89. Good News and Better News
89. Good News and Better News
A snake beneath the Imperial Capital.
Those words stopped me in my tracks.
"That's the information you need right now, isn't it?"
I narrowed my eyes and turned back to Silina.
The information I need right now.
She knows what I'm looking for.
Just yesterday, Silina and I had talked about the Eustetia collateral line.
Even then, more than the collateral line itself, we'd talked about Silina's people who might be hiding inside the Cartel.
And yet, somehow, Silina knows what I'm looking for.
Who told her?
I didn't even need to think about it.
"The bitch who runs the Information Guild sure has a loose fucking mouth, huh?"
Ophelia Blumin.
Then why tell Silina?
To fuck with me?
No way.
After I beat the hell out of her people and even threw a pile of money on top, there's no way she'd pull something like that.
Of course, I couldn't say for absolute certain, but the Ophelia I saw wasn't the type with that kind of nerve.
Then why did she tell Silina?
Maybe she didn't tell her?
"Or did you force the information out of her?"
"I don't do rude things like that."
"Then that bitch is the problem."
At the growl in my voice, Silina flinched.
"I feel bad for Fabiana, but I'll have to tell her to find a new informant."
"...Eliarnes."
"What."
"I didn't force the information out of her, and her informant didn't tell me either. And didn't you tell me to bring information today?"
"Say it straight. The fact that you even know about that deadline is the problem. Is this how the Information Guild does business these days? If you call yourself an information guild, isn't it basic courtesy not to reveal someone else's information, even to a person carrying the Emperor's direct orders? Back in my day, everyone worked like that."
Silina muttered, "A seventeen-year-old saying 'back in my day,'" then glanced around and said,
"First of all, this doesn't seem like something to discuss here. How about we go somewhere quiet?"
Hearing Silina's lowered voice, I looked around too.
Everyone in the dining hall was sneaking glances at us.
Their eyes were anything but casual.
Pina, pressed right up against my side, was hugging her tail and trembling. Which made the atmosphere between me and Silina look even more ridiculous.
"If we keep talking here much longer, don't you think a new post about 'that first-year' will go up on the Community today?"
"Makes me want to poke every single one of their eyes out."
"Eeeek...!"
I gently stroked the back of Pina, who was gasping for breath, and nodded.
"Seems like it's already too late, but... let's go to a private training hall for now."
"Good thinking."
*****
Once we arrived at the private training hall, Silina began pulling things out of the small handbag she'd been carrying.
A coffee pot, teacups that looked expensive as hell at a glance, five kinds of tea bags, something black... espresso, milk, simple snacks, and so on.
She laid out a full tea-time spread on the table.
I'd wondered what she used that tiny-ass bag for, but it turned out to be an Artifact enchanted with spatial expansion magic.
And a fairly high-grade Artifact at that.
An Artifact you couldn't even buy with money, and she used it just to carry around a tea set.
Even for an Imperial Princess, that's some serious pretentiousness.
"Why are you setting up housekeeping in here?"
"It's not housekeeping. These are things that can make your training hall, which is full of nothing but trash, a little more luxurious."
"There's no trash in here."
"It's in your hand right now. Trash."
"Did you just call mint chocolate trash?"
"Yes."
Silina nodded proudly.
"Hah."
My brow twisted harshly at that response.
Is there no one in this world who likes mint chocolate? That can't be.
Just walking the streets of the Imperial Capital, there are dessert shops that specialize exclusively in mint chocolate.
I turned my head and asked Pina, who was staring at Silina's setup with sparkling eyes.
"Hey, Pina. Do you hate mint chocolate too?"
"Eek!"
Startled, Pina looked at me cautiously.
"Don't tell me... you hate mint chocolate, which your friend likes? Right? You don't, right?"
Shake, shake. Pina shook her head vigorously and boldly took the mint chocolate milk from my hand.
"Right? You like mint chocolate too, don't you, Pina?"
Nod, nod.
Pina, who had shown emphatic agreement, immediately started gulping down the mint chocolate milk.
"So she likes trashy mint chocolate because she herself is human trash."
Seeing that, Silina looked at me as if dumbfounded.
I looked back at her as if dumbfounded too.
"Why am I trash?"
"You don't even know your own problems, yet you're awfully confident."
"I'm confident because I don't have any problems."
I really am confident.
I didn't give Pina something she couldn't eat, and I didn't threaten her into eating it.
I simply asked her preference as a friend, and suggested it as a friend.
"You were born a thug, weren't you."
Silina giggled, then poured water from the now-boiling pot into a teacup and took a bundle of papers she'd kept in her handbag out onto the table.
I immediately sat down across from Silina to look at them.
At that, Silina took the bundle of papers back.
"...If you weren't an Imperial Princess, you'd have been slapped twice by now."
"If this weren't the academy, your head would already be rolling on the floor."
