48. Touch Little Eli and You're Fucked
48. Touch Little Eli and You're Fucked
Fierce platinum eyes swept over the second-years.
Before long, that gaze came to rest on Shivria's foot.
Fabiana sneered at the sight and took a step forward. At the same time, Shivria meekly lowered the foot she'd been grinding into Eurasia.
"Your name was Shivria Eustetia, wasn't it."
"...That's correct."
"Were you the one who instigated this?"
Shivria couldn't answer.
In the meantime, I walked.
Fabiana, Shivria, Silina.
Without a care for the eyes of anyone here, I walked over and pulled Eurasia and Stella to their feet.
"Does it hurt anywhere?"
"I-it's... I'm fine."
"Stella, what about you."
"...I-I'm... hic, sniff... I'm f-fine too..."
Stella, who had been sniffling and rubbing her own knees, used healing magic to lightly heal herself and Eurasia.
"M-my lady, I'm fine, so please calm—"
"Stay still."
Only after examining the two of them for a long while was I able to suppress my anger.
I closed my eyes gently and gathered my Mana.
Judging by the reactions around me, the only ones who had noticed what I was about to do were Fabiana and Eurasia.
The other students didn't seem to have even sensed the Mana.
"Haa..."
I sent off the last remaining anger in a sigh and looked at Fabiana.
"You're a third-year?"
"That's right."
"Then I'll ask. Does Signia Class normally have this kind of shitty culture?"
I could hear people swallowing their breath here and there.
Fabiana, on the other hand, burst out laughing.
"Kehaha! A shitty culture... a shitty culture. There is no such shitty culture. It's been gone for a long time. My older brother, Gerolt de Hermann, got rid of it."
"But it nearly came back here. Not even ordinary disciplinary training, but unreasonable abuse."
"It certainly seems that way. A truly shitty culture that the First Prince, Gerolt de Hermann, personally eliminated nearly came back."
Fabiana's sharp gaze pinned Shivria. Then she glared at the male student with dull platinum hair standing behind her, and at that whole group.
"I'll ask again. Are my eyes—Fabiana's eyes—playing tricks on me? Has my mind gone mad and made me misunderstand? Has my judgment already clouded at this young age?"
There was no answer.
"It couldn't be that I was some out-of-touch old crone who'd fallen behind the times. So what was it?"
Fabiana sneered and singled out one of the second-years who had shut their mouths.
A male student with the imperial color, though faint.
"My brother. What was your name?"
"...Baldwin de Hermann."
"Ah, right. Baldwin. You answer. What kind of situation is this, exactly?"
Baldwin, who had been choosing his words for a while, answered.
"I heard that this year's new students are exceptionally talented, so I was giving them a warning in case of any possible accidents."
"A warning. A warning, you say. If what just happened is what you call a warning, then my eyes really have gone crooked."
Fabiana reached out and snatched Baldwin's wrist. Then she brought it up to her own eyeballs and giggled.
"In that case, Baldwin. As your senior, let me ask one favor. Would you pluck out the eyeballs of a senior who's gone so crooked she can't see the world properly?"
"Th-that, no, that... that is..."
"I'm worried I might make a mistake because my eyes have gone crooked. So please, I beg you. Hurry and gouge out my crooked eyeballs and hang them on the academy's front gate. And it would be good to spread the word far and wide. That you plucked out the crooked eyeballs of Signia's top student and the student council president."
"H-hrk... I'm sorry, I'm sorry...!"
"What are you sorry for?"
"It wasn't a warning... I was making them do disciplinary training."
Fabiana laughed loudly.
"Ha! So my eyes really were crooked! Not just crooked—they've gone blind. Because no matter how I looked, I couldn't see it as disciplinary training! Baldwin! Hurry and pluck out my eyeballs! I don't want to see this wrong world anymore!"
Then Fabiana's arm moved.
With the hand gripping Baldwin's fingers, she tried to stab herself in the eye.
At that moment.
Baldwin, flaring his Mana, tried to shake off Fabiana's grip.
But Fabiana didn't just watch.
She used Mana as well and gripped Baldwin's hand even harder.
As a result.
Crunch—!
"Hrk, kuaaagh!"
Baldwin's wrist dislocated and dangled, and the hand attached to the end of it was so mangled it could no longer be called a hand.
Beads of blood even began seeping out through the pulpy skin.
Baldwin, clutching that hand, stammered out his words.
"It was abusive... abusive treatment. I'm sorry. It was unreasonable disciplinary training. I'm sorry, I'm sorry."
At those words, Fabiana shouted in an even more exaggerated, booming voice.
"Good heavens! Abusive treatment at Karelai Academy, and in Signia Class of all places! How could such a thing happen? And with me, Fabiana de Hermann, sitting as Student Council president, no less. Ahh, this is my fault. I should be punished. Don't you all think so too? Shivria. You think so too, don't you?"
"N-no, that's not it. Absolutely not...!"
Shivria, deathly pale, took a step back and shook her head. Fabiana walked two steps forward and grabbed Shivria's hands.
"Then whose fault is it? Is it the fault of the Dean, Sedil Mershdoff? Is the problem that he left the academy in this state? If so, then I'll have no choice but to step forward under the name of the First Princess, Fabiana de Hermann, rather than as student council president. Why are you shaking your head? It's not Dean Sedil's fault? I see. Then whose fault is it? Is it the fault of the professor in charge of the second-years? Since I don't know which of the two it is, I'll have to go right now under the princess's name and separate those two bastards' bones from their flesh. No, even that won't be enough. This is a matter that tarnishes the honor of Karelai Academy and, further, the Empire, so I'll have to track down the professors' families and behead every last one of them, old folks and brats alike."
