Specialty
"Sorry. I failed."
Could anyone reporting a failed assassination really wear a face that sunny?
Celenas, who had never once imagined he might fail to kill Haxen, stared at Rai with a vacant look.
To hear him, you'd think he'd made some minor slip. This was a failed assassination. A job he was never supposed to be caught at, never supposed to fail — and Rai announced it with a bright, untroubled face, then rummaged through the cupboard like nothing had happened and started eating a cookie.
It was so completely, infuriatingly identical to his everyday self that Celenas kept staring, not even noticing her pen was still pressed to the page, the ink spreading.
"You failed?"
"Yes. The resistance was fiercer than I expected. I couldn't risk my identity getting out, so I pulled back."
Rai said it with the air of a man expecting praise. I did well, didn't I?
Celenas held Dion's authority. Inside the academy, she could know everyone's location. Philia had gone after Rai the moment he left the grounds, and the two of them had come back together around the time the weekend ended — it wasn't hard to guess she'd been involved.
Celenas already knew, from Leila's report, that Philia had figured out Rai's identity. She simply hadn't thought it would actually affect what he did. The result had blindsided her.
Noticing the ink blooming across someone's carefully written report, Celenas set her pen aside and leaned back into her chair. It was a comfortable posture for her. For anyone watching from the front, it looked like a woman whose mood had turned foul.
"Philia... is that girl someone precious to you?"
Philia was a promising talent — good grades, rapidly improving skill — but that alone was never going to stop the Devil of All Nations. Celenas had realized the girl hadn't stopped him with force. She'd stopped him some other way. The question carried weight.
"Beats me. Maybe I'm the one who's precious to her? Honestly, being this popular is a pain. I can't just do whatever I want anymore."
Watching Rai chatter away around a mouthful of cookie, Celenas pressed a hand to her forehead, her face twisting.
She had no idea what had happened in the Baran Region. One thing, however, had become perfectly clear.
The Rai who would do anything she ordered no longer existed.
That throwaway line — I can't just do whatever I want anymore — was the real tell. He was talking in circles, but the meaning was obvious: stick to the instructor work he'd demanded when they first made the contract.
He hadn't said what would happen if she ignored the warning. Then again, there wasn't a person alive who wasn't afraid of the Devil of All Nations going on a rampage.
Celenas looked at Rai, sprawled on the sofa, lazily yawning.
What did that girl do to change him like this...
Rai looked like a man who listened to no one. In practice, he carried out orders from above with almost obsessive thoroughness. Whether that was leftover from his long years bound to the Children of the Grave, or simply his creed as a knight, she didn't know — but no matter how much he cursed and sneered, once a command was given, he executed it faithfully.
Of course, there was the Dukan Plains incident: ordered to drive out the Imperial army and seize the land, he'd instead turned the entire plain into a place no one could live. The Imperial army had been driven off, though, and the land had become empty ground nobody cared about, so the kingdom could have taken it if they'd wanted.
Whatever the outcome, he fulfilled the letter of the order. It felt, true to his epithet, like making a wish to a devil.
Every command Celenas had given him until now, he'd followed without a single question.
But after going out with Philia, something subtle had shifted. There was an atmosphere now of a man who would not do what he did not want to do. Celenas smiled, just a little.
This would cost her politically. His change, though, was a welcome thing.
She would have preferred to be the one who'd influenced him, not Philia — but it was good for him, so she would have to accept it, however reluctantly.
"All right. I understand. And starting today, no more cookies."
Rai, who'd been eating them in perfect peace, startled and stared at her.
He'd reported a failed assassination like it was nothing. Ban the cookies, and he looked like a man who'd just lost a castle — the picture of wounded injustice.
"That's just mean, isn't it? I know I messed up, but confiscating the cookies?"
"I've been wanting to say this for a while. You do know those are one gold coin a bag, right?"
"Whoa... I figured they'd be expensive because they taste so good, but that's filthy expensive. If you added up everything I've eaten so far, I could probably buy a mansion."
