Happy Free Time (5)
“…Do you have anyone in mind?”
Edan had not even realized he was being tailed. Still, he was not foolish enough to claim he sensed nothing when Gloria said otherwise. When a fighter of her caliber declared that someone was there, it was as good as fact. She was one of the handful of Apostles; that alone made it certain.
Even among the Academy’s faculty, talent on her level was rare. Edan was convinced of that. If anyone came close, it would be his own physical education instructor.
“Most likely one of Stephania’s underlings. There’s no other reason the aura around them would reek so strongly of her, unless they were carrying one of her magic tools.”
Stephania was a name Edan knew well. She was the very reason Gloria had come to the Academy in person. The Church had dispatched its First Apostle to seize the woman who was, for all practical purposes, the leader of the remaining demon-worshippers on the continent.
Stephania was so meticulous that even Gloria had been forced to settle for the barest of leads. Edan was certain that if it had been him, he would never have found a lead at all—he would have been tangled in her schemes and vanished without a trace before long.
“…Then you believe our conversation has been overheard.”
“Wouldn’t you? I can’t imagine anyone would be tailing me, and a rough-looking freshman like you is hardly worth the effort. More likely someone was just prowling about with one of Stephania’s tools and happened to intercept the call.”
The Goddess was omnipotent; the Church was not. Edan wondered briefly whether it was proper for her to say such a thing, then decided not to dwell on it. The Church truly was not omnipotent, so her words were not wrong.
“…Setting aside the tool’s performance, though, the tail is remarkably clumsy. Footsteps far too loud for a shadow, and they keep circling the area… Some ordinary noble trying to curry favor with her and earn a place at her side, I expect.”
Edan could sense none of what she described. Not the footsteps, not even the vague feeling of someone lingering nearby. So this was the Church’s greatest asset. The gulf between himself and Gloria struck him with painful clarity. He possessed the uncommon talent of sensing demonic energy, yet beside her he felt utterly shabby. Magic, physical power—everything was inferior—and she wielded holy power he could not even perceive. Standing at her side only made him feel smaller.
“We should deal with them.”
“No, Decatria, you mustn’t. Roughing up a pawn gains us nothing. You’ll only earn yourself a disciplinary mark.”
Had she learned that from personal experience? Edan felt an odd flicker of kinship—until Gloria, as if reading his mind, crushed it at once.
“I merely got tired of the constant pestering and gave someone a light thrashing. Three days’ suspension. If you actually ‘dealt with’ them the way you’re thinking, even I couldn’t predict what would happen next.”
“…Then what do you suggest we do?”
Of course, Edan thought. She had come under the Holy See’s authority; dirty work of that sort was not her concern. When it was needed, people like him existed to handle it.
“They don’t seem to realize we’ve noticed them, so it would be best if we parted ways here. If we were spotted together it would damage my reputation. A nun walking with a hoodlum… that would be more than enough to start rumors.”
“…I have not yet submitted my report on Baek Hoyeon. Is that acceptable?”
“I’ll leave that in your hands. I would like to help if I could, but Stephania alone is more than enough for me. One piece of advice, Decatria: the methods you used before will not serve you well here. Keep that firmly in mind.”
“Understood. Then today we never met.”
“Indeed.”
Gloria bid him farewell, kicked off the wall of the building, and vanished from Edan’s sight. He had believed that, whatever the difference in raw power, his own body control was at least a match for hers. The hollow laugh that escaped him said otherwise. Scaling the wall and crossing the rooftops was beyond him, so he trudged deeper into the alley, resenting the cruelty of unequal talent.
Geum Taeyang still had not laid a hand on the nun, yet they kept moving deeper into the alley. Was he being considerate in his own way—intending to do something indecent outdoors but out of sight?
I almost reevaluated him, then stopped myself. In the end he was still trash who meant to force himself on a woman. Whatever they were discussing, it was surely instructions on how to take her today and how to keep taking her afterward.
