What Are You Doing, Sis? (4)
What Are You Doing, Sis? (4)
What was the correct reaction when someone brandished a blade and threatened to kill a person?
At the very least, a normal person would try to get away from that spot. And anyone with a shred of civic conscience would immediately contact the police.
"Sis, I'm sorry, but I don't think I can walk home with you today."
Rosemary fell squarely into that category. The instant the dismissal bell rang, Rosemary sprang from her seat and bolted out, noble daughter's dignity be damned. It was an undignified scramble from someone usually so composed.
"What's wrong with Lady Rosemary?"
"She exhausted herself fighting me and went off to drink, I guess."
"Frey, I don't think that's it."
She was obviously running off to alert her comrades.
Even with a teleportation circle, crossing all the way into the Demon King's territory took considerable time. If my guess was correct, I had at least a few hours free from getting eavesdropped on by Scope magic.
This was my chance. Standing still then would make me an idiot.
"You two head back to the dorm first. I have something to discuss with the professor."
"Okay. Be careful on your way back."
"Bring canned beer!"
"Frey, drinking is banned in the dormitories."
"...Really?"
Frey was carried off slung over Rote's back like a sack of potatoes. Demands to be put down echoed down the hallway.
Now only one thing remained: sprint to the Liberal Arts Building as fast as possible and confirm two things.
One, discover why Professor Herlein had summoned me to the Liberal Arts Building basement, and two, verify whether Vermel was at that location.
And if Vermel wasn't there either.... Well.
[What are you going to do?]
I'd track him down later and wreck him.
[.......]
While exchanging empty chatter with the Hardcover Book, I'd already arrived at the Liberal Arts Building.
Stepping into the basement, stale, humid air stung my nose. Frowning, I entered the agreed-upon room.
Tried to enter.
— Clunk.
The hell. Why was it locked?
"Is this not the place?"
Not to toot my own horn, but a Gold-Eye's memory was unmatched by other races. So there was no way my head was worse than a goldfish's.
Right? No way.
I knocked on the door, thinking someone inside might have locked it out of moral principle. Tap, tap, tap.
Tap, tap, tap.
Tap, tap.
Tap.
Bang, bang, bang!
— Who is it...?
"Open up."
— I asked who you are?
A voice I didn't recognize. Female, I thought, but not someone our age.
I could detect a fine tremor in her voice. Had I been too threatening? But that didn't seem right either.
[Master, are you feeling unwell lately? You get touchy now and then....]
"Hm."
I came to my senses and realized my left hand was gripping the Staff. I'd thought I was knocking politely with my hand, but at some point it had turned into this.
Was it because of all the stress lately? I gave a short, humorless laugh and pushed the Staff back into subspace.
"I'm Aether, a first-year undergraduate. I was introduced by Professor Herlein...."
— Then please give the password.
Password?
There hadn't been one.
"I wasn't told any password."
— No. There is definitely one.
"...Chicken rib?"
— Incorrect.
"Can I just break the door down?"
At that last question, flustered rustling sounded from inside, like a tiny liver fluttering about. After a moment of quiet, another person's voice came through the door.
A familiar voice.
— My apologies. The password doesn't matter. Instead, could you name three regions you know?
The out-of-the-blue question made my thoughts lag for a second. But I quickly grasped the intent and answered evenly.
Seoul, Busan, Daejeon. I listed three major Korean cities as they came to mind. At that, the iron door swung backward as if I'd shouted open sesame.
The moment I saw the man's face emerging from inside, I pulled the Staff back out.
"Ah, wait......."
There you were.
**
Lately, I'd been getting the feeling that I'd developed an intermittent rage disorder.
I didn't openly yell or anything like that, but whenever I came to my senses, I inevitably found myself about to club someone's head with the Staff.
"Wait! I can explain everything! So put that thing away!"
The Staff I'd swung without engaging my cerebrum hurtled straight toward Vermel's skull. Vermel blocked my Staff with his own, which looked like a World Tree branch. His whimpering was a pitiful sight.
"Seriously, what a shit game...!"
Right. He'd said that. He'd told me this wasn't a normal easy game.
Feeling a little guilty, I scratched my head and loosened my grip on the Staff. Vermel gasped for breath as if he'd just climbed a mountain.
"All right, let's hear it. Why you withdrew from school and holed yourself up in a place like this."
The two of us found a spot and sat down deeper inside the basement. Some of the 'colleagues' who'd witnessed my erratic behavior were wary at first, but Vermel's persuasion smoothed things over. I pulled a handkerchief from my pocket and tossed it to the guy, who was drenched in cold sweat.
Wiping his storm-soaked face, Vermel began his explanation.
No, it wasn't even much of an explanation. A single sentence made everything clear.
"During the break, Rosemary tried to kill me."
"...What did you do to make her try that?"
"I stopped Professor Herlein from going north more than ten times, you know? And then she invited me to the Imperial Palace."
Wow. That was a little scary.
