The Academy (Part 2)
“I have come here under the Imperial order.”
“……”
Adelaide uttered the most impossible, hardest-to-hear sentence in one breath.
I paused, sinking into deep thought for a moment.
It was a word I should not have heard, a word I did not want to hear—something that could unravel me completely if I continued to listen.
……Imperial. Imperial order?
……
Pa-rig!
I repeated the single sentence three times and made my judgment without hesitation.
I immediately drew mana as vast as an ocean from my entire body and released it widely.
Kwaaaaah……!
“……!?”
“That means…”
My eyes shifted to a clear, oceanic blue. The originally sparkling sky-blue had turned into the deep, dark blue of the abyss.
I straightened my posture from its relaxed stance. My empty, reversed gaze watched Adelaide obediently.
“……It seems difficult to simply listen quietly, Lady Adelaide. Did I understand your words correctly?”
“……Klu, gulp.”
“So right now… the Teyran Dukedom is having an affair with the Emperor? That’s the rumor?”
Adelaide’s complexion began to deteriorate rapidly from this point. Even though her skin was already deathly white, it had become even paler.
I had not cast any magic. It was simply the release of 8th-circle mana that crushed her, and that small influence was all it took.
She had undoubtedly trained magic for a long time and achieved a high rank far beyond her years… yet even so, she was only around 5th circle. At best, she was upper tier. As ranks increased, the gap between each level became terrifyingly wide.
She raised her gaze filled with tension, and I twisted my lips coldly.
“This is truly shocking, Lady Adelaide.”
“……I, Isaac. I am…”
“If that rumor truly exists, then why are you saying it to me right now?”
“……”
“Above all, I have no idea what courage allows you to walk onto my territory.”
She kept tapping the tips of her toes on the pristine floor of the reception room with thud, thud, and finally lifted her head.
Adelaide’s eyelashes were trembling as if even breathing was too much effort.
From the beginning, both Lottie and I had disliked her. There was no complex reason. She had simply let the Emperor’s army pass through.
Of course, that day’s story was correct. Geopolitically, the Teyran Dukedom lay between the capital of the Empire and the Havertz territory.
Therefore, to reach our territory, the Emperor’s army had no choice but to get the Teyran Duke’s permission—but on the day of the advance, the Teyran Duke had left for the North Sea, leaving the Dukedom’s decision-maker as Adelaide.
And the Emperor’s army… had reached our territory in just one day without any difficulty.
With 100% condition, as if they had faced zero interference.
Well, I had only heard the story from Lottie rambling, but…
Anyways, what did that mean? I didn’t need to think about it.
It was, after all, an extremely obvious story, wasn’t it?
“That’s truly shameless.”
I changed my tone. I no longer felt any need to respect her as my ex-fiancée.
“……Kuh, hu.”
“I understand your position, but just by cooperating with the Emperor, I feel annoyed. What kind of thought process allows you to make such a provocation in front of me?”
Step, step.
I walked slowly until I stood directly in front of Adelaide. I lowered my body by kneeling on one knee to adjust to her eye level.
And then—
Thud!
“……Hic.”
I immediately grabbed her shoulder and spat out my voice frozen solid.
“Listen carefully with your ears wide open, Adelaide Teyran.”
“Hu, huaa.”
“I dislike the Emperor. While I was busy killing my father, he was scheming. He dared to threaten my little sister. Every last one of his dirty tricks is intolerable.”
“A, aah, a…”
“If I could, I would have sent him to Douglas’s side… but even for the sake of the Empire’s peace, I’m holding back. At a time of such chaos, what good would fighting the Duke bring?”
A single tear rolled down Adelaide’s delicate cheek.
She trembled with overwhelming fear…
A pitiful and beautiful woman. Even in such a ruined state, her beauty remained. I could not deny that one thing.
“……The Emperor’s order. You said that?”
Still, I showed not a flicker of movement. I simply leaned my face closer, my eyes coldly shining.
I continued to bite out words, chewing them up as I spoke.
“Since I am nominally your lord, I’ll listen once. But remember this.”
“……”
“If any nonsense that cannot be understood comes out of your pathetic lips… you won’t be able to walk out of here unharmed.”
By that point, Adelaide was on the verge of collapsing. She let out repeated hic, hic sounds and finally broke into sobs.
I gave a slight start at the wretched face of that woman.
…Hmm.
