9. No Man Is an Island
9. No Man Is an Island
Rus and Chloe looked at each other.
Even the most charitable description wouldn't have called it friendly. Their eyes were full of hostility—or at least, heavy wariness.
If it had been outright hatred or disgust, I might have understood. Maybe something happened between them without my knowing.
But this had more of the feel of—
'The vibe you get during budget meetings.'
In those, the professors playing attack dog would hurl vicious words and accusations at each other, but none of them actually despised their target on an emotional level.
They simply belonged to different departments, had different interests, and were loyal to their own roles and gains.
The look passing between Rus and Chloe now was similar. Not identical, of course.
It felt less like primal hostility and more like something else was driving it.
As they kept glaring, Chloe was the first to break the stalemate. She turned to me with a sharp smile.
"More importantly, Finance Director, did you manage to take care of that business from yesterday?"
"Excuse me? Which business?"
"You know. The matter just the two of us handled together."
".........What?"
I mean, technically she wasn't wrong, but why phrase it so ambiguously?
Rus, who had flinched at the insinuating tone, now fixed me with a gaze that practically quivered.
What now?
"...Finance Director, I accept the proposal you just made to me in confidence."
"I'm sorry?"
"I mean, you went so far as to pull me aside first and make the offer. Naturally, I ought to repay that sincerity, don't you think?"
"W-wait. A confidential proposal? Finance Director, what in the world...?"
You already said you'd do it earlier, you damn protagonist. Why are you now accepting something you already agreed to?
And what's this about a confidential proposal? You do realize if word of this gets twisted, you're not getting onto the Student Council.
Worse, Chloe now stepped closer to me, her eyes demanding an explanation.
"Finance Director."
"Finance Director!"
"Both of you?"
Why are you two staring at me like that?
What's with that disappointed tone?
"I'd like an explanation."
"What is that supposed to mean!"
"Sigh..."
One of them is this world's protagonist and a 6th Rank; the other is the Archmage's disciple and a 5th Rank mage.
Since I'm likely going to keep running into them at least until they graduate, I wanted to avoid any incidents that might make things ugly between us.
Hey. You students.
Am I your friend?
"Student Rus, Student Chloe. What exactly are you doing right now?"
"Ah, pardon?"
"Well..."
"It's true I handled a matter with Student Chloe yesterday, and it's also true I just made a personal proposal to Student Rus. What's the problem? At the very least, neither of you brought these up to boast about them or to demand answers from me."
I get it, you're still students, and you want to flaunt things in front of each other.
I promised Chloe compensation to win her over, and Rus just landed the huge opportunity of joining the Student Council.
And more than that, you're now connected to the Finance Director—an awkward thing to say about myself, but a fairly high-ranking person. If I'd known a vice-chancellor back in college, I'd have wanted to brag about that connection too.
The age gap's only a few years, but in the end they're kids and students. I can let that slide.
But don't go turning it around and putting me on the spot.
"And don't phrase things so ambiguously, either of you. Misunderstandings happen when you don't convey accurate information. First, Student Chloe and I simply wrapped up the summoning ritual that took place in the Magic Department's forest yesterday."
"...Summoning ritual?"
"Student Rus may not know yet, but it'll be announced publicly soon enough. A few days ago, the academy detected summoning magic mana, and the Guard Corps apprehended the associate and assistant professors who orchestrated it. Student Chloe merely entered the forest on my behalf, since I couldn't go in myself."
"................"
Rus seemed to stare at me and Chloe with considerable bewilderment, but I let it slide.
Experience told me if I asked what was wrong, she'd just say it was nothing anyway.
Besides, now it's your turn, protagonist.
"And the confidential proposal Student Rus mentioned concerns joining the Student Council."
"Th-the Student Council? Her? Rus Spero?"
"Is there a problem? Student Rus is 6th Rank and more than qualified to be a member of the Student Council. Above all, authority over Student Council officer appointments rests with the Student Council President. She's a junior I'm somewhat close to, and she simply asked me to pass along the message."
Anyway, that's how it is now. Given that junior's personality, if I say it happened because of this and that, she'll accept it without batting an eye.
It's less that she marches to her own beat and more that she simply doesn't pay attention at all.
Thinking back to all the messes that junior caused during her academy days, I'd genuinely suspected she might operate without a brain.
Well, anyway.
"That's how it stands for both of you. I've explained everything. Do you still have something you want to say to me?"
"................"
"............."
"I am the Finance Director and a faculty member of Grandis Academy. Consequently, I naturally look after and favor all of you students, and I treat you with cordiality, but that doesn't mean I give any one student special treatment. Please understand that."
In other words, protagonist and Chloe, being asked a favor or given an offer by me doesn't make you special.
