Expulsion Committee (3)
Marcus Beloff walked the academy's dim corridors like a man half out of his mind.
Every step weighed a thousand pounds. His heart hammered against his ribs as if it meant to shatter them.
Total defeat at the fief management presentation. The humiliation of being toyed with and crushed by Ian Darkest — that damned bastard son. And worse than either of those, the terror of how he was supposed to weather Lionel-nim's wrath had swallowed his entire mind whole.
The annex housing Lionel's private office carried an especially bleak and desolate air. The windowless hallway was lit only by the faint glow of magic lamps, and the grotesque paintings lining the walls seemed almost to writhe with life.
Marcus swallowed hard and carefully knocked on the office door.
"Come in."
The voice beyond the door was startlingly soft and gentle. Marcus let out a breath of relief and eased the door open.
Inside, the office was warm and cozy — a stark contrast to the gloom outside. The scent of burning firewood drifted faintly from the hearth, and the luxurious furniture and rare ornaments spoke of Lionel's refined tastes.
And at the center of it all, Lionel Darkest sat comfortably on a sofa, reading a book.
"Ah, Marcus. You've come."
Lionel lifted his gaze from the page and greeted him with a gentle smile. Those blue eyes were still deep and captivating, but Marcus instinctively sensed the ruthlessness hidden behind the expression.
"I—I'm so sorry, Lionel-nim! Because of my carelessness…!"
Marcus flattened himself on the floor and begged for forgiveness.
"Rise. There's no need to blame yourself so harshly."
Lionel's voice remained kind. He gestured for Marcus to approach.
"A small failure at the presentation is nothing worth fretting over. Ian is destined to be expelled from the academy soon enough anyway. Your little mistake won't change the larger current of things."
There was a strange certainty in his words — absolute confidence, as if everything already rested in the palm of his hand. Marcus began, little by little, to let the tension drain from his shoulders.
Maybe… maybe it really will be all right. Lionel-nim seems merciful right now.
Yes. Hasn't Lionel-nim always been this way?
To his own people, Lionel-nim has always given so much.
Marcus's own fief would have been wiped out after the Eclipse if not for Lionel's aid.
"You've had a hard time of it as well. Sit. Would you care for a cup of warm tea?"
Lionel offered him the sofa opposite and poured fragrant black tea into a cup with his own hands.
Overwhelmed with gratitude, Marcus accepted the cup with trembling fingers.
Lionel-nim hasn't abandoned me after all.
He is a man of such generous spirit that he can forgive a failure of this magnitude with ease.
Something close to reverence even stirred in him.
Marcus let go of every last scrap of tension and even managed a faint smile of relief.
"Thank you, Lionel-nim. As expected, you are truly…"
"Marcus."
Lionel spoke his name softly. The voice was still gentle — but something in the air had shifted.
"You're smiling?"
In that instant, Marcus's heart seemed to plummet straight through the floor.
The warmth that had filled the office only moments before turned ice-cold in a heartbeat.
The mild smile vanished from Lionel's face, leaving only a chilling sneer and eyes as cold as a serpent's.
"Is this a situation that calls for laughter?"
"Y—Young Master… I—I didn't mean…"
Marcus stammered, paralyzed with terror. Lionel rose slowly from his seat. Every movement radiated a suffocating pressure.
"Failure I can accept. Every human makes mistakes. But failing and then failing to reflect — failing to recognize your own incompetence and simply relaxing into relief — that is an unforgivable sin."
Lionel's voice was colder than ice now. He seized Marcus's jaw roughly and forced their eyes to meet.
"If that complacency of yours put even the smallest scratch on my plans, how exactly did you intend to take responsibility?"
"P—please spare me, Young Master! I'll do anything! Please…!"
Marcus begged desperately, but there was not a shred of pity in Lionel's eyes.
"You'll need to be punished. Only then might that slack mind of yours find its way back into place."
Lionel flung Marcus to the floor and walked over to a grotesque statue standing beside the hearth. It was a repulsive tangle of human skull and writhing tentacles, and an indescribable malevolent aura poured from it.
