An Unexpected Encounter in Langestin
Simon and his group had woken up in the morning and thrown themselves into their vacation homework without so much as a slice of bread to eat.
Kizen's assignments required students to answer with their own opinions in essay form, and even the multiple-choice questions assigned different values to each option, so copying someone else's homework wasn't much help at all.
Still, thanks to Meilin's active assistance, Simon and Camibarez had managed to see the light at the end of the tunnel. The problem was Rick.
"E-excuse me, Lady Meilin?"
Rick stammered, and at some point, his way of addressing Meilin had changed entirely.
"What is it, you doomed commoner?"
She was no different. Arms crossed, she wore an icy expression as she watched Rick work through his problems.
"Can we, as human beings, at least get something to eat?"
"Oh, so being 'human' is why your homework looks like that? You wretched beast."
"Hck."
He had committed sins, and so he couldn't win a single word.
Their relationship had completely reversed from what it had been at the theater.
Simon decided he needed to finish his own homework quickly and help Rick out as well, and he kept scribbling away at the custom magic circle for his Jet-Black Mechanics assignment.
"Ah."
As he wrote, the ink had grown faint. He picked up the quill to examine it—out of ink, and the nib worn ragged from overuse. The inkwell had emptied without him noticing, too.
Simon glanced to the side. Meilin sat with her legs crossed, glaring daggers at Rick.
"M-Meilin?"
"Yes?"
Perhaps it was because Simon showed signs of safely finishing his vacation homework, but when dealing with him, Meilin's voice grew a little softer.
Encouraged by this, Simon spoke up.
"Would it be all right if I went out to buy a new quill and some ink? I can pick up some food on the way back, too."
At the mention of food, Rick, in the middle of his homework, sneakily raised a thumb.
Meilin sighed.
"I'm your group leader, not your mother. Just go without making it such a production."
"I'll come too!"
Camibarez raised her hand beside him.
Then it was Rick's turn to mouth frantically at Camibarez, 'You're leaving me alone with this monster?!' his eyes pleading desperately—but she was too busy looking at Meilin to notice.
"Hmm... Cami might be cutting it close. You can finish it all by today, right?"
"Yes! I promise!"
And so, with Meilin's blessing, the two of them slipped out of the clock tower and into the streets of Langestin.
"Aaaah, now I feel alive again."
Simon said, breathing in deeply. Camibarez giggled.
"Meilin was really scary."
Simon nodded in agreement.
"Still, she's spending her own free time for our sake. I feel a little bad. Let's pick up foods Meilin likes on the way back."
"Yes!"
Simon walked down the streets of Langestin alongside her.
The city felt more crowded and maze-like than ever. Step into one alley, and four more branched off to escape it, all marked by a dizzying clutter of signposts.
"Should we head to Campbell Road first?"
"Since we're buying a quill and food, wouldn't the shopping district be better than Campbell Road?"
"Oh, good call."
Simon walked on, retracing his memories.
Wandering Langestin's labyrinthine streets, he found himself struck by how unusual the arrangement of buildings was. Wherever there was one house, the next one was built pressed right against it, as if an extension of the first. People used a neighbor's wall as their own, or blatantly encroached on someone's yard to throw up a new house—there was no rhyme or reason to any of it.
It looked as if children had held a competition to stack blocks, piling them up into a chaotic sprawl.
"Did you know? One of the Ten Great Mysteries of the Dresden Kingdom is the cost of housing in Langestin."
At Camibarez's words, Simon burst out laughing.
"Yeah, it does seem like it'd be insanely expensive. Are the houses all packed together like this because land prices are so high?"
"Nope! There's actually a reason the architecture looks like this. A long time ago, a dragon living in the mountains burned the whole city down with its breath! Back then the kingdom's administration was in shambles, so they measured private property and real estate based on the houses themselves instead of the land. With Langestin in ruins and the land surveys a total mess, people just started building their houses as big and wide as possible! Then it went viral, competition caught fire, and... well..."
"So that's how this cityscape came to be! That's amazing. How do you know all this?"
Camibarez's eyes curved into crescents.
