The Dreamer Who Scatters Crimson Blood - 1
The day after I choked down a tofu cake laden with mixed feelings and unease, I headed for the principal's office flanked by the two section chiefs who, standing one on either side of me, made my chest tighten in more ways than one.
"What distinguished guests we have."
Confirming that the support personnel were a white-haired woman and a blond man, the principal spoke in a low voice. He might never have seen the section chiefs in person, but he would at least have heard of their distinctive features.
Looking at us like this, I felt like a mountain spirit wandering around with a golden axe and a silver axe. Truth be told, the principal himself fit the image of a mountain spirit far better than I did.
Anyway, I gave the two next to me a light nudge, and they immediately bent at the waist in greeting.
"I'm Ersebet Masalo, 1st Section Chief of the Audit Department."
"2nd Section Chief Lafayette Baron."
A far cry from their usual hellish selves—politeness filled every line of them.
If only they treated me like this.
It was only natural, yet it still pissed me off for no good reason. The principal and I were regarded as the same department-head rank, yet one of us was a sandbag they bullied at every opportunity while the other received the utmost courtesy…
Of course, if they ever pulled the same stunts on the principal that they pulled on me, I would have thrown a genuine punch.
"A pleasure to meet you. Since you're here on business you can hardly make yourselves completely at home, but if you need anything at all, please don't hesitate to ask."
Having confirmed that even these mad dogs still knew the difference between front and back, the principal offered a small smile and extended his hand to the section chiefs.
"Come, sit comfortably. Leaving guests standing is no way to show courtesy."
He then set about preparing tea himself. With the secretary temporarily dismissed, the eldest present was moving about in person.
Thanks to that, the 1st Section Chief darted forward offering to take over, only to be sent right back to her seat by a single word from the principal.
"What did he say to make you come back so easily?"
"He said when you get old you have to move around like this or your body stiffens up…"
At that I quietly averted my gaze. It was hard to argue when an elder staked his own body as the wager in a joke—especially when the listener was on the younger side.
As we sat there in awkward silence, the 1st Section Chief opened her mouth.
"I never once came to the principal's office even as a student, and now here I am."
She looked around with a faintly nostalgic air, and my lips twitched.
You probably spent plenty of time in the discipline office, though.
But if I said that out loud she would screech that no, she had been a student overflowing with elegance, so I held my tongue.
Still, if you looked into something like the Academy's Seven Mysteries, I was pretty sure a white-haired girl known for her eccentric antics would turn up. I was too scared to actually search for it in case it was real.
"You probably spent plenty of time in the discipline office, though."
Oh.
People really do think alike—the 2nd Section Chief spat the line out bluntly. This guy had already taken a beating in the carriage, yet his provocations showed no sign of stopping.
"The aroma is quite excellent."
The 1st Section Chief's attempt to punish the 2nd Section Chief with trembling fists was foiled by the principal's return.
This bastard. He did that on purpose.
From today onward, 2nd Section Chief Lafayette Baron was a dead man.
"Just one will do?"
"Yes. My apologies for not informing you in advance. It seems the 2nd Section Chief alone will be sufficient."
The principal, true to his status as the man who ruled the Academy, had secured perfect cover identities in short order. The 1st Section Chief's identity was good enough that I almost considered accepting it as well.
But her face was far too well-known within the Academy; carrying around a fake identity would only look stranger. We couldn't exactly go with a concept like "I'm actually Ersebet's twin sister!" either.
So we gratefully accepted only the 2nd Section Chief's identity—
"Hey, Charles. Make the tea properly, will you?"
"Charles. How do you expect to win a teacher's favor if you can't even manage this?"
—and thus was born Charles Steiner, assistant to history teacher Gerhardt.
"Guests, you're disrupting research. Kindly all get out."
Polite phrasing, less-than-polite content. The 2nd Section Chief—no, Charles—forced a smile and obediently began brewing the tea again.
Why does he suit it so well?
Watching the scene, I couldn't stop the laughter from leaking out. Neatly combed hair, glasses perched on his nose—a blond young man who looked, on the surface, like the perfect scholarly aspirant.
Of course, since we knew the kernel inside the shell, he was nothing more than a walking punchline.
"Thank you for your consideration, Gerhardt."
After watching the 1st Section Chief rain complaints not only on the finished product but on the very process of tea-making, I turned my gaze to Gerhardt.
He didn't know about the Red Wave or the Audit Department's involvement, yet he had readily agreed to the principal's request to take on a temporary assistant teacher. That was purely Gerhardt's own decision.
"It's nothing. Compared to the debt I already owe the Inspector, this is a small matter."
"Haha. I'm glad I put you in my debt early."
Gerhardt wore a pure, simple smile that would warm anyone watching. I never imagined the snowball from that northern research would roll all the way here.
