Time Flies So Well and Turns Around - 5
The aftermath of that incident shook the entire continent.
It had been a once-in-a-generation spectacle, just as the Crown Prince intended: a grand display of the Empire’s military might, and a demonstration that such power stood firmly behind the Mandate of Heaven. The performance was so peerless that every soul present at the Academy had been left utterly stunned—and of course those stunned witnesses wasted no time spreading the tale to every corner of the continent.
The continent, upon hearing the rumors, fell into collective panic. A truly perfect performance.
No one could stay calm after hearing that.
A meteor appearing out of a clear blue sky, then a single slash that split the meteor clean in two. Just listening to the story made it sound completely insane. It was the sort of wild nonsense you wanted to hear even while dismissing it as pure fabrication—and yet, astonishingly, it wasn’t nonsense at all. Countless eyewitnesses and countless recordings proved it was the absolute truth.
What’s more, most of the people who had watched the scene firsthand or recorded it were friendly toward us. Even though the Academy had been opened to outsiders, only those with genuine passion would go to the trouble of visiting the Imperial Academy. And yet they had gathered there. In other words, they were people completely obsessed with the sword and magic.
Thanks to that, the vast majority of the outsiders present at the Academy—stunned or not—had been thrilled by the performance. They treated the entire process of a meteor forming overhead and then being shattered not as “an act of force that threatened our safety,” but as “the absolute pinnacle of badass martial prowess.”
Of course not everyone there was completely unhinged, so some people must have felt threatened. But with the majority cheering, anyone inclined to raise a fuss had probably been swept up in the atmosphere and kept quiet. When everyone else is celebrating, being the only one with a straight face just makes you look like the guy who can’t read the room.
Anyway, the result was good.
Rumors spread by people friendly toward us could only benefit us—and by extension, the Empire. Even the Crown Prince, who had clutched the back of his neck upon first hearing the details of the performance, had immediately launched a major publicity campaign the moment he confirmed the diplomatic channels remained quiet.
Honestly, even if the diplomatic channels had exploded, I doubt it would have been a real problem. Even if other nations chose to interpret the whole affair as “a horrific act of provocation by the Empire,” what could they actually do? Impose sanctions? Start a war?
If this had been the Empire right after a succession crisis, maybe. But an Empire that had already swallowed the North whole was not a country that would so much as sway under the protests of a few Eastern kingdoms.
“So… can’t you forgive me?”
“No.”
So it was no, then.
I hung my head weakly before Mar’s resolute figure. If Mar couldn’t forgive me, there was nothing to be done…
I thought we’d gotten through it safely.
It left a bitter taste. We had flaunted power beyond even what the Crown Prince had hoped for. The Empire’s majesty had spread across the entire continent. In the end the Crown Prince had even praised the whole affair and let it pass. The incident had been wrapped up perfectly.
Of course, no one could deny it had been excessive, so disciplinary action had remained a possibility. But once the entire continent went wild with excitement over the event, even that possibility vanished. Punishing me over this would have been tantamount to admitting, “What happened at the Academy was not the Imperial family’s intention but the sudden antics of our subjects.”
In other words, disciplining us would have been the Imperial family confessing that it could not control the power of myself and Beatrix. And so both Beatrix and I had gotten off without a scratch.
Officially, that is.
“Thankfully everything passed without incident, but if things had gone the other way, you and Sister could have taken all the blame.”
Privately, we had not gotten off at all.
“Depending on how you look at it, it could be seen as threatening foreign dignitaries. An act done with good intentions could have come back as malice.”
“I’m sorry…”
Every word of it was true, so all I could do was keep apologizing.
Just as Mar said, things had resolved astonishingly well this time. Both Beatrix and I had been so dazzled by the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that we had gone and done something outrageous, but once we regained our senses and thought it over, it had been an act riddled with potential problems.
If someone had freaked out over the meteor appearing above their head and filed a formal protest, things would have gotten extremely annoying. We would still have achieved the goal of displaying our power, but we would have been stuck carrying the responsibility for the chaos and the infamy of our antics.
“Um… since the baby seems to be reflecting, how about letting him off now? Both the baby and I have learned our lesson thoroughly, so nothing like this will ever happen again.”
Beside Mar, Beatrix—who had been carefully reading the room—spoke up cautiously. Under normal circumstances Beatrix should have been kneeling right next to me, receiving Mar’s scolding as well—
“I’m sorry. That magic was something Father never managed to complete in the end. I had always wanted to try it someday.”
The sudden invocation of father-daughter memories made Mar skip right over Beatrix and focus her scolding entirely on me. When a daughter who had finished the magic her father never completed wanted to show it off in front of people, scolding her for it would have made you a cold-blooded monster with neither blood nor tears.
“Reflecting?”
Then Mar’s gaze shifted to Beatrix.
Was it my imagination? For a moment Beatrix seemed to shrink back.
“You’re reflecting too, right, Sister?”