Fabiana's words were not sophistry.
As First Princess, she had more than enough authority to do all that.
Of course, she probably couldn't touch the Dean.
But she could easily kill two professors and their families.
And so, Shivria's completely pallid face dropped. Her legs, which had been trembling pathetically, lost their strength and she collapsed on the spot.
Fabiana sat down facing Shivria.
"If I do that, will this unreasonable and truly shitty culture of Karelai Academy disappear?"
"N-no... it's all, all my fault... I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry."
"Shivria Eustetia. Are you stating unequivocally that this was your fault?"
"Yes. It's all my fault... so please, let go of your anger... I'm sorry..."
"Hm."
Fabiana composed herself for a moment, then rose from her seat and looked at Eurasia and Stella.
Then she looked back at Shivria.
"It seems I'm not the one you should be apologizing to."
Shivria's body flinched.
After a moment, she ground her teeth and rose from her seat.
"I-I'm sorry."
"Eurasia Espirot. Stella Verheigen. Will you accept this inadequate senior's apology?"
"...Yes."
"Yes, hic... y-yes..."
Fabiana chuckled and spread her arms, about to wrap things up.
"What a heartwarming conclusion. Well then, now—"
"Just a moment."
But I had no intention of ending it like this.
"Hm? Eliarnes. Do you have more to say?"
"Yes."
Shivria's sharp glare pierced into me.
I grinned at Shivria.
"Shivria Eustetia, the senior standing over there... made remarks that undermine Karelai's authority."
"Oh? Remarks that undermine Karelai's authority, you say. Is this true, Shivria?"
"What kind of bullshit... no, nonsense is that? I have absolutely never made such remarks."
"So she says. Eliarnes, surely you wouldn't lie to me."
Fabiana gave me a sly smile.
From her expression, she seemed to already know what I was going to say.
I didn't know how the Empire was supposed to function when a nineteen-year-old brat could be this much of a snake.
I composed my expression and spoke clearly, one word at a time.
"First. She said Karelai's rules are a shitty law. The rules of Karelai Academy are, in turn, the laws of the Empire. She disparaged those rules by calling them a shitty law."
"What kind of bullshit..."
"Am I wrong?"
"...I didn't mean it that way."
"Oh-ho. So you did say it, at least. Right. If that's the first, is there more?"
I nodded, then cleared my throat.
Now it was time to be more confident, more composed, and more shameless than anyone else.
"Second, she said she didn't understand how I passed the special exam. She even said that Eustetia's power couldn't reach into the academy's interior. Others may have heard it differently, but this is what I heard: 'With Eustetia's power, one could fraudulently enroll in Karelai Academy.'"
I took what had actually happened and stretched the interpretation.
After that, I emphasized the name and authority of Eustetia.
So that people would start thinking: if it was Eustetia, couldn't they really pull off fraudulent enrollment?
"Those words are remarks that cast doubt on the academy's legitimacy. And is that all? Karelai Academy is the greatest in the world and the pride of the Empire. To doubt, deny, and disparage such a Karelai Academy was more than enough to be heard as remarks that doubt the legitimacy of the Hermann Empire, deny its will, and disparage its authority."
After that, I talked up the authority of the academy and the Empire as much as possible, then forced my earlier sophistry into the argument until it fit.
What mattered here was shamelessness.
And the confidence to state what wasn't obvious as though it were.
By this point, everyone would be thinking to themselves:
'Uh... is that really true?'
'I think it might be?'
'...It really is.'
'It's all true, isn't it.'
That was the conclusion they would come to.
Even a glance around showed first- and second-years alike wearing exactly those expressions.
Meanwhile, Shivria wore an expression that said, What kind of bullshit is this?
She seemed to be coming up with all sorts of rebuttals in her head, but I wasn't going to give her time.
I took a breath and looked at Shivria.
"You won't claim you never said such things. Everyone here heard you."
I grinned, then looked at Fabiana.
"What does 'Her Highness' Fabiana de Hermann think? At the very least, I—the Spring of the Empire, a direct descendant of Eustetia, the descendants of the Hero who subjugated the Demons to protect the Empire—believe that Senior Shivria's words and actions drag down the honor and authority of the mighty and steadfast Hermann Empire."
For the final touch, I addressed not a student of Karelai Academy, but an imperial princess.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Shivria's face had gone deathly pale. Her legs, which had barely been holding her up, lost their strength and she collapsed again.
Beside her, Baldwin, clutching his broken hand, and the second-years who had followed those two bitches, all wore the same expression as Shivria, their jaws trembling.
Meanwhile, Eurasia, standing behind me, had a face that showed she couldn't understand what any of this was about, and Stella had stopped crying and was staring with wide eyes.
And Fabiana.
"Keu, keuh... keuhahahahahaha!! Ahahahahaha!!"
She burst into laughter like she'd lost her mind.
"Keuheuk... h-huu... Right. I shall answer as the First Princess of the Hermann Empire."
The laughter went on for about a minute.
"I think the same. Eliarnes Eustetia, I agree with your thoughts. Therefore—"
At the end of it, Fabiana spoke.
"According to imperial law, three generations must be exterminated."
Behind her, I grinned and grinned.
You dare touch me?
You're all completely fucked.