Of course, if I think about <Dark Kingdom>, those two are special, but protagonist or companion or whatever—they just happened to fit the requirements. If you hadn't matched my criteria, I'd have cut you off without a second thought.
If the protagonist weren't 6th Rank, the only students I'd be treating specially are my bribery students like Risha. Strictly speaking, they aren't students—they're clients.
I might have come on a bit strong, but the conclusion's simple.
You're students. I'm a faculty member, not your friend.
'Why do they keep acting like we're close in the first place?'
This is only my third meeting with the protagonist, and I worked with Chloe for barely a day.
So why are they acting so familiar? If anything, I should be the one feeling a sense of familiarity—I've seen them in <Dark Kingdom>. From your perspective, aren't I just a stranger?
Acting like we already know each other well is deeply uncomfortable.
Honestly, I don't particularly want to get personally close to them anyway. If the protagonist were stuck in eternal last place like in the game, I'd have to train him up somehow, but he's already 6th Rank. Chloe will do fine on her own if left alone.
They aren't bribing me like Risha, or bringing me easy marks like Kaern, or offering bribes plus merchant connections like Beatrice.
'Tch.'
My sudden emotional spike was probably another side effect of the military-grade stimulant. Once I'm back in my office, I'll have to get the toxicity purged.
Anyway, I've said everything I needed to. Time to get back to work...
"...Liar."
"Student Rus?"
"It's nothing. So what should I do about the Student Council?"
"Once the Student Council President sends a reply, we'll meet once more. As for the meeting location..."
"Let's use the dormitory where I'm staying."
"Excuse me? But—"
"The dormitory."
"...Very well."
I'll treat it as a chance to see that dorm again after all this time.
I sent Rus off with that oddly dark look in her eyes, leaving only Chloe.
".........?"
What the—
Where did she go?
*
Chloe Pisti was confused.
Because she'd met her future self—her other self—yesterday?
Because she'd found out Rus Spero was a regressor?
Because she'd come to see the Finance Director and unexpectedly run into Rus, the mystery attacker from yesterday?
Because the Finance Director had just told her something that was, admittedly, perfectly reasonable?
All of those were true, but none of them were the real reason.
Strictly speaking, the problem wasn't Chloe herself. It was the 'other Chloe.'
'Hold on, why won't you come out! You said you wanted to see him!'
'...I'm not ready yet.'
'What do you mean you're not ready! You nagged me all morning about how to do my hair, how to do my makeup, just because we were meeting the Finance Director!'
Adult Chloe, a mental body, could share her vision and converse through thoughts even outside of dreams.
When Chloe had met her future self yesterday in her dream, she'd seemed worn-down but genuinely mature.
That oh-so-composed Adult Chloe had completely frozen up the moment Chloe announced she was meeting the Finance Director today.
To be precise, she'd just crammed herself into a corner—possession, schmossession.
'Why are you so hopeless! Weren't you together with the Finance Director in the future!?'
'W-well, I was. We were constantly around each other for years.'
'Then why!'
'...I still get nervous every time I see him, alright?'
Seriously, is this right? You were together for years and you still get nervous every time you see his face?
This absurd, hopeless mess is really my future self?
Chloe, genuinely starting to feel disillusioned, was about to step out of the alley with a sigh when—
She froze.
'No, I said let's go out there!'
'I-I can't! Just a little longer, let me fix my clothes!'
'Fix your clothes? We bolted out here in the middle of a conversation, remember!'
While the Finance Director was talking to Rus Spero, Adult Chloe had possessed just Chloe's legs and dragged her into a nearby alley.
She kept saying she was too nervous to keep looking at his face, that the clothes and makeup she'd already fussed over so much needed more work—whatever.
Unsurprisingly, Chloe was at her wit's end.
'If he realizes I suddenly vanished, what do you think the Finance Director is going to think! I need to go now!'
'I'm still not mentally prepared...'
'To hell with mental preparation!'
Hadn't she asked in the dream why he wouldn't look back at her? If he did look back, wouldn't she just get embarrassed and turn her head away?
Struggling to move her legs by any means, Chloe glared at Rus Spero's retreating back.
'A regressor, a regressor, huh.'
Having already resolved to trust her future self, Chloe now had to accept this preposterous talk of regression too. It violated the laws of magic she knew, but... well, there were plenty of things in the world beyond magic.
In any case, if Rus Spero really was a regressor and the attacker who'd threatened her in the forest yesterday...
'What do I do in the future? Something bad enough that a regressor would try to eliminate me?'
But there were still too many ambiguities to say for certain. Even if she turned into a villain in the future, there'd have been no need to handle things so vaguely in the forest.
The killing intent the attacker—Rus Spero—had radiated back then was genuine. Rus really could have killed Chloe.
And she'd even allowed Chloe's [Dancing Flame] to be cast.
The most likely scenario was—
'She wasn't sure. About whether it's okay to eliminate me now or not.'
