Conspiracy (1)
"So you've heard of it after all?"
"Only by name, I'm afraid. It happened over ten years ago, after all..."
Kallen furrowed his brow slightly, dredging up a faint memory.
Back then, he had still been fighting his lonely battle within the walls of the ducal estate, with neither the means nor the connections to know anything of the outside world.
"All I know is that it was the incident where the holy land of the north, Talonde, was utterly destroyed..."
Talonde's Grand Barrier Stone was linked to the lesser barrier stones installed across the region, providing powerful protection for the northern territories.
Thanks to it, the empire's citizens there had managed to carve out reasonably decent lives for themselves despite the barren land and the rampaging monsters.
Naturally, to the cultists plotting to turn the empire inside out, the Grand Barrier Stone was nothing but a thorn in their eyes.
Given the slightest opening, they would come surging in with their wicked armies, time and again attempting its destruction.
"'Red-Haired Trasi.' Do you know who she was?"
At the sound of that familiar name, Kallen froze mid-stride.
"...I was told she was one of the heads of the Northern Witch Assembly."
"Oh? Fancy that — you know that much, at least?"
Blithe widened her eyes in mock surprise, then nodded before long.
"A great witch of her era, and a powerful Apostle serving none other than 'War' itself."
She shuddered slightly, as if repulsed by the very word she'd spoken.
A witch's or corrupted human's rank was generally determined by the master they served. The rank-and-file of a lesser demon's brood barely qualified as meat shields, but every so often, one among them would catch the eye of a being beyond imagination.
And those favored not by mere demons — lesser beings under a concept — but directly by a Demon God, could only be called living calamities incarnate.
Those known as Apostles served ceaselessly as the vanguard of the wicked, devoting themselves solely to schemes capable of dragging the empire into an abyss.
"She was the one behind the invasion of Talonde. She sacrificed the residents of the surrounding territories to open a rift, then summoned the brood of War."
Even in that desperate hour, Talonde held fast, sealing its gates and enduring the siege.
In particular, the Black Wolf Knights, who had guarded it since time immemorial, were the imperial house guard and one of the empire's finest fighting forces.
Had they stalled for merely a few days, the rift would have sealed itself and the demons forcibly banished back to the Illusion Realm.
Yet Talonde, which had stood unbowed as guardian of the north for hundreds of years, collapsed into ruin in a single night.
And through betrayal from within, no less.
"No one could have expected it. That Nigel — commander of the Black Wolf Knights — of all people, would be a corrupted human."
By dispelling the barrier and throwing open the gates, Nigel's treachery rendered Talonde's defenses hopelessly breached.
The knight order was annihilated to the last man. The sole survivor was a single lieutenant, who lost her left arm trying to stop Nigel and barely escaped with her life.
The destruction of Talonde and the Grand Barrier Stone was already beyond preventing.
"So what became of Nigel?"
"No one knows. The last trace of him was the lieutenant's testimony that he fled through the rift... Who's to say he isn't out there, hiding and scheming once more..."
Blithe gave a gentle shake of her head at Kallen's question.
"Their commander betrayed them, the defense failed, and the order's banner — worth more to them than their lives — vanished without a trace... From that day on, the Black Wolf Knights were officially branded the shame of the empire. Well, after all that, you can hardly blame anyone."
"Hmm..."
"What is it?"
"Nothing. It's just... that lieutenant business somehow smells off to me."
"Oh, come off it. The huntsmen already verified everything. That very interrogation was presided over by His Eminence Seden, a high priest of the modern Church of Aten."
Despite Kallen's dubious expression, Blithe only burst into a light laugh.
"I was quite the field agent myself, back in my younger days. Ah, surely you've heard of him? He's counted among the leading candidates for the next Pope, after all."
"Yes... well, if you say so..."
Kallen smacked his lips, then suddenly fired back a question.
"But how do you know all this so well? As if you saw it with your own eyes."
"I was still with the Imperial Court Mages at the time. I went as part of the dispatch team to handle the aftermath on-site."
Blithe nodded, then continued in a voice tinged, somehow, with regret.
"In any case, it was a devastating loss for the empire. From then on, the northern territories were left exposed and defenseless. The larger estates managed to scrape together their own countermeasures, but the mid-sized and small ones simply lacked the means..."
Then, as if in passing, she said quietly:
"Had the Grand Barrier Stone remained intact, the Tragedy of Monastin would never have happened... and the north might have known at least a measure of peace..."
"...What did you say?"
"The Tragedy of Monastin. When the Witch Slayer Lenart and her mercenary corps were slaughtered so mercilessly by Gamalot."
