Finding the Answer
Let's organize the information I've gathered so far about Clafoutis Magica. If Keres would just help me, I wouldn't have to go through all this trouble. But to borrow her power, I have to complete her trial, and most unfortunately, I still have absolutely no idea what that trial even is.
"H-Huu..."
Taking a spoonful of the warm mushroom soup, I felt my brain finally starting to work. Although the cafeteria was noisy with students, no one dared to come near me, so there was no one to directly disturb my peace. I could concentrate perfectly.
"Clafoutis Magica... Third-year in the High School division... Eldest daughter of the Queen of Magica..."
She was a mage of such incredible skill that she had even received an invitation from the Magic Tower, and a young lady with an exceptionally good reputation within the Academy. She was also someone who had been involved in a truly horrific incident with the original Ramnusia Yuno in the past. Clafoutis undoubtedly harbored a deep grudge against Ramnusia. After all, Ramnusia had dragged her to the Black Magic Classroom, stripped her naked in front of the other noble girls, and punished her. To think she wouldn't hold a grudge would be pure delusion.
"T-The problem is..."
There was nothing after that. I had no way of knowing if Clafoutis still harbored a grudge against me now. An even more miserable and tragic fact was that, aside from Clafoutis Magica, I didn't even know the names of Helene's other 'friends'. I had definitely heard some talk about a handsome prince this, and a sister that, but that was it! Even if Ramnusia Yuno wanted to ask, "Who are Her Imperial Highness Helene's friends?" there was no way for her to gather such information. That was why I needed Keres's help, damn it! But at this rate, I'd just end up blocked again by Keres's riddle-filled trial, which didn't come with a single hint...
"Ah! Senior Clafoutis!"
"Senior! The summoning magic you showed us in today's practical class was absolutely amazing!"
The cafeteria grew strangely noisy, prompting me to turn my head. There, I saw Clafoutis surrounded by a crowd of young ladies. Our illustrious senior, her shimmering blue hair swaying as she walked, was busy making her way through the cafeteria with a bright, beautiful smile.
"If you all dedicate yourselves to your studies, you will soon be able to cast magic of that level as well, indeed."
"Senior! You're not going to the Magic Tower, right? The mages there are seriously so arrogant!"
"Lady Clafoutis! If you're free, would you like to join our club for tea today? It would be wonderful!"
"Thank you all for your kind words, indeed. However, today I intend to simply enjoy the food prepared here in the cafeteria, I assure you."
"Ah~! Senior Clafoutis! If you don't mind, may I eat with you?"
"Ahem! Clafoutis! About the promise we made last time..."
Was it because she was close to the dazzling Helene that only equally brilliant stars gathered around her? Clafoutis Magica was such an incredible presence that the moment she stepped into the cafeteria, countless young ladies and gentlemen swarmed her. Watching that scene only made my head throb even more. What on earth was the past Ramnusia thinking when she accidentally—
"Ugh, hot...!"
"Bwahaha!! Sorry, Ramnusia! The tomato soup was hotter than I thought!"
The one who had just dumped tomato soup all over my head was Aria. I was pretty sure Princess Helene had warned everyone not to bully me anymore?!
"What is the meaning of..."
"Ah~! Don't be like that, Ramnusia. Sorry, sorry... I really burned my hand because the tomato soup was too hot, that's why."
Aria giggled. The girls behind her sneered at me too. Aria even pulled a handkerchief from her breast pocket and rubbed it against my face. Sure, sure, of course this wasn't an accident. Pretending to wipe my face, Aria smeared the soup all over my skin and even shoved it down my cleavage.
"Pfft... Look at Ramnusia."
"Getting picked on by Aria like an idiot again."
The other students sitting in the cafeteria laughed at my pathetic state. It was a familiar pattern.
"Sorry, Ramnusia... If I knew how to use magic, I would have cleaned you up in an instant."
"A-Aria..."
What should I do with Aria? Should I run to the restroom, and if she follows me, force her to walk down the hallway completely naked? Honestly, that seemed like a perfectly reasonable punishment!
"Indeed. If one can use magic, a little tomato soup is nothing."
"Huh, Laura?"
Laura, speaking in a sharp, sassy voice, smiled brightly and flicked her finger toward me. And, unbelievably, the tomato soup that had made a mess of my hair and clothes vanished in an instant.