Celenas had just told him a bag the size of two fists cost a common laborer's monthly wage. Rai's eyes went wide. He looked down at the bag in his hand.
"They're refreshments we keep on hand for distinguished guests. Academy funding is going to take a serious hit going forward, so we need to cut expenses."
Celenas smiled as she said the budget would be tight. The meaning underneath: her standing had dropped because of the failed assassination, and the academy would feel it too.
Rai gazed at the cookie in his hand, then started to put it back in the bag.
"You already opened it. Eat it. We can't serve it to anyone else now anyway."
Rai quietly lifted his hand again, ate the cookie, and stood up, watching Celenas's face for her reaction.
"Well then. I guess I'd better go earn back the cookie money."
"No gambling."
"Aww — there's nowhere else to make that kind of money."
He grumbled, but Celenas just smiled and shook her head.
As Rai left the headmistress's office and started for home, Sierra was waiting for him.
Sierra, the assistant instructor for Class A, spotted Rai and came walking over, her knife-cut bob swaying with a rhythmic bounce.
"There you are, Instructor Rai."
"Ah. You've been waiting for me, I take it."
Rai greeted her with a smile. Thanks to a certain idiot from the Intelligence Department, he already knew exactly who she was.
"You were away over the weekend?"
"Yes. I took a student out for training."
"Training... is it."
"Yes. Training. I'm an instructor — I can hardly be doing anything else with a student, can I? It was training."
Rai slipped in a faintly suggestive joke. Sierra didn't react.
"How did you know, though? Did you come by the house over the weekend?"
According to Agnes, no one had approached the house. She couldn't come up from the basement during the day, but she spread her senses through the surrounding area and checked everyone who came by — she'd even distinguished herself by stopping Aslan from stealing Rai's hidden liquor bottles.
The only people who'd come to the house over the weekend were Abigail and Zeroa, and both of them had just trained in the garden and gone home.
"Yes. I stopped by briefly to handle the interim approval for the monthly report to Vice Principal Bright."
It was work the homeroom instructor was supposed to do himself. Rai had dumped all of it on Sierra.
A decent enough answer, he thought, though it was a shame she hadn't noticed Agnes's sensory field. He nodded and took the report she held out.
"That's great. I'm lucky to have you as my assistant, Instructor Sierra."
"Thank you for the compliment."
He made a show of skimming it and handed it back. Sierra gave her usual reply as she took it. There had been times he'd passed it over without even pretending to look, so this was practically conscientious.
"Turning in reports even on the weekend, then training with a student. You're remarkably dedicated."
Is she taking a shot at me? he wondered for a second, then decided she was fishing for what he'd actually done over the weekend, and launched into an elaborate story.
He was walking home, still talking with Sierra, when Leila showed up.
"Instructor Sierra. Would you mind if I spoke with Instructor Rai alone for a moment?"
"Not at all. I was about to take my leave anyway — I need to see the Vice Principal. Please don't mind me. The two of you should talk."
The two of them had always been stiff with each other, but ever since Rai had learned she was an Intelligence operative, a subtle tension had crept into their conversations.
Sierra, expressionless, offered a bow and withdrew. Rai watched her back for a moment, then turned to Leila with a grin.
"Being a popular man is exhausting, I tell you."
"Cut the crap and follow me."
Leila didn't take the joke. She turned on her heel and walked ahead.
Once they'd reached a deserted spot, she cast a soundproofing spell and looked at him.
"What? I've got nothing more to say about Haxen. Something new come up?"
Rai had already told Leila everything — except the part about Philia — before reporting to the headmistress. A smile tugged at the corners of his eyes.
Leila's expression didn't ease. The grin on Rai's face faded by degrees until it was gone, leaving him blank.
She'd always been a cold woman with no talent for jokes, but the look on her face now was genuinely grave.
"What is it?"
"Marquis Joshua Dmo Parianesa has gone missing."
Rai's eyes went wide.
"What? Joshua's a marquis? That guy was a viscount's son."
"...Is that what matters here?"