"My 'friend' happens to be hungry. How convenient."
Lionel laid a hand on the statue and whispered something in a language Marcus could not understand. Crimson light burst like a flash from the statue's empty eye sockets. At the same instant, Marcus felt an agony as if every drop of blood in his body were reversing course — and his consciousness began to blur.
"AAAAAAGH!"
A horrific sensation, as if some living thing were tearing a piece of his mind free from inside his skull and sucking it into the statue. It went beyond physical pain — a primal terror, as if his very soul were being ripped apart.
Lionel watched Marcus thrash in agony with complete indifference and murmured quietly,
"This is the price you pay, Marcus. Remember it well. There will be no next time."
After the noisy presentation of the Fief Management Department had ended, I sat on a quiet bench in the academy garden across from Roella Amelia.
She still had her arms crossed and a sulky look on her face, but reading the worry hidden beneath that prickliness wasn't difficult.
"So you're really fine? Your brother is pulling every trick in the book to get you expelled, and you're just sitting here like nothing's wrong?!"
Roella stamped her feet as she scolded me. Her golden hair glittered in the sunlight.
"Are you worried about me, Roella?"
At my sly question, her face went bright red.
"W—who said I was worried?! It's just… if you disappear, my only rival is gone! I'd get bored, that's all! Don't get the wrong idea!"
I gave a short laugh and offered her my thanks.
"Thanks, Roella. Your worrying actually gives me strength."
"Hmph! As if I'd ever try to give someone like you strength! I'm asking if you really plan to just sit there and get expelled!"
Genuine anxiety colored her voice.
Well, she wasn't wrong. Right now I was a candle in the wind. Far from receiving support from the Darkest family, I was under constant pressure from them, and my reputation at the academy was scraping the bottom of the barrel. If Lionel pushed just a little harder, expulsion would be all but certain.
But I only smiled, easy and unhurried.
"Expelled, huh. I don't think it'll be that simple."
"What? Where is this confidence coming from? Do you even know what kind of person your brother is? If he sets his mind to it, someone like you—!"
"I know, Roella. Lionel is capable and cruel. But this particular matter isn't that straightforward."
I paused and looked straight into her blue eyes.
"In fact, I plan to use this opportunity to swallow Lionel's fief as well."
"…What did you just say?!"
Roella's eyes went wide with shock. She nearly shot up from the bench.
"Have you lost your mind? You're going after Lionel's territory? That's the most fertile and developed land among all the Darkest holdings! Even if the family's influence isn't what it used to be, that land is something even the Amelia family wouldn't dare covet lightly! And you… a bastard like you is going to—how—?!"
Her reaction was only natural. Lionel's fief was a fortress of iron, and trying to take it was about as reckless as throwing eggs at a boulder.
I smiled quietly.
She doesn't know yet. How massive the changes about to hit this world really are.
The Eclipse had only been the beginning. Far greater disasters would erupt one after another, and the old order and power structures would be completely overturned.
In the middle of that chaos, a golden opportunity would come my way. Lionel's little expulsion scheme was nothing more than a ripple next to that enormous wave.
What mattered was how I weathered the crisis — and how I used it.
"I have a way."
I smiled meaningfully and held out my hand to her.
"Will you help me?"
Roella's eyes filled with curiosity and suspicion. She swallowed hard, trying to grasp the meaning of my offer. Her lips had just begun to part when—
"Ian Darkest!"
An academy administrator's urgent voice cut through our conversation.
He was the same man who had kindly handed me the old equipment from the storage rooms. Another bastard son of some prestigious house, if I recalled. Someone who had his own reasons to feel a certain kinship.
He came running, out of breath, and held out a scroll with trembling hands.
"Just now… the Disciplinary Committee… has issued a summons! Tomorrow morning at ten o'clock. You are ordered to appear in the underground conference room of Vermouth Hall!"
So it's finally here.
I toyed with the scabbard at my hip and grinned.