A Decision Based on Priorities
Everything had unfolded exactly as Serne planned.
The masterminds behind the incident were the Cabal and the Ivory Tower Master, Vermund. And with the Center Director—Vermund's collaborator—along with his closest radical faction allies being detained and dragged away, the matter was, for now, settled.
The Dark Alliance chose to interpret the incident not as the will of the Ivory Tower as a whole, but as the deviation of a handful of fanatics. Vermund's decision to erect a barrier around the main tower and trap the people inside apparently served as the most decisive piece of evidence.
The greatest contributor to resolving the crisis was, without question, Serne Eindark.
She had seen through her adoptive father's ties to the Cabal, and right up to the very end, she succeeded in deceiving him completely. She summoned Simon as an ally through the perfectly legal avenue of an exchange dispatch, blocked head-on the atrocity that had nearly brought Kizen to its knees, and even played her part in the final confrontation with Vermund.
It was all but certain that Serne would take the seat of the next Ivory Tower Master.
The same held true when one considered the internal politics of the Tower. Vermund's fall had crippled the standing of the radical faction hostile to Kizen, while Daniela's moderate faction—friendly to Kizen—had seized power.
The desperate radicals were now scrambling, insisting that Serne's investiture as Tower Master must be pushed through as quickly as possible. And even the moderates raised no objection to the crisis's greatest contributor claiming the seat.
Of course, plenty of ugly rumors circulated all the same.
—Blinded by power, she killed her own father!
—All that talk about the Cabal is just an excuse, surely. She was fishing for a pretext to unseat her adoptive father and got lucky enough to catch one.
Hearing the city folk mutter such things, Simon felt a surge of fury. How could they—knowing nothing—so casually smear someone who had sacrificed so much?
Simon moved to confront them, but Serne pressed a hand to his shoulder and shook her head.
—"There's no need to bother with them."
—"Doesn't that make you angry?"
She drew a faint arc at the corner of her mouth.
—"Whatever the monkeys in our own ranks chatter about, I couldn't care less."
Simon wandered the streets with her, trading stories back and forth. Their time together was about to become rare, so he made an effort to talk with her as much as he could.
But before long, people from the Ivory Tower came swarming in.
—"Lady Serne! We've been searching everywhere for you!"
—"This is no time to be idling! The Dark Alliance is requesting a formal audience—"
She was currently the Ivory Tower's chief administrator, directing the aftermath of the whole affair. With her investiture as Tower Master also fast approaching, she would be run off her feet for the foreseeable future.
She smiled, the corners of her eyes curving.
—"Well then. Until we meet again, Simon."
That fox-like smirk that had always been just a little infuriating.
For the first time, Simon thought her smile looked sad.
At daybreak, Simon rode the teleportation circle back to Kizen.
Merida, having bumped into Phantassus, decided to stay with him and time her return for the very last day. She'd immediately begun badgering her brother—did he have a girl he liked? Tell her, tell her—while Phantassus denied it with the expression of a man wondering what had gotten into her.
Simon wished Phantassus luck. He would be suffering her company for a full day, after all.
In any case, he still had one day of breathing room. But the 2nd-year campus was in an uproar when he arrived.
—Did you hear? The Ivory Tower Master was secretly one of the Cabal!
—The Cabal? You mean the ones who tried to turn the Dresden Kingdom upside down?
—You think there might be some inside Kizen too?
—...Oh, come off it. Don't say creepy things like that.
Simon let all the chatter wash past one ear and got on with the cleanup, calm and methodical.
First, he returned to Pier's Ruins and released the legion's undead. Akemus's wounds from the mercury had healed in just a day, and Pier—who had strained himself calming Simon's rampage—needed time to recover as well.
Erzebet, who had been tasked with investigating White, still hadn't returned. She had trailed him all the way to his dispatch site, after all.
He paid a long-overdue visit to Parahan, the Holy Defense Studies professor. He played with the kittens, Hayangi and Kkamangi, and did some divine beast training with Akalion the bear.
Then he returned to the dormitory and started studying for exams.
Toto still hadn't come back. The Dullahan Special Lecture began tomorrow, so Simon prayed he wouldn't be late.
Scratch, scratch.
Moving his quill across a blank page, Simon managed barely a few words before setting it down.
Sigh.
Somehow, he felt unsettled.
Everything had worked out, really. Kizen was safe, the Cabal's wicked scheme had been stopped, Mayrin and Serne were both alive, and he'd made it back before the Dullahan Special Lecture. So why did his heart feel so tangled?
Focus. Focus.
Simon clenched the quill again, forcing strength into his eyes.
The next day.
The Summoning Department lecture hall was filled with its usual energy—no, with a far greater energy than usual.
