94. A Sensitive Day

Yesterday morning. I woke up, and these stacks of paper were neatly arranged on my desk.

And on top of those stacks of paper, there was also a short note. A note saying that how to use them was up to me.

However, the moment Stella read that note, it burned away without a trace in pitch-black flames.

And in those flames, Demonic Energy could be felt.

Having quickly dispersed the faint traces of Demonic Energy left in the room, Stella read the information beneath the note.

In that part, well... it laid out a very urgent explanation of the situation at length, but the conclusion was simple.

If Eliarnes were told about this right now, she clearly wouldn't be able to make sound judgments.

So I should organize it as neatly as possible myself, leave out the unbelievable parts, fill in the gaps with the most plausible guesses I can, and then tell her.

So that's what I did.

I stayed up until dawn organizing the information and fitting the puzzle pieces together, and a somewhat complete picture emerged.

Now I should tell Eliarnes.

With that thought, she called for me.

And before she could tell me, I caught her.

That was the extent of Stella's explanation of the situation.

And what followed were Stella's own deductions and four or five solutions for how to resolve this situation.

Listening to the solutions that followed from those deductions, I realized that the source of Stella's information and the source of the information Ophelia had brought were the same person.

And... I also realized that Stella was innocent.

The deductions ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and solutions were incredibly stupid, scatterbrained, and lacking in some way—so very Stella—but her expression was more serious than I'd ever seen before.

The explanations went on for over six hours.

I didn't know if she had really done it for my sake, but still, she had prepared diligently in her own way.

So I... started with an apology.

"...Sorry for misunderstanding you."

At my apology, Stella's eyes went wide.

"...What? What's with you? Seriously, what's wrong with you?"

"Why are you bitching even when I apologize?"

"This isn't the time to apologize! If it were you, huh? You'd be rudely interrogating me, annoyingly nitpicking, latching on and not letting go... that's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠what you should be doing? This is weird...?"

"Are you doing this on purpose today?"

"You're really... in bad shape, aren't you."

She looked like she wanted to keep bitching, but she just shut her mouth and sank into the chair.

Stella was right. My condition was bad.

Sara, Eurasia, Mother... none of them had it as bad as I did. I was the only one this severe.

And I... the flow was heavy too.

Looking at Mother, Sara, and Eurasia, they seemed to change every three or four hours.

But I had to change every two hours... and on the second day, when the flow was heaviest, every hour.

That didn't mean it hurt, though.

No, it did hurt. But it wasn't like I was writhing in agony.

It's just an irritating kind of pain.

The problem, however, lies elsewhere.

Probably my mood? Emotions? I didn't know what it was, but my emotional side got needlessly soft.

Because of that, my body got sluggish and my senses dulled, and, ugh. I didn't know. I just got weaker overall.

So right now I'm very... tender.

At times like this, Mother or Sara would always stroke my belly.

...It's not that I miss it.

It just crossed my mind.

Really. When did I get old enough to be, like, huh? Missing my parents because I'm away from home? As if.

"Fuck."

"Why are you cursing when I'm worried about you?!"

"It wasn't at you."

I popped a lemon candy I'd bought to feed Stella into my mouth and burrowed deeper into the plush chair.

Does Stella sit in this chair every day?

Sitting still, Stella's scent wafts over me faintly.

"So... what are you planning to do?"

"About what?"

"What do you mean, about what? Shivria apparently knows about this."

"Yeah."

"Well... shouldn't you, like, take some kind of action?"

I stared quietly at Stella, who spoke as if genuinely worried.

"Wh-what...! Why are you staring at me like that! Is it because I butted into your family business? Hah... th-that's not it, okay? I just... just, well, merely... because, huh? Because I was worried something might go wrong with you, okay?"

"What do you care whether something goes wrong with me or not? What, would you take a loss or something?"

"A l-loss? A loss... Of course I'd take a loss! I... I wouldn't get to eat macarons anymore!"

At that ridiculous excuse, a snicker escaped me.

"Why? Are you worried I might die?"

"No, I'm not! Why would I worry about you? Hah, I'm just worried about macarons, okay?"

