Chapter 168
Chapter 168
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 168
Chapter Title: The New Student Who Calls the Storm (2)
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"See you next time!"
"Yeah, get home safe."
Chloe took the textbooks and left.
Left alone in the faculty office, I picked up the letter again. Time had already drawn near to evening. Amid the leaking sunset glow, I read the letter.
「To be honest, there's nothing certain.」
The First Princess, Luriel.
I didn't know much about her. It couldn't be helped. It had only been a few months since I'd even become acquainted with her.
A few months—a time not even a full year.
That's far too short to truly understand someone. Hadn't it only been recently that I'd come to understand Cardi, whom I'd known for over a decade?
So, I didn't know Luriel the person precisely. I could only roughly gauge her character through the convictions she'd whispered to me.
'I don't know her properly.'
Still, if there was one thing I could be certain of about Princess Luriel.
「Therefore, Professor.」
「Perhaps this is merely my speculation.」
It was that she wasn't the type to casually voice assumptions.
"......"
I narrowed my eyes.
Princess Luriel was always someone who acted with haughty certainty. For her to write lines like 'it's not certain' or 'this is mere speculation' in a letter...
Slips of the tongue can happen.
It's impossible to control every word that leaves one's mouth, so people misspeak. But this was a letter. One she'd agonized over, word by word.
The sentences in the letter felt unfamiliar.
Did it mean the situation was so urgent that she had to commit speculation rather than certainty to writing? I still couldn't tell. I continued reading the letter.
「My brother is a sinister man. An inscrutable figure. What frightens me most is that he never reveals his true self. The word 'scheming' suits him perfectly.」
「I had to peer into his depths.」
「Just as he'd planted spies in my midst, I'd planted my own among his hands and feet. Thanks to your rampage, I was able to do so. I offer my thanks.」
「Of course, my brother is a thorough man.」
「He doesn't easily grant trust to anyone, so the information my spies gleaned was mostly trivial at best... but most things begin with the small stuff, don't they?」
[It's an eyesore.]
She discarded the spies and gleaned scraps of info from the rifts. I gathered them. After compiling and sorting, I succeeded in piecing together one sentence.
[Aphria Academy is an eyesore.]
What I'd uncovered was a single line.
I didn't know what sentences might follow or precede it. Just 'it's an eyesore.' From that one word, I spun many speculations.
Was it the talents there that irked him?
The Academy itself?
Or perhaps Aila?
I couldn't tell what it meant. While I pondered the sentence's true intent, events began unfolding one after another.
All the royal magic tools shut down.
The communication network went temporarily offline.
His faction moved amid the chaos.
And the figure I'd mentioned earlier made his move.
The madman, Kelrhalrm, headed for the capital. He announced his intent to visit Aphria Academy. The confusion intensified. Events began erupting in sequence, as if orchestrated.
...Perhaps it was all coincidence.
The magic tools all happened to stop.
Kelrhalrm happened to move in the chaos.
And purely by chance, just as my brother took issue with Aphria Academy, Kelrhalrm announced his visit.
Everything might just be coincidence, and all this mere delusion on my part. But I assume the worst possibility.」
"So that's why it's speculation and assumption."
I muttered, propping my chin.
It was a letter so very much like her. I gave a wry smile at the image of Princess Luriel it evoked.
"You could be certain about this much."
She must have her reasons for extreme caution. I couldn't know what the 'First Prince' meant to her.
From the letter's speculations, though.
From the glimpse I'd caught of her before.
'She must have suffered greatly.'
To Princess Luriel, the First Prince must be a nightmare-like existence. That was all I could think.
In summary, the situation boiled down to this.
「So, stay vigilant.」
The First Prince was targeting Aphria.
He was scheming 'something' amid the chaos in the palace, disrupting the communication network.
「I'll do my utmost from my position. I'll prevent the chaos from leaking outward. I'll restore the network and contact those who can set things right.」
I didn't know what methods she'd use.
Nor from which direction it'd come.
Among the pieces he could play were not mere soldiers, but even so-called superhumans.
「Once again, it seems I've come to ask a favor of you.」
That.
「That your face came to mind first in this chaos embarrasses me. Even as I write this letter... it's a bit absurd.」
I had to hold the line alone.
「I ask you.」
「Hold out until I resolve the chaos.」
In other words.
'Protect Aphria.'
That was the mission now laid upon me.
It hardly felt like a mission, though. I let out a short breath and set the letter on the table, muttering.
"It's something I had to do anyway."
I glanced at the emblem etched at the letter's edge.
A blood-red rose dusted with gold powder.
Its meaning: fitting recompense for blood spilled.
"Fitting recompense, huh."
Rather than writing out a reward, she'd etched a single emblem in reply.
'Well, whatever.'
I shrugged and pulled out the letter paper linked to Princess Luriel's magic tool from my pocket. It wouldn't activate properly now... but once the chaos was sorted, she'd surely check it immediately.
"Hm."
I wrote my reply on it.
No need for anything lengthy.
-Bring it on, whatever.
The same response as when I'd taken on that three-day escort duty.
After etching it, I rose from my seat.
"Man, no quiet days around here."
The last week of August, two days before the semester began.
Gazing at the sinking sun, I thought.
The semester's start would bring noise from the get-go.
2.
Aila was in turmoil.
