5. Send Her Back Before She Becomes the Heroine
5. Send Her Back Before She Becomes the Heroine
Grandis Academy was vast. Ridiculously, wastefully vast.
Common sense dictated that an academy — not even a noble territory — had no business occupying this much land, and I couldn't wrap my head around it.
— Oh, this is my territory.
— ... Excuse me?
— The previous king offered me a title and fief. I refused the title and accepted only the land. He was happy about it, of course — it tied me to the kingdom.
So it really was a territory.
A title and land granted for the express purpose of binding an 8th Rank power like the Chairwoman securely to the kingdom. Thanks to that, she'd been able to build an academy of this scale.
Not that the entire territory was the academy — the campus itself was only the size of a small town, with the rest used for examinations, outdoor training, and the like — but still.
The takeaway was simple.
Because the place was obscenely huge, it housed pretty much every kind of facility you could think of.
"Then I shall now commence the duel between Amatrius Delphia Beatrice and Chloe Pisti. The venue is Duel Arena 21, and I, Finance Director Adam Caines, will serve as adjudicator."
"... Yes."
"Great!"
Duel Arena 21 stood right next to the royal-exclusive dormitory.
Built like a miniature Roman Colosseum, it was a dueling ground reserved for the magic department.
I'd been briefly annoyed that those two had tried to settle it in the street when a duel arena was barely a short walk away, but I let it go.
'They're still kids.'
I'd heard that Chloe had picked a fight with Beatrice just as she was about to enter her dormitory. This time I'd happened to intervene with good timing, but considering the trail of wrecked facilities the martial-arts students left whenever they brawled in the street, this was practically routine.
The adjudicator's box where I stood was shielded by layers of magic and solid barriers. Even a 1st Rank like me could safely spectate a duel between two mages.
The spectator stands, now packed with students, were similarly protected. Anyone below 5th Rank probably couldn't scratch the barrier.
But the best part about a duel arena was something else entirely.
'It's fine if it gets wrecked.'
Training grounds, sparring rings, duel arenas, practice rooms — all of them were built on the premise that they'd be destroyed by sword techniques or magic at some point. The Carpenter's Guild repaired them at bargain prices.
In fact, it was a one-sided loss for the guild, but you could call it a courtesy extended to a VVIP. Lecture halls, auditoriums, laboratories, roads, dormitories, and everything else collapsed often enough that this much was just a freebie.
'Anyway, let's wrap this up fast and go.'
Chloe wore an easy smile. Beatrice looked uncharacteristically tense.
Unlike the participants and the spectators, I had little personal stake in this duel. I raised my hand.
"Then let the duel begin!"
"Don't be so nervous, Princess. I'll play with you a bit and end it gently."
"There are limits to insolence. Is this what the Archmage taught you?"
"... You wretched little bitch."
Rrrrrrrumble!!
Mana swirled around Chloe. It was several times the amount she'd displayed back on the street.
As if to match it, Beatrice raised her own mana. The volume was considerable — at a glance, the two looked evenly matched.
Of course, that was only from the perspective of a 1st Rank like me.
"That princess has quite a lot of mana, huh? Enough to go toe-to-toe with Chloe."
"Idiot. She's royalty — obviously she's been fed elixirs since childhood. And anyway, who wins a duel based on mana capacity?"
"Did I say she had the advantage? I just observed she has a lot of mana. Look at her particle dominance alone — Chloe's leagues ahead. By comparison, the princess just looks like she's dumping it out?"
"She's got a fine blade but she's flailing it around still in its scabbard. Watching all that mana get used like that is honestly pathetic."
... So from the magic department students' perspective, Beatrice did look rather pathetic.
Born a royal and showered with every kind of support, she possessed immense raw mana, yet she couldn't actually wield it properly.
The reason was obvious.
Her 'chronic condition'.
Fwoosh!
[Fireball]
"You picked the wrong fight."
Chloe's mana gathered in multiple points and instantly formed several enormous fireballs.
Chloe Pisti. The disciple of the Archmage, master of the Empire's Magic Tower. Wasn't she called the most promising mage of her generation?
