9. No Man Is an Island
9. No Man Is an Island
The Dark Sword lay where it had been tossed aside. The mask and hood were scattered across the floor.
Inside the dormitory room, still dark despite the risen sun with the curtains drawn shut.
Rus sat curled up on the bed.
"............."
The Dark Sword that had slipped from her hand had lost its ominous hue, reduced to a shabby, worn blade.
Even after a night's sleep following the events in the forest, her mind remained tangled.
"...I'm tired."
The words slipped out unconsciously, and that was the honest truth.
Ever since she'd first opened her eyes after returning to the past, one question had lingered.
Why me?
'Why?'
The old Rus had only been 6th Rank. She'd never reached 7th Rank, and while she was overwhelming by the academy's standards, on the continent-wide scale she was nothing remarkable.
Her knowledge was unreliable too. She'd traveled the continent after graduation and learned a fair amount, but when it came to the most crucial matter—what had actually happened at the academy—she was practically blind.
Nor was she anyone extraordinary. She'd killed Kirke, killed Chloe, killed many villains, but she'd never stopped any of it in advance. She'd only ever managed to kill them after countless massacres and disasters had already happened.
I'm this inadequate. If someone were to go back to the past, there were countless people who could produce far better results than someone like me.
So why me?
"................"
No one was going to kindly provide an answer, of course. Having witnessed the collapse of the Holy Kingdom as it searched for a god to the very end, Rus didn't believe in any such thing.
If a god did exist, it would be an evil god.
The sort of being who tosses people into agony and death and cackles.
'...As for Chloe.'
She'd left the door open for now. To be honest, even she thought the suspicions she'd voiced in the forest were a bit much.
But she couldn't shake the suspicion that Chloe was connected to Kirke. If not, what other explanation was there for how unruffled she'd been at the sight of that basement and the summoning magic?
So she'd ended it at the level of a warning. Now she needed to monitor Chloe regularly and confirm whether she was meeting with Kirke.
It might be overkill, but the image of Chloe burning an entire small kingdom to ash was still vivid.
How much suffering had she endured trying to kill Chloe? And how many people had Chloe killed in the meantime?
Remembering the ruins and charred corpses left behind, Rus had no choice but to regard her with extreme wariness.
And if, by perfect convenience, Chloe really was Kirke's accomplice and the mastermind who'd corrupted Adam—
"...Adam."
The dormitory was spacious and splendid but desolate. Yet it was exactly as she remembered.
A past now known only to Rus. There had been a time spent laughing and chatting in this dormitory.
'Why did this change too?'
Originally, this had been the dormitory the Finance Director Adam occupied alone, as befitted his position. She'd naturally expected to find him here, and she'd been stunned to discover it was empty.
That was when she'd become certain that the future had diverged for some unknown reason.
...In the memories slowly surfacing, the former Adam had made an exception and rented her the first-floor room. He'd fed her for free too.
Unlike now, the old Rus had barely scraped together her tuition, so that kindness had been an enormous help.
'I'd meant to make him breakfast in return.'
She still vividly remembered scraping together every coin she had and heading to the market, only to have her wallet stolen and suddenly be unable to buy the eggs that had just gone on sale.
She'd been so upset that day. If only she'd had those, she could have made breakfast for Adam, who was always so busy. She'd felt utterly pathetic for letting even that slip away.
All she'd had left were a few coins in her pocket. Enough to buy a single apple. She'd been so embarrassed, so full of self-loathing, handing that over and calling it breakfast.
—Thank you, Rus. This'll keep me going all day.
Adam, who'd smiled as he said that, had been such a dazzling person to her.
So she'd thrown herself even more obsessively into her training, desperate to stop being the perennial dead-last. She'd wanted to graduate from the academy with honors, find a good position, and repay Adam. In the end, she'd graduated unremarkably rather than with honors.
Touring the continent had been part of that repayment too. She'd wanted to bring back stories from every corner of the land and gift him all sorts of souvenirs, for Adam who always stayed at the academy.
...But in the midst of that, the academy collapsed.
The Chairwoman died.
Adam vanished.
And the Adam she finally met again in a small frontier kingdom—
—It was nothing, really. I just burned it all down.
—Wasn't hard. Caught fire better than I expected. Roaring flames, just like the academy that day.
—had changed so utterly.
