Things Twist From the Start
Things getting tangled from the very beginning was basically the golden rule.
“Wha—?! You ran into Lady Elga there?!”
“Shh, shh. Your voice is way too loud.”
This was a library. Noise control was mandatory.
The moment Kyle reminded her, Tisha let out a soft “Ahh…” of realization.
Fortunately, almost no students were reading in the shamanism section. Even the librarian who managed the fifth floor had stepped out for a moment. Thanks to that, not a soul complained about Tisha’s outburst.
“S-sorry. Anyway… why did you suddenly meet her?”
“She just happened to be on the same floor. Reading for pretty much the same reason I was…”
“Did she threaten you or demand an apology or anything?”
“Huh?”
“You said you bumped into her last time, remember?”
Kyle shook his head at Tisha’s question.
“Yeah, that happened yesterday, but that wasn’t why.”
“Then what?”
“Well… we just exchanged a few simple words. Nothing big.”
“And what exactly were those ‘simple words’?”
Tisha was pressing for details harder than necessary. Something about her demeanor felt a little off, but Kyle deliberately ignored the feeling.
“Actually, my older sister used to be an Academy student. Back then something happened, and Lady Elga’s older brother got injured because of it.”
“Really?! Y-you mean he injured the heir of a Grand Duchy?!”
To commoners—or even ordinary nobles—there was almost nothing more catastrophic. The Grand Duchies stood second only to the Emperor himself. Harming a member of one of those houses was more than enough justification to topple an entire family.
Yet the Litorio side had two problems of their own.
First, the original cause of the incident lay with none other than the Litorio heir. Second, the other party involved was a John Nassen.
Thank the heavens. Anywhere else and the Litorio Grand Duchy would have ground us into dust without a second thought.
The people who formed the root of House John Nassen came from the north. They had fought the Empire to the bitter end and forced catastrophic bloodshed on the imperial side. The damage had been so severe that the Emperor himself had taken the unprecedented step of intervening personally. Under the Emperor’s persuasion they finally nodded. Deep down they still wanted to keep fighting, but once the Empire lost the will for war the thrill evaporated. And so they settled quietly in their homeland.
That was the beginning of our John Nassen barony. And that beginning has the Emperor’s own hand in it.
No one less than the Emperor had personally persuaded them and granted them their title. They might only be a baronial house with fewer than two thousand people to their name, but that fact itself was living proof of an achievement no other force in the Empire had ever managed. Even the Litorio Grand Duchy could not trifle with that kind of evidence. Which was why, this time, Litorio had swallowed their irritation and kept silent.
“Fortunately the Grand Duke of Litorio was gracious enough to let the matter rest.”
“That’s such a relief! I had no idea something like that even happened!”
Up in the far north, so distant from the Academy, there had never been any need to know. And she had only been here a few days—far too short a time to have overheard the students’ gossip.
“Still, better to be careful just in case.”
“Yeah. So even though I wasn’t the one who did it, I apologized properly. On behalf of my sister, my family, and my house, I offered another formal apology.”
“Ahh…”
There were people who could not even manage an apology because of pride. And when the offense wasn’t even theirs, bowing their heads became that much harder. The world was full of people who never managed a proper apology at all.
Kyle, however, had done that pride-wounding thing as if it were nothing. He had lowered himself not for his own sake, but for his family and his house.
He really is a good person. A truly good person…
She had found far fewer materials than she had hoped for, yet listening to Kyle somehow left Tisha feeling lighter and happier instead.
“By the way, did you find the materials you were looking for?”
“Ah… I found a few, but not many. The librarian said that because shamanism has such a poor reputation, even the library ends up pushing it down the priority list.”
“That’s a shame. Shamanism has its good points too.”
“That’s what I’m saying! I don’t understand why everyone looks at it so badly! When magic first appeared people said it was a dangerous abomination that turned the laws of the world upside down, right?! And now they go around claiming everything except magic is worthless…”
He had, apparently, pressed the wrong button.
From that moment on Kyle had no choice but to sit there and weather the impassioned lecture pouring out of a thoroughly fired-up Tisha.
“…So that’s why! I’m going to work even harder! Someday I’ll raise it to the same great height as magic—standing shoulder to shoulder with it—I swear I will!”
What would the mages say if they heard that? Probably laugh and tell her to stop talking nonsense.
Unlike magic, which was built on the tangible foundation of mana, shamanism rested on something that did not truly exist—human belief. That was why society dismissed it as black magic. No one could predict how a human heart might be twisted and abused.
