The Eve of the Storm (3)
Boom!
Nia Lion stared blankly at the shattered glass bottle. Tiny shards rained down against the barrier with a patter of falling glass.
"Ahhh, that was my third attempt!"
At her cry of frustration, Isabella from the neighboring alchemy lab seat let out a snicker.
"Did the fairy of Delin hex you or something?"
"Maybe... it really might be that."
Nia clutched at her platinum blonde hair and pulled. Ever since she'd come back from meeting Luid earlier, her experiments kept going wrong. Could it be because she'd bragged and talked too much? She seriously debated putting off the rest of the experiments until tomorrow.
"I'm gonna take a quick break."
"Sure, sure. Don't push yourself too hard, okay?"
"I knowww..."
Nia dragged her limp body out of the lab. Breathing the crisp outdoor air instead of the stale atmosphere of the cramped laboratory, her head finally felt like it was clearing a little.
She pressed her index fingers hard into her temples.
"What on earth is wrong with my head. How do I mess up something that basic... Hmm."
Nia Lion.
Her nickname was the Lion Family's Maverick.
Setting aside the fact that she was a magician born into a knightly house, her small frame alone made her a rarity among the Lions, whose average height ran famously tall.
But it would be a mistake to misunderstand. Her speech was babyish and her face barely out of childhood, yet Nia was sharp as a blade.
Acting like a little kid simply came with too many advantages—that was the only reason she behaved this way.
The truth dwelling inside her ran far darker and far drearier than any of this. But that wasn't a garment meant for her to wear. This was Nia Lion's way of surviving.
And lately, she'd been feeling something strange. She had met someone her mask simply didn't work on.
Someone of her own kind—a fellow pretender. Luid Christopher.
The only difference was that unlike her, he was genuinely young.
"No, no. I can't be thinking like that. He's a Windsor... he's the Fairy, after all."
Nia shook her head vigorously, as if to wipe the dark expression from her face.
The feeling she held toward Luid was neither interest nor curiosity.
It was envy. He was, by anyone's judgment, not a particularly pleasant person. Unlike the other nobles who kept their true selves carefully hidden, he wore his emotions openly and did exactly as he pleased.
And yet not a single person at the Academy disliked him. If anything, everyone looked at him with open fondness. Why? Nia believed it came down to a background so overwhelming that no one dared say a word against him.
The Windsor family was the one giving the glance, never the one receiving it—
It was nothing like her own situation, where even the smallest dent in her reputation would be a catastrophe, and the peculiar air of ease that came from such security worked, ironically, in his favor.
I want to live like that too. Without watching anyone's eyes, free to be honest.
Nia indulged in the thought, but she knew full well how far it strayed from her reality.
That was why stress slammed into her like a hammer. And whenever stress came, Nia always resorted to her usual—not-exactly-healthy remedy.
"Anything fun around here?"
She filled the void with entertainment. For these moments alone, Nia answered to no one's gaze.
The occasional pranks she pulled were simply the privilege of a cute little child. Everyone had always indulged her that much, after all.
"Why not?! This is a facility open to everyone!"
"It is the ruling of the Standing Council of Magic. Surely you aren't defying an Expert, girl?"
"Th-the Standing Council of Magic?"
"A measure passed unanimously by all twenty-four Experts. Students of Common rank and below are barred from using the Every Library."
"That's insane! There's no such rule!"
"Damn it, Lady Obillion, must you shriek like that? You're hurting my ears."
That girl...
Nia's mind drifted back to the topic that had briefly caught her interest a few days ago.
She asked me for help, didn't she? Said she was going to occupy the library.
A darling child who championed even the lowly commoners! That was the picture Nia had imagined when she agreed.
Then she'd gone to meet Luid, and the whole thing had slipped her mind entirely—
"You'll regret this! I'll make sure of it! Consider that your final warning!"
Wait... Obillion?
Catherine had definitely come asking for help, but Nia had never learned her name. Who would have guessed it was that Obillion?
Nia scratched her head and turned to head back to the lab. It looked entertaining, sure, but she had no desire to side with an Obillion. Weren't they that filthy family of dark mages?
But in that very moment, a genuinely brilliant idea flashed through her mind.
Billion... dark magic... a dark mage's minion?
—You made that chimera from Adrane's Flower? Ew! Get rid of it, now. It looks exactly like a dark mage's familiar.
A few days ago—a test subject grown from Adrane's Flower.
Isabella had insisted it looked just like a dark mage's creation and warned her to dispose of it before she got disciplined.
And so Nia had been forced to scrap Test Subject 005.
But during that failed experiment just now, the magic amplification spiked massively for a moment. What would happen if I combined the two?
Nia stroked her chin—a pose she often struck when a flash of magical inspiration hit her.
I won't know until I try, but it'd be monstrously strong. And if I let it loose in the library?
Nia's eyes went wide.
Her brain spun at full speed, and the possibilities bloomed one after another.
Who would people believe released the chimera?
Wouldn't the odds overwhelmingly point to that Lady Obillion, nursing her grudge against the Experts?
Ohhh, this could be fun.
The risk was considerable, but pranks were only entertaining when they carried a little danger.
Grinning ear to ear, Nia sprinted back toward the lab. The timing would be tight if she wanted everything to fall into place.
It seemed this particular prank was about to—escalate quite a bit in scale.
"What brings you to me, Luid Christopher?"
