141. Competitor
141. Competitor
I watched Adelia approach, soothing Pina, who was crying so hard she was gagging.
"Why is she like this?"
"Are you all right?"
But Adelia didn't answer my question. Instead, she asked about my condition.
Why would she ask me that in this situation?
Did she know... how I'd been a moment ago?
No way.
Beings who can read thoughts... aren't entirely nonexistent, but even they can't read them this easily.
"Miss Pina is wiping her nose on Miss Eli's uniform, so I was asking if that's all right."
"...Her nose?"
I lowered my gaze.
"Hiii... hiii..."
She wasn't deliberately blowing her nose, but her nose was running so badly it might as well have been. How does this kid have more snot than tears?
"...Ha, she's already smeared it all over me, so what can I do. Anyway, why is she crying like this?"
"While we were eating the chicken skewers, I told her what the skewers were made of. After hearing that... she started shedding such pitiful tears."
Adelia pulled down the corners of her mouth. She made a tearful face, but enjoyment still lingered on it.
"The ingredient in chicken skewers is chicken. What else would it be?"
I handed Pina, who had finally calmed down a bit, over to Eurasia, then took out a tissue and wiped Pina's tears and snot.
"There are places that are that honest, but there are also places that aren't, from time to time. Truly, quite often, in fact... and of all places, the one Miss Pina and I ate at happened to be one of those."
"What, do they grind up human flesh or something?"
That existed 400 years ago.
There were quite a few bastards—not a huge number, but a fair amount—who ground up intact corpses and ate them as meatballs.
"Something similar."
At Adelia's answer, Stella started dry-heaving. Eurasia covered Pina's ears and, uncharacteristically, put on a fierce expression.
But wait, Pina has human ears and Beastkin ears... does covering just one side like that even do anything?
Look at her right now. Her squirrel ear is twitching.
No, for now... I'd ask about that later. I shifted my gaze to the chicken skewers Adelia was holding.
"It doesn't look like human flesh."
"Right. It's just similar."
"Stop dragging it out like a riddle and just answer me in one go. I'm curious, sure, but I don't have any patience."
"Oh my... hoo hoo. Then I'd better tell you quickly."
Adelia held out the two chicken skewers she and Pina had each taken a bite from, grinning.
"Want to try one first?"
"You're saying the skewers contain something like human flesh, and you want to feed them to a student?"
"They say you learn this sort of thing faster by experiencing it yourself than by hearing about it? And it's not human flesh."
"I'm a genius, so I learn perfectly well from words alone."
"What a shame."
Adelia took the skewers back. Then, whoosh—she burned them away without a trace in black flames and dusted off her hands.
"That chicken skewer place we originally meant to go to, remember? The one we made plans to visit about a month ago."
"Yes. Are you saying that place made them with mixed meat?"
"Of course not. That place is a very honest, well-regarded shop. But it wasn't open today. No, actually, it hasn't opened for a while. So as a substitute, we ate chicken skewers from somewhere else."
Right. The chicken skewers at the place we ate were definitely pure chicken thigh meat.
Well... with breed improvements and whatnot, they say giant chickens exist these days, but it wasn't that kind of taste. It was genuinely pure chicken flavor.
"So the place you ate at today used mixed meat. Where is it?"
"I won't need to tell you. There's no other long-established shop open in this area besides that one."
"All those shops closed down?"
"Yes. Fascinating, isn't it?"
"Fascinating indeed."
I stared at Adelia's twirling smile.
A leave permit that had been completed long ago.
Information on exactly how long the chicken skewer shops had been closed.
A voice that explained everything smoothly, without hesitation.
Where did the planning begin and end?
What was she after, going to all this trouble?
Do I let this slide? Or not?
"Are you curious about what I'm thinking?"
"What's always curious is the inside of your head, Professor."
"There's nothing I couldn't tell you if you asked. But even if I answered, Miss Eli wouldn't believe me."
"Exactly right. Which is why I don't ask."
"A soft-hearted professor like me gets terribly hurt by words like that. When I lie down to sleep and pull up the covers, I'll remember and just feel so sad."
"What a shame. But well, sorry, what can you do? Words once spoken can't be picked back up."
"Truly... Miss Eli is the very model of a bad woman."
"If I have to be one, I'd rather be a bad bitch to you, Professor."
Adelia's smile deepened, and I turned my gaze toward the old shop visible in the distance.
Meanwhile, Eurasia was soothing Pina, and Stella had finally stopped dry-heaving and started gulping down water.
And Ophelia, who had been wedged between me and Adelia—
"...P-Professor. Hah... Junior? You two... um... that, I... hah, Junior!"
She looked at me, trembling.
"What."
"...Y-you can't say things like that to the Professor!"
"Don't worry about it."
"Hngh! No! As your academy senior, I can't just let this slide. Junior. It's fine if you talk to me like that. But not to the Professor."
I stared at Ophelia.
Her brow was furrowed, her lips pressed firmly shut, her cheeks rigid.
