Passing Like a Dog (4)
Passing Like a Dog (4)
I passed like a dog, and I also escaped like a dog.
The pass itself was certainly pleasing, but because of how things had gone with Haspelt, I could no longer learn top-grade Fire Magic.
The person who handled Fire Magic best in the Empire was that woman. The reason I had endured everything and lived quietly as a slave was because I believed that if I stayed under Haspelt, I could learn all Fire Magic the fastest.
Now that had become impossible. It meant our personal relationship was shattered, so there was no more learning or anything else to do.
Now that things had turned out this way, I had to find an alternative—whether by finding an ancient text containing the secret arts of Fire Magic, or by receiving advice from someone with skills comparable to Haspelt's.
Actually, what did it matter? I had applied to the academy with that plan in mind anyway.
Herlein, who had been watching me sink into gloom despite passing, spoke to me.
"Cheer up. You're not a slave anymore, are you? Why, are you worried about Kleis?"
"No?"
Do I look like a pushover to you?
There was no chance of that. I was just anxious about my return to Earth being delayed.
But I couldn't say that, so I made an appropriate excuse.
"On the contrary, I'm only sorry that I seem to have ruined your relationship with Duke Haspelt, Professor Herlein. Weren't you two close since your student days?"
"Yes. We were. Which is why I can do at least this much. If some other count had stood up to Duke Haspelt, what do you think would have happened?"
"It would have been a disaster."
"I'm going to go back into the mansion a little later anyway. I need to give her some spiritual re-education."
Professor Herlein said that much, then excused herself for a moment, saying she needed to stop by the chairman's office. In the meantime, I sat on a bench and looked around at the surrounding scenery.
A familiar school, an unfamiliar status.
Suddenly, a phrase my older sister had always said like a habit came to mind.
─ Live without regrets. You only live once, after all.
After hearing those words, I had applied to the major I wanted despite my parents' and school teachers' opposition. I remembered sweating buckets during the admissions counseling.
─ With this level, couldn't you aim for medical school?
─ Physics.
─ At least computer science... they say developers make a lot of money these days!
─ Physics.
─ Pharmacy, how about pharmacy? It's stable after graduation and has a work-life balance.
─ Physics.
It wasn't exactly a fond memory.
While I was lost in old thoughts, Professor Herlein returned.
"Ta-da! Do you know what this is?"
"It's a Certificate of Free Person."
"Right. I asked the chairman and squeezed it out of him. Now that you've received this, even His Majesty the Emperor won't be able to do anything to you."
Right. It was because of talk that the Second Prince would take me as an attendant that I had rushed to prepare for the academy entrance exam.
But now, with this free person identification combined with the status of a Tillet Academy undergraduate, even the Emperor discussing whether to buy me or not had become pointless. Wow, it felt like three years of indigestion was finally clearing up.
"Since this is a special occasion, I'll treat you to a meal today. You don't have to pay this back."
"You've already done so much for me, though."
"Have I? Then pay me back by becoming a great mage when you grow up. You'll be the one protecting this country's people."
Those words made my conscience prickle a little.
Because I had been planning to flee faster than light as soon as I filled the Magic Compendium, whether this place fell apart or not...
Herlein took me toward the shopping district. When she asked what I wanted to eat, I looked around until a sashimi restaurant run by an elf caught my eye.
There was a prejudice that elves only grew up eating greens, right? People living in the Great Forest eating sashimi... that seemed a bit strange.
Since most of the Empire's territory was inland, there weren't many opportunities to see fresh fish. Because of this, fish had to be airlifted from the elven country to the south and then distributed all the way here, avoiding every threat from bandits or magic beasts.
What would happen to the fish quality during that process? If it were brought in salted, the situation might be better, but sashimi is a dish where you have to slice a fish that was swimming lively with a sashimi knife and serve it immediately for the texture to survive.
Even if the fish were distributed alive, the stress the fish would experience during that distribution process would be enough to degrade the meat quality.
Still, I couldn't resist raw seafood. Because, well, it was delicious. It was a dish I might have eaten once a year back in my original world, so naturally, my mouth watered even if the quality was lower.
