Being Back Feels Like Heaven
I hadn't been at the Academy all that long, yet this was the first time the Headmaster's face had looked so at ease. It was the expression of a sage who had set down every care in the world — the sort of look an ancient hermit might wear with ascension only a breath away.
Of course I understood. Any mage of the Empire, and especially a Headmaster who had once served in the military, would have crossed paths with the Demon Duke more times than he cared to count. Even I, who had only known her a few years, was like this; the Headmaster's state of mind after decades of enduring her must have been truly wretched.
Just when he had thought himself free of her shadow at last, settled as Headmaster of the Academy, the moment he recognized the Demon Duke's signature magic must have felt like the sky itself collapsing. Every possible nightmare would have flooded his mind. Was Luise the Demon Duke's beloved disciple? Would the Demon Duke use that as a pretext to start dropping by the Academy whenever she pleased?
"Her Grace the Demon Duke asked me to look after Luise."
"I see. For Her Grace to entrust her disciple to you… it is a relief to know the Audit Department Chief enjoys such confidence."
At my words, the Headmaster's anxiety vanished. That the Demon Duke had left Luise in my care meant, at the very least, that the odds of Her Grace descending upon the Academy in person were vanishingly small. And that was good news for me as well. Playing host to a Duke at the Academy?
Just imagining it is horrifying.
If I had to look after an imperial prince, a foreign prince, the next Saint, and a Duke piled on top of that, I could throw off every chain and shackle in the world and bolt, and any court with a conscience would have to find me not guilty. Could the Minister of Justice really endure having a Duke camping out in his office under a permanent ward?
A wave of bitter thoughts crashed over me; I shook my head and hastily papered them over with happier memories.
"You didn't rush back on our account, I hope? Should anything arise while the Inspector is away, we will manage it as best we can. There is no need to hurry."
"I'm glad everything seems to have gone smoothly."
After ending the call with the Headmaster, I had also sent word of my return to the Vice Headmaster and to Villar. Their replies were genuinely touching. Those little expressions of concern for my safety and well-being made me happier than I would have expected.
After conversing with an elder who looked ready to hurl magic the moment a conversation went sideways, and with a personage of such rank that I spent half the time fretting I might commit some slight — however grateful I was to her — the simple pleasure of ordinary conversation felt deeply satisfying.
This is what a workplace is supposed to be.
At the Audit Department I was constantly battered from every direction. Half the people under me were bastards I would have been ashamed to show anyone. Really, what would those fools have done with themselves if I hadn't raised them?
The Academy, by contrast, had no clear superior over me — Headmaster included. There were plenty of blue-blooded scions I had to keep an eye on, but with the title of Advisor and the private mantra of they'll just be your princes once they graduate, I could manage them in relative comfort. And I had normal colleagues like the Vice Headmaster and Villar.
You only recognize spring after it has passed, they say.
While I was at the Academy I had wanted nothing more than to finish my business and return to the Audit Department. After a few hours back in that place, though, the Academy had looked like an angel. Sorry for all the complaining, Academy. I never knew there was such a warm spring waiting right beside me.
Savoring that spring as if a fairy were dancing down from the heavens, I headed for the clubroom — and found someone who had no business being there at this hour.
"Oppa, you're here?"
Sensing a presence in the clubroom and hurrying inside in case a visitor had arrived, I found Luise hugging a bowl and whipping cream, beaming as she greeted me. For a second I wondered if I had come after club hours, but no — if it had been club time, Luise would not have been alone.
Wondering if something was wrong, I swept a glance around the room and met Erich's eyes in front of the oven. Ah. Erich was here too. He had been peering into the oven and only noticed my arrival when Luise spoke.
"Oh, hyung. You're back?"
"Yeah. Why are you two here so early?"
The unexpected situation threw me a little. For Erich, being alone with Luise was no doubt pure delight, but for me, as the one responsible for managing the club, any break in the schedule was enough to make my stomach drop.
"Our teacher had something come up, so class ended early. Nowhere else to go, so we came ahead. Didn't expect you wouldn't be here, though."
"Luise too?"
"We're in the same class."
Right. I had momentarily forgotten that, practical lessons aside, the two of them shared a class.
"Where did you go, Oppa?"
I gave a vague nod to Erich's explanation, and Luise — still hugging her bowl — tilted her head and asked. I was the clubroom's resident spirit; my absence was bound to raise questions. Erich looked curious as well.
"Had some business. Been out since this morning."
"Huh? I didn't see you leave, though."
"I told you to pay attention in class."
For a second I wondered what she meant — then realized she was saying she had been staring out the window instead of listening to the lecture, the same way she had when I went dungeon-clearing. As the Demon Duke's sole disciple her future was a titanium highway, but did she even know her master was the Demon Duke? Focusing on her studies right now might be the wiser move.