As if proving it, she didn't fire the fireballs right away.
Crack!
She froze the blazing spheres solid.
Whooosh!!
To one fireball she added a gale, shaping it into a pillar of flame.
Kaboom!
Around another she wreathed lightning, making it even more menacing.
'I'd heard only a tiny fraction of mages could wield multi-attribute magic.'
From what Chloe had just shown, she'd already used fire, ice, wind, and lightning — four attributes.
She probably had more at her disposal. A 5th Rank mage at that age, and the Archmage's disciple at that. The 6th Rank protagonist was the actual cheater; by any normal standard, wasn't she the strongest freshman?
Waaaaaaaah!!!
The crowd roared as Chloe ostentatiously transformed the fireballs.
The real magic duel hadn't even started, but Chloe had already seized command of the arena.
"Princess, with that chronic condition of yours, you can at least manage a defensive spell, right?"
"... !"
At Chloe's taunt, Beatrice answered in kind, constructing something like a barrier with her own mana.
But then an anomaly occurred.
Crrrk! Cr-cr-crunch!!
"Ngh... !"
The barrier, which should have covered her in a surrounding sphere, twisted violently, deforming out of shape.
It swelled, shrank, tilted, warped, and gaped open.
The defensive spell was rampaging beyond Beatrice's control.
'So that's the chronic condition.'
Amatrius Delphia Beatrice could not control her own magic.
If her spells suddenly changed, exploded, swelled too large, or vanished outright — she could do nothing about it.
No matter how hard she struggled, she couldn't even properly maintain a simple defensive spell like this one.
Chloe watched Beatrice's flailing with eyes full of mockery.
"Want a little help?"
"... ! N-no, don't!!"
She extended a hand toward Beatrice's defensive spell, which had long since escaped all control and now resembled some grotesque geometric aberration.
And then.
Vwoom—
She seized dominion over Beatrice's mana itself and, with her own hands, wrapped a defensive spell around Beatrice's body.
Moments ago, in Beatrice's grasp, the spell had run wild and uncontrolled. With a single gesture from Chloe, it stabilized and unfurled perfectly.
Before the crowd's excitement could erupt, Chloe's magic fired.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-BOOM!!!!
Flame, ice, gale, and lightning rampaged.
In an instant, Chloe's magic devastated half the arena — yet Beatrice, the intended target, stood unharmed.
Thanks to the defensive spell.
"The opposite of the entrance ceremony, isn't it? Now — your turn. Princess."
"........."
"I'll only keep up the bare minimum defense. Attack me. Go on — attack."
Could you even call this a duel?
Chloe's attack had been blocked by Chloe's own defensive spell. Beatrice had not only laid her chronic condition bare, she'd had her very mana completely hijacked by Chloe.
I wasn't a mage, but the depth of humiliation was obvious. Right now, Beatrice was clenching her fists so tightly they bled, her hands trembling.
Which raised a question.
'Why did she accept the duel in the first place?'
At Grandis Academy, there were only three legal ways for students to fight each other: exams, sparring matches, and duels.
Among these, duels were peculiar in several respects. Before a duel, both parties submitted written demands; the victor could claim whatever they'd requested from the loser.
Since the potential for abuse was obvious, duels came with several restrictions.
Both parties had to consent. If a demand was judged to overstep the bounds, the academy could veto it. Duels between different Ranks were strictly forbidden. And there were numerous other safety clauses.
Beatrice's chronic condition was a problem, but her talent and mana capacity were exceptional enough to earn her a 5th Rank classification — a special exemption made possible because the Empire's Archmage had personally certified her talent.
'Honestly, up to 5th Rank they hand out rankings loosely based on reputation or status.'
Of course, from 6th Rank onward you had to demonstrate sword aura or rigid energy, so that was a different conversation.
In any case, that classification had made today's duel possible. Nominally — and only nominally — Chloe and Beatrice were both 5th Rank.
But if Beatrice herself had refused, the duel wouldn't have happened.
'So why?'
My question turned out to be moot. The duel was already over.
