The Hawk Spreading Its Wings - 3
Luise had gotten a little strange. No—that phrasing sounded unkind. It was more that Luise had started watching for other people’s reactions.
Her gaze stayed oddly lowered, as if she were turning something over in her mind, and every so often she would chew at her lip. Instead of steering the conversation the way she usually did, she often just sat there in a daze.
Is it because of the impeachments?
Maybe the unbroken string of them had worn her body and spirit down until she had simply chosen the path of silence. Everything she did ended in impeachment, so she had decided to keep her mouth shut altogether.
A pitiful thing. The poor little capybara had finally crumpled under the relentless assault of five merciless hunters.
“Hieut!”
…Six, maybe.
The moment Luise carefully lifted her head and their eyes met, she made that odd little sound and dropped her gaze again. Apparently the list of merciless hunters included him as well.
What is this about?
It definitely was not the impeachments. Those had always been light-hearted content meant for everyone to laugh at, and Luise herself had ridden the wave with the rest of them. If she were going to start tiptoeing around the subject, she would have done so long ago. Doing it only now was far too sudden.
Then was she feeling guilty about kicking the other members out? That seemed even less likely. If that were the case she would have been like this right after the vote, not weeks later. Besides, Luise already understood that openly showing remorse would only make the others more uncomfortable.
And even if—on the off chance—she really did feel sorry for kicking them out, there was still no reason for her to watch his face so carefully.
“Lui—”
“Brother, would you like more cookies?”
“Ah… yes.”
She cut him off before he could even finish her name, spinning the topic away with a force that made anyone watching flinch. He had no idea what was going on and had wanted to ask her outright, but when she blocked him that hard there was nothing he could do. You could not pry when the person herself clearly did not want to talk.
Come to think of it, the law of the Empire might call her an adult, but in reality she was still only a seventeen-year-old young lady. Perhaps adolescence had simply arrived a little late.
A girl entering puberty, surrounded by nothing but six young men. That was a rather horrifying picture.
If only Irina were here…
At least among fellow women there might have been some understanding, but unfortunately he had not seen Irina once since the new term began. Right after the opening ceremony she had claimed the gardening club was too busy for her to drop by. It could not be helped. Irina might have been an honorary member of the Baking Club in all but name, yet she was still an outsider.
“Mar—”
“Here you are!”
“…Right.”
He had only been about to say she did not need to give him so many.
That’s a lot.
She must have scooped them up in a hurry just to stop his mouth, because the plate was piled high—enough to remind him of the days they had prepared for the Club Expo.
Sorry. I will not call your name so carelessly from now on. I have been far too thoughtless.
“I’ll dig in, then.”
He could keep dinner light tonight.
It was unmistakably autumn, yet his insides burned as if it were high summer.
Ever since he had begun studying ice magic he had never once felt hot. He had never imagined the heat could come from within.
Is this really the right thing to do?
Was sitting still and simply watching that scene truly the correct choice?
The Advisor quietly eating cookies. And Luise, who kept stealing glances at him only to whip her eyes away the instant their gazes threatened to meet.
Pitiful.
She had been like this for weeks. No—more precisely, it had grown worse of late. The way Luise looked at the Advisor burned hotter, and her escapes came faster.
He understood. The Advisor already had a woman confirmed as his first wife, so Luise could not take the first step. As a prince himself, he was hardly ignorant of how noble marriages worked.
Even so, watching from the sidelines was maddening. The Advisor seemed to notice nothing; Luise would have to be the one to move.
Just as the frustration rose and he was about to sigh, a cold drop of water struck the back of his neck.
“Back with us?”
He turned to find Ryutis standing there, teacup in hand. Clearly the culprit.
“Yes. A little better.”
He considered scolding him for the sudden assault, then gave up. That thick-skinned fellow would not care what anyone said, and—true to his words—Ryutis had snapped him back to reality. If his concentration had not been broken he would probably still be sitting there sighing.
Ryutis let out a short laugh at the answer and settled into the seat beside him as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“They say that when a man commits a sin, that sin returns to him.”
An abrupt remark. The Dawn Church did teach something of the sort, but what did it have to do with this moment?
As if to answer the unspoken question, Ryutis’s gaze slid toward Luise and the Advisor.
“I never thought it would come back this quickly, though.”
“…I see.”
No further explanation was needed. He understood exactly what Ryutis meant.
Yes—this was their punishment. They had made the Advisor suffer through something agonizing to watch, so now it was their turn. Like Ryutis said, none of them had imagined the retribution would arrive so soon. Probably the presence of the next Saint meant Enen was watching them especially closely.
