Chapter 29
Chapter 29
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter Title: Leo's Lie (3)
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Next week's Sabbath evening.
I met Sophia at the academy's east entrance, as promised.
But...
"...Sophia?"
"Yes?"
"Um... You look very different from usual."
"Ah, it's the Sabbath, so... I put on something different."
Sophia had traded her drab cadet uniform for a light, flowing dress. But the jet-black sword sheath strapped to her back clashed harshly with the pretty outfit.
It wasn't just the clothes. Sophia had swept back her curtain-like bangs, boldly exposing her forehead. Her porcelain skin and green eyes gleamed under the night lamps.
To say she wasn't beautiful would be a lie.
No question about it—she was fully dolled up.
'This hairstyle doesn't show up until the latter half of the original story.'
Definitely.
Sophia was mistaking our meeting for something far more significant.
'Hmm...'
I pondered seriously.
Should I clear up the misunderstanding?
But I'd recently witnessed firsthand how Sophia smashed her fist into Isolde's temple from the front row. I had zero interest in that arrow turning my way.
Yeah. The Act 2 events were set to unfold today anyway. I could play along just enough and steer things toward resolving the incident.
Decision made, I cleared my throat and spoke up.
"For now... how about a little walk?"
The academy's east side was lively, unlike the solemn worship grounds to the west. The lower village where Priest Lowen and I shared drinks was located here too.
"We can chat about how you've been lately."
Sophia listened, then flashed a bright smile and nodded vigorously.
"Sounds good!"
It happened right then.
"... "
Sophia's expression hardened.
She whipped her head around, glaring down the street.
"...What's wrong?"
"Nothing. Just... a foul stench."
"Foul stench?"
"Yeah. A smell that shouldn't be here. But... hmm? It's mixed with someone else's scent..."
A smell that shouldn't be here.
And mixed with someone else's.
'Chimera?'
Sophia's nose was reliable, at minimum.
'As expected.'
The black幕 was lurking in the magic department district.
"Then let's head that way."
I led Sophia toward the twin towers.
Sophia instantly switched to tail-wagging puppy mode and followed along.
"We can track down the source of that stench while we're at it."
"Sounds good!"
It felt like I was walking a truffle-hunting hound.
Helena, a maid from Ophelia Hall, hurriedly ducked into an alley.
"...She noticed that?"
The maids of Erebus—especially those from Ophelia Hall—were rigorously trained in covert operations. Their skills rivaled veteran assassin guild members. No mere cadet should have spotted her.
Yet that crimson-haired cadet had sensed Helena's presence from hundreds of meters away.
Impossible.
"Must've been a stroke of luck."
A fluke.
Helena wrote it off like that.
"...That's not the problem right now."
She cautiously peeked around the corner.
The woman who'd glanced her way moments ago was chatting happily with the priest, grinning ear to ear like an excited pup. No mistaking it—she was head over heels.
"That punk... after stealing the lady's heart..."
Flaunting a Sabbath evening date with another woman.
A priest, of all people!
"A servant of God playing around with women? It's shameful—a disgrace to the church... Ah."
Mid-rant, Helena realized the lady wasn't much different and clamped her mouth shut.
No, the lady and that man were worlds apart.
The lady's feelings for the priest were the innocent flutter of a young girl her age. But a blond thug of a priest strolling the night streets with a student? That screamed playboy.
It had to.
It needed to be that way.
"...Time to pull back for now."
She'd confirmed the priest was a philanderer.
Tailing them further was too risky. That red-haired woman's senses were no joke.
"Fall back first..."
Today was the magic department's top student announcement day.
As everyone predicted, the first-year top spot went to someone from the Ashen Tower.
The moment it was announced, the Ivory Tower's mood plummeted.
"Phew..."
Advisor Professor Gregor gnawed his lip and tipped back his glass.
Impossible to accept without drowning it in booze.
"All show-offs enrolling..."
This wasn't a defeat for the Ivory Tower or pure-blood mages.
This year's freshmen were just as abysmal as last, so they'd lost the top spot.
"...Damn it."
But the world wouldn't care about petty excuses.
