Chapter 240: It Was Winter (8)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 240: It Was Winter (8)
Just as Daisy’s father used me, I used him in return.
What do I mean by that?
“Are you sure nothing will happen if we go now?”
“Have you lived your whole life being lied to?”
“Ever since I came to the Academy, I feel like I’m being lied to every single second!”
Princess Ruelle was full of grievances, but there was nothing to be done. This was the realm of RoFan, and she had walked into it on her own two feet. She would just have to endure it alongside me from now on.
“It’s fine for now.”
The eyes of every major RoFan player were fixed on Daisy’s parents. Even Daisy herself, the eye of the RoFan storm, was doing her best to stop her parents, so there was no one left to interfere with us.
“What are you doing here, Senior?”
Or so I thought.
I had tried to sneak into the basement of the Academy library—well, the former library—with Princess Ruelle, but we had been caught. And not by someone I could just brush off, but by the Princess of the Empire.
“I just came to look around. It’s been a while.”
“Who ‘looks around’ while hiding like that?”
“This is a restricted area now.”
“With your status, Senior, couldn’t you just ask the Holy Kingdom people and walk right in?”
“…I suppose?”
As she spoke, Princess Nea’s eyes kept flickering toward Princess Ruelle.
“And that person is…”
“The Princess of Dale.”
“Why are you with her…?”
Princess Nea, who was radiating suspicion, suddenly widened her eyes and took a step back.
“Don’t tell me… a third one?!”
“No.”
“Then… an affair?!”
“I said no.”
At this point, Princess Ruelle should have chimed in to deny it. However, she seemed to have frozen solid upon realizing she’d been caught by the Imperial Princess.
“Anyway, why are you here?” I asked.
“What’s wrong with a librarian being in a library?”
“This library is ruined.”
“But the books are still here. A ridiculous amount of them!”
“They’re still moving them?”
“‘The books are still here, so isn’t it obvious?’ is what they say, but no matter how I look at it, the senior librarians are lunatics. I told them we should just ask the Academy for support, but they insisted that books must be managed by librarians…!”
Indeed, even after finding out their junior was the Imperial Princess, they treated her exactly the same. No, they went a step further, treating her like Dora*mon, wondering if an Imperial Princess would have a lot of useful artifacts. They were a group of madmen.
But thanks to that snowball effect, we had been caught by the one person we absolutely shouldn't have.
I looked at Princess Ruelle. The choice was now hers. Would she tell the truth and seek the Empire’s cooperation, or would she try to brush it off with an excuse?
She might be the sister of that magic-spammer, but this was a chance to see just how high the intelligence of a mage who hadn't been hit by the Curse of RoFan could be.
“……”
Caught in a state of chaos, Princess Ruelle bit her lip and made her choice.
“It—It’s a secret tryst!”
“……?”
“……?”
“P-Please pretend you didn’t see us!”
I now understood the level of a mage perfectly.
Daisy - ……?
She didn't know she was at the center of a RoFan world, but that didn't mean Daisy was slow-witted.
I’m in a really dangerous position…
Dark mages visited her daily, and demons attempted assassinations. She had even heard through several incidents that an Evil God was openly targeting her life. Of course, the Academy and the Holy Kingdom provided support to prepare for this, but…
Again, Daisy was not slow-witted. No, unless one was under the Curse of RoFan, it was impossible not to notice when enemies constantly appeared before your eyes despite everyone’s best efforts.
Having already escaped the curse herself, Daisy had learned various techniques to survive the threat to her life. One of them was moving while erasing her presence.
“The method is very simple. Use mana to make your body light as you move, but you must not leave any traces of mana. Hiding your mana is a given, of course.”
“The explanation is simple enough!”
But if explanations solved everything, Academy professors wouldn't be necessary. Naturally, using mana left traces. For those who had reached a certain level, mana detection was a basic skill.
Of course, those at even higher levels could nullify that detection, which led to others developing techniques to detect those hiding their mana… a never-ending cycle.
Learning such a thing in a short time was impossible, even for a genius like Daisy. Well, she could learn it, but it would take time away from other things, so it was deemed better to spend that time increasing her basic combat power.
However.
“It is fine for the Saintess.”
“Why?”
“Because the Goddess is with you.”
“……?”
Daisy had tilted her head at the words of Marian, the head of the Heresy Inquisitors dispatched to the Academy. But it didn't take long for her to realize what those words meant.
“Divine power is such a cheat…”
Violet looked at Daisy with an expression of utter grievance. She herself had to place all sorts of restrictions on herself just to learn sorcery. Even then, she had blown ten years of progress and was called useless, yet Daisy solved everything with a single ‘click’ of divine power. Even if she was the RoFan heroine and a Saintess, Violet couldn't help but feel this was a bit much.
“Can you really not tell?”
“If I close my eyes, I wouldn't even know you were right in front of me. You’re like a ghost. Can I hit you once?”
“You’re already hitting me! And you already hit me once… Wait, why are you only hitting my chest?!”
Despite the barrage of slaps filled with a strange resentment, Daisy had learned a stealth technique that even Violet, a top-tier Academy mage, couldn't detect.
And Daisy was putting it to good use.
“It—It’s a secret tryst! P-Please pretend you didn’t see us!”