"What... are you doing, Laura?" Aria asked, furrowing her brow in disbelief.
"Ramnusia got dirty, so I used magic to clean her up."
"I'm not stupid enough to not realize that. Why are you helping someone like Ramnusia?"
"What on earth... are you talking about, Aria? Ramnusia is a far more noble existence than you." Laura sat down next to me as she continued speaking.
"Of course, as merely the forty-first flower of His Imperial Majesty, there's no way you would understand this excellence."
"What kind of stupid nonsense is that?! Ramnusia is just Ramnusia! She's filthy! Creepy! Annoying!"
"Ah... is that so? Not in my eyes. Ramnusia possesses a nobility worthy of sharing a dining table with me, Aria." Laura lightly picked up her knife and fork, shrugging her shoulders.
"Unbelievable... You're actually going to eat with a disgusting creature like Ramnusia?"
"Yes, I am. So stop barking and get lost, Aria. You smell like sweat."
"Ha! The only one who smells is you, eating with a pervert like Ramnusia! Laura!"
Aria growled, but unable to overcome Laura's overflowing sass, she fled the cafeteria with the girls standing behind her.
No, wait, what just happened? Laura helped me? Why?
"L-L-Laura... why did you..."
"Because you are a flower blooming in His Imperial Majesty's garden. The order of succession doesn't matter." Laura held her fork and lightly sliced a well-cooked piece of meat.
"No matter how much those idiots bark... Ramnusia and I are superior, noble beings who inherit the blood of His Imperial Majesty. We are fundamentally different from the trash who make up half of this Academy and don't share that blood."
Ah, as expected, this wasn't an act of pure goodwill. She was still a total pain and had some seriously twisted ideas.
"And besides... it just doesn't make sense to me. If you're going to bully someone, shouldn't there be a reason?"
"Uh, um... yes?"
"Ramnusia... *sniff*... smells? Not at all. They say you smell like a wet rag, but even as a metaphor, that makes no sense. You just smell like the ordinary perfume used in the Hollympia region of the Capital." Laura fanned the air with her hand.
"Anyway... I have no intention of participating in such childish, idiotic pranks. Ramnusia, you should also behave properly so that those bloodless trash never look down on you again."
"Y-Yes..."
Should I be happy about this? Is Laura on my side? In the first place! Did this happen just because I pulled out a framed picture with text in that memory world yesterday? Did the bullying against me just vanish like magic, poof? Ha! Well, of course it's possible! Because it's magic! In fact, because of the New Order magic I cast on her, Laura masturbates every single day and is in a state where she will grant any wish of mine!
"Um... L-Laura... there's this homework that Teacher Hecate gave us."
"Homework? Was there any?"
"Ah, well, because I... have a failing grade..."
Laura glanced at me for a moment, then let out a snicker.
"Well, I'll give you credit for asking for advice to solve your problem instead of just moping around like a stupid, dull idiot. What's the issue?"
How annoying. Next time I drag her to my room, I'm going to strip her completely naked, make her squat, and force her to drink tea with me. Or maybe I should order her not to climax in front of me and command her to keep masturbating continuously? It would be hilarious to watch her suffer from being unable to reach the end.
"Ramnusia? Why are you grinning like an idiot?"
"Ah, n-no. Well, you see... does a magic that can make the entire world hate a single person... e-exist?"
"No. No such magic exists." Laura answered instantly.
"B-But! What if it's actually, truly w-working that way?"
"Ah... Ramnusia. That's a delusion. Magic doesn't work like that. Look."
Laura pointed her finger at my mushroom soup, creating a tiny shard of ice and shooting it in. "It's possible to make the soup cold. But there is no magic that makes hot soup merely feel cold."
"B-But if you use magic to make us perceive the soup that way, we could easily feel it as cold...!"
"See! Ramnusia, you said it yourself. You're casting the magic to make the soup feel cold on us, right? Not on the soup itself? Now! The 'magic that makes people hate someone' you mentioned is exactly the same. It's not cast on that person, but on the people who feel that emotion." Laura lightly pointed her finger at me, then at herself.
"T-T-Then, Laura... is it possible to cast s-such magic on countless people at the same time? You'd have to concentrate, right? And what about the mana?"
"Did you sleep through magic theory class?" Laura traced her finger on the white table, drawing a magic circle.
"Here, we have cold soup, Ramnusia."
"Y-Yes, I see it."
