A Hound Out of Nowhere
Choosing the pasture as their training ground had been an excellent decision. The stench of livestock dung was a trial they had to endure every single time, but just as they'd predicted, no one ever came looking for them there.
Thanks to that, Bayul's night training had gone smoothly. With his friends' wholehearted support, his ability to command water had grown by leaps and bounds, and with it, the empathic realm he shared with Innocent had grown finer and broader as well.
Apart from being a little worn out from having less time to sleep, it was a joyful and meaningful time for Bayul and his friends alike.
Just that day, something had happened. After finishing his riding lesson, Bayul had returned to the dormitory to change clothes—only to find every garment and every pair of shoes in his closet soaked through. Judging by the trail of water droplets leading from the bathroom, someone had sneaked in and set about the deed with deliberate care.
The culprit was obvious. There were no witnesses, and Bayul hadn't seen it with his own eyes, but he was certain. There was exactly one person in this academy who bore him a grudge.
Bayul was flustered, but he was different from before. If something got wet, you simply dried it. And besides, he had Innocent.
His next class was etiquette, a liberal-arts subject, and for a course like that, a neat appearance was mandatory. Lady Stone, the professor in charge, was the sort who would tremble at a single wrinkle in a uniform jacket and launch into a full-scale lecture over it. The culprit surely knew that too—that was why he'd staged today's little stunt. Had Bayul actually shown up to class in his riding clothes, demerits would have been a foregone conclusion.
The most surprised person of all when Bayul walked into the lecture hall was, as expected, Jared. At the sight of Bayul's ordinary, unruffled attire, the boy's eyes went round, then slowly turned ugly. He glared daggers at his flunkies.
They're going to suffer for nothing again because of me.
Watching them avert their gazes, Bayul felt a twinge of sympathy. They hadn't chosen Jared's side because they enjoyed it.
Bayul had been reminiscing about the day's events when Innocent's cry rang out.
"Bayul! Bayul! Look, I can do this too!"
He lifted his head, and she spun around in a twirl as if she'd been waiting all along.
Poof!
In an instant, a cluster of brilliant light wrapped itself around Innocent's body.
What is that?
Before the question could even settle, a mass of blue light shot past Bayul and streaked away behind him.
KABOOM!
"I-Innocent!"
Bayul screamed in shock. His friends, scattered across the training ground, came running over white-faced and out of breath.
"What was that? What happened?"
"Bayul, are you hurt?"
Once Quinn had confirmed with his own eyes that Bayul was unharmed, he was the first to sprint toward the site of the trouble.
"……!"
The scene revealed under the faint moonlight was nothing short of astonishing. Where the ground had been smooth and level mere moments before, there now yawned an enormous hole. It was a meter across, and a good two meters deep, if not more.
"Gah!"
Aidan and Eli, arriving right behind him, froze at the sight of the crater. As if on cue, they both turned to stare at Bayul—their eyes demanding he explain what on earth this was. But Bayul was just as much in the dark as they were.
"…Innocent."
Bayul looked blankly around for her. She came running at his call, giggling with evident satisfaction at the results of her own handiwork.
"What do you think, Bayul? Aren't I amazing?"
Her face was flushed with excitement, her giddy mood broadcasting itself to everyone present.
"It felt like I could do it too, so I just copied what I saw—and it's so much fun! It's kind of hard, though."
"You copied it? From what?"
"Yeah!"
"Where on earth did you see something like this?"
"Over there—you can see it from here. Ah, not right now, though."
The direction Innocent pointed was west of the academy. Among the handful of buildings there, the most prominent was a rounded tower.
"Don't tell me—the Practice Tower?"
At Eli's voice, everyone's heads turned.
"That's the place the Magic Department uses as a training hall. It's a space sealed with all kinds of protective spells so undergraduates can practice safely. We just call it the Practice Tower."
"Then Innocent…?"
"Yeah. If my hunch is right, she watched someone practicing over there. A hole like this means an offensive spell—Fireball or Air Burst, something of that kind."
It had been empty ground, thank the heavens. What if someone had been standing there? Bayul didn't care to imagine it.
"Innocent, never do that again without asking. This is far beyond playing around. Someone could get hurt."
"Hurt? Who?"
Innocent glanced around with a completely guileless face.
"No—nobody's hurt right now. I'm talking about next time."
"Next time?"
"Yes. Next time, you have to ask me first. Always."
"Aww, but it's fun."
"You did all that even though you'd burned through your energy?"
Once the shock wore off, Bayul finally noticed it: how sharply Innocent's vitality had drained with that single act. If he compared it to a person, it would be something like the feeling of panting for breath.
"I just need a little rest. I'll recover in no time."
"No more, Innocent. I'm glad you're so eager, but you gave everyone a real fright. What if someone heard the explosion and came running… huh? Ingrid?"
At Ingrid's sudden arrival, Bayul's heart lurched. Wasn't the little owl supposed to be standing watch? This was the first visit since their training sessions had begun.
"…What? A dog?"
As he accepted Ingrid onto the back of his hand, Aidan blurted something strange. The friends found the non sequitur just as odd—and yet, at the same time, it still amazed them how Aidan could actually converse with the bird.
"What did Ingrid say? Why would a dog come out of nowhere?"
"You mean the one that barks?"
"Yeah. But do we even have a dog at the academy?"
"If you don't know, what chance would the rest of us have?"
"Fair point."
As far as Aidan knew, there wasn't a single dog anywhere on the academy grounds. The animal population consisted of the livestock in the pens, the horses kept for riding and tournaments, the messenger pigeons at the relay station, Sebastiano of the Crow's Nest, and the cats that crept in to steal scraps from the dining hall. That was all.
