The Scent of Family
Through familiar corridors, past the familiar garden, and across the familiar campus grounds I walked, yet the anticipation filling my chest felt entirely new. Perhaps that was why the once-dreary world now seemed filtered through a prism of vivid color. No, this was probably how it had always looked. I had simply been wearing gray-tinted glasses all this time.
As I strolled through a campus that felt fresher and brighter than yesterday, a thin voice called out from behind me.
“Arthur!”
“Hey, Letia.”
“Arthur, I heard you got an expulsion notice yesterday.”
“It wasn’t exactly a notice…”
I showed her the document stamped with the headmaster’s seal.
“If you fail the practical exam this time… expulsion?! This is an expulsion notice!”
…Right. Even you think my failing the practical is already set in stone.
“This is unfair. According to academy regulations, expulsion requires—”
“A total score below fifty. But once the headmaster’s seal is on it, the decision is already final.”
“Headmaster what? Just call him the headmaster. Why show respect when he’s openly discriminating against you?”
There were voice-amplifying spells placed all over campus… Was she not worried about getting expelled alongside me?
Letia Eleanor. The daughter of the Margrave of Eleanor had become my friend purely by chance, simply because we shared a similar hobby. With a father holding the title of margrave and her own pretty appearance, plenty of flies had swarmed around her at the start of the semester. They just didn’t know what this wild filly was really like. She looked like a pure fairy on the outside, but inside…
“We need to formally protest this. Even if you have no mana at all, forcing you out by bending the academy’s own rules is blatant favoritism!”
Our headmaster was, in fact, a devout believer in mana supremacy. He even called attendance in order of mana capacity. (I was always called last.)
“It’s fine. This place was never meant for someone like me anyway. Getting expelled is only natural, in a way.”
“…Are you really Arthur? Where did that stubborn guy go? Who’s this docile pushover standing here instead?”
“Docile, huh…”
Honestly, I had already half given up. Asking Lilith for help was one option, of course. She was an Outer God. No matter how difficult the academy’s practical exam might be, her blessing would let me pass it with my eyes closed. But…
I’ve already burdened her with too much.
A god’s blessing wasn’t something handed out to just anyone. It meant sharing her own power—how could I ask for it so lightly? Besides, I was already satisfied just having Lilith by my side. Wanting more would be shameless.
I was about to restrain Letia with both arms as she tried to dash straight for the headmaster’s office when she suddenly buried her nose in my collar.
“Sniff, sniff. Arthur, did you come out without washing ag— …Huh? Since when do you have a roommate?”
“Uh, yeah?”
“And… sniff, sniff… a girl?”
I told myself the sudden weight in that last word was just my imagination. More importantly—how could she tell that from a smell?
“A g-girl? Where would I even find someone like that…”
Letia stared at me with narrowed eyes as my voice trailed off.
“You’re hiding something from me.”
Yes.
“No, I’m not?”
“Liar.”
“I’m not, though?”
“Really not?”
“…No.”
Ah. The image of Lilith this morning had flashed through my mind and delayed my answer.
“Look me in the eye and answer.”
Letia grabbed my cheeks and forced me to meet her gaze.
“You’re really not hiding anything?”
“Hey, wait—let go…!”
“Answer me.”
This wasn’t even a private place! Everyone was staring at us like something interesting was happening!
“How are you going to deny it when you reek of a woman?”
“No, seriously, how did you even—”
“Answer!”
She was serious. Her eyes burned with the determination to keep this up all day if she didn’t get a satisfying reply. At this rate, I had no choice but to tell her.
“She’s family.”
“…Huh?”
“I said she’s family.”
“Eh? But you…”
I had never said it out loud, but Letia naturally knew I was an orphan. It would have been stranger if she didn’t know, given how much people talked. She had simply avoided mentioning it out of consideration until now.
“…Don’t tell me you got adopted?!”
“……”
Taking my silence as confirmation, Letia’s face went blank. Then the corners of her mouth slowly lifted.
“Whoa!! Congratulations, Arthur!”
The way she celebrated my news as if it were her own showed her genuine innocence.
“So now you’ve got someone else to hang out with on holidays besides me? You never had anyone before.”
…How could she stab me with such a pure, unfiltered fact while wearing that bright expression? What kind of insane friend was this?
“I’m glad… Really.”
Still, the sincerity in her joy made something warm bloom in my chest.
“Yeah. Now that I’ve got someone to go out with, you’d better not stay on campus during break just to keep me company.”
“Ah, you knew?”
“Does it make sense for the daughter of a margrave to hole up at the academy the entire vacation?”
“Ehehe…”
Seeing Letia’s sheepish grin, a chuckle escaped me.
“Let’s just get to class. The first lesson is…”
“Continental Geography.”
“Ah, that professor comes in early.”
“We’ve still got time… Huh?”
Letia’s pocket watch, which she held up beside me, showed the hour hand pointing exactly at nine.
“…We’re screwed.”
—
At the same time, in the Holy Kingdom bordering the Magic Empire.
True to its name, the Holy Kingdom housed the continent’s greatest holy site: the Pantheon. This temple gathered statues of every deity worshipped across the land and bustled daily with saints from various denominations. Among them stood a figure radiating an unmistakably dark aura.
Though wrapped head to toe in a pitch-black robe, long strands of hair peeked out from beneath the hem without a care.
“The Pantheon, huh. Honestly, you won’t find many races in the entire universe that waste time on something this pointless.”
Lilith strode forcefully toward the grand entrance, her gaze sweeping over the row of stone statues.
