11. The Academy's Spring
11. The Academy's Spring
"......Pisti?"
"............."
"Student Chloe Pisti?"
A lecture hall in the Magic Department of Grandis Academy.
Introduction to Magic Studies, 4th Rank—a course so advanced only a tiny handful of top-tier students could even enroll.
Chloe, who—whatever her private life might be—had always been the model student during lectures, was staring blankly past the professor.
From the professor's perspective, she was openly ignoring him. But Chloe Pisti was hardly an ordinary student.
A 5th Rank mage, disciple of the Empire's Magic Tower Lord, the Archmage. And she had been a consistently diligent model student.
She must be tired, the professor thought, so he shifted his target to another student and continued the lecture.
Throughout that entire exchange.
'Honestly. Good grief.'
'.............'
'Does a decent face mean that much? Acting all smooth just because he's faculty—unbelievable.'
'You could at least keep the laughter out of your voice.'
'It's contempt, contempt. Don't tell me my future self actually fell for an obvious line like that? No wonder you turn into such a mess the second you're in front of Adam, huh.'
Chloe was talking with Adult Chloe.
Not their usual magical tutoring, or prying about the future, or those inscrutable games of one-upmanship.
This was Chloe lecturing Adult Chloe one-sidedly.
'Anyway, are you seriously worried that one brief moment made me fall for him or something? Relax—I keep my word. The future me might be an eyesore, but the present me has absolutely zero chance of falling for Adam!'
'......You're calling him Adam now?'
'Wh-what?'
'Before, it was always "the Finance Director." Seems like his title's changed.'
'That's just—! Fine, to get closer to Adam I have to build rapport, don't I? Even if I hate it, really hate it. That's all it is! There are no personal feelings whatsoever!'
Even as Adult Chloe's snide remarks made her visibly flustered, Chloe was the one at ease, and Adult Chloe was the one who seemed displeased.
Chloe, who had been rattling off excuses, cleared her throat briefly and faced the Adult Chloe in her mind.
'More importantly! I'm the one who should be asking questions here. Weren't you supposed to possess me beside Adam and watch the fireworks? Isn't that why you told me about that spot?'
'That's true. Something more important simply came up.'
'More important? There was something you considered more important than Adam?'
'Nothing major—let's just say I changed one of the futures I knew. It wasn't a bad thing, at any rate.'
Changed a future, she said.
Adult Chloe was a mental construct, but she was a mage at the very edge of 7th Rank. She likely had means Chloe didn't know about to exert some kind of significant influence. Had she used that?
No, more than that.
'Hm, is that all?'
'......What?'
'I just wondered if something like changing a future really mattered more to you than meeting Adam...... oh.'
'Where'd the girl who was just swearing she'd never like Adam go?'
'I don't like him! It's just—! Your whole objective is tied to Adam anyway! So meeting Adam basically is changing the future! This is purely about efficiency!'
Along with the sound of Adult Chloe clicking her tongue, Chloe's flustered internal voice grew louder.
After a few more rounds of back-and-forth, the sudden chime of a bell pulled her out of the mental conversation.
The lecture was over.
'So, ahem! I don't have another class.......'
'Shall we go see Adam?'
'Why? I'm just helping you out faster.'
'I didn't say anything about that part. Fine—go to the restroom, fix your makeup, straighten your clothes.'
'Obviously I was going to do that.'
She even skipped the perfunctory farewell to the professor that she normally used for image management.
Chloe hurried to the restroom near the lecture hall and swiftly used magic to touch up her makeup and clothing.
She made her hair sleek and glossy, restored the dark circles and slightly roughened skin to their proper state, and applied makeup just enough that it didn't look like she'd applied any at all.
Having finished her rapid adjustments, Chloe used Teleportation to step outside the lecture building.
'Where would he be today?'
'At this hour, he'll be working. Although about two days out of ten he's out and about right now.'
'Last time was the faculty research building, before that the club headquarters building. Should I try the research building again under the pretext of my appointment with Dean Villend?'
'Sweep the surroundings with Detection Magic first.'
With practiced ease, they discussed Adam's whereabouts while continuously running Detection Magic.
