Terror (2)
Terror (2)
Before the ceremony had even begun.
"Hurry up and sit down."
The Princess sounded different from a moment ago. Fortunately, I seemed to have hidden my expression well.
"I am sorry, but I shall take another seat."
When I said that, surprise crossed both the Princess's and Manuel's faces.
"What? Whatever do you mean by that?"
The Princess looked around in bewilderment, then quickly seemed to understand.
"I see. Is it because of the eyes around us?"
Huh? At her words, I looked around.
Gazes from every direction were converging on this spot.
Mmh. Indeed.
It was a perfectly good excuse to use.
"For someone in my position, this level of attention seems a bit excessive."
At my words, the little princess looked disappointed, while Manuel quietly clicked his tongue.
It was understandable that she was disappointed, but I didn't care in the slightest.
Honestly, for an 'illegitimate son' from an ordinary noble house, speaking and acting this way was entirely natural.
I wasn't quite sure why the Queen or Katrin were trying to involve me with the Princess, but a friendship with the illegitimate son of a noble house wouldn't be good for the Princess, either.
Leaving the Princess to her disappointment, I moved to another spot.
"Pardon me. I'll sit here for a moment."
As I squeezed into the seat, the Princess, watching me out of the corner of her eye, looked utterly baffled.
After all, a guy who'd claimed to be moving away because he was uncomfortable with the stares had sat not in a corner of the hall, but right at the front—and next to the students taking the freshman oath, no less.
But I had no choice. The energy I'd sensed earlier originated from this very spot.
"Hello."
I greeted the boy sitting next to me.
Earlier, the moment the second explosion occurred, I had been able to locate the source of the energy that triggered it.
The strange energy looked like a kind of mutated mana, but contrary to my initial expectations, it wasn't spewing from an artifact. It was coming from a person.
'This must be an inherited ability, too.'
In the end, this was a terrorist attack caused by a human. And since the culprit himself had been caught in the explosion, it was a kind of suicide bombing.
That suicide bomber was sitting right next to me.
He looked displeased to see me suddenly squeeze into the seat beside him.
'It must be because of the seat I squeezed into.'
The male student to my right and the female student in front of me were both noble freshman representatives, while the prospective suicide bomber I'd displaced was the 'commoner freshman representative'.
'Is it a retaliatory attack?'
'A foreign spy?'
'A class-reform terror attack?'
'A proletarian revolution?'
I imagined everything from a child who had lost their parents to nobles awakening an ability and seeking revenge, to a terrorist attack meant to enlighten commoners suffering under noble rule.
All sorts of wild thoughts crossed my mind as I looked at the plain-looking boy.
The boy's face stiffened, but eventually he let out a soft sigh and relaxed his expression.
Well, it would have been awkward for him to complain just because someone had squeezed into the seat.
And it wasn't as if anyone else would say anything about it, either.
"How rude."
No, wait. Someone was saying something.
The red-haired girl sitting in front of me looked my way and softly scolded me.
She was also one of the students taking the freshman oath. I had heard she was the daughter of some count's family, but I hadn't been paying close attention during the oath, so I didn't know her exact name.
She ought to have known I wasn't a commoner. Had she failed to notice me coming in with the Princess?
"If one is a noble, one must set an example even in small matters. If you are acquainted with an esteemed personage, you should understand that you might bring trouble upon them as well."
Ah, never mind. She had seen me come in with the Princess.
The words spoken by this rather pretty girl weren't loud, but they were extremely firm.
'Oh boy, was she a girl who dreamed of noblesse oblige?'
Whatever family she came from, she seemed to have received a very proper education. She didn't seem to have learned much about practical matters, though.
Unlike her, the other boy sitting to my left smiled and greeted me.
"Pleased to meet you. I am Ride de Chaipree."
He was the last of the freshmen taking the oath.
This one was a noble who understood reality.
Once he found out I was an illegitimate son, he'd turn away immediately.
At any other time, I would have looked into the two of them more closely, but right now, I had to focus all my attention on the commoner representative sitting to my right.
"I apologize for suddenly cutting in. I mistook you for someone I knew."
"Ah... I see. It is quite all right."
When I bowed my head to the boy, he hurriedly bowed in return.
"Allow me to introduce myself properly. I am Alex de Gracia."
"Ah! The Gracia family... Oh dear, I am Piar."
When I gave my name, he stiffened and gave me his. In his eyes, it seemed the banner of the ducal house was fluttering behind me.
'Anyway, so the bomber's name is Piar. Since he's a commoner, he won't have a surname.'
Fortunately, the ducal house's name worked pretty well. There was still some time before the ceremony began, so I intended to draw out a conversation and gather information.
But the boy sitting across from me ruined my plan.
"Gracia? Was there a child named Alex in that house?"
The boy furrowed his brow as he looked at me.
"The eldest is Simon, the second is Manuel, standing next to the Princess, and there should only be a younger sister, right?"
Oh! His information network is quite impressive.
On top of that, his disregard for an illegitimate child is quite something, too.
The girl in front of me, whose expression had relaxed after my apology, hardened her face at his words.
"You aren't impersonating a noble, are you? In the worst-case scenario, you could even be executed!"
Oops. Had I underestimated the intelligence network of noble families?
