I Respect You, Teacher Carrier

Klein and Ekaterina traded a look, and as if they had planned it, they seized both arms of the kneeling Dharma Protector Cheong and drove his shoulders flat into the ground.

"Ghk—!"

Startled by the sudden shout, Lupin stared at the two of them, eyes round.

"What did he even do wrong? If the two of you are coming at him like that, he must be some kind of terrible criminal."

At that, Klein and Ekaterina shot each other sidelong glares, again as if on cue. The longer they glared, though, the clearer it became that neither of them had a shred of moral high ground. In the end the two of them, reading the room, let go of Cheong's shoulders and stepped back — as if to say the judgment was Lupin's to make.

Lupin, however, had the heat-stricken Izdi to think of first. Whatever the pair did or didn't do, she was busy checking her aura window.

Folded into the aura, just like the pigeon. But why was the name so ridiculously cute?

King of the Cold Wave Frederica, Emperor of Light Luminor — she was fairly sure each of them had once carried a magnificent name, and now they had all become an arctic fox and a pigeon. If the fire spirit she picked up later wasn't a red dragon, this road ended in an animal farm, guaranteed. Cute, yes. Dignity? Not even a little.

"...Ah. This isn't the time."

Lupin, sunk in idle ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠thoughts, snapped her fingers at once and summoned Frederica. She didn't manifest in a visible shape the way the pigeon did, but the air that had felt scorching cooled in a single breath. It was exactly like stepping into a room cranked to eighteen degrees on turbo. If this wasn't paradise on earth — the Garden of Eden itself — then where, exactly, was heaven supposed to be?

She gathered Izdi into her arms as she was, and the pain eased from the girl's face. Still holding her, Lupin stepped closer to Dharma Protector Cheong.

"She was fine the last time I saw her, wasn't she? Why has she gotten this bad?"

Cheong, still on his knees, offered no particular answer. Speaking would have been meaningless. A music-box keeper's duty ended at operating the box and calling the spirit down. Snohaim had already been revived through Lupin. Surviving the activation ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of the cursed music box was the first proof, and the chill pouring off her now was the second. A child with no power left meant nothing to him anymore.

As if she had read that intent, Ekaterina clicked her tongue. Even so, she wasn't upright enough herself to brand Cheong a villain, so she could only talk around it.

"She's the last royal of fallen Snohaim. She used to hold the heat off with the power she inherited from Spirit King Frederica, and once that power vanished, this is what you get. Snohaim's people lived in the cold for so long they're incredibly weak to heat."

"Huh? For real?"

"Yeah. Either send her back to cool land quickly, or she has to go through life with something cold stuck to her. And now, of all people, somebody gave up on looking after her, so we're in serious trouble."

Lupin didn't catch the implication. Instead she ran back through the description of the aura already lodged in her head — the arctic fox.

There isn't all that much I can actually do right away.

At one star, all it did was cool the air around her body. As the star rank climbed, though, just as the arctic fox had said, she could sheathe a sword in cold, or summon mid-grade ice spirits in the shape of arctic fox kits. And once she reached ten stars, the highest tier, it seemed she could fire some kind of beam.

"I'll just hold her like this, or carry her on my back, for a while. Give it a little time and the problem solves itself."

Ekaterina squeezed her eyes shut, clutched at a headache, and curled in on herself. Klein, who had been watching, decided this wouldn't do and moved in with supporting fire.

"Lupin. I'm only saying this in case you didn't understand. You don't have to pick up the responsibility that man threw away."

"Huh? Threw away?"

Klein pointed at Dharma Protector Cheong and screwed her face up hard.

"Because he was planning to dump that child here and follow you."

So he wasn't some devoted guard protecting the young master. He had simply been carefully protecting the person meant to become the spirit's vessel — and he had regarded her not as a person, but as a thing.

Still, however much Cheong felt like trash beneath a human being, whether the three people standing here were fit to sit in judgment was a question mark the size of a billboard. Polar-bear killer Ekaterina, the cult's executioner Klein, and Lupin, who took treasure chests as her definition of justice? And above all else, Lupin had a habit of bolting the moment a difficult problem like this appeared.

Please — let the continent's business be handled by the continent's own people!

And so, her mind made up, Lupin spoke to Cheong.

"Mister. I'm sorry, but I have absolutely nothing to do with Snohaim."

The words shattered Cheong's expectations in a single stroke — an effect Lupin hadn't even been aiming for. Startled, he jerked his head up, face aghast.

"What? What do you mean..."

"I mean it. I happened to end up in charge of Frederica, but that doesn't mean I'm going to get dragged around by Snohaim's restoration or any of that. I have no intention of being pulled into something that complicated."

"Th-that will not do. Now that you bear the Spirit King, as Snohaim's rightful successor—"

Lupin tilted her head and drawled.

"And what's so good about becoming king of Snohaim?"

"Pardon?"

"What, do the people bring treasure chests and offer them up even if I just sit still? Unless it's something like that, no matter how nicely you put it, you're not turning my mind around."

Cheong bowed his head and answered in desperation.

"It is exactly as you say. Once the nation is restored, those who wish to command ice spirits will gather, and they will vie to present gold, silver, and treasure to Your Majesty."

Sweet talk, and those thin ears of hers flapped. The Lupin who had just declared she had no use for some throne she had never wanted did a complete one-eighty.

"Is that really true?"

"If these words prove false, you may take my head when the time comes."