Damon crossed his legs with visible irritation, then smirked at the fox perched on Luid's shoulder.
"A fitting beast for you. Small and docile at a glance, but within it dwells a ferocious talent for violence."
He saw through it?
Luid looked at Damon anew. Whether or not he'd read that flicker of surprise, Damon spoke with an unpleasant curl of his lip.
"Don't get cocky. Do you take me for such a dullard that I couldn't even recognize that much?"
"Yeah."
"...You remain as insolent as ever."
"It was a joke."
"I was aware. My rival would never stoop to sincerity."
Luid genuinely wondered where the man sourced his self-confidence from.
"You're maintaining that domineering attitude too, Prince Damon."
"Even you insist on calling me 'Prince'? That title died long ago—retire it."
Damon waved his hand as if swatting away a fly. Hershey's face hardened into a scowl.
"And here I thought our houses exchanged courtesies for three years running. Were we ever actually close?"
"A day is quite enough to make a friend."
"Does that apply to women as well?"
Damon's eyebrow twitched.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"...Lady Sophia's dormitory is hardly in that direction. Leaving your betrothed behind to—"
Damon clicked his tongue and shot a glare at Luid.
"Women are truly a bothersome breed. Wouldn't you agree? To think one woman would harbor the audacious delusion that she alone could possess a man such as I."
Hershey shot to her feet and shouted.
"Don't teach our Luid any of your strange ideas!"
"...'Our Luid'?"
Damon's gaze flicked between Luid and Hershey, and the corner of his mouth lifted.
"So the relationship has progressed considerably. Congratulations, Hershey. You've obtained a bond you could not have earned in a hundred rebirths."
Luid listened to the exchange with a languid expression, thinking his own thoughts.
Yeah... this one's not going to work.
In the original novel, the protagonist grew rapidly precisely because of his trials.
Hershey, the original trial-giver, was now off the board—which meant his goal was to find a new villain to fill the role.
Only then could he lounge around eating and sleeping while Justin neatly handled every troublesome matter on his own—
But wasn't that trial a bit too harsh?
Come to think of it, would there even be a way to deal with Damon as a villain?
Unlike Hershey, Damon had no qualms whatsoever about wielding his power. If anything, he occasionally did things even the Emperor wouldn't dare.
"In any case, let's move to the matter at hand. You do have a favor to ask of me, don't you?"
Damon continued.
"It's true that the insolent commoner caused a disturbance—though it's equally true that he wrecked your presentation through no fault of yours. Speak. I shall hear you out graciously."
"That part's fine. I already got proper compensation."
Damon's brow creased.
"I was the one who ruined your presentation—why would someone else pay you reparations? Unacceptable."
"...Then fine, what do you want to do about it."
"The obvious!"
Damon slammed his hand on the table with a bang.
"Name anything. On the name of Damon Kairos, whatever it is, I shall grant it!"
...He really is a bizarre creature.
When Damon's face loomed too close, Luid recoiled in disgust and leaned his chin back. Hershey shielded Luid with her own body.
Watching Hershey glare daggers at him, Damon settled back into his seat.
Luid spoke.
"Just... keep doing what you've been doing."
"What?"
Luid turned his head away, feeling guilty for no reason.
"Keep... wrecking things like you have been. Especially toward the commoners."
"Hmm, understood. You wish for me to torment the commoners, then?"
"...I didn't say that."
"I know, Luid. Refined as you appear, no man alive despises commoners quite as much as you do."
"No, that's really not—"
"I shall make their lives a living misery. It is my specialty, so fret not."
Before Luid could get a word in edgewise, Damon rose from his seat and shuffled away.
Luid met Hershey's eyes.
"Impressive."
"Impressive indeed."
His original plan had been to ask Damon to stand in as the library's librarian for a while.
The student librarian, Isabella Crimson, was scheduled to fall ill that day—which meant a substitute would be needed.
But he'd given up on the idea.
Rather than helping Justin grow, Damon seemed liable to permanently shatter an arm or a leg somewhere along the way—
And above all, unpredictable didn't begin to cover the man.
No, the right move was to simply leave Damon be and let Justin single him out as a target all on his own.
In any case, the fact remained that he still needed a final boss to bestow trials upon Justin.
Should I use the fox?
Luid glanced at Miho. With proper power control, she'd make a perfectly serviceable trial—but he had no desire to expose her very existence to the world.
...Or should I do it myself?
Wouldn't that be absurdly broken, though?
Being a transmigrator, Luid was clumsy at his own abilities in all sorts of ways.
Power control was a nightmare. Besides, this library was stuffed far too full of rare treasures.
If he caused a mess in here, wouldn't the Headmaster actually weep?
Luid was a solid young man who knew how to respect his elders.
And above all—it was a hassle.
Which left only one option remaining—
"Hershey."
A villainess from the original novel.
"That mandragora was expensive, you know."
"...Huh??"
"You have to pay for what you eat, don't you? So do me one favor."
Hershey faltered for a moment, but nodded obediently.
"It doesn't have to be about the mandragora—if it's a request from you, Luid... then anything."
He'd been reluctant to hand the job to Hershey, sure.
But he was far less reluctant to hand it to her than to step up himself.
Above all, chores were only worth doing when you could shove them onto someone else.
"You. Be the final boss."
I'd better get the popcorn ready in advance.
He'd palm the whole thing off on Hershey and hole up in some corner to watch the show himself.
Luid broke into a contented smile.