"Oh yeah? So you just thought of me as a money source, then? And here I actually thought of you quite sincerely."

"...Huh? S-sincerely? Huh?"

Stella made a dumb face.

Then her lips twitched, and she looked like she was searching for something to say.

Of course, I didn't give her the time.

"I packed you meals and brought a ton of snacks because I was worried about you, but you just saw me as a money source. Well, what can I do. This is all my karma."

"N-no... that's... that's not..."

"Forget it. You'd just make excuses anyway."

Stella stared at me, her face flushed red.

"No. Really, no! Th-that, huh? It was a joke! Why won't you take a joke today, no... no, that's not it. I'm sorry. I just... ugh, that... the joke went too far..."

I glanced at Stella, then lowered my gaze again. Then I let out a soft, wistful sigh that welled up from inside.

At that, Stella's body trembled violently.

"...Eliarnes?"

I didn't answer, just cast my gaze slightly her way.

Tears welling at the corners of her eyes, trembling pitifully—it was a delicacy.

What do I do? What should I do? She's not feeling well either, did I go too far? I'm crazy, I'm crazy. Why did I do that?

With that expression, she fidgets with her fingers.

Maybe because I had spent all day talking with Silina, seeing such a fresh, lively reaction was so, so, so enjoyable.

Stella really was the best for a change of mood.

"I-it really was a joke. I, well... yeah. I was worried about you, so, ugh...! If you, if you weren't here, the academy would be boring... no, lonely! So! So I was worried! Not because of macarons!"

A little more of this and she'd be on her knees begging.

Giggling—unable to hold back the laughter that escaped on its own, I nodded.

"Well, it's not like you'd have any friends without me."

At that moment, Stella bristled! But she bit her lip and clenched both fists.

"If you're just going to say weird stuff, then answer my question. So, what are you going to do? Are you just going to leave it alone?"

I'd already made a plan.

I didn't know how it would play out, but since Silina had boasted so confidently, it probably wouldn't go completely to ruin.

The question was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠whether I could tell Stella about it.

"Hey."

"What?"

Should I ask or not.

Wouldn't it be better to ask once my mind has settled a bit more?

And even if I ask now, would she even answer?

I don't know.

I don't even know why I'm having these worries that don't suit me at all.

"Let me ask one thing."

Originally, I wanted to wait until Stella told me of her own will.

I thought that would let us build a slightly sturdier trust.

But.

Why do I want to ask so badly right now?

Is it because Eurasia isn't by my side, and I want someone to trust? Am I lonely? Me?

I am by no means the type who gets lonely easily.

It was the same in my Past Life, and it's the same now.

"Do you have some kind of grudge against Eustetia?"

But my mouth won't stop.

This is why I hate blood days. Fuck.

"...What? What's that supposed to mean all of a sudden?"

"I definitely don't know you. I was shut up in my house until I came to the academy. But you seemed to know me. The way you glared at me during the Entrance Exam was like that. Like you had a grudge against me—no, against the Eustetia I belong to?"

Stella's mouth fell open blankly.

Her eyes rolled around as if searching for something to say.

It seemed I'd hit the mark.

"And, listening to your explanation just now, you knew quite a lot about Eustetia. Things not known to the public, you knew them. Of course, I don't want to nitpick the things you told me for my sake, but I do need to know this before we move on."

Just as I'd said, Stella knew more about Eustetia than expected.

The incident in the past where my father slaughtered some of the collateral line and all of the Council of Elders, the differences between the Knight Order and Nameless, Nameless's fearsome reputation and notoriety.

And she also seemed to know about the current situation of the Eustetia Duchy—shallowly, but quite a bit.

"What happened between you and Eustetia?"

I'd suspected something must have happened, but now it was certain.

Stella had some history with Eustetia.

And given how thoroughly she'd investigated, it couldn't be anything ordinary.

If so, was it something my father did?

Or the collateral line? Nameless? The Knight Order?

I can't know that. So I need to find out before moving on.