Two full years as Ivory Tower advisor.
Gregor had ceded the top spot to the Ashen Tower both times—the first such streak since the Erebos Royal Academy's founding.
"...The old fogeys will throw another fit."
Objectively speaking, the mage guild elders would question the talents of one Gregor Ludenorf.
It would be a massive roadblock in his future.
The worst.
As he tried to drown his rage in alcohol...
"Don't worry, Professor."
Someone approached and placed a hand on Gregor's shoulder.
He turned. A golden-haired woman.
A familiar face.
One of his students.
Her name was...
"...Rosencrantz."
If he had to pick a decent mage from the freshmen, it was this lady of House Rosencrantz.
Even she had underperformed, though, costing them the top spot.
Seething fury. He wanted to bark at her to get lost.
But...
"...I'll expect better results next year."
Gregor knew where to draw the line.
He couldn't yell at the daughter of a renowned magic house.
As he sighed and raised his glass again, Rosencrantz carefully wrapped her arms around him.
"...Wh-what are you doing? You're a student. And I'm..."
"Does that matter?"
Rosencrantz smirked and touched his cheek. She forced his head around to meet her eyes.
"Come on, forget it all. What's the big deal about losing some top spot?"
"... "
Top spot?
Critical. It was his pride, the glory of pure-blood mages.
But...
"...Right."
The moment he met her violet eyes, Gregor's worries seemed to wash clean away.
"Not important..."
Not important.
The top spot, his life—none of it mattered.
Whether her eyes had always been violet? Utterly irrelevant.
"Then shall we complete the forbidden curse?"
"Forbidden curse."
A taboo sorcery.
Any mage caught using it would be hunted down by the mage guild's elites.
But...
"Yeah."
That didn't matter anymore either.
"Good. We've secured the sacrifice."
Rosencrantz.
No—White Face, a member of the Shadow, stretched lazily.
Gregor Ludenorf sat slumped in the research room chair, staring blankly at the ceiling with drool pooling from his mouth.
The process didn't matter. Brainwashing the advisor had succeeded.
"Thought it'd be tougher..."
Gregor was arrogant but a mage of considerable skill. She'd expected resistance.
"He was chugging booze—made it easy. Dropping his own mental barriers like that."
White Face shrugged.
This was her power.
The 'bleaching' of all minds and emotions.
Mind control, in simpler terms.
The reason she'd impersonated the prestigious Rosencrantz house without detection thus far.
"...What a hassle this past half year."
Posing as an academy student had been exhausting.
But that was over now.
The only real threats had been the faculty.
And the Ashen Tower's top student, Isolde...
"Some lunatic handled that for us."
Even that had been taken care of by the knight department's mad dog.
Made things smooth sailing—like catching a rat while stepping back from a cow.
"Now all that's left..."
Summoning the extradimensional Predator.
With her power, she could tame even the mightiest beings to her will.
But she still had one insurance policy.
She could manipulate minds, but binding a overwhelmingly powerful body was tricky. Taming the Predator's mind wouldn't help if its body rampaged freely. For that, she'd need an expert in manipulation magic.
Luckily, she'd scouted one in the magic department ahead of time.
"Ihen Dorp."
A house specializing in manipulation secret arts.
Her talent during last month's evaluation had even despaired her advisor, Gregor.
"Name was... Otilie, right."
With that girl, perfectly controlling the Predator wasn't a pipe dream.
"...Think she could be a friend?"
Brainwashing was always an option, but White Face saw potential in Otilie.
The potential to become one of them.
For a gloomy girl shunned by the world, cooped up making dolls alone, an organization of shadows like theirs fit perfectly.
Why cling to unappreciated dolls when she could join the Shadow and find a warm family?
It'd be better for her.
"...Yeah. Definitely. She'll get it."
Decision made, White Face nodded.
"Alright. Let's go recruit Ihen Dorp first."
White Face set off.
Ivory Tower's basement dorms. Dark, damp, and foreboding—the perfect spot for the Ihen Dorp girl.
There, White Face extended the invitation to join her...
"Pass."
"...Huh?"
"Why would I befriend something like you?"
"... "
And got shot down flat.