"..."
"After all, if the barrier had still been alive, the witches would never have been allowed to slip in so easily."
Her eyes, gazing into the past, brimmed with regret born of genuine sincerity.
"It was she who hunted down and slew Trasi after the fall of Talonde, you know. Truly... a talent like Lenart — even the imperial knight orders had no one like her. Why on earth did she have to be a mere mercenary..."
Somewhere in Kallen's mind, the phantom of a shriveled clump of hair, still flecked with flesh, seemed to flicker before his eyes.
A soft voice from somewhere tickled his ears like a feather.
'We are the freest souls in all the world. You'll understand what I mean soon enough.'
Zzt — At the tingling sensation crawling up his fingertips, Kallen abruptly tipped back his flask.
Blithe glanced sideways at him and burst out laughing in sheer exasperation.
"I told you to go easy on that during work hours?"
"It's Life Water, you see..."
"Honestly, you're hopeless..."
As Blithe shook her head, a mischievous smile crept back onto her lips.
"You really are a wonder, you know? You look like an alley ne'er-do-well and act like one too — and yet somehow we get along just fine. I suppose it's no mystery why Talisa took such a shine to you."
"Ah, that's nothing but baseless rumor, I assure you."
At Kallen's grave, deadpan face, she burst into peals of giggles.
Then her eyes narrowed into slits, and she asked in a sly voice:
"So, did you actually work at a brothel? You didn't, did you? You were just pulling my leg to get a rise out of Simon, weren't you?"
"I really did work at one, though..."
"Goodness, look at you lying through your teeth. Fine, fine, have it your way."
Seeing Kallen's sour expression, Blithe shook her head as if scandalized.
Then, before long, she continued in a calm, measured voice.
"In any case... Nigel's treason dragged House Forts down into the gutter, completely. But making the daughter shoulder all of her father's sins is far too cruel. That's simply not how Elysion does things."
"...The students seem to feel rather differently."
Kallen murmured, only now grasping the reason for the strange atmosphere that had surrounded Garnet.
At that, Professor Blithe smiled bitterly.
"Can't be helped, I suppose. It's an age when one gets swept along easily enough... and the children from the imperial heartland in particular can't help but take it rather personally..."
"Well, even a cursory glance suggests academy life hasn't been easy for her."
"First and foremost, it falls to us professors to steady things. Which brings me to why I'm telling you this..."
And so, after all her long, winding preamble, Blithe finally came to the point.
"Wouldn't it be right to find some way to bring student Garnet back into class?"
"I beg your pardon?"
"Why so surprised? A professor caring about his students is only natural."
Seeing Kallen scowl, Blithe coaxed him on with subtle insistence.
"You do know student attendance records figure into professor evaluations, don't you? If that girl keeps skipping class, it won't do Professor Kallen any favors either. And from what I can see, you're not entirely without ambition for a good performance review."
"Well, you're not wrong..."
"She's genuinely exceptional. I saw it with my own eyes during the entrance exams. I guarantee you — whatever you teach her, she'll absorb it like a sponge. Excellent grades would be a foregone conclusion... and then your professor evaluation would..."
"...Why would the Head of the Magic Department herself be advocating this?"
Kallen scratched his head and shot her a wary sidelong glance.
"If I earn high marks, it's hardly going to please the Magic Department — or that foul-tempered harpy with the spectacles, for that matter. And you seem rather fond of her, from what I can tell."
"Pfft... foul-tempered harpy with the spectacles..."
Blithe burst into unrestrained laughter, as if she could no longer contain herself.
"Oh, I simply must pass that along to Professor Ziya later."
"?"
Wiping the tears from the corners of her eyes, she clapped the horrified Kallen on the back and said:
"Kidding, of course. Well — perhaps I tease her because I'm fond of her."
"I'm afraid I haven't the faintest idea what you mean."
"Professor Ziya has far too little humanity about her. How should I put it? Like some clockwork contraption. To become a truly great professor, one needs a bit of suppleness — but she's just a touch too rigid, wouldn't you say?"
"..."
"And one of these days, she'll snap. And when she does, it will be a great, clean break — the kind that's hard to recover from. Wouldn't it be better to fix her before that happens?"
Then her eyes gleamed as she looked at Kallen.
"The way I see it, Professor Kallen would be just the right tonic for her. One glance is enough to see you two are perfectly, utterly incompatible, no?"
"Pardon? Just what exactly do you take me for..."
"Oh, come now, don't be like that!"
Professor Blithe was about to pummel Kallen on the back when—
The bell marking the end of break chimed in, cutting neatly between them.
