Chapter 119
Chapter 119
Episode 119
“Lord Oz, it’s only been a day since you returned, yet….”
“I apologize, Arietta. Now, Noah. You apologize too.”
“...I’m the victim who was unilaterally beaten. It won’t work if you try to involve me as usual, you know?”
“That’s true.”
But to hold a grudge over that.
I just hit her once. She’s been hit by magic plenty of times as usual, but today she’s being unusually fussy.
I was currently being escorted to the disciplinary committee for engaging in terror and violence using magic last night.
I can't explain Princess Stacia and [Tenebris] to Arietta. If things escalate unnecessarily, Lucia’s treatment will also be jeopardized.
If pressure is applied because of this incident, Lucia will have to bear the responsibility.
So, the situation naturally had to conclude this way.
Thus, the intermediate process was skipped, and only the result of me hitting Eleanor and Baekyang remained.
Actually, even if the intermediate process remained, I wonder if the outcome would have been much different...
I think yesterday I was simply tired in many ways because the density of events that occurred in one day was too high.
I am originally a gentleman.
“More importantly, was this under the jurisdiction of the disciplinary committee? To entrust such a scary place, like a prison, to students, this is truly…”
“Ah, come to think of it, Lord Oz, you’ve been to this place once before, haven’t you?”
I was once imprisoned on suspicion of killing Gerard in the past. At that time, professors took turns monitoring...
Indeed, even if the environment is a bit better, isn't it like a prison? I never imagined that students would be given the authority over a place that can detain such people.
“Hehe, the Inquisition is also the Church’s specialty.”
“…”
The sight of her scratching her head and speaking shyly is cute, but the content is not cute at all.
That innocent face somehow started to feel scary.
“...How long will I be detained here?”
“Hmm… Well, that depends on my discretion.”
“How about until the start of the semester?”
Eleanor started to say something outrageous with a mischievous expression.
This brat, she really is holding a grudge.
Even so, should I have stopped at just a punch? Should I have just hit her with magic as usual?
But if we're talking about pain, no matter how I think about it, the latter would hurt more.
This was my own consideration!
“Ah, that’s a good idea!”
“Arietta…?”
Arietta agreed with Eleanor's words. Did I do something wrong? No, I did do wrong, but…
“Then I can go on a date with you, just the two of us, until the start of the semester.”
“…”
“…”
If you just listen to what she's saying, it sounds cute, but combined with the unsettling environment of a prison, it couldn't be scarier.
Even Eleanor, who would usually say something, was so shocked that she just stared with her mouth open.
“...The Saintess has an unexpectedly dark side. I feel like I can get a little closer to her.”
“You too, don’t say such things.”
Everyone who shows affection for me was utterly abnormal.
Is there something wrong with me?
“It’s good to have seen a new side of the Saintess, but I will ask for leniency, so please release my master.”
“Leniency? If Ms. Noah is okay with it, then it should be fine.”
Arietta nodded with a gentle smile.
“But it’s a minimum of three days. Even if the victim asks for leniency, other crimes don’t just disappear. And there’s one more victim, isn’t there?”
“…”
But at the same time, she spoke firmly.
Even if the victim asks for leniency, causing a disturbance in the middle of the night in a place that’s not even a training ground would likely not be excused.
However, it also feels too strict compared to usual.
“Then please behave yourself until then, Lord Oz.”
Arietta said that and gently held my wrist.
As her hand touched me, I realized. Her hand was trembling.
Various incidents piled up, and the phantom pain I had forgotten was starting to gnaw at my body again.
This was why Arietta was holding me back and detaining me.
“I will do as you say.”
The three days she mentioned.
That was probably the time needed to return my body to normal.
Three days was not a very long time. If anything, it would be more accurate to say I wasn't bored.
Should I say it was cozier than being outside a prison?
Thanks to the vigilance of the disciplinary committee and Arietta's intensive treatment, both my anxiety and phantom pain subsided to some extent.
Arietta devoted a lot of time to me, as if trying to make up for the time they couldn't be together at the Papal States.
We had small conversations over tea and snacks, calming my frayed mental state.
If only the location wasn't a prison, it would have been a rather nice date, which is a shame.
“You’re out, Master! Here’s the tofu!”
“Oh, right.”
For some reason, I received the tofu Eleanor handed me with a resolute look, completing my release process.
More importantly, where did this brat learn such a thing? It subtly seems close to crime; is it just my imagination?
“Eleanor, you behaved yourself while I was gone, didn’t you?”
“Master tends to see me like a child left by the water’s edge.”
“A child at least has a smaller scale.”
The things you do are a bit too problematic to call cute.
“So? Did you behave?”
“A little…”
“Well, that’s typical of you.”
