You Were Dragged Here
You Were Dragged Here
The empire was currently in a state of financial ruin.
Centuries of continuous war had left the treasury perpetually precarious. With the Black Death now rampant and claiming countless lives, the vaults were not far from gathering cobwebs.
Sovereign default. Under circumstances where such a catastrophe might occur at any moment, what was the head of state doing?
That was the problem. Robespierre, despite bearing the title of marquis, had never received a concrete report on the emperor's activities. Everything on this front remained in the realm of conjecture.
The current emperor, Yelchin Philiut, was no tyrant, but neither was he a sage. To borrow someone else's words, he was a man without the qualities of a king.
A person of caliber fit for little more than a village chief. A man wholly inadequate to govern the vast domain of an empire.
If he had issued one sensible order, it was the directive to cut the scholarship funds that the students relied upon.
For Robespierre, who had lived as an educator before he was a noble, this was an incomprehensible measure. There had been no prior consultation; it had been sprung on him as a sudden notice, leaving him utterly dumbfounded.
Of course, these were hard times. Money was scarce, and common sense dictated that one should hoard funds rather than spend them except in emergencies. As a retainer, he had desperately tried to understand the emperor's reasoning.
That was, until just yesterday, when the imperial household went ahead with a lavish festival.
To browbeat the academy into austerity while throwing a splendid banquet for themselves—!
He could no longer stand idly by. Robespierre contacted everyone he knew, including Professor Herlein.
Among them was a Gold-Eye commoner girl, soon to be ennobled.
"I am beside myself with gratitude. Is there anything I can help with?"
The golden-eyed girl before him, Aether, was a clever child. Even when he expected nothing, she was the kind of student who scratched the itchiest spots.
She would surely adapt well to this country even after graduating from the academy.
"This doesn't seem like the place to discuss it. The rest we can handle once we relocate."
No, maybe none of that would matter in the future.
Since the empire was destined to walk the path to ruin before long.
**
The chairman answered my question immediately and rose from his seat. His complexion had improved compared to earlier.
I, on the other hand, was so anxious that I bit down firmly on my lower lip.
There was no telling when or where an extinction-class magic beast might be watching us.
Worse, the chairman's remark had broken the flow of our conversation. We had been discussing scholarship funds, and then he suddenly proposed moving elsewhere. If a magic beast with clairvoyance happened to be observing this, it would have jumped at the opening.
As I rolled my eyes about, the chairman spoke again.
"If time is the concern, I shall endeavor to conclude matters as early as possible."
Sadly, he was barking up the wrong tree.
Even if, by some chance, no extinction-class magic beast was eavesdropping on this conversation, the situation would not improve. If the chairman's earlier remarks reached the ears of another noble close to the imperial household, he would be unable to maintain his current position.
The Philiut Empire was an absolute monarchy. However foolish and indolent the emperor might be, the words he uttered carried force. Anyone who failed to obey his Word Magic could reasonably be treated as a traitor.
Yet the chairman was willing to ignore the emperor's austerity order to pay me my missing scholarship.
From a noble's perspective, it was a sum of merely a few hundred thousand won. But by Chairman Robespierre's standard, it was tantamount to paying me with his own life.
By tradition, one must grasp the speaker's intent in adult conversation. So I thought it through. What could the chairman specifically want from me?
No matter how I turned it over, my current knowledge was insufficient to derive a plausible conclusion. Powerless to do otherwise, I acquiesced to the chairman's request.
The three of us moved together. Was this all right, even if it might look suspicious to a magic beast?
Unconsciously, I drew close to Professor Herlein's side. And just as unconsciously, I scanned her expression.
Herlein's lips were not curved upward. Even her usual mischievous smile had been wiped off today along with her makeup.
Professor Herlein and I followed the chairman's lead, passing through corridor after corridor of the building. Eventually, in a corner of a central hallway, we halted before an iron door locked by magic.
The door bore traces of what looked like thick steel reinforcement. It resembled an entrance to an air-raid shelter.
And sure enough. As the chairman turned the handle, a gloomy chill brushed past my cheek. The screech of scraping metal echoed ominously as it dragged across the aluminum floor panels.
"Where are we?"
"The basement."
"The basement? The academy has a creepy basement like this?"
An unease was beginning to settle in.
Even the stairs descending downward were like that. They were so dim that advancing without a light seemed difficult.
No, to be honest, I simply didn't want to go in.
"Do we really have to enter?"
"It's a matter of security. I ask for your understanding."
The chairman drew flame from his fingertips. It was a simple ignition spell that any fire magic user could perform.
However, his level was quite high; without any visible effort, he adjusted and maintained the light intensity to match the surrounding environment. Seeing it like that, he was practically a living optical sensor.
Still, did we really need to hold this conversation in such a dreary place?
I stepped carefully down the stairs. Upon reaching level ground, I found myself surrounded on all sides by iron plates, forming a narrow, winding corridor.
