62. Reward
62. Reward
They say when three women gather, plates break.
It really did seem like it.
My head was already ringing, my whole body aching, and my mind was a tangled mess, but listening to them chatter away was enough to make me spit blood.
So I kicked them all out.
The method was simple.
I pressed the emergency bell to summon the head maid, then asked her to drive out all the uninvited guests.
Even that hellion of a vice dean, Leona, couldn't do anything against the head maid, and was dragged outside as meekly as a cat scruffed by the neck.
And so, in the peace that arrived after that dreadful commotion passed.
"...Ugh."
I barely managed to raise my body, which could hardly lift a finger, and leaned my back against the wall.
Last night, my conversation with Sparkle had piled up a mountain of things to think about.
But I put that off for later.
What mattered now was which direction yesterday's events had flowed.
Fabiana's promise to handle it quietly seemed to have been utterly smashed to pieces.
That said, Fabiana probably hadn't told everything. She'd sworn an oath, after all.
First, seeing as no one was coming after me about destroying the museum's weapons, it seemed the incident itself had been covered up well.
But the fact that I'd been inside that Labyrinth apparently couldn't be hidden. Though... I figured that couldn't be helped.
The moment I came out of the Labyrinth, there'd been a mountain of people encamped there, so the rumors would have spread far and wide through their mouths.
And since the fact that I'd accomplished something was important for opening the imperial Treasury or the Forbidden Archive, I did think it couldn't be helped.
Even so, this was too much.
I hadn't gone outside, so I hadn't heard the rumors within the academy.
But seeing that the Eustetia Knight Order—and on top of that, even my father—was coming, the rumors were spreading far too fast.
The ones who could pull off something like that.
"...The imperial family?"
Were they trying to bury the fact that a knight of the Imperial Palace Knight Order had tried to kill Silina, using the rumor that I'd been in there?
Certainly, an incident of that magnitude would be enough to drag down the honor of the Imperial Knight Order—and by extension, the authority of the imperial family.
Something that could turn an accident into an incident.
So they might try to cover it up with another issue.
But this kind of low-down method wasn't something Fabiana or Silina would do.
So it could be assumed that someone from the imperial family other than those two had spread the rumors with some purpose in mind.
And that someone was either in league with the Demons, or a human who'd made some kind of deal with them.
The purpose? To find the human who'd killed that Demon, even if it had only been an incomplete Demon.
From what I'd experienced fighting it, the only human who could kill that Demon was... Fabiana, at best.
But that was before the Demon made its final desperate struggle. There was no human who could kill a Demon that had absorbed all the Demonic Energy it had accumulated and even the Labyrinth Core.
In terms of raw force, Fabiana alone would have been enough, but the problem was her lack of experience.
No matter how strong someone was, experience played the biggest role when dealing with Demons.
If I went through it all one by one.
If you said that Eurasia, Silina, and I—four people total including Fabiana—had attacked together, it might somehow pass muster... but even that wouldn't be easy.
It was also hard to claim the Demon hadn't done such a thing. From the outside, they would have clearly felt the Labyrinth's change.
Anyone who knew even a little about Demons and Labyrinths would quickly realize that the Demon had absorbed the Demonic Energy inside the Labyrinth.
If that happened, the conclusion would be that there was a powerhouse with overwhelming might inside the Labyrinth, and whoever was singled out as that powerhouse would come under the Demons' scrutiny.
It was an extremely troublesome situation.
According to Sparkle, I possessed a soul identical to my Past Life's soul.
Which meant that any being capable of seeing through souls would be able to recognize "me."
Of course, it would only be possible for a being who'd had eyes that could see souls since 400 years ago and had seen me at least once even then, but it was dangerous all the same.
Even that idiot of a Demon I met yesterday recognized me, so any Demon of even modest renown would know me.
And if such a bastard came face to face with me—with Ronan?
Alliance or not, they'd immediately try to kill me.
This wasn't self-importance or anything like that.
I... uh... had earned that much enmity from the Demons, so it was something that could easily happen.
Of course, I did have a means to kill even high-grade Demons somehow...
But if I used "that"... becoming terminally ill would be the least of my worries—every Demon in the world would learn that I was Ronan's Reincarnation.
"Haah, fuck..."
If something had happened while I was awake, I might have been able to think of a way, but since it happened while I was asleep, I could barely keep up with the flow of events.
If I went outside now, would I be able to meet Fabiana?
Probably not.
Both Fabiana and Silina would be at the Imperial Palace.
Then who would be around?
Someone who had a rough grasp of this flow and would know the rumors and various bits of information from here and there.
One person did come to mind.
But...
"...Ah, I really don't want to."
I sighed and lifted my head.
"What is it you don't want so much?"
And there, the one I'd definitely kicked out just moments ago.
"It's not me, is it? Fufufu."
Adelia Baros stood there, beaming.
*****
Adelia, who'd barged into my room on her own, explained in detail how the current situation had unfolded.