It was enough to drive a man mad. Realizing the exact same pain had circled straight back to them made every bitter thought and curse he might have leveled at the Advisor feel hollow. It would only be like spitting in his own face.
And we cannot even help.
Luise was already holding herself back out of consideration for Lady Margeta; there was nothing the rest of them could do.
“If we stepped in, the number of failures would just go from five to six.”
Ryutis’s words from not long ago still carried considerable weight. What right did any of them have to offer advice?
They wanted their friend Luise to be happy. They did not want to become fellow comrades in romantic defeat.
“Did the Advisor push Erich forward?”
“I only hope the Advisor continues to do nothing but watch.”
Horrible.
The mere thought of romance automatically summoned his worst nightmare, and his brow furrowed of its own accord.
The single worst nightmare of his life. He still had no idea what he had been thinking when he made that declaration. He had claimed he would do it properly, and the result had been a complete disaster.
If someone like him interfered, the only “help” he would offer would be pure hindrance. Luise would then assume they were sabotaging her out of spite.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. It was all my fault, please forgive me…”
He was no prophet, yet he could see the future with perfect clarity: Luise collapsing under help that was really interference, weeping and begging for forgiveness.
“Think we only have to endure until the end of the term?”
“I hope so. Let’s just pray.”
The Advisor had suffered through an entire first semester; they could only hope their own sentence would be limited to this one. If it stretched any longer it would be genuinely tragic.
“Please have some tea as well!”
“Thank you.”
He quietly turned his eyes elsewhere.
Better not to look any longer.
Just as the urge to freeze both eyes and ears solid began to rise, club time mercifully ended and he was able to return to the dormitory.
I have to endure this until the closing ceremony.
And that was the optimistic estimate.
A hard fight. Advisor… just what kind of battles have you been fighting all this time?
He let out a soft sigh—and then came a knock at the door. In his present mood he wanted to see no one, yet if someone had come all the way to him it had to be important.
“Enter.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
The door opened to admit Sir Amanda.
Business from the homeland, then.
Sir Amanda handled communication with their kingdom. In a sense he was the busiest of all their people stationed at the Academy.
If a man like that had come in person, the matter could not be ordinary. Under normal circumstances he would have resolved it himself or reported only to their representative, Sir Gardan.
“What is it?”
“I have a report concerning affairs in the homeland.”
As always, the unwelcome prediction proved correct.
“The Five Pillars have begun to move.”
“Rather hasty of them.”
Sir Amanda’s report forced another sigh from him. He had already heard that the dovish faction inside the Five Pillars had been toppled. When the dominant wing of a major political force flipped, even someone living abroad could not remain ignorant of it.
Beyond that, however, he had felt no need to pay attention. Even the most aggressive hawks would at least take a moment to catch their breath. That pause would have lasted two or three months at the shortest, and by then the royal family would already have finished preparing countermeasures. It should never have been something he needed to worry about.
Yet they had already moved. Were they in their right minds? The doves had not even been completely purged yet.
“And… though it grieves me to report this…”
Rarely for him, Sir Amanda hesitated, unable to continue. The formal phrase of deep apology suggested the hawks had committed an outrage of unusual scale.
“They dared to make a move against Your Highness’s life.”
“Mine?”
That he had not expected.
Did I mishear?
Why would people back home target him while he was at the Academy?
Sir Amanda’s own expression looked equally bewildered, as though even he could not quite believe the words leaving his mouth.
“Fortunately, loyalists within the Five Pillars themselves denounced the traitors, and the plot was swiftly crushed.”
“…That is fortunate.”
Even the word “fortunate” came out with difficulty. A scheme of royal assassination had been snuffed out by internal enemies before it could even be properly launched. They had aimed at someone as far from the homeland as he was, and yet they had collapsed so absurdly.
What in the world are those people?
Had they attempted it without any real preparation? He could not understand it.
No—understanding the thoughts of madmen was of course impossible.
Irritating.
That he had been regarded lightly enough for madmen to target him was deeply unpleasant.
“His Majesty has declared that, as Your Highness is the victim of this incident, you may return to the homeland and personally punish the traitors if you so wish.”
“Convey my deepest gratitude for His Majesty’s grace, but tell him I will not be going.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
And with that subtle attempt by his father to summon him home, his head grew complicated again.
How hard had he worked to leave the kingdom in the first place? He was not about to walk back of his own free will. Barely half a year had passed. He needed to fill the full three years.
What a mess this is.
Did they think he was living abroad because he enjoyed it? He was only doing this because he had no choice.
His father surely understood as well; that was why he had framed it as an offer rather than a command.
I should have been born later.
Or his elder brother should have been born earlier.