To anyone watching, it looked exactly like a model senior scolding a delinquent junior.
And in reality... that was true. Ophelia was renowned as a student council officer and model student, while I was rumored to be a total thug of a ducal daughter.
Which made it all so strange.
When I saw her in the back alleys, I'd formed the preconception that she was the boss of those scumbags, and then, seeing her lust after money, I'd been certain of it.
On top of that, I learned she was the Puppet Emperor's disciple aiming for Shedding into a Demon, a human who drove Mana Stones into her own body, and I even debated killing her.
But lately, seeing how she acts at the academy, I keep getting confused.
Which is the mask, and which is the real face?
Why does she drive Mana Stones into herself?
No matter how close a master-disciple relationship is, you wouldn't want to offer up your own life.
Does she not know what she's doing?
Or did she go mad long ago and keep doing it even though she knows?
Well... it's not something to think about now.
According to Sparkle, it'll take at least two more years.
"Fine, I get it. Move aside."
"D-do you really get it?"
"Yes."
"Oh my? You lower your tail for your senior, but not for me?"
Adelia cut in.
"I lower it quite a lot for you too, Professor."
"Do you?"
"Want me to raise it?"
"Then I think I'd remember it when I go to bed and fall into a very sad sleep."
"Then don't poke at me for no—"
"Junior!"
"Ah, shit... haah. Fine, I get it."
I gave Adelia a small bow of my head and walked past her.
In the distance, the old shop with people lined up outside.
"You're going there yourself?"
"Isn't that what you want?"
Heh heh—Adelia laughed.
"Right. This is all a lesson for your performance reports?"
"You seem to have prepared for quite a long time. Your qualities as a professor are truly excellent."
"Thank you."
I clicked my tongue and kept walking.
"My lady. Is it really human flesh...?"
A moment later, Eurasia, still covering the ears of Pina, who had stopped crying, asked me.
"...It's probably not human flesh."
I answered while watching Pina's reaction.
As expected. This kid can hear us.
Are the squirrel ears her main ones? I don't know.
I want to ask right now, but if I do, Eurasia might feel embarrassed, so I can't.
Pina also... seems to be pretending not to notice for the sake of Eurasia's sincerity. But her ears and tail make pretending impossible.
"Really?"
"Yeah. The smell is different."
"...Smell?"
This time Stella tilted her head.
"You know the smell of... roasting human flesh?"
"I read about it in a book."
"What...? How do you know from reading about it in a book?"
"A genius can know everything."
"That damn genius this, genius that. I'm so sick of it now."
Stella pouted and grumbled.
Whether she did or not, I didn't stop walking.
Behind me, Adelia and Ophelia were following while conversing.
A moment ago.
I chewed over the feeling of strange memories flowing into my head... no, surfacing.
My head... hurt. My vision blurred, and an unpleasant sensation swept over me. But the moment I heard the sound of Adelia's shoes, all of it vanished in an instant.
Did she do it knowingly?
If she did it knowingly, why did she help me?
Knowing what? For what?
Nothing but questions. Whenever I think about Adelia, everything turns into a question mark. Then suspicion sets in and my distrust deepens.
Adelia acts like that even knowing it.
And that is incredibly irritating.
Not hypocrisy, but affected villainy?
"...Tch."
I set the thought aside for a moment.
We arrived at the old shop. A long line stretched out before us.
"Should we skip everyone and go to the front?"
"M-my lady, you can't do something like that...!"
"Are you seriously a thug?"
"Hiii..."
Eurasia linked her arm through mine, Stella twisted her lips in disgust, and Pina, apparently afraid of the chicken skewers, hugged her tail.
Then click-clack—Adelia caught up.
"Shall I help you?"
"With cutting in line?"
"Not cutting in line—helping you receive a concession?"
What, is she going to use Illusion Magic or something?
Here, inside the Imperial Capital? This is why illusion types are shit, and Black Wizards are even shittier.
I glared at Adelia. And Adelia—
"Metamorpho."
She smiled brightly and snapped her fingers. Her appearance changed. She now looked like a girl around our age.
Illusion Magic?
Before I could figure it out, she snapped her fingers again.
"Vocerus."
A small Magic Circle appeared in front of her mouth.
"Amplification Magic...?"
Just as I was wondering, Stella muttered.
Amplification? Here? Why?
Adelia's smile as she looked at me deepened.
"Ah."
I understood that crazy bitch's intent.
"That crazy bitch—!"
At the same moment, the crazy bitch's red lips parted.
"Gasp!! Isn't that the Lady of House Eustetia?!"
Adelia's clear voice, wearing the mask of a girl, rang out crisply through the alley.
Everyone in the alley turned to look.
Every single face wore the same expression.
Shock, fear, awe, and so on.
"For someone as exalted as a ducal daughter to be standing in line here... I apologize. Please, stand in front of me..."
Among them, the beggar-like girl closest to me—Adelia—opened a path.
The crowd parted behind her.