To the Academy! (2)
“I figured you'd summon me sooner or later.”
A few days had passed since I'd accepted the princess's offer, and today I'd been suddenly called to the imperial palace.
It wasn't surprising, since I'd expected it would happen soon anyway.
The only thing that caught me off guard was...
“I didn't expect it to be over a meal.”
...that the meeting place wasn't a reception room or her office.
It was a dining hall.
“Why? Is there a problem?”
Kali continued her meal naturally from across the table.
She glanced at me as if asking what the issue was, slicing into her steak. I could only respond with a somewhat deflated tone.
“I thought it was something more important.”
“Building rapport with a talent like you is part of my duties. Does rapport require a reason?”
She said it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Then she popped a piece of sliced meat into her mouth and fixed her gaze on me.
The whole sequence was so effortless that, had the woman before me not been Kali Aldheim, I might have even gotten a little annoyed.
“Just kidding. I'm not that idle.”
She spoke calmly, without a hint of change in her voice, and pulled something from inside her sleeve, placing it on the table.
It was a pen. The same design as the one she'd shown me before.
“I just needed an excuse to dodge prying eyes.”
But as she twisted the top of the pen slightly, there was a soft pop, and the space around us visibly warped.
A barrier spell. Probably one that blocked outside views.
Once it fully enveloped the area, she set down her knife, wiped her mouth, and asked in a newly serious tone,
“Do you have any guess why I called you here?”
“Only one thing comes to mind.”
“Exactly. Just one.”
Kali Aldheim and I weren't friends or anything like that.
Ours was a strictly business relationship.
There was only one reason she'd want to see me, and nothing else should even cross her mind.
“Can you see this photo?”
She pulled a single photograph from her bosom and showed it to me.
It was of a man.
A striking figure with glistening violet eyes under purple hair.
“This man's name is Pistorious. Not sure if that's his real name, but at least that's what he calls himself.”
“He's also the only confirmed member of their side suspected to be an Abraxas executive.”
I knew the name.
Or rather, it would be more accurate to say I couldn't not know it.
Abraxas didn't have a clear leader, but this guy coordinated all their major and minor affairs—the closest thing they had to one.
“I explained it last time, right? That Abraxas excels at manipulating people.”
“You did.”
“This is the one.”
She waved the photo in front of me, then slapped it down on the table with an irritated edge to her voice.
“The man who approaches people, threatens them, beguiles them, and bends them to his will.”
I simply nodded quietly.
She continued on her own.
“We couldn't confirm his existence for a long time, but we finally pinned him down recently.”
“A little while ago, we tracked his location and sent knights in secret to take him down.”
Sent knights, huh... If they could capture him, that would be ideal.
But I already knew it had failed.
“He's not the type to be taken down by a force that size.”
That was the scary thing about Pistorious. He wasn't just some clever strategist who relied on his brains.
He had swordsmanship skills that could place him at the top even without them. And he was thoroughly armed with all sorts of gear on top of that.
“...Yes. As you said, it failed. All of them confirmed dead.”
She nodded bitterly in agreement, let out a long sigh, and slowly resumed her explanation.
“Anyway, we lost track of him again after that. For several months.”
“But recently, we got a tip that he's been sighted at the Academy.”
“The Academy...? Why the hell would he go there?”
“We don't know exactly. But he's probably up to his usual tricks.”
“Recruiting, persuading, threatening—that sort of thing.”
“Exactly. To set something in motion.”
That made sense. Abraxas was a bunch whose motives no one could predict.
They were surely plotting something at the Academy for their own schemes.
But something felt off.
An incident at the Academy... at this point in time?
Incidents did happen at the Academy. It was where the heroine stayed, and the original heroine, Aris Misteilteyn, had attended it.
But not at this timing.
Butterfly effect...?
A bad thought crossed my mind. What if, because Aris wasn't there, some other incident had been triggered instead?
And what if it was happening right now?
“...Should I investigate?”
“You catch on quick.”
Damn it. This was completely off-script from the original story.
Unlike the northern incident, this was virgin territory—I'd have to handle everything from scratch. What a pain.
But what choice did I have? I'd have to plug the hole somehow.
“If I just waltz into the Academy, they'll catch on.”
“True. They'll think we're onto their tail.”
Obviously. If a Swordmaster showed up sword in hand, they'd get spooked and bolt.
But she seemed utterly unconcerned.
“Well, does that really matter?”
“If there's no pretext, we make one.”
With that, she handed me something.
It was a crest. Emblazoned with the Academy's symbol.
“Perfect timing, too. Rumors about you have spread just far enough.”
“The empire's newest Swordmaster heads to the Academy to nurture the next generation. Doesn't that paint a nice picture?”
She smiled, gazing at me intently.
As she said, it wasn't a bad setup. Swordmasters becoming professors were rare, but not unheard of.
People in the know already knew about my few interactions with Kali, so it wouldn't seem too suspicious.
“I've already given the Academy a heads-up. Told them I'm sending an exceptional swordsmanship professor.”
“......You're moving fast.”
“As one who oversees the affairs of the state, I can't afford delays.”
She extended the Academy crest toward me again and regarded me with a meaningful smile.
“I'll be waiting for good news.”
After sending Ian off once more, Kali returned to her office and reviewed the Abraxas files again.
As she slowly flipped through from the beginning, she pulled out Pistorious's photo and murmured to herself, recalling their earlier conversation.
“That's quite peculiar.”
She had definitely spoken with Ian just now.
And she had brought it up first.
That she'd sent knights.
So he could infer they'd lost.
After all, there'd be no reason to mention it if they'd won.
It was a reasonable deduction. Right up to that point.
“But I never told him Pistorious was strong in combat.”
He's not the type to be taken down by a force that size.
That's exactly what he'd said.
In other words, he knew the man's capabilities all too well.
Strange.
Because she'd never breathed a word about Pistorious's skills to Ian.
“A mysterious Swordmaster who never showed his face to the world until he suddenly appeared in the north not long ago...”
She had countless informants at her disposal.
Kali had demanded info on Ian, so they'd duly gathered what they could.
But she'd gotten nothing.
Just the deeds she'd already heard about in the north and the Dark District. Nothing else.
As if he'd dropped from the sky.
Where does your blade point?
Whose side are you on?
How did you know about Pistorious?
The empire's? Or theirs?
“Well, it doesn't matter either way.”
They were unanswerable questions, but to her, either side was fine.
What mattered wasn't where the blade was aimed.
“I'll just grip the hilt and swing.”
If she gripped it firmly and swung true, everything would bend to her will.
Without fail.