Course Registration Comes First
"Quinn!"
"Huh? Bayul!"
Quinn, who had just finished her business (?) and was hurrying off somewhere, lit up with delight at the sight of Bayul.
"I was actually on my way to find you. Perfect timing."
All trace of the person who had moments ago radiated icy fury and unleashed a torrential drenching had vanished. Gazing at Bayul with the gentlest tone and softest eyes, Quinn asked,
"You haven't registered for classes yet, have you?"
"Course registration?"
"Yeah. On the first day of the semester, you have to fill out and submit a registration form. You're a transfer student, so I figured you wouldn't know. If we want to take classes together, we should register together."
"Ah, that makes sense."
Only two of their close friends belonged to the School of Administration. Taking classes in the same department as Quinn, who was also his roommate, would certainly make life easier in many ways.
"Quinn! You turned the whole situation into a war zone, and now you're talking about something as cozy as course registration?"
Aidan, who had been following behind, stared at her with genuine disbelief. Logan said nothing, but the way he kept glancing over his shoulder suggested something was seriously wrong — he was moving as if bracing for an attack from behind. As for Schubik, he was nowhere to be seen.
"What did I do wrong?"
"You're asking because you genuinely don't know? How is it that your face has 'I have no idea about anything' written all over it?"
"Then explain it so I can understand."
"Whoa! He really doesn't know, does he?"
Aidan stepped right up to Quinn.
"You just made a colossal mistake. Every single student in the Magic Department and the Theology Department is about to hate your guts!"
"Why? All I did was break up a pathetic fight."
"Sure, it looked pathetic to you. But those guys had staked their lives on that pathetic fight."
"So?"
"And then you ruined it! The whole thing was supposed to end with a clear winner on one side or the other today, settling everything cleanly — but thanks to you, the outcome came to nothing. Where do you think all that rage is going to go?"
"...Humans really are an insufferable species."
It was, if anything, Quinn who had been held up on the very first day of the new semester, her precious time squandered because the brawl had blocked the road. She had barely kept her temper in check and ended the fight before anyone got seriously hurt, and yet they had the gall to blame her.
"This is going to be a headache from now on."
She had genuinely intended to make the most of her remaining time at the Academy, but it was obvious a grudge had taken root.
"We're going to get dragged into the misery right along with her."
"Aidan..."
Bayul shot him a look that said that's enough, but Aidan had no intention of letting up.
"Can't I even say this much to someone who caused this mess on her own?"
"Have you always been the type to cover for people? I had no idea. Don't worry — if anyone asks, I'll say we're not that close."
"Everyone's already seen us hanging around together. Who's going to believe that, Quinn? We're all getting tarred with the same brush! Did you not see the faces of those seniors you drenched a minute ago? It was murder in their eyes, I'm telling you. Anyone who looks at us is ready to pick a fight?"
"Oh, come on. Surely it won't go that far..."
Bayul assumed Aidan was exaggerating.
"You might get off easy, Bayul. You're the son of Duke Randert, after all."
"You're in pretty much the same position, aren't you?"
By now, there wasn't a soul in the Academy who didn't know that Aidan was the scion of House Leonett, the masters of Carrington itself.
"And Eli's the Chairman's son and a Magic Department student, so he'll have some cover too."
"I can handle myself, so you needn't worry."
As Quinn's gaze finally turned to Logan, he spoke first. Truth be told, neither his family nor his skills fell short of the others, so he might well count as an exception too.
"So it's just me, then."
Quinn was a mermaid, a race that humans tended to look down on. And she was the one who had unleashed the water barrage in the first place — practically an open invitation for anyone looking to torment someone.
"Things got a little easier after that bastard Jared left, and now look — fate really does love to chew me up."
At Quinn's cynical reaction, Bayul felt something in him flare. The idea that the fury of two entire departments should land on Quinn was, frankly, absurd.
"Which brings me to..."
Aidan carefully broached the real matter at hand.
"About the money you lent me at the night market. Any chance you could knock a little off the interest?"
"What?"
Quinn couldn't believe her ears. It was the last thing she'd expected to hear given the current situation. Bayul and Logan were no less dumbfounded.
"If you do that, I'll protect you."
"...You'll protect me?"
"Yeah!"
"How?"
"I've got my talents, don't I?"
"...You mean the communion with animals?"
"No, how would I even use that here? Have the animals guard you?"