"Though it would be even better if Professor Kallen learned a thing or two from her diligence, of course."
Taking the bell as her cue, Blithe turned naturally toward the path away.
"And do really fix the drinking in class. Keep it up and you'll be dead before Talisa, I'm telling you."
"Hold on—"
"Off I go, then? Remember what I said. Understood?"
Before he could so much as grab her, she was gone, waving over her shoulder down the garden path.
Kallen, arm still stretched into empty air, soon found himself staring blankly downward, fingering the cross necklace at his throat.
"Forts... is it."
Then he let out a long, heavy sigh.
"A cursed bond... or a fated one..."
"Haaah..."
Having finished her training alone, Garnet trudged down the corridor on weary legs.
Swinging from her hand was the battered old sword she'd finally dug out of the storage room.
"With this..."
Even at that, Garnet could only bite her lip hard.
The weight distribution was a mess and the edge was hopelessly dull — it would do nothing for her training whatsoever.
It stung a little to blame her equipment as a would-be knight, but left as things were, she would only be picking up terrible habits, plain and simple.
"I suppose there's nothing for it... I'll have to dig into my savings one way or another and get myself a new sword..."
Garnet's face remained dark all the same.
Turning her pockets inside out had yielded, at best, a few meager coins.
Forget a sword — it was doubtful the sum would even buy her a new grip.
"..."
Suddenly, the face of a girl who'd clung to her like a squirrel flashed through Garnet's mind.
Despite being coldly rebuffed, Carol still scoured the campus for her at every opportunity.
Thanks to that, Garnet had been run ragged trying to avoid her — though why the girl was so obsessed with her, she couldn't fathom to save her life.
Still, if she went to her now, Carol would surely welcome her with open arms and willingly hand over a magic sword of her own making.
Garnet wavered for a moment, then shook her head vigorously and bit down hard on her lip.
"No matter how you slice it, that just wouldn't be right..."
Accepting a friendship now, after all this time, would make her look far too transparent.
"Haaah..."
Struggling to shake off the warmth she'd felt from Carol that day, Garnet let out a long sigh.
"I wonder if I'll ever get to wield a sword like Prominence someday..."
Prominence, the continent's supreme divine relic, was the dream of every knight in the empire and beyond.
Garnet was no exception — but for her, as she was now, it was nothing more than an unattainable fantasy.
Training alone, everything fell apart around her, yet the thought of returning to Basic Swordsmanship of her own accord was simply beyond bearing.
Even the memory of that day sent a shudder of shame crawling up her entire body.
And more than that, the man called Kallen had proven terrifying beyond all reckoning.
Having once experienced that crushing terror, her mind instinctively refused to take another step past it.
"...Pathetic."
Garnet gave a self-deprecating wry smile, shook her head once more, and steeled herself.
"No. If I just work hard on my own, I'll manage somehow..."
Just as she set off briskly toward the washrooms, a cluster of female students suddenly appeared before her.
Clad in long, sleek robes, they looked to be a group of new Magic Department students.
The moment they appeared, she felt the familiar, stinging stares from across the corridor.
Garnet did her best to shrug them off, intending to brush right past them.
"Huh?"
Suddenly — thud — she caught on something and flailed at empty air.
"Ugh...!"
With a cry, Garnet tumbled onto the cold corridor floor, then immediately snapped her sharp gaze upward.
"Pfft..."
"Kiki..."
Snickers from several voices soon filled the corridor.
"Ah, my bad. Clumsy of me."
The student extended her leg forward, flaunting it shamelessly, twisting the corner of her mouth in a smirk.
"My eyesight isn't so good, you see. I didn't realize someone was coming."
"Isn't that a bit slow for someone calling herself a knight candidate? You should've dodged on your own."
It was a disaster born of a delayed reaction — her exhausted body lost in pointless thoughts.
Had it been the usual Garnet, such a cheap trick wouldn't have stood a chance.
Garnet picked herself up, gritted her teeth, and glared daggers at the students.
"Ganging up on one person? How petty. Does the Magic Department have no shred of dignity at—"
"Well, now."
A low voice, heavy with weight, cut Garnet's words short.
From the rear of the parting crowd of students, someone stepped forward.
"The one with no dignity might just be you, Forts."
Her clothes and equipment were, one and all, treasures no amount of money could buy.
Her whole body must have been anointed with costly oils, for a sweet fragrance wafted about her.
Recognizing that distinctive red hair, Garnet gritted her teeth.
"...Vitelles."
It was Judith — of House Vitelles, counted alongside Aramis and Phebiel among the greatest noble houses of the empire.