On top of the sudden reunion, he hadn't shown a trace of that old smile.
—More to the point, this girl... who is she?
—Don't remember? Rus Spero. The eternal dead-last.
—The one you were so hung up on back at the academy? Don't tell me you're still hung up on her now?
And beside him had been Chloe.
The Adam who had completely transformed while Rus was away, who had fallen—
—Well, it's true that I used to be.
—Not anymore, though.
—She means nothing to me now.
He'd even denied the time and memories they'd shared together.
After the two of them had vanished, Rus had stood alone on that burning hill for a long, long time.
She'd roamed across the whole continent, meaning to tell Adam about it all.
She'd collected every kind of souvenir and keepsake, meaning to give them to him.
All of it.
Wasted.
"Adam...."
A trustworthy adult, someone she respected, the benefactor she owed so much to, the Finance Director she'd been determined to repay...
Was this what it felt like when a teacher she'd always believed was on her side betrayed her?
After that, Rus had hunted for Adam and Chloe like a woman possessed.
She met Kirke in the Holy Kingdom, Risha in the Kingdom, the Emperor in the Empire, Beatrice in the Delphia Kingdom.
Following the trail of slaughter, death, and destruction that Chloe and Adam left behind, until finally she had killed Chloe—and inside the cave Chloe had defended to the last, found Adam.
"................"
And so, when a second chance came—when she returned to the past—she'd steeled her heart.
If she faced Adam again, she would remember the death and destruction he had caused.
He was the enemy in the end, and if he showed the slightest sign of falling, she would not hesitate, for the world's sake.
That was why she'd been so cold to him during the entrance exam and the entrance ceremony.
—Rus, is there anything you want to eat? I'll buy. I'm the Finance Director, you know? My salary's way higher than you'd imagine. I've got money.
—Why am I being so nice? Think of it as an investment in the future. You're absolutely going to become someone big.
The more she faced Adam, the more she talked with him, the more the warm old memories surfaced. She simply couldn't keep her heart hardened.
But at the same time, during the uninhabited island midterm, she'd glimpsed the future Adam overlaid on him. As if something were whipping her to harden her resolve.
The Adam who smiled sheepishly, and the Adam who set the world on fire.
Which of them had been real? Which had been a performance? Or were they both Adam?
Could she really do this? Change all those futures and disasters?
"...Adam, why do you treat someone like me so specially?"
The words slipped out in a murmur.
It was the same question she'd once asked Adam in this dormitory, right on this spot.
The perennial dead-last—the Rus of those days, who had excelled at nothing, whether theory or practicals—had asked Adam that, as if complaining.
Back then Adam had said—
—Hm, you need something cooler than just 'I believe in you' or some empty comfort, right?
—Uh... it's really embarrassing, really cringey, and really humiliating, so don't laugh, okay?
—The way I see it, you're the main character.
—The main character of this world.
—...Hey! I said don't laugh! That's just how I see it, alright!
"I'm... the main character, after all."
The corner of her mouth lifted as she lingered on that memory. Rus wiped away the tears sliding down her cheeks and stood up.
Right. I am the main character. It was Adam himself who said so.
Those words had given her strength again and again. She'd clung to them when she was mocked as the academy's perpetual dead-last, and even after Adam fell, she'd kept recalling them.
Thanks to them, she'd been able to rise again.
At the academy.
In a world falling apart.
Even before Adam, who had changed beyond recognition.
'But I'm not the main character.'
Yet paradoxically, even as she murmured those words about being the main character, Rus didn't believe them.
What she believed in was the warmth and smile of the Adam who had said them. She didn't actually think she was the main character. She simply treasured those words as the last remaining thread connecting her to Adam.
'Do I miss Adam, or do I hate him?'
...No man is an island. Even if they don't realize it, people are connected to one another.
The connection's gone now, but—
Its remnants still lived and breathed inside Rus.
"...Let's go."
In one corner of the room sat a storage unit fitted with a freezing artifact. Oddly, it held no other ingredients—just row after row of eggs.
That was because, on the day she'd met Chloe, after failing to buy the discount eggs, she'd stormed off to the general store in frustration and bought every single egg they had.
She glanced at the eggs—far too many for one person to eat—then straightened her room and stepped out of the dormitory.
The appointment she'd already set.
Adam was waiting for her.
