The Academy of Turmoil (3)
Once things wrapped up at Attelina, I paid a visit to the Imperial Palace.
The expedition was finished, after all, so the Emperor himself had to commend me for my achievements. Chronologically I'd stopped by Attelina first, but that too had been with his permission. I still had no idea what kind of reward he'd been dragging his feet over for so long.
"Well now. The Taesa has arrived."
"Honestly. You've been through a lot lately."
"That's hardly my fault, is it?"
It wasn't his fault, no. I was just pissed off. I'd settle for him not smiling that nasty little smile of his.
"And now you're dumping the anti-imperialists on me as well? How long has it even been since I finished that expedition?"
"Life was never meant to be easy. As for the anti-imperialists, it shouldn't be so bad, should it? You join the Mage Corps, rack up achievements by hunting them down—what's not to like?"
"Well, when you put it like that…"
The way he phrased it left me with nothing to fire back.
"Anyway, I suppose I ought to hand out a reward first."
"If Your Majesty is offering, I'll accept it gratefully."
"What should I give you?"
"Excuse me?"
Why are you asking me?
"Look, from a practical standpoint, you're the young lady of House Ashutar, the Taesa, and a Saint. I truly have no idea what to give you. You're already raising a private force of your own, so I can hardly grant you a knight order either."
"Ah."
"So I've decided to give you whatever you wish for."
I didn't particularly wish for anything. Becoming a mage was all I needed. Then a mischievous urge to put the Emperor in a bind suddenly crossed my mind.
"Then give me the throne."
I tossed it out as a light probe.
"Shall I? I could take you in as an adopted daughter and work through the process step by step. One of them already made a mess of things, and the other is off playing far away—so the young lady of Ashutar might do just fine, don't you think?"
"It was a joke. Don't take it so seriously."
This man had been completely earnest just now. I couldn't even joke around carelessly anymore.
"No, if that's truly what you want, it's entirely possible."
"You're talking about replacing fifteen hundred years of noble bloodline with the Ashutar line."
"Ashutar was elected as the Second Imperial House, was it not? Trace your ancestors far enough and you'll find imperial blood in there somewhere."
If he was going to argue it that way, I had no grounds left to refuse. Thinking it over, if neither the prince nor the princess proved fit to inherit, they really might bring someone in from Ashutar. The Empire didn't prioritize male or female succession—so I would probably end up on the line of succession myself.
I had to shut this down.
"Absolutely not. Please don't take my jokes at face value."
"Even so, you are the Taesa. If the Taesa has dealt with a member of the Four Heavenly Kings, that achievement must be properly rewarded."
"In that case…"
It wasn't as if I wanted nothing at all. There was exactly one thing I wanted from the Empire right now.
"In that case?"
"Let me have a look around the Imperial Library."
If I could get even a scrap of information on the Four Heavenly Kings and the Demon King—Bernoah had only been around for a few decades, so I needed records of the Heavenly King before that. That would almost certainly be Seto. It was safe to assume Seto was the oldest of them.
"Hmm. You mean the knowledge of the distant past, sleeping far below?"
"Yes."
The Emperor tilted his head with interest, as if he couldn't quite fathom what I was thinking.
"Very well. That much isn't difficult."
"Really?"
If it wasn't difficult, all the better.
"Though I am curious about your reason. Simple curiosity?"
"Curiosity is part of it, but more than that—if I'm going to bring down the Four Heavenly Kings, I feel I need to know the history."
Seto had been around longer than I'd expected. There would be something left in the imperial archives.
"I see. You wish to know the hidden history."
"Yes."
Nice to be on the same page for once.
"Fine. I can give you the key to the Imperial Library. However."
"However?"
"I wonder whether you'll be able to endure it."
Endure it?
"Is it that serious?"
"'That serious'…? It's simply immense."
The Imperial Library of the Empire. It had stood for a full fifteen hundred years—built the moment the Empire itself was founded. Any unauthorized person who entered, however, almost never came out alive. It wasn't what you'd call an ordinary library. It was a living library in the truest sense of the word.
"But if the Emperor grants permission, shouldn't that solve the problem?"
"That only frees up access. As for what happens once you're inside… who knows?"
The Emperor smiled with that mischievous glint. I was this close to smacking him.
"How complicated."
"Still, there are Scribes assigned to the place, are there not? You've seen them at least once, I expect. During the crown princess lessons—I recall the Scribes brought the practical texts for empress education out of the library."
I barely retained any memories from the first Olivia. Ah—but I did have memories from Noah's time, from when I'd visited the Imperial Palace. Women who wore iron masks over their faces and draped themselves in scraps of fine cloth. Light glinted from the eyeholes of those iron masks more than any pupils ever did. And the lantern each of them held in one hand was more than a little unsettling.
"Are they human?"
"They're human enough. People who have devoted their lives to the Imperial House for a very long time."
The Emperor waved both hands as if deliberately trying to scare me.
"That's terrifying."
"They're probably the finest combatants the Imperial House has."
"Then why on earth are they working as Scribes?"
Come to think of it, I'd been a Scribe myself once. If I hadn't caught Lily, I'd still be stuck doing that job.
"I talk like this, but if you accept their help it shouldn't be too hard."
"Is that so?"
"While you're at it, why not look into my curse as well?"
"Your curse, Your Majesty?"
"The curse that fell upon me."
