The Scale Just Got Bigger
The scale had suddenly gotten much bigger.
Simon had assumed they'd just do some casual shopping around Rochest's streets, but Serne had already prepared an expensive teleportation circle, waiting and ready.
When she urged him onto it and he stepped in, the city of Langestin abruptly unfolded before his eyes.
"Come on, hurry~!"
Serne said, tugging at his sleeve.
"Hold on a second. Leaving Roc Island without filing a report — isn't that a serious violation of school rules?"
"That's a rich thing to say from someone who hops the fence into the Forbidden Forest all the time."
With that, she spun around, crouched slightly, and peered at Pier's proxy dangling from Simon's shirt.
"It's been a while for you too, hasn't it? Been well?"
To all appearances, it was nothing more than a decorative little skeleton.
When she poked at Pier's proxy playfully, Simon relayed the shout echoing through his head without a shred of filtering.
"He says he'll kill you."
"How terrifying~."
Dropping the teasing, she turned her back and said with her hands clasped behind her:
"Right, let's go! Shall we start with the shopping district?"
On the rooftop of a building several hundred meters from Simon.
Men cloaked in black robes, mana telescopes in hand, scurried about busily, keeping a close watch on the pair.
"Target movement confirmed. Heading toward Hampton Road."
"Understood."
Just as the men were bustling about, a flash of dark red blinked once across the rooftop with a sharp pat!
Moments later, a black-haired girl in a dark-toned long coat, tugging her hat low, alighted from thin air with a light tat.
Chuck. Chuck.
The men bowed their heads with deep courtesy to the girl.
"We're honored by your presence, Lady Lorraine."
She gave a small nod.
"Where is Serne?"
"Moving with Student Simon toward Hampton Road."
When Lorraine held out her palm, a man reverently handed her the mana telescope. She propped one leg up on the rooftop railing and adjusted the lens.
In the distance, she could see Serne and Simon walking along, cozy as could be.
...Serne Aindark. What scheme are you cooking up this time?
From Kizen's standpoint, Serne was a walking time bomb.
Her rule-breaking mind-control ability wielded influence so vast it could sway other students' rankings on exams however she pleased.
Recently, there were even suspicions that she deliberately sabotaged students the Ivory Tower had marked, dropped them out of Kizen, and then had the Ivory Tower swoop in to recruit the disheartened ones.
But suspicion was only suspicion — there was no hard proof.
Serne was as cunning as a fox and acted with meticulous care so that no evidence would remain. There was no telling how much of what happened was her own staged production. She was even capable of erasing fragmentary memories outright.
But it's also too ambiguous a matter for the adults to intervene in.
Serne was a Kizen first-year just like any other seventeen-year-old, and in meritocratic Kizen she was taking her exams fairly, on her own ability.
Of course, if they put their minds to it, they could surely find some other pretext to expel her.
But Kizen's upper echelons did not want Serne gone. Partly for political reasons between internal factions — and besides, giving up a position that held the Ivory Tower's heir as a hostage would only end up benefiting Serne and the Ivory Tower alike.
Beneath it all lay the fear that if Serne were sent back, the Ivory Tower might turn openly hostile to Kizen.
Which was why Lorraine's current assignment was to check Serne.
Countless had been the cases where adult interference in a matter between students blew up into a major conflict.
Having a fellow first-year — Lorraine herself — make the move was the way to keep it from escalating into a full-blown war.
If only I could get one truly decisive piece of evidence.
The ideal outcome, for Lorraine, was to uncover Serne's misdeeds, bring them into the open, and see her brought before the judgment of the law.
That would expel Serne while simultaneously dealing the Ivory Tower a handicap. Under Kizen's laws, she could even be imprisoned.
And today, right now, that opportunity had arrived.
Serne had had the audacity to approach Special Admission No. 1 — Simon.
The Ivory Tower wants Simon. I'm certain of it.
Sorry, but she had absolutely no intention of letting that happen.
"Yap!"
With a strange little battle cry, Serne clung tightly to Simon's arm.
Simon flinched and tried to peel her off, but she only pressed closer, even bolder than before.
"Okay, Serne, hold on."
Simon said, his face turning serious. She blinked at him like a guileless little girl, then asked in the tiniest of voices:
"Weren't you supposed to act like we're close?"
"...Still, you don't have to cling this tight. Why the hell are you going this far?"
"Oh — cotton candy!"
Instead of answering, Serne pointed at a street stall with an aegyo-laced voice.
"I want to eat that sweet thing over there!"
"..."
He felt his pouch jangle ominously and grow heavier at those words. Simon reached into his pocket and found a few coins.
It made him wonder. He knew this was all an act — but why did the act have to go this far?
Sighing inwardly, Simon walked over to the stall and ordered two cotton candies.
"Oh my, when that happens, the usual thing is to buy one and share it, you know?"
"No."
The stall owner chuckled and began spinning the cotton candy.
"Young folks these days, lovely to see. You two a couple?"
"Yes!"
Serne answered instantly and stuck herself right against Simon's side. Simon mouthed get off me, but once again he was ignored.
"There we go, son, you take good care of the lady. A pretty girl hanging off you like that saying she likes you — if you don't even acknowledge her, what's the point?"
"Ohohoho! It's all right~ he's just got a lot of shyness left in him!"
What a perfectly in-sync pair they were.
As the two of them chattered away, a feather came fluttering through the air and attached itself to Simon's body.
-Can you hear me? If you can, blink twice.
Simon blinked, exactly as instructed.
-Don't make it obvious, just glance over. The man two blocks to our right — not that one, the man in dark blue. Yes, him.
-And the person directly above him, leaning on the second-floor glass railing. Yes. Both of them are Ivory Tower people. They just started tailing us.
