74. Witch Hunt (5)
74. Witch Hunt (5)
Was there someone like this in the original...?
I rummaged frantically through my jumbled memories.
Memories, memories, memories...
The Guard.
A group with little presence early in the game that only began to matter around the mid-game. They had a heroine, but even she barely had any presence.
Because her personality was kind of...fucking awful.
Reni could be prickly too, but her wariness was understandable between her occupational habits and my appearance. That bitch, on the other hand, would obviously try to stab me in the face the moment she saw me.
If Reni was a mad dog who only wagged her tail for her master, that bitch was just a straight-up bitch.
Honestly, I had no idea why a heroine like that existed. Tsundere, my ass—if she was tsun-tsun-tsun-tsun-tsun-tsun-tsun-dere, then she was nothing more than a rude bitch. There was a reason her ending had the lowest completion rate of every heroine a year after release. That bitch was seriously...
"Hah, look at this one. Can you not hear me?"
...Right, this wasn't the time to get lost in thought. I looked back at the middle-aged old fart in front of me.
"So, what, are you telling us not to investigate?"
"An Escort Knight should stick to escort work. What happens inside the academy is our jurisdiction. Don't interfere."
His voice was thoroughly irritable. He was clearly unhappy that we were investigating the lecture hall.
"I was told you were short-staffed."
"How many people do you think an investigation takes? If anything, aren't you the ones short on numbers? This isn't a playground. I'll pull a few men from Squad 3 and investigate, so you can run along and tend to the Saintess."
...If we had been on an uninhabited island, I would have caved his skull in immediately. Why was this obnoxious old bastard throwing a tantrum? I swallowed my anger. Losing my temper here would only make things difficult for us. For Reni's sake, I had to endure it.
"Old ma—mmph."
I clamped my palm over Millia's mouth just as she was about to snap at the geezer, who so obviously wanted to obstruct us. Millia wriggled her head in protest, but I kept her mouth covered and asked the self-proclaimed Squad 3 head of the Guard,
"Didn't... Reni tell you?"
"Do you think that means we'll give you permission? What happens inside the academy is our jurisdiction, greenhorn. Stop worrying about pointless matters and go tend to the Saintess."
...We should back off for now.
As long as this guy was guarding the place, we wouldn't be getting in anyway.
"Then, keep up the good...work."
"Get lost."
The geezer, his eyes filled with displeasure, stood with his arms crossed, glaring at us. More precisely, he kept shooting glances at Elisa.
Did they know each other? The meaning behind that creepy gaze bothered me, but he probably wouldn't answer even if I asked.
"We'll be going."
I took the two of them and left the main building.
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"Yohan! Why are you listening to a guy like that!"
"Millia. We have a position to maintain too, so we can't openly defy him."
"I-I think that's right..."
At Elisa's agreement, I looked at her. There was something I wanted to ask her, but the moment our eyes met she flinched and turned her head away.
"Do you know anything about that man?"
"Um, his name is Kain... I've heard other students gossiping about him. They said he has a really... terrible personality..."
That much was obvious from his appearance. A man with such a sinister face could hardly have a pleasant personality. I knew nothing about physiognomy, yet his face and personality were a 100% match. Apparently his temperament truly was foul.
"Yohan, what do we do now? Are we giving up?"
"Uh, w-well, the Guard did say... they'd investigate, so... I think... it's okay... if you don't..."
That was not an option. My purpose in involving myself in the case was to find the witch and befriend her. I also had to stop her before she became a monster.
...In the end, we had no choice but to investigate in secret.
That old Guard bastard, Kain or whatever his name was, would block my investigation, so an official investigation was impossible. Considering how he had acted even after Reni spoke to him, he might have been trying to destroy evidence before an outsider could expose clues that would prove inconvenient.
Maybe I was reading into things too much, but the mission had clearly flagged the existence of the 'witch,' and while I might not remember the detailed plot, I at least recalled the broad strokes.
Find the witch. Build affinity. And dig into this case to reach the truth.
If I couldn't solve the problem right in front of me, I wouldn't even be able to touch the next one.
So, the first thing I had to do was...
"Elisa."
"E-Eek..."
"I'm not your enemy. Don't be scared."
"B-but..."
"Let me ask one thing. Why are you so afraid of me?"
"Th-that's..."
I studied Elisa carefully. Her expression was slightly different from usual. It looked like fear, but not quite the same kind. Until then, her fear had been straightforward. Now she looked afraid to say something. I'd seen her often enough to distinguish the difference.
