The Outsider
The moment I woke up in my dormitory, I sensed a human presence — in my own room, of all places.
And it was the presence of a complete amateur, one who didn't even seem to know the first thing about concealing themselves.
...And I'm the one who failed to notice this?
Me — the man who had survived by reading the presence of countless others, who had lived with a kill always close at hand?
However much I'd slacked off on training in the period right after my birth, this was still... genuinely dire, wasn't it?
Deal with that first, then think.
Fortunately, the intruder still seemed oblivious to me. For whatever reason I'd held back until now, in the next breath I was about to drive a dagger into that throat without a flicker of hesitation—
"Wha—?!"
A face I'd seen somewhere before, and a voice I knew all too well, struck my ears.
It was Ella.
Thankfully, I stopped myself before the blade could find her throat, and not a single drop of blood was drawn from Ella's neck.
"Y-you scared me half to death!! Young Master!!"
"Sorry... I took you for an intruder..."
"Even so, what kind of person puts a knife to someone's throat without even checking who they are!!"
And so, on top of waking earlier than usual, I was made to sit through the entirety of Ella's storm of a lecture.
...No, wait. When you think about it, isn't the real problem that she waltzed into my room uninvited?
"By the way, Ella. How exactly did you get in here...? I'm quite sure I locked the door...?"
"With a key?"
"...And where, might I ask, did you obtain a key...?"
"I explained my situation to the Chairwoman, and she gave me one!"
"What exactly did you tell her...?"
Ella had, after all, accompanied me as my attendant when I first entered the Academy. She was therefore no cadet, but she did hold legitimate entry rights to the grounds. However, every dormitory at the Academy was divided into a men's wing and a women's wing — and entering the dormitory of the opposite sex was a violation of school rules. And that notoriously strict Chairwoman had permitted a woman into the men's dormitory?
"She simply said there was no one left to attend to you, Young Master, so she handed the key right over! She seems like such a kind person!"
...
...No. There's no way.
Anyone else, perhaps — but not the Chairwoman. She was the one person in this entire Academy who enforced its rules with surgical precision.
"Ella. You are a servant of the ducal house..."
"Not anymore, I'm not!"
"...What I mean is, abandoning your post on a whim is the same as bringing harm upon the ducal house..."
"...That's..."
"And besides, I distinctly told you to come find me only after you'd secured other employment and a comfortable cushion of savings... did I not?"
"I already sorted out all of that! I may not look it, but I'm quite the diligent worker — popular at every shop around here!"
"...Is that so?"
"And besides, I'd already made up my mind to leave the ducal house the moment you did, Young Master..."
"...Why?"
"Because we're family!"
...Family.
Why did that worthless little word shake my chest so violently?
I had always been alone, and always lonely. No matter how hard I tried to look away from it, this much was the truth. Search through any of my lives, and I had never once had a family. Friendships were out of the question — I counted myself lucky if I simply wasn't betrayed.
I had grown incapable of trusting people, and had forgotten long ago what it meant to share a life with another human being. So I pushed people away, and pushed them away again. Having come to loathe the very idea of staying beside anyone, I rejected it with my whole being.
No matter how close I let anyone get, they never understood me — and I, in turn, gradually stopped expecting them to. I had believed this heart of mine would never change.
So why, in this life...
What could possibly be so special about me, that there were people who tried this hard for my sake?
"Young Master...?"
When I went silent for a long while, Ella leaned in close, peering up at me and calling out as if worried — and at the sight of it, I couldn't help but let out another dry little laugh.
Who was this soft, small child worrying about, exactly? Without even knowing what kind of man I was?
Leaving that long-overdue reunion for later, I made my way slowly out of the room — attendance still awaited me today, after all.
Meanwhile, inside the head of Isabella — the Academy's next Archmage — there was only one man.
The man they called the delinquent and dolt of House Reinhardt. A man recently cast out of his own family, who had vanished for fifty days before finally showing his face again. A man who, raw talent aside, would have made people see him in an entirely different light if he'd merely mastered the fundamentals.
She was thinking about Jenison.
Rumors of yesterday's duel had spread through every last corner of the Academy. Some argued that blockhead or not, he was still Class A material after all; others, heaping scorn on his opponent, insisted they could have won in his place. But the one opinion shared by everyone was that Jenison's combat prowess had improved beyond all recognition — because not a single soul had believed he could beat Leon.
