Bait (2)
Fourth period, Class D.
— When multi-casting, the fluctuation of mana and the load on the core remain constant at all times…
"…"
Aria's eyes were thoroughly bored as she listened to the professor's lecture. She already knew all of it.
She had expected something of the Empire's finest academy. Instead, the material was far too easy for her.
Aria was a genius among geniuses. A casual skim of the textbooks was enough to grasp most of the content. A little focus, and she could unravel spell formulas in moments. Cast a spell once or twice, and she had already grasped its essence.
For someone like her, the freshman curriculum was little more than a waste of time.
She absently stroked the choker around her neck, a habit born of sheer tedium. A plain-looking accessory — a black leather cord with a circular ring at its center.
I miss Master…
She caressed the leather strap with careful, almost reverent fingers. The choker made her feel tightly bound to Leon. True, it was a restraint that would detonate the moment she harbored any intent to harm him — but she would never harbor such a thing, so it was no danger at all. If anything, wearing it was proof of how deeply he trusted her, and that pleased her more than anything.
Closer to him than anyone else…
Aria was the only person who knew Leon had contracted with a devil. Any collusion with demons, however slight, branded one a heretic and an enemy of the entire continent. That the heir of the Crusif Duchy had made such a pact was a secret of the highest order.
Hehe.
The fact that he had shared it with her alone filled her with quiet joy.
Lost in those thoughts, lunchtime arrived before she knew it. As if they had been waiting for this exact moment, Aruel Silfiniti and her hangers-on came swarming over.
"I said I'd see you at lunch, didn't I?"
Aria answered with a tilt of her chin toward the door. The warm mood from thinking about Leon had cooled; her gaze was ice.
"Hah… Let's see how long you can keep that up."
Aruel ground her teeth at Aria's unchanging, insolent attitude. They herded her out of the main building, Aria walking at the front.
"Aria… looks like she's finally been marked…"
"And by Aruel, of all people…"
Students whispered as they watched Aria being led away by Aruel's clique.
"…"
Aria smiled inwardly at the sight. For Leon's plan to work smoothly, she needed to be seen suffering at the hands of nobles. The more they gossiped and spread the word, the better.
Before long, they arrived behind an abandoned building. Tucked away in a corner of the academy grounds, the area saw little foot traffic and was well known as a hangout for troublemakers.
Aruel's group shoved Aria against the wall and ringed her in.
"Aria. Still nothing to say?"
Aruel grinned, taunting her. At last, she could teach this arrogant little bitch a lesson.
"…"
Aria didn't so much as flinch. She simply looked up at her, steady and unblinking.
"…Fine. That's how you want to play it?"
"…"
"I knew I didn't like you from the first time I saw you. A filthy commoner walking around with her eyes wide open like she belongs here…"
Aruel jabbed a finger against Aria's forehead, poking it again and again. A stream of abuse followed.
But for Aria, who had survived Hevilon, a noble girl's insults were so tame they nearly made her yawn. She let the curses wash past one ear and thought to herself:
A mark on the cheek would be the most visible, wouldn't it?
She could flatten every one of them right now if she wanted — but that would throw the plan into disarray. More precisely, not Leon's plan, but the plan Aria had devised to help him.
They hadn't dragged her all the way out here just to hurl a few insults. They could have done that anywhere. Physical violence was coming next, without a doubt. Take a few hits, return with visible wounds, and the other students would see a girl thoroughly brutalized by Aruel and pity her all the more. That would raise the odds of Burrow — the one trying to rally the commoner students — approaching her.
A few punches? Whatever.
She had been beaten her whole life. Getting hit was nothing new.
"You little—!"
Fed up with Aria's total lack of reaction, Aruel finally raised her hand. Her palm drew back, a heartbeat from Aria's cheek—
Aria even tilted her head slightly, angling it to make the slap land cleaner.
And then:
"What are you doing?"
A cold voice dropped over them like a blade.
The air froze solid.
"L-Leon…?"
"…We're fucked."
Aruel's group went white and scrambled back from Aria. Whatever the nature of their relationship, one thing was certain: Leon and Aria were close.
Leon walked toward them with a rigid smile.
"Lord Leon, I— this is—"
Aruel waved her hands, trying to explain, but Leon ignored her completely and went straight to Aria.
"Aria."
She felt the quiet anger under his voice. Her pupils trembled faintly.
"Master…"
"Why are you just standing there? What for?"
Leon let out a short, incredulous laugh. He was baffled. He had come looking forward to watching Aria fight — and instead found her taking hits from these nobodies. Knowing her combat ability better than anyone made it all the more absurd.
"Well…"
Aria's blue eyes drifted downward.
"I thought if I did this, Burrow might come looking for me sooner…"
"…Ah."
Leon understood at once what she had been trying to do, and sighed. Frustrated, he pulled a cigarette from his coat, put it between his lips, and spoke.
"Aria."
"Yes…"
"When did I ever tell you to go that far?"
He understood her loyalty. But this was too much.
