Chapter 68
Chapter 68
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 68
Chapter Title: Baldr's Nightmare (1)
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I opened my eyes. It was a refreshing feeling, like waking up late in the morning without an alarm.
Fortunately, the clock in my house doesn't even know how to tell time properly, let alone have an alarm function. Not having to go to school or work was one of the perks of being the canteen owner.
The house was spotless.
I got up from the sofa and headed to the bathroom. The man standing in front of the mirror looked quite different from before.
I remembered Darling coming by... Was this her doing? At this length, it wouldn't be too bothersome to let it grow out for a while.
But how did she even get in here? I'd set up the steel dogs.
"Haa..."
With my head finally clear, I had some leisure to look around. Right, I should go see Liv and Adella.
I'd chased them out without hearing a single excuse, so they must be pretty upset.
Dialogue is important for people, after all. Lehel said that if your throat's cut, you can't talk, so as a fellow human, I needed to do the right thing.
First, I needed to figure out where those two were...
"Hm?"
I went down to the first floor, raised the shutter, and picked up the academy student newspaper wedged in the door slit, just like always.
But there was a pretty familiar face on the front page of yesterday's paper.
[Broadcast Club's Pick for This Month's Pharenchia Academy Landmark: The Fountain of the Weeping Woman]
[(Photo)]
[At the Water Garden in front of Apas Hall's main gate, first-year student Adella Sylvestra is showing off her magic to her heart's content.]
[Perfect as a date spot for lovers! Just don't get too close.]
"Why's she crying over there?"
Adella shedding tears like a waterfall, surrounded by beautiful ice crystals and sprays of water fluttering around her.
And they'd even photographed it and plastered it there—nice touch. From the chairman on down to the broadcast club, the whole academy had gone mad.
Just like with the student council election last time, the students here seemed to have a knack for enjoying the bizarre. I still couldn't quite wrap my head around this wizard profession.
I changed into the clothes on the sofa first. They had a strangely fresh scent.
I slipped on my slippers, which were on the verge of falling apart, and stepped outside. The atmosphere around me felt a bit different from usual.
And sure enough, every student on campus was staring right through me as I walked down the quiet path.
Was this some dream within a dream?
Thud.
"Ah, sorry."
I lightly apologized to a female student I'd bumped into slightly, and she looked at my face before shaking her head in some weird direction, her gaze dropping lower and lower.
"Ah, n-no, it's fine... Um..."
"Yeah?"
"What year are you? I don't think I've seen Dragon Face around before."
Canteen owner.
"Won't you come to the ball? My Kanope family runs a salon..."
Can't dance.
I left the blushing student who kept strangely clinging behind and headed to the Water Garden in front of Apas Hall.
An artificial stream and quite dense trees stretching toward the sky. Magic sure was something.
There weren't many people wandering the grounds, so it was fairly quiet.
As I ventured a bit deeper into the park, a familiar voice came drifting down along the babbling brook from afar.
Waaah— aaaah—
There she was. Adella, crying her lungs out. That was the landmark?
"Kuh-heuk! Sniff! Heuk...!"
Let's see, how many days had it been already? She was the one who'd smashed up the canteen without so much as an apology, but seeing her cry so pitifully tore at my heart.
Her eyes were puffy, her voice hoarse. Amid it all, transparent ice crystals—what looked like her unique magic—were scattering around, creating quite the spectacle.
Of course, that was just on the surface; it was the same magic rampage she'd shown since we first met. Leaving it like this could get dangerous, so I stepped into the small fountain without hesitation.
Crack, crunch.
The moment the water touched my thighs, thin ice started forming. Ice crystals pricking at my eyes, little crystals everywhere.
I ignored them and pressed closer until I could finally see Adella shivering violently.
"Adella."
"Hic, Te, Teacher...?"
The instant our eyes met, tears streaming from her reddened eyes, she staggered toward me. Her flailing arms looked utterly pitiful.
Before I could even scold her, she threw herself into my arms and poured out apologies.
"I, I was wrong...! Sniff, I won't fight anymore! Jealousy, heuk, I won't do it...!"
"Jealousy? No, more importantly, the canteen..."
"I won't use magic anymore... I won't cause you any more trouble, Teacher...!!"
She clung to me, pleading don't hate me, and I couldn't bring myself to voice any more complaints.
I hadn't hated her to begin with... This had happened because she'd chosen to stay by my side. Feeling a shred of responsibility, I silently held her.
"I'm not mad... It's all good now, so stop crying. Just be more careful next time. Don't use magic recklessly until you're used to it."
"Yes, sniff, got it..."
"And what do you mean jealousy? Is that why you fought with Baroness Liv Greenwood?"
"That..."
"Tell me. How else can I do something about it?"
"..."
Adella kept sneaking glances at my shortened hair before finally whispering in a voice that burrowed into my chest.
"...Don't know."
"What?"
"I can't say this one."
"..."
"Teacher."
Instead of answering, Adella turned the question back on me.
"That person... Do you like her?"
Liv Lavre de Greenwood.
The Greenwood family's sole heir, a girl who'd lived a life close to that of a commoner, without territory or retainers.
