The Implementer of Justice
Bayul had no idea how the afternoon classes had passed. He couldn't focus on a single thing all day—not even the wind spirit that had saved Nathan. All his thoughts kept circling back to the man who had appeared out of nowhere: Eli's father.
'My little brat, you've been well, I see?'
'F-Father?'
The look on Eli's face when he'd seen that man was something Bayul couldn't forget. Neither could he forget the words the boy had spat—that the man made his skin crawl—delivered with a smile as pretty as a painting.
Was that man really his father?
Somehow, in that moment, the question had crept into Bayul's mind. The image of Eli, mourning that he'd always been alone, that no one had stood beside him from the moment he was born, kept overlapping with the sight of his stunned face earlier that day.
Eli had been silent ever since. It wasn't the kind of atmosphere where anyone could broach a conversation. Bayul had never seen him like this before, and with every passing minute, his anxiety only grew.
'Chairman, will you follow me this way?'
No further words had passed between father and son. Eli had simply trembled in his father's presence, and the man had done nothing but smile—right up until an Academy staff member approached to pay his respects.
"...Chairman?"
A murmur rippled through the students at the title. It was shocking enough that a man of such extraordinary appearance was Eli's father—a man of the gypsy clan—but now they learned he was the Chairman?
And who was the Chairman, exactly? The one who commanded and oversaw the board of trustees, the body empowered to appoint the Academy's headmaster—in other words, the single most powerful figure at Carrington, holding every thread of the institution in his hands.
Someone this young was the Chairman? And on top of that, he was Eli's father?
It was every bit as shocking as the day they'd learned Aidan, the scholarship student, was the biological grandson of Count Leonett.
"I'm sorry—what?"
Once again, however, no one was more stunned than Eli himself. He twisted his face and demanded in a hoarse voice, "Ch-Chairman? Who is?"
"Aw, did our little brat get that surprised? Your papa forgot to mention it, that's all."
"...Don't joke around! Wh-what kind of absurd nonsense is that?!"
"Must be what, ten years or so? It has been quite a while since I last visited."
"To be precise, it has been twelve years since your last visit, sir."
At the staff member's correction, the man muttered a careless "Has it been that long?" and shrugged.
"Th-that's a lie!"
Eli shrieked. "And I never knew any of it...!"
The rest of his protest died on his lips. His cheeks flushed scarlet with humiliation. All his effort, all his careful work—rendered utterly meaningless. He wanted to crawl into a hole somewhere and vanish, but instead he'd been made to dance in the palm of that man's hand.
"Chairman, the bell signaling the end of class will ring shortly."
"See you later, little brat."
At the staff member's prompting, the man inclined his head—and vanished. Even then, he never once let the word 'little brat' fall from his lips for good.
"Rai..."
Lost in some thought or other, Eli stood with both fists clenched and his eyes shut. He clearly couldn't calm down; his whole body was trembling finely. Bayul gently rested a hand on his friend's shoulder.
"...He is not my real father."
After a long stretch of silence, Eli suddenly confessed. "He's merely the man who raised me."
"So he was your adoptive father..."
At first, apparently, Eli had grown up calling him 'Dad' without knowing any better. And that was where the problem had begun—what stuck in a child's mouth never left it.
"Just think of him as a guardian, nothing more."
"A guardian?"
"Yeah. You know—the kind of people who look after poor unfortunates."
"Ah, I know. The kind who do a great deal of good, right?"
"Heh. Good?"
Eli's closed eyes snapped open. What filled those red eyes was closer to contempt than anything else.
"He couldn't care less about my feelings or my will—he just does whatever he pleases, swinging me around and trying to shape me as he likes. Is that 'good'? I'm a poor little charity case, so I'm supposed to jump at his every command?"
"R-Rai?"
"There was stability, I'll grant you that. He did shield me from things far too dangerous to touch."
The corners of Eli's mouth curled up in something like a sneer.
"But was that ever for my sake? It was all for his own glorious reputation, obviously."
A false front staged for the world. Everything, all of it, was hypocrisy designed to make himself shine.
"You'll understand soon enough. He's a man about as far from 'good intentions' as it's possible to be. For me, at best he was the worst—and at worst, the absolute worst."
As the memories surfaced, the fury he'd been straining to suppress slithered up out of its den again. The betrayal of that day still lacerated him, gripping Eli's heart in its claws.
"Rai—summons from the Chairman's office."
Just then, another student came up and delivered the message. The way he looked Eli up and down was markedly different from before. The rumor had already spread far and wide.
So it had come after all. Eli had desperately hoped the man would simply disappear as though nothing had happened—but hope, as ever, was only hope.
"Damn it."
To Eli's low curse, Bayul asked carefully, "Should I come with you?"
"Bayul—you've been asked to come as well," the student replied.
"What? Me too?"
Before Bayul's well-meant offer had even lost its meaning, the student delivered his final line and walked off.
"Why me, of all people...?"
Bayul's question was only partly answered when they arrived at the Chairman's office—for the simple reason that Aidan, Quinn, and Logan were already there waiting. Presumably, the man was curious about his son's friends and had summoned them all together.
"What kind of scheme is this?"
Before any greetings or introductions could be exchanged, Eli raised his voice at his father without preamble.
"Who even are you, summoning them all like this? Does being Chairman mean you get to do anything you want? What are you planning to do with them once you've gathered them here?"
It was a side of Eli none of them had ever seen before. Watching him shout in open agitation felt deeply strange to Bayul and the others.
"Killian—or was it Eli, here?"
Despite Eli's fury, the man didn't waver in the slightest. If anything, he smiled all the more brightly and turned the question back on him. For the first time, a name other than 'little brat' sprang from the man's lips.
Killian?