If there had been a dog—or any other creature at all, dog or not—Aidan would have known about it. Inevitably.
That was when it happened. With a soft rustling, a dog really did appear before them.
"…Jasper?"
Half-swallowed by shadow, the animal's silhouette resembled Jasper. But a moment later, when the moonlight revealed it fully, the creature looked nothing like Jasper at all. Its coat was black as pitch—its eyes a deep sapphire blue, as though cut gems had been set into its face.
"…Is that thing really a dog?"
Even at a glance, it was no ordinary beast. Far from cowering at the sight of the group, it strode toward them with a bearing that was overwhelmingly imposing—intimidating from the very first step.
It was like the feeling of being stalked by some great predator. It was only a dog, and yet Bayul could not understand why it pressed down on him so heavily.
"Aidan, don't tell me you called it?"
It seemed possible—Aidan was unusually close with animals. Over the course of their night training, Bayul had observed that his affinity extended not just to Ingrid and Redmaine but to every creature he met. The livestock in the pens followed Aidan around to a degree that bordered on the uncanny; he'd witnessed it more than once.
"…This is wrong."
"What?"
Aidan, who had been staring hard at the approaching dog, murmured to himself.
"I can't see it."
"Can't see it? What do you mean?"
"Anything. All of it…"
Aidan kept muttering, hollow-eyed, like a man whose soul had left his body. Bayul couldn't tell what was wrong, but he had clearly taken a great shock.
"Pwyet! Pwyet!"
As if Ingrid had caught the storm of Aidan's feelings, the little owl fluttered to the ground in agitation, wings flapping in alarm. The livestock in the pens, too, began bleating and lowing all at once, as though they'd sensed an earthquake. In a heartbeat, the quiet pasture grew louder than any marketplace.
Through it all, the dog came on until it stood directly beneath Bayul's chin. Aidan was there, and Quinn, and Eli—yet as though its business lay with Bayul alone, it walked past every one of them and stopped only when it stood before him.
Up close, the look in its eyes was unfathomably deep. It felt nothing like the first impression its bearing had given.
Curiosity? Delight? Mischief?
Such uncertain things swam in those sapphire depths.
"What is this thing?"
For all its ominous arrival, it now had its ears laid flat and its tail wagging.
"What am I supposed to do with it playing cute at a time like this? Does it want a treat, or what?"
Eli snapped at it, but the dog's manner didn't change. If anything, it inclined its head toward Bayul, as if asking to be petted.
Hah.
He was all bulk and nothing else—his behavior was exactly like Jasper's.
What would he be doing about now?
In the old days, he would have been curled asleep at the foot of Bayul's bed, one ear left raised and alert. Even inside that fortress of a keep, he had never once been lazy in his duty as a guard dog.
Jasper.
The moment he thought of the friend he missed, his arm reached out on its own. The instant the softness of fur met his fingertips, his heart quietly opened. The dog pressed its head harder into his hand, plainly delighted.
"I don't know where you came from, but it seems you've taken a liking to Bayul here."
Eli and Quinn had worried for a moment at its sheer size, but it seemed no such worry was necessary, and they let their tension ease as they watched the two of them together.
"…That's impossible."
Aidan, meanwhile, kept staring blankly, possessed, mumbling words no one could make sense of. And so the night of their training deepened and deepened.
Chapter 6: The Interview
The golden weekend had arrived. Most students had gone home to the arms of their families, while those whose homes lay far away remained in the dormitories, kept to their own quarters, or set off for nearby towns to get some fresh air.
Last weekend, everyone had mobilized for an emergency strategy meeting after Bayul collapsed. This weekend was not like that. Aidan had to see the younger sister he'd missed last week, Eli had his weekend job, and Quinn said he had important business of his own to attend to.
"Once we walk out that main gate, it's goodbye for us. Sniff, I'll miss this!"
"Eli, be honest. You just don't want to go to work."
"Is it that obvious?"
"Extremely."
"Ugh, earning money has to be the hardest thing in the whole world!"
Eli heaved a sigh deep enough to split the ground, and Aidan thumped him on the back to cheer him up.
"That's money for you. You can spend it in a heartbeat, but earning it is anything but easy. Still, you get decent tips at least—me, I have to run myself ragged morning to night. Honestly, you're the blessed one here."
"Don't act like collecting tips is a walk in the park. Smiling sweetly at customers all day is its own special misery, thank you very much. And what do you mean, blessed? I'm going home to rest! Are you trying to pick a fight?"
"Technically I'm not resting either, for your information. I'm doing volunteer work!"
"Volunteer work?"
"Yeah! Entertaining a five-year-old is no joke. The little monster drains every ounce of stamina I have. Frankly, the part-time job is easier."
"Then why does your face look like that?"
"My face? What about my face?"
"Bayul?"
Eli called on Bayul, as if asking him to answer in his place.
"Pfft."
Laughter escaped Bayul before he could stop it. Only one word was written across Aidan's face: happiness. Heading home, Aidan looked happier than Bayul had ever seen him.
A child raised with love in a warm home. Bayul always got that feeling when he looked at Aidan, and it never failed to warm his own heart in turn.
"What are you laughing at?"
Aidan tilted his head and looked up at Quinn. You know, don't you? the glance asked—though of course Quinn had no idea. His entire response was a brief lowering of his gaze.
"…Hm?"
Still bickering as they walked, they reached the main gate before they knew it. Bayul was exchanging farewells with his friends when his eyes suddenly doubted what they were seeing. Because something that had no right to be there stood before them.
"No way… Black?"