Chapter 23: Suspicious Behavior
'The sun's still up?'
Stepping out of the Central Library, Andy blinked up at the bright sky.
It felt like days had passed inside, yet the sun was still hanging overhead—.
"Time flows differently inside a Rift than outside."
As if he'd read Andy's mind, Grave said it matter-of-factly.
"Ah, right—Rifts are supposed to be a secret."
Grave pressed a finger to his lips. Andy let out a low groan.
Secret or not, in the first place—.
'Who would believe me even if I told them?'
Evangeline and Andy were both drenched in sweat and a little worse for wear, but that was the extent of it. Not so much as a scratch on either of them.
Who on earth would believe they'd just come back from a Rift?
'What exactly IS our squad leader?'
He was a security guard, of all things, despite wielding strength so overwhelming it would be embarrassing to even compare him to a professor—.
"Just head back to the dorms. Come up with a decent excuse and there shouldn't be any trouble."
"We'll go together!!"
Grave turned and walked away without another word, and Milo scrambled after him in a panic.
"That man—."
Evangeline pointed gravely at Grave's distant figure.
"I think he's into me. Ha. What a hassle, honestly."
Watching her shake her head from side to side, Andy was genuinely awestruck.
"Evangeline, you are truly incredible."
"Ha! Right?! Only now figuring that out?"
Telling her the truth would only cost him. Andy ignored her and headed for the dormitory.
When they arrived, however, the atmosphere around the building was anything but calm.
New students were lined up in rows in front of the main gate, while guard members darted back and forth among them.
"Check again!!"
"Lunch hour ended a while ago, but—"
"Is food really what matters right now? I said check again!"
"Still the same! Two are missing!!"
……Two?
Andy's face went pale.
"Looks like they're searching for someone."
Evangeline said with a grave expression. Andy bit his lip hard.
"That's us. First, we—"
"Us? Oh! We're here!!"
Evangeline threw her hand up in the air.
Every eye among the new students and the guards snapped toward her at once.
"Those two?"
"Where on earth have you been?!"
Andy's face drained bone-white. He could practically watch his academy life falling apart in real time.
A guard came striding over with a face like stone.
"You two—we turned this place inside out looking for you. Where were you?"
Andy racked his brain frantically.
The squad leader had told him to come up with a decent excuse, but the mood here was far too hostile for that. No half-baked excuse was going to cut through this.
Then someone grabbed Andy's shoulder. It was Evangeline.
"Just trust me."
Evangeline winked one eye. The sheer confidence written all over her face made Andy inexplicably uneasy.
He tried desperately to stop her, but Evangeline was faster.
As she stepped forward, every gaze shifted to her. Her face began to contort.
Kya, kyak. A strange little noise escaped her lips. Her whole body trembled.
'Don't push through it! Just back off!'
Despite Andy's desperate prayer, Evangeline refused to retreat and resolutely endured.
Watching her exert such effort in exactly the wrong place, Andy swallowed down the scream building in his throat.
"Where were you?"
The guard squinted at Evangeline.
"……"
Her lips quivered. She seemed to have said something, but her voice was far too faint to hear.
"What was that?"
The guard asked irritably. A spasm ran across Evangeline's face.
'Wait a second, I've seen this somewhere before—'
At that moment, her quivering lips parted.
"POOOOOOOP!"
The shocking word exploded across the courtyard at full volume.
"Wh… what did you say?"
"POOP! I was TAKING A POOP!!"
The hundreds of new students who had been chattering ever since the headmaster appeared went as silent as the dead.
With an expression impossible to describe, the guard looked at Andy. Andy shook his head in frantic denial, but the guard nodded as though he understood.
No, why am I included in this—
"Mm, ah, right. Nature calls are only natural. Go on in, then."
Red-faced, the guard hurriedly brought the situation to a close.
Evangeline flashed Andy a victory sign with her fingers, her face brimming with pride at a job well done.
'I should have smacked her harder on the back of the head.'
