Wrapping Up the First Semester (2)
Luke Cruella, second-ranked student of Luminor Academy's Technology Department.
She had entered the Academy at the same time as her mistress, Princess Seraphin, originally serving as her escort knight — one of only two imperial family members currently enrolled — though various circumstances had since transformed her role into that of an exclusive maid. Now, like every other student, she found herself drawing the first semester to a close, with only the final examination left standing between her and the end of term.
And as that final evaluation loomed, Luke was quietly nurturing a resentment in her heart toward one particular person.
Lilith. That damned woman…
Why on earth had she given up the escort duty she'd trained for and taken on the role of the Princess's exclusive maid? Luke knew better than anyone who was responsible for how that situation had come about, and with each passing day, her silent fury toward Lilith grew a little deeper.
Not that brooding over it gave her any real means of direct revenge. As Seraphin's exclusive maid, her position forbade her from acting on personal grudges.
Besides, it was hardly as though touching Lilith would be easy for anyone, let alone her. Laying a hand on a betrothed of House Blackwood took a very particular kind of audacity.
That's exactly why she had the nerve to turn down the Princess's offer of an exclusive maid position — she's got that kind of backing behind her.
Luke had never actually witnessed the refusal itself, having been briefly away on a "walk" at the time, but she was certain of it: Lilith, trusting in her fiancé's protection, had rejected the offer with insolent, shameless confidence.
In truth, Luke had disliked the woman from their very first meeting. She had watched Seraphin extend courtesy after courtesy to Lilith — a woman she'd known for barely a month — while Luke herself had served as her escort for five years.
Worse, when they'd first crossed paths, Lilith had been nothing more than a maid of the Blackwood household. Then, seemingly overnight, she appeared at the Academy draped in the title of a baronetcy noblewoman.
And when Luke learned that Seraphin had engineered that entire status behind the scenes purely to get Lilith into the Magic Department, she'd been unable to stop a wave of inexplicable defeat from washing over her.
She had served Seraphin longer than Lilith ever had. Her loyalty alone burned brighter than anyone's. She hadn't even flinched at the humiliating maid duties now assigned to her — she simply obeyed the Princess's word, as she always had.
So why was the mistress she served showing more interest in some other woman than in her? Luke simply could not understand it.
Above all, the sheer gall of it was unbearable — taking the title of a baronet's daughter and then shamelessly refusing her mistress's offer. Had Luke been in her position, she would have accepted without a word of protest. Even if the position offered had been not an exclusive maid but a mere errand-runner or scullery worker.
And as if that weren't enough, the exclusive maid duties she now performed were, strictly speaking, the abandoned work left behind when Lilith refused the post. Her sense of grievance had compounded the moment she realized it.
If — just if — Princess Seraphin had entered the Academy with her exclusive maid from the start, and some incident had rendered that maid unable to serve…
Receiving the order to step in under those circumstances, Luke would have accepted it gladly. It would have meant Seraphin trusted her, of all people, as the most reliable person to look after her within the Academy walls.
For a woman whose loyalty to Seraphin brooked no rival, such a command would have been an honor beyond measure.
But the exclusive maid title she now carried felt nothing like an honor to Luke.
The seat had been kept empty from the very beginning — deliberately reserved for Lilith to fill.
In other words, to Luke, this position felt less like an honor and more like a placeholder for that woman, and it followed naturally that her dissatisfaction with the work ran far hotter than it ever had during her escort duty.
All the more so given that she was performing maid service in a ridiculous uniform that was, somehow, eerily reminiscent of that woman's own.
Of course, it had been Seraphin — her own mistress — who'd dressed her this way, so Luke voiced not a single complaint. She simply poured herself into her duties as a maid and said nothing.
"Luke."
"Yes, Princess Seraphin."
"You've worked hard these past months, stepping so suddenly into the role of my exclusive maid. The work must have been unfamiliar, but you've handled it far better than I expected. Your hairbrushing has improved wonderfully as well."
"…Thank you, Your Highness."
"Have you given any thought to continuing as my exclusive maid next semester? I find myself thinking it might not be a bad arrangement at all, having you keep the post."
"…I'm grateful for the words, but I believe escort duty suits me better, Your Highness."
"I thought you might answer exactly that way."
"……"
Seraphin's reaction was utterly unmoved — as if she'd already known every word Luke would say. As if the announcement that she was stepping down from maid service and returning to her escort post was nothing worth remarking on.
If it had been Lilith instead — if she had taken this exclusive maid position and then announced she was quitting come next semester — would Her Highness have reacted the same way?
Almost certainly not. Princess Seraphin had prepared far too much groundwork to claim Lilith as her exclusive maid.
She had waited for the period when Lilith, entering the Magic Department without backing, would find herself isolated within it. She had even left behind the maid who should have accompanied her to the Academy, keeping the woman at the imperial palace — all to have a ready excuse for hiring Lilith as her exclusive maid.
That was the kind of mistress she served: one who had schemed that meticulously to recruit the woman. Though even she, it seemed, had not anticipated the refusal.
If she had accepted the position once and then tried to walk it back, no doubt Her Highness would have moved heaven and earth to keep her.
Why had that woman caught the Princess's eye?
Why had Luke so suddenly become nothing but her replacement?
Up to that point, Luke could have conceded — barely. Perhaps the woman possessed some ability Luke knew nothing of, something that overwhelmed her.
