Midterm Exams (11)
'How did she know that?'
"Airhead Lady. How on earth do you know that? Are you stalking me? Gross. Creepy."
"The rumor's already made the rounds, Lady Aln."
Rumors?
I was pretty sure I'd snuck out last night without a single soul noticing, so what exactly was going around?
When I tilted my head in confusion, Joy pressed a palm firmly against her brow.
"The dorm supervisor was apparently grumbling yesterday about how you'd vanished, my lady."
Oh. Right.
I did head out around dinnertime yesterday, so of course the dorm supervisor noticed I was gone.
So that was the seed from which the rumor sprouted.
No big deal, though.
The supervisor might nag me a bit, but that'd be the end of it. Nobody could actually do anything to me, the daughter of a Count.
Even if she tried to punish me, one recitation of the various incidents I've caused around the Academy would shut the whole thing down.
After all, the troubles I've been through weren't exactly one or two in number.
I've earned the right to this!
Does she have any idea how hard I've worked to talk Benedict out of storming into the Academy?
When I nearly died to Nakrad, he actually told me I didn't need to graduate from some Academy and that I should just come home!
I barely managed to talk him down because I still had things I needed to do here — but the price was that nowadays he contacts me through a crystal ball every single day.
Dealing with a clingy, gross old man who keeps hanging on going "just a little longer on the call" is genuinely exhausting. Truly.
"That's not all. This morning, someone claims they saw you sprinting toward the Academy from the back alleys. And there's no shortage of students who swear you took your exams in armor still streaked with afterimages of movement. Anyone can tell you weren't in your dorm last night, Lady Aln."
Under the deadpan recitation of facts, I couldn't bring myself to open my mouth.
Which meant everyone at the Academy already knew I hadn't been in my dorm last night.
Haah. What bizarre rumor was going to spread this time?
The people of this Academy were exactly the type to pounce and start tearing into you the moment you tossed them prey.
Watching them compete so honestly through incitement and fabrication honestly left me wondering how I was supposed to respond.
Though lately Joy or Arthur would cut in halfway, so it was less relentless than it used to be.
"So answer me, then. What were you doing yesterday?"
How was I supposed to explain this?
I went and stopped a disaster that was going to strike the Academy's exams?
That sounded completely insane, so scratch that.
I went to help a friend?
Other than Joy, I don't exactly have friends, do I.
Pass on that one too.
I went to make a deal with people from the otherworld?
That one would only throw gasoline on the fire of weird rumors, so no.
As I was racking my brain trying to spin up something plausible, Joy let out a sigh.
"Is it hard to tell me?"
Hard wasn't quite the word.
More like — even if I told her, she wouldn't believe what I actually did.
How exactly was I supposed to make a convincing case that I'd cleared a dungeon an Apostle of the Evil God built specifically to wreck the Academy's exams?
Unless someone had watched the whole thing with their own eyes, they'd write it off as nonsense, obviously.
"Then let me ask it this way. It wasn't anything bad, was it?"
'Of course it wasn't!'
"I'm not some scary person like you, Airhead Lady. Obviously it wasn't bad."
"That's good enough for me."
I'd been bracing for her to press further, but Joy backed off more readily than I expected.
"You're not the type to waste your time on worthless things, so I trust you. But next time you go off to do something, at least tell me before you go, okay? I was worried sick about you."
The moment I saw Joy's face, smiling with a casual shrug of her shoulders, I seriously felt like I might cry.
Joy! That's cheating!
My favorite character just worried about me!
Sob! This is too much! What do I do?
Can I record what she just said?
Is it impossible to pin it to the very top of my log and preserve it for all eternity?
Inside, I was flailing into a full-blown frenzy — but the reaction that actually surfaced on the outside was cool and aloof.
The Mesugaki Skill must have decided that kind of gushing didn't suit a mesugaki.
I wanted to throw my arms around Joy and bounce up and down squealing, but the action the Mesugaki Skill chose for me was entirely different.
It moved only my hand and the corner of my mouth.
A gesture pretending to hide a smirk, and a thoroughly smug curl of the lips.
'Thank you so much, Joy!'
"Hmhm. You were worried? It couldn't be that you got anxious because there's nobody around to protect a cowardly little loser like the Airhead Lady, hmm?"
"I'm not quite that much of a scaredy-cat."
Joy glanced at me acting the same as ever, seemed relieved, gave another light shrug, and turned back toward the group of other noble girls.
I'd wondered why Joy — who had cleared the Academy Dungeon with me and had no reason to take the exam — was even here. Turns out she'd been giving advice to the other young ladies.
Seriously, a genuinely kind person underneath a very different appearance.
Well, Joy's gone now. Time to get started on what I came here to do.
'Grandpa.'
"I was already scanning. Give me a moment."
According to the game's story, the student who used the magic tool wasn't caught at the time.
Partly because the chaos that erupted right afterward erased all traces of its use, but the fundamental problem was that the tool itself carried an Evil God's power, making it nearly impossible to detect.
But I had a way to find her.
After all, I had Halbae-mon — a mace that doubled as a high-performance sensor.
This was the guy who, in the dungeon, picked up everything from traces of the nearest monsters to ones leagues away.
