Keeping Quiet
In stark contrast to the lively entrance ceremony underway below, the courtyard and the rooftop of the auditorium were wrapped in profound silence. It was so quiet that for a second, I wondered if my instincts had played tricks on me. Even so, the prickling sensation at the back of my neck remained unmistakable. Someone was up here.
"......."
Having slipped onto the auditorium's rooftop, I kept low, sticking to cover as I began scanning the open expanse. In truth, I already had a good guess as to where my target would be.
The Academy's architecture featured stained glass almost everywhere. High up on the front facade of the auditorium sat an enormous stained-glass rose window bearing the Academy's crest. Because the auditorium was built as an open, cavernous hall, the interior was hollow; from the third floor, you could look straight down to the stage on the ground floor. In other words, though veiled behind that stained glass, anyone perched on this section of the roof had a direct, unobstructed line of sight to the stage below.
And right now, Cecilia was standing on that very stage.
Keeping behind the roof's stone fixtures, I crept steadily toward the stained-glass crest.
Scriiitch...
"...?"
As I drew closer, a faint sound scraped against the wind. It sounded like someone whittling away at stone or glass. There was definitely someone here.
Skrrrrt!
"Hngh...! Nnngh!"
A woman's strained voice drifted through the air, not particularly quiet, either. She was crouching directly in front of the stained-glass window. Concealed behind a ventilation buttress, I couldn't get a full view of her yet, but her muttered complaints carried clearly over the parapet.
"If the damn glass was going to be this thick, they could've at least given me proper tools! Who the hell tries to carve through this with a single dagger? This is why noble bastards are the worst."
"......."
I listened in silence. There didn't seem to be any immediate danger to Cecilia, and unlike the professional assassin from before, this girl was happily spilling intel all on her own. Peeking just enough around the stonework, I took in her appearance.
Sitting cross-legged before the glass was a girl with fiery red hair. I could only see her from behind, but she appeared fairly tall—not just compared to my current diminutive frame, but taller than the average woman. Even slumped on the floor, her long limbs were obvious.
"Haaah... Should I just call it quits? Her speech has already started, and I haven't even chipped through half of it."
"......."
Listening to her grumble, one thing became abundantly clear: I shouldn't kill her. Setting aside the intel she might hold, her amateurish demeanor meant subduing her without lethal force would be child's play. Above all, the clothes she wore while desperately hacking at the glass were the exact same Academy uniform Cecilia wore. Killing an enrolled student right off the bat was an unnecessary complication.
Having weighed the situation, I flipped my dagger around, gripping it hilt-forward, and closed the distance.
"Seriously, if it wasn't for the scholarship money, I wouldn't touch this crap with a ten-foot pole. Why the hell order me to chuck a dagger at some blonde girl who walks on stage, anyway?"
"......."
My featherlight footsteps made no sound whatsoever, allowing me to glide directly behind her back. Yet the student hadn't the faintest clue I was standing over her shoulder. Compared to the forest assassin from the hunt, this girl was utterly pathetic. Or were they both equally incompetent? Either way, it was time to put an end to this.
"Hands off."
"...Huh?"
"What do you think you're doing? Isn't it time for the entrance ceremony?"
I pressed the cold, sharp edge of my blade against the side of her neck as I spoke. How this red-haired freshman reacted would dictate what happened next. She wasn't an immediate lethal threat like the previous contract killer, and truth be told, the act of taking a human life left an aftertaste far more nauseating than I cared to repeat.
"Ah, well, that's..."
"Answer quickly. Unless you're eager to bleed?"
"U-Uhh..."
"You look like an incoming freshman. Hiding on the rooftop during the ceremony, carving up glass with a dagger in hand... Were you plotting an assassination?"
"......."
"Could your target happen to be Cecilia de Aria, the Third Imperial Princess delivering the speech on stage as the freshman representative?"
"Hup!"
The moment the name left my lips, the girl lashed out. Whipping around, she tried to drive the dagger she'd been using on the glass straight toward me. It was painfully telegraphed.
Craaack!
"Aaaarghh?!"
"Don't bother resisting," I murmured, wrenching her wrist back. "Unless you fancy losing a few fingers."
I caught her swinging arm and bent it behind her back, pinning it into an agonizing lock. I didn't dislocate her shoulder completely, but it was enough to ensure she wouldn't be using that arm for quite a while.
"Right now, you are the prime suspect in an attempted assassination of the Third Imperial Princess. Frankly, I could slit your throat right here and now, and no one would bat an eye."
"W-Wait! It hurts, aaagh...!"
"Spill it while you still have a tongue. What were you doing?"
"I-It wasn't an assassination! They just told me to throw the dagger... throw it really hard toward the stage—aaaaagh!!"
"That's all?"
"Aaaagh... Gaaah!"
I wrenched her pinned arm a fraction higher, but she only screeched in agony, offering no further explanation. Was she telling the truth? I couldn't be certain. In any case, it was time to call Rin. I had planned to rope her in from the start, and the suspect was already secured. There wasn't much more I could accomplish on my own, and Cecilia's voice echoing faintly through the scraped-out groove in the glass sounded like it was winding down.