Eleanor is someone who causes trouble, even when I'm watching her, she'll find a loophole.
It's impossible for her not to cause trouble with my supervision loosened.
“Master, do you know? Lucia hasn’t been seen since that day.”
“So? Did you perhaps break into that newly constructed building because it looked suspicious?”
The newly constructed building was the [Tenebris] quarters Tia prepared.
It wouldn't be surprising if Eleanor, with her good intuition, broke in, claiming it was suspicious without any basis.
“As expected of Master.”
See?
Eleanor started nodding with a satisfied expression, as if I had guessed correctly.
“We have something in common.”
“No, I’ve just become accustomed to your behavioral patterns now…”
Don't keep putting me in the same category, okay?
At least I’ve never voluntarily caused trouble, you know?
“If it weren’t for the professor’s interference, I could have checked inside, which is a shame, don’t you think?”
“Your head is certainly a shame.”
More importantly, to turn a professor into an enemy, her audacity must be acknowledged.
The professors of [Scientia] are at least SR-grade practitioners.
Among them was Prudence Loa, an elder-level mage, and there must have been many others of comparable skill.
“Who defeated you?”
“It’s a bit frustrating to discuss it under the premise that I was defeated, but yes, you’re right. I was subdued by Professor En Drode before I could even rampage.”
“Wasn't he the advanced alchemy professor?”
He’s probably a professor I’ll never have to meet.
I won't be taking alchemy classes anymore, anyway. I lack confidence.
If I was like that in elementary, advanced? Don't make me laugh.
“If it’s Professor En, he would have been the worst match for you.”
“Physical force… was it?”
“To be precise, your inherent strength is what’s lacking.”
“...It’s frustrating.”
Professor En Drode is a magus with aptitude in both alchemy and magic.
His alchemy knowledge would be top-notch, given that he teaches advanced classes, and his magic skills were also high-level.
He is certainly not an opponent to be underestimated.
Furthermore, he is the type who spends time modifying magic rather than mastering the highest-level spells.
In fact, he probably possesses skills similar to an elder-level mage.
And the magic he intensively researched was earth-attribute magic.
Considering the original meaning of alchemy, there would be considerable synergy.
“Even though I prepared, I couldn’t even properly cut through intermediate magic, you know?”
“That’s certainly impressive.”
Eleanor, having just been defeated by me, must have been quite concerned about physical force. She probably prepared a mana-based counterattack the moment her opponent deployed earth-attribute magic.
Yet, if it was impossible even to cut through intermediate-level magic, it means Professor En Drode's research achievements are that significant.
“Who are you complimenting now? You should be complimenting me for my effort, right?”
“...You got defeated, what's there to be so proud about?”
She's sulking for some incomprehensible reason, and I didn't know what to do.
Should I just ignore her?
“No, but why weren't you arrested after doing all that?”
“Maybe they let me go because I’m a top student with high grades?”
“Is he a damn discriminator?”
Professor En Drode must be quite lenient with academically excellent students.
And unfortunately, Eleanor had the top grades among first-year combat-oriented students.
What a terrible synergy this is.
“Anyway, if the professor himself is blocking it, then Lucia must be in that building.”
“No, Scientia always has places students are forbidden to enter, so it’s too early to jump to conclusions.”
“It’s not usually like that, though?”
“You usually did that too, huh.”
It seems there are more incidents I don't know about than I do.
Anyway, if she went through her own verification method, then it’s fine.
Lucia is probably in that building for sure.
“While Master was imprisoned for three days, I thought hard. Why Master stopped me that day, and why Lucia was suffering so much.”
“So, did you come to a conclusion?”
“I don’t know. So I was waiting for Master. What should I have done that day?”
Eleanor doesn’t know. She must have been unsure about the question of whether Lucia was in an intelligence unit.
And she doesn't know what would change even if she gained certainty about that question.
“Noah.”
“It’s Eleanor.”
“...Alright, Eleanor. Let’s go over a few things.”
Eleanor’s biggest misconception.
“You might think you’re hiding it well, but probably nine out of ten people around you know that you’re not a commoner.”
The delusion that she was successfully hiding her identity.
Eleanor stared blankly for a while after my words, then, as if something clicked, she tugged at my sleeve, urging me on.
“...Oh, come to think of it, I never asked how Master knew my identity.”
“You're asking quickly now. Do you know how I recognized you?”
“How?”
“I just saw it and knew.”
Of course, I knew because I had knowledge from the game.
But even without that, it wouldn't have been difficult to find out about her.
“How many people wouldn’t recognize you just by cutting your hair short? And you didn’t even change your name, just used your nickname as an alias.”
“…”
“Probably anyone who knew about you from before would have noticed. It’s fortunate that Chrysos is a small country, really.”