Having just come from yanking the First Division Chief around by the mouth, my hand twitched. If it rose any higher it would be a catastrophe. The First Division Chief was sturdy enough to take it; if I did the same to Luise, she really might cry.
"You had business outside, hyung?"
"The Imperial Capital."
"Ah."
While Luise bashfully averted her gaze at my scolding, Erich picked up the conversation. A single word — Imperial Capital — and he understood at once and let the matter drop.
With a family head who sat in the Imperial Assembly and a civil servant for a brother, Erich knew well enough that people on the state's payroll getting summoned to the Capital was nothing unusual. When the people above said jump, a civil servant jumped. Whatever you were in the middle of, you ran when they called.
The unfortunate part was that I had been hauled off not for official business but for the spectacular scandal of invading a Duke's private life. That was too embarrassing to admit, so I kept it to myself.
If he gets it from just the word "Capital," the kid's already half a civil servant.
I found myself wondering what Erich's future would look like. Someone of his caliber was more than enough material to drag into slavery — overqualified, even — but did I really need to pass my own burdens on to my little brother? Besides, having grown up watching the family head and me, whether Erich would willingly enter this world was an open question.
"Hyung?"
Ah. I had been staring too long.
If I told him honestly, I was wondering whether I should drag you into slavery, the relationship I had only just managed to close the distance on would shoot right back out again. I would have cut off any older brother who looked ready to sell me into servitude too.
Fortunately I had an excuse ready, so I beckoned him closer. Well — less an excuse than something I had been curious about for a while. The way he came over without a hint of resistance was pleasing. We were finally starting to look like ordinary brothers.
"There's just the two of you. Why aren't you making a more aggressive move?"
"I was about to. Now there's three of us."
I whispered it low; Erich dropped his voice to match. About to, my foot. After everything I had seen from him, that excuse was not worth the breath.
"There's cream on Luise's face. Nothing come to mind?"
"Oh, that? I was going to tell her once she finished the whipping."
"…"
If he hadn't been my brother I would have started by asking whether he had an arrow lodged in his skull.
"Go wipe it off for her."
I said it and gave Erich a light shove toward Luise. He looked back in mild panic; I jerked my chin to tell him to get moving, and only then did he start walking.
Hopeless idiot.
This was a situation where you could not afford to be choosy about means. Heaven itself had handed him a chance to get closer, and he could not even seize it properly. I felt a little sorry for Later, who had asked me to stay neutral — but as long as no one found out, it was fine.
Pushed toward Luise, Erich felt a strange unease that had been needling him for some time. Something was different — something was off — yet he could not put a name to it.
Was it always like this?
He glanced back. Karl was watching and gave him another chin-jerk. Mouth closed, eyes saying why the hell aren't you going yet. Erich snapped his head forward again, but the sense of wrongness only grew.
That crushing pressure he always felt when he looked at Karl — the atmosphere that made him flinch on instinct — for some reason it was not nearly as strong now. Not gone entirely, but at a level he could actually endure.
There was a reason, of sorts. In yesterday's sparring match he had wanted the recognition of his one and only older brother, and he had succeeded in drawing out a look of satisfaction. He had gained something more important than Academy grades. It had felt like shedding a layer of his own shell.
But this feels a little different.
He had drawn a step closer to the person whose approval he wanted. He had sworn to stand tall instead of being crushed. So of course the pressure he felt would lessen — or so Erich told himself. But it was not that simple. Something else was mixed in.
The steward?
The closest comparison he could find was a feeling he sometimes got from the family steward. A kind of quiet pathos you sensed looking at someone weary, haggard, ground down by work. That was what he felt from Karl now.
But it was not the ordinary fatigue of a man with too much to do. Erich already knew Karl was overworked. The family head — Imperial Count and assemblyman — had no shortage of work either. This was not the pathos of overwork alone. Something more had been laid on top of it.
A missing puzzle piece — that was the irritation and the wrongness. No matter how hard he thought, the piece would not come.
I have no idea.
Fortunately it was not urgent. His fear of Karl had not grown any worse, so he could take his time thinking it over. His gaze toward his only brother seemed a little more normal now, at least.
"Luise, there's cream on your cheek."
"H-huh?"
He took out a handkerchief and wiped her cheek; her ears flushed red. Well… even a simple gesture had an effect, it seemed.
He kept looking back so much I started to worry he would just turn around and come home. At least my little brother was not quite that much of a fool.
It's really nothing to get excited about.
It was such a small thing, and yet I was absurdly pleased. It felt like watching a child who did not know his ABCs suddenly start reciting the alphabet. Of course, the fact that he was still at the alphabet stage was fairly despairing in its own right.
More pressingly, drowsiness had been creeping up on me for a while. I had meant to catch a nap once I reached the clubroom — maybe I should just sleep now and ask them to wake me when the others arrived.