Tailing us?!
Simon's mind spun into overdrive.
He handed the freshly made cotton candy to Serne first and said, feigning a whine:
"It's because your clinginess is way over the top. Everywhere I go, someone's watching me — it's exhausting."
Serne took the cotton candy and smiled sweetly.
-Exactly. We're being 'watched' by those people right now.
A voice flowed from the feather, while she herself spoke of something else entirely.
"Wouldn't you say a little clinginess is proof of healthy affection? Right, sir?"
"That's right, that's right."
The stall owner, handing over the second cotton candy into Simon's hand, cleared his throat with a harrumph.
"What matters is being good to them while the love's there. I regret it sometimes myself, you know. My wife nags me every single day about how I don't bring home proper money anymore—"
I'm truly sorry, but I could not care less.
Simon let the man's awkward family troubles flow in one ear and out the other as he sank into thought.
Serne was the Ivory Tower's official heir. Why was she being watched by Ivory Tower people? And why, because she was being watched, did she have to pretend to be close with him?
Simon stared at Serne, those questions brimming in his eyes.
-The truth is, the elders of the Ivory Tower have started questioning my results.
There were two factions within the Ivory Tower.
The faction that included Serne and the current Ivory Tower Master — traditionalists who prized the old values, seeking independence from Kizen and a restoration of past glory.
And then the faction that included Meilin and her family — those who believed in moving with the changing times, prioritizing harmony and cooperation with Kizen.
Simon had known all of that much. The problem was the faction on Serne's side.
Originally, their plan had been to kill Simon and seize the Legion for themselves. But Serne had used her full authority to put Simon's assassination on indefinite hold, declaring that she would personally persuade him instead.
However, once the Integrated Second Semester began, discontent had slowly started to boil over.
As Special Admission No. 1 Simon's public reputation swelled, they pointed out that she had missed her window to assassinate him — and that Serne, having postponed the assassination, had produced no results of her own to show for it.
So Serne, making a deliberate show of it, had swept Simon off to Langestin to flaunt their friendly rapport right in front of the Ivory Tower's people.
-Simon, I really don't think this is a bad thing for you, either~
Speaking through the feather, Serne took a bite of her cotton candy.
-Lend your strength to me, the one who's friendly to you. There's no need to go making an enemy of the Ivory Tower, is there?
That much was certainly true.
Just dealing with Magnus alone was burden enough; he had no need to add the Ivory Tower to his list of enemies on top of it.
"I'm curious about something."
Simon said.
"Why are you helping me?"
Why was she, of all people, taking his side within the Ivory Tower? That was what Simon was asking.
"Hmm, let me think~"
-Because I decided you're an irreplaceable resource.
At first, Serne hadn't cared who became Legion Commander. The only thing that mattered was that the Ivory Tower possessed one.
So if persuasion failed, the plan had been to expel Simon from Kizen first and then eliminate him.
But after going through a string of incidents — and witnessing Simon's exploits right before her eyes — her thinking had changed.
Could anyone in the Ivory Tower wield the Legion's power as flawlessly as Simon? She had come to believe that what mattered wasn't the Legion itself, but the person who commanded it — that person, and nothing else.
And so greed had taken root. She wanted to bring the Legion to the Ivory Tower — and Simon along with it.
"Just so we're clear, I might not be able to return your interest."
He had absolutely no intention of joining the Ivory Tower now, and he couldn't promise he'd join even after graduation.
"But right now, I'm the closest thing you have to an ally, aren't I? That's enough for me."
It was true that the Ivory Tower currently held the leading position in the recruitment war over Simon two years from now. For the present, that was enough.
Having heard her out, Simon's expression finally brightened.
So that's the situation, all laid out.
The essence of Serne's behavior was a performance for the elders. In other words — politics.
Neighhh!
Just then, Simon's gaze shifted. On the carriage road beside them, a horse was approaching in a flurry of kicked-up dust, as if a bug had landed on it and sent it into a panic.
If he was going to play the part, he decided he might as well play it properly. Simon wrapped an arm around Serne's shoulder, pulled her to his side, and shielded her against his back.
"??"
Even the great Serne was caught off guard, blinking wide-eyed. The carriage clattered noisily, strayed a little onto the sidewalk, then barely managed to swerve back on course.
Simon checked on the tailing observers and said gently:
"You okay?"
"..."
A faint flush rose to Serne's cheeks — and then quickly gave way to a sly, scheming smile.
"So you finally feel like escorting a lady, do you?"
"I've been doing that since a while ago."
Simon said, stepping out toward the carriage road as he walked.
She giggled and hurried to his side.
On the building's rooftop, the expression of Lorraine — who had been watching the whole scene unfold — was growing stiffer by the moment.
Unbelievable. They'll stop at nothing, will they.
Hanging off his arm. Sharing cotton candy. Simon walking on the traffic side. Carrying on exactly like a pair of lovers.
No matter how I think about it, that's not Simon's personality. He's definitely under her mind control.
Lorraine zoomed the telescope in further, searching for the feather stuck to Simon's body, but she couldn't find it. It was probably hidden somewhere beneath his clothes.
...
Watching the two of them cuddle up to each other, Lorraine found herself feeling strangely, inexplicably sour.
She could not allow Simon to be stolen away to the Ivory Tower in such an ugly fashion.
He was a precious asset to Kizen, and she hoped that even after graduating he would stay on at Kizen by her side. Of course, that was entirely Simon's choice to make — but the way Serne was going about it simply wasn't right, she thought.
"...I can't stand by and watch this any longer."
Unable to bear the sight of the two strolling along so happily with their cotton candy, Lorraine pulled the telescope from her eye.
"I'm moving in right now."