The Herb Warehouse Incident (5)
Professor Alketo stepped out of the gate.
“I don’t understand it. Frey, His Majesty says he’ll let the matter of the herb warehouse slide. Fortunately no harm came to his person… Hmm?”
Only after speaking did he take in our condition.
Iren lay collapsed on the floor, unconscious, while I stared blankly at Professor Alketo, still covered in what she had thrown up.
Somehow he managed not to so much as twitch an eyebrow as he asked,
“What is going on here?”
“I’d like to ask the same.”
“We should return to the Academy for now. His Majesty has ordered us to withdraw.”
Professor Alketo seized the two of us. He wrapped Iren securely in one arm; me… he merely poked with a single finger.
“Department Head?”
“We’re leaving.”
Whoosh!
Once again a dazzling light swallowed us and space itself shifted. When I opened my eyes we stood in front of the Academy’s shower facilities. Alketo quickly stepped away, hoisted the princess onto his back, and said,
“I’ll take Iren to the health room. Frey, you wash up first.”
“……No punishment at all?”
“His Majesty the Emperor said so. As the very sky of the Empire, His word is absolute.”
I couldn’t shake the suspicion that my escape from punishment was somehow connected to Iren ending up like that. But she was unconscious; there was no way to ask her now.
Still half-dressed, I stepped into the shower and washed the vomit away. Then I used magic to dry body and clothes in a single convenient sweep.
Once I left the showers I hesitated between classroom and health room, then chose the health room.
If I hadn’t done something so stupid, Iren would never have ended up like that.
The wretched state she had been in after leaving the audience chamber rose again in my mind. Just what had His Majesty done to reduce her to that?
……Hah! I’m actually worrying about Iren!
It was an emotion I had never once felt before. In my entire life the only people I had ever worried about were two: Mother and the young lady. And now, suddenly, a third had appeared.
No. Worrying is simply the proper thing to do.
She had tried to help me, so of course I ought to worry about her in return. It absolutely was not that I felt any affection. Anyone who saw someone in such a pitiful state and felt nothing would not be human.
It was never because I had developed feelings for Iren. I am devoted solely to the young lady, all right?
Why would I care about a princess who does nothing but tease me. Hmph.
Right. No need to waste feelings. I deliberately took a slightly longer route before heading to the health room. Thirty minutes had already passed; she ought to be awake by now.
“Iren? May I come in?”
“No.”
The voice that answered was not Iren’s. Pink hair that would have looked perfect in a manga, a pure-white coat… and a tiny figure that looked like a child.
“Kid? Who are you?”
“Kid? Call me the school nurse.”
“Where’s your father?”
“Want a beating? I’m Professor Narei Cassandra, in charge of the Academy health room.”
“Are you really the one in charge?”
“Yes!”
“As far as I know you’re not a full professor but Assistant Professor under Professor Colton…”
“Don’t you dare mention that old man!”
Professor Narei(?) leapt up and tried to swat my head. With a height even smaller than Irina’s after her transformation had worn off, however, her outstretched hand never even reached my neck.
She looked no older than seven, yet she was an Academy assistant professor? Why does this place attract so many strange people?
“More importantly, why can’t I see Iren?”
“In my professional judgment, Princess Iren needs sufficient rest alone.”
“She doesn’t need that, so please let me in, Professor Narei.”
A weak voice slipped out from between the curtains. Iren.
“Please let Frey in.”
“Eeh? You need to be alone for a while.”
“It’s better if Frey’s here. Let him in.”
“Ugh, fine. Go in!”
Professor Narei jabbed a finger toward the hospital bed. All the tension drained out of me at once. I had thought something truly serious had happened to Iren.
When I drew the curtain aside, the young lady was sitting on the bed. Wait—what?
“Huh? Young la—”
“Young la? Do I look like a baby to you?”
I blinked at the sound of Iren’s voice. It was not the young lady; it was Iren.
She grinned, her face already far better than before.
“Oh my~. So Frey finds me cute like a baby?”
“I misspoke.”
“Aww, you don’t have to hide your true feelings.”
“I wasn’t hiding anything.”
Was it the strain of having gone all the way to the audience chamber and back? Or a side effect of casting magic inside the Mana Blockage Circuit?
For a single moment the Iren lying on the hospital bed overlapped with the young lady. I really needed to go home and rest properly today.
While that thought was still forming, Iren suddenly put on a stern expression.
“Are you an idiot?”
“Suddenly?”
“What do you mean ‘suddenly’? I told you not to step forward. So why did you?”
“Because it was my doing.”
“Don’t go taking responsibility when you’re just a collateral branch. What if you’d had to pay for the herbs?”
“Well, at worst I’d just hang myself, right?”
“What?”
“I caused the accident, but a mere collateral like me has no property to cover the damages. So the Katram Ducal House would pay in my place, and I’d be dragged off to the ducal house and—”
I spun both hands like a waterwheel, then made a sharp sideways-pulling gesture. Iren stared at me with an uncharacteristically blank face.
“Is this really the time for jokes?”
“I’m not joking.”
“You’re saying that seriously? You—you said you like the Katram princess. Were you planning to be the kind of bad man who leaves this world while abandoning the person he loves?”
“It’s different. I made that resolve precisely because I like her.”
“What do you mean?”
“Rather than live in shame in front of the person I love, it is better to leave honestly. The Katram princess I picture is far too perfect, far too pure white—someone too precious for filth to cling to.”