"I'm baaack!"
"Uuuugh—I thought I was going to die! I made it back at the crack of dawn, literally."
"How was the dispatch?"
"They actually told me, look, you WILL finish by today, so I hauled myself here coated head to toe in blood, I swear. You know what I mean?"
The students who had made it back before the special lecture began buzzed with excitement, chattering away.
Simon took his seat as well.
"Hey, Simon!"
Eshu, his Squad 10 teammate, waved cheerfully. Simon waved back with a smile.
"I heard, I heard! Did you hear about it—me, I heard!"
She darted over and abruptly plopped herself down on top of his desk.
"Your dispatch site was the Ivory Tower, right?! Whoa! Did you get caught up in the whole Ivory Tower incident?"
Simon gave a wry smile.
"Well. Something like that."
Several students nearby pricked up their ears.
"What's the Ivory Tower incident?"
"You don't even know that? The entire Dark Alliance was turned on its head yesterday!"
"I just got back from my site this morning—how would I know?"
The students returning yesterday or today still knew little about the affair. Eshu, a consummate gossip, began chattering away rapidly, and the students' eyes grew wider and wider.
"The Ivory Tower Master was part of the Cabal?"
"Wait, isn't that Serne's dad from our department?!"
"Class rep! Have you ever seen the Tower Master's face? What happened?!"
All the attention converged on Simon. A living witness to the incident was sitting right in front of them.
Ugh. They did tell me not to go around telling strange stories.
He'd already been given strict instructions from headquarters to keep quiet.
Just as Simon was trying to calm his excited friends—
"Sorry, but move aside for a moment."
A black-haired girl pushed through the students crowding around him.
At Loraine's appearance, the surrounding students parted like a wave splitting before a prow.
"Come with me a second, Simon."
"Sure."
The other students could only suppress their itching tongues and stare blankly at the backs of the two as they left the lecture hall.
Loraine led Simon out to a quiet spot behind the building. She fetched a drink from a small campus stall nearby and handed it over.
"Something to drink?"
"Thanks."
Holding their drinks, the two retreated to the secluded back of the building.
Simon finally let out a breath, straightened his tie, and took a sip of his coffee.
"?"
It was not coffee.
It was outrageously sweet. Strawberry-flavored, to be precise.
"Ugh."
Loraine was sticking her tongue out too, her brow faintly furrowed.
"Sorry, we got switched. My head's a mess."
"You can't handle bitter coffee?"
Simon chuckled and swapped drinks with her. When she glared at him as if to say don't laugh, he feigned sudden interest elsewhere and savored a mouthful of the coffee.
She cut straight to the point.
"Can you tell me about the Ivory Tower affair?"
"Sure."
Loraine was one of the few who knew Simon was a Legion Commander, so he could share most of it. Leaving out anything concerning Serne's and Mayrin's private matters, he gave a brief account focused on how the incident had unfolded.
"...The Cabal. They're more dangerous than I imagined."
Loraine bit her lip hard.
"To drive the Tower of Time berserk and try to drop it on Locke Island..."
Simon folded his arms and picked up where she left off.
"The Blood Heaven Sect, Tarados, the Dresden Kingdom, and now the Ivory Tower. The Cabal, which had been lurking in the continent's shadows, is finally baring its ambitions."
"...Who on earth could be behind this? The Saintesses of the Holy Federation?"
Simon shook his head.
"Not the priests. The Blood Heaven Sect that the Cabal was backing hijacked one of the Holy Federation's trains, remember?"
"That's true."
"The Cabal's people seemed to call someone 'the Elders.' Does anyone come to mind?"
She rested her chin on her hand, thinking.
"'The Elders'... that's too vague. Could be the senior statesmen on the Dark Alliance's side."
They traded theories back and forth, but even the future ruler of the Dark Alliance and an active Legion Commander had limits to what they knew about the Cabal.
Simon changed the subject.
"Will Serne be able to come back to school?"
"Probably not."
Loraine said.
"Vermund's entire faction within the Tower got dragged away, didn't they? The remaining radicals will force her onto the Tower Master's seat immediately if only to ensure their own survival."
"..."
"And more than anything else—"
Loraine closed her eyes and went on.
"Serne hated this school, remember? She'd never want to come back to Kizen herself."
"That's... true."
Serne had always regarded her forced special admission to Kizen as nothing short of being a hostage. Even her first-year troublemaking had carried that same defiant edge—go ahead, try expelling me.
Loraine looked up with a complicated expression.
"Now that I actually can't see that troublemaker anymore... I don't feel as relieved as I thought I would."
That was probably true.
