Chapter 163: Dragon's Eye, Human Heart (27)
Chapter 163: Dragon's Eye, Human Heart (27)
Senior Neris’s body crumbled and dispersed.
It was a peculiar stealth technique, as if she were melting into the shadows. With my permission, Neris took her leave.
I had already gathered most of the information I needed.
Of course, I hadn't heard the story regarding the 'Dragon's Eye' yet. However, that could wait until I received the additional investigation results concerning the 'Cave.'
The most crucial piece of information was exactly when the incident would occur.
The 'Homecoming Festival' was an event less than a week away. In other words, there was very little time left.
Now that the date was specified, it was time to start preparing.
The procession of the Homecoming Festival involved a massive parade. It was only logical to assume that the Dark Cult would deploy a matching force of demonic beasts to oppose it.
The larger the scale of the two clashing forces, the higher the casualties would inevitably be.
At this point, it was impossible to cancel the Homecoming Festival or preemptively block the ambush. That left only one answer.
To minimize damage, I had to mobilize as much power as possible and bolster the procession's escort.
The problem was that I had neither the authority to do so nor a rational basis to make the Academy accept my suggestion.
It was a predicament.
A groan escaped my lips involuntarily.
It wasn't as if I always moved with a clear answer in mind, but it was always frustrating whenever I faced a situation where I might have to watch a disaster unfold with my eyes wide open.
Nevertheless, I decided to push those worries to a corner of my mind for now.
Worrying wouldn't bring a solution right this moment, and I had one more immediate task left to handle.
After a brief silence, my eyes drifted to the side.
Two women were standing there.
A girl with dark blue hair like the night sky and pale gray eyes—the 5th Princess, Cien.
And a female knight who appeared to be the Princess's guard. She was also a beauty, with striking, mysterious blue hair.
When our eyes met, their reactions were distinct.
Cien stiffened for a moment before glaring at me with eyes that had turned cold as ice.
On the other hand, the female knight couldn't even meet my gaze, biting her lip instead. It seemed her memory of being defeated by my 'future self' remained a bitter one.
Then again, a member of the Imperial Guard Knight Order being suppressed by a mere Academy student...
It wouldn't be strange if she had become a laughingstock.
Even at a glance, her self-esteem seemed to have plummeted. I wanted to offer some words of comfort, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.
While I considered myself a separate entity from my 'future self,' it was obvious she wouldn't see it that way.
Thus, the only thing that came out of my mouth was a dry question.
"……Is there something you need?"
Hearing my voice, Cien scrutinized my face.
Her eyes widened slightly as if in surprise, but she quickly countered with a chilling tone.
"Are you really unfazed after hacking into a frail woman's shoulder?"
I couldn't help but let out a hollow chuckle at her words.
The Imperial Intelligence Agency was a mass of secrets in itself. Stealth and infiltration missions were part of their daily routine.
Being tortured, or undergoing torture resistance training in preparation for the worst, was mandatory.
Of course, thinking back to the raid on the Newspaper Club made me a bit uneasy. Didn't every single club member scream whenever their joints were crushed?
It wasn't the kind of behavior one would expect from proper intelligence agents.
However, even trainees should have some resistance to something as minor as a skin laceration.
If the scream that escaped Senior Neris’s lips wasn't an act but genuine, it meant she hadn't completed any torture resistance training at the Imperial Intelligence Agency.
An Imperial Intelligence agent who gets caught because they scream after being pricked by a thorn during an infiltration?
That was absurd. As I thought that, my smile vanished at a chilling sense of dissonance.
Torture and screams.
Something felt like it was snagging in my brain. That unpleasant sensation, as if the flow of my thoughts was being split by a single stone.
But the Princess's cold gaze was too intense for me to remain lost in thought.
I spoke as if it were nothing.
"There are royals who bully the second son of a rural viscount, so what does it matter?"
"You're the one who insulted me first...!"
Her trembling voice bore witness to her fury.
True to her reputation as the hidden flower of the Imperial Household, she was beautiful even in her anger, but it didn't move me much.
It was because I had been surrounded by so many beauties lately.