One day before the semester started, she tapped the table with a thunk, thunk, hand to her forehead. Her mind just wouldn't settle.
"...I let my guard down."
The leaked words were self-reproach.
Aila felt pathetic toward herself. She scolded the version of her who'd been excited about building connections before the new term. Her expression twisted.
'I thought it'd be fine.'
I thought fleeing to Aphria would make it okay.
She'd had no intent to claim the throne, withdrawing early from the power struggle. Thus, she could divert her brother's attention.
Treated as nonexistent.
An unremarkable presence.
That's how she'd hidden herself. She'd schemed survival through concealment. Life in the palace had always been tense. Every moment a chain of choices.
"Aphria."
But the instant she'd arrived at Aphria, the tension melted away. She'd grown complacent. Away from the palace, she'd arrogantly assumed her brother 'wouldn't bother with her.'
[The First Prince is targeting Aphria.]
That single line from her sister strangled Aila's breath. Her platinum hair spilled across the table. She stared at the rippling locks with hollow eyes.
It was always like this.
The First Prince—her brother—never left her alone. What about her was so displeasing? To Aila, the First Prince symbolized terror.
「Those eyes.」
The First Prince she'd seen as a child.
When her talent as Stella had just awakened, Aila recalled the First Prince's visage.
「Don't look at me with those eyes.」
All humans have light.
Humans shine in myriad ways. But not that man. He didn't shine.
「Bow your head before me. Never lift it. Before I gouge out those repulsive shining eyes.」
It was darkness.
Something wearing human skin.
Yet Aila couldn't tell a soul. The First Prince's eyes and ears were everywhere. She'd seen those who badmouthed him vanish without trace. Many times.
Even her sisters among them.
Thus, Aila chose survival through silence. Servility was fine. She wanted to live.
'Whatever my brother targets, he claims.'
If someone irked him, he'd kill them, no matter who.
If something displeased him, he'd remove it.
What he resolved, he achieved.
Such a man was targeting Aphria. He'd made her, a student there, his mark. Knowing the arrowhead aimed at her, every nerve in Aila's body was on edge to the limit.
"...Why."
Her voice cracked.
"I've given up everything... why."
Why pursue her to this extent?
Aila swallowed. She stifled the weak sound threatening to escape. A princess had to be perfect at all times.
'Can't show weakness.'
She swallowed, lifted her head.
Donned a mask on her face. With her usual feigned smile, she calculated the coming crisis.
She didn't know the direction or method.
Thus, she had to stay tense.
Couldn't relax.
No one could protect her. She had to guard her own body. Fortunately, she had the means. Aila closed her eyes and attuned to the stars' voice.
'The stars always gave answers.'
Prophecy.
In every looming crisis, the stars showed Aila the path to survival. Surely this time too. Aila listened to the stars' voice.
【■■■】
She inclined her ear.
【■■■】
Inclined it again and again.
【■■■】
But nothing came.
"...Why?"
The stars' voice didn't reach her.
Aila opened her eyes. Her pupils quivered. Cold sweat trickled down her spine. Her white nightgown soaked through, clinging to her skin.
"Why... won't it come?"
The child loved by the stars.
The girl who trusted them because of that love.
"Why...?"
The deeper the trust, the heavier the betrayal.
With the stars' voice silent, the girl felt terror. Her constant companion in prophecy fallen quiet, she felt isolation.
Terror and solitude.
The girl's eyes shook fiercer than ever.
3.
The heat from the recent duel hadn't fully cooled when Aphria welcomed the new semester. September's air carried a subtle chill. Students streamed toward the grand auditorium for the opening ceremony.
"Belnoa, Belnoa, look over there...!"
"Stop gawking and keep up."
Chloe bounced about, pointing at the various facilities that had opened with the semester. Belnoa sighed and dragged her by the arm toward the auditorium.
"Wow...!"
Even dragged by Belnoa, Chloe's exclamations didn't stop. For her, this was the long-awaited Aphria opening ceremony. Her eyes sparkled.
'Come to think of it, the student representative pledge is by that person, right?'
She'd seen it in the academic notice.
Usually, the top student from each department did it... but this year was different. A special figure was enrolled among the students.
The Fourth Princess, Aila.
She would give the student representative pledge.
Even in Aphria, where all were treated equally as mages, it was impossible for anyone but the princess to represent a group containing one.
"Hey, Belnoa."
"What."
"What kind of person is the princess?"
Chloe's anticipation soared sky-high.
A princess, no less. One born of the realm's noblest blood.
"Hm..."
Faced with Chloe's expectant gaze, Belnoa looked troubled. What kind of person was Princess Aila? Truth be told, Belnoa didn't know well either.
'Haven't talked much.'
Only shared the representative pledge at the semester's start. Belnoa recalled her first impression of Princess Aila and slowly spoke.
"A bold person."
"Bold?"
"Poised and brimming with confidence."
Belnoa spoke just as she felt.
That was the vibe of the princess in her memory. Always composed, always confident. As if she had some unshakable backing.
"You'll get it when you see her."
So saying, Belnoa pointed to the auditorium.
See the princess on stage, and it'd click instantly. She had that aura that commanded crowds.
"Yeah, I'm looking forward to it."
Chloe beamed.
With anticipation, she stepped into the auditorium. But that excitement went unfulfilled.
That day, Aila did not take the stage.
The Fourth Princess Aila was absent from the opening ceremony.