The gazes of Bayul and his friends shifted in perfect unison, as if on cue.
Killian was your name all along?
"...It's not that I hid it. That name was given to me by him, so I threw it away."
Eli made his hatred of his adoptive father unmistakably plain—that he had gone so far as to cast off the very name the man had given him. And of course, the man responded without missing a beat.
"Doesn't matter what you're called. Changing your name doesn't make my little brat any less my little brat."
"I told you not to call me that! I've said it makes my skin crawl every single time you do!"
"Well then, how about you introduce me to your friends properly?"
It was conditional consent. If he didn't want to be called 'little brat,' he'd do as he was told—a demand that bordered on outright blackmail.
It was always like this. Nothing less than getting exactly what he wanted, every single time, could ever satisfy the man. And every time, Eli was left burning with bitterness at his own fate—unable to win, no matter what.
"You've all probably figured it out by now, but this is my adoptive father. He has an obscene amount of money, and his special talent is living off it without lifting a finger—though apparently, I never knew his little hobby extended to playing Chairman. As you can see, there isn't a single adult bone in his body, so his greatest joy and pride in life is tormenting his adopted son—me—and making my life miserable. There is absolutely nothing to gain by getting entangled with him, so if you happen to run into him somewhere, just ignore him."
Eli glared at his adoptive father and enunciated every word with deliberate care.
Ordinarily, the natural next step after an introduction would be for the others to offer their greetings. But faced with an introduction dripping with hostility, malice practically oozing from every syllable, Bayul and his friends could only stand there awkwardly, blinking.
"Well—not a single word of that is wrong."
The man conceded the point with breezy good humor.
"But, little brat, you left out the name. You should introduce your father's magnificent name too, don't you think?"
"...Rayegar."
Eli pronounced the name in a low voice, as if reciting the name of his mortal enemy. Satisfied, Rayegar beamed and gave a cheerful wave.
"Hello, kids. You heard all that, I trust? Full name's Rayegar Ponce Valery. Looking forward to knowing you."
The man crossed his long legs, leaned back against the sofa, and swept a leisurely gaze over the group of friends.
He was the very picture of composure, start to finish. No matter how furiously Eli snarled and shouted, none of it landed. Everything about this situation looked so familiar to the man that it might have been just another unremarkable day.
"...Hello. I'm Aidan."
"I am Quinn."
"...Logan."
"I'm Bayul... Chairman."
Unable to find the right form of address, Bayul settled for the man's title. Calling him 'Rai's father' felt like it would only end in disaster. At that, Rayegar jolted upright and shook his head vigorously.
"Whoa, no, absolutely not. 'Chairman,' to the father of your friend? Where are your manners?"
"Then what should I...?"
"Just call me by my name. Keep it casual."
"...I'm sorry, what?"
"My name is rather dashing, don't you think? Did you see how this little brat—ahem, this young man—met me head-on? You kids shouldn't be intimidated by me either. I like that spirit."
Any ordinary adult would have had more than enough material for a lecture on rudeness after Eli's behavior. And yet here was the adoptive father—not scolding him, but actively egging him on. The man was, without question, not entirely sane.
"Are you a sadist, by any chance?"
It was Quinn. At his abrupt question, Rayegar tilted his head as though he didn't quite follow.
"You seem to take pleasure in tormenting Rai. I understand that in the human world, that is called sadism."
For a question aimed at the father of a friend he'd only just met, it was remarkably blunt. But then, Quinn was never one to hold back his rudeness or his insolence anywhere he went—and since the man himself had told them to meet him head-on, there was no way a personality like his was going to pass up the chance.
"Oh my, is that so?"
"For the record, abusing one's own child is against the law. It is essentially a crime."
"Is that a threat? All I did was play a few jokes on my adorable son after seeing him for the first time in ages, and you're wielding the law at me like it's the end of the world? My boy—you've made some fine friends, haven't you?"
Rayegar praised his son with a thoroughly pleased expression.
'Huh?'
Had he only imagined it? It was too early to say for certain—but for just a moment, Bayul thought he glimpsed something warm in those golden eyes.
"Enough of this nonsense. Get to the point. Why did you summon us?"
"Oh, icy. We're meeting after all this time, and you're just going to keep snapping at me like that? It's about time you grew up a little, isn't it?"
"You're one to talk! The one who needs to grow up here is you, not me!"
"If I grew up, where would the fun be? You really have no idea how terrifying a true adult can be, do you? Keep fooling around like you are now, and that's it—blegh! Straight to the next world for you."
Rayegar drew a finger across his own throat.
"Why would I die? If anyone's dying, it's you! Go crawl back to hell where you belong!"
"Which direction, though?"
"What?"
"You'd need to know where hell is to get there, wouldn't you? This way? That way? No—maybe it's up top?"
He was a master of the art of teasing, grinning ear to ear all the while. Then as now, his talent for being insufferably smug was simply beyond compare.
Eli barely managed to smother the fire boiling in his chest and issued one final warning.
"Today is the last day you and I ever meet. Never show your face in front of me again."
"Afraid I can't do that. It seems I'll be 'coming to work' for the foreseeable future."
"...Coming to work?"
"There is a positively mountainous pile of documents waiting for my approval at the Academy. It would be irresponsible of me to keep putting off my duties, wouldn't it? Being the Chairman and all."
Not the sort of thing one says after a twelve-year absence from the place.
"Oh, right—and I've moved in. Just downstairs. A bit cramped, but it'll do."
"Wh-what kind of garbage is that?! Moved in? Why would you move in here?!"
Eli was flustered far worse than he had been upon learning his father was the Chairman of the Academy. To his stammering son, Rayegar answered with a gleaming grin.
"Why, because I want to live with my son, of course. So—that said—how about it? All of you, come over to our place this weekend?"