Ekaterina and Klein could only wet their lips, not quite daring to cut in. In truth, Snohaim had lived on tourism revenue, the jewel glacists that grew around the palace where Frederica dwelled, and the gold and jewels offered by those who came hoping to become spirit mages. With the mood flowing in his favor, Cheong grew bolder than before.

"That is not all. The gems that naturally grow around wherever Your Majesty resides are also of very great val—"

"No, I'm not interested in gems. Anyway, you're saying they bring boxes full of treasure and offer them up, right?"

"Yes... that is so. However."

Even with nothing but the air conditioner running, training points were already stacking — half of one star filled — so reaching five stars on the arctic fox wouldn't take very long. At five stars, she could attach mid-grade spirits to people capable of dealing with spirits, and with that she could obtain treasure chests. The odds that any of them would be a secret vault were high against it, but a treasure chest was a treasure chest, wasn't it?

...This feels unclean.

But if she rebuilt a kingdom just to get treasure chests, she would end up taking the side of the Dharma Protector Cheong who had abandoned Izdi. Was that... right? She tried to pull away — this was Elysium's affair, none of hers — and yet personal desire kept surging up. Was it really all right to keep smothering it?

I don't like this.

Lupin's past rose up inside her. Remember being thrown away by her parents and raised in an orphanage. She could not let Cheong's outrage slide. Restoring a kingdom? It might well matter. A life's work — of course he couldn't give it up. But was looking after one child with not a shred of strength to live on her own really that hard? Discarding her like a piece of luggage the moment she stopped being useful — did that make any sense?

This... isn't right.

In the end, Lupin decided. She would obstruct the kingdom's restoration and make him pay for his sins in suffering for the rest of his life. For the first time in five years of living in Elysium, she had judged like a person — treasure chests aside.

Faced with an order beyond all imagination, Cheong could not hide his dismay.

"Th-that is absurd!"

"Why is it absurd? A king can't even give an order like this? Weren't you going to offer every ounce of your loyalty?"

"But then Snohaim's restoration will be delayed far too much...!"

"Oh, come on. Does a nation have to be planted in one spot to be a nation? If the rightful successor and the people who dream of restoration gather with one heart, that place is the nation. Where We are, there is the nation. Didn't you know?"

This was, of course, the proud history and tradition of a provisional government, handed down from the ancestors of her homeland — the ones who had cried long live independence and raised a government-in-exile across the sea in Shanghai. Strictly according to Lupin, anyway.

"Oh, or have you already decided that something like that could never work? That would be a problem. Snohaim would never get to proclaim its resurrection at all...?"

At that bleak, hopeless future, Cheong looked as if his whole world had caved in. Patting his back, Lupin spoke.

"Don't worry too much. There's a helper right here, just for someone like you."

Lupin's outstretched finger landed on Ekaterina. She had been smirking at Cheong's distress; now she startled and shot back, her voice jumping an octave.

"Huh? Me? You mean me?"

"Yes. Ekaterina, what you're doing right now isn't that hard anyway, is it? You've got plenty of time, too. While you're at it, spare a few leftover clones and help Dharma Protector Cheong out."

"Ah. No, but even so, telling someone to build a castle that flies is—"

"Can't be done? Klein. How does it look to you? Impossible?"

To Klein, Cheong and Ekaterina were six of one and half a dozen of the other. She had no reason ever to leave Lupin's side, so she snorted and answered.

"A Round, of all people, and she can't manage one little job like that? Klein thinks Ekaterina is the perfect person for it."

"Hey! You! Are you insane? How do you plan to deal with the fallout...!"

But however she tried to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠push back, there was nothing Ekaterina could do under Lupin's steady gaze.

"Ugh. Fine! I'll do it, all right..."

Dharma Protector Cheong and Ekaterina departed, and Klein went off to find cloth for the sling Lupin had asked for. The surroundings grew quiet, and Lupin, seated cross-legged in the shade of a tree, had just drifted into a short nap — a soft little snore — when it happened.

Izdi squirmed in Lupin's arms and quietly opened her eyes.

"...Are they all gone?"

At that small voice, Lupin woke right along with her. Asleep, her ears were keener than anyone's.

"Kahup! What. You were awake?!"

She had heard every word while held in Lupin's arms, but the mood had been too heavy for her to step in. The child, who knew her own place better than anyone, spoke.

"So now I... I've become useless. Is that it...?"

Not one thing about her face or her voice was anything but grave. The instant Lupin moved to say that wasn't so, Izdi spoke first — and in a bright voice no one could have expected.

"Ha! What a relief. I can throw away royal duty and all the rest of it now, right? I get to live however I want? Right?"

"Uh, uh... well, that's true, but..."

"That sickening Dharma Protector Cheong. This won't do because of this, that won't do because of that.... There should have been at least one thing that was allowed. I don't even want to look at him. Ptui, ptui. From now on I'm sleeping without so much as pointing my head north."

They say that if someone in a crowd laughs the loudest, you should split that person's heart open and look. It will be rotting more vilely than anyone else's in the world. Lupin, abandoned while she still knew her parents' faces, had laughed much the same way in front of the orphanage director — saying she wouldn't have to look at those ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠wretched parents' faces anymore.

Lupin said nothing. She simply held tight the Izdi who had poured out a storm of harsh words and was still huffing. The little child, who hadn't shown a flicker of surprise even at the sudden embrace, soon had great tears welling in her eyes.

"Ngh... hhhnn........"