Exile
Recently, opinions of Sian inside Lutra had been swinging wildly from one extreme to the other.
At first, most people had thought poorly of him.
That was only natural. For any decent, ordinary person trying to live an honest life, there was no reason for filthy rumors to follow him around like a tail in the first place.
Seen in that light, the cadet named Sian was, to everyone else, a failure in the purest sense of the word.
A disgusting man who had sold off his own sisters to enter the Academy, and who, not content with that, had clung to the powerful—princesses and the like—flattering them shamelessly in his bid for wealth and glory.
That had been the common assessment of Sian.
But recently, the way people looked at him had changed quite a bit.
Ever since the duel that had taken place not long ago, when Sian had utterly overwhelmed Ricardo and crushed him with a gap in skill so vast it was almost humiliating to watch.
In that duel, Sian had proven everything.
That all the rumors surrounding him up to now had been lies, and that he was more than worthy of being here in Lutra.
Of course, there were still plenty of people who disliked him because of his background, but even so, considering how he had once had enemies on all sides, it was fair to call this a remarkably encouraging result.
Just as public opinion around Sian was slowly beginning to turn, another incident arose that was more than enough to shake Lutra once again.
"Crown Prince Ricardo has accused Sian of assaulting a member of the imperial family!"
During the duel between Ricardo and Sian, Sian had not only inflicted several sword wounds on Ricardo’s right arm, but had also repeatedly struck his head, and Ricardo had formally brought the matter into the open, claiming that the clear intent behind it amounted to imperial cruelty.
Of course, after the duel Ricardo had been unconscious for a full day, and his injuries had been severe enough that he required the help of a priest with holy power on the level of an archbishop.
But bringing up what happened during a duel outside the duel itself was close to taboo.
People certainly knew that Ricardo had been beaten like a dog in the duel, and they also understood exactly how embarrassing it must have been to be thrashed by someone he usually looked down on for being lowborn. But even after taking all of that into account, what Ricardo was doing now was hard to call normal.
"I didn't think he was that petty, but His Highness the Crown Prince sure can hold a grudge."
"Right? If losing the duel bothered him that much, he should've chosen some other way to get revenge, like bringing in a black knight. This is just pathetic."
And so, though they were few, some people began to dislike the Crown Prince’s side because of Ricardo’s behavior and even felt a measure of sympathy for Sian.
And this change was not happening among the cadets alone.
"I'm sorry. Even for me, there's simply no way."
Professor Einhart of the swordsmanship department’s private office.
There, Einhart had personally summoned Sian and was now offering him an apology.
"No matter how I look at it, Cadet Ricardo’s conduct went too far, so I tried in my own way to stop it. I protested to the board, and I even submitted a petition to the imperial court, but it seems I was powerless after all."
Listening to Einhart’s heartfelt apology, Sian blinked slowly.
To be honest, he didn’t understand why he was the one being apologized to.
"I understand what you want to say, Professor. But why are you apologizing to me?"
"Hm?"
"Weren't you only serving as an observer during the duel between Ricardo and me? You’re not the one trying to drive me out of Lutra. In fact, you’ve been going all over the place trying to save just me, so there’s no real reason for you to apologize to me, is there?"
At Sian’s question, Professor Einhart stared at him for a moment, then tilted his head as though he genuinely couldn’t understand.
"You ask a rather strange question. Is it really so odd for a teacher to want what’s best for a student he’s teaching?"
At that perfectly matter-of-fact answer, Sian was momentarily at a loss for words.
But only for a moment. Then he offered Einhart a faint smile.
"Thank you, Professor. Even if it’s only you, thank you for taking my side."
"Cut the empty flattery. More importantly, worry about yourself. At this rate, you’ll be expelled for certain. As I said, there’s nothing I can do to save you."
At Einhart’s flat statement, as though he were simply listing a fact, Sian spoke quietly.
"There is. If you’re talking about a way to avoid expulsion."
"...There is?"
At Sian’s words, Professor Einhart slowly widened his eyes.
He didn’t understand. Sian had found a way? Even as a professor, he hadn’t been able to come up with one, so how on earth could the boy have done it?
"And what exactly is this method?"
"It’s simple. The imperial offense Ricardo is hanging over my head is, in the end, a charge that I harmed the dignity of the imperial family, isn’t it? Then, to put it the other way around, if the representative of the imperial family declares that I will not be punished, wouldn’t that solve everything?"
In that instant, Einhart realized what Sian was trying to say and let out a dry laugh.