It became clearer when she recalled what the disguised Rus had said. Back then, she'd talked about the 'summoning magic' and 'the mastermind' more than about Chloe herself.
'There's hostility toward me, but even more than that, there's information she needs to uncover.'
But from what the Finance Director had said, the summoning ritual wasn't that important or dangerous. It was just a story about a few professors who'd been caught by the Guard Corps without proper materials or precautions.
If you set aside the unusual fact of summoning magic, it was the sort of everyday incident that happened all the time at the enormous Grandis Academy.
So why was Rus so fixated on the summoning magic and its mastermind?
'Is there something the Finance Director didn't tell me? No. He said it would be announced publicly soon anyway. If there was information he wanted to hide, he wouldn't have needed to make it public and draw attention in the first place.'
There still wasn't enough information to draw a clear conclusion, but if she had to pick the most rational guess—
1. There was a hidden mastermind behind the summoning ritual that the academy hadn't discovered.
2. Rus Spero was tracking that mastermind, and when she saw Chloe—who shouldn't normally have been there—emerging from the basement, she mistakenly assumed Chloe had some connection to them.
3. So she threatened Chloe to try and get a definite answer about whether she really was involved.
'But that misunderstanding was just cleared up.'
Because the Finance Director himself had said Chloe went to the basement at his request.
If her guess was right, and Rus Spero had mistakenly believed Chloe was connected to the mastermind, then with this, Chloe no longer had to worry about being attacked by Rus.
But for some reason—
Chloe couldn't shake an odd sense of foreboding.
'There's still something else. Something I don't know.'
And it was probably—the reason 'why' she'd been killed by Rus Spero.
Naturally, her future self ought to know...
'................'
'...Why aren't you saying anything?'
'If I keep my eyes closed, I won't have to see Adam. Then I won't be nervous.'
'Alright, let me ask you this. If you're this... ugh, this shy, how did you ever manage to be around the Finance Director?'
'I acted desperately, obviously. It turns out if you're too flustered and nervous, your face just stiffens up rigidly.'
She was seriously going to lose her mind.
Yesterday, she'd been so full of charisma, but the moment the Finance Director was involved, she did a complete 180.
This is me? My future self turns into that pathetic spectacle? What in the world happened to make her love the Finance Director this much?
Chloe gave up thinking about it. Hadn't Adult Chloe said as much? Until she properly met the Finance Director, Chloe was herself and not herself at the same time.
She genuinely wanted to believe that. She hated the thought of such a pitiful future being that same 'me.'
In a situation where each denied the other was truly themselves, Chloe finally seized a moment when Adult Chloe let her guard down and bolted out of the alley.
Thud-thud!
'W-wait a moment!'
'Wait, nothing! This is too infuriating for me to watch!'
A promise was a promise: Chloe had to meet Adam and get closer to him. No, if she didn't, the sheer frustration would kill her.
The Finance Director had just said they were merely student and faculty, but for Adult Chloe's goal, that was exactly the relationship she needed to change. Obviously, using this time to say something—anything—was far more efficient than dithering around.
While Adult Chloe shrieked, Chloe ran toward the Finance Director, who was looking around.
"Student Chloe? Where on earth did you go—"
"Finance Director!"
"Er, yes?"
Chloe had zero romantic experience, no concept of love, and had never even felt a crush on the opposite sex.
But they did say ignorance makes one brave, didn't they? Precisely because she knew nothing about love or romance, Chloe could just charge ahead recklessly.
Just like right now.
"During the festival!"
"Yes?"
"How about we go around together!"
".........?"
The blazingly direct question nearly made the Adult Chloe inside her head faint on the spot, mental body or not.
Chloe herself was a little embarrassed by what she'd just blurted out, but she still folded her arms proudly.
Objectively speaking, Chloe was beautiful. Her chest was decently sized, even if not as much as that princess's, and she was the Archmage's disciple and a 5th Rank mage.
If he brought up the faculty thing, she could just push through with excuses like festival patrols or taking a short break together.
A man who was merely decent-looking, like the Finance Director, had no reason to refuse—
"I won't."
"...What? No—why not!?"
"I have to work."
"Ah."
"How can a faculty member leisurely stroll around enjoying the festival? On top of that, I'm the Finance Director. I probably won't be able to leave my office for the entire festival."
"I-I'm sorry..."
"As long as you understand."
Faced with a refusal that held not a second of hesitation and an utterly irrefutable reason, the previously fired-up Chloe grew solemn.
The Finance Director, who was already exhausted from daily work and had just been effectively taunted with "I'm a student who gets to play and enjoy the festival—wanna come?", let out a sigh.
And inside her head, Adult Chloe—
'.............'
Quietly.
Very quietly.
Was watching that sight of the Finance Director—of Adam—with eyes full of rapture.