Suspicion
Suspicion.
The measurement orb… stopped?
Serena was standing perfectly upright. Yet the world seemed to sway around her, as if the ground itself had lost its footing. She drew a deep breath and forced her frozen mind back into motion, then began to examine her own common sense with deliberate care.
Is that even possible?
No. It was impossible.
By all accounts, the academy’s measuring instruments had been crafted by the strongest Guardians—those who had been granted colors. The purpose of this exam was either to prove the strength of one’s body and will, or to use one’s own mana to slow the accelerating mana inside the orb as much as possible. It had to be one of those two things.
But Caron was known as a man with no talent for magic. There was no way he could have managed either.
Which left only one conclusion…
She hated to think it, but she could only assume it was cheating. It had felt strange from the very beginning—Caron stepping forward on her behalf. He must have used her to cover his own fraud. Once that thought took root, his earlier actions began to make a twisted kind of sense.
Still, one detail snagged at her.
That brazen declaration. Something about the words themselves felt off, as if he were simply returning the mockery his maid had suffered, blow for blow.
What if he really has changed?
The thought flickered for a moment before she shook her head and cast it aside. That Caron could never change.
She closed her eyes and waited for Professor Adrian to speak. Around her, the sound of students swallowing hard filled the silence.
“...Caron Ludaiph.”
At last he opened his mouth. But his gaze was not fixed on Caron alone.
“And Serena Rudbein.”
She flinched, then immediately locked her posture rigid.
“Both of you will follow me to the professor’s office at once.”
Adrian finished speaking and strode toward the exit without a moment’s hesitation. No one noticed that the footsteps of the man who lived by perfectionism were ever so slightly disordered.
“So what happens with the rest of the measurements?”
“Who cares about that? The youngest young master of House Ludaiph was hiding his power this whole time?”
“Why hide it? And why reveal it now?”
I ignored the noisy chatter of the students and walked slowly toward Lirith. The crowd around her took a few steps back as if shoved by some invisible force. Using them as a backdrop, I reached her side and heard a voice that was one breath away from tears.
“...Why… did you… do that?”
“Do what?”
“...Reveal it…”
She thinks Caron was hiding his power?
Her wet eyes held both confusion and self-reproach, as if she believed some vital secret had been exposed because of her. I wanted to stroke her hair, but the original Caron’s usual conduct made that impossible. So I answered bluntly instead.
“Did you really think I was going to spend my academy days being ignored?”
It’s not your fault.
“...”
“You’re not under the delusion that I showed my hand just for you, are you?”
“Hic! …N-no… I’m not…”
“Then go back to the dorm and get some sleep. I’ll be back.”
I turned on my heel and started walking in the direction the professor had vanished, waving a hand to clear the message that had been blocking my vision for the last few moments.
Lie or Truth
Two people stood inside the professor’s office, yet the silence was so complete it felt as though no one existed there at all. Professor Adrian stared endlessly out the window. Serena kept her silence and waited for him to speak—or perhaps prayed he never would.
Her thoughts were more tangled than they had ever been. Was it because her family had done something illegal? No. Her father had supported her in small ways—finding her a good sword, for instance—but she had never received any formal “training.” Walking the razor’s edge of the law was something a marquis’s name could usually absorb. Under ordinary circumstances, at least.
The man before her now was Adrian von Estelheim. Eldest son of the Estelheim Ducal Family, a house famed for magic. Youngest professor in academy history. The Blue Magician. The titles that described him were endless, but only one mattered to Serena right now: the moment he labeled her a criminal, she would become one without even a chance to defend herself.
In the Empire, truth mattered less than what people chose to believe. And it was painfully obvious whose word the public would trust between a thorn in their side like her and an academy professor. If the situation turned against her, she had already resolved to take full blame and end her own life. Her fists clenched tight.
How much time passed? At last the silence broke with the sound of footsteps crossing the corridor.
Creak.
The door closed behind the man who entered, and that sound became the starting gun. Still gazing out the window, Adrian finally spoke.
“From this moment, I will cast interrogation magic on both of you.”
Those few words made Serena’s heart plummet. Interrogation magic—the spell developed by House Estelheim that could distinguish lies from truth. After fierce protests from countless nobles with dirty secrets, its use had been restricted to only the most heinous criminals. Employing it now was as good as declaring her a criminal already.
Her reason screamed that she should reject this unjust treatment and resist. Yet her frozen throat produced no sound at all. To resist now would be to confess guilt with her own mouth. Perhaps that was exactly what the professor wanted. And so Serena could only pray that Caron would push back for her. As a fellow ducal heir, he could invoke his house’s name and escape the situation.
But…
“Well, get on with it. I’m tired.”
Caron Ludaiph. He answered as casually as if he had never even heard of interrogation magic. He was so brazen it almost made her wonder whether he truly didn’t know. That was impossible, of course. Every noble was taught to be wary of the spell, and a man who had survived on politics alone within a ducal house should have been more cautious than anyone. Serena simply could not understand his strange behavior.
Understanding or not, the situation moved forward. Mana began to churn around the professor.
“We begin.”
Adrian swept his hand, and a blue magic circle bloomed beneath Serena’s feet, wrapping around her. A sensation of mana constricting her heart filled the room with the sound of her own heartbeat.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
It rang as clearly as if an ear had been pressed against her chest.
“Serena Rudbein.”
Her tense figure was reflected in Adrian’s eyes.
“What do you believe allowed you to receive a 2nd-class ranking?”
Thump… thump…
The rhythm grew steadily more irregular. Serena scrambled to form an answer before her thoughts froze completely.
Talent? Such an arrogant claim was not permitted to a woman. Effort? That word left far too much room for interpretation. A perfect checkmate. For the first time in her life she regretted ever picking up a sword, and she chose the lesser evil.
“I… believe it was thanks to talent.”
Thump.
The air in the room turned cold.
“Talent, is it.”
His brief murmur landed like a final verdict.
“...”
She kept her head bowed and waited for judgment. Her throat tightened; her head swam. All she could hope was that even if she took the beating, her family would be spared.
“Arrogant for a mere girl.”
Adrian flicked his fingers and released the magic that had been crushing her.
“But it was not a lie.”
Only then could Serena breathe again.
“Hah… hah…”
The professor looked away from the girl who was now greedily gulping air. His gaze settled on Caron, who stood expressionless. Just as before, a blue magic circle formed beneath Caron’s feet.
“Caron Ludaiph.”
“Talent.”
A faint twitch ran across the professor’s brow.
“...”
Having barely recovered her composure, Serena thought, That man is definitely insane.
After a stretch of silence, Adrian shook his head irritably.
“No. That is not what I intend to ask you.”
Thump, thump.
Caron’s heartbeat rang with an unnatural evenness—as if interrogation meant nothing to him, as if he had never told a single lie, as if he possessed not the slightest doubt that he was a truthful man.
“You were never this bold in front of me before.”
The professor advanced one step at a time toward Caron.
“And you never spoke words defending a maid.”
When Adrian finally stood nose-to-nose with him—
Thump thump.
The beating quickened by the barest fraction. A change so fine it would normally have gone unnoticed.
“I will ask again, Caron Ludaiph.”
Yet now it was clearer than anything else.
“No.”
Adrian’s blue eyes flashed in the dark.
“Are you truly Caron?”