"Then what will you do?"
"Raise hell."
"...You'll do what?"
"As a rule, when you're being bullied, you fight back with even bigger hell. That way nobody dares trample on you."
"So what you're telling me is, your so-called talent is raising hell?"
"You saw what happened to me at Demons One and Two's place, didn't you? I'm the one who survived fifteen years there. My ability is enormous, you know!"
And who, exactly, was the one who had written letters begging to be rescued and even staged a secret escape?
Bayul decided it would be cruel to break the mood, so he quietly kept his mouth shut.
"A trade shouldn't flow in only one direction, that's all. A man should see some fruit from his labor, shouldn't he?"
"You said you didn't need interest when you lent it in the first place."
"Ugh, as a merchant's son, I simply cannot allow that! I'm going to pay it all back in one lump sum as soon as I come into some money, so just do the math properly. Lowering the interest rate would be even better."
"You... you're actually serious, aren't you?"
"What, you thought I'd been joking this whole time?"
Aidan's face went dead serious, his eyes blazing.
"I'm only doing this because I'm fond of you! Anyone else, and they'd be getting nothing!"
"I'm too flabbergasted to think of a single word to say."
"Just you wait. Sooner or later you'll be begging to have that Bjon fellow or whatever his name is — your royal escort — brought to the Academy."
"...Is it really that bad, Aidan?"
To Bayul's worried question, Aidan replied with unusual gravity.
"It's different from the Jared situation. If you knew the tangled, long-running, and frankly childish history between the Theology and Magic Departments, Quinn, you would never have stepped in today. And here's a word of warning while I'm at it — you should be careful around the department professors too."
By Aidan's account, this meant every member of both departments would be openly tormenting Quinn. Clearly, this was no time to stand around in a daze.
"Quinn, let's go. Right now!"
"Go where?"
"This doesn't look like a problem that'll solve itself."
"See? What did I say."
"But I do know someone who can solve it easily."
Who?
Under his friends' puzzled stares, Bayul answered without a moment's hesitation.
"The Chairman."
"What?"
"Who?"
It was sheer fortune that Eli wasn't here.
"You want us to go see him? Without Eli?"
"All the better that he's not here."
Quinn nodded in agreement.
"This is a matter between departments. Judging by how long it's gone unresolved, the Headmaster clearly intends to look the other way. So who does that leave? This is something only the Chairman can sort out, isn't it? He had Jared expelled with a single stroke, remember."
"That's right, he did. I'm in favor."
With Logan backing him, Bayul found his confidence.
"Let's move first, before the wrong report reaches the Chairman's office."
"What are you going to say?"
"The truth, obviously. And..."
"...?"
"I thought I might lean on the Chairman's fatherly love a little."
"What did you just say? Lean on whose love for what?"
Aidan scrunched up his face with all the distaste he could muster, as if he'd overheard something he was never meant to hear.
All this time, Rayegar had made a particular habit of teasing Eli and needling him in front of his friends. Whatever Eli's own feelings on the matter, it had only deepened their dislike of the man.
And yet, somehow, Bayul couldn't shake the feeling that this wasn't Rayegar's true heart. Every time he recalled the warm glances the Chairman had occasionally cast toward Eli, a strange thought would take root — that there might be some other reason he simply couldn't act otherwise.
"Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained. For Quinn's sake if nothing else, we have to try something."
"Right, let's go."
In the end, even Aidan made up his mind. The absence of Eli nagged at him, but he chose to believe that if he visited later and explained himself, Eli would understand.
"Does it really have to come to all this?"
"We're doing this because of you, Quinn. You don't get to complain. If you really hate it, should we ditch you right now? I can pretend not to know you very conspicuously while you're getting ganged up on!"
"...If this settles everything, I'll take you out on a boat."
"Our place has faster boats than yours, you know."
"That wouldn't be a Mermaid Kingdom vessel, though, would it?"
"...A Mermaid Kingdom boat?"
"You could stop by for a quick visit, if you have time."
"Where? To your Mermaid Kingdom?"
"What, would you rather visit some neighboring country?"
"No! No! Of course we're going! Who could refuse the opportunity of a lifetime!"
Aidan spun around boldly.
"The Chairman's office is this way, right?"
"It stays a secret from Eli."
Everyone could predict exactly how much chaos would erupt the moment Eli learned the truth. Sometimes, ignorance really was bliss.
