. Grand Duke Ardelion may have lent a hand, but that power extends only to personal protection, not to an entire commercial syndicate. If they make up their minds to strike... you must consider the possibility of what happened at Ripol Gorge occurring all over again."
"Ripol Gorge... So you were there as well."
"I won't deny it. If you wish, feel free to ask your executives; I won't mind in the slightest."
Junon cared nothing for whether his background was investigated. Averting an obvious catastrophe was far more important—for Adele's sake, for the Lewen Merchant Guild, and ultimately, for the Principality itself.
"Junon. I won't say your reasoning is flawed. But... the only weapon I possess to protect Adele is the guild's wealth, is it not?"
"If you had a great house offering absolute protection, that would be one thing. Without it, half-baked wealth is merely a liability."
Wealth was the most potent lever to disrupt the value of resources. The greatest threat to the foundation painstakingly erected by the Noble Coalition was capital that refused to bend to their will. If people of independent wealth appeared while the coalition was extracting steady profit from their established domain, what would happen?
It was obvious. Just as they had done at Ripol Gorge, they would move to cut off the threat at the root.
Much less could the Lewen Merchant Guild—possessing neither martial might nor a solid noble patron—mount any resistance. With only vulnerabilities remaining, the guild's very existence would become a shackle dragging mother and daughter down together.
"Let me ask you once more. Is there any family in the Principality truly willing to shield the Lewen Merchant Guild?"
"..."
Silence. Its meaning was unmistakable.
"I understand, Junon. I will do as you say."
Like the shrewd merchant she was, arriving at a conclusion did not take long.
That was a weight off his chest.
Unlike the executives who had nearly brought ruin upon themselves, Lewena had grasped the reality of the situation and conceded immediately.
"Ah. Are you two finished talking?"
Stepping out of the hospital room, Junon found Renias waiting in the corridor.
"If you were here, you should've knocked and come inside. How long have you been standing out here?"
"Um... well, not very long!"
Seeing her hesitate, suspicion immediately flared. Wait, when did I start talking with Madame Lewena?
When Sylvia had fallen asleep, the clock had been around the eleven-minute mark... and looking at it now, the hand had circled back to roughly the same position. It had been nearly fifty minutes. He might not know the exact minimum, but he was certain the maximum was fifty minutes.
"...You haven't been standing out here waiting the entire time, have you?"
Renias gave an awkward, sheepish giggle. That confirmed it. Unluckily enough, there were no chairs anywhere along this stretch of the hallway.
"Haah... Why'd you stand out here like a fool? Your legs must be killing you."
"Still, it felt awkward to just barge in. It didn't look like there was any room for me to butt into the conversation... Not that I was eavesdropping, though! I—I barely heard anything!"
Rather than listen to her flustered stammering, Junon decided he needed to get her off her feet first.
"S-Senior?"
"Hold still. You need to sit down so we can work the tension out of your legs."
"I can walk on my own...! You don't have to carry me like this..."
"Just stay still. Squirming only makes it harder for me."
Cutting off her flailing with a firm word, Junon carried her over to a bench and set her down, lightly pressing his fingers against her calves.
"..."
Look at her. Was she really trying to pretend it didn't hurt and tough it out?
Let's see if she could stay quiet under a real press.
"Ah... S-Senior! I surrender! I'm sorry!"
"Good grief. Why try to endure it? You must have been standing for at least thirty minutes."
"Euuugh... but..."
"Enough. Give me your leg. I'll massage it out."
"Hwaaah... That feels so good... *huff*."
"...You can just say it feels good. I'm not going to scold you."
"Ehehe. Yes, Senior..."
Seeing her like this brought back vivid memories of when Renias first set foot in the physical training room. She had charged in boldly, snorting with determination, only to start wheezing before long and collapse across the floor like an exhausted little rabbit, crying that she couldn't take another step. And when her legs had cramped up, she had practically whined with tears in her eyes.
Evidently, he wasn't the only one reminded of that day.
"Ugh... I always end up showing you my most embarrassing sides, Senior..."
First memories were bound to leave a lasting mark, and here he was, working the stiffness out of her legs just like he had back then. Not much had changed since, though she seemed acutely aware of her own embarrassment now, fidgeting self-consciously with her fingers. Whenever the tight knots loosened under his hands, she let out a dazed, melting sigh.