Andy truly regretted it.
'I wonder if they made it back safely.'
I murmured to myself as I looked toward the dormitory.
Evangeline and Andy had vanished immediately after the Republic's terror attack at the entrance ceremony. Given the circumstances, suspicion was inevitable—but there wouldn't be any real trouble.
'Elysium Academy never suspects its students, after all.'
Unless flawless evidence surfaced, Elysium Academy refused to suspect its students. Even when evidence did appear, letting the matter slide unpunished was practically the norm.
Evangeline and Andy would be fine.
The problem, as it happened, was on this end.
"You. Where were you?"
Bedrick, the goatee-wearing bastard, glared at me as he asked. There was something distinctly unsavory lurking in his voice.
Two guards gone missing right after a terror attack at the entrance ceremony—suspicious enough on its own.
On top of that, I'd apprehended a Republican before the ceremony even started, which gave him every reason to be suspicious.
That said, he couldn't possibly tie me to the Republic's terror plot.
'The Head of Student Affairs ordered it covered up, after all.'
If he came after me here, he'd be making an enemy of the Head of Student Affairs as well.
Would Bedrick really dare?
'Absolutely not.'
The Head of Student Affairs ranked among the ten most powerful people in the entire Academy. Not someone Bedrick could afford to antagonize.
Which is exactly what played out.
"Evidence?"
A thunderous voice cut Bedrick off mid-sentence.
Logan, the tiger-like middle-aged man and Head of Student Affairs. Beside him stood the same inspection committee woman I'd seen before.
At the sight of Logan, a vile smile spread across Bedrick's face.
"There was testimony that Grave entered the underground storage where the mana stone bomb was planted."
Bedrick declared in a brash, booming voice.
Logan's tiger-like eyes turned toward me.
"Did you go in?"
"Yes, sir. I was moving materials."
"Hm. Given the circumstances, it does look suspicious."
Logan gave a nod.
"Precisely. He could even be a spy. Those Republic bastards are the most underhanded sort, wouldn't you say?"
"They certainly are."
Logan fixed me with his tiger-like stare. Simply meeting his gaze made it feel as though my very insides were being excavated.
"You. Are you a Republican?"
"No, sir."
"Thought not."
Logan nodded again.
Only then did an absurd expression dawn on Bedrick's face.
"You believe his word?"
"No."
"Then why—"
Logan pointed at his own nose with a sly grin.
"Republicans give off a foul stench, and this one doesn't smell like anything. So he's no Republican."
"Hold on—what smell could possibly—"
"Got a problem with that?"
At Logan's question, Bedrick's face went white.
He bowed his head in a frantic hurry.
"N-no, sir. My apologies."
Logan wore his usual crooked smile.
"Suspicion has its place. Healthy doubt is a virtue. Though it becomes fatal when it overflows."
Logan patted Bedrick on the shoulder, and with that, Bedrick scurried off as fast as his legs would carry him.
Once he was gone, Logan's eyes returned to me.
"The Republic's mana stone bomb—the one that knocked out the headmaster—was planted in the underground storage beneath the auditorium. Strange, isn't it? I checked that storage myself after the Republican surfaced. If a Republic bomb had been down there, there's no way my nose would have missed it……."
"Couldn't it have been processed some other way?"
"Probably. So—did you notice anything unusual?"
Logan's voice carried no rise or fall whatsoever, so flat it sounded like small talk on an ordinary afternoon. But beneath it, the words were packed with teeth.
Teeth that would skewer your throat the instant you slipped even slightly—.
I answered without a flicker.
"Nothing, sir."
"I see."
Logan flashed his usual sly grin and clapped a hand on my shoulder. It was a hand as massive as a cauldron lid.
"Stay sharp. This academy is crawling with Republic scum. Suspect everyone."
"Is that so?"
"It is. Republic bastards burrow in as stealthily as lice in your hair. Half the time, the Republican turns out to be the last person you'd ever suspect."