First, the ones who'd spread the rumors were, as I'd expected, not Silina and Fabiana. And it was true that the rumors had started from the Imperial Palace.
As for the cause of those rumors, it was, unsurprisingly, for the sake of the imperial family's prestige.
Naturally, she didn't know the backstory. She said even Adelia couldn't dig that far.
Apparently, an expert capable of keeping Adelia from seeing through it had cast a Barrier around the entire Imperial Palace, or something like that.
The next thing she told me was about the general political situation, but I filtered out everything unnecessary.
I did properly catch that Fabiana and Silina were staying at the academy.
And after all that talk of the political situation, the news that followed was quite good.
Apparently, the Imperial Palace's Treasury was opening for the first time in 70 years.
The ones who'd be entering it were me and Eurasia.
As compensation for subjugating the Demonized Human and the Demon inside the Labyrinth, we'd be allowed to take one piece of equipment from the Treasury.
Along with that, permission to access the Forbidden Archive had also been granted.
In that process, whether due to Fabiana's obstinacy and the madwoman's reputation, there'd been all sorts of problems, but on the surface, everything had been resolved.
In exchange, one condition was attached.
When entering the Forbidden Archive, we had to be accompanied by one person affiliated with the imperial family.
And on that point, House Eustetia had reportedly expressed a fairly strong opinion.
If they were going to be accompanied by someone from the imperial family, then they should also be accompanied by someone from House Eustetia.
House Eustetia seemed to know that this Labyrinth situation was not an accident but an incident. So, to rule out any potential danger, they'd apparently decided to step forward as protectors.
That declaration meant House Eustetia was suspicious of the imperial family, but the imperial family reportedly approved it readily without showing any discomfort.
The first guess was that even the imperial family wouldn't want to make an enemy of House Eustetia.
The second guess was that the imperial family was taking responsibility for this incident and willing to accept trivial problems.
The third guess was that House Eustetia—that is... my father—had come on very strong.
Whatever the case, being able to bring someone from House Eustetia into the Imperial Palace was a very good thing.
Because in the Imperial Palace, where every direction was presumed to be an enemy, being able to bring one person who was unconditionally on my side was an enormous advantage.
And for questions that were difficult to answer, or political matters, leaving it all to that companion would resolve everything.
It did put my mind somewhat at ease.
But I didn't understand why she'd suddenly come—and secretly, at that—to explain all this.
Did she want something from me?
Even so, all I had was the Eustetia name and this one body.
"So, what's your reason for explaining all this to me?"
"Because my student seemed to be in a difficult situation."
"...Is that... all?"
"Of course. Does an academy professor need a special reason to protect a student?"
"Hmm..."
I pulled the tightly wrapped blanket up to my neck and glared at Adelia.
"And, Miss Eliarnes... hmm, I don't know the reason, but you're trying to hide your power, aren't you?"
"I've heard that the more secrets you have, the more charm you have."
"Someone like Miss Eliarnes would be overflowing with charm even without secrets, but yes. I'm making an effort to protect that secret. So there's no need to be that wary of me."
"Telling me not to be wary of a Black Wizard who can appear in a student's room without a word, without notice, without warning, as if it's nothing—that seems like a rather excessive demand."
"But that doesn't mean I'm laying a hand on Miss Eliarnes, does it? Honestly, fufu. As weakened as Miss Eliarnes is right now, I feel like I could toy with you to my heart's content even without magic, but I'm holding back, aren't I? How about trusting me just a little more?"
"That statement makes me even more uneasy."
I narrowed my eyes and hugged the blanket a little tighter. Adelia smiled even more deeply as she looked at me.
...Creepy.
Anyway, how did she know I'd become so feeble right now?
Could she tell just by looking?
Maybe she'd heard me ask for a priest earlier.
Even so... I hadn't shown it enough to warrant the word "weakened"...
'There's no way I wouldn't recognize Ronan's soul. Of course, it seems you've overexerted yourself and become quite weak right now... but anyway, it's definitely Ronan's soul.'
...No way?
"Um, I have a question."
"Ask freely."
"By any chance, are you—"
"Tsk. Not 'you.' It's Professor Adelia."
"Ugh... Yes. Um, well... Ah... Professor... Adelia, do you happen to have good eyes?"
Adelia, who'd tilted her head at my question, answered as if it were nothing.
"Yes. As I said last time, my eyes are good. I can see far, and I have many of them."
"...No. Not that. I mean, like, being able to see the form of a soul... or something like that."
Adelia's eyes widened.
But only for a moment. Her bewitching red eyes curved into crescents, and a soft smile touched her alluring lips.
"The form of a soul..."
A pale pink tongue shyly slipped out between her lips and licked them. Then, with a click, she took one step closer.
"Yes. I can see it."
She whispered into my ear.
"I can see that Miss Eliarnes's soul is weaker than usual right now, too?"