Besides, thanks to that overly rigid girl, it didn't look as if I could just gloss over it.
Sighing inwardly, I opened my mouth.
"Alex de Gracia. I am an illegitimate son."
"Ah..."
"..."
At my words, the girl opened her mouth wide and let out a meaningless exclamation, while the boys on either side of me knit their brows.
"Sorry. I was being thoughtless. I apologize."
The girl quickly composed herself and apologized to me.
In informal speech.
As expected, she seemed to have been raised properly.
Noble etiquette was based on discrimination. Their consideration was merely charity bestowed upon the lower classes. An illegitimate son wasn't a proper noble, either.
Thanks to her informal tone, her apology didn't feel like an apology at all, though she probably thought she'd apologized properly.
The boy with the impressive information network didn't even bother looking at me, let alone apologizing.
'Ruined.'
The bomber sitting across from me turned away, too.
Hey, you're a commoner!
Was it because he was a commoner taking the freshman oath? His desire to rise in society seemed far stronger than I'd expected.
The resplendent background of a ducal house evaporated in an instant, thanks to the single fact that I was an illegitimate son.
After that, throughout the entire ceremony, I couldn't strike up a conversation with any of the three—not even the bomber.
"...I pledge to carry on the will of the Founding King and do my utmost for the prosperity of the Kingdom."
"I pledge."
As time passed, the three went up to the front to take the oath, and we stood from our seats to recite the pledge in unison.
As all the freshmen recited the pledge, I could see mana flowing throughout the hall.
Since this wasn't a contract made at a temple, it carried no absolute compulsion. But an oath taken by nearly a hundred people possessing inherited abilities was bound to have some degree of binding force.
It couldn't completely prevent stray thoughts, but it did make one's heart prickle uneasily if one harbored intentions of treason or betrayal against the Kingdom.
That, too, must have been why they gathered inherited ability users at the academy.
This Royal Academy was designed to admit only the awakened children of nobles and commoners.
In the early days, every awakened individual entered this academy, but as time passed and the realm expanded, several other academies were established in the capital and other provinces.
At those other academies modeled after this one, non-awakened individuals—such as wealthy commoners, aspiring knights, and aspiring bureaucrats—were allowed to attend alongside the awakened.
In return, the Royal Academy remained the supreme academy, admitting successors of influential noble houses, noble children and commoners with outstanding inherited abilities, and awakened individuals backed by powerful houses despite having mediocre inherited abilities.
Naturally, I was someone who shouldn't have been able to enter as an illegitimate son, but thanks to the grand backing of a royal patron, I had been admitted.
After the freshman oath concluded, the ceremony continued through its various proceedings, and now the entrance ceremony was nearing its end.
By chance, my eyes met those of the Princess as she was looking around. The Princess scowled and turned her head away.
Oh dear. If I managed to survive this time, I felt like I'd get chewed out quite a bit by my patron.
Because of the current situation, as well as the actions I was about to take.
'Is he really the terrorist?'
Although I couldn't strike up a conversation, I kept observing the bomber, Piar, throughout the entrance ceremony.
But nowhere did he look like a suicide bomber.
He seemed somewhat nervous, but only as nervous as any incoming freshman might be upon entering the academy. He wasn't looking around suspiciously or preparing to pull off anything sneaky.
If he was a terrorist, he must have been a tremendous professional.
I didn't quite understand, but what I had to do remained the same.
I grabbed my stomach and took a deep breath.
Then I let out a loud groan.
"Ugh, ugh! My—my stomach!"
All the students around me looked at me in shock.
I saw a teacher passing nearby start toward me.
I grabbed Piar's thigh beside me, curled up, and kept groaning in pain.
The murmurs grew louder, and the ceremony came to a halt.
The teacher who hurried over asked me:
"What is wrong?"
"My—my stomach hurts so much. I think the tension has made my intestines twist."
It wasn't something a genuinely sick person would say so articulately, but I enthusiastically explained my condition while pretending to be in pain.
I didn't want them to mistake it for a severe illness.
"I think I'll be fine if I just go to the infirmary and rest for a bit."
I leaned toward Piar and kept muttering.
The teacher and the students around us all frowned.
"It can't be helped. You take him there."
The teacher pointed to our resident terrorist and had him help me.
It couldn't be helped. Since he was the only commoner nearby, they had no choice but to entrust me to him.
Piar helped me to my feet with a bewildered expression, while the people around us shook their heads as they watched me leave the hall.
The Princess was dumbfounded, and Manuel clicked his tongue.
Mmh, my academy life was definitely ruined.
I managed to leave the building with Piar before the ceremony ended.
Fortunately, there were no priests among the people gathered at the back of the hall.
"I'll take him to the infirmary. You go back to your seat."
Instead, a female teacher standing at the back stepped forward.
But I couldn't let that happen. I grabbed hold of the suicide bomber Piar's clothes.
"Please come with me to the infirmary. I beg of you."
Though his expression was completely fed up, a commoner couldn't quite bring himself to turn away an illegitimate son of a ducal family who was clinging to his trouser leg and begging.
The female teacher gave up reluctantly, and the butler from the ducal mansion stepped forward to support me instead.
Piar and the butler helped me along as we walked out of the hall.