"Getting yourself beaten up for some plan — that doesn't make any sense."
The plan he had in mind was just a convenient shortcut. If it fell through, he could always tear the whole thing down and start over. Since coming to this world, Aria was the only person Leon truly cared about.
Did I bring her to the academy just so she could get pushed around?
He knew her wretched past. He had lived a life not so different from hers. He didn't want her to suffer if he could help it. She was also the only comrade he truly trusted. Sacrifice his own ally just to make things a little easier? That kind of cheap, contemptible move had no place in Leon's book.
In short, what she had been about to do was putting the cart before the horse.
"I will never use you as a disposable pawn. Don't do this again."
"…!"
Aria's lowered lashes flew up. Her wide blue eyes shone.
"Master…!"
Overwhelmed, tears welling, she threw herself into his arms.
"And."
Leon sidestepped her with practiced ease and kept talking.
"There's a better way."
"…?"
He lit the cigarette and grinned.
"Let's do it the way we always have."
"Ah!"
Aria understood immediately. She swept a hand through the air, murmuring under her breath as she wove her magic.
A wave of power bloomed outward. In an instant, a broad field of sound-dampening and perception-blocking magic settled around them.
She's gotten even better.
The casting was far cleaner than last time. Leon nodded to himself. Saving her from Hevilon had been an excellent decision.
"Um, Lord Leon…?"
Sensing something was very wrong, Aruel forced a smile and tried to open a conversation.
"…"
Leon dug a finger in his ear, looking thoroughly uninterested.
"Leon, you done talking? We just thrash them, right?"
Celia asked from behind the group, where she had already cut off their escape route.
"Yeah. Hit them as much as you want."
"Now that I like."
Carotin cracked his knuckles and stepped forward.
"W-wait! Our Silfiniti family—"
Aruel started to invoke her house name out of habit, then stopped. She looked around.
Crusif. Bastio. Helbridge.
Next to the names of ducal houses, the Silfiniti name she had always brandished with such pride couldn't even begin to compare.
"…"
Aruel squeezed her eyes shut.
…Their screams rang out for quite some time after that, but the sound-dampening magic Aria had cast held firm.
Thirty minutes later.
"Lunch is almost over. Let's wrap this up."
Leon wiped the blood from his hands with a handkerchief as he spoke.
"H-hngh…!"
"Mommyyy…"
Aruel's group was a bloody mess, sniveling and sobbing. Noble mages — when had any of them ever suffered this kind of physical violence? Unlike martial students who trained their bodies, these ones had been raised soft, never once beaten in their lives. The pain hit them all the harder for it.
Leon had taken extra care in working them over. He didn't want any future headaches. He carved terror deep into their minds — deep enough that they would never again dare meet his eyes.
He tapped Aruel's cheek and asked:
"Repeat what I told you."
"Hic… Aria—"
"What?"
"L-Lady Aria! I will continue pretending to bully her in front of the other students…"
Aruel stared at Leon's hand, trembling, certain it was about to strike her again.
"Until when."
"Until you tell me to stop…"
"Good. Just the act. But don't make it awkward, either. Do it properly, understood?"
Aruel nodded slowly, her face a wreck of tears.
"Good."
Leon pulled a string of potion bottles from his spatial pouch. Aria took them without being asked and began pouring them over the group's wounds.
"Hm? You're healing them too?"
"If the people who went out to bully someone come back covered in blood, that looks weird."
"…But why bother with this whole performance in the first place?"
Celia, who had been watching Leon work, asked casually.
"I've got my reasons."
"Ah. Fair enough."
She just shrugged. Easygoing by nature, Celia didn't press for details.
Carotin and Celia soon joined in, dumping potions over the battered nobles. The high-grade recovery potions — expensive as they were — were used without restraint. Ruptured blood vessels sealed. Torn muscle knit back together. Bruised, purpling skin faded back to a healthy pale.
"So that's why you said not to touch the bones."
"Yeah. Even high-grade potions don't set bones well."
Broken bones or joints would have required a priest's help — which meant a trip to the infirmary, and that would have been a problem.
One bottle per person: two-thirds poured over the body, the rest forced down their throats. Aruel's group was fully healed in no time.
Finally:
"Clean."
Aria cast a cleansing spell. Dirt and blood vanished from clothes and faces alike, leaving them looking as if nothing had happened at all.
A perfect cycle of injury and cure. But the terror was so thoroughly branded into them that none of them even thought of getting angry.
Aria finished something off in the corner, then came over for Leon's inspection.
"Mas— I mean, Lord Leon. Is this enough?"
"…Yeah, that should do it."
Her hair was a tangled mess, her face smudged with soot in places. She looked exactly like someone who had just been through hell.
When the long lunch period finally ended, Aruel's group and Aria returned to the main building just as they were. Plenty of students saw them.
After that, Aruel kept up the pretense of bullying Aria. And within a few days:
"Could I speak with you for a moment?"
"…"
The target took the bait.