"...So the solution you’re talking about is, in other words—"
"Yes."
Sian nodded and spoke.
"I intend to meet His Majesty the Emperor myself, and persuade him."
That was the solution Sian and Cartesia had come up with for all of this—and at the same time, the first crack in the counterstrike they would use against his sisters.
****
Rewinding the clock to not long ago.
"...You mean, you don’t want to marry? Me? You?"
When I stared blankly at Cartesia after her bombshell declaration, she dropped her head as though trying hard to hide her embarrassment.
"No matter how I think about it, there’s no other way. No, this is the only solution. At least, that’s how it looks to me."
Cartesia sounded serious enough, but it was so absurd that all I could do was laugh bitterly.
A marriage between an imperial princess and an orphan from the streets.
It was the sort of development you wouldn’t even find in some cheap, third-rate melodrama sold in the marketplace.
Setting aside whether it was realistically possible, it was just nonsense. Nothing more.
"If you and I were to marry... then at the very least, you wouldn’t be punished for imperial assault. Because you’d become part of the imperial family too, and it wouldn’t make sense to punish you for assaulting the imperial family, would it?"
"If it were actually possible for you and me to get married, then sure."
Unless the Emperor had completely lost his mind, there was no way he’d ever pair his daughter with some orphan off the street.
"...Hmph. If you end up saving my life several times in the near future, then marrying me wouldn’t be impossible at all."
Cartesia pouted as she muttered that, sounding vaguely displeased.
"But you're not in danger right now, and no one’s threatening your life, are they? Or is there actually some imperial family member on death’s doorstep right now?"
I asked lightly, but unexpectedly Cartesia’s face hardened, and she let out a quiet sigh.
"There is. One imperial family member who is on the verge of dying."
"Who?"
"My younger sister."
For a second, my breath caught in my throat.
"It’s okay. I know you didn’t mean it that way. And... in any case, that child was never meant to live very long."
"...What do you mean, never meant to live very long?"
At my question, Cartesia looked as though she were thinking over something, then slowly opened her mouth, as if deciding it was all right to say it.
"My younger sister... Arieta was born with an enormous amount of mana. Just in terms of raw mana alone, she could rival an archmage. But unfortunately, she wasn’t born with the talent to control it."
There was something bitter in Cartesia’s eyes that she simply couldn’t hide.
"For now, we’ve been suppressing Arieta’s mana with every means available, but even that has reached its limit. The mana overflowing inside her is slowly eating away at her body."
"....."
"She has about three years left. But even that’s being generous. Honestly, it wouldn’t be strange if she died today."
It was astonishing. What shocked me was the fact that Cartesia—the most exalted person in the world, the girl everyone thought had nothing to envy—was carrying such a very human burden.
And, shameless as it was, I found myself feeling an immediate sense of kinship with her.
Because the worry Cartesia was carrying now felt endlessly similar to the worry I had once felt when I looked down at my sisters collapsed on the roadside.
Maybe that was why. I would never normally have said something like this, but before I knew it, the words had slipped from my mouth.
"You know, if it goes well, I might be able to help your younger sister."
"...What did you say?"
Cartesia blinked in confusion, and only then did I realize I’d misspoken.
"You have a way to save Arieta? That’s impossible. Even the archmages, and the Holy See itself, have all said there’s no method..."
Her voice was trembling. Seeing that, I hesitated.
Could I really tell Cartesia this secret?
This was the most important of all my secrets, something I had never intended to tell anyone, not even on the day I died. Even my sisters did not know it.
But... wasn’t Cartesia different? She was always looking out for me, and even now she was trying to help me. Didn’t she have enough right to hear my secret?
The hesitation lasted a long time, but the decision itself came in an instant.
Just as Cartesia had once believed in me, and had called me her friend...
I decided to trust her too.
"You said it yourself a moment ago. Your younger sister is sick because she was born with far too much mana, but lacks the talent to control it."
"...Yes."
"Then the story is simple. If her talent were to grow strong enough to control all that mana, there’d be no reason for her to be sick anymore, would there?"
At my words, Cartesia looked at me as though I were ridiculous.
"Sorry, but there’s no way in this world to artificially strengthen someone else’s talent. Not even an archmage or a saint could do that."
"No, there is a way. At least, I know what it is."
"...What?"
"Because the one who forcibly strengthened my sisters’ talents... was me."
That was right.
The one who had turned my sisters—who had possessed no special talent—into the empire’s greatest rising stars, and thereby made it possible for them to stand where they stood now, was none other than... me.