This had been Chloe and Adult Chloe's daily routine ever since cooperating with Adam on the summoning ritual incident a month ago.
Though their efforts hadn't yielded much—Adam spent the vast majority of his time holed up in his office.
Still, it had given them the chance to meet Adam even during the hair-loss-inducer incident.
'Nothing's registering...... Looks like today's a bust.'
'You're more proactive than usual.'
'What are you talking about? This is all for my contract with you.'
'Before, you used to act annoyed or grumble about it. That clearly vanished after the last day of the festival, didn't it?'
'......You're imagining things.'
Imagining things. It had to be. There was no way she'd actually started liking Adam.
He just crossed her mind somewhat often; the face she'd seen beneath the fireworks kept surfacing in her memory, and she replayed his words in her head every night.
That was all it was—hardly love. This was why her future self was such a disaster. A complete amateur in matters of love.
Of course, the present Chloe had zero experience with romance or love either, but that was how she chose to see it.
So her sour mood right now also had nothing to do with not seeing Adam. A trivial thing, a coincidental downturn.
After running Detection Magic across every place Adam frequented, Chloe frowned and descended to a nearby street.
She sensed a commotion around her.
'Something feels off.......'
Hadn't this happened once before?
She spotted a crowd of students, so she teleported onto a nearby rooftop.
'......The Chairwoman.'
'Looks familiar, doesn't it. Just like last time.'
Accompanied by Adult Chloe's grim voice.
Chloe recalled that day she'd met Rus because of the dream. Come to think of it, Rus Spero had dismissed it as a meaningless dream and told her to just erase it with Forgetting Magic—had even that been intentional?
At any rate, Rus was a 6th Rank swordswoman and a regressor who had come from the future to the past. Having once disguised herself to target Chloe, she warranted caution.
But appearing too wary could itself invite suspicion, and since Chloe was terrible at acting, she'd opted to simply avoid meeting her on purpose.
She was currently learning long-range vision and presence-concealing magic from Adult Chloe to handle that aspect.
Even while mulling over how to deal with the regressor, Adult Chloe's thoughts remained singular.
'That fucking bitch.'
'Let me just ask—you react like that because the Chairwoman stole Adam from you, right?'
'It's a far more complicated story.'
'What's complicated about it. But in the first place, does that even make sense?'
'What does?'
Despite Adult Chloe's irritable answer.
Chloe voiced the question that had been bothering her.
'That... were Adam and the Chairwoman really in love with each other? Seriously?'
'................'
'By any common sense, the age gap is just...... well...... you know.'
Not that there was any legal age restriction or anything. But it defied common sense in ways that went beyond legality.
The Chairwoman was a full generation older than Chloe's own master, the Archmage. She was literally a person from a hundred years ago.
And someone like that fell for a man in his early twenties? And he supposedly reciprocated?
If it had been a calculated move, she might understand. But pure love?
Even for a romance-novice like Chloe, it was hard to grasp.
'And the Chairwoman is Adam's workplace superior, the very person who makes him work overtime and all-nighters every day. He loves someone like that......? Even back at the Magic Tower, I wanted to bash every last one of my senior bastards' heads in.'
'That's exactly what I'm saying! Adam is too pitiful, going along with that senile hag Chairwoman's absurd nonsense! She ought to know her place......!!'
Of course, "knowing one's place" wasn't directed at Adam, a 1st Rank commoner. It was aimed at the Chairwoman of Grandis Academy—a hero of the Kingdom, an 8th Rank, and one of the wealthiest people alive.
A questionable sentiment, perhaps, but Chloe readily agreed with it. After all, there was no way she could surrender Adam to someone like the Chairwoman.
This was beyond a princess being abducted by a monster. Given the age gap, it practically bordered on child predation.
Chloe and Adult Chloe had been deep in their tirade of denunciation and slander against the Chairwoman for some time when a voice came from behind them.
"Student Chloe Pisti, correct?"
"......Madam Chairwoman."
"This is a first. I never imagined Pisti had a disciple like you."