*
Maybe it was the dark clouds that had gathered so heavily yesterday, but today the sky was immaculate, not a single cloud in sight.
Warm, perfectly pleasant weather.
A brief respite disguised as work.
A coffee purchased at a steep faculty discount to top it off.
Isn't this the life?
CRASH!!!
"What now?! What blew up this time?"
"Lady Risha's dueling the lunatic in Arena 12!"
"The lunatic, as in Kaern Deste? This is gonna be hilarious!"
"They both got so worked up they broke out of the arena! C'mon, hurry!"
Yeah, I guess not. Fuck.
...Wait, no. Risha's mindful of my eyes, so that means a nicely padded bribe for me. And Kaern's another chance to arrange a meeting with Hogus, isn't he?
Go on, my Four Heavenly Kings of Financial Destruction. Wreck this academy. Don't wreck all of it, though.
'Is this that thing—the idea that a moderate amount of property damage is good for the finances?'
I was mulling over some nonsense I'd once read in an introductory business book when, among the rushing students, I spotted a familiar face.
It was our protagonist, who'd been behaving herself lately—not destroying any buildings, especially not destroying any buildings.
"Student Rus. Over here."
"...It's been a while. Finance Director."
"First time since the uninhabited island midterm, isn't it? I took note of your performance back then, Student Rus."
"Thank... you."
She doesn't seem to be focusing on the conversation.
The protagonist had been staring intently at my professional smile, then closed her eyes for a moment, murmured something to herself, and sat down. What is up with her?
Anyway, I was the one who'd called her here, so I looked across at Rus, seated opposite me.
"I've brought you good news, so please don't be too nervous."
"Good news?"
"Student Rus, do you have any interest in the Student Council?"
".........Excuse me?"
Well, I'd been thinking.
Living in constant dread that she might demolish a wall or a building at any moment was getting a bit much.
'If I can't control her anyway, better to keep her somewhere I can always keep an eye on her.'
On top of that, I was uneasy about the Student Council. If I'm being honest, that's the real reason.
Timing-wise, we were about due for that junior of mine to cause a major incident.
'If she were the original perennial dead-last, maybe not.'
I don't know how she did it, but if our protagonist has reached 6th Rank, she can stop that junior punk.
I'm counting on you, protagonist. I mean it.
And more than anything, to be honest, it's not a bad deal for the protagonist either. Training and sparring are meaningless once you're 6th Rank. The only things worth getting out of the academy now are allies, connections, and the like.
'The Student Council makes building those easy.'
Grandis Academy's Student Council occupies, how to put it, a rather unique position.
It doesn't hold overwhelming power or anything, but to call it a mere figurehead would be inaccurate—it wields its own kind of influence.
"What do you say?"
"...Are you saying you can create a place for me on the Student Council, Finance Director?"
"A special recommendation system for faculty use."
No such system exists, of course, but it's no problem. I'll just meet with that junior of mine, ask him to slot her in, and he'll do it right away.
What, is it a parachute appointment? When people say that, they mean cases like mine. Besides, at 6th Rank, no one's going to question her getting into the Student Council by any means. They'll all accept it perfectly well.
If she says yes, I proceed as planned.
If she says no, I persuade her again. And keep persuading until I get a yes.
The protagonist seemed to consider it for a moment.
"Alright."
"You'll accept?"
"It seems like a really good opportunity in many ways."
"An excellent choice."
That junior of mine, see—he's a really good guy. Good in a somewhat ambiguous sense, so adapt well.
And while you're at it, pitch in during the festival. The Student Council collaborates with the Guard Corps on patrols.
At any rate, with my objective accomplished, it was time to head back to the office—
"Um, Finance Director?"
"Was there something else?"
"Where... are you living right now?"
"Excuse me?"
"It's, it's just something that suddenly made me curious."
Why the sudden interest in where I live?
Had she found something in that dormitory? Because the one she's staying in now is the dormitory the Chairwoman originally meant to give me.
"I simply stay at one of the outer dormitories. It's a fairly decent place."
"Outer? Where on the outskirts?"
"...Student Rus?"
What's with the sudden intensity?
And since when do students care about a faculty member's home addr—
"Finance Director."
"...?"
"I came to see you."
I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around.
Chloe was standing there—I'd met her just yesterday. She'd kept our appointment well.
But.
"............."
"................"
These two.
Were they always on bad terms...?