We took a seat on one side of the restaurant and ordered two assorted sashimi sets. Perhaps because this was another world, all of the fish were species I had never seen before. There were also many fascinating seasonings—a clear sauce, similar to soy sauce but less salty, came in a small dish.
Still, it seemed they had something like a lemon. Herlein touched the thinly sliced lemon atop the assorted sashimi set meal.
"Want to squeeze this on?"
"You can just squeeze it into the sauce and dip."
Since it was like soy sauce, I decided to just call it soy sauce.
When I squeezed lemon juice into the soy sauce, Herlein looked at me with curious eyes.
"Isn't it better to squeeze it directly onto the fish to get rid of the fishy smell?"
"But then it gets soggy."
If you squeezed lemon juice onto sashimi, the fishy smell disappeared, but if you left the sashimi like that for too long, the texture was ruined because the protein coagulated. It was much better to squeeze it into the soy sauce beforehand and dip it.
After watching me squeeze the juice into the soy sauce, Herlein continued in an admiring tone.
"You're really fascinating. Were you really a slave until now?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, you eat just like an aristocrat. That's how high elves eat fish sashimi."
"Do you know about elven culture, Professor?"
Herlein nodded at my question.
"I once went to Kaurelia as an exchange student. The academy there was called Iliad, I think? It was the place with the highest entrance requirements among the academies in the elf country. My roommate from back then was a high elf, and I learned that fact while eating sashimi on her recommendation."
While eating sashimi, a sudden curiosity struck me, and I asked a question.
"But why did you help me with the entrance exam, Professor? You only ended up on bad terms with your friend, and you gained nothing from it."
"Nothing? I told you when we first met. I said I couldn't let a talent like you go to waste."
Really? Was it really just that?
"Listen carefully, Aether. The people cooped up in the Imperial Palace all day long might not know this, but the combat mages driven out to the front lines are aware that the Empire is going to fall before long."
I flinched in surprise and looked around. Fortunately, the surroundings were noisy enough that no one seemed to be listening to our conversation.
Lowering my voice as much as possible, I brought up two syllables that shouldn't be spoken in this country.
"...Don't tell me it's something like a revolution?"
"Who knows. The system could be overturned in that way, like with the elves. But unless the Imperial House keeps doing stupid things in succession, the probability of that scenario happening is low. It's more about external defense being in danger."
"It's because of the magic beasts."
"Right. You've probably heard that the Northern Front is in jeopardy right now. Why else would His Majesty call up a wounded veteran like me to investigate a newly appeared tower?"
"A tower... appeared on the northern front?"
"It's not a Magic Tower where mages seclude themselves, at least. It was a dirty, sturdy-looking Iron Tower. Its height alone looked to be about 2 kilometers, and it kept pouring out things above high-class."
Crazy, 2 kilometers?
How many meters was the tallest building in my original world again...?
"If the Empire falls, a path will open for the magic beasts to invade the Spirit Realm. If, by any chance, that happens and the Spirit Kings are annihilated, then every race in this world......"
"Will become like the Gold-Eye Tribe."
"That was what Kleis was worried about. In her own way, because she could see that, she was pathologically obsessed with completing Flare."
"...I understand what you mean, but it doesn't feel very good."
"Sorry for saying something unnecessary. More importantly, your tuition is the immediate problem, isn't it?"
"Ah."
Right. Tuition.
In the other world, the scholarship system and government welfare were well-established, so I could attend school without worrying about money. But this was a world before such educational systems had been developed.
I had only just escaped slave status. I searched my pockets, but not a single coin came out.
"Since you placed second, half the tuition won't be a problem. But even with that, the problem is that you just escaped slavery and have no money."
"Can't I take a leave of absence?"
"First-years can't take a leave of absence."
What a shitty school...
I didn't have time to worry deeply. I had to earn money to avoid being expelled for non-registration from the very first semester.
"The time left until then is...."
"About a month. You need to earn at least one gold coin by then. Not counting food and dormitory fees, of course."
Damn, attending the academy once was ridiculously difficult.
**
Kleis had been sitting blankly at the dining table for nearly two hours.
It was around noon when Meri, who had left with Aether, returned to her mansion.
"Kleis."
"......"
"Kleis?"
"......"
"Hey, you moron!!"