Starting from Celine, to Seria, the Saintess, Senior Elsie, Senior Delphine, and even Emma.
Every one of them possessed rare, breathtaking beauty.
While that didn't diminish the Princess's own beauty, my heart had already been tempered enough to remain steady.
The Princess's brow furrowed further at my indifferent reaction. She questioned me.
"……Just whose support are you receiving? A Prince? Or a Princess? Which one is backing you to make you so overconfident?"
"It's no one... I did this on my own."
Since there wasn't a shred of a lie in my answer, the suspicion in the Princess's eyes deepened.
It was only natural, as there was no Prince or Princess backing me.
If I had to pick someone, the Emperor might count as my backer since I had inherited the Dragon Blood Runes. But since that was something that happened to my 'future self,' it wasn't a fact I could reveal to the Princess at this point.
I began to walk away slowly.
It was time to head back. I had no particular business with the Princess or her guard.
There were too many things I needed to handle immediately.
If I wanted to spill even a drop less blood during the Homecoming Festival, I had to start moving now.
However, leaving without a word felt a bit off, so I stopped as I passed by the Princess.
"……You should be careful from now on."
My whispered words might have sounded like a sudden provocation.
In fact, you could say I wanted her to take it that way. The more the Princess's guard was raised, the more likely her protection would be bolstered.
As of now, the Princess was a top-priority target for protection.
My future self had gone out of his way to splash holy water on her. My future personality might have a foul temper, but he wasn't the type to provoke someone without a reason.
In other words, there was a purpose behind it.
I decided to respect his judgment. That was why I chose to provoke the Princess once more.
As expected, the effect was outstanding.
"Who... do you think you are?"
Her voice was clipped.
She seemed strangely agitated.
A faint glow began to shimmer in Cien's pale gray eyes. It was a subtle change, but I could see it upon closer inspection.
Her pupils were vertically elongating.
"Who do you think you are... to sincerely worry about me and give me advice? I am a Princess of the Empire! I am not someone to be pitied by the likes of a rural viscount's second son!"
Her burning gaze glared at me as if she wanted to kill me. If emotions had physical force, my face would have been covered in scratches by now.
"……Do I really look that weak to you?"
The question she spat out while trembling was laced with raw emotion. It seemed my words had struck a nerve in her fragile spots.
That was why she was curling up and raising her thorns like this.
Without realizing that doing so only made her look even more vulnerable.
The Princess couldn't control her escalating emotions.
Her agitation, which started as a slight tremor, gradually intensified until it reached a peak, at which point she ironically became calm.
Her cold eyes turned toward me.
It was a gaze devoid of all emotion. Her retinas reflected nothing, to the point where it felt like she was staring at something far away.
The Princess merely offered a heatless smile.
"You think the Academy is your world now just because you got one over on me? You're wrong... the real world is outside."
She took a step closer, almost pressing against me.
A sweet scent tickled the tip of my nose. With a gaze as poisonous as it was deep, the Princess looked up at me.
She was captivating yet lethal.
"Your younger sister is quite pretty. Her future looks bright, doesn't it?"
It was a mocking whisper.
With a faint smile, the Princess continued to move her lips.
"It's not just your sister. All those people you're connected to... just wait and see what kind of state they'll be in outside the Academy. I'll make you pay for daring to look down on me... Though, well, maybe it won't be so bad for your sister?"
A giggling laugh escaped the girl's mouth.
"As long as she has a pretty face, she won't have to worry about making a living. Even if she's from a noble family, she'd be welcomed in the brothels—"
I let out a deep sigh.
"……Princess."
At my nonchalant voice, it was the Princess who became flustered.
She frowned slightly with a look of bewilderment.
I stared at the Princess in silence for a while.
My gaze was one that could be described as either pitying or sorrowful.
I parted my lips to say something, but in the end, I gave up on the conversation.
At that moment, as the hostility in the Princess's eyes intensified even further—
My hand moved toward my waist, and the eyes of the female knight standing beside the Princess snapped wide open.
Then, a flash of light fell.
Toward the Princess's shoulder, the blade of an axe.
Cien's eyes went blank.