“……”
“That is why I stepped forward. I loathe shifting my own responsibility onto others. I cannot even tolerate that in myself. I would be ashamed before the Katram princess as well. So from now on, please do not do things like that, Iren. Understood?”
“What is that supposed to mean. The Katram princess isn’t the way you think…”
“Mm.”
Thud. I rested my hand on Iren’s head. She stopped speaking.
Taking advantage of the slight stiffening of her body, I gently stroked her hair.
“W-what is this.”
“Still, I’ll say thank you for today. Thanks to you, Iren, I felt a little more at ease.”
“Y-you’re getting ahead of yourself!”
Iren slapped my hand away with a sharp crack.
“Compliments like that are something I, the master, should be giving!”
“I don’t recall ever becoming a servant.”
“I-I’m a princess!”
“This is the Academy. Have you already forgotten our conversation on the first day?”
“Ugh! Anyway! N-next time something like this…”
Iren suddenly cut herself off and stared fixedly at my hand.
“Iren?”
“…might be okay.”
“Pardon?”
Her face turned bright red.
“I-I said it might be okay just a little. Idiot.”
“Wow.”
I immediately slapped my own face. Iren jumped.
“Frey!?”
“Ah. That disease where I have to hit my face to feel better is acting up again.”
I learned one thing today.
This princess is extremely strong when she is the one attacking, yet ridiculously weak on defense.
And because she had overlapped with the young lady earlier, I had unconsciously found her far too cute. This will not do. How many times must I tell myself to get a grip, Frey?
You have only the young lady. Only the young lady is allowed to make your heart race.
If I do not find a solution soon, I may become the kind of trash who keeps the young lady in his heart while falling for Iren all over again.
“Ah! There was something I wanted to ask!”
The self-slap restored my reason.
“What on earth happened in the audience chamber earlier? I never imagined you would end up looking like that, Iren.”
“Aaah. In the audience chamber, is it.”
The flush vanished completely from her face. Even her eyes turned cold as she spoke.
“It’s nothing. Just… Hmm. I don’t want to talk about it after all.”
“……Do you not get along with His Majesty?”
“I hate him. Completely hate him.”
The expression on Iren’s face as she said it was the look of someone recalling a mortal enemy.
Right. From now on I would never bring up His Majesty the Emperor. Still—was the Emperor a far more terrifying person than the public knew?
For Iren to be reduced to a half-dead state after only a few minutes of conversation… I could not even begin to imagine how severe his words and manner must have been. Since she had no physical injuries, he must have done it with words alone.
I felt as though I had glimpsed a dark corner of the imperial family. Scary. Truly scary.
“But don’t worry. It’s not as if I was punished. That damn father. He saw through everything from Alketo’s testimony alone.”
“So your lie was exposed?”
“Yeah. But I managed to smooth it over somehow, so don’t worry. Not even a single fragment of His Majesty’s voice will reach your ears.”
So Iren really had gone to such lengths for me.
Haa… what could possibly be appealing about a man like me who does nothing but refuse her? I could not understand it. Still—
“Please eat this and regain some strength.”
“What’s this? Did you make cookies with illusion magic again?”
Iren took a bite—nom—of the cookie I held out. Then she looked back and forth between the cookie and me.
“It’s a real cookie? The most expensive one from the Academy café!”
“Well. It seems I avoided punishment thanks to you, Iren. A small token of sincerity.”
Gratitude is gratitude; this much courtesy was only proper.
It was a special cookie of which the Academy café sold only five a day. Since everyone was still in lectures, I had dashed over and bought one.
“I am grateful, you know.”
“Hmm. Not bad for someone like Frey. But this isn’t nearly enough to satisfy me.”
“Pardon?”
“If it hadn’t been for me, you’d have been buried under a mountain of debt. You need to compensate me for that.”
“Can I take back the thanks I just offered?”
“Taking things back does not exist in my dictionary. Hmm, let’s see… Tomorrow after school, let’s study in the library. Got it?”
“I vowed never to set foot in the library again even if I die.”
“So you’re going to ignore the favor and stand me up just to go home?”
“Kuuugh.”
As expected, a thoroughly dirty princess. How did she know I settle debts of gratitude and grudges with absolute clarity, and then demand so shamelessly?
In the end I had no choice but to nod.
“Ugh, aaaaaaah! Frey you idiot! Idiot! Dummy!”
Aylin Katram cast a locking spell on the door, layered a noise-blocking spell over the entire room, and then thrashed about on the bed.
“Rejecting a kiss right there and using magic to blow up the herb warehouse?! Does that make any sense at all!”
Even Aylin, who had spent half her life with Frey, had never expected that particular response.
“And things almost got really big. Ugh, maybe I should have prepared a more suitable wardrobe.”
Needless to say, it was Aylin herself who had arranged for the wardrobe in the herb warehouse to tip over so easily. She had intended only a light little incident, yet events had ballooned far beyond her expectations. At least the Emperor had let the matter slide, so it had not spread too far.
“And I even had to meet that disgusting Emperor. What do you think, Father?”
Duke Katram, who had been standing beside the bed watching her, cleared his throat.
“It would be best not to speak so rudely of His Majesty the Emperor.”
“Who cares about that disgusting human!”
“Princess…”
Duke Katram pressed his temple. Lately the headaches seemed to be coming more and more often.
“What you did in the health room was good, but it’s still nowhere near enough! Ugh. Still…”
Aylin looked over the list of magic books stocked in the library and smiled.
“I’ll do it properly tomorrow. Look forward to it, Frey. This time there won’t be any escape holes left for you.”