Come With Me, Undine

Undine, you have to come with me...

The nature and ecology of monsters had yet to be fully brought to light. The word was only a catch-all for the countless living things born of the Snowfield and surviving as parasites upon it. The single fact that stood beyond doubt was that they bore malice toward mortals and were exceedingly aggressive. Everything else remained unknown, no matter how the research went on.

Say you heard that someone had snapped the leg off a monster—impossible to tell whether it was a snake, an earthworm, or a centipede—and found that the thing burned beautifully and gave off no smell at all. If you could let even that pass with a calm hm, sure, that could happen, then, and only then, might you claim the barest understanding of what a monster was.

Crackle...!

Hmm. It burned well. A charcoal scent rose off it, oddly fragrant, though one did have to make allowances for how dreadful the thing looked.

Cecilia did not seem particularly fond of it either. Again and again she stole glances between the monster, long since dead, and me; then, watching its leg blacken and spread through the flames, she flinched, ears pricking tight.

"It is a little disgusting, I'll give you that."

"...It's nothing. You needn't concern yourself."

"Still, that was something. Beautiful magic. Couldn't you just roast Ribikanji with it—or was it Razenkanji—and be done?"

Cecilia stared at me, blank. She probably hadn't understood a word. Hmm... was the name not Razenka?

"...Do you mean Lady Rebecca?"

"Ah, right. Her. The friend who looks like she's angry all the time."

"........."

"Anyway, if she starts getting on your nerves, just flatten her with magic. However gifted the Fox Tribe may be at communing with spirits, people who can ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠actually cast spirit magic are rare. That's proof you've got the talent."

"I'm grateful for the words, but Lady Rebecca is... a genius who reached the 5th Class at a young age. She isn't an opponent I can defeat, and when I consider her house, it becomes even more impossible."

"You still call her 'Lady'? The person who tried to drop you off a cliff and kill you? That's a peculiar habit."

"...It was my fault. I must have... made Lady Rebecca uneasy."

"You don't have to make excuses. If it's uncomfortable, you don't need to tell me now. I'm only showing you a way through the situation. The choice is yours."

At that, Cecilia stared at me with a stunned face. The shoulders she had been holding rigid ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠slowly came down. A self-mocking little laugh escaped her, and the face she had buried against her knees was blotched with a deep fatigue.

"...If I became strong like you, Professor, do you think I could stand a little taller?"

"I don't know why I'm the standard, but... fine. Setting the small things aside, why that, all of a sudden?"

"You know of the Blood Kin."

"The Blood Kin. The race that lives in the Snowfield. Known as the masters and creators of monsters. Unlike the monsters, they're one of the other races that possess reason and intellect."

"They are the Empire's great unfulfilled ambition—the greatest obstacle to pioneering the Snowfield. Their closed nature, of course, but also a degree of martial power that is horrifying, and the habit of drinking mortal blood to lengthen their lives. All of it only makes them more despised."

"Hmm..."

"As you know, Professor, we of the Fox Tribe are widely known as retainers of the Blood Kin. Because of a legend that, in the far distant past, the progenitor of the Fox Tribe shared a close bond with them. These ears and this tail are often taken for the marks of a monster as well."

The shapes and kinds of monsters were too varied to sort one by one. Some looked ordinary enough, almost familiar; others were horrors it was difficult to go on calling living things at all. Even so, it was hard to deny that a high proportion of them wore the outward form of beasts. Laid over the Fox Tribe's unrecorded legend, their ears and tails had long made easy prey for anyone who nursed hatred toward monsters and the Blood Kin. In the present day, even that had dwindled to nothing more than an outdated prejudice. Some people still held it, certainly, but many did not, and those rude enough to say it aloud could be counted on one hand.

"I know that sort of atmosphere still drifts around in places, but someone like Rebecca, handing out open slights and insults, ought to be uncommon. And they certainly wouldn't lure a person to a cliff and try to kill them over nothing more than that. Not a member of the same party."

"........."

"But it's also true that the Fox Tribe still isn't treated all that well. Offering up a child Cecilia's age—no older than a student—from the level of the race itself, into a rookie hero party that hadn't even been two years since its summoning... the intent is so obvious it's enough to bring tears to my eyes."

Cecilia kept her mouth firmly shut. Her clear eyes trembled, faintly. Had I struck the mark? I hadn't meant to corner her in the first place. I went on, the words bitter in my mouth.

"The Fox Tribe is a race blessed by the spirits. As far as their birth is concerned, they have no connection to monsters—none even to the Blood Kin. That much I can tell you for certain, staking everything I have. You were blessed. You have nothing to do with the Blood Kin."