If Ian had been here he would have cheerfully listed every one of those reasons, and Tisha’s insides would have been flipped inside out all over again. Kyle, however, was neither as oblivious as Ian nor inclined to speak so carelessly.
“You’ll do it. Hang in there, Tisha.”
Unless someone was his mortal enemy, offering a little encouragement was good for the soul. Needlessly making enemies and exhausting yourself was the kind of thing only an idiot would do. That wasn’t honesty or an inability to lie—it was a simple lack of social skills.
That was Kyle’s philosophy and his personal code of conduct.
But… I remember there being an ancient text buried somewhere in this Second Library that could take Tisha’s shamanism to the next level.
A brief narrative description that had once flickered past him in the original story rose to the surface. He hadn’t read every single serialized chapter, but he was fairly certain Ian was the one who discovered it and then told Tisha about it—an event item that advanced their relationship. Few things brought two people closer faster than handing over a fated opportunity.
For a moment he considered using that knowledge and telling her right now.
“Shall we head out, Kyle?”
“…Yeah, let’s.”
In the end Kyle decided to keep his mouth shut on that particular subject. A guy who had only just arrived at the Academy suddenly unearthing a rare ancient text would look extremely suspicious. It would be far better to wait until the semester had progressed a little—or at the very least until he had been seen coming and going from the library often enough—before “finding” it.
Elga had dashed all the way back to her room in a flurry and now sat catching her breath. Then, as if her strength had simply given out, she collapsed bonelessly into a chair.
“Haa…”
Something felt as though it were draining out of her completely… and at the same time as though something indescribable were filling her up. She herself had no idea what this sensation was. The only thing she knew for certain was who had caused it.
He said I would become the Grand Duke of Litorio.
It had not been some throwaway joke. It had been far too serious to dismiss as calculated flattery. She held only the empty title of Grand Duchess’s daughter; she possessed no real power. Flattering her would gain a person more enemies than benefits. And yet Kyle had still told her she was the one who would become Grand Duke.
“…Ahaha.”
Laughter spilled out. The kind she simply could not hold back. Elga laughed and laughed for a long time. Then, as if possessed, she suddenly surged to her feet.
The place she headed was none other than where Leto would be. At this hour he would be swinging a sword in the training grounds. His swordsmanship was nothing special, but he trained so that no gap would ever open in his duty of protecting the Grand Duchess’s daughter.
“Leto.”
When Elga reached the training grounds she called his name in a low voice. Leto, who had just set down his sword, jumped and hurried over.
“My lady… E-Elga?! Weren’t you reading in the library?”
“I was. Something came up, so I closed the book early and came here.”
“You should have waited at the library. I would have gone to you.”
It was not the remark of a friend—or anything more. Leto looked at Elga solely as the Grand Duchess’s daughter he was obligated to serve. That was how he had been taught, and that was how he had been raised to accept the world. For a son of a Litorio vassal house, that destiny was simply natural.
“…Leto.”
“Yes, Elga.”
“May I ask you just one thing?”
“Please ask. I will answer with all my heart.”
“Can you answer no matter what I ask?”
“Of course. It is my duty to answer any question you—”
“Don’t answer carelessly. Think carefully before you speak.”
Even Leto possessed at least a basic sense of the atmosphere. It did not take him long to realize that the Elga standing before him was different from usual, and that the words she was about to speak carried real weight.
“…Please go ahead.”
“Who do you believe should become the next Grand Duke of our Litorio Grand Duchy?”
At Elga’s question Leto flinched. It was a question she had once asked him countless times—until one day it had simply stopped. Now it was ringing in his ears once more.
“…I do not know.”
“Do you truly not know? Or do you simply not want to know?”
“I am far too lacking to offer an answer. Because I am lacking I know nothing, and because I know nothing I cannot answer. I ask for your understanding.”
“….”
Elga remained silent for a long while. She simply looked at Leto with an unreadable gaze. Only several minutes later did she open her mouth again.
“…Leto. You are my person.”
“Elga.”
“You’re my friend. The kind of person who exists only for me. And even so you don’t know? You can’t answer?”
“….”
This time it was Leto who sank into silence. Another few minutes passed. An uncomfortable stillness settled between the two of them.
“…I…”
Leto finally broke the silence. At the same time the words that left his mouth were more than enough to shatter something inside Elga as well.
“I do not know.”
