Broken Wings (9)

The pouch, torn to shreds.

Inside it were two tubes of ointment.

There was no doubt about it. That was Karsein's pouch.

Flora's gaze remained fixed on it.

The discomfort inside her continued to swell like a balloon.

At the same time, a sharp question came back to her.

Why?

Karsein owned nothing.

He didn't even try to have anything.

At the ducal residence, perhaps that might have been different, but here at the training grounds, he was nothing short of a penniless pauper.

And yet.

That pouch had just been torn apart.

It was Karsein's.

Judging by the ointment inside, they couldn't have mistaken it for someone else's, either.

Then why?

Why was something like this happening to Karsein?

With a suffocating weight pressing against her chest, Flora approached the knight who had just torn apart Karsein's pouch and shouted.

"You there! I heard you grumbling earlier about some commoner. Stop right there!"

The knight flinched when he spotted Flora and turned around.

"Looks like someone ordered you to do this. Why did you go through with it?"

"..."

"I'm asking you! Answer me!"

Despite her shouting, the knight said nothing.

Just then, someone behind her answered the question in his place.

"Why did he do it? Isn't it obvious? Because of something you did to screw me over."

"K-Karsein?"

Flora spun around at the sound of Karsein's voice, startled.

Before she knew it, she had taken a step backward.

"I-I screwed you over?! I never did anything like that!"

"You didn't? Another lie, then?"

"W-What?"

"Everything that comes out of your mouth is always a lie. The part that's not a lie is when I beg for help."

Thud.

Accompanied by the sound of heavy footsteps, Karsein took another step toward her.

"At meals, I was always the only one who got something different. At some point, my meals became a special banquet course that no one else was allowed to eat. When did that start?"

Thud.

"My clothes were riddled with holes, or you put tiny needles in the sleeves so they'd prick me easily. You pulled the padding out of my winter clothes to make me freeze, and punched ugly holes in my summer clothes. Remember?"

Thud.

"Then rumors spread that I'd been mistreating the servants. From that point on, they couldn't even give me proper work. I always had to be the bad guy. I had to be the one everyone suspected, the liar who was always causing trouble. And whose fault was all of that?"

Bang!

He met her eyes.

With a chilling smile on his face.

"And after ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠all that, you're asking who ordered that bastard to tear apart my pouch?"

Ahahaha!

A tremendous burst of laughter echoed in every direction.

He laughed.

And laughed again.

His voice was so loud that even if it carried all the way to someone's ears, there would have been nothing strange about it.

And then, the expression on his face as he laughed—

changed in an instant.

It became infinitely colder.

Ice-cold and utterly detached.

"It's because of you. You turned me into someone everyone at the ducal residence could look down on. And you thought I wouldn't be looked down on here at the training grounds because of that?"

"W-What are you talking about? Don't make it sound like I did all of that!"

"There's no way someone who was looked down on at the ducal residence would be treated normally at the training grounds. You know that better than anyone. So why do you keep denying it?"

Trickle.

A thin line of blood ran down Karsein's cheek.

It was the wound Claire had inflicted on him only recently.

"You caused this situation. So why do you keep denying it? You were always the one who made sure I took the blame."

"N-No. I..."

Trickle.

Fresh blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.

That was the wound inside his mouth caused by Arina's blow.

"You orchestrated everything from the very beginning. You made sure I was suspected of everything and made sure I received nothing. That's why I'm still like this even now."

"No!!"

It was true that at the ducal residence, she had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hated him beyond reason.

But here, none of this was something she had ordered.

"At the training grounds, at least, I never did anything to you...!"

"Do you really think that?"

"...What?"

"You know. What you did at the training grounds."

Drip. Drip.

"You took my sword. You took away the one joy I had in life. With nothing more than a single thought from you—'I just don't like him'—everything I had came crashing down."

Drip-drip. Drip.

Tears of blood flowed down his face.

His entire body was becoming drenched in blood.

Purple bruises appeared over every place he had been struck.

His figure gradually became so battered that it was unbearable to look at.

"It's all because of you. This is what I became because of you."

"N-No. No! That's not true! It's not!!!"

She screamed.

She squeezed her eyes shut, covered her ears with both hands, and shook her head.

But even then, the voice reached her.

"It's all because of you."

She had to look away.

And then look away again.

She desperately backed away.

What had happened because of her—it couldn't have been because of her.

"GET AWAY FROM MEEEE!!!"

Bang!

When she shoved Karsein, who was approaching her, with both hands, he fell far too easily.

"Huh...?"

Was he always this light?

Was he really so weak that he couldn't even resist?

Something felt wrong.

She cautiously opened her eyes.

And Flora recoiled in horror, clapping a hand over her mouth.

Karsein, covered in wounds, lay collapsed on the floor, unable to say a word.

Blood from his entire body had soaked his clothes through, and the bruises covering him stood out clearly against his skin.

He didn't move.

Not even slightly.

There was no reaction at all.

