Homecoming - 3
The Academy was supposed to be a symbol of peace, yet to me it was little better than a miniature battlefield. Last year the trolling of the Class of ’77 had made it so; now it was the future thrashing that awaited me. In my heart the place was pure despair. Would something explode next year as well?
Going alone into that pit of despair would have been suicide, so I swallowed my pride and returned with reinforcements.
“It’s been a while since we were all together, hasn’t it?”
“Yes. This is the first time since the start of the first semester.”
Watching Penelia glance around the Academy with open curiosity, a fragile shoot of relief began to sprout. With her as backup, there might still be a sliver of hope.
The Academy and Penelia. Under ordinary circumstances the combination would have been unthinkable, yet the Dark Light Squad happened to be on leave, and the other five were already stationed here. Bringing her along felt only natural. It would have been lonely to be the sole absentee when everyone else was present.
The more allies, the better.
Her presence also changed the odds from one against five to two against five. Given the choice, the latter was obviously preferable.
I can even bring Erzebet over to our side.
With Penelia here, the chances of Erzebet joining us rose sharply. The two of them were close, and Erzebet herself was a battle-hardened officer of the Audit Department. She would be comparatively understanding about me fighting and getting hurt. My earnest persuasion plus Penelia’s support might just turn it into three against four—a fight we could actually manage.
…Scheming against my lovers left a bitter taste of self-loathing, but right now I had no luxury of pride. If things went south I would be pummeled by all five; I needed an escape route.
Besides, this was a white lie. Better to glide past the truth as if nothing had happened than to force them to worry over events already finished.
I chose to believe that.
The Baking Club room was empty. Members would of course be in class, and Beatrix’s absence meant she was lecturing. Erzebet was missing too. Did she usually stay in the dorms rather than the club room?
Perfect.
Enen must have been looking out for me. Scattered targets were far easier to approach one by one. Had they been clustered together, recruitment would have been dead before it began.
“Penelia. Would you head over to the inspectors’ dormitory? Erzebet should be there—rest a little while.”
“By myself… you mean?”
“The others are still in class, so I’ll see them later. Mar’s in the president’s office. I want to go say hello.”
Penelia accepted the request without hesitation. Whether it was consideration for the first wife or quiet atonement for having monopolized me until now, I could not tell.
Either way the reaction was far too gentle. I half-wished she would show even a flicker of selfishness, yet there was none.
“I’ll be back soon.”
After a brief pause I pressed a kiss to her cheek. It pained me that she kept stifling her own desires, but that was simply who she was. Better to entrust the matter to time than to force a correction.
When I turned away she gave no reply. That, too, would have to wait for time.
Beatrix unnie glanced at the communication orb that had suddenly begun to vibrate and spoke in a low voice.
“Baby’s here.”
The words were short and simple, yet my whole body jolted. Coming from the Master of the Magic Tower, they were absolute. If Karl was arriving at the Academy he would need a mage’s teleport; of course the news would reach her first.
Finally.
I nodded, forcibly taming the smile that tried to split my face. Karl had returned. The war was over, and at last he had come back to us.
Yesterday he had sent word that he would arrive today or tomorrow, so I had prepared my heart. Still, hearing that he was truly here set it racing all over again. No amount of readiness could make a lover’s long-awaited return feel ordinary.
“Penelia came with him as well. Yes—if not now, we would have had to wait until winter break to see her.”
Good news followed by more good news. I had fretted endlessly while she marched off to the front with him; the fact that she had reached the Academy meant she, too, had returned safely.
“Are they both all right?”
“Fortunately neither of them has any injuries.”
I asked just in case and received the answer I wanted. Karl and Penelia unnie were safe—
“They would have been treated, after all.”
The next words made me flinch. Hearing that Karl had been hurt brought resentment and pity flooding in together.
He had left insisting, over and over, that he was only an inspector and would have no reason to fight, so we must not worry. Yet he had fought in places we never knew, and then he had hidden it.
I understand, but…
In truth I did understand his heart. His Majesty the Emperor himself had appointed him inspector; war could not be avoided. Since he had to go anyway, our anxiety must have weighed on him, and so he had tried to comfort us. At the time the news that he would accompany the army had left me reeling, but once reason returned I could accept it.
And Father had always said that a warrior taking wounds in battle was inevitable. Avoiding injury was ideal, yet a life of the sword could never guarantee only ideal circumstances.