After that, Beatrice fought desperately to control her magic somehow, but she couldn't so much as scratch Chloe. No — she never even managed to complete a spell in the first place.
And Chloe simply hijacked each one the moment it slipped from Beatrice's grasp.
"Hah, hah..."
"Well, that's that."
Beatrice panted raggedly, her legs buckling. Chloe looked at me with satisfied eyes.
I nodded and declared:
"Victor, Chloe Pisti!"
""""Waaaaaaah!!!""""
"An obvious outcome. So, Princess? You'll hand it over obediently, as promised?"
"........."
Why had Beatrice, who was going to return home anyway, accepted the duel?
I shelved the question and approached Beatrice, who stood with her head bowed amid the cheers.
She'd just lost the duel, but the news that I'd arranged a private audience with the Chairwoman would cheer her up.
Time to do my job.
*
She'd lost.
Lost.
No — it had been inevitable. A foreordained defeat. She just hadn't been able to accept it herself.
'But, but still...'
There'd been a reason she had to accept the duel. What she could 'demand' from Chloe had been that sweet.
She'd had no choice but to cling to a thread-thin hope.
And in the end, she'd lost — and had to hand over what Chloe had demanded.
The crowd in the arena chanted Chloe's name and hurled sneers at her.
Leaving Chloe to bask in victory, Beatrice trudged down the exit corridor. There, a familiar face was waiting.
"Your Highness. I have something to discuss."
"... Finance Director."
"As promised, a meeting with the Chairwoman has been arranged. Naturally, if you could offer me just a bit more in the way of consideration, I would be happy to assist Your Highness in every way, both material and moral —"
"No."
"Pardon?"
"I can't... go. Not until I get it back..."
The Finance Director's gaze weighed on her — a mix of bewilderment and disbelief.
It was only natural. She'd approached him first, offered bribes, and demanded a private audience with the Chairwoman. Now he'd arranged it, and her answer was that she suddenly couldn't go.
But she couldn't explain the circumstances to him.
'He only knows that I requested an audience with the Chairwoman — not that my reason was to return home.'
The reason she'd wanted to meet the Chairwoman was to negotiate her release from this hostage status and return to her homeland.
But in her current state, she couldn't go home. So she couldn't meet the Chairwoman today.
Not until she'd recovered 'it,' at least.
"Your Highness, what is this all of a sudden —"
"I'm sorry. You must have gone to considerable trouble to arrange the meeting with the Chairwoman... Could I ask you to postpone it to a later date?"
"You know how difficult that is. Today is the opportunity."
The Finance Director seemed determined to make her meet the Chairwoman today, and given the effort he must have expended, that was an entirely reasonable position.
Postpone? When would she ever get another private audience with the Chairwoman, who ranked among the strongest candidates on the entire continent, never mind just the kingdom? Today might truly be the last chance.
Nevertheless, she had to recover it first. Only then could she even begin to think about returning home or otherwise.
The thing Chloe had demanded from her.
"Sigh... Are you serious?"
"... I'm sorry, Finance Director. I'll provide whatever consideration you wish, so please."
"This isn't about that."
"I know I'm being shameless. But I need time."
Frankly, the odds of recovering it from Chloe's hands were painfully low. But if she had time, even the slimmest chance existed.
A month. Half a year. A year. Or even three — she'd stay at the academy as long as it took and recover it somehow.
At her desperate plea, the Finance Director sighed several times, looking deeply put-upon, then said:
"Can I at least hear the circumstances?"
"Pardon? No, this isn't something the Finance Director needs to involve himself in..."
"How much jewelry and precious metals do you currently possess? Can you continue to show me consideration until I manage to arrange another meeting with the Chairwoman? Are you certain you need no help?"
"........."
She should say no. She should say it clearly — that the Finance Director and she were connected only by bribes, that they were essentially strangers, and that he should stay out of it.
"I don't know how Your Highness sees it, but I genuinely wish to help you."
"Finance Director..."
What could she possibly accomplish alone just by buying time?