Only after Meri cursed at her did Kleis's head turn.
Since a duke outranked a count in the hierarchy, it wouldn't have been strange for Kleis to get angry and draw her sword at Meri's abusive language.
But she couldn't do that.
Because the corners of her closest friend's mouth, someone who was always going around smiling, were turned down.
The fact that the smile Meri always wore, even on the blood-soaked battlefield, had disappeared from her face was a sign that she was furious to the tips of her hair.
Without giving Kleis time to react, Meri strode up to her and poured out her anger. She began bringing up the things she had deliberately not said earlier when Aether was around, to keep the mood light.
"If you loved magic research that much, you should have done it alone. Why did you grab an innocent girl and turn her into that state?"
But Kleis didn't answer Meri's question. Instead, she tried to respond to a question with a question.
Kleis asked in a trembling voice.
"...Meri, was it you who enrolled Aether in the academy?"
"Yes. It was my doing, from start to finish."
"Why on earth did you do it? What happened between us that created such a grudge?!"
Kleis's tone as she said that was laced with a strange sense of despair. Meri could confirm the reason for it from the golden letter on the dining table.
It was from the Emperor.
####
[To My Dear Duke Haspelt]
[The deadline for handing over the Gold-Eye Tribe slave is approaching.]
[And yet, news is circulating in the Capital City that the said Gold-Eye slave has applied to the academy.]
[Because of this, my son is in such a rage that he has smashed several pieces of art in the palace.]
[I won't speak at length. Come to the Imperial Palace immediately.]
[Emperor of the Philiut Empire, Yelchin Philiut (Seal)]
####
"Because of you, I'm about to lose 30,000 gold coins and Aether at the same time."
Kleis had recently not been receiving proper support from the Imperial House or the academy. It was because a consensus had long since been established among the learned scholars of the academic world that the power of Fire Magic had reached its limit and there were no means capable of felling an extinction-class magic beast.
Amidst this, Kleis was the only scholar researching Fire Magic through focused firepower, and she was confident that she would shortly produce results and also gain the 30,000 gold coins.
In the end, her plan to catch both rabbits had been completely shattered.
And by none other than the friend she had trusted for nearly ten years.
Meri had nothing to say to this. She ought to have nothing to say. Despite this, Meri offered a single remark filled with conviction.
"Kleis, if I hadn't gotten Aether to apply to the academy, this continent might have been devoured by the magic beasts."
"That's sophistry. What guarantee is there that such a thing would happen?"
"You saw that tower too. That thing itself is an extinction-class magic beast. Who knows when the Northern Front might collapse if we mishandle it?"
In Meri's eyes, Aether was a capable talent. Of course, she was in Kleis's eyes too, but crucially, their methods of understanding and handling a capable assistant were different.
Kleis, born of blue blood, believed she could exploit the slave she bought at a bargain price. That was what all the surrounding nobles had always done. Since the girl was already talented, Kleis felt no need to spend expensive money enrolling her in Tillet; she could just teach and conduct research with her directly.
On the other hand, Meri was a person born into a commoner family who had desperately felt the necessity of a social ladder by enrolling in Tillet. She firmly believed that what was important for Aether was not more hard work, but a stable environment and support that could maximize the girl's abilities.
"You knew this would happen, didn't you?"
Kleis nodded weakly.
"You knew the prince would act like this, so you put the iron collar on me to at least show that it wasn't my fault. Am I right?"
"...You're right."
"Okay, at least you did that, so it's fine. Since I'm the one who started this anyway, push the remaining blame onto me."
"No, even so, I couldn't possibly...! Fine. I'll settle this myself."
Even so, she couldn't sell out an old friend.
Because while she herself was a duke and could probably end it by taking some insults, Meri, who had no backing, could have her entire family permanently removed by the Imperial House.
After all, the current generation's prince was called a tyrant precisely because he did such things at every opportunity. There were already as many as five families whose relationships had soured and who had been buried in such a way.
Since she had been summoned by the Imperial Palace, she had to prepare to go out. Kleis donned her outer garment, then pressed down her witch's hat with a solemn expression.
She had to somehow pacify the prince first.
Heading toward the Imperial Palace, Kleis's mind was filled entirely with that thought.