"KYAAAAAAH!!!"

Bang!

"What happened, my lady?! We heard a scream coming from your room...!"

The maids outside came rushing in, completely out of breath.

"Hah... hah...!"

"My lady, what's wrong? Why are you sweating so much?"

"It looks like you had a bad dream. Just look at your complexion..."

A dream? It was a dream?

Flora glanced around her.

The maids.

The bedroom.

Her own room.

This wasn't the training grounds.

'It was... a dream...'

The maids repeatedly called her my lady as they held her hands tightly and brought her warm honey water.

To drive away the fear left by the nightmare, they turned up the lights and immediately wound up a music box that played a cheerful melody. Then they carefully wiped the cold sweat from her face with a towel.

Even so, she couldn't calm down easily.

She had accepted that it had been a dream and that this was reality, yet her hands and feet still trembled from the lingering terror.

"It's all because of you."

Karsein's voice echoed endlessly in her head.

The scene from the dream remained vividly etched in her memory, and no matter how hard she tried to forget it, she simply couldn't.

What if it were true?

What if things like this happened even though she had never given such an order?

What if, after enduring such a harsh life, Karsein really did come to reproach her just as he had in the dream?

"...What time is it?"

"It's 6:25 in the morning, Lady Flora."

"It's still early enough for you to go back to dreamland for a little longer, my lady."

"No. It's fine. Just get me ready to go out."

When the maids asked where she could possibly be going this early in the morning, she gave them a brief answer.

"The training grounds."

Everything was something she had to ask him about in person to find out.

Flora had woken up unusually early that day.

The most dangerous day since the beginning of the Induction Period had finally arrived.

Days one, two, and three were manageable as long as he gritted his teeth and endured. On days four and five, he had made things a little easier by using his family.

But as always, there was no way this game would let him clear an episode so easily.

On day six, the harassment would become even more vicious and malicious than it had been on day five. If Karsein failed to manage his HP properly here, a Dead Flag would immediately be raised.

Theo's gang was already thoroughly enraged.

Emma's impatience had made her orders even more aggressive.

Faced with those two factors, responding with some half-hearted strategy like 'I'll just do what I did yesterday' would bring retaliation in no time, leaving him helpless against a Dead Flag that could appear at any moment.

And if you knew that, then a window like this would naturally catch your eye.

A progression window that appeared as soon as day six began.

A temptation like this—being asked whether he would request help from someone—would be difficult to resist.

"One of the three is actually coming all the way to the training grounds. How could I turn that down?"

On day six, Flora comes.

Unlike the other members of his family, Flora would never help Karsein. If anything, there was a high chance she would openly make an even bigger mess.

Hadn't she already done exactly that at the ducal residence?

She had torn up the certificate that lifted Karsein's training-ground ban—the one Arina had personally written and sent to him—and caused a huge incident before trying to pin the blame on him.

So any hope should have been abandoned from the beginning.

If he proceeded through day six placing his absolute trust in Flora of all people, he would undoubtedly be heading toward a future filled with Dead Flags.

And yet, in the middle of all this, that window had appeared.

At exactly the perfect moment to ask one of the three for help.

"Isn't that way too obvious?"

Just like yesterday's fork in the road.

Even if the situation fit, choosing an option that fit this perfectly could only mean that a penalty was waiting for him.

"And besides, even if that weren't the case, I don't want those people helping me."

Even if things were difficult, he could handle them alone.

He had used them, yes, but directly asking them for help was something he would rather die than do.

Asking those people—who looked exactly like his old family—to help him would be no different from asking his old family for help.

Before he knew it, he was standing just outside the dormitory.

It was time for one final check.

"Mm. This way, there's absolutely no chance of anyone mistaking it."

At last, the time had come.

The thing he had endured and endured, deliberately saving it for this very moment, would be used today.

Mark and Radiel had recoiled in horror and flatly refused, but I deliberately borrowed thread and a needle anyway.

I used the thread and needle to roughly stitch together a tattered pouch, placed a single item inside it, and began day six.

"Mark has a schedule this morning, apparently. So I'll be taking over his morning training session."

A regular knight stepped forward and announced that he would be taking over Mark's duties.

And along with that message, a warning window appeared before my eyes.

"And one more thing. Lady Flora will be watching you today. As knights sworn to protect your master, don't show a single blemish."

Countless warning windows appeared alongside the flashing red warning lights.

With even Mark and Radiel no longer watching over the field, the knights had nothing left to hold them back.

No—more precisely, it was Emma's lackeys and Theo's underlings who had nothing left to hold them back.

"We'll start with jogging. I'm taking Vice-Captain Mark's place, so anyone planning to take it easy because of that had better be prepared."

When the regular knight finished speaking and gave the signal, the running laps began.

Perhaps because of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the scolding they had received, the knights were running faster than usual.

If I made even one mistake, I could be left behind in an instant.

'No. I can't fall behind this early.'

If I fell behind this early, I'd become their target.

