Contract (1)
Contract (1)
As mentioned before, the Royal Academy occupied a vast area in the south of the capital.
The Royal Academy's sprawling grounds held massive training fields and buildings, as well as warehouses and laboratories. Though it had a wide variety of facilities, the largest of them all was the colossal forest and park that occupied a quarter of the Royal Academy.
This place served as a resting spot for students, as well as a location for various training exercises and practical lessons. At night, the immense area fell completely dark, without a single light, and echoed only with the sounds of insects and small creatures.
Tonight, even those faint sounds could not be heard.
Instead, there were only soft footsteps.
And a low humming sound.
The sound came from Balea's lips as she walked ahead.
I followed behind her, my mind in utter turmoil.
I thought everything had gone smoothly. But after visiting her home and returning, she was bringing up a troublesome subject.
Bringing up the matter of the Baron—had I been found out?
Or had I left something behind that could arouse suspicion?
No, it was entirely plausible for doubts to arise.
It was a fact that the Baron had wanted to kill me.
And on the day the Baron died, I had been away from everyone under the pretext of hunting.
Still, the distance was too great for anyone to reasonably suspect me.
Besides, I wasn't supposed to know that the Baron had wanted to kill me.
Had she figured something out, or was she just asking out of curiosity?
But she wouldn't drag me out to such a secluded place at night just to ask a mundane question.
Crunch, crunch.
We passed through the neatly manicured park and entered the dense forest.
Thud.
I stopped in my tracks. It felt like I shouldn't follow her any farther.
If something went wrong, I needed to be prepared for Balea's inherited ability.
"I don't think we should go any farther. I heard that students aren't even allowed to enter the forest alone during the day without permission. They also advised against wandering around this rear park at night."
At my words, she stopped walking and turned around.
She gave me a slightly disappointed look as she spoke.
"We would only need to go a little bit farther, though."
I shook my head.
"I'm actually rather timid."
Her lips puckered slightly at my response.
"Weren't you the one who went around hunting all night long?"
"Even a hunter gets scared when things are scary."
She stuck out her lower lip at my shameless reply.
"Then, well, I suppose it can't be helped."
When she gave up on going any farther, I spoke up.
"What did you want to ask about the late Baron? I barely know anything about the Baron."
At that, the corners of her eyes curved softly.
"Let's see."
She tapped her foot.
Tap. Tap.
Each time she tapped her foot, mana spread outward from the ground.
"It looks like no one's following us or watching us."
She looked at me and smiled.
"It's just the two of us."
Damn it, don't tell me this place is within her domain as well?
Sweat beaded on the back of my neck.
She opened her mouth to speak.
"What I wanted to ask is..."
Her smile bloomed brightly.
"Did you kill my father, Young Lord?"
She didn't beat around the bush or couch the question in aristocratic rhetoric. She asked me point-blank.
"Pardon?"
I gave her a look of surprise and an incredulous expression.
It had been a long time since I'd had to manage my expression like this. All right, I wouldn't give her any grounds to catch me off guard.
But to come right out with a question like, "You're the murderer!"...
This was close to the absolute worst-case scenario I'd predicted.
Did she really know something? If so, I was at a total dead end.
The Save Point was so recent that there was no way to undo this.
The atmosphere was chilling, but for now, I had to play dumb.
"What on earth are you saying all of a sudden..."
"You really are amazing. Even I can't tell whether you're acting or being genuine."
Of course. Do you know how much I practiced after dying back then?
My acting right now is close to perfection!
"No, you need to explain yourself clearly so I can actually answer. However absurd this sounds, there must be a reason you're asking whether I killed the Baron, right?"
"Hmm. That's true. My explanation was lacking."
She nodded at my words.
Uh... don't tell me.
"Originally, Father intended to kill you when you came to our house, Young Lord."
No, wait a minute.
"Father was in love with your stepmother, Young Lord. Mm, since you're an illegitimate son, should I call her the second wife of the Duke of Gracia?"
She shrugged.
"Anyway, Father loved that second wife. Even though he seemed a bit crazy, it was a fact that he liked her. As a result, both our Baronesses were left mentally shattered."
I stared at her lips, my mouth hanging open.
What on earth was she thinking? Why was she spilling everything out like this?
"I had a hard time too, you know. Before this, at least there'd been a proper reason for things. But this time, he kept raving out of nowhere about killing you, Young Lord. It was incredibly exhausting for me as well."
Hey, I heard you sound reluctant before you killed me back then, but you still took part in killing me right afterward!
"On the day you arrived, Young Lord, Father had made all the preparations to kill you. But you were nowhere to be found all night, so the plan was called off. You met me in front of the door that morning, right? Back then, I had stayed up all night."
"No, what kind of nonsense..."
I shook my head, wearing an expression of complete incomprehension.
The expression and delivery were perfect, but they weren't enough to stop her from continuing.
"Father didn't give up. He instructed me to kill you on the way to the capital, or, if that failed, even during classes at the Academy, Young Lord. That was one of the reasons he sent me to the Royal Academy."
She shook her head from side to side, then...
"But once I left home, there was no reason for me to obey Father's orders."