So I had understood both his participation and his wounds, and I had let them pass. For me, who had waited in safety, to demand of the man who had fought on the front line, “Why did you get hurt?” would have been unforgivable.
Yet Karl had stayed silent. He had sealed his lips as though nothing at all had happened.
If he had simply told us honestly, I would not even have scolded him.
I let out a quiet sigh. Once more I tried to read his heart: perhaps he had kept silent so we would not worry. Or perhaps, because the wounds had been perfectly healed, he saw no need to mention them.
…But could Beatrix unnie truly not know what had occurred in the war? She stood above every mage on the continent; the healer who treated Karl’s injuries would of course have reported to her.
Why hide it without even considering that? It only made me ache for him.
“Still, when you see Baby, greet him with a smile. How sad would a lover you have not seen in so long feel if the first thing he received was a scolding?”
Unnie added under her breath that Baby had been the one to hurt us first, but I pretended not to hear.
Knock, knock.
While we had returned to ordinary conversation, someone rapped on the door.
“Mar, it’s me.”
The familiar, longed-for voice made me bite down hard on my lip. Earlier my heart had raced; now tears threatened. I could not even govern my own feelings.
Unnie was the same—tiny droplets glimmered at the corners of her eyes. In that instant every last shred of resentment toward Karl vanished from both of us.
“C-come… in, Karl.”
I barely managed to compose myself and open my mouth. The door swung wide. Familiar black hair and familiar black eyes filled my vision.
Karl entered wearing a smile—until he saw Unnie standing beside me. Instantly his pupils began to tremble.
I was doomed. Things had gone spectacularly wrong from the very first step.
I had planned a careful divide-and-conquer campaign, meeting them one by one. Instead the two people I feared most were sitting in the same room.
“It’s been a long time. I saw you through the communication orb, of course, but seeing you in person is still better.”
I forced my briefly frozen mind back into gear and spoke. The plan had already collapsed, yet when I thought about it I had failed more often than I had succeeded. There was no special reason to despair.
“I missed you both terribly.”
Besides, this was not the moment to scheme for survival; it was the moment to rejoice at reunion. White lies were one thing; thinking of other matters while standing before the women I loved was another.
With those words I drew both of them—who had just risen from the sofa—into my arms. Thankfully humans possess two arms; I could hold them both at once. Four more would have been perfect, but one works with what one has.
“I’m sorry I’m late. I wanted to come yesterday, but something came up.”
“I-it’s all right. I’m just happy you came back safely like this, Karl.”
Mar shook her head in a fluster at my apology. If the word “safely” did not stab my conscience, I would have been no better than a beast.
“I’m fine too. What does a little lateness matter when I can be held by Baby like this?”
If my eyes did not immediately drop to the arms that held her—
…
Ah.
Only after hearing those consecutive, conscience-lacerating remarks did I belatedly grasp the truth. Or perhaps I finally faced the truth I had been deliberately ignoring.
They already know.
Divide and conquer, persuasion—none of it mattered. Everything had already been discovered.
Perfect crimes do not exist, so I had braced myself for a certain amount of exposure. Plenty of people had seen me race to the Sarei Frontline or take the vanguard in the final battle. Hiding the fact that I had fought at all was always going to be difficult.
My final goal had merely been to confine their interrogation to the matter of participation itself and never let the conversation drift toward the injuries. A strategy of sacrificing flesh to preserve the bone.
It had failed before it even began.
There is no way Beatrix would not know.
Apparently when I unleashed Sky Slash I had burned not only mana but intelligence as well. Common sense dictated that no being on this continent could escape the gaze of Magic Tower Master Beatrix. Every mage alive was her eyes and ears.
Even during the period when my intellect had been half-melted I had retained a minimum of cunning, so I had made certain preparations. I had asked the mage who accompanied the Northern Army commander to keep silent about the wounds. Thanks to Beatrix’s own prestige, mages tended to listen to me reasonably well.
But when the orders of the Magic Tower Master and those of the Magic Tower Master’s partner collide, whose command does a mage obey?
Damn it.
The arms that held them began to tremble.
“Thank you so much for coming back to us like this, Karl.”
Mar’s sniffling voice only made the trembling worse.
“Baby, club time is still far off… could you stay just like this a little longer?”
Strange. The words were pure affection laced with tears, yet they sounded exactly like, “I’ll keep you right here and flay you alive.”
If I dropped to my knees and slammed my forehead against the floor right now… would they forgive me…?