"Oho? What's this?"
"I'm not entirely sure either. She's wearing the academy uniform, but her skills are pretty pathetic. I figured I'd hand her over to you, Senior."
"Since the Princess's speech is almost over?"
"Yes."
I had summoned Rin to the roof using the communication artifact she gave me earlier. Instead of her usual rumpled, half-asleep look, she was dressed in a remarkably tidy suit. Even with the crisp tailoring, though, she looked less like a distinguished professor and more like an adult Cat Beastfolk playing dress-up. It was almost pitiful to watch. Then again, I probably looked just as ridiculous running around in this maid outfit, which promptly depressed me.
"Aaaaagh!!!"
"Hmm... She's a freshman, isn't she?" Rin mused, circling the girl.
"Is she?"
"Yeah, a commoner student. Hmm..."
"Aaargh... S-Stop twisting my arm, you crazy bitch!"
I kept up a steady rhythm of twisting, loosening, and re-twisting the seated suspect's arm as I chatted with Rin. We tossed a few options back and forth, but the conclusion was straightforward enough.
"Mmm... Should I just stash her in an abandoned storeroom?" Rin asked.
"Oh, really? That works?"
"Yeah. She's a freshman anyway. I can just make up an excuse that severe cramps kept her from attending the entrance ceremony. Nobody ever goes to the old storerooms anyway."
"Then I'll leave her to you, Senior. But she's taller than you—can you manage carrying her?" I asked, preparing to hand over the prisoner whose arm was still firmly locked in my grasp. Dragging an unconscious or struggling student from this rooftop all the way to a distant storeroom sounded like a chore, and in that suit, Rin gave off an overwhelmingly harmless vibe.
"Junior, I happen to be taller than you. Why wouldn't I be able to handle it?"
"Ah."
"If someone a whole ten centimeters shorter than me could subdue this pushover with zero trouble, why would it be hard for me?"
"...Ah."
Right. In my haste, I had momentarily forgotten that just because Rin was petite didn't mean I was tall. In fact, I was even shorter than she was. Even discounting the fluffy cat ears sitting atop her head, she still had me beat by a noticeable margin. A fresh wave of gloom washed over me.
"Anyway, I'll go shove this one in a warehouse, so go on and finish up your day."
"Understood, Senior. Thanks for taking care of it."
"Aaaagh...!?"
Leaving Rin to haul away the screaming suspect, I slipped off the roof and hurried back downstairs. By the time I reached the wings of the stage, Cecilia's speech was reaching its conclusion.
"Did you wait patiently?"
"Heheh, of course!"
Thank goodness. I managed to slip into the wings just seconds before Cecilia stepped down from the podium. A quiet sigh of relief escaped me; I was genuinely, profoundly grateful to Rin for showing up so promptly. If I hadn't been standing here when Cecilia walked off that stage, she would have unleashed an endless barrage of haughty teasing. She would have nagged me about how a mere maid dared to wander off while her master was occupied, pestering me for the rest of the day.
"So, how was my speech?" she asked, smoothing her skirt as she approached.
"...Pardon?"
"My speech. Surely you heard it clearly from back here? I improvised quite a bit of it. Well? What did you think?"
"Uh... Well, uh..."
I'm doomed.
I had bolted to the rooftop before she even opened her mouth, so naturally, I hadn't heard a single sentence. A few muffled syllables had filtered through the cracked glass, but hardly enough to piece together even a vague theme of what she'd talked about. Desperately wracking my brain for a halfway convincing answer, I forced a bright smile.
"I-It was wonderful...!"
"......."
What a pathetic excuse for a compliment.
"It was amazing! Truly fitting for, uh, Her Imperial Highness! I'm sure all the other students thought you were magnificent too...! P-Probably?"
That hollow scramble was the best I could muster. Vague, blanket flattery seemed infinitely safer than pretending to know specifics and getting exposed on the spot. So I laid it on thick, but no matter how I looked at it, I had botched this completely. Even to my own ears, it sounded unmistakably fake.
"Is that so? If that's what you thought, I suppose everyone else felt the same."
"Huh?"
"Shall we return to our seats?"
"Uh... yes...?"
Wait, what? Somehow... it actually worked? After all that panic, Cecilia simply let it slide without pressing the matter. Knowing her temperament, she should have latched onto such a wishy-washy answer and grilled me for details until I confessed my mind had wandered. Yet she dropped it without another word.
I couldn't wrap my head around it, but I was just thankful to have dodged the bullet. The way the corners of Cecilia's lips remained curled in a subtle, pleased smirk on our way back—and even after we took our seats—felt a little suspicious, but I decided to just keep quiet. Seeing her softer, sweeter side was completely foreign to me anyway, and poking the bear by questioning her mood might unleash the haughty princess again.
Even if her unusually docile, unbothered reaction made zero sense, I chose to hold my tongue and stay quiet.