".........You speak as if you have met the Blood Kin, Professor."

"The Blood Kin? Well. I wouldn't say I'm entirely unacquainted."

"Are the Blood Kin... strong?"

Cecilia, who had kept her face hidden, looked up at me—rare for her—and asked it carefully. I narrowed my eyes. It was as good as the first time she had asked me anything of her own accord. I needed a moment to think back.

Strong, was it. Let's see. By that measure...

"Hard to say. They differ, one from the next. But you know about the Blood Kin too, don't you? A Sixth Holy Sword party ought to have met more than enough of them. Wasn't the grand expedition's failure not long ago because the Blood Kin interfered at the very end?"

The Eastern Snowfield Grand Expedition, half a year past. Two heroes still in active service and one rookie had set out together to open the land, only to take a heavy blow at the hands of the Blood Kin. It had been one of the larger pieces of news in recent memory.

"...The Third Holy Sword and the Seventh Holy Sword commanded the vanguard. Our Sixth Holy Sword party, myself included, did not yet have a long record, so we were given the rear support. ...The Blood Kin appeared, and our party managed only to flee, and only just. Shamefully, at that."

"And the reason you came to the academy seems to have been recuperation, permitted by the Emperor."

"Our party is six, including me. The other three suffered injuries, large and small... They are being treated now at a hospital in the capital."

Cecilia's head began to dip, nod by nod. The tension must have come loose all at once. She could not win against the drowsiness pouring over her.

"If I became... strong, like you, Professor... then I, too... someday..."

Her voice thinned, fading the way a whisper does.

"If I could... see Teacher... again..."

"......Teacher?"

Teacher? Wait—Teacher?!

Had Cecilia ever once called me Teacher until now?

"T-t-t—Teacher?! Miss Cecilia, who in the world is that supposed to be?! Teacher is right here, I'll have you know!"

Whether I took it in through my ears or through ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠my nose, I understood at once that she was not talking about me. Teacher? Never in my dreams had I imagined there was another person like that besides me.

Boo-hoo. Teacher is truly, truly sad.

"When I was little... when I was still in my hometown... there was a teacher... who left me... behind..."

Cecilia's eyelids sank by degrees, and her breathing grew steadily more even. It was already too late to hear an answer. Time to quit the teasing.

".........Ha. She must have been tired."

I let out a short breath of a laugh even as I began constructing a margin in the empty air, so that she might sink into sleep a little more comfortably. As it happened, I knew one mental magic that would serve.

I laid my coat over her where she slept, and recited the incantation low.

"Undine."

"You called, my lord?"

The bubbles welling up, soft and round, held a faint light. Before long she took on a human shape, beaded with water, and showed herself between the dark walls of the cliff. Elegant silver hair caught the campfire and rose in shifting colors. As she came on with light steps, the sound of lapping water broke around her.

"Archmage Undine. I offer my greetings to my honored lord."

The combat uniforms the academy issued were trousers for everyone, with no distinction between men and women. Over those trousers, watery silk drew itself transparent beneath Undine's hands. With a soft rustle like the lifting of a skirt's hem, crystals of clear ice melted away in a faint scatter. I had no real idea what any of it meant, but she claimed it was a greeting with its own propriety.

I glanced at her and asked, short.

"How are things up top?"

"Professor Alexander has finished settling the aftermath. ...However, on the surface, it can only be handled as an accident. The hero Kim Yu-seong likewise has not grasped that this was Rebecca's doing, and the academy says that treating it as anything other than an accident ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠would carry a certain amount of risk on their side as well."

"If that's what the academy wants, there isn't much we can do about it."

"...It galls me."

Calm, and a little cold. Undine's face, gone chilly, was fixed on a far place—the top of the distant cliff.

"You need only give the order. The wicked ones who dared entangle my lord—Undine shall submerge them in a deep lake."

There was no lie in Undine's words. That was precisely why I chose mine with care.

"Undine."

"Do speak."

"I keep stressing this, but we must not move carelessly. That was the promise with the Chairman. I trust you remember."

"I understand."

She inclined her head, lightly. And then—of all directions. Undine's gaze came to rest on Cecilia, fast asleep.

"...This is terribly presumptuous of me, but before that, there is one matter I wish to ask."

I nodded, and in a thin voice she pointed at the coat covering Cecilia.

"That... that coat. Th-that is the coat you went out wearing this morning, isn't it? I'm certain."

"It is."

Tok.