"My professor told me about it."
"Ah, the one who taught you Blood Flow magic over the vacation?"
"Yes!"
As they hunted for a shop that sold quills, the two of them wandered Langestin's streets at a leisurely pace, almost like tourists.
But unlike the relaxed pair, the local residents of Langestin seemed oddly restless. Everyone was murmuring among themselves with grave expressions.
Did something happen?
"Breaking news, everyone! Breaking news!"
A merchant selling the Langestin regional paper was shouting, waving copies in the air. Well-dressed gentlemen could be seen paying for papers one after another.
"Cami, hold on."
Simon ran over and bought a copy himself.
When he unfolded the paper neatly, a horrifying photo of a corpse stared back from the front page.
Already Five! Unexplained Deaths!
Neither Injury nor Poison—but Disease.
An Unprecedented Plague? Or a Horrific Serial Murder?
"..."
Simon turned back toward Camibarez as he combed through the article in detail.
The report that murders had been occurring since a week ago, and the news that rats and insects had suddenly begun swarming through the city, bothered him. The uneasy mood among the residents was probably due to these incidents as well.
This must be the mission Kajan took on, right?
"Simon~"
Camibarez came up beside him with a soft smile.
"Why are you reading that so seriously?"
"It's the Langestin regional paper. People have died."
"R-really?"
As she leaned in to read over his shoulder, Simon covered the photo with his palm.
"?"
She looked up at him, a question mark floating above her head.
"Ah, sorry. The person died in a pretty gruesome way, so I was covering it up... was that unnecessary?"
"Ah!"
She flinched and took a step back.
"Th-that was close. If I'd seen something that gross, it would've shown up in my dreams... Thank you, Simon!"
"It's nothing."
Watching him fold up the paper and slip it into his subspace, she smiled gently.
Simon really is kind.
"Looks like something's going on in the city."
Simon summarized it for her benefit.
"Apparently the victims died from a series of unidentified illnesses striking all at once—not from any conditions they'd had before. The necromancers who majored in Toxicology say it isn't poisoning."
"Th-that's kind of scary."
Tchk!
At a strange noise that suddenly rang out beside them, Camibarez yelped and dove into Simon's arms.
Whoa, that startled me.
Simon had been genuinely surprised too. He steadied his pounding heart and turned his head to find an old woman leaning on a crutch, glaring at them with eyes bared white, half her face twisted grotesquely.
"Scared? What's there to be scared of! It's all righteous judgment! The Spirit of Disease has descended!"
"...The Spirit of Disease?"
"All the unworthy shall die by plague and pestilence! Keh keh keh!"
Swish, swish.
Just then, a dead-faced man sweeping the ground with a broom in front of a tavern across the street yawned loudly.
"Tourists, huh? Ignore that old woman. She's famous in Langestin for spouting nonsense."
"..."
"And this whole thing isn't the work of any Spirit of Disease. So five people died in Langestin—so what? This is a city where gang disputes kill ten a day."
"Th-then what is it?"
When Simon showed interest, the man smiled with satisfaction.
"Curious, are you? Don't be shocked! It's a political scheme by those kingdom faction bastards trying to grab attention! They whip up public eyes with this, then ram their policies through—like I wouldn't know the trick?"
The sweeping uncle hollered, 'Not a chance, you lot!' while the old woman with the white-bared eyes began muttering strange incantations under her breath.
"Let's go, Cami."
Simon gathered Camibarez and said quietly.
"They're just strange people. Don't worry about it."
"...Ah, okay."
This was the problem with wandering into the alleys.
The two of them made their way out to a somewhat wider avenue.
Only now did the surroundings open up, and the raucous chatter of countless travelers reached their ears. It was fascinating how completely the atmosphere changed with just an alley or two between them.
Big cities really aren't my taste, after all.
As Simon smiled wryly, Camibarez pointed at a signpost.
"Simon. I can see Hampton Road over there!"
Hampton Road—a sprawling shopping complex that formed the heart of Langestin, the street of youth itself.
The two followed the signs, picking up their pace.
"Found it!"
And before they'd even reached Hampton Road, they spotted the quill shop they'd been looking for.
