Misaligned Bonds (2)
And just like that, Adel and Hino walked away.
Leaving me behind.
"Ha… that crazy bitch for real…"
I could more or less guess that Hino's sudden stunt was all my fault.
The prince's orders and my friendship with Adel.
Because I couldn't choose between the two, it was only natural that a moment would come when I would have to decide once and for all.
Right.
That was why Hino was pressuring me.
If I wanted to help Adel before something happened to her, I needed to make up my mind for certain.
I knew that, and yet—
"…This feels awful. Damn it."
Even knowing I would see Adel again tomorrow, my mood plummeted into freefall beyond any control.
Adel.
When I first met her after enrolling at the Academy, I had written her off as just another ordinary commoner student.
She had no presence, and the strangely dark air she carried made me not even try to get close.
Then, a week later—
After Professor Lutera's death, I witnessed her stop what nearly became another incident in the plaza with an action so shocking it left me speechless.
As if her own life meant nothing, she had jammed a loaded pistol straight against her own temple without a second thought.
In those eyes of hers were unbearable exhaustion, sorrow, fear, rage, helplessness—
A tangled mass of negative emotions beyond description.
Why show eyes like that?
Why wear an expression like that?
Why choose an action like that?
I was curious.
I wondered if, perhaps, she carried memories of the battlefield the way I did, and that was why she looked that way.
What could have driven her to such desperation?
As if he had read my thoughts, the crown prince—true to form—issued an order so thoroughly unpleasant under the pretext of testing my loyalty.
Adel, was it? Keep an eye on that commoner girl. Anyone who can pull a stunt like that without hesitation is clearly no ordinary commoner. She looks like the type to cause trouble sooner or later, so better to take preemptive measures than regret it later. Watch her carefully and report back.
That order had been issued on the premise of Adel's death.
…And I had accepted it without a second thought.
Only to stand here now fretting over whom to choose.
Even I found it laughable.
Ha, friendship?
All that agonizing over an emotion that wouldn't help me one bit.
From the start, my situation and my family's were far too dire to indulge in something so luxurious.
I would have been better off believing fairy tales about a castle of happiness floating beyond the clouds.
Even now, putting distance between myself and Adel was the right call.
Hino knew that too—that was why she had deliberately pulled that irritating stunt to pressure me.
So…
"…Your Highness."
"Oh? What brings you here at this hour?"
"I have completed the order."
"Have you? And how was it?"
So I would pretend not to know.
Yes. That was for the best.
The way Adel had wept before Professor Lutera's grave, the way she had smiled so happily while clinging to me, the way she had giggled with delight picking up coins at the fountain, the razor-thin edge of her taking stimulants just to win a duel—
"She was an ordinary commoner."
"Hmm. Feels like you're hiding something. Is that the truth?"
I was the one putting Adel in danger.
There was no way I could dare call myself her friend.
I forced my face into a blank mask and looked straight at the crown prince, who sat coiled like a viper.
His eyes were the same green as Adel's, yet the sinister light within them was the complete opposite.
"She simply has a somewhat extreme personality, nothing more."
"And that is all you managed to learn in all this time?"
"…Yes."
Had he sensed something from me after all?
The prince chuckled low in his throat, then waved a hand in casual dismissal, as if he had no further need of me.
"If you say so, then so it is. But as you well know, I am a suspicious man."
"…Pardon?"
"Of all times, while you were the one watching her, your political rival Burgain was rendered impotent. Anyone—not just me—would find that suspicious."
No.
Was he changing his mind now, of all times?!
"You may go. I will entrust the second round of surveillance to someone else."
"…"
I closed my eyes.
Beyond that pitch-black abyss, I caught fleeting glimpses of pink hair fluttering in the wind.
There would be no chance of growing close to her again.
Haha…
Afraid he might hear even the grinding of my teeth, I bit down hard on the inside of both cheeks to kill the rage boiling in my gut, and bowed my head.
One knee to the floor, waist bent low.
Only after I had shown him the complete submission he so loved did the crown prince's expression ease, if only a fraction.
…That monstrous bastard.
I did not hesitate. I fled the room.
Whether from tension or fury, both legs trembled violently, but that was not enough to stop me.
I had no idea where to go.
Even so, I had to keep walking.
I could not stop.
…On any other day I would have been tailing Adel by now, watching whatever outrageous thing she got up to next.
But having abandoned the surveillance order, I no longer had any justification. Acting suspiciously on my own was out of the question.
"Kh…"
Ah.
I had bitten my cheeks too hard.
A chunk of flesh tore free, and hot blood flooded my mouth along with a thick, metallic warmth.
