22. Newspaper Club Raid Incident 3
22. Newspaper Club Raid Incident 3
On the evening of the day of the duel with Lemnos, Lucia Russell had been sitting on a garden bench at the designated spot for two hours before the agreed meeting time.
Seeming to have much on her mind, Lucia sat there blankly, her expression shifting subtly from time to time—yet miraculously, her perfectly upright posture never so much as twitched.
Students passing by were occasionally startled to see Lucia sitting in such a motionless pose, but after cautiously reading the mood of the girl who sat still, staring into the distance, they simply moved on.
Atlas appeared in the garden roughly twenty minutes before the promised time.
"... You came?"
"I thought I came early. How long have you been waiting?"
"Uhm... I-I didn't wait that long, really..."
'She definitely waited a long time.'
Atlas didn't believe Lucia's words.
She hadn't said 'I just got here' or 'I wasn't waiting,' but rather that she hadn't waited long.
That meant she had waited.
By Lucia's standards, it seemed like she had waited quite a while.
"Shall we go somewhere else?"
"This place... too many people come here."
Though it was a secluded spot, students out for a stroll were visible now and then.
Perhaps displeased by that, Lucia began moving to a different location.
Following silently behind Lucia, Atlas soon found himself in a part of the academy building he had never seen before.
It looked like an empty classroom, but judging by the materials scattered everywhere, it seemed to have been a laboratory.
She'd remarkably managed to find a place like this.
"Being chased often... I discovered it."
Atlas thought this was a spot he could make use of later.
"You saw the duel. I won."
"I saw..."
"Lemnos's target is going to be me for a while. I beat him down without even using an Aura Blade—on purpose—so when he wakes up, he'll be pissed off beyond belief."
"... Atlas was strong."
"Now you know, right? I told you I'm really strong."
"Yeah, Atlas is strong... but I'm... strong too."
He had meant to say there was no need to worry about someone like Lemnos, but Lucia's confident assertion that she was strong too caught him off guard.
She clearly had some pride in her own strength.
"Mm... right, right. If you're swinging a sword, you need at least that much stubbornness."
But from a swordsman's perspective, that level of self-assertion was necessary.
And now, this was where things became important.
Atlas got to the point.
"For a while, Lemnos is going to keep challenging only me to duels until he gets sick of it."
"Not until he wins...?"
"With that mentality, he can't beat me. If he ever fixes his mindset... once he does, he'll realize the duel is meaningless. Anyway, that's not what's important. Lemnos got wrecked that badly, so he'll only come at me. That means he won't even spare a glance at you anymore, Russell."
Lucia was surprised once more.
Ever since the new semester started, Lemnos had been constantly pressuring her for a duel, which had been one of the stresses Lucia faced while under a duel prohibition. Atlas was now saying he would take that burden onto himself.
She was immensely grateful.
".... I caused you trouble again... I'm... sorry."
And she felt immensely sorry.
The way everyone's eyes had focused on them in that hallway had let her experience, indirectly, how stressful getting tangled in such incidents could be.
Atlas had already endured that, yet he was now saying he'd handle Lemnos himself.
"That part's fine. Just take care of the aftermath somehow."
"Aftermath...?"
"Since Lemnos lost publicly, the chances of the other Five Pillars making a move are high."
"Wh-what... then..."
Lucia felt dizzy.
Dealing with Lemnos alone had been overwhelming; what on earth would happen if the other three started moving too?
"You protect me."
"I protect you...? I'm... strong, but I'm probably weaker than Atlas.... How to protect someone stronger than me... I still don't know..."
"I'm not asking you to protect me with strength. I can handle any direct physical threats myself. But I can't block things that come through other means."
"I can..."
"You're a Five Pillar too. Mutual non-aggression among the Five Pillars... wasn't that the rule?"
Conflict was forbidden among the Five Pillars.
Petty verbal disputes or duels that didn't stake one's life were possible, but turning completely hostile and fighting was impossible.
If the pillars that supported the Empire fought each other, the nation itself would tremble.
"You take my side."
Though he seemed to charge in recklessly without much thought, Atlas had been making himself an escape route in his own way.
He had ad-libbed it based on the situation, but that was enough.
"Support me as a Five Pillar. That'll be sufficient."
"Is that really enough...?"
"It's plenty. I'll handle the rest myself."
If Russell, a fellow Five Pillar, declared support and protection for Atlas, it would be difficult for the other Five Pillars to recklessly step forward and plot behind the scenes.