And Undine's eyes died black in an instant.

Round and round. Her pupils seemed to turn, spinning, spinning. Round and round. So it was true.

Ah. Damn. Here we go.

Like soda going pop, Undine went bang and burst. And something in my gut went pop and burst with her. Her expression and her tone inverted in a heartbeat. Her face puffed up round as a bun, and then—

"Hmph! I knew it—you didn't come to see Teacher at all! Hmph! Yes, yes~ Sorry for interrupting your lovely little time~ This nuisance will just be going now~"

"...Undine! Where are you going! If you're leaving, at least get me out first...! I'm exhausted, I tell you. Use any more mana down here and I'll collapse! This is real depletion. I'm going to drop, ugh, just like this. You want the sleeping arrangements to be a complete mess?"

"Hmm~ Mana, is it?"

"Yes."

"Then who was it that struck a grand pose and said, 'Heh. This right here is a signature, rookie. Commit it to memory,' and burned through every scrap of mana he had and every scrap he didn't? Please think about the state of your own body!"

"A-a teacher wants to look a little cool in front of a student, all right?! And if you were watching from the start, then quote me properly. I never said anything that cringeworthy! Do you think agitation and fabrication solve everything?"

"My, my, Teacher. You were terribly kind to that fox young lady. Un.like.with.me."

"......Haha. I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about. I am the incarnation of equality and the very name of benevolence—Eugene Sir Neferna. The keywords I'm pushing these days are trust, equality, and philanthropy. Which is to say, I do not play favorites among my students."

"Hmph! A long tongue means there's a corner that stings."

And then, in a tone that was rarely sulky, Undine went on.

"You ignored me no matter how I begged you to be my advising professor."

"......Ugh."

"You even gave away the handmade pendant I pleaded and pleaded to have."

"Hhk...!"

"And now you're sitting all cozy by the campfire, getting chummy besides! That's mine, I tell you—mine!"

"Yours? Since when did I leave it in your care."

"A beach where the sunset is guttering out. In the cool wind I say, 'Oh, I'm cold♡,' and Teacher wordlessly takes off his coat—a heart-pounding, lovey-dovey, squealing-with-joy situation...♡ That was bucket-list item number 54-2, and yeeeeet... Huaaang... You only ever take my body and my heart... and now even my dreams and my delusions... I hate youuu..."

Undine made a keening, sniffling sound. Body and heart, though—anyone who overheard that would get the wrong idea, Undine.

"Am I nothing but cold leftovers now?! Even an official wife, if you neglect her this far, her heart will up and leave. Even a fish you've already caught will one day thrash right out if all you do is keep it penned in the pond!"

"Is that so."

"......I really hate you! You're awful, awful! I won't forgive you unless you starve for a good eight hours, clutch your empty stomach, and write me a reflection that says, 'My beloved Undine. Please, I beg you, won't you bake me an apple pie every morning. O my fairy, my life, my soul, and Undine, please marry me. I love you. Let us build a cabin for just the two of us in hills where the water is sweet and the air is clean. As for children, fifteen sounds right—healthy ones, with no preference between sons and daughters.'"

"No."

"Then half a page!"

"No."

"Please, j-just one sentence, just once...!"

What did she even want from me.

"It wouldn't mean anything, would it. You're... that... what am I supposed to call it............... hmm............... Ah, right! An incomparably special student, aren't you."

It was a line I had wrung out of my head in desperation, pure dodge. The reaction was so strangely quiet that I startled. Undine had dropped her head and shut her mouth entirely.

Wondering if she was truly angry, I looked her over with care—and there was Undine, red to the tips of her ears, forcing down the smile twisting at the corner of her mouth and refusing to meet my eyes.

"H... hmm~ Is that sooo...♡ Teacher has been thinking of me as special~♡"

"Of course. That's why—"

"Uehehe... I seeee...♡ Ehehe... Special, he says~ Of all thiiiings?! Ehehe! Honestly♡! You have to tell me things like that in advance! I nearly misunderstood♡! Dummy, dummy, dummy♡♡♡♡!"

"Undine..."

Are you hurt somewhere. I'm going to die, stabbed to death by hearts.

"Ahem! Oh my, Teacher~ I've shown you another unsightly side of myself. Please forget that disgrace just now. From this moment, I return to the elegant, refined, and perfectly at-ease Official Wife Undine."

"Undine... what are you even saying..."

I reached out in a hurry, but it did no good at all. Undine had already scattered into foam, and my hand only flailed at the blameless air.

"If you go alone, what are we supposed to do..."