After walking down this corridor for a while, a wide room appeared. It was roughly twenty pyeong in size.
Inside the room stood a large round table with several chairs. Like the corridor, the walls were entirely thick iron plates. Whoever the bastard who designed this interior was, they had built something truly bizarre.
"No matter how I look at it, a splendid aesthetic of machinery. I never knew the academy had such a facility underground."
This thing was an aesthetic of machinery...? It was just a container box.
Frowning, I looked toward the source of the voice. There stood a nobleman, stroking his mustache as he glanced around the room.
Looking closer, he wasn't the only one here.
"Well, an honored guest has arrived."
"Isn't that the Gold-Eye commoner who developed Flare?"
Several people had arrived before the three of us. They weren't my peers; all were old enough to be my parents.
And among them was a face I'd seen once before.
"You're the Gold-Eye girl who helped our Irka together with that elf. I never dreamed I'd see you again."
"It seems you've met before."
"Yes, I was in her debt then."
Irka Eliyev's father, the head of House Eliyev. After seeing his face and taking stock of the room, I realized that everyone assembled here was a noble. Everyone except me.
"Uh, Chairman. Just what is this place?"
At my repeated question, the chairman wore an unknowable smile. A chill ran down my spine for no good reason.
As it turned out, that gut feeling hit the mark.
"Let's exchange introductions. The people here will be sponsoring your tuition from now on, after all."
"...What?"
First hit.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Miss Aether, you distinctly asked me if there was anything you could help with, didn't you?"
"Yes? Yes. I did."
"We hope that Miss Aether will maintain a good relationship with us even after she graduates from the academy."
Second hit.
Having been struck by a one-two combination in an instant, I stood there dumbfounded, beginning to analyze Robespierre's words in my head.
The phrase 'maintaining a good relationship.' In business, those words unequivocally meant give-and-take.
In other words, they would become my patrons, so I should do what they desired.
"What is it you want me to help with?"
"I like that you're quick on the uptake. Yes, Herlein. You're this one's homeroom professor, so it would be best for you to explain things step by step."
At the chairman's words, Herlein, who had been toying with her staff behind us, let out a deep sigh.
"Where on earth do I even begin...?"
My thoughts exactly.
I clearly understood that the chairman and everyone gathered here wanted something from me. But receiving this level of patronage was something I'd never experienced even while conducting research back on Earth...
Wait. Patrons?
Didn't old-time nobles usually patronize scientists and fund them when they wanted research done?
While Herlein was carefully choosing her words, I took a seat at one side of the round table with the chairman. A noblewoman handed me a cup of citron tea. It was lukewarm and drinkable.
"Right, I should start by telling you this."
"Yes, please go ahead."
Swallowing dryly, I raised the teacup to my lips and tuned my ears to Herlein's next words.
And then.
"Professor Haspelt has gone missing."
"Kulk, kehuck, kuck!"
An unexpected uppercut sent a shred of citron right down my airway.
**
「I am beside myself with gratitude. Is there anything I can help with?」
「This doesn't seem like the place to discuss it. The rest we can handle once we relocate.」
"Hm."
Strange. There was a sense of disconnection.
Rosemary, who had been observing the chairman's office via scope, let out a short hum. There was more than one thing she found unsatisfactory.
"Is there a problem?"
The one who asked was Duke Blanton. After presenting a beverage to his superior, who was exhausted from multi-scoping all day, he took the seat beside her.
"No. It's just... no matter how I think about it, it's strange."
Rosemary picked up the mug Blanton offered. The liquid inside had a greenish hue, like aloe.
"Kehuck!"
Bringing the mug to her lips, Rosemary spat out the aloe that had touched her tongue with a displeased expression.
"I told you I don't drink anything under 110 octane!"
"The country's gone to hell in a handbasket, so there was no way to procure funds."
"Oh, for the love of—. Do I have to personally check up on every penny rolling around this country?"
"Reducing the empire to beggary with a pandemic was the 5th Seat's doing."
"Ugh. Enough, forget it."
Arguing over this would only waste time. Rosemary returned to her original task and focused on monitoring the capital.
She was currently tracking three individuals. The chairman of Tillet Academy, one professor specializing in earth magic, and the highest-priority target, a golden-eyed girl.
"They were talking about scholarships, and now they're suddenly relocating? Why?"
Their destination was a gloomy basement. Rosemary's unique magic could barely manage a peek at its interior.
Before she knew it, the three had entered through the door. She initiated tracking immediately, but the water mirror she was viewing grew progressively blurry and then vanished like a mirage. Rosemary clicked her tongue and pulled a strawberry-flavored candy from her mouth.
It was a mana-infused candy. A product even more expensive than a Mana Cigarette. Originally a luxury item invented by the beastkin nation to treat children suffering from mana exhaustion, it was, to her under House Blanton's protection, nothing more than a favorite snack.
"Is there a problem?"
At Blanton's question, Rosemary's expression darkened noticeably.
"The chairman... He knows I'm watching him."