Truly, she was no different from a little rabbit.
"So, how much did you hear?"
"Y-Yes? Hear what?"
"Standing in such an awkward spot, there's no way you heard everything."
"Whoa... How do you always see right through me, Senior?"
Her indecisive positioning had probably been because she wanted to listen, yet felt guilty about eavesdropping. Her hesitation was likely reinforced by how Junon had always asked her to pretend not to notice whenever trouble broke out around him in the past.
"My legs feel all better now, so please tell me on the way: what do I need to do to help Senior Adele and Madame Lewena?"
"Mmm. So you heard from that part."
The reason he advised dissolving the Lewen Merchant Guild despite it being their sole weapon.
And the single best way for the mother and daughter, currently marked by the high nobility, to escape their crosshairs.
The key to that solution rested in Renias's hands.
The End-of-Semester Evaluation. The Start-of-Semester Evaluation. The defense of Alkaid Hall against the Orthoptera. The Class Assignment Exam.
Wherever major incidents erupted, he was always there, consistently making moves far beyond conventional wisdom to bring about extraordinary outcomes.
If such feats had become known, the Academy's upper echelon would have realized immediately that he was no ordinary student and kept a close eye on him. Yet for months, he had remained completely unacknowledged. And his discovery had come far later than it should have—by none other than the man holding the highest authority in the land: the Grand Duke of Ardelion.
'This time, there was simply no way around it.'
Until now, Ophelia had quietly pulled strings behind the scenes to keep word of his accomplishments from leaking out, but this time, all such efforts were useless. Regarding the incident at Count Coutelli's estate, no matter what strings she pulled, Junon's name could not be kept off the official records.
"This settles it, Ophelia. Do you have any excuse?"
"...No, Father."
What had the Grand Duke yearned for all this time?
He had prayed for someone to rise and shatter the entrenched dogmas of the high nobility, who brandished elitism and supremacist arrogance. He had longed for a living testament proving the ideals of freedom and equality were not mistaken, someone who could smash the corrupt traditions of the Academy. He had even harbored the hope that a comet-like figure would emerge to spread hope beyond the Academy and across the entire Principality.
Yet to learn that a brilliant star had already been shining—and that its presence had been deliberately concealed—was something he could hardly overlook.
"Had you thrown your lot in with the high nobility, you would have committed far worse. But no such thing has occurred, nor is there any sign of it... which means you must have had your own reasons for acting this way."
"..."
"So speak for yourself. Why on earth did you bury the achievements of this vanguard student so deeply?"
Ophelia shared the Grand Duke's vision, and she had never harbored any intention of rebelling against her father. If anything, her conviction was fiercer than his own, never weaker. Had she not personally taken command of the Academy's Disciplinary Committee specifically to put the ideals of freedom and equality into practice and check the conspiracies of the Noble Coalition?
Yet, even Ophelia had a reason she had no choice but to act as she did this time.
"If I answer you... will you be willing to respect my judgment, Father?"
"I would need to hear it first before deciding. Besides, you know as well as I do, do you not? Only if this individual's name is widely proclaimed and exalted can we begin to dig out the rotting roots of the Principality."
"I know the Principality needs such talent. However..."
Because Junon himself had no wish to become famous, she could not readily continue. She knew he had no desire to walk that treacherous, exhausting path.
Observing Ophelia's reaction closely, the Grand Duke let out a quiet sigh before offering an alternative.
"What do you say to this? Surely this serves as a fair compromise."
"Pardon? But, Father... taking such a measure would mean..."
"Are you dissatisfied even after I have conceded this much? That puts me in quite a difficult spot."
"N-No, it is not that. I was simply caught by surprise..."
"Then it is settled. Consider the matter closed."
The Grand Duke stepped back and chose to honor Ophelia's decision.
Without pressing further questions or demanding explanations, he declared that every matter pertaining to Junon would be left entirely to Ophelia's discretion. With that, any risk of Junon's secrets and exploits being dragged into the open evaporated.
Still, calling this a mere compromise felt like an understatement; it was far closer to a complete concession on the Grand Duke's part.