“O-of course. Absolutely.”
Watching Beatrix nod frantically, Mar let out a short sigh and nodded as well.
“…All right. If there was a mistake, then part of it is mine for failing to stop you until the end. And since the Imperial family was happy about it, I don’t really have any right to say anything.”
“No, Mar. Thanks to you, I realized how careless I was.”
When I made the statement in a posture so low it was almost unseemly, Mar’s expression softened a little.
Thank goodness.
Even I thought the incident had been too big. I had been half-afraid she might refuse to look at my face for a while.
I let out a quiet sigh of relief and glanced sideways at Beatrix. Catching my look, she also relaxed and gave a small nod.
I really should have dropped just one.
The truth was, Mar wasn’t angry because we had used a meteor over people’s heads. That action itself was something she had agreed to, as she had just said.
The problem was that we had lied about the number of meteors we planned to drop. In the principal’s office we had promised to drop only one, but dropping just one had seemed boring, so right before the closing ceremony Beatrix and I had secretly agreed to drop several.
It had been pure madness. Living with a beast’s brain was no way for a human being to behave.
From now on, I would do my absolute best to avoid surprises.
Once the Class Tournament—the signature event of the second semester—ended, time flowed by uneventfully. The Academy calendar, apart from the Club Expo, the school trip, and the Class Tournament, didn’t really have anything special going on.
But because the Academy itself was quiet, incidents started erupting outside it.
“Congratulations.”
— Heh heh, thank you.
Fortunately it was a positive incident rather than a negative one, but still.
What a world.
Watching the Second Section Chief grin from ear to ear was giving me cognitive dissonance.
That guy… is a dad?
This morning Erzebet had told me that the Second Section Chief’s child had been born, so I had hurriedly called him. The Crown Prince becoming a father had already been strange enough—now the Second Section Chief was someone’s dad too? How exactly was this world supposed to work?
Of course, unlike the Second Section Chief—who was not exactly a normal human—his wife Christina was an entirely ordinary person, so it was perfectly possible for them to have a child. Still, the thought that there was now a kid whose family register would list “Father: Second Section Chief” left me thoroughly confused.
“It was a son, you said?”
— Yes. He looks half like me and half like Christina—a handsome little boy. When he grows up, I get the feeling he’ll make a lot of girls cry.
“Of all things, he had to inherit the bad parts from his father.”
I meant that sincerely. Considering how the bastard had operated as a full-blown Casanova in the capital before getting married, I was already worried about the kid’s future. Please let him only inherit the looks and not the personality.
But the Second Section Chief just kept snickering, apparently taking my words as a joke.
This bastard.
He had always been hard to damage with words, but lately he seemed even tougher. Was it because he had become a head of household?
After laughing for a long while, the Second Section Chief seemed to remember something and continued.
— Ah, and once Christina recovers a bit, we’re thinking of holding a banquet. Will you have time?
I nodded immediately at that. Like him or not, a subordinate of mine had just become a father. No matter how busy I was, showing my face was the proper thing to do.
“Tell me once the date is set. I’ll be there right away.”
— My, my. For the Minister of the Inspectorate to grace the occasion together with the Minister of Finance—what an honor.
“You son of a bitch.”
The way the Second Section Chief casually landed a critical hit made the curses come out on their own. I wasn’t the minister yet. Just the designate.
Damn bastard.
It was mortifying. Being mocked by a subordinate because of an unwanted promotion—who the hell was I supposed to share this pain with—
…
Should I just promote that bastard too?
The thought suddenly occurred to me. As Audit Department Chief I was the minister-designate of the Inspectorate, and I planned to take the vice-chief with me as my ministerial secretary. That meant every position above the Second Section Chief would be vacant.
Making him department chief was probably a stretch, but I could at least give him vice-chief, right?
Nice.
My heart grew peaceful. From now on, if any subordinate smiled and congratulated me on my promotion to minister, I would repay them with a promotion of their own.
I made that silent vow and allowed a faint smile to form. Sensing that something ominous was afoot, the Second Section Chief hurriedly wrapped up the call.
— Then I’ll see you in the capital at the banquet.
“Yeah.”
I’ll bring the gift of a promotion announcement, so look forward to it.
The next morning, the moment I saw the communication crystal vibrating with a purple light, I knew. It seemed I would be seeing the Second Section Chief today rather than at the banquet.
And because uneasy premonitions always turn out to be right, the text that arrived through the crystal contained a reason I had to head for the capital at once.
Hah.
The moment I saw the word “abdication,” a hollow laugh escaped me. I had braced myself for an abdication storm to break soon, but I had hoped it would at least wait until next year.
…I’m not the only one who’s shocked.
Looking closer, the short message contained quite a few typos. The person who sent it must have been pretty flustered as well.
Thinking of the Imperial Household Department Chief, who was now scrambling to act in place of the vacant Minister of Palace Affairs, I couldn’t help but feel a solemn respect.