"Should we buy the new quill there? It'd be pricey if we went all the way to the city center."
"Sounds good."
They were walking along with light steps when—
Accompanied by the jingle of a doorbell, two men stepped out of a shop onto the street.
Simon's footsteps faltered. Someone far more troublesome to run into than any Spirit of Disease or kingdom-faction conspiracy was walking out to meet them.
Of all places, I run into him here.
Judging by that fiery temper of his, meeting him meant a duel request, one hundred percent.
He had no desire for a pointless clash, so Simon turned his back as naturally as he could manage.
"Cami, hold on."
"Hm?"
He took her wrist and walked casually toward the alley beside them.
"Wh-what is it? Did something—"
"Simon Polentia."
His steps froze solid. He'd only glanced at the man for a moment before turning away—and he'd noticed even that.
Simon sighed inwardly and looked back.
"Hector."
Hector Moore, Class A of the same first year as Simon. And one of the male students from his faction was walking toward them.
The corner of Hector's mouth curled upward.
From that sinister chuckle slipping between his teeth alone, Simon knew he'd stepped on a landmine.
It wasn't the semester, and this wasn't Roc Island or the Kizen campus—it was completely outside territory. There were no faculty members here to stop disputes between Kizen students.
"I figured you'd be in Langestin too, but to run smack into you here!"
BOOM!
Hector stomped his right foot hard and thrust a clenched fist toward Simon.
"I've waited for this moment all vacation! It's a duel, Simon Polentia!!"
"Cami."
Simon spoke quietly, just loud enough for her to hear.
"Let's run."
"What?"
With that, he scooped Camibarez into his arms, ignited Jet-Black at both feet, and launched himself skyward.
TA-DA! TAT!
VUUUUM!
Covering dozens of meters in an instant, Simon stamped straight onto a rooftop and soared into the sky.
Camibarez's startled shriek rang out, along with the murmur of people on the street below pointing up at them. In a blink, the scenery around them blurred backward.
There's absolutely no reasoning with that guy.
Perhaps because it had been a while since they'd last met, Hector's fighting spirit had swelled to explosive proportions. Explaining, point by point, that 'fighting is bad' would be a waste of breath. With a mad dog, the answer was simply to avoid it and move on.
"S-Simon!"
Just then, Camibarez, still in his arms, reached out a hand.
"He's coming from above!"
"!"
Simon whipped his head around to see Hector—wings of a Corpse Dragon fixed to his back—plunging down from the sky, elbow dropping toward him.
Simon hastily raised one arm into a guard.
KA-KWAAANG!!
Simon's body plunged violently, crashed down onto some street or other, flattened a shanty, and hit the ground.
"Ngh!"
Embedded in the crater of cracked earth, Simon groaned. Thanks to his Kizen uniform, he wasn't injured, but the impact left his whole body aching.
"A-are you all right?"
"I'm fine."
Hector touched down lightly on the ground and walked over step by step.
"Get up, Simon Polentia."
he said in an imperious voice.
"Use this chance to fight me properly."
Camibarez scrambled to her feet and spread both arms wide. Hector's brow twitched.
"Move."
"Are you out of your mind?! Attacking someone out of nowhere!"
Though her legs trembled with fear before the hulking Hector, she raised her voice even louder.
"Kizen students have a duty to maintain dignity even outside the academy! You're nothing but a rotten thug!"
Hector replied with a cold face.
"I don't warn anyone twice. I've got no interest in small fry, so get out of the way."
"If you're that desperate to fight Simon—"
As she placed her palm over her stomach, a sharp click! rang out.
KUUUUUUU!
Her eyes flushed crimson, and the wings on her back grew larger. When she bit down hard on her thumb, the blood that welled up began spiraling fiercely around her body.
"Then you'll have to go through me first!"
"...Cami?"
Her whole aura had transformed, as if she were a completely different person. Simon, pushing himself upright out of the shock, wore a stunned expression.
"What the... you?"
Hector was equally surprised. The corner of his mouth twisted.
"My, my. You've gotten rather interesting since I last saw you."