—Gulp.
Just as I always had, I swallowed the flesh and blood together with my rage, forcing it all down.
The only thing that changed as I walked aimlessly was this:
To stop the blood seeping between my lips and through the cracks of my fingers, I turned my steps toward the mansion. That was all.
While Hino carried the unconscious Adel away and Novena, left alone, slowly began to fall apart—
Someone else finally regained consciousness late that evening.
"Kh… Aaaaaaaagh!!"
It was Burgain, who had unintentionally ended up lying in the mansion's infirmary wearing a diaper.
The moment the anesthesia wore off and he opened his eyes, the pain hit him.
A searing agony as if one of his legs had been severed, paired with the hollow sensation of something that should have been there simply… gone.
Burgain could not accept reality.
Something this horrific could never have happened in the first place.
He was a noble who had mastered the swordsmanship of a distinguished house. Losing to some lowborn commoner was simply impossible.
So this had to be a dream.
The tension of finally getting to duel again after so long must have conjured this absurd nightmare and left his entire body clenched tight.
Right.
If he just got up and exacted proper revenge on that commoner bitch, this filthy feeling would vanish.
"Ghhh…!!"
But Burgain could not rise.
"Y-Young Master, please calm yourself! The anesthesia has not fully worn off yet! If you try to get up now—"
"What the hell is going on here!!"
It was not a dream. It was reality.
From the fact that he was wearing a diaper meant for infants who could not control their bowels, to the complete absence of sensation that should have been present in his lower body—
Unable to watch any longer, the butler finally began explaining the situation in a carefully composed voice.
"Young Master… from this day forward, you will be unable to engage in normal sexual intercourse."
"What… what does that mean…? What are you saying!!"
"Exactly what it sounds like."
In moments like this, it was all the more necessary to remain calm and make the situation unmistakably clear so that it could be accepted.
For his young master's sake—for the sake of the man who had been the family's sole heir—the butler declared it firmly.
"It means you have been castrated, Young Master."
"Ugh… Uwaaaaaah!! N-Nooooo!!!"
Thrash, thrash.
Like a freshly caught live fish, Burgain flopped and flailed across the bed, thrashing his entire body in a frenzy.
Faced with such undignified, irrational behavior he had never shown before, the butler lowered his head with a heavy heart.
It could not be helped.
No matter how pathetic the sight, as a fellow man he could understand exactly how Burgain felt.
"All physical wounds have already been fully treated. However, for a while you may find blood mixed in your urine. Additionally, depending on your will, you may experience severe phantom pain."
"Stop spouting that bullshit and bring me a solution!!"
Fumble, fumble.
Burgain frantically groped around his bedside.
Unlike usual, the treasured sword that should have been at his side was nowhere to be found.
"M-My sword!! Where is my sword?"
"…His Lordship has confiscated it."
It was over.
The fragile will that had been holding Burgain's reason together shattered completely.
Barely a day had passed since the duel, yet word had already reached them; for all practical purposes, Burgain had been cast out of the family.
"Get out! Go find a solution!!"
"Y-Young Master!"
"Get out, I said!! Do you think I'm a joke too?! Get the hell out!!"
Burgain's eyes rolled back as he began snatching up anything within reach and hurling it wildly.
Tables and the like smashed against the walls with a deafening crash; alarm clocks and all manner of objects flew without pause.
In the end the butler never even managed to deliver the order the family head had instructed him to pass on. He fled the room in a hurry, arms raised to protect his head.
"Hoo… hoo…"
Left alone in the room, Burgain.
No matter how he thought about it, that commoner bitch was no ordinary cunning little snake.
On ordinary days she wandered around looking half out of her mind, acting as if she were completely harmless.
Yet her fighting skill—and the way she had aimed for a man's most vital part at the end—had been nothing short of brutal.
Just as his father and His Highness the Crown Prince suspected, that girl was clearly connected to some faction or other.
The problem was that he still had no idea who was behind her or what her goal was, and in his current condition he could not recklessly throw himself at her again.
He no longer even had the confidence to beat her one-on-one.
"Damn it… isn't there a better way?"
With that Novena bitch glued to her side, any half-baked scheme would be shut down immediately.
"Wait. Ha, that's right. There was that."
As always, a path forward existed.
He already knew the details of the sweep operation scheduled for the end of this week.
The masterminds behind those who had attacked the Academy.
In a raid operation that dangerous, an "unfortunate accident" was hardly unusual.
And even if no "unfortunate accident" occurred, one might still uncover some "unexpected truth."
"Kh… It'll be easier if you just die, you bitch!"
The price for daring to take what was most precious to him would be everything she held dear.