Because attacking a person Russell had declared to protect would be tantamount to attacking Russell itself.
"If... if that's truly enough... no, it's necessary, right?
...I owe you a debt. And rock never forgets. I'll do my best to protect you."
"Could you maybe give me something like a crest? Anything with the Russell insignia on it works."
"Ah... I don't have one now... I'll give it to you tomorrow..."
"Alright, then see you tomorrow."
Once the agreement was settled, Atlas stretched as hard as he could.
Lucia thought Atlas's small hands shooting up before her eyes were cute.
"Hah~ That's one load off my mind."
With the protection of a Five Pillar attached, most unreasonable things at the academy would be blocked.
There might be some who came at him without knowing, but he could just lay them flat... Thinking about how things would improve going forward put him in a good mood.
But Lucia still seemed uncomfortable, even after giving all she had to give.
"... I'm sorry..."
"What is it now?"
".. When we first met.. when I called you small.."
"Ah~ That did happen."
"You got really angry back then.. I thought you hated me.. and would never talk to me again..."
He had been angry back then, but so much had happened since that he had forgotten it by now.
Maybe it was because he'd seen much worse bastards... his feelings were somewhat ambiguous.
Lucia had apologized, and thanks to that incident, he was now even receiving protection like this. He should think of it positively.
"I'm built like this... but I like.. small things..."
Even without her saying it, Atlas knew everything.
He knew she liked small things, that she liked cute things, that she had liked them since childhood but was forbidden from pursuing it, and that this only made her yearn for them even more.
That yearning was precisely the reason she had been unable to shake off the demon's temptation, after all.
In the novel, she had met an Atlas whose personality was far fouler than the current one, received harsh words, and been rejected.
Suddenly, a past remark from Riber popped into Atlas's head.
"She likes small things, so she likes me too... My body was the goal all along...!"
"Huh?"
As if her brain hadn't yet processed it, Lucia's face, which had been blank for a moment, rapidly turned as red as a carrot.
"Th-that's not it..!!"
Denying it, she raised her hands, but her arms were trembling visibly.
She seemed to have been very startled.
"It's a joke, a joke."
"....I do like it, but... but it's different now.."
It passed as a joke, but thinking about it, he felt he had briefly heard her true feelings.
'She does like it.. but?'
So she had been aiming for his body after all.
Atlas resolved not to let his guard down.
Right now he was stronger, but he didn't know what the future held.
"This is kind of complicated. I'd love it if my height were exactly like yours."
"I... hate being this big..."
"Because it's not cute?"
"...Yeah"
"Look at that, both of you are unhappy with your heights."
Atlas, discontent with his small stature, and Lucia, discontent with her large one.
An odd pairing, each desiring the other's height.
"Atlas... can I ask one more favor..?"
"What is it?"
What kind of relationship did they have?
Though it was a connection that had merely drifted along by happenstance, Lucia liked this relationship quite a lot.
He didn't just barge into her space... and she liked this distance where they were just barely touching, just barely not.
"Don't call me Russell... call me Lucia."
"By my name? Uhhhm.... Alright, Lucia. If that's what you want."
Lucia didn't know what Atlas was thinking.
But at the very least, Lucia wanted to consider Atlas a friend.
She wanted to grow closer to him going forward.
—————————————————-
On her way to class, Lucia was in a good mood.
She had shared a long conversation with Atlas the previous evening.
It was the first time she'd talked that long with a boy her age.
They had made a promise together.
Just as Atlas had helped Lucia, Lucia would help Atlas.
It was a contract beneficial to them both.
A contract known only to the two of them and no one else.
'Will it... suit me well..?'
Inside Lucia's pocket was a necklace she had prepared to give to Atlas.
An elegant necklace engraved with the Russell crest.
It was one of the accessories she had received as a gift when young. It had been shoved into a corner because it was uncomfortable during swordsmanship lessons, and now it was finally breathing fresh air again after a long time.
Lucia possessed a ring engraved with the family crest that was far more important, so giving something of this level to Atlas was no issue.
After all, the number of times she'd worn it since receiving it as a gift could be counted on one hand.
She was in the same class as Atlas, so she decided to hand it over as soon as they met, and Russell headed to the academy in a pleasantly rare mood.
"The duel was... invalid... The vile halfling's tr..uth?"
The academy once again betrayed Lucia's expectations.