9. The Academy Entrance Ceremony Is the Antonym of Peace

The oni tribe was a warrior race.

From their days as nomads in the distant past to the present, now that they had built a nation, the fact that they were a warrior race had not fundamentally changed.

Regardless of the number of horns, their placement, skin color, physical traits, or the type of tattoos they bore, combat was always directly tied to honor for them.

And that honor had nothing to do with winning or losing a battle.

Even in defeat, if one had fought with sincerity, it was no disgrace; even fleeing to survive was no disgrace.

What, then, counted as disgrace? Losing once and never challenging again was disgraceful. Winning once and refusing a challenge was disgraceful too.

Never ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠settling for the present. Struggling without end.

That, above all, was the history and identity of the oni tribe.

That was how the Mark of Vengeance came to be.

It didn't have any particularly powerful effect, wasn't a curse, and couldn't reveal the other party's location.

It did, however, have just two functions.

One was a warning to other oni: This one is my rival. I have called dibs, so keep your hands off. The other simply marked someone so the oni would not pass them by without noticing.

In the past,

In the truly distant past, when oni were treated as monsters like the dokkaebi of old folktales, humans feared the mark and could have it purified by the Church.

But now, millennia later, with the oni tribe civilized, few people bothered to worry about the mark and go to the church for purification.

So I had forgotten about it too.

I had never expected to fight an oni, never expected that oni to fixate on me enough to place a Mark of Vengeance on me, and certainly never imagined that the oni would become my upperclassman.

Fortunately, the poker face I'd honed through years of acting didn't betray my bewilderment.

"A Mark of Vengeance? On me?"

"Yes. When do you think you fought me?"

"Uh... Perhaps you marked me when you hit me at the festival?"

Fortunately, the Mark of Vengeance was not something engraved solely upon a rival or upon someone who had forced an oni to their knees.

To reiterate, their honor lay in struggle and in challenge.

Sometimes the mark was engraved to signal that, should those who had been defeated by them in the past come to challenge them, the challenge must not be refused.

Skadi accepted my point and moved on.

Oni were the kind of people who had fought more opponents in their lives than loaves of bread they had eaten.

As Great Warrior of the Temple of War, she must have dedicated battles against hundreds of people at the festival to the Goddess of War.

So it was only natural that she didn't remember me.

Fortunately, she accepted my excuse and let the matter drop.

Except, like the capricious oni of legend, she suddenly shifted her interest to my combat ability.

"Now that I think about it, sitting here means you are this year's top freshman in the Hero Department, right?"

"Yes, that's right."

"So you must be pretty strong, then?"

"Yes. Embarrassing as it is to say so, I believe I am."

"Is that so? Then let's fight sometime."

"Huh?"

"You've got the Mark of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Vengeance and all. So you'll have to get your vengeance at least once, won't you?"

"Uh..."

The instant I refused, I would become a dishonorable junior in her eyes.

I did not know where Skadi ranked among the second-years, but a woman who held the center position in a dance team was surely among the most socially connected students on campus.

I did not want to earn an upperclassman's displeasure before I had even enrolled, so I found myself accepting her challenge.

"Then it's a promise! I'm off for now!"

Then she dashed back to her teammates to prepare for the performance.

Only after she was sufficiently far away did Karl, beside me, mutter in a low voice.

"How should I put it... truly..."

"Like a storm, you mean?"

Leon had been choosing his words in case anyone overheard, but he agreed with me.

She was indeed like a storm.

She was so much like a storm that Karl had been left half exhausted.

"Hey. Snap out of it."

"Ughhh... Is she gone?"

"She's gone, man."

Karl had spent most of his life in Magic Tower laboratories and devoted what remained to guarding Leon. He was the loner of all loners.

Just as a vampire feared the sun, it was a law of nature that he was terrified of Skadi.

Well, with Skadi now gone, I figured he'd recover on his own soon enough, and turned my eyes back to the screen.

On the screen, a choreographed dance set to the traditional instruments of the oni tribe was underway.

I had expected Japanese-style instruments because they were oni, but surprisingly they played gayageum.

As I enjoyed the clear ringing notes and considered what kind of production might suit the music, someone blocked my view again.

"?"

"Hmm."

A two-meter-tall hulk stood between me and the screen.

He looked down at me with folded arms, but armor covered his entire body, making it impossible to tell how he was looking at me behind the visor.

I searched my memory, wondering what the hell this was about, but no such guy was in my recollection.

Leon, too, looked up at the hulk with puzzlement, but the guy just kept going "Hmm, hmm," and blocked the screen.

As this strange standoff continued, a woman's voice calling Leon came from behind us.

"It's been a while, Leon."

"So it is Pia."

I leaned my head back and saw a large-breasted woman with the same flowing blond hair as Leon looking toward us.

Seeing her upside down, I was still trying to place her when her familiar 'Hoo hoo!' laugh revealed her identity.

Pia Parma.

She was Leon Parma's half-sister.

If Leon was the firstborn son of the First Empress, then she was the firstborn daughter of the Second Empress.

Pia had been born in the same year as Leon. In descending age, the order was me, Leon, Pia, and Karl. This was important: I was the oldest.

Having been born in the same period, one might expect Leon and Pia to have grown up together, but ironically, the two of them were exceedingly awkward with each other.

The reasons were many.

Because the roles expected of her and Leon were different, the two of them could not be raised in the same place.

Leon had prepared to become Emperor since childhood, while Pia had been barred from even considering succession and taught only how to become a bride.

It wasn't particularly because she was a woman.

Imperial succession did not discriminate by the ruler's sex; the Empire's history even included empresses regnant.

