85. Deception Without Malice
85. Deception Without Malice
"...What did you say?"
The sweet-and-sour atmosphere suddenly turned icy.
Liber's golden-glowing eyes were terrifying.
I knew I'd misspoken the moment it came out, but words already spoken couldn't be put back.
"...You haven't even gone out once with me yet on the weekend."
"That's because freshmen can't leave the Academy grounds on weekends for a month."
Liber said it like it was grossly unfair, but it couldn't be helped.
Ordinarily, Academy students could take the regular ferry or ride the carriages across the bridges to go out on weekends.
The port connected to the Academy had a downtown district whose businesses thrived on the Academy's mostly-aristocratic student body, making it perfect for outings.
But freshmen were barred from leaving under the pretense that they first needed to acclimatize to Academy life for one month, so until now we'd been unable to go out even if we wanted to.
"Now that the restriction's lifted, we'll go together next time."
"...Hrrrrm."
The blood-boiling atmosphere cooled considerably. Liber, with a sulky expression, thought it over carefully and said,
"...Fine, it's all right. I do owe Russell-ssi a debt... But the weekend after has to be my turn."
"Got it."
Once she'd gotten a firm answer, Liber pulled on my hand.
"Tonight's mine, so I'll endure it."
Huh? That's not how this—
—————————————-
The next morning, we naturally came out together again.
As soon as we arrived, we both were startled... We'd come out earlier than usual thinking about Emy waking up, but Emy had gotten there even earlier.
Emy didn't say anything in particular, but she watched the two of us quietly, steadily.
From the vibes I got, it seemed she'd caught on.
She might not know exactly what, but she had no choice but to pick up on the mood anyway.
Because when the two of us came out that early in the morning together, there was only one thing it meant.
Other than that, everything was the same as always.
.
.
.
.
After finishing exercise, I went over to the tree we always used for measurement and drew my dagger.
"Same as always today?"
"Yeah, things have been so chaotic lately I couldn't do it properly."
The main cause of that chaos, Liber, laughed in embarrassment.
"Not that anything will have changed, but..."
Not expecting much, I leaned against the tree and lined the dagger up with the top of my head.
The moment I drew a line— Seukeuk— the feel in my hand was different.
"...Huh?"
Instead of scoring along the groove that was always there, it felt like cutting into a new spot... Startled, I turned to look and saw a mark slightly higher than the previously updated line.
"I... grew...?"
I blankly stared at the carved mark.
"You got taller again? Congratulations!"
"Isn't that your growth plates finally opening up? That's great."
Congratulatory voices came from both sides, but I was just dazedly looking at the new mark above, lost in all sorts of thoughts.
My height, which hadn't grown for over ten years, had now changed twice in recent days.
Something had clearly triggered it, but I couldn't get a handle on what the cause was.
"You don't look all that happy this time?"
I guess it was a novelty for them, seeing the guy who'd been hopping and jumping with delight last time staying still.
It was certainly something to be happy about, but this time I couldn't be purely happy.
"...I'm thinking about why I suddenly grew."
"Do you even need a reason for growing taller?"
"Not growing for over ten years and then suddenly this... it's worth trying to figure out..."
The two days I hadn't been able to measure myself properly had been full of incidents.
I'd done it with Liber, and I'd eradicated the dregs of the Master.
I couldn't tell which was the cause.
Worst case, I was starting to think it might be because I killed what had been a Master.
"If killing Masters becomes a growth trigger... I'd have to kill every remaining Master, wouldn't I?"
"Whoa... A Master-hunter? Are you thinking of turning yourself into some kind of continental public enemy?"
Emy, having overheard my seriously muttered monologue, looked at me with icy eyes.
Since I was saying this after already killing one, it couldn't just be brushed off as nonsense.
"Fight all the Masters...? Don't even think about it, please..."
"It was just a thought. The cost-effectiveness is terrible..."
Out of the eight Masters remaining on the continent, if you subtracted the Empire's three Masters including myself, there were five left. Of those, one was the now-dead Sword Saint, leaving only four.
0.1 centimeters each time I kill one?
The cost-effectiveness was way too bad.
"C-cost-effectiveness? So if you grew 10 per person... would you do it?"
"Whoa! If I grew 10 per person, that adds up perfectly! If I just off those four and grow 40, that'd be 189 centimeters! Just imagining it puts me in a great mood, you know?"
Thinking it over carefully, she had a point.