Hadn't he mentioned a curse before?
"A curse that fell upon Your Majesty?"
"The curse of possessing an unchanging, beautiful appearance for the rest of one's life."
I wanted to call bullshit—but looking at the Emperor's face, it wasn't entirely wrong. He had an uncanny appearance for his age. Who would believe a face like that had already borne children?
"Hearing it like that, isn't it more of a supreme gift for a woman?"
If you gathered the noble ladies and told them you'd been hit with a curse like that, they'd try to beat you to death on the spot.
"I was joking."
"Please try to be a little more serious, Your Majesty."
If you were going to call yourself emperor of a great nation, you ought to act like one. A woman who'd lived long enough to show her age had no business running her mouth however she pleased just because the surface still looked young.
"It simply isn't time for you to know yet."
"There's a time when I'm supposed to know?"
"If the Saint turns out to be the person I hope for."
The Emperor gently took my hand.
"Then I must not be that person."
"Who can say? You might be, or you might not."
This wasn't even wordplay anymore.
"That won't do, will it?"
"Personally, I hope you'll prove yourself qualified."
I had no intention of doing so, and no intention of playing along with the Emperor's games.
"You've already got a hunch and you're pointing at me, aren't you?"
"Who can say?"
This man truly had no business being emperor. He was born to dry people out.
"Understood. So I can come and go from the Imperial Library whenever I like—is that correct?"
"It is. Even so, there is security to consider. You'd do best to wait until the break to visit the library."
"During the break?"
Why specifically then?
"If a book taken from the Imperial Library turns up during exam season, it would be a disaster, wouldn't it? Attelina may already be infiltrated by anti-imperialists. Spreading library books around there would only make things worse."
"Ah. Right. There were exams."
I was still a student of Attelina. The end-of-term tests were still ahead of me. Once those were done, the break would begin, and every young lord and lady would spend a pleasant stretch of time with their betrothed.
"For a student of Attelina, you have remarkably little sense of urgency."
"It doesn't mean anything to me anyway."
I was already a Saint and the Taesa. Exams themselves were meaningless. Treating me like some ordinary noble young lady would be a mistake.
"You're standing before the Emperor. Could you not try a little harder to make a good impression?"
"You're the one who dislikes that sort of thing."
"How dull."
"Well then. I'll take my leave."
I'd gotten what I came for. I left the Emperor clicking his tongue behind me.
The Dean's Office
Galedo, the professor who had once been an adventurer, made his way to the dean's office.
"You called for me, Dean?"
"Galedo. Are you aware of the recent incidents?"
"You mean the murders outside the capital?"
Lately, a string of murders had been taking place outside the Imperial Capital. With the culprit suspected of being an anti-imperialist, Attelina—packed with the children of central nobility—made for excellent bait.
"Yes. In my view, this is—"
"You believe it's the anti-imperialists."
"I do. Who would have thought the murders would center on adventurers of noble birth?"
Given that every victim had been an adventurer, the killings had clearly been targeting those of noble origin among them.
"But do we really need to concern ourselves with that? The capital and its outskirts fall under the Capital Guard's jurisdiction, don't they?"
Security for the capital and its surroundings was the Capital Guard's responsibility. If murders by anti-imperialists near the capital needed solving, it ought to be their job.
"It isn't that simple."
"What do you mean by that?"
This was starting to feel ominous. There had to be a reason they were handing this to a former adventurer like him.
"The end-of-term tests begin soon, do they not? When that happens, the students of Attelina will head outside—and they'll make perfect bait. If we bring in the Capital Guard openly, the situation will escalate, and the anti-imperialists will only target them more aggressively."
Ah. He could see where this was going. In that case, why not simply change the format of the end-of-term tests?
"Then why not change the exam format this once?"
"Can you handle the nobles' complaints?"
"So neither option works."
Galedo knew the nobility well enough from long experience. Creatures who lived on pride. Tell that lot to hide from anti-imperialists and the complaints would explode.
"I already floated the idea once. They told me to keep doing it the way we always have."
"Don't they value their own children's lives?"
Unbelievable. They still had their kids' lives on the line.
"Everyone's thinking 'surely not.' And they're nobles, after all. Other schools might fold, but this is Attelina. They insist they can't scrap the traditional exam format just because they're afraid of anti-imperialists."
"True enough. The opposite of the anti-imperialists are the nobles of this country."
The Empire rested on the nobility. Of course they couldn't afford to look frightened by the anti-imperialists' movements. Which meant the exams would have to proceed as usual.
"The Seven Stars are said to be dealing with the anti-imperialists, but Galedo—I'll need you to take charge of escorting this exam."
"Can I manage that alone?"
Honestly, the numbers weren't there. Attelina alone had thousands of students. Galedo by himself was impossible.
"Natalia is here as well, along with the other professors—and Olivia too. Our combat strength is solid enough. It should be fine."
"Even so… relying on a student?"
No matter how extraordinary Olivia was. No matter that she had marched with the Ashutar forces and succeeded in the Demon Realm campaign. A professor still had his dignity. Was this even appropriate?
"In any case, if this test fails, both you and I will have to step down from our posts as dean and professor."
That would be a problem. He had climbed all the way here from a life as an adventurer. If he lost the professorship now, there was no telling how long it would take to rise this high again.
But did they really need actual combat experience for this?