Logan warned me in a solemn voice.
Just then, the inspection committee woman, who had kept quiet the entire time, finally spoke up.
"That's paranoia."
"Paranoia, you say?"
"Just a few days ago you grabbed Professor Wolfenheim by the collar, accusing him of being a Republican, and got your pay docked for it."
"But he really did smell like one—"
"Doubting people without evidence. That is paranoia."
At the inspector's rebuke, Logan let out a low groan. In truth, his reputation around the academy was that of a paranoid Republican conspiracy nut.
"I'm telling you, there ARE real Republicans. Take, for instance—"
Logan leveled a thick finger at me.
"Evelyn, squad leader of Unit 42."
I raised my eyebrows ever so slightly. I even parted my lips a touch, the very picture of shock.
"Do you have evidence?"
The inspector asked pointedly.
"Ahem, not yet, but— I'm telling you, she reeks of the Republic."
"Paranoia."
"No, I'm telling you it's real."
"Without evidence, it is paranoia."
"Tsk."
Clicking his tongue, Logan turned his gaze back to me.
"Come with me a moment. Let's have a chat."
Logan took me behind one of the buildings, to a spot so deeply shadowed it never saw daylight. There sat a table and chairs, abandoned and thick with dust.
Without bothering to brush any of it off, Logan sat down and clamped a cigar between his teeth.
When I took the seat across from him, Logan fixed me with those tiger-like eyes. Meeting that stare, I ran predictions on what he wanted.
'Probably a Republican-hunting quest.'
In the game, Logan was the NPC who handed out the 'Republican Hunt' quest. The quest involved helping him flush out Republicans hiding within the academy, and completing it rewarded you with a chance to join the Student Affairs office.
Elysium Academy had three key organizations: Academic Affairs, which managed the professors; Student Affairs, which managed the students; and Administration, which handled patronage and finances.
The Republican-hunt quest from the Head of Student Affairs—gateway to Student Affairs itself—was the kind of quest you accepted on sight, whenever it appeared.
Things had diverged a bit from the game's script, but it was obvious he'd called me out specifically to give me this quest.
Around the time the cigar had burned down to its end, Logan finally opened his mouth.
And what came out was nothing like my prediction.
"You're from the Security Bureau, aren't you?"
……The Security Bureau?
If the Imperial Guard was the Emperor's sword, the Security Bureau was the Emperor's shadow.
The Bureau was the top-secret organization that quietly moved the Empire from unseen places—so classified that the game never even bothered to depict it.
Only hearing about it from the Grand General had told me it existed. That's how covert the Security Bureau was—.
So why in the world was that name coming out of Logan's mouth?
"New recruit, by the look of it—and it shows far too much. A fresh security guard capturing six Republicans? Does that sound plausible to anyone?"
What I'd submitted to Logan was a single Republican head. Yet he knew I'd taken down six. And he'd let it slide.
Why?
"Honestly, you young people are all half-baked."
As Logan's words continued, the situation clicked into place.
'Logan was Security Bureau himself.'
Come to think of it, it was odd.
For all his age, Logan was a Sword Master. Why would a Sword Master serve as Head of Student Affairs instead of a professor?
In any case, Logan apparently took me for a Security Bureau newcomer. Handled well, that would make him useful beyond anything the ordinary Republican-hunt quest could offer.
The problem was exposure.
Impersonating the Security Bureau was a graver crime than outright rebellion.
If caught, the Bureau itself would come for me.
Even Grand General Cassandra had recoiled at the very mention of them, warning me never to get entangled—.
Which meant—.
'I just have to not get caught, don't I?'
A flawless plan.
Then a memory of Cassandra's words surfaced unbidden.
— Those Security Bureau types salute in the strangest way. They show the back of their hand when they salute. Supposedly the exact opposite of the Republic's salute?
I raised my hand in salute to Logan, back of the hand turned outward.
The corner of Logan's mouth twisted into something savage.