The Herb Warehouse Incident (3)
The Academy's herb warehouse was no ordinary herb warehouse.
As befitting the highest educational institution in the land, it stocked only the finest herbs. And by finest, I mean the kind that cost three or four gold coins per single stalk.
Having blown half of a place like that to kingdom come—what do you suppose happened next?
The Academy's guards came running at once. When Professor Colton arrived later, he squeezed his eyes shut and fainted clean away on the spot.
The guards fretted over what to do with me and Iren.
One of us was the imperial princess; the other was a collateral member of the Katram Ducal House. No matter which of us had done the deed, the guards were in no position to hold us accountable.
But the Academy was not so soft an institution. Before long, someone with the authority to decide our fate arrived.
"These two, is it?"
"Yes, Professor Alketo."
It was Alketo Promis, head of the Magic Department. His specialty was the advanced course on multi-magic circles.
He was a handsome man roughly 186 centimeters tall with blue hair. He looked to be in his twenties, yet I knew he was well over seventy.
"Iren. Frey. I hear the two of you destroyed half the herb warehouse."
As expected of the department head. Where every other professor had used honorifics with us until now, he spoke without the slightest restraint. Honestly, my first impression of him was pure dread.
Professor Alketo was infamous for his ironclad adherence to the rules. No matter how highborn the noble's child, if they committed a crime he handed down punishment on the spot.
His most notorious anecdote involved shattering the mana heart of a baron's son who had caused a rape incident—in a single blow. The mana heart is a virtual organ seated in the heart; it is both the reservoir that stores mana and the wellspring that pours vitality into the body.
With that destroyed, the baron's son could never cast magic again and was said to have been left in a near-idiotic state.
The herbs I had burned were expensive enough to strain even the Katram Ducal House. An ordinary noble family would go bankrupt trying to repay the sum.
This was a disaster among disasters. All I had meant to do was smash a wardrobe. What sort of punishment was waiting for me?
Professor Alketo continued.
"Why did you burn the herb warehouse?"
"That—"
"We were threatened with our lives, you know? Do you have a problem with that?"
"Iren?"
Iren suddenly stepped forward. I panicked and tried to stop her, but she shoved me back instead.
"Surely you wouldn't claim that a mere herb warehouse is more important than the lives of two Academy students?"
"Far too many details seem to have been omitted. How does one find one's life threatened inside a herb warehouse?"
"Frey and I got trapped under a collapsed wardrobe."
Iren calmly recounted everything that had happened to us. Only the final detail was different.
"So I used magic to destroy the wardrobe. The herbs must have resonated with the spell and caused this catastrophe."
"That is no excuse for burning half the warehouse. Waiting for rescue was also an option, was it not?"
"No. Our lives were hanging by a thread."
"Didn't you say you were merely trapped?"
"I had to pee."
"……?"
Professor Alketo's face went blank for a moment. Iren pressed on without the slightest change in tone.
"I, the princess of an entire nation, wetting myself while stuck with another noble's son. Is there anything more humiliating or disgusting? If I had actually wet myself in there, I really would have killed myself."
"That—"
"Aren't you ashamed, Professor? Then drop your pants right here and piss yourself."
"……."
Professor Alketo stared at Iren with an utterly flabbergasted expression. I was no better. Was she seriously spouting language that crude in front of so many people?
His response to the shocking remark was—
"You haven't mentioned something far more important."
A change of subject.
"What is it?"
"How did you cast magic inside a herb warehouse laid with a Mana Blockage Circuit?"
"Skillfully."
"This is no time for jokes."
"Why? Shall I show you?"
Iren walked into the remaining circuit area of the warehouse. I hurriedly sent a telepathic message.
[Iren! What are you trying to do right now?! More importantly, why are you taking the fall for what I did?!]
[I'm going to cast magic inside the Mana Blockage Circuit. You already showed me how, so I can copy it. And why am I taking the fall?]
Iren gave a soft chuckle.
[Taking responsibility for what one's servant caused. That's what a master does, isn't it?]
[…….]
Clack. Clack. Iren strode forward with complete confidence. The moment she entered the blockage circuit's range, the telepathy cut off.
Standing there with elegant composure, Iren activated her magic.
"Light."
A round sphere of light floated gently into the air—a basic spell for summoning a light source.
Its size, however, was absurdly large; heat radiated from it that should never have been felt at all. Iren hurriedly erased the sphere.
"See? I used it."
"……."