"I-it's... If I tell you... everyone will... h-hate me..."
"Don't cry. I'm confident I won't be shocked no matter what you say."
I put on the gentlest smile I could manage to reassure Elisa. Then the ridiculous heckle, "Scary!" came from beside me, leaving me no choice but to drop the smile.
"That's a bit harsh."
"When Yohan smiles, it's way too scary! It looks like you just offed someone and you're smiling about it!"
...Was it really that bad?
"Do you think so too?"
"I-I... still... think it's... okay..."
No, you would practically have a seizure every time you looked at me.
"W-well... it's not your face. It's your spir..."
"Spir...?"
"Uh, n-no, nothing!"
Ah, forget it. Fine, I would let the matter drop. It wasn't particularly important. I'd just have to accept that seeing me triggered unexplained PTSD-like symptoms in her. It was a little sad, though.
"Let's drop that. Anyway, right now we need to find a way to investigate the case."
"Huh? Really? Even though the Guard's on it?"
"Don't you find it suspicious? Why is the guy who's head of Squad 3 guarding the place alone? Normally, that's what you'd have your subordinates do, isn't it?"
"Uh...now that you mention it, yeah? If he's the boss, couldn't he just order a subordinate to do it?"
Millia tilted her head and agreed. Elisa, seeming to find my words a little odd too, opened her mouth without meeting my gaze.
"N-now that I think about it, Professor Lennon... really, really disliked him."
"That's useful. Thanks, Elisa."
"Yohan, me too, me too!"
"Yeah... thanks, Millia."
"Heehee."
A puppy starved for praise, pure and simple. I gently stroked Millia's head, then looked toward the research lab where Professor Lennon would be. Elisa's words had set our next destination.
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"Kain? You mean that man... Hmm. I doubt anyone but his own subordinates likes him."
Professor Lennon, seated leisurely in his chair and sipping coffee, was the one who said this in answer to my question. So as his looks suggested, he wasn't a man people were very fond of.
"Is that so?"
"I don't know the details, but he's notorious for his violent temper and arrogance. If he didn't come from a powerful family, the Guard would have expelled him long ago."
So he had survived thanks to his family connections.
"His record looks impressive because he's a knack for sniffing out easy cases that will boost it. Hmm. That's caused plenty of rumors. I've even heard that he made deals with a gang in the city's back alleys... but there is no evidence, so take it with a grain of salt."
"You seem to know a fair bit."
"A friend of mine holds a key post in the Guard. It's all stories I've picked up over drinks with that fellow."
As expected of someone who had worked at the academy for so long, Professor Lennon had picked up all sorts of information.
"Do you happen to know any other rumors?"
"Beyond that, I don't know much myself. By the way, didn't you say you found an object steeped in ominous energy? Let me see it."
I immediately took the box from my pocket and handed it to Professor Lennon. He set the box on his workbench, opened the lid, then pulled on gloves inscribed with something resembling a magic circle and carefully picked up the contents.
"This feels closer to summoning magic... than a curse."
"Summoning... you mean?"
"The energy isn't inherent to the object itself. Some of it merely rubbed off. One thing does seem certain: whoever dropped it is plotting something."
Well, that much was expected. The episode's name was Demon Summoning to begin with. The missing people would have been offered up as sacrifices for a demon summoning.
...I needed to stop this before anything worse happened.
"Understood. Then we'll be going now."
"Goodbye!"
"Do take care."
At Millia's lively farewell—so at odds with the gloomy atmosphere—a smile tugged at the corner of Professor Lennon's mouth. So Millia's cuteness really did work on everyone.
"Uh... um, take care..."
Elisa averted her gaze but slowly waved her hand anyway. I wasn't sure what that was about, but from Elisa's perspective, that was probably the best she could do. I walked out of the lab with Millia and down the corridor. I deliberately said nothing until we had left the building.
Millia, as if reading the mood, simply held my hand and walked alongside me. That was how we exited the building and made our way to a secluded corner of the garden where no one was around.
This spot seemed good enough.
"Millia."
At my call, Millia answered with a mischievous grin, as if she already knew what I was going to say.
I quietly whispered the plan I'd come up with into Millia's ear.
After hearing my plan, Millia raised a hand diagonally to her forehead in a playful salute, grinned, and answered,
"Heehee, just leave it to me, Boss!"