When it came to anything involving magic, his nose was sharper than anyone's. Finding where a magic tool had been used wouldn't be difficult for him at all.
My prediction wasn't wrong.
"Northeast of where you're standing. The girl you knocked over before. Do you see her?"
Before long, Grandpa had located the traces of the magic tool's use.
I turned my gaze in the direction he'd indicated and spotted a young lady standing behind a tree, staring down at a black stone with a bewildered expression.
Oh, I remember that girl.
She was the one who blocked my path back when I was heading to the infirmary to see Joy.
Her name was... what was it again?
All I remember is that she was the one leading the pack of noble girls around Joy.
What did the Mesugaki Skill call her?
Can't remember that either.
Hmmm. Whatever, doesn't matter.
What mattered right now was that I'd gotten my hands on the weakness of a young lady who loathed me and had spread all sorts of nasty rumors about me.
Watching her furrowed brow, I felt all the exhaustion piled up in my body melt away on the spot.
My lips were already twitching beyond my control.
Now, how should I lord it over her?
I could commit mesugaki crimes with zero guilt here, after all.
Mesugaki Skill.
Just for this one moment, I'll unhook the chains from around your neck.
Go on. Do whatever your heart desires.
As a test, shall we try out the word you'll be spitting out the most?
"Lo~ser♡"
Preparation: perfect.
Alright. Let's go.
Off to torment that young lady, armed with flawless reasoning and justification.
*
Dammit. Why isn't it working?
She said if I channeled mana into this stone, it would cause chaos big enough that even I would notice.
And that in the middle of that chaos, Lucy Aln would get hurt!
So why is nothing happening?
I'm pouring mana in right now!
Work! Work, damn you!
Hurry up and punish that insufferable wretch Lucy Aln!
It's an Evil God, isn't it? It should at least manage that much!
"Hey."
Avery, who had been cursing at the black stone in her head, flinched at the voice behind her and hurriedly hid it.
"Scrub Lady♡ What are you doing lurking around here all gloomy♡ Decided to start acting like your face looks?♡"
The moment that ear-piercing, insufferable giggle reached her, Avery knew who had come to find her without even turning her head.
"Lady Aln."
The person she despised most in the world.
The wench who had stolen away the person she loved and admired most.
Avery raised her head, bit her lip at the mirthful eyes looking down at her from above, and spoke.
"What business do you have with me?"
"Just wondering what you're up to all alone?♡ Oh! Did you decide to socially ostracize the whole Academy by yourself?♡ Fits you perfectly~!♡"
Every single word that spilled out of Lucy Aln's mouth made something deep in her chest clench and twist — but Avery fought hard to smother it.
Lady Partran was here right now. If she saw me screaming at Lucy Aln, she'd surely be displeased.
I can't let that happen.
I don't want that person to hate me.
"Ha. You've got it backwards. That describes you, the loner with not a single friend."
"Nope? I've got friends, you know?"
"More lies."
"Joy absolutely adores me♡ Mm?♡ Unlike a gloomy creature like you♡"
"That's all because of you—!"
The instant Avery's boiling fury burst out and she raised her voice, Lucy Aln shot out a hand and clamped it over her mouth.
Avery desperately tried to pry it away, but it was impossible.
How could Avery, a magic student-in-training, ever overpower the sheer strength of Lucy Aln, who had trained relentlessly on the path to knighthood?
Lucy, catching sight of Avery's stunned, glaring eyes, wore the most infuriating smile she'd ever managed.
"Calm down, Scrub Lady♡ Want to advertise to the whole world that you're a scrub who worships a filthy garbage Evil God? Attention-seeking much? Gross~♡"
How does she know.
As Avery's eyes darted about in a wild panic, snickering laughter trickled from Lucy's lips.
No. It can't be.
It was just a shot in the dark. How could a little brat like Lucy Aln detect this magic tool when even the Academy's professors couldn't?
"Did you think I wouldn't find out?♡ That stone. The Bluffing Beanpole gave it to you, didn't he. Ah~ still in denial, are we?♡ Very fitting for a scrub lady who crawled under an Evil God's wing♡ You really are an idiot, you know that?♡"
Bluffing Beanpole.
Even though no name had been spoken, Avery somehow knew exactly who she meant.
The man who had pressed the black stone into her hands.
The man who had asked her to call him Darkness.
The one who had handed her that stone along with all manner of information.
Lucy Aln hadn't brought it up on a whim just to threaten her.
She had known everything, and come to Avery with complete certainty.
"Is your brain even working?♡ Scrub Lady?♡"
You're hooked on the line right now.
Even after Lucy Aln released her mouth, Avery couldn't get a single word out.
She couldn't afford to.
Still a student, yes, but Avery was a noblewoman who had long moved through high society.
At the very least, she possessed a minimal instinct for politics.
And in this moment,
having been caught red-handed with a weakness she absolutely must not let this person seize, Avery had no choice but to submit.
Otherwise, the person standing before her —
this girl, known to be on friendly terms with the Church of the Main God, would simply flash that infuriating smile as always and hoist Avery onto a pyre.
"Shall we go somewhere we can ta~lk in private? Somewhere it's fine even if a pig goes oink oink♡"
"...Yes."
The only thing permitted to Avery was the simple act of nodding her head.