By using the advantage of being a trainee and staying at the very back, I could maintain a reasonable distance and observe their movements. That was why I couldn't afford to fall behind yet.

I stayed close behind them and kept running, accepting the loss of HP.

My breathing gradually became labored.

One side of my chest began to feel tight.

Even so, I forced myself to endure.

"..."

All so I could make the most of that little brat.

After running one lap after another, three laps had passed before I knew it.

Perhaps they were getting frustrated, because they began increasing their speed.

During a jog, trainees were positioned at the very back.

If the distance between you and the others grew too large, you'd be reprimanded, but I hadn't fallen behind once so far.

Even if it had cost me quite a lot of HP.

But the senior trainees were already running far ahead, and the distance between us was widening.

They must have been waiting for this exact moment to increase their speed.

Their intention was to make it impossible for me to use the trainee's advantage anymore.

I'd already anticipated that, too.

For the past five days, this had only been a minigame in the game.

But after experiencing it in reality, I had gradually become familiar with their patterns, step by step, which meant I could avoid giving them an opening.

I made the ones deliberately trying to ram into me head-on taste the sand.

Against those trying to strike me from the side and overtake me, I used the advantage of having the position in front to land the first hit.

Some of the ones whose stamina had been chipped away in the process ended up falling and getting an earful from the senior trainees.

They had overlooked something.

If they had nothing to lose over there, then neither did I over here.

"Fuck, that bastard...!"

"Hey. You're taller than him. Do something about him!"

"What can I do besides quietly running past him?! What do you want me to do?"

"He's running properly, so we can't even report him to the trainees or the regular knights...!"

The ones who had tried to torment Karsein only to suffer the backlash themselves were muttering behind me.

They seemed to be planning something.

"Hey, you guys. Why are you still running? Everyone else already finished."

Because I had deliberately sped up while overtaking them, our lap counts had become different.

In their impatience, they had carelessly thrown away the opportunity they had been ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠waiting for.

"No, that's..."

"Hey! Watch where you're going! In front! In front!"

"Wh-Whoaah?!"

Meanwhile, I gradually caught my breath and stopped for the first time.

As a result, the three of them, running in a panic without watching where they were going, fell over.

I was originally supposed to be the one who got caught in it, but since things had turned out this way without me intending it—

Should I add a little something?

"Well, I'm sorry about that?"

At my shameless remark, the three of them, covered in yellow sand, ground their teeth.

-Ding!

A message appeared alongside it, stating that their malice had been revealed, and somehow the whole thing was absorbed into the plan as naturally as if it had been part of it from the beginning.

"...Hey. Let's go."

"No, hey! That bastard just—!"

"Just come on. Okay?"

After whispering among themselves a few more times, they headed toward the water station.

Roughly speaking, the preparations were complete.

Giving the others plenty of time would be enough for what remained.

That was because the outcome would change depending on how much time I spent there.

A little while later.

After leisurely completing the remaining laps, I sat on a tree stump and gulped down a bowlful of water.

Once I confirmed that the timer had ended, I moved on.

Dangerous zone or not, it didn't matter.

What mattered was who was there.

A beautiful head of golden hair was trembling violently.

I could only see the back of her head, but the trembling was so pronounced that it was obvious at a glance.

—Wow, you're really having fun with that!

—Oh, come on. This one's mine, punk.

—Let's share it, you bastard.

The ones who had blocked his path and knocked him down were rummaging through other people's belongings.

They burned some of them and deliberately damaged others where everyone could see. Some were even outright extorting people.

And at the center of it all stood Theo Ramstair, appraising everything and picking out whatever would benefit him the most.

"Hmm. I'll take these two. That one has been turned into a rag. Burn it right in front of him when he comes. That ought to get him worked up, don't you think?"

Flora, who had witnessed the scene firsthand, was trembling.

Even more violently than before.

Even more noticeably.

I looked at the back of that immature little brat's head and answered her in my thoughts.

'Seeing the scene you saw yesterday all over again. Quite a nostalgic sight, isn't it, Flora?'

But you know what?

This was all the snowball you had set rolling.

You shoved that person all the way into the abyss simply because he wasn't family.

Simply because you hated him.

And once you had done that, this became his everyday life.

A life with no kindness whatsoever, filled to the brim with nothing but malice.

The training grounds were no different.

Did you really think that just because he was tormented at the ducal residence, the influence of that torment would stop at its gates?

Of course not.

It must have been harsher.

Much harsher than it had been at the ducal residence.

Because it was you, of all people, who broke Karsein's wings with your own hands.

That was enough sightseeing for now.

By now, Flora must have been imagining what kind of life I had been living.

It was time to step forward.

Time to get rid of that pathetic bastard.

But then.

Something unexpected happened.

-Thwack!

"T-Theo!"

"A glove?! What the hell?! Who threw something like this at Theo's face...?"

"...Huh?"

"N-No way..."

Their group fell into confusion.

Because the one who had thrown the glove was none other than Flora herself.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!!!"