Alketo simply stared at Iren. Whether he was stunned or truly felt nothing, I could not tell.
"What? Are you going to punish me?"
"It does not appear to be something for me to judge. However."
"However?"
"The Academy's property is His Majesty the Emperor's property. We must see how the great one will decide."
"Aha, so I have to go grovel in front of His Majesty?"
"That is for His Majesty to decide. Follow me."
"Ugh, fine."
Professor Alketo took the lead; Iren followed. No—this was my doing. I could not let her carry the burden!
"Ire—!"
[Frey.]
Iren's voice came gently through telepathy.
[If you do something foolish, it will bring trouble to Lady Katram. Are you all right with that?]
I stopped dead. She was right.
As I had said earlier, the value of the herbs I burned was a burdensome sum even for the Katram Ducal House. If I took the blame, it would cause enormous trouble not only for the young lady but for the Duke as well.
I could not place such a weight on the two people who had saved my life. And if my head did not fly off inside the Ducal House, I would be lucky. The best outcome I could imagine was expulsion from House Katram.
But Iren was the princess; somehow she would receive consideration. In this situation, it was rational for Iren to go.
Iren smiled brightly and waved.
"I'll be back. Like a proper servant, guard the house well."
She offered a light farewell. Seeing it, for some reason—
"Professor Alketo! The one who burned the herb warehouse wasn't the princess—it was me!"
I threw rationality to the dogs. I'm sorry, Lady Aylin. But rather than abandon my conscience and stand before you, I will keep my conscience and leave you. Filth must never stain the young lady.
Iren cried out in shock.
"Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing?!"
Leaving the shouting Iren behind, Professor Alketo turned his gaze on me.
"Frey. You claim you did it?"
"Yes. Princess Iren was merely trapped with me. The one who used magic to escape was me."
"I find that difficult to believe. Iren, of imperial blood, is fully capable of performing such a miracle. But you, Frey—not even a direct descendant of House Katram, merely a collateral—broke through a Mana Blockage Circuit and cast magic?"
"Haven't you heard of the incident where I disrupted the magic array of a grimoire, Professor?"
A glint sparked in Alketo's eyes.
"Hmm. There was such an affair. That was you?"
"The warehouse circuit was nothing."
"Proof?"
Professor Alketo's gaze sharpened as it pinned me.
"To my eyes, it looks as though you are doing this merely to wag your tail at Princess Iren."
"I need only cast magic, don't I? I'll show you exactly as the princess did."
I walked onto the Mana Blockage Circuit. When I had blown half the herb warehouse, half the circuit had been destroyed along with it. That the remaining portion still functioned perfectly was proof of how thoroughly it had been divided in parallel.
Circuits are far easier and more powerful when linked in series. Mana grows ordered and stable the longer it flows repeatedly along a fixed path.
Even though I had broken through it, I could gauge the Academy's level. Technology built across the ages does not lie—just like the grimoires in the library.
But this was a circuit I had already pierced once. The second time was even easier. Just as Iren had done, I cast light magic.
"Light."
Only far more refined.
The Light Iren had used earlier had been an enormous glowing mass. Anyone who touched that sphere would have been burned from head to toe.
What I produced now was a fist-sized sphere of light, exactly as the spell was meant to be. It was the proper size, and it radiated no heat at all.
"……."
"How is it?"
"Professor—no, Department Head! That's a pack of lies!"
Iren shouted.
"You've seen me cast magic twice, so he just copied it like that! Even if he looks like that, Frey is a genius—that's why he can do it!"
"Princess, while you yourself copied the magic I used, it is troublesome when you make unreasonable claims."
"You're the one who copied! The one who burned the herb warehouse is me!"
"No. It was me. Please do not trample the pride of House Katram any further."
"Where am I supposed to use the pride I learned from the imperial family?!"
"Princess Iren has been openly declaring that she wants to make me her lover! She's doing this because she thinks she can cover everything up with her authority as princess!"
"No, this idiot just has an unnecessarily strong sense of responsibility! I did it!"
"I did!"
"I did!"
"I did!"
"I did!"
"Enough."
Thud. Professor Alketo seized both our shoulders.
Then he smiled faintly. In that instant, chills raced down both our spines.
That long-lived monster of a department head was a wooden block of a human who had not been witnessed smiling in nearly ten years.
Was there truly enough reason for the chill? The words Professor Alketo uttered next made both of us squeeze our eyes shut.
"One of you is lying. Then both of you shall go before His Majesty the Emperor."