A faint trace of guilt for making the younger woman cry came belatedly, but…
……Well, what could I do? I had said what I needed to say, and originally Adelaide was the one who had spoken words she should not have without fear.
I continued to pressure her after a moment of inner conflict. I simply kept sending silent blue gazes.
“……”
Don’t say anything? With your mouth shut like that?
“……”
Really?
“……”
You seem confident.
“A… u, that. Hu, hu, huuuuu…”
From that gaze, perhaps she sensed that something was about to happen if she didn’t speak.
Adelaide looked at me with tears of anguish, and her lips moved as if desperately trying to form words.
After I recovered a little of the mana I had been using to pressure her, she managed to open her mouth.
“……H, Your Majesty the Emperor… ugh…”
Adelaide finally spoke. I widened my eyes once more, and she trembled while doing her best to continue.
“Ah, Isaac, you… hu.”
Still, the sentence did not form properly, so I felt frustrated.
I narrowed my brows and growled once more.
“Why me? You were saying you’d burn the Empire down if I didn’t swear loyalty. What about the Teyran Duke beneath me?”
“……Ah, a, that’s not it, I meant for you to enter the Academy.”
“……”
?
*****
I conveyed all the instructions from the Emperor to Isaac Havertz.
By the way, I explained and cleared up the unnecessary misunderstandings I had made.
Adelaide barely escaped the reception room, walking with an expression of frozen terror down the corridor—
“……”
Thud.
She collapsed like a puppet with a weak lower body, falling to the ground by herself.
She sat powerlessly on the spot and stared blankly at the red carpet.
“……Hu.”
A brief silence followed, but soon Adelaide could no longer hold back the surge of emotion and burst into tears.
In addition to the tears that dripped in endless strings, she began to sob profusely.
“Mom, Mom… I want to go home… hu, hu, hic, heeeeee…”
Her entire body was already soaked from the start. It went without saying that it was because Charlotte had poured water on her.
Along with that, she had not properly dried herself after receiving a towel while trying to maintain her dignity.
Of course, that made sense. Even if she was wet, she could not shake her head like a puppy like a noble lady.
At the very least, the best course would have been to diligently squeeze out the minimum moisture, yet the situation had worsened from there.
“Heeee, heeeeu, heuu…”
Keeping a straight face? Maintaining composure? It was too late for that now.
She had already shown Isaac how she was trembling in fear in front of him.
Adelaide wiped her eyes with both sleeves and gritted her teeth. In her heart, she cursed Isaac with all her might.
May you trip over a stone while walking, may you step on your toes on the threshold every night, may the scissors press down on you when you sleep, just…! Hu!
I understood her hatred for the Emperor, and of course I accepted her resentment toward herself, but—
No matter what, she was still my ex-fiancée…!
As a noble lady, she had her position. Her father was absent, and the Emperor had led his army straight into our territory.
How could she have refused the one person who was paving the way for the Empire?
Of course, from Isaac’s perspective, it would be unpleasant, and I did not expect him to give love and affection so nicely—
“Y-you don’t have to be this scary, you bastard… hu, hic.”
Her body was drenched in water and sweat to the point that her lower body felt wet.
It was not an insult to her status as a noble lady, but had the tension made her feel that way on its own?
“Uhu, uuu…”
But I knew. She could not stay sitting in the middle of this territory forever, sniffling like this.
She should come to her senses and meet Isaac again after leaving the reception room.
What humiliation was that…? Adelaide was a proud girl.
She swallowed her tears with difficulty and stood up from the spot, fixing her disheveled clothes with red-rimmed eyes…
“……I’ll remember this, Isaac Havertz.”
She muttered with a slightly protruding lower lip, in an extremely small voice.
“If we meet at the Academy… you’ll really disappear. Really…”
And she walked out dragging her feet, staggering.
After all, she had to leave this territory.
Leaning on the wall of the corridor, Adelaide stopped for a moment and glanced back.
“……”
The door of the reception room remained tightly closed.
Still… if a chance to talk again comes someday…
She clenched her fist tightly and let out a long sigh while chewing over the words she should have said about that day’s mistake, one she had not been able to voice due to the unexpectedly severe intimidation.
“Haa.”
At least, that’s right. It was enough to calm her startled heart to think about those issues right now.
Even if it was petty and cowardly. She, more than at any other time, wanted to go home.
She wanted to go home, to her room, to fall asleep tightly hugging the doll on her bed…