"Even you can see I'm in a weird state right now. I'm, well... very tender at the moment. So, if you're going to tell me, now's the time."

Her indigo eyes trembled—quivering.

"If you tell me the secret you're hiding, I'll trust you. I'll trust you, and I'll stop testing and probing you from now on. I promise."

"...And if I don't tell you?"

"Then we just stay the same as always. I'm not planning to distance myself from you just because you won't talk. We shouldn't grow distant in the first place. You owe me, after all."

"O-owe? You... were actually planning to collect that?"

"Hah, look at this girl. Did you think I wouldn't collect all that money? No, wait—there's also the price of your life. Did you think I'd just let that go?"

I definitely said it back then.

If she couldn't repay it in money, she'd repay it with her body.

And since then, I'd bought Stella meals every day, bought her desserts, pressed macarons into her hands, bought her Artifacts, clothes, and spare academy uniforms—so even just the raw amount must have grown quite a bit.

So.

"You can't run away from me. If you try to bolt, I'll break your arms and legs. Got it?"

"You're... insane... you swindler! I... I never asked for money!!"

"You've been happily gobbling it all up this whole time, and now you say you never asked? It's too late. And even if it weren't money, you owe me your life. You know that, right?"

"Ugh...!"

Stella, her face dyed bright red and her lips mumbling, let out a weak sigh—'haa...'

"...So, you're curious about what happened between me and Eustetia?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"I don't know either."

"...What's that supposed to mean?"

"I don't understand my own thoughts. They keep bouncing off in weird directions, and I can't follow them."

Stella frowned and glared at me.

Then, she let out another deep sigh and asked in a very, very careful voice.

"Then, if... if I tell you this... will you forgive my debt?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"...You ruthless bitch."

"If I hear it and it pleases me, I'm willing to reduce some of it."

"I'm not saying it because of the debt."

"If you hadn't said that, I might have believed you."

"It's true!"

Thump! Stella slammed her fist on the table and stared straight at me.

"Eliarnes."

"What."

"Will you... believe what I say?"

What did she mean by asking that?

Various thoughts passed through my head.

So what should I do?

I'd already given my answer to that question.

So my actions won't change.

"If you tell me all your secrets, I'll trust you. That was the promise I made to you."

"...Really?"

"Yeah."

"I could be using you, you know."

"No. The you I know isn't smart enough to pull off a lie like that."

"...I really hate you."

"I hate you too."

Stella, who had been twisting her hair around her finger, grabbed the end of that strand tightly and opened her mouth.

"...It's about my mom."

At the word 'mom,' the puzzle pieces in my head roughly fell into place.

Eustetia.

Stella Verheigen's mother.

A problem that arose between them.

This... is going to be a headache.

The moment I thought that.

Ding—my Device rang.

[Pina]

"What."

"No, why are you suddenly checking your Device in the middle of—"

"Wait a sec. I'll just check it."

The content was nothing special.

No, there was nothing at all.

All the message contained was a single photo.

It was a familiar photo.

Not just familiar to me, but familiar to every student at the academy.

A wall made of blue-glowing minerals.

Patterns of unknown meaning carved into that wall.

And a massive gate erected at the center of that wall.

It was the academy's main gate.

A photo of the main gate taken from inside the academy.

But even that was severely ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠shaken and taken at a tilted angle.

Did she send it by mistake?

Thinking that, I was about to put down my Device. At the same moment, I spotted something at the edge of the photo.

Light. A faint light.

A light that, at a glance, could be mistaken for sunlight.

The light of Sparkle.

I spotted the light of Sparkle captured in the photo.

Didn't Sparkle say she couldn't come outside for a while?

I pressed Pina's profile.

A green light was on.

I called.

Thirty seconds. One minute. One minute thirty seconds.

No answer. I called again.

Still no answer.

"Hey, what are you suddenly doing in the middle of our conversation?"

Stella pouted and grumbled.

Outside the window, the peaceful chatter of students could be heard. The sunset was cozy, and the spring breeze was cool.

A comfortable and peaceful scene.

But from that scene, I smelled a stench.

The stench of reptiles.