If I had asked any other teacher to take on an acquaintance of mine as an assistant, they would have felt both suspicion and pressure at once. An acquaintance of the Audit Department Chief? At a time like this? Something along those lines.
But Gerhardt had seen me looking after Christina—someone with no connection to me at the time, or at least someone he didn't yet know was the minister's niece by marriage. So it was highly likely he would simply think I was looking after yet another person. When someone with a good image does something, people tend to interpret it in the most positive light possible.
"Miss Christina will be delighted to have a junior for the first time in ages as well."
At those words I let out a short laugh and glanced at Christina.
"Charles, give that to me. I'll do it."
Her usually dark complexion had brightened strangely as she rescued Charles from the 1st Section Chief's relentless nagging.
Normally a new junior would mean she could dump her own chores, yet she was volunteering for the work herself. I could feel her determination to protect her precious junior.
As expected of the minister's niece by marriage.
She must have gotten that upright character precisely because she was a niece by marriage rather than by blood.
"Thank you, Miss Christina."
"Hehe. For a little while you can just call me senior, if you like."
"Understood, Senior Christina."
Her already brighter complexion lit up completely. Was it really that nice?
"Miss Christina has been the sole assistant with neither seniors nor juniors. The few juniors who did arrive left again before long."
"Ah."
Catching my questioning look, Gerhardt's explanation drew an involuntary sigh from me. In short, her "military number" was completely screwed.
Being a graduate student was already hard enough without a cursed seniority order on top of it. Enen was being far too harsh. It was too great a trial for one person to bear.
And he's only temporary, at that.
Charles was a temporary junior who would stay at most one or two weeks. Seeing how fondly she treated him anyway told me just how starved she had been for a junior.
"Still, seeing how carefully she looks after him, I feel I can leave him in your hands with confidence."
"Haha, no need to worry. Historical research itself may be difficult, but this is not a place where people make life hard for one another."
That was good news. At least Charles wouldn't be driven to the point of throwing off his mask after being worn down by people.
That bastard is the real problem, though.
I didn't doubt Gerhardt or Christina's character, but Charles… the name still felt weird in my mouth. Anyway, the 2nd Section Chief's character was the one I had to worry about.
Still, if he had any sense he would restrain himself. He was reliable when it came to work, and I had already told him Christina was the minister's niece by marriage.
"There's only one assistant teacher in the history department, you know?"
"Is she pretty?"
"Pretty enough, but she's His Excellency the Minister's niece by marriage."
That was the conversation we had while the 2nd Section Chief was evolving into Charles and we were on our way to Gerhardt's research lab. The 2nd Section Chief, who had been speaking with a sly grin, froze solid at those words.
"You know His Excellency is a devoted husband, right?"
"Y-yes… well…"
In other words, if he messed up, word would travel across a few bridges and reach the minister's ears.
The 2nd Section Chief seemed to understand perfectly; he nodded repeatedly with a sour face. Playing pranks on a department head and drawing a minister's wrath were entirely different matters.
He'll do fine.
Even now it was obvious. Looking closely, whenever Christina spoke to him his whole body tensed. To anyone else it would look like a junior flinching at his senior's call, but…
Yeah. He would manage. As long as he had basic brains, he would manage just fine.
The Chief and the 1st Section Chief abandoned me without the slightest hesitation and left.
Those cold-hearted bastards. Off they go to play while dumping everything on me.
What rotten luck.
I had planned to get reasonably friendly with the research lab people and then wander the Academy. Even with a temporary identity, you needed at least minimal human relationships for smooth activity.
But what kind of odds did you have to beat for the minister's niece by marriage to be one of only two people in the entire lab?
If she had just been a regular niece…
If she were the minister's blood niece I wouldn't have this worry. His Excellency hated it when close blood relatives borrowed his authority, so he actually treated them coldly.
But a niece by marriage was different. No matter how ruthless and cold a man might be, when it came to the blood of the wife he loved rather than his own, he would hesitate.
This is why you shouldn't get married.
Even a thorough man develops a weakness once he marries. There's a reason I stick to just enjoying romance.
"Charles, you've worked hard. Sit down and rest."
The very person who had complicated my thoughts approached carefully and spoke.
Rest? I hadn't even done anything yet.
"I haven't done anyth—"
"You worked hard making the tea. On the first day you're supposed to just stay still and adapt."
Faced with Christina's soft laughter—the niece by marriage—I barely managed a nod. So that was the culture in this research lab.
This is driving me crazy.
I felt it instinctively. Getting out of the research lab was going to be harder than expected.
For a while, it seemed, I would have to live as nothing more than the research lab totem until my senior was satisfied.
Why am I only realizing this now?
I resented the Chief. Important information like this should have been given before we arrived at the Academy. Then I could at least have thought of a proper countermeasure.
If the work ends up delayed, it's the Chief's fault. I decided to think of it that way and leave it at that.