"It does matter. Did that bastard get promoted for catching me? Two ranks, even? The Empire's gone soft as hell. What, did he slay a dragon? He made marquis thanks to me and then wiped his mouth like it never happened. Ungrateful little—"
Leila, who had expected him to be shocked about something else entirely, let out a sigh.
"Forget the rank. Marquis Joshua is missing."
"Serves him right. That smug son of a bitch always thought he was so clever. Doesn't even know gratitude."
Rai was still cursing Joshua when Leila's glare turned vicious. He shut his mouth.
An awkward silence settled. Rai glanced at her, then spoke carefully.
"So. He's missing. And?"
"Marquis Joshua belongs to the Intelligence Department. When Intelligence says someone is missing, it's as good as saying they died on a mission."
"Hmm... is that so."
"You're taking this calmer than I expected. Do you know something?"
Leila knew Joshua had been in contact with Rai. She couldn't understand the sentiment, but Rai had seemed to get along well with the man who'd once infiltrated as a spy.
"Nothing. That guy never talks about himself. And even when he does, more than half of it's a lie. He was born a spy."
"You really don't know anything? You don't look very surprised, for someone who doesn't."
"I was surprised. That he's a marquis... okay, I'll drop that."
He started to bring up the rank again. Killing intent flickered in Leila's eyes.
"Of course I'm not surprised. There's no body, right?"
"The bodies of the knights and agents assigned to protect him were found. It's believed they were ambushed on the way back from a mission, and—"
"Ah, ah — enough, enough. I don't want a description of a gruesome murder scene."
Rai waved her off with theatrical ease.
"Joshua's probably alive."
"On what grounds?"
Rai gave a short laugh and met her eyes.
It was strange enough that he still called Joshua — a spy — his adjutant. Stranger still was the boundless trust he placed in the man. Leila found both remarkable.
"Even if Marquis Joshua has been away from the battlefield for a long time, I know how formidable he is. We still don't know who attacked him, but the enemy would have known his capabilities and set a trap accordingly. The fact that his escort knights were caught completely off guard proves it."
Leila laid out the situation. Rai still wasn't worried.
"You know what specialty all my adjutants share?"
"...Mobile tactics?"
"Close. But no."
It sounded like a joke — that the Devil of All Nations' unit, which had never lost a war, was best at running away. Rai was completely serious.
"We were always short on soldiers and knights. In that kind of situation, the easiest tactic you can use is exactly what you said — hit and run. We've waltzed into enemy camps holding hands like we were on a picnic, then come tearing back out having the time of our lives — dozens of times. Anyone who didn't know how to run never survived in the first place."
Rai grinned as he talked about situations that had been anything but funny.
The stories of the Devil of All Nations leading a handful of men into enemy territory were so famous that anyone who'd studied tactics knew them — not just Leila.
The most representative was the battle against the Bel Federation, that peculiar alliance of many countries that still operated, each of them, like a nation unto itself.
A force of fewer than a hundred men had ambushed a coalition army that might as well have been dispatched from separate countries, and won. It was sometimes called the least costly victory in the history of warfare.
Disguised as a knight from one of the Federation's member states, the Devil of All Nations had torn through one of their scattered main camps in the dead of night, then led the soldiers chasing him straight into another. The sentries, with no idea what was happening, took it as a betrayal by their own allies and struck back. The Bel Federation began slaughtering itself. Camp by camp, the Devil of All Nations made his circuit, sweeping through the Federation's headquarters and leaving only fourteen of his own dead or wounded.
By morning they had the situation in hand. All they could see were mountains of casualties and a headquarters in ruins.
Unable to continue the war, the Bel Federation withdrew. The kingdom's army claimed victory without lifting a finger.
Listening to Rai, Leila thought of the war they called Blind Bell.
"No body found? Then he either ran or got captured. Either way, he's alive."
As if he were done talking, Rai turned and started to leave.
"Whatever your master decides to do, you'd be better off moving on the assumption that Joshua is alive. That bastard's so damn slippery you can never let your guard down."
Whether that was a compliment or an insult was anyone's guess. Rai left, and Leila stayed behind, thinking it over in earnest.