A Fish on the Hook
The private rooms of the academy existed for students who needed space for personal matters.
Inside one of them, Avery sat staring at her own two hands.
Being entangled with an evil god was never a light matter.
The nations of the continent and the Church had once been made to suffer through an outbreak of evil-god worship, and to this day they despised anything connected to the dark deities with a venom that bordered on the fanatical.
Raised as a noble daughter, Avery had been warned of it over and over again throughout her education.
Which meant she knew all too well what fate befell those associated with an evil god.
Her sins were not something she could bear alone.
If Lucy Aln reported her connection to the evil god to the Church of the Main God, the Church would seize her on the spot.
They would wring the truth from her lips by any means they pleased, and after that, Avery's head would find its way to the executioner's block.
The real problem was that the story wouldn't end there.
The stain of Avery's crime would spread outward to her entire family.
The daughter of the house had been corrupted by an evil god — so every member of her household would fall under suspicion, subjected to exhaustive investigation by both Church and state.
Of course, Avery's family was guilty of nothing.
This was the work of one foolish girl named Avery and no one else.
But would the Church believe that? Would the Crown?
Wouldn't it be easier to invent sins that didn't exist and punish the whole family as an example to the rest?
Even if her family's innocence were proven in the end, they would still have lost the glory of their past.
Why did I do it?
Why did I grab that magic tool — the one tied to the evil god — like something had possessed me?
Even if she hated Lucy Aln, there had been a hundred ways to punish her that wouldn't burn her own family to the ground.
Why did I swallow, hook, line, and sinker, everything that dark figure told me?
Why did I let his pretty assurances that I could never be caught lead me by the ear?
Why did I decide that as long as Lucy Aln suffered, it didn't matter what happened to anyone else?
Why.
Regret filled her now, but regret changed nothing. The magic tool she had been holding mere moments ago did not vanish because she was sorry.
No excuse she could offer would alter the facts — she had wielded an evil god's magic tool, and worse, she had been caught doing it.
Even if nothing happened today, the moment Lucy Aln opened her mouth to the Church, every horror Avery had imagined would become reality.
It was just as Lucy Aln had said.
She was a fish snagged on a hook, an animal with a collar around its neck.
All Avery could do now was cling to Lucy Aln's mercy.
"Hey there, scrub lady♡"
At the sound of her name, Avery slowly lifted her head.
Across the table, Lucy Aln sat with her legs crossed, her expression exactly as it always was.
The same grating little smile.
The same mischievous glint at the corners of her eyes.
Which made it impossible to guess what was going on behind them.
But knowing Lucy Aln's history, Avery could only assume that whatever came out of that mouth would be anything but kind.
Maybe all of this is pointless.
Maybe Lucy Aln plans to play with me as long as it amuses her, then toss me straight to the Church.
More likely than not, that's exactly what she'll do.
And then she'll smile as she watches the despair on my face.
The Lucy Aln Avery knew was absolutely capable of it.
"Even a pathetic little piggy knows exactly what kind of trouble she's in, right?♡"
"...Yes."
"Then give me a little oink."
It was humiliating. It was degrading. But Avery had no other choice.
She knew exactly what would unfold the instant Lucy Aln snapped her fingers. She was already, for all practical purposes, Lucy Aln's slave.
"...Oink."
Her lips trembling, Avery let out the sound — and laughter exploded out of Lucy Aln.
The roar of laughter and the applause that followed, as if applauding a performer, turned Avery's face crimson, but Lucy couldn't have cared less.
Only after filling the private room with laughter for a long while did Lucy finally compose herself, wiping the tears gathered at the corners of her eyes as she spoke.
"Pfftha-hah♡ Wow, scrub lady♡ Are you stupid?♡ I said make a crying sound, not do a pig impression♡ That was me asking you to explain what you're worth, remember?"
"You get called a pig so long you actually turn into one, huh? Do pigs' brains go too?"
Lucy cackled, and Avery's hands clenched white-knuckled into her skirt.
"Aha-ha♡ Good♡ I like it♡"
Lucy rose from her seat, the patter of her tiny feet filling the room as she strolled over to Avery's side.
Then, looking down at her from above, she spoke almost in a whisper.
"I'll let you live. For now. But you know what? I'm a reeeally capricious person? Kinda like our pathetic little piggy lady's fiery temper, if you get me."
Avery was no genius.
But she wasn't a complete fool either.
If her mind were truly lacking, she never would have been accepted into the academy at all.
Which was precisely why she understood perfectly what that laugh meant, ringing so close to her ear.
From this moment on, Avery existed to fulfill whatever Lucy Aln wanted.
Without being told, she was to become an instrument that carried out her will.
Because if she didn't, Lucy Aln would walk, light-footed, straight to the Church — and blow Avery's life away like a candle.
If the person standing before her now had been anyone ordinary, Avery might have tried to bluff her way through.
Can you really shoulder it? she might have sneered. The death of a person. The erasure of a family's entire history?
But the one threatening her was Lucy Aln.
The madwoman who couldn't give a damn about anyone else's feelings, so long as her own amusement was served.
"Understood?♡ Hm?♡ Answer me♡ You pathetic little piggy♡ What, can't even oink on command anymore?♡"
"No! I mean yes! I understand! I'll do anything. Everything you want."