"She held a banquet there...."
"And?"
"That girl poisoned the food."
"What kind of poison?"
"...Beryllium."
"Hah, good grief."
I let out a hollow laugh in sheer disbelief. This was exactly like feeding a dog chocolate.
"And that's not all."
My fellow countryman continued his tale of woe. Counting internally as I listened, there had been five assassination attempts in that place alone.
The methods all showed an effort to make his death look natural or accidental. I honestly wondered if this was the same Rosemary who used to flit around calling me sis every other sentence.
"From a fellow demon's perspective, she might be an adorable little thing. But in front of humans or elves, she's just a monster. She's the corps commander who toppled three nations in an instant and wiped out the dwarves...."
To summarize Vermel's account:
1. If he hadn't withdrawn, Rosemary's hand would have killed him immediately.
2. Even so, he couldn't just leave Tillet right away because of me.
"I'm really sorry I couldn't tell you ahead of time. I'll tell you from now on.... Please stay here."
This was a situation where I couldn't really get angry.
Even if someone stabbed me in the back, I'd just feel sour about it and that would be the end of it. But the moment someone stabbed Vermel in the back, he'd have to tap-dance before the Goddess.
Maybe that difference was what had made me complacent. Maybe I'd been angry at him only because I'd grown careless.
I had a Gold-Eye's body, but I had never shed a human's way of thinking. So I had to think as much like a human as possible. To stop the world from ending. To avoid leaving bitterness in the people here.
And to return to my original world.
"Duke Argana will lead today's meeting. We've got about thirty minutes until then."
There was no time to waste. We laid out the topics we hadn't finished discussing because of Angelica.
The first thing to address was obviously Akasha. Both because Akasha's image had appeared in the mirror Rosemary had urged me to stand in front of, and because the girl was ominous in several ways.
However.
"Akasha? I don't recall any character like that."
"What?"
At the unexpected answer, my throat seized up as though I'd swallowed a lump of dry potato.
"You said you first saw her during summer break?"
"Yeah."
"Then she might be dummy data created by the Goddess. Originally, you should have left this place by that point."
"......."
So it happened because I hadn't withdrawn from school.
"Seriously, what a shit game."
"Told you I was right."
Was it a duplication bug or what?
After that, we devised and revised a number of plans, and thirty minutes flew by. The most significant part of our conversation there concerned the identity of the mirror Rosemary had left behind.
"That's the 'Mirror of the Inner Self.'"
"Mirror of the Inner Self?"
"Simply put, I guess you'd call it a mirror that lets you converse with yourself.... I don't know what state your body's original owner is in right now, but approaching it carelessly probably isn't a good idea."
Having said that much, Vermel let out a sigh of relief. At the same time, an awkward silence descended.
Vermel stared fixedly into empty space with bewildered eyes. Then he exhaled even more heavily than before.
"It's okay for now."
I didn't know specifically what was "okay," but I could hazard a guess.
Apparently, the moment my systolic blood pressure surpassed 180 mmHg, the world would end. Completely regardless of my own will.
"Is everyone gathered? Then let us begin."
Right on cue, people filed into the basement clad in dignified dress uniforms. Some of them were faces I recognized.
The first to enter was Duke Argana, the ringleader of the conspiracy. He was the father of Shadiel Argana, the head of the Student Council Guidance Department.
Behind him followed Chairman Robespierre, Professor Herlein, and others. Someone among them pointed an index finger at Vermel and me.
"Who are those children?"
"You saw them last time as well, have you forgotten already? Miss Aether and Mister Vermel Horde."
"Hm."
A man with a sea-urchin stubble beard approached us. He then looked Vermel and me over, once each.
"I saw the elf the day before yesterday, so I recognize him. What's this wench doing here?"
"Do you not know the golden-eyed girl?"
"Of course I know. I'm asking why she's here."
[What's with this guy? He's obnoxious.]
He was the type of person you often ran into in the lab. There was a specific way to handle people like him. If I lowered my head and kept my mouth shut, they'd wander off on their own.
And sometimes, when I did this, someone would even appear to defend me.
"What do you mean, why is she here? Do you not know that this young lady is the one who developed Flare? She is scheduled to play a technically vital role in the upcoming competition."
"Flare? Ah, right. Was it this girl who snatched the Haspelt family's achievement?"
"...What do you mean by that?"
"Why play dumb when everyone knows? I heard there's a wench who stole what House Haspelt had been researching overnight!"
Should I slug him?
...While I was mulling that over, Vermel yanked me back.
'You can't kill him now.'
What was he on about?
I mean, sure, the thought of hitting him had crossed my mind, but I'd never considered beating him into a bloody pulp. No matter how many times I'd been stabbed in the back in the secular world, I wasn't that cold-hearted. I could separate the public from the personal!
But at the whisper that followed, my lips twisted.
'He's Rosemary's underling. He's deliberately provoking you, so don't touch him.'
Oh.