Serne wanted Kizen's destruction. That much had never changed, even now.
That was why she had initially gone along with Vermund's plan. But once she learned he was a Cabal pawn—and once he demanded Simon's life as well—she betrayed him.
Serne had merely refused to be used by the Cabal and acted to save Simon and Mayrin. And yet, in the end, it amounted to saving Kizen itself.
For Loraine, who had been her adversary, the feeling could only be a bitter, tangled one.
"Simon! Loraine!"
Just then—
Eshu was shouting from the window.
"Sorry to interrupt your date, but our lecture room moved! It's two rooms down! Class is about to start!"
Simon nodded.
"Thanks for telling us, Eshu!"
Loraine, sucking down the strawberry milk, pouted her lips.
"It's not a date."
The two returned to the building and filed into the new lecture room.
The teaching assistants were just then decorating the blackboard. Balloons hung from the corners, and a banner stretched across the middle.
— Dullahan Special Lecture —
Professor Aaron · Professor Grelion · Professors Lyn & Run
Just as Simon and Loraine were scouting out good seats, a welcome face appeared, already seated in the hall.
"Ah, Simon! I made it!"
"Toto!"
Simon's face broke into a bright grin. He'd been worrying because Toto hadn't arrived even by the start of school. Eshu and Loraine from Squad 10 greeted him warmly as well.
The seats filled in an instant.
There was Hector with his imposing bulk; there was Asseraz, who had lately risen as a formidable rival; there was White, still staring out the window as ever.
"..."
Simon turned to look behind him.
While the other seats filled up rapidly, the one directly behind him remained utterly empty.
The so-called Serne's Reserved Seat.
She had always delighted in sitting behind Simon. Anyone else who tried sitting there only got marked and driven off by Serne, so the students had long since taken to leaving it vacant on their own.
But Serne wasn't coming.
She was the Ivory Tower Master now.
"Professor Aaron is entering."
The teaching assistant announced it, and the boisterous students fell silent all at once.
Click.
In came Aaron, wearing the world's most comfortable shirt and shorts, slippers dragging across the floor as always. Perhaps because he'd finally gotten some rest, his gaunt face had improved somewhat.
Amid the students' hush, he stepped up to the podium and raised his head.
"Everyone back from dispatch safe and sound?"
"YEEES!"
With that enormous answer, cheers and laughter of celebration at last erupted across the room. Aaron didn't silence the students savoring the moment; he gave them a while to enjoy it.
"Before the special lecture begins, I'll take attendance."
Aaron held up the roster.
"Matt Comer."
"Here!"
"Laubel Brenmus."
"Present!"
In his languid voice, Aaron called out the names one by one, and the students raised their hands in answer.
According to Dick, it was normal for around ten students to be late returning from this kind of dispatch evaluation—so this attendance rate was astonishing.
That was how powerful the hostage Aaron had staked, the 'Dullahan Special Lecture,' truly was. Every one of the students had pushed through their dispatch missions with their lives on the line. Many, like Toto, had wrapped up their work before dawn and crawled back just in time this very morning.
And then, as the roll call continued, the name in question came up.
"Serne Eindark."
A heavy silence fell over the lively lecture hall in an instant.
Aaron merely grunted, 'Mm,' marked the roster, and called the next student's name.
And so every student's name was called—everyone's but Serne's.
"An outstanding result."
Aaron set down the roster.
"Fifty-one out of fifty-two returned. The Summoning Department has officially set a record this time."
But this time, no students cheered. Aaron swept his gaze across the room and said,
"I hear a few of you whined and wept at your dispatched partners, begging to be sent back quickly..."
Eshu and several others froze, their faces going rigid.
"I'll count that as part of your negotiation skills too. Just know that you'll be handling any complaints those partners file."
Aaron opened his textbook.
"Now then, page 160 of your—"
"Sorry I'm laaate~"
Every head in the room turned.
"Would a few minutes late count as an absence?"
"?!!"
Simon shot up from his seat before he even realized he was doing it.
Murmur, murmur, murmur, murmur!
A girl strode into the hall, ivory hair streaming behind her. A few students even burst out cheering.
Serne!
He had never once imagined he'd see her in that school uniform again.
Aaron smirked and reopened his roster.
"Don't be late again."
"Yes, siir~"
Beaming, Serne approached and walked toward the reserved seat behind Simon's. Simon was still standing there, dazed, his soul half-escaped from his body.
"You..."
He was utterly lost. What was going on? What was going to happen to the Ivory Tower Master's seat?
He wanted to demand answers right then and there, but strangely, the words wouldn't come out.
"Ufufu."
She winked and smiled.
"Let's just call it... a decision based on priorities? Okay?"