"And here is cold water. If they enter this magic circle... see how they start bubbling and boiling?" Laura demonstrated by placing the soup and the cup on the magic circle one by one. The soup became hot when placed on it, but returned to normal once removed.
"Even though I didn't cast magic on the soup and the cup directly, they heated up on their own, right?"
"C-Can mental magic be cast through a magic circle like this too?"
"Of course. The magic formula would be extremely complex and difficult, but it's entirely possible."
"T-Then! Laura! Is it possible to make a magic circle that can affect every single student in this Academy?"
Laura looked at me for a moment, flicked her finger to cool her cup, and took a sip. "Poor Ramnusia... I don't know why, but there is definitely a reason why the trash of this Academy look down on you—"
"I have a wish: please shut up and answer my question, Laura."
"Ah, okay! Okay! Ramnusia. Of course... theoretically, it's possible." Laura looked at me with an incredibly pitiful and sorrowful expression as she spoke.
"Only theoretically?"
"Of course. Do you know how vast the land this Academy is built on is, Ramnusia? It's huge enough to rival an average earldom. A magic circle that can exert influence over this entire area?"
Snorting, Laura pointed her finger toward Clafoutis, who was chatting in the corner of the cafeteria. "Even Senior Clafoutis couldn't make one. Even the one hailed as a genius can't do it!"
"B-But! The fact that it's theoretically possible means...!"
"Did you know, Ramnusia? A very long time ago... there was a legendary mage named 'Oracle' who showed the 'future' to the Emperors." Laura took my hand.
"An Oracle... who showed the future?"
"They say that Oracle was an incredible mage. Honestly, I think it's a lie. This legend is a thousand years old... an ancient story from around then."
"Why are you telling me this..."
"Because it's bullshit, Ramnusia... Think about it! Only a mage on the level of that legendary 'Oracle' could construct such a magic circle. Good grief! Why would a mage with such immense power do nothing but spread bad rumors about Ramnusia? Why? Why would they do something so stupid?"
Laura snorted and shook her head. Logically speaking, as painful as it was, Laura was right.
"...What if there is a reason?"
"No such reason exists, Ramnusia. I'm sorry."
"H-How would you feel, Laura... if everyone in the Academy suddenly pointed fingers at you, called you filthy, and refused to even speak to you?"
At my question, Laura's fingers twitched slightly.
"It would be absolutely horrific. Honestly... putting aside whether such bullying is even possible, if it actually happened, it would be incredibly, incredibly hard."
"W-Wouldn't it be so hard that you'd even think about suicide?"
"...I suppose I'd feel like I didn't want to live anymore. Suicide... yes. If it went on for years instead of just a day or two, anyone would want to make such an extreme choice."
As Laura spoke, she suddenly furrowed her brows, pulled me closer by my waist, and pressed her lips to my ear.
"Ramnusia, don't tell me... are you suggesting that someone built such an impossibly massive magic circle just to drive you to 'suicide'?"
Hearing those words made my heart throb dangerously. A chill ran down my spine, and my mouth went completely dry.
"I told you, that's impossible! Ramnusia!"
"But what if that was the actual result?"
"You're alive!!"
Laura didn't know. The original Ramnusia Yuno had committed suicide. She had died, coughing up torrents of blood from her throat. She had sacrificed herself atop a massive magic circle, and then I possessed her body. In other words, the result 'someone' had desired had already been achieved. It was just that the only ones who knew this truth were Keres and me.
"L-Laura! The magic circle you showed me earlier! The one that heats things up! Can you exclude my hand from it?"
"Huh? What do you mean..."
"I mean! If you put a cup or soup on it, it gets hot, right? If I put my hand on it, my hand would get burned too, wouldn't it? But no mage would install a magic circle under their own feet that burns their own body!"
"...Of course. You can exclude targets. Anyone can do that unless they're a brain-dead mage."
Only after hearing Laura's words could I finally feel certain, my heart pounding in my chest.
Clafoutis Magica, sitting in the corner of the cafeteria with a bright smile. That young lady had smiled warmly and spoken to me in the infirmary. Without any prejudice, without even uttering the common phrase, "How typical of Ramnusia."
She has a grudge... she has the skill... she is unaffected by the magic circle... and...
Even Keres's trial. Every single piece of evidence pointed to the answer. I had some unfinished business to settle with Clafoutis Magica.