Her father, her only remaining family, had died during the Great War. Despite dire financial straits, she'd claimed top spot in Pharenchia Academy's magic department through her outstanding talent alone. A shining student, more diligent than anyone in carving her own path.
Ask if anyone likes her, and all ten out of ten would say yes.
If anything, I felt sorry for keeping her tied down at the canteen all this time.
"Eh? She already left?"
"A few days ago. The remaining second-years are just the ones waiting for escorts to Alkayd Magic Tower."
That explained it—when I heard Liv had left for magic training, my heart was a tangled mess of guilt, bitterness, and regret.
I recalled the day she'd invited me to dinner. So that's what she wanted to say.
The second-years, scattered to magic towers and knight orders across the continent, would return just before finals, their training evaluations factored into their semester grades.
In other words, Liv wouldn't be back at Pharenchia until at least summer.
"Hah, damn... Any idea where she went?"
It left a bitter taste. I was especially worried she'd stubbornly head to some dangerous spot again. Of course, the Alkayd group hadn't departed yet, but still.
"Ha, really. I don't even know who you are—why would I give out personal student info..."
The admin clerk, who'd been buried in paperwork moments ago, snapped irritably, pushing up her glasses.
Figured it wouldn't work?
Makes sense—the same admin who'd stuck a rampaging student in a fountain without helping wouldn't hand over personal details either...
"She went to Peckda Magic Tower."
"Pardon?"
"Liv Lavre. Three days ago, 4:30 p.m., confirmed boarding a magic carriage to the Bartudis region."
It did?
"More importantly, free tonight?"
Suddenly, some woman whose name I didn't know slid into Liv's seat.
"I know a great restaurant. Wanna grab a drink?"
"No, I'm good. Kinda busy..."
"Ah, wait! At least your name...!"
I bolted from the bewildering invitation I'd never experienced before.
It had been a full decade since I'd built my little house on the Pharenchia plains. The academy itself had been up for over five years.
By now, everyone—students, professors, staff, even the guards—should know me as the academy's sole canteen owner.
Yet I'd never once gotten a dinner invite, salon invitation, or even someone asking my name?
It was starting to make me seriously doubt if I was still dreaming.
"Fuck... what the hell?"
I returned to the canteen, still a mess from incomplete cleanup, my mind a whirlwind. People had suddenly turned friendly, but the steel dogs barely acknowledged me.
Things seemed to have shifted subtly while I'd been unconscious and half-dreaming, but there was one thing to do right now.
Peckda Magic Tower.
The very place the Moirae sisters had mentioned—the spot I planned to visit to investigate Baldr's Nightmare and the demon statue.
Of all places, Liv had gone there.
Regardless of what I'd say when we met, worrying about her was only natural.
"Guess I have to go."
The deliberation was brief. I'd planned to head out right after returning from Sandalphonia anyway.
I tossed scrap metal from the old shutter materials to the still-indifferent steel dogs and packed my bags.
I considered bringing Lehel, but the restrictions on her unique magic made me hesitate to drag her along rashly.
From my experience, demon-related matters could turn life-or-death in a heartbeat if mishandled. I didn't want to do anything I'd regret.
And that was exactly why I was heading to Bartudis to see Liv.
The question Adella had thrown at me in her anxiety—whether I liked Liv—was strictly wrong, to put it bluntly.
I'd been looking after her out of guilt over Paris Greenwood's death. The day she learned the truth behind it, she'd surely fall into despair, so presumptuously, I'd stayed by her side.
—You're looking after Baroness Liv because you like her and love her that much?
Taking a concubine was common in noble society, but I wasn't noble, and human emotions were far too delicate to be sliced by rules.
Even so, I regretted not denying it in front of Adella, who had the purest and most fragile heart of anyone.
Because I knew claiming I'd felt no emotions at all during our time together would be lying to myself.
And if I'd truly loved only one person my whole life, even she wouldn't have accepted it.
Boom! Thud! Crunch!!
Inside the magic carriage, barreling through every obstacle in its path amid massive jolts. Liv stared endlessly out the window, chin propped on her hand.
Her friend Karen was worried. Despite Liv's far superior grades, she'd chosen Peckda—second least popular after Alkayd.
"Liv, you hungry? You haven't touched the food they gave out on the carriage."
"I'm good. Motion sickness killed my appetite."
"Still..."
Karen glanced out the window where Liv's gaze lingered and caught sight of lightning flashing through the hazy fog.
Weee-ooweee—!!
A siren wailed from afar. Beyond the bolts of lightning, a massive spire intermittently revealed itself, blaring the warning from its peak.
Storm worsening—beware Baldr's Nightmare. Soon, the carriage halted on barren land without platforms or station staff, and the students carefully stepped into the Bartudis region for the first time, following their supervising professor.
"I'll do a headcount—no solo movement! No reckless magic use!"
The second-years in blue capes waited tensely for a moment until a guide pierced the fog from the magic tower.
Monocle, three laurel leaves on his chest, Commandeur three-leaf medal.
And a blond man missing one arm from the elbow down.
"Vice-Lord of Peckda Magic Tower, Dominic Artsents."
He extended his severed arm—from just above the elbow—toward a black shadow jutting through the fog beyond, smiling softly.
"Welcome, students of Pharenchia."