And then there was that final magic circle. No one had imagined a tracking formation could be applied in such a way.
Tracking magic, by its very definition, was a spell crafted to pursue a single distinctive feature. It was never meant to lend homing capability to a weapon.
Of course, it wasn't as though no one had ever conceived of such a method... but inscribing spellwork directly onto a weapon was a craft only those alchemists devoted exclusively to magic tools could practice, and it had long since been settled that forging any other magic tool was far more efficient in combat than wasting effort on such a thing.
How did that man, of all people...?
It was the first time she had ever seen the technique put to actual use in a real fight.
Just as her curiosity over what he had done during those fifty days began to swell, a man slid the back door open and stepped inside. Black hair, black eyes — and though dark circles shadowed them, his natural features made his face seem less sinister than simply hollowed out with exhaustion.
Jenison had arrived.
Every gaze in the room snapped to him, and the whispers about him only multiplied. When Professor Vector, the instructor for Magic Studies, issued him a warning for his tardiness, he offered an apology and took the very last seat. Not that it mattered much — even without sitting there, few in that room had the nerve to address him first.
And so Isabella spent the entire lecture watching his profile, before wrenching her focus back to the lesson. The moment class ended, she made her way straight to him.
Why had he left his family? What had he done for fifty days? What was that combat prowess he had displayed yesterday? Her questions outnumbered her expectations, and she needed a moment to gather them.
"Could you tell me the reason you left your family?"
She decided to lead with what she was most curious about. The ducal house had never once actively reined in his conduct, so why, of all times, would they cast him out now? Just what could a man have done for House Reinhardt's response to be this severe?
She thought he was pausing to consider his answer — but instead, he stared straight into her face, then simply walked past her again.
I was... ignored? Me?
Before long, a flicker of irritation got the better of me, and I planted myself in his path once more, pressing the question again.
"...Please don't ignore me. Do answer...?"
"Ah..."
As though only now registering my existence, the man let out a sigh and finally opened his mouth.
"...Were you standing there this whole time?"
It was the look of a man who no longer held the slightest interest in me whatsoever.
...What was that? Why speak to me out of nowhere... how unsettling.
In all this time, she had never once been the one to approach me first. I couldn't fathom why she'd chosen this particular moment — but I had little time to spare. My funds were running dry, and I needed to secure a supply channel before they did.
...It's nothing, surely? She still hasn't said a word.
I studied her bowed head for a long moment, then brought the exchange to a close.
"Then I'll take my leave."
"...Big brother."
I turned toward the voice — and there stood Aria, for reasons I couldn't begin to guess.
Big brother... big brother. The word stirred something strangely new in me. The last time Aria had called me by that title was nearly seven years ago.
...Well, better that it doesn't suit me here.
To the world at large, I was now the delinquent second son cast out of House Reinhardt, and she its treasured youngest. I had no idea how people would view the two of us standing together, but I could see with perfect clarity that nothing kind would come of it — not where Aria was concerned. The Duke was already watching her like a hawk as it was; there was no reason for me to go out of my way to bring her more trouble.
...Honestly, it would just be awkward at this point anyway.
"...Big brother."
"Move."
...
"Did you not hear me? I said move."
"...Big brother, just for a moment—"
"I have nothing to say to the likes of you."
...
Aria painted a thoroughly wounded expression at my words, but for my part, all I felt was a faint twinge of guilt — toward her, I felt nothing else at all.
...Then again, seven years is hardly a short time.
There was a period when we got along wonderfully, laughing and carrying on together — but those days were beyond my reach now. With what I'd just said, everyone around us knew that I was no longer a man of House Reinhardt. From the family's standpoint, their precious daughter lingering around an outsider would hardly be welcome... and I, for my part, hadn't the slightest desire to belong to that house ever again. My mother's death was as good as his doing.
...Aria will be fine. She's already been without me for seven years.
She had always been a sharp, capable child — she'd steady herself on her own. And even if she didn't want to, the family would see to it that she did.
Just like that, my expression still twisted, I walked out through the front doors instead of the back entrance where she stood. From the classroom behind me came nothing but the stifled breathing of the cadets who had watched it all — and from that day on, the rumors about me spread wider and fouler than ever.