The Chairwoman, who until moments ago had been walking the street alone surrounded by students, had slipped behind them without the slightest trace—even though Chloe and Adult Chloe had been distracted, one a 5th Rank mage and the other a peak 7th Rank.
8th Rank. The pinnacle of individual strength. The sole martial artist of that rank on the entire continent, no less.
Why a martial artist dressed like a mage was anyone's guess, but if the Chairwoman did it, one simply accepted there was a reason.
And furthermore.
"My master asked me to convey his regards to you, Madam Chairwoman."
"Pisti did? Do send him my thanks. We crossed paths briefly during travels long ago—I'm touched he remembers."
The person before her was someone even the Archmage addressed with extreme deference.
Among the ten 8th Ranks existing in the Empire, the Magic Tower Lord Archmage ranked within the top three in influence alone. A white-haired, bearded figure who appeared kindly yet commanded respect from other 8th Ranks—her master, addressing this woman as though she were the Emperor herself.
......Of course, that didn't mean the Chairwoman's influence actually equaled the Imperial Emperor's. The Archmage's behavior seemed rooted in trauma from his youth. The bruise on his wrist that hadn't faded in decades testified to that.
The very person she'd been mentally tearing apart moments ago—now that she stood face to face with her, Chloe could only feel overwhelmed.
And the other party held no hostility whatsoever.
That was Chloe's experience, at least.
For Adult Chloe, the story was a little different.
'Look at her, what a sight. Had some trouble sleeping, did she?'
'What? What do you mean?'
'You don't need the details. Simply put, I sent that woman a special gift. Her head's probably splitting right about now.'
A gift, to the Chairwoman—to that monster?
Was it boldness? Or arrogance?
Watching Adult Chloe, who instead of being crushed by the vast gulf between them simply sneered at it, Chloe drew a courage she couldn't explain and faced the Chairwoman squarely.
'This is an opportunity.'
'Huh?'
'An opportunity to get closer to Adam!'
The Chairwoman was Adam's superior—practically the only person who could give him orders.
The Chairwoman would surely know that Chloe herself had been helping with Adam's work. She'd seen her in Professor Kirke's laboratory, after all.
The issue was that Adam was pushing Chloe away(?). To be precise, instead of keeping her close, he was putting her to work in completely different places—construction sites, search operations.
With the Chairwoman's help, she could close that distance in a single stroke.
'I wouldn't recommend it.'
'Why not? Don't tell me the Chairwoman would get jealous? Of me getting closer to Adam?'
'.............'
'You'd have to be making sense. I know you hate the Chairwoman, but this is excessive.'
Within the bounds of Chloe's common sense, the Chairwoman had zero reason to be jealous of or keep Chloe in check. That was only natural, given that the very premise of the Chairwoman loving Adam was absurd.
Leaving Adult Chloe, who had gone silent for some reason, Chloe spoke up with a confident smile.
"If it isn't too presumptuous, might I ask a favor of you, Madam Chairwoman?"
"A student's concerns are my own concerns. Please, speak freely."
"It's just that, a few days ago during the festival, when I met Adam—that is, the Finance Director......."
"......Pardon? What did you just say?"
"Ah, to be precise, it was the last day of the festival. I happened to run into the Finance Director watching the fireworks on a rooftop......?"
Chloe, who had been about to spin a story about watching the fireworks with the Finance Director, was forced to stop mid-sentence, as if something had frozen her—just like the Chairwoman herself.
More than the Chairwoman's subtly hostile gaze, it came from those lips.
'......That's Adam's trace, isn't it?'
'I told you. That woman is a goddamn bitch.'
Because Detection Magic had reacted.
Detection Magic wasn't for locating the person so much as locating traces. Directly pinpointing a specific target required advanced magic at 6th Rank or above—still beyond Chloe's ability.
Which meant that the target Detection Magic had reacted to had made contact with Adam.
And Detection Magic only responded to deeply lingering traces.
Lastly, why had it reacted specifically on the Chairwoman's lips?
The deduction was painfully simple.
"................"
"............."
Atop the building.
The gazes of the Chairwoman and Chloe met.
Eyes filled with suspicion and hostility.