A Rolling Stone (2)
A Rolling Stone (2)
"However, why exactly must we become close enough to call each other by name?"
When I posed that question in return, the already awkward atmosphere instantly froze solid.
"Ah, well......"
Sophia Bianchi's pupils darted here and there before settling back on me.
"Do you not wish to?"
Of course, that was an act. It had been the same in the game. Her acting skills were likely superb, since almost no one had ever noticed her true nature before she chose to reveal it.
It was possible that a little sincerity was mixed in. Given that she was constantly trailing after me, she must have wanted something from me, and she would certainly find it inconvenient if she failed to obtain it.
"Lady Crowfield."
Instead of answering her, I called out to Mia Crowfield, who was seated with us at the café table.
Her shoulders flinched, and she looked at me cautiously.
"Have I ever addressed you comfortably by name?"
"Ah, no...?"
At my question, Mia Crowfield shook her head vigorously from side to side.
I turned my gaze back to Sophia.
"An entire semester had passed since I met Lady Crowfield. Yet I had still never called her by her first name. This is not a matter of like or dislike, but rather a matter of how familiar we are with one another."
In truth, everyone else in this group except for me called Mia Crowfield by her first name. Even Alice, even after the events of the last vacation, had stubbornly refused to change the way she addressed Mia Crowfield.
Having finished my explanation, I picked up my spoon again and resumed eating my parfait. To be honest, the weather had become quite chilly for this, and since most of the people at this table had ordered warm coffee, I was probably the odd one out.
But what could I do? It was delicious.
"