She made a face as if asking for a pat on the head.
"Didn't I do well?"
You did well, but why are you stabbing me in the back now of all times?
"Fortunately, Father passed away in the middle of it all, so his orders came to an end. It was such a relief. Even at a glance, you seemed terrifying, Young Lord."
It seemed that her Area Declaration inherited ability allowed her to discern the power around her, much like how I had high mana sensitivity.
"Nothing happened, Father died, and I was liberated. A happy ending for everyone! That was how things stood before I went back home."
That was how things were for me too. That was why I hadn't killed Balea and had left her alone.
"But when I dutifully returned home and looked into things, it turned out Father hadn't simply passed away."
Well, contrary to the official announcement to the outside world, he had burned to death underground.
"The actual cause of death was that he burned to death in the underground warehouse. My mothers and the retainers generally assumed it was suicide."
"Ah, it was suicide? No, suicide isn't the point here..."
Cutting her off mid-speech seemed like a bad move. For now, let's hear what she has to say.
She raised her finger to emphasize her point.
"How. Ev. Er!"
Yeah, right.
"I managed to find sword marks and signs of a struggle on the burned corpse."
"Th...!"
That was close. I almost blurted out in surprise that she was wrong.
There shouldn't have been any traces left. I made sure it all burned completely, didn't I?
"It really burned thoroughly. All the gold melted, that woman's picture was incinerated, and Father's body was reduced to just a few bone fragments."
"So everyone still thinks even now that Father simply burned to death."
Huh?
"I secretly sifted through Father's bone fragments and found fracture marks and sword cuts. But because the traces were faint, it felt like bringing it up would only spark controversy. Since everyone was convinced he burned to death, I didn't tell anyone else."
Secretly digging through her father's bone fragments—that was hardly something a noble family's daughter should be doing.
More importantly, she hadn't told anyone else?
"Based on what you just said, it really sounds like he just burned to death. Besides, even if there were signs of a struggle, isn't saying that I caused his death a bit too wild an accusation?!"
I shifted from an incredulous expression to a slightly angry one, raising my voice just a little. Mm, that was good.
"That's true. But I'm bringing this up to you because of my inherited ability, Young Lord. Among my powers is the ability to perceive traces of mana left inside a domain—or rather, inside a house. Traces of your mana were left behind in that incinerated underground warehouse, Young Lord."
Could Balea's inherited ability to dominate a specific area include such a function?
This made things problematic, but let's try speaking up first.
"That's a story no one would ever believe. Did you think framing me with a tale like that would work?"
At my words, Balea's face turned glum.
"You're right about that. Who would believe a story like this? I couldn't even tell my family."
I knew her true nature, so her gloomy expression only made the back of my neck stiffen with tension.
Still, I needed to check if I could take a step back first.
"Do you have anything else to say? I don't appreciate being misunderstood like this. I will be heading back now."
With that, I turned around and took one step.
Rumble, rumble, rumble.
The brick path I was about to walk back on shot upward.
A long stone wall over four meters high rose up, blocking my path.
As expected, backing out wasn't an option.
I turned around once more.
"It can't be helped. Even if no one believes it, I know the truth. I don't understand how you could have returned home at that hour, found the basement, and killed Father, but I believe that you killed Father, Young Lord."
In the end, it was the worst possible outcome.
With Balea's personality, she didn't need evidence or verification from anyone else. Even if I had an alibi or there were logical inconsistencies, all that mattered was that she herself believed it.
"Even if I truly hated him and wished every single day that he would die, he was still my father. I must avenge my deceased father."
The ground began to squirm.
The trees lined up behind her swayed violently as they advanced.
The air grew razor-sharp, making it difficult to even breathe.
This place was inside her domain.
I drew the dagger concealed at my waist.
Hum!
Red blade energy surged forth from the dagger.
Since I knew she'd called me out to talk about her dead father, there was no way I'd followed her unprepared.
Even if I couldn't prepare armor or other heavy gear, I had at least readied a dagger.
"My goodness! You can project mana outward! At that level, would you have made it in time if you ran all night?"
She tilted her head as she watched the blade energy erupt from the dagger.
"What are you doing? This is inside the Academy! Unauthorized dueling is grounds for expulsion!"
Things seemed pretty much ruined, but I decided to keep up the act until the very end.
The Save Point was too close for me to just give up and commit suicide.
It hadn't been easy to skip all my Academy classes and intercept Balea on her way here, and going all the way to the Baron's domain would already have been too late by the time she left.
And since we were inside the Academy, hiding Balea's body after killing her here seemed nearly impossible.
In any case, I had to settle this first.
The ground beneath my feet gave way.
I propelled my body upward.
Stones shot out from the surrounding walls.
I deflected the flying stones with my blade.
Seeing that, Balea spoke.
"Struggling is useless. This place is my kingdom, declared as my domain. Inside here..."
It was a monologue I'd heard before dying. There was no need to listen to it again.
I kicked off another stone as it flew toward me.
I launched myself toward Balea, who stood near the swaying forest, looking at me with a pitying expression.
It was an inherited ability I had already experienced once.
This time, I had no intention of losing.