But if that were truly the case…
If her mistress wanted her at her side this desperately, then answering that call should have been the obvious, natural thing to do.
That Lilith, despite owing Seraphin a debt, showed none of the loyalty Luke carried — that, Luke could not forgive.
Seraphin, running the brush through Luke's hair, offered a quiet piece of counsel to the woman harboring all of this behind a composed face.
"Luke."
"Yes, Your Highness."
"The full moon rose last night. Were you aware of that, Luke?"
"Yes, I was. …Did you see something in your Future Sight, perhaps?"
"In last night's Future Sight, your face appeared. It's been quite a while since that last happened."
"……My face, Your Highness?"
"Yes, yours. The first time since that incident in your hometown five years ago."
"……"
Her face had appeared in the Princess's Future Sight.
Luke, having served as Seraphin's escort for five years, understood instinctively that when someone's face surfaced in the visions the Princess experienced once a month, it was rarely a good omen.
At the announcement, Luke's expression tightened slightly, and she waited in silence for her mistress's next words.
"There's no need to worry. The future I saw last night was not a particularly dangerous one."
"…I see."
"Though I did learn something I hadn't known before. Which makes it rather interesting."
"……"
"Answer me honestly, Luke. Are you planning to challenge Miss Lilith to a duel in the final evaluation matches?"
"…I am, Princess Seraphin."
The final evaluation matches — the last event of the first semester, held at the Academy's midpoint.
That was where Luke intended to name Lilith as her opponent.
Strictly speaking, the end-of-term evaluation matches had nothing to do with her. As a Technology Department student, she belonged to none of the five combat departments.
The Technology, Pharmacology, and Theology Departments typically completed their semesters with comprehensive examinations and capstone projects rather than combat evaluations, unlike the five combat-focused departments.
But while that was the customary path, it wasn't as though Technology or Pharmacology students were barred outright from the evaluation matches.
Students ranked first through fifth in each department — the top performers — were eligible to apply for evaluation matches against students of other departments even without belonging to a combat division. They could even specify their opponent directly.
Though that privilege, too, extended only to challenging the top five of other departments — which was why most people believed the Technology and Pharmacology Departments simply had no evaluation matches at all.
After all, no matter how highly a non-combat student ranked within her own department, actually defeating a top-ranked student from a combat division was, for all practical purposes, impossible.
But Luke, Seraphin's escort, brimming to overflowing with venomous resentment, had every intention of applying for an evaluation match against Lilith regardless of department lines.
And she'd been selected as the Princess's personal escort on merit, after all — she had her own quiet confidence in victory.
…Even if her mistress, Princess Seraphin, held no such confidence in her whatsoever.
"Do you oppose it, Princess Seraphin?"
"Why would you think that?"
"Because… you're fond of that woman, aren't you?"
"Yes, I am fond of her. She's someone I hope to keep at my side someday, no matter what it takes."
"So you'd rather not watch her get hurt, and you mean to smooth away this match before it happens…?"
Was even this — her last plan to strike back, even once, for everything she'd endured — to be blocked by her own mistress?
Anxious thoughts began to erode the edges of Luke's mind — until Seraphin's answer arrived, and it was nothing like what she'd expected.
"Hm. It seems you're operating under a misunderstanding, Luke."
"Your Highness?"
"It's true that I don't particularly recommend this final evaluation match between you and Miss Lilith. But my objection has nothing to do with worrying that she might get hurt."
"Then what…?"
"The reason I oppose it, Luke, is that I'm worried about you."
"…About me, Your Highness?"
Luke had been planning to name Lilith as her opponent and march into the evaluation match without a flicker of doubt that she might lose. The Princess's words struck a direct hit on her pride.
Whether or not Seraphin read her feelings, she continued her explanation, weighing the two women she had observed side by side.
"I'm the sort of person who keeps the ones she cherishes close, Luke."
"Yes, I know."
"That's precisely why I'm advising you. You are the person I cherish most of all — I'd rather not watch you come to harm in an evaluation match you didn't need to fight."
"…You don't mean to say you actually believe that woman would win?"
"What my Future Sight showed me was simply the moment you and Miss Lilith would face each other in the arena. The vision ended before any combat began… but I suspect she would not be an easy opponent for you."
"…Is that… what you believe…"
Once again, it was the other woman she seemed to believe in, and Luke's mood soured further.
Seraphin, gauging that displeasure with a careful eye, conceded a single step.
"If, despite my advice, you truly must settle things with Miss Lilith, I won't stop you. I've wanted to see her real capabilities for myself anyway — and if you're her opponent, that should make for an excellent measuring stick."
"……"
"So what will you do, Luke? Will you fight the evaluation match? Or will you take the comprehensive project instead, like the rest of the Technology Department students?"
Luke wanted to prove something.
To her mistress, Princess Seraphin — that she was the stronger of the two, by a wide margin.
Luke wanted to pass judgment.
Upon that woman, Lilith — who had accepted the Princess's grace and then shamelessly refused her request all the same.
"I will fight the evaluation match."
"…Very well. Then do it that way."
"Your words are always right, Princess Seraphin. But I swear I will prove that, in this one match, you were wrong."
"…If you feel that strongly about it, then I'll look forward to it, Luke."
Luke Cruella, second-ranked of the Technology Department.
Lilith Blackwood Rosewood, fourth-ranked of the Magic Department.
The moment the final evaluation match between the two students was sealed.
…Even if Lilith herself had not the faintest idea that any such match had just been arranged.