But the instant they opened the door to the Chairman's office, Bayul and his friends' hearts dropped. Sure enough, Eli was already there.
"What are you all doing here?"
The boy who'd asked that suddenly fixed his adoptive father with a razor-sharp glare.
"Don't tell me you invited these brats again. Did you?"
"No, I didn't invite them?"
Rayegar waved his hands in absolute denial, but Eli was hardly the type to swallow that so easily.
"Don't lie to me. Why did you call them this time? Curious about where I went over the break?"
"Seems you've been somewhere I'm not supposed to know about? Where was it?"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Why did this father and son never change the way they talked to each other? No blood ran between them, and yet when you watched them like this, they couldn't have resembled each other more.
"Eli, the Chairman is telling the truth. We came on our own."
"...You did? Really?"
"Yes. It was my idea."
"What's going on?"
If Bayul had come, it was never for nothing. Eli calmed his agitation for a moment.
"May we sit for a while?"
"Suit yourselves."
At Bayul's courteous request, the Chairman offered them seats. With Bayul at the lead, the friends settled onto the sofa side by side.
"Before I state our business, I ask that you understand that Quinn bears no fault whatsoever."
"...Hmm?"
"Quinn only stepped in because the fight between the Magic Department and the Theology Department had grown so large that there was no other way to mediate it. There was no other reason."
"You mean the matter of her dumping a torrent of water in the middle of the brawl?"
"...You already know about it?"
When Bayul blinked in surprise, Eli spoke up.
"Why do you think I'm here?"
"Ah... now that you mention it..."
Eli dreaded Rayegar so thoroughly that Bayul hadn't thought it through. If Eli, who'd been at the heart of that pitched battle, was in this room right now, it could only mean he had something to say about it. Bayul felt suddenly foolish.
"A brawl between the two departments is unprecedented. However bad their relations, they've never spiraled this far out of control. There are matters between the adults involved here that we don't fully understand."
"We know the broad strokes."
"No. You know a sliver. A very, very small sliver."
Eli was serious.
"If it weren't for Quinn today, someone would have died — or ended up half-crippled. Everyone was fighting like lunatics."
His face, saying all this, was remarkably unscathed. Whether to call it fortunate that he alone had come through unharmed was anyone's guess.
"Anyway — that's why I came to ask a favor too."
A favor? Of you, asking your adoptive father directly?
"Someone once told me a rotten tree bears no good fruit. So you have to tear it out by the roots."
So that it never again interrupts my amusement.
"Do you even understand how dangerous a statement that is?"
"Probably more than you do?"
"Well, you are a Magic Department student."
He would have heard far more of it directly.
"And damn it all, the only person standing in front of me who can clean this up is you... You'll do it, won't you?"
"Is that any way to make demands of your father?"
"I learned from the very best, after all."
Rayegar let out a quiet chuckle at his son's retort — for the one who had taught him to make his demands boldly, anywhere and everywhere, was none other than himself.
The strange thing was how, before the break, Eli had growled at the mere sight of him, yet was now dealing with him with such uncharacteristic composure. As if he'd gone off somewhere and quietly taken etiquette lessons.
"This is why I was determined to stay the Gentleman of the Wind."
Rayegar made a great show of his exasperation, then added,
"In any case, you lot go on back. I'll handle this matter myself."
"But I haven't stated my terms yet?"
"You want to move into the estate and live there, don't you?"
"...Sharp as ever, I see."
"Then the bargain is struck. Watch and see just how splendidly I resolve this affair. The Academy's precious students must suffer no further harm."
Had the Chairman ever been this dependable before?
Having only ever seen him tormenting Eli, adjusting to this wasn't easy. Bayul even found himself looking forward to seeing how the man would handle the whole affair.
"So, a blade-storm is about to sweep through the Academy?"
Aidan whispered as they stepped out of the office.
"It could turn into a storm of blood."
"Looks like a full-scale purge is about to begin."
"Something to keep in mind for course registration."
Quinn's remark snapped Bayul back to attention.
"Professor Rothius will surely be safe, won't he?"
"He's the Emperor's own brother. Surely he won't cut him down?"
Whatever mistakes the man had made, he was someone who had to be spared. There were several other professors Bayul deeply respected, too. Wishing for all of their safety, Bayul and his friends finally let their hearts settle.
Thus the clamorous first day of the semester drew to a close in something resembling peace.