The issue, rather, was that she was the Second Empress's daughter.

Polygamy was legal in the empire, but the right of succession was not doled out equally to all.

Barring special cases, succession rights were granted only to the legitimate children.

Therefore, even though she was born in the same period as Leon and shared the same father, she could not receive the same treatment.

And even among the same father's children, the expectations and benefits granted to a child with succession rights versus one without were different.

However, she had rejected that treatment.

She had pestered the Emperor until he let her abandon bridal lessons and study statecraft and politics. She was now Leon's nominal rival for the succession.

So, to her, what kind of existence could Leon possibly be?

There was no need to even ask.

"I heard you are the top student of the Political Science Department this time."

"Is that so? Have you come to congratulate me?"

"No. I came solely to declare war on you. You took the top seat at the entrance ceremony, but I intend to claim it soon."

"Very well, do your best."

Looking down at Leon in his chair, she spoke in a low voice.

Her voice held no cute competitive spirit. It held hostility.

Leon merely answered that hostile gaze with a shrug of his shoulders.

"By the way, this is the waiting room for the freshman representatives. Are you permitted to be here?"

"Of course. I am also a freshman representative. I sent the academy an official notice that I would speak at the entrance ceremony. Since you stole the top position, I must at least do this if the world is to learn the name Pia Parma."

"So everything that happened this morning was your fault."

"Pardon? Did something happen?"

"Sigh. Never mind. You do not need to know."

I had thought all this bullshit since morning was Leon's fault, but the culprit was someone else entirely.

For an instant, I wanted to drive a piledriver into her, but doing that to royalty seemed unwise, so I suppressed the urge.

Upon hearing Pia's confession, Leon muttered, "Well, that figures..."

Unfortunately, Pia Parma was far less suited to become Emperor than Leon.

Not slightly less. Far less.

Her perspective was narrow, and her social awareness was poor.

Perhaps because she had been raised too gently, she ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠did not understand the consequences her actions could have and was bad at reading the room.

The Emperor had permitted her to study statecraft instead of bridal etiquette not merely because he doted on his daughter, but because he knew she could not disturb the succession even if she tried.

The look Leon gave Pia was not one directed at a rival, but at a little sister going through belated adolescence.

If Leon had genuinely been hostile toward her, I would have stopped her before he even gave the order.

Having chattered on beside Leon for a while thereafter, she ran out of steam on her own and withdrew.

Then, realizing she was no match for Leon, she shifted her target to me.

"Oh, Allen. It is a pleasure to see you. Have you been well?"

"Yeah. I've been fine. How many years has it been?"

Rude, but so what.

I spoke casually even to Leon and, outside formal occasions, called the Emperor 'old man.'

In a private setting like this, I had no reason to use formal speech with a young lady who wasn't even the crown princess and held no substantive claim to the succession.

As if my casual speech bothered him, the hulk who had been blocking my view of the screen flinched for a moment.

But she herself was long accustomed to my informal speech, and brushed past it without concern.

In fact, she answered me in a bright voice tinged with a hint of laughter.

"Exactly two years and five months."

"You were keeping count of that?"

"Hoo hoo. Is that not a basic royal quality?"

"Quality, my ass. You'd be better off studying other things than memorizing stuff like that."

"Hoho. I am already perfect, so I have no need to study anything else."

She merely laughed off my sarcasm.

It was an incredible shift in attitude, hard to believe from someone who had been antagonizing Leon just moments before.

But I didn't see her change of attitude as strange.

Leon might have been one thing, but she had no reason to antagonize me.

Unlike Leon, whom I only happened to encounter in palace corridors, I met Pia more often than one might expect and spent time playing with her.

Not as often as with Leon, but when he was busy—or when the two of us caused trouble and were banned from the main palace—I often went to the secondary palace to play with her.

In particular, whenever I played a prank on Leon, I'd frequently hide in her room, and to this day, Leon still had no idea that place was my hideout.

To her, I was what people might call a childhood friend... not quite, but a close neighborhood friend.

She knew my personality well.

I was Leon's closest confidant, but unlike the other confidants, I didn't care for conspiracies or the like.

I simply preferred charging straight at a problem in full view.

Unless she antagonized me first, I had no reason to oppose her. If anything, I was the one who would stop Leon from harming her.

Knowing that, she always greeted me with a smile.

"You've grown quite a lot while I haven't seen you."

"Ahem. I worked very hard while you ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠weren't visiting the secondary palace, Allen."

"What was that manner of speech?"

"Um... Is it strange? A young lady I met at a tea party told me that men liked women who spoke this way..."

"Just speak the way you always do. We will see each other every day at school. Can you maintain that act for long?"

I must have said something wrong, because her face suddenly reddened and she fanned herself with one hand.

"Every day? Every day with Allen? I did not expect—"

She murmured something too quietly for me to hear. Before I could focus mana into my hearing, however, she escaped the status effect and returned to normal.

"Excuse me for a moment."

"No, it is fine. You look healthy, which is good to see. That aside, could you ask your friend to move?"

At my request, Pia glanced at the armored hulk. He bowed and stepped aside.

I had assumed he was rude because he had only stood there with folded arms, humming to himself. Apparently, he was simply taciturn.

Only then could I see the screen.

Unfortunately, the oni tribe's performance had already ended.

But I could hardly blame a friend's little sister whom I had not seen in years, so I let it go.

"Hey. Isn't it the Hero Department's turn next?"

"Ah, right."

Only then did I recall that I hadn't come to a concert but to the entrance ceremony.

A staff member called for me just then, and I followed the directions toward the stage.