“Still, I should at least know what gods exist in this universe.”
A preliminary investigation, so to speak.
“Hmm… No Outer Gods here. Did they deliberately leave them out? …Oh?”
As she scanned the statues, Lilith’s eyes suddenly stopped on one. It depicted an old man with white hair and a long beard, his body powerfully muscled in contrast. A golden plaque beneath the statue bore his name.
—The great lord of the abyss and the ancient god who keeps his oaths. Nodens.
“Hah! Keeps his oaths? Nodens? A well-behaved Shoggoth would be more believable.”
A sinister red glow leaked from the gap in her deeply pulled hood.
“There’s no god farther from faith and loyalty than this one.”
Clutching her throbbing side, Lilith gave a bitter smile.
“Well, I didn’t know either back then…”
As lightning flashed before her eyes and a headache began to bloom, she turned away.
“Someday I’ll return the favor exactly as it was given.”
—
“This is your fault we’re late.”
“What are you talking about? You’re the one who grabbed my face and wouldn’t let go.”
In the end, we stood together at the back of the lecture hall, late for class.
“You two! If you’re late, at least show some remorse!!”
The short, stout geography professor squawked at us.
“Sooorry~”
Watching Letia answer so half-heartedly, I could only shake my head in disbelief.
“Then let’s resume the lesson. Ahem… This continent is ruled by five major powers, each controlling their own territory. The Magic Empire where we are, the neighboring Holy Kingdom, the great tribes beyond the mountain range…”
“Hey, Arthur.”
Just as I tried to focus, Letia launched another distraction. When I ignored her, something jabbed hard into my side.
“Ghk…”
Suppressing a pained groan, I whipped around to glare at her.
“You…!”
Before I could get another word out, her palm clamped over my mouth.
“Mmph! Mmph!”
“Shut up and listen. I’ve got some really juicy news.”
I shot her a look that said this better be good, and she pulled a sheet of paper from her pocket.
“Look at this.”
What she held up was… a rectangular prism, no matter how I turned it. Three sides covered in different materials, the other three exposing their inner pages.
“…A book?”
“Yep, a book.”
It was a book. But not an ordinary one—the cover alone radiated an unmistakably indecent aura.
“What now.”
“Don’t faint from shock. This is none other than the long-lost first edition of Love Love Cryple!”
My expression immediately soured. The author’s name was all too familiar in the worst way.
Right. This was how I had become close with the margrave’s daughter in the first place.
Growing up under a margrave meant living a life far from ordinary even within noble society. Especially twenty years ago, when tensions with the Holy Kingdom had nearly erupted into war, every day would have been spent on wartime footing. Even now that relations had eased, life couldn’t have been comfortable.
Perhaps because of that background, the margrave’s daughter standing before me had rather unusual tastes.
Those tastes being… collecting strange books.
The word “strange” covered a wide range here. From old tomes to rare first editions, limited prints, scrolls containing curious magic, and even… erotic novels.
“If your father finds out about this…”
“Eh, I can just flop over and play dead.”
Her nerve was impressive.
“If it’s by this author… is it another dirty book this time?”
“It’s not just a dirty book. It’s super rare and super— Anyway, it’s an amazing book!”
What had she almost said just now…?
“Where is it?”
“In the academy library.”
…What was this girl saying?
Given the gap in our statuses, even with similar hobbies, we shouldn’t have become this close so easily. The real reason we had grown so familiar was—
“There’s no book like that in the library. If there were, I would’ve shown it to you ages ago.”
—because I was a regular at the academy library. At the start of the semester I had practically lived there. After the orphanage had restricted my reading, I had gone through a phase of devouring books in rebellion. Months spent in the library meant I knew the title of nearly every volume on the shelves. Even if I hadn’t read them, I had seen every spine.
That was how I had helped Letia find books and grown closer to her. We both loved books, even if our preferred genres differed.
But I had no memory of anything like this.
“Heheheh.”
“What’s with that perverted laugh… Oh, you are a pervert, aren’t you.”
“Says the bookworm. Even you haven’t been everywhere, right? There’s exactly one place you couldn’t get into.”
“…Don’t tell me the restricted section?”
“Heheheheh.”
“I’m out.”
“Aww, why~”
“Are you insane? If we get caught sneaking in there, it’s instant suspension or expulsion.”
“Sneaking in? We’re going in legally.”
“What?”
“If you beg the librarian and say it’s your last request before getting expelled, maybe they’ll let you?”
“…So my expulsion is already set in stone, huh?”
This was too much…
“You’re close with the librarian, right? Just ask once.”
“No matter how close we are, that’s a bit…”
“Please. I’ll even get on my knees. This book can’t be found anymore even if you want it…”
Avoiding Letia’s sparkling, burdensome gaze, I thought it over.
The restricted section…
A place I had once wanted to visit at least once. It supposedly sealed books containing dangerous spells and curses far beyond student level.
Who knows—there might even be a book that explains how to obtain mana.
…But honestly, the biggest reason was that I wanted to grant Letia’s request. Refusing her outright would have been too cold after everything I owed her.
“Fine. I’ll try.”
“Kyaa! Arthur, you’re the best!”
Whoosh—thwack! A piece of chalk flew straight into the center of Letia’s forehead as she cheered.
“Ow!”
“…Miss Letia. Come to the faculty office with me after class.”
At the professor’s icy command, Letia finally peeled herself away from me.
Class resumed, but with my mind tangled in thoughts of the restricted section, I didn’t understand a single word of the lesson.