Probably. That was how it always went in those sorts of comics. Their voices were not perfectly clear, but it was safe enough to treat the matter as settled fact. A nun and a thug disappearing alone into a dark alley… nothing else came to mind. The thought made my skin crawl. To think I shared a class with someone like that.
…Did I? It was strange I had never noticed someone so conspicuous, yet we had the same physical education period, so we were definitely classmates.
The idea of spending an entire year in the same classroom as a possible sex offender made it even harder to breathe. Scaring him off might not be enough. For my own safety I ought to confirm exactly what they intended to do.
But if I got caught by someone vicious enough to assault a member of the clergy, the outcome was obvious. A man that far gone would not care whose house I came from; he would simply try to pin me down.
While I hesitated they drew farther away. Normally I would have stamped my foot and given up, yet now I found myself wondering whether I should actually call on the Goddess for help. I had used mana breathing techniques during gym class earlier; a half-hearted attack would not even scratch him, but it might pin his feet long enough.
Borrowing divine power still made me hesitate, yet if my guess turned out to be right…
Hoping that the Geum Taeyang of this novel would be the sort who banally rejected every cliché, I sprinted toward the last place I had heard their footsteps.
And no one was there.
I pricked up my ears, wondering whether they had simply moved elsewhere, but I heard nothing. When I sniffed the air there was no scent of night-blooming flowers either, so it seemed they had not gone through with it.
…Safe enough to call it a win, then? I still had no idea where the two of them had vanished, but there were no traces of anything improper. They must have realized they were being followed and simply given up.
Feeling a little deflated at my own overreaction, I was still grateful nothing had happened.
I turned to retrace my steps and found myself facing a three-way fork. Ah. So that was the layout here—easy to enter, not so easy to leave. In short, I was lost again. How I managed to lose my way so many times in a single day was a mystery, but at least it was not my fault.
It was entirely the Academy’s fault for failing to put up even a simple map. Who installs maps in back alleys? Still, that was my story and I was sticking to it.
So which way out? Whichever path I took would still be the Academy, but there was no guarantee it would be the part I wanted. I had rushed out with nothing more than the urge to stop them, so I had nowhere particular to go in the first place.
In that case it hardly mattered which direction I chose. Just as I was about to pick a path at random, I ran into an unexpected face.
Han Dogeon. He looked equally startled to find me here; the expression on his face was rather stupid.
“…Lady Hoyeon, what brings you to a place like this?”
How was I supposed to explain? That I had been peeping at Geum Taeyang in the library, decided he was about to do something terrible to a nun, abandoned everything I was doing, and charged out without thinking—only to find nothing amiss and breathe a sigh of relief?
Far too embarrassing. Intentions aside, the fact remained that I had made a complete fool of myself. Claiming I had simply gotten lost while taking a walk sounded far more plausible.
“I have lost my way.”
“You do seem to lose your way quite often.”
Dogeon stabbed me with a fact, but since it was not really my fault it did not sting.
“The paths are simply too complicated.”
“Do you have somewhere particular you wish to go?”
Somewhere to go… I wanted to return to the library and finish my book, but unpacking my things came first. If I kept putting it off I would still be putting it off at the end of the year. Better to settle it now while I had the free time.
“…I wish to go to Dormitory 4. Do you know the way?”
“You have a room in Dormitory 4?”
“I do.”
I might forget everything else, but I had not forgotten which dormitory I had been assigned. Dormitory 4, Room 444. Ominous as the number was, it made the place easy to remember. Whenever I wondered where my room was I could simply think, That’s right—four-four-four! and it came to me at once. I was rather pleased with that.
“What a remarkable coincidence. My room is in Dormitory 4 as well.”
“Is that so.”
“…Shall I guide you, then?”
“I leave it to you.”
The conversation was not exactly smooth, but that was Father’s fault for teaching me this manner of speech, not mine. Holding that thought firmly in place, I fell into step behind him.