This wasn't the Delphia Kingdom. She had no retainers except Susanne. Even if she tried to leverage her status, the kingdom would immediately impose sanctions — she was, after all, a hostage.
... Help.
Even if he was connected to her only through money. Even if he was no different from a stranger. Right now, she had nothing.
She... desperately needed help.
".................."
"I'll take your silence as affirmation. Is that acceptable?"
"... Yes."
Why was this Finance Director trying so hard to help her? For more bribes? Or did he have some other aim?
If not...
'Could it be... because he's a member of the faculty?'
As a member of the academy, could he simply not bear to leave a student — her — alone? Even knowing it was absurd, her mind, scrambled by the loss of 'that thing,' couldn't function properly.
She was deceiving the Finance Director.
No matter how much he helped her, she wasn't going to keep attending the academy. She was going to return home.
She'd leave him behind, ungratefully. She was...
"Then, first, let's go to my room."
"Huh? Wh—why, all of a sudden...?"
"Surely you weren't planning to explain your circumstances out here? I can't enter Your Highness's dormitory unless there's a special reason. The safest and most private place available is my room."
Well, that was true.
If she was going to ask for help, she'd have to explain her plan to return home — a dangerously sensitive discussion.
If even a whisper leaked out, the entire plan would collapse, so it was only right to discuss it in the safest possible place.
'Fine. I have to tell him everything anyway.'
The Finance Director might harbor other intentions once he heard, but if that happened, she could counter-threaten him with the bribery story. Having learned late that the Chairwoman detested bribes — that knowledge, at least, was her trump card now.
Don't let your guard down, don't weaken, don't let yourself hope, Beatrice.
Isn't that how you've always survived?
The Finance Director and I are nothing more than a transactional relationship built on bribes. Don't expect pointless sympathy or sentiment.
"Please follow me."
"Yes."
Just like the last time she'd met the Finance Director, she covered her body and face with a robe and followed.
As befitted an academy staff member, the Finance Director led her through back alleys and underground passages, taking every precaution to avoid being seen.
How long had they walked?
Eventually, he stopped in front of a small dormitory.
"Here we are."
"... Truly? This is your room?"
"Is there a problem?"
"No, it's just..."
Wasn't this building a little too old?
Nestled in a secluded corner of the academy, the dormitory stood at a modest two stories — very small.
It was clearly ancient, cracks lining its walls, its age showing unmistakably.
'What happened to all the bribes he took from me?'
Where had they all gone, for him to be living in such a shabby dormitory?
She suspected that maybe the exterior was a facade and the interior was lavishly decorated.
Creeeak.
"Please, sit wherever you're comfortable."
"Finance... Director."
"Do you truly live in this room?"
"I do."
That suspicion vanished the moment she stepped inside.
The room itself was spacious. As befitted a senior official, he occupied the entire dormitory alone, and the largest room was his.
But the room's interior was the issue.
'... Bleak.'
In this large room, she could see only a bed, a table, and bookshelves that took up most of the space. Nothing else. No furniture, no luxuries.
The rest of the dormitory she'd glimpsed on the way here gave the same impression — minimal maintenance, not a single painting on the walls.
Where had all the bribes gone? This place was desolate.
Had he funneled everything out? But could someone who took that many bribes truly spend none of it on his own living space? He could at least have bought some decent furniture.
She wondered if he was lying about living here and actually resided somewhere else, but the way he moved about the room was too practiced, too familiar. Besides, the bed and the table all bore the traces of daily use.
"... Unbelievable."
Did he really live in a place like this? The Finance Director of Grandis Academy — the man who took all those bribes?
Utterly unable to accept it, she examined the bookshelves that dominated the room more closely.
Spreadsheet Creation for Beginners
Accounting: Fundamentals to Advanced
Methods of Organizational Management
Macro-Level Budget Formulation
Grandis Academy Historical Budget Allocations and Their Rationale
How Academies Fund Their Operations — A Case Study of the Imperial Academy —
Securing Budget Under a Wasteful Superior
"........."
Every single one of the ten-plus bookshelves in that room.
Packed end-to-end with books and treatises on finance, accounting, and management.