“……!”
Specifically, she was witnessing her lover’s secret tryst.
“T-This can’t be…”
She had just seen undeniable evidence with her own eyes. Daisy was deeply shocked by this fact.
To be honest, it wasn't that she was shocked by the betrayal of a beloved partner. Their relationship had started as a contract, and she did feel a bit sorry, but wasn't she giving Adam Smith enough compensation to satisfy him?
Honestly, looking at the past year, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it an overwhelmingly unfair contract. Even Adam Smith himself, who would rank at the very bottom of any Academy conscience ranking, would admit it.
In fact, since her parents had arrived at the Academy, hadn't their contractual relationship, intended to protect her, turned into a double-edged sword?
Love comes from a certain kind of relationship. If asked if she had no feelings for him at all, that wasn't quite true either. But calling him a pure friend was also a bit ambiguous.
Even for Daisy, a human capybara and a true RoFan heroine, Adam Smith was a being whose relationship was difficult to define.
Therefore, the shock she felt was of a different nature.
“He… knows how to date?!”
If he had heard her, he would have asked what on earth she took him for, but Daisy would have confidently replied, “Adam Smith.”
That was how unbelievable Adam Smith’s secret dating was to Daisy. Even at this moment, she suspected he was doing this for some other reason!
“A secret tryst?”
And Daisy wasn't the only one who had reached that conclusion. Princess Nea was also looking back and forth between the two with an expression of utter disbelief.
“Well, honestly, ever since this place became a restricted area, I’ve heard rumors that people who never set foot in the library are coming here to recreate the ‘Animal Kingdom’ because it’s deserted…”
“W-What kingdom?!”
Princess Ruelle gasped at Princess Nea’s words, whose eyes had narrowed suspiciously.
“The Animal Kingdom. If you don’t know what that means, to be more direct, an outdoor—”
“Y-You don’t have to say it! I mean, how can an Imperial Princess say something like that so…”
Unlike Princess Ruelle, whose face was flushed red, Princess Nea was unperturbed.
“I’ve witnessed it several times while being here, so what?”
What kind of place was this Academy library?
In the basement, an ancient hero of the Empire had become a Lich and was sealing a Great Demon in a dragon lair he had cleared out. The librarians were working the Imperial Princess like a slave, and there were people recreating the ‘Animal Kingdom’ to avoid the eyes of those lunatics.
Truly, the place where the secret magic of Dale was hidden. Adam Smith thought it was a place worthy of being a part of the Academy—a demonic realm difficult to describe in words.
“So. What exactly did you two come down here to do in secret? If you were planning to recreate the Animal Kingdom, I owe this man a debt, so I could look the other way. Oh, but other librarians and the investigation team from the Holy Kingdom pass through here often, so be careful about—”
“No! I said no! Who would do that with this man?!”
Aaaah!
Princess Ruelle let out a scream and fled.
“…Ah. That’s a restricted zone.”
Princess Nea watched Ruelle’s retreating figure with a look of discomfort. Even though she was a talent who held the top spot in the first-year Magic Department, Nea didn't feel confident in chasing after Ruelle, who was using magic to escape.
“Why did you tease her like that?”
“No, I was being serious. It’s just hard to imagine you doing something like that with anyone, Senior.”
“Are you calling me a eunuch?”
“Physically, I don’t know, but mentally, it seems about right…”
“Ugh…”
It wasn't like I could prove it.
As Adam muttered to himself, Princess Nea spoke up.
“By the way, aren't you going to go get your mistress?”
“Wouldn't it be more troublesome for you if I went in there?”
“Seeing you say that, there really must be something inside.”
“You were poking me on purpose, weren't you?”
“Half-purposely. Still, it’s surprising. Since she’s the Princess of Dale, I thought she’d be difficult, but she seems just like any other girl her age.”
“That’s what’s normal.”
“That sounds like you’re calling me abnormal.”
“A normal princess doesn't hide her identity and live like a slave in a library.”
“It’s the same even after I revealed my identity, though?”
“That’s proof that this Academy is insane.”
“I have to admit that.”
After their conversation, they slowly followed after Princess Ruelle. Since the path was a straight one, they were relaxed even if she ran at full speed, knowing there was a limit to how far she could go. But Daisy didn't know that.
And so.
Daisy, who had moved to follow Princess Ruelle who ran ahead, and Adam and Princess Nea who followed slowly behind, witnessed something.
“……Huh?”
It was a very familiar ‘barrier,’ one she felt she had seen before.
“Huh? Wait, what?”
Thump. Thump.
Daisy balled her fists and tapped on the wall blocking her path. Her strength gradually increased, and eventually, she struck it with mana and even divine power, but the result was the same.
“No, this is…”
A memory from the past surfaced in her mind.
Esid, Ellen, Arwen, Asran, and the rest…
The barrier that the RoFan male leads had entered. The kind of barrier you couldn't leave unless you did something.
“…N-No, it can’t be, right?”
But it was that person. Adam Smith. And the people who went in with him were the Imperial Princess and the Princess of Dale.
“……”
Even as she thought it couldn't be, she felt her mind go cold.
“First, I need to call for help!”
Daisy quickly hurried away.