Silina, who had casually shot back at me, took a sip of black tea with an elegant movement and looked at me.
"I'm not trying to tease you."
"Then?"
"I'm worried."
"Worried?"
Taking another sip of black tea and then biting into a cookie with a crunch, Silina spoke in a more serious voice than before.
"The information here isn't certain. This is... something even I can't verify the authenticity of. The informant who brought this information—Ophel...—is the same."
"Stop dragging it out and get to the point."
"Don't get angry after reading it. Think it over thoroughly, examine it thoroughly, and then decide whether to accept it."
"I'll handle that myself."
"And I'm showing this to you before Fabiana, so if you throw a fit, Fabiana really might change informants."
Meaning Fabiana might kill Ophelia, or even the entire [Uranos] Information Guild.
What kind of information could warrant this much repeated caution? Hoping it wasn't what I thought it was, I nodded.
"...But."
"Oh, for fuck's sake. When are you going to show it to me? Are you going to show me when you're old and dead?"
"Speak more nicely."
Silina glared at me sharply.
But only for a moment. Her gaze softened slightly as she turned to look at Pina, who was sitting beside me munching on cookies.
"But... is it all right for her to hear this?"
I looked at Pina too.
"Hic."
Under our gazes, Pina started hiccuping.
Is it all right for Pina to hear?
"Hmm..."
Honestly, it would be best if Pina didn't hear.
But... in an academy where there's someone suspected of being a Demon informant, and in a situation where those bastards are suspected of targeting Pina, leaving Pina alone is too dangerous.
It might be overprotective, but I can't help it.
And, well... this is a bit funny, but.
If I go and the door won't open... then I might need Pina's help.
Still... I'm a little reluctant to let her know.
"Pina."
Tilt?
"Are you curious about what we're talking about?"
Pina, who had been opening and closing her mouth for a while, tapped on her Device.
[I am curious, but it's fine. Should I step outside for a moment?]
"No, don't go outside."
Tap. Tap. I tapped the table and finished my brief deliberation.
"Just sit there and eat cookies. In exchange, everything you see and hear here is a secret. Got it?"
[Yes. Understood.]
"If you ever tell anyone else, you and I can't be friends anymore. In fact, we'll be worse than strangers."
"Eek..."
Pina let out a terrified breath and nodded vigorously.
[That will absolutely never happen.]
"Yeah. Even if Vice Dean Leona asks, you don't know anything. Got it?"
[I will keep that in mind.]
Seeing Pina's resolute writing, I shrugged and looked at Silina.
Silina still looked deeply distrustful, but as if following my decision, she held out the papers she'd hidden in her bosom.
"I'll say it again. Don't read it and get angry right away. Keep in mind that this information is so unreliable that even Fabiana would scoff at it."
Ignoring the endless nagging, I turned over the first page of the papers.
"...Hah."
And then I doubted my own eyes.
"Eliarnes."
"I get it, so shut... be quiet for a second."
I closed my eyes for a moment and steadied my breathing.
I carefully set down the papers in my hand so I wouldn't tear them, and forcibly shoved the killing intent leaking out of my body back inside.
"This isn't certain yet, right."
"Right. It's not certain. In fact, it's so close to delusion that... its reliability is extremely low."
"But if you still brought it to show me, that means there's no physical evidence, but more than enough circumstantial conviction."
Silina didn't answer.
After evening out my breathing for a while, I opened my eyes again.
I lowered my gaze and slowly took in the information Silina had brought.
[Confirmed that a woman with pink hair made contact with a Black Wizard beneath the Imperial Capital.]
[The individual entered the underground through the Mirinae sewers at approximately 21:48 on January 2, Imperial Calendar year 954.]
[The provider of this information, codename 'Monghwan,' attempted to track the individual, but determined that tracking was impossible due to the Labyrinth inside the underground.]
[At approximately 13:12 on January 4, the individual exited Mirinae and attempted to contact the Black Magic Tower.]
[Based on the fact that she came out carrying items she had not originally possessed, it is presumed that some kind of transaction took place with the Black Wizard.]
[At approximately 13:17 on January 4, the individual vanished after taking the Black Magic Tower entry gate.]
[Upon verification through Monghwan's Intent, it was confirmed that the individual was a member of House Eustetia.]
[However, based on the murky color, it is presumed that she is from a collateral line rather than the main line.]
[February 17, Imperial Calendar year 954. Monghwan identified the individual.]
[Confirmed to be Hesilia Eustetia, the eldest daughter of a collateral branch of the Eustetia family developing an iron mine in the Beruna Region.]
[Father: Phaedra Eustetia.]
[Mother: Miriul Eustetia.]
[Eldest daughter: Hesilia Eustetia.]
"...Ha."
[Second daughter: Shivria Eustetia.]
"Look at this fucking bitch."