As my words continued, Eleanor’s face gradually turned pale.
But her biggest problem was not just this.
It's too early to make such an expression for just this much.
“Your usual behavior is also like that. If you intended to hide yourself, you shouldn’t have done such attention-seeking things. Of course, if you thought a royal wouldn’t do such things, then it would indeed be a clever tactic that caught them off guard.”
But no, right? You’re just an attention-seeker by nature, aren’t you?
“And your actions are sloppy from start to finish. Just by seeing your table manners at meals, I would have known you were at least a noble.”
“Th-that…”
“You can ask Baekyang right now, and she’ll tell you that you’re not a commoner.”
It feels refreshing.
To boldly speak out about the topic I've been silently enduring feels incredibly satisfying.
But that's enough for today.
While teasing Eleanor is fun, the question now is why Lucia was suffering so much.
“Then Eleanor. Eleanor von Chrysos. Just one question. How did someone as utterly clumsy as you manage to live without being exposed until now?”
Eleanor is clumsy. She was so clumsy that anyone from Chrysos would recognize her immediately.
So how did she remain unexposed all this time?
“Who do you think has been looking out for you all this time?”
“Lucia…? No, if Lucia really is a spy, then the relevant organization… or even the Empire, you mean?”
“Yes, if so, what do you think that process was like? What kind of things did they do to hide your identity?”
[Tenebris] is an intelligence agency.
And they never showed their faces above the surface.
Why?
Because they do dirty work that shouldn't be publicly known.
So what's the most reliable way to conceal information?
“Lucia is a far less upright person than you think.”
It is to kill the person holding that information.
Just as Eleanor hesitated to speak about her identity, Lucia too must hesitate to speak about hers. Because she is not upright.
“Eleanor. Do you still consider Lucia a friend?”
“Of course! Even if Lucia was that kind of person…!”
“But what about Lucia? For her, the fact that you’re royalty is something that’s coming to light only now.”
“Then why?”
“Do you despise yourself for being royalty?”
“No.”
“But Lucia despises herself for not being upright.”
And that feeling of self-loathing accelerated when she met Eleanor.
Until then, she had suppressed her emotions as much as possible and blended in with her surroundings, but after meeting Eleanor, she began to have her own distinct color.
But she is a soldier.
Therefore, lying is status quo.
Their delicate friendship was established because they were both lying to each other.
At least Lucia had been enduring her self-loathing based on that.
“Truth isn’t always good.”
“…”
“You might be friends while wearing masks, but whether you can remain friends after taking them off depends on each of you.”
Eleanor had stopped walking sometime. I turned my head towards her, who was a little behind me, and asked.
“What about you? Do you still consider Lucia a friend?”
Someone who built up lies to the extent of thinking of herself as not upright, someone who was trying to distance herself with that much guilt.
Can you still call her a friend?
“Of course! I still consider Lucia a friend!”
“Then what about Lucia? Do you think she can remain your friend?”
“...I don’t know.”
One cannot jump to conclusions.
There’s no way one can jump to conclusions.
If Lucia has been deceiving herself all this time, how can one gauge her true feelings now?
“Alright, then we should go ask her.”
“Huh? Surely that day, even…”
“That moment it was. But three days have passed. Don’t you think that’s enough consideration?”
We gave Lucia that much time. So now she should give us an answer.
“Then?”
“Do what you usually do best. This time, I’ll assist you.”
“Haha… Master sometimes seems even more headstrong than me.”
“Mages should be free, after all.”
I don't know if Lucia had sorted out her thoughts, but not showing herself until now probably isn't her intention.
She is a soldier. And a spy who hides her identity and blends in near targets to gather information. For her to be exposed means her mission itself has failed.
So what happens to an agent who fails their mission?
In the worst-case scenario, she could lose her life as a consequence.
Of course, as long as Discreet is the leader, that won't happen. Moreover, isn't Lucia an elite agent?
They wouldn’t easily dispose of such valuable personnel.
Then, not the worst, but the second worst.
The outcome I had considered for her.
“Let's go meet her directly. We need to talk face to face.”
This is the case where she herself would be removed from this incident.
And that would mean a farewell to her. A unilateral farewell.
I have no intention of allowing that.
“Master... you really are cool. I truly love you, Master, for doing so much for me and for Lucia.”
“It’s not entirely like that. I’m narrower-minded than you think.”
“Hehe, really?”
Yes, I am narrow-minded.
I can't forgive her for selling my photo to the student council president.
So I’m going to confront her about it.
Complaining through [Tenebris] doesn't appeal to me.
Since I am an arrogant and self-righteous person, I will tell the person directly.
“Let’s go punish the naughty cat who betrayed our expectations.”
Let’s tell her to stay by our side and continue to apologize for this incident.