The Sword Saint hadn't been a complete Master. He'd been one in the past, but now he was just something like the dregs of a Master who no longer was one. So what if, because I'd disposed of those Master's dregs, I'd only grown by 0.1?
If I defeated a fully realized Master, could I truly grow by 1... no, even by over 10?
"Isn't there some insane Master out there who'll abandon all morality or invade another country or something?"
I wished there'd be a Master who'd cause a huge incident so I could take them out without any fallout.
In truth, one person who fit the bill did come to mind.
"Do you really think someone's crazy enough to cause an incident right after watching the Church and the Empire dismantle a kingdom over something like that?"
"Of course there is. By normal people's standards, every single Master, without exception, is a lunatic. You shouldn't try to judge them with the common sense of ordinary folk."
I could confidently say that including myself, not a single Master was in their right mind.
Both Teacher and the Director, by an ordinary person's standards, were lunatics.
The Director controlled himself while doing external activities, but from the start, no one with a normal person's way of thinking could ever become a Master.
When the Sword Saint was set to join Clover Academy as an advisor, the Director's decision to allow it also wasn't the thinking of a normal person.
He probably thought that even if they tried to block him, the Sword Saint would just sneak in through some other hole, so he'd rather keep him somewhere in plain sight...
But lurking beneath that directive was the thought that if the Sword Saint ever inevitably committed some misdeed, he'd catch him and kill him on the spot.
The Director himself had once said over drinks that he still regretted not having killed the Sword Saint.
And that's despite knowing full well that if the Sword Saint did something, it would certainly become a monumental incident.
Maybe he'd tasked me with handling it because he knew I was here anyway, but ordinarily, a complete lockdown would have been the proper course of action.
"Now that a disaster like this has already broken out, things could get even more chaotic... For example, the eastern "Five Kingdom Alliance," which still enslaves beastmen, might declare that the beastmen's "12 Tribe Alliance" colluded with demons like Clover Kingdom, and start a war."
"...Don't say such horrible things. One insane Master like that is more than enough."
"Sorry, I was being too careless."
At the words 'insane Master,' Liber physically shuddered.
I'd spoken far too thoughtlessly right in front of someone who had only days ago been tormented by that very insane Master.
"That's right, don't even think about it!! You especially know better than anyone what happens when the balance of the Masters breaks down!!"
"I'm just throwing it out there because I'm not going to do it. You don't really think I will, do you?"
"Of course we do!!"
I had entertained the thoughts for a bit, but the idea that defeating a Master was directly connected to my growth was ridiculous anyway.
If simply defeating strong enemies made me grow, then wasn't the fact that I'd never grown until now just a psychological issue?
The only time I'd had a recent physical change...
'Now that I think about it, there was one?'
I recalled the hot energy that had been transmitted from Liber's body into mine.
What if, hypothetically, that was the essence the Sword Saint had been targeting from Liber's body...?
If so, then maybe...
"What? Is there something on my face?"
"...No."
I'd have to consult Professor Praha about my growth, but I was also worried about how to explain this.
If I just said it outright, wouldn't it be sexual harassment?
'And as for the Master-related stuff... can I even tell anyone about it...?'
I'd just have to at least get a medical examination done later.
—————————————
Lucia's happy life didn't last very long.
Whether the aura Atlas had implanted worked especially well... or her body was simply strong, I didn't know, but Lucia recovered far faster than the doctors had expected.
They'd predicted a minimum of one month, but she recovered in two weeks.
In this world's hospitals, where severed arms could be reattached the same day and patients discharged within three days, the initial estimate of a full month showed just how severe Lucia's injuries had been.
She regretted that her dream-like life, with Atlas visiting her every free moment to be at her side, was coming to an end. But the fact that her recovery was over also meant they could now go out together on weekends.
However, another problem emerged for Lucia.
"The idea of asking him out is all well and good... but I don't know anything about the downtown district either..."
She, too, had only dropped by the Academy port's downtown district once on her way to the Academy, and thus had zero knowledge of what was there.
The reason she'd suggested the downtown district in the first place was a certain shop she'd glimpsed on the roadside before boarding the regular ferry.
But you couldn't leave the Academy just to visit a single place... so Lucia paid a visit to someone likely to know about the downtown district.
"So that's why you're asking me?"
Shara Frigia, the person singled out as being likely to know, glared at Lucia with an extremely displeased expression.
"Yeah... You seemed like you'd know more than me..."
"You...!! You're boasting, aren't you?!!"
Already simmering with fury over how Lucia had been monopolizing Atlas alone for the past two weeks, Shara's rage finally erupted.