So please, spare me.
If it's your command, I'll do anything at all.
Please. Just let me live. Let my family survive.
Even as Avery prayed, Lucy Aln simply smiled.
Watching the scrub lady tremble like a leaf in sheer terror left my head a mess.
Threatening her had been the plan, and I had carried it out, but I hadn't expected her to be this scared.
Think about it rationally and the answer was obvious, though.
There was no way a girl who'd once felt the weight of killing a single orc could shoulder the weight of a person's life and a family's entire legacy on those little shoulders.
This was me, after all — the girl who couldn't even give Vishy a flat no when she asked for a favor, and ended up agonizing over whether I'd have to risk my neck for it.
If Avery had come back at me with something like, "If you're so tough, why don't you go ahead and report me?" I would've been in serious trouble.
Thank the gods.
Thank the gods Avery was a coward.
And thanks to that, the threat landed perfectly.
Maybe my reputation would actually start improving from here on out?
Joy and Arthur had been quietly correcting all the rumors about me already, and now Avery — who personally led a whole circle of noble daughters — would be singing nothing but my praises.
The misunderstandings born of the Mesugaki skill's distortion were beyond my control, but the flat-out slander was about to disappear almost entirely.
And keeping Avery under my thumb had more advantages than just that.
I was going to leave her alone — no, I was going to order her — to keep her connection with Nakrad alive.
That would make it far easier to sabotage whatever little prank that lanky scrub tried to pull next.
As long as she performed those two duties faithfully, I'd have no reason to threaten her again.
And judging by how terrified she was right now, she'd do it all on her own without me having to spell it out.
'Then I'll be going now, my lady.'
"Alright, that's enough of that. Off I go, scrub lady. Do be a dear and crawl along nicely, won't you? Like a piggy should."
"Y... Yes! Understood!"
Leaving Avery behind, still barking her answers at full attention, I stepped out of the private room and headed straight for the dining hall.
I hadn't eaten a thing since last night's dinner, and my stomach had graduated from hungry to outright painful.
No idea what was on the menu today, but the plan was to order something delicious, head back to the dorm, and dive face-first into my bed.
After suffering through yesterday from dawn to dusk, today — just today — I was skipping training and resting properly.
I was tired enough that half my brain had already checked out; I'd sleep like the dead for sure.
Four days had passed since the end of the midterm exams.
Arthur was on his way to the academy's central plaza early in the morning.
Ordinarily this hour was for shaking off sleep with a light conditioning routine, but today was the exception.
Today was the day the fruits of roughly two months of effort since his enrollment at Soul Academy would finally be laid bare.
The day of the midterm exam results.
Arthur had never once doubted his own standing since he was a child. But today was different.
As he walked to see the rankings, his heart was, undeniably, pounding.
The reason was simple.
Before now, no mind had ever existed that could surpass his. But that was no longer true, was it?
The one who had dragged him down from the highest seat.
The one who, among all the countless stars shining on this continent, was surely the brightest of them all.
Lucy Aln.
"Your Highness."
"Oh. Airhead Lady. On your way to gawk at the results as well?"
Running into Joy by chance on the path to the plaza, Arthur greeted her with the nickname that had recently taken up permanent residence in his mouth.
"Yes. I wanted to check before morning training."
At first Joy had practically convulsed at being called Airhead Lady, but lately she seemed to have grown numb to it as well.
Soon enough, he suspected, she'd react to it the same as her own name.
Hmm. No fun in that.
The early outrage had been the entertaining part.
Perhaps Lucy Aln will grace us with some other amusing nickname soon.
"So tell me, Joy. Confident about this exam?"
"Of course. I might even score higher than you, Your Highness."
"Ha-ha. What a delightful joke."
"I'm completely serious."
Joy said it with a perfectly straight face, but Arthur only laughed.
Because there was no conceivable way Joy could outscore him.
Arthur did not dismiss Joy's intellect.
She was, in truth, a superhuman — brilliant mind, yes, and a tireless worker who never rested on her talent.
She was more than capable of standing beside him.
And yet, despite all of this, Arthur dismissed her all the same — because of the single flaw she carried.
Joy always fumbled at the decisive moment.
More than ten years had passed since Arthur first came to know her, and in all that time, Joy had tripped over her own feet at every important juncture.
He had never once seen her avoid it.
Would today be any different?
Arthur refused to believe it.
Only days ago, they had studied together — and hadn't she botched it with some brainless mistake then, too?
"And you, Your Highness? Confident you'll take first place?"
"Naturally. — is what I'd like to say, though certainty is a harder thing to come by."
There was exactly one person Arthur believed capable of beating him: Lucy Aln.
And she had spent this entire semester living as if studying had never been invented.
He didn't know how hard she might have worked behind the scenes, but by any reasonable measure, a proper result seemed out of reach.
And yet Arthur could not put his mind at ease.
Because geniuses were the kind of beings who shattered common sense without even noticing they'd done it.
Will Lucy Aln prove her talent — and her arrogance — once again this time?
In one corner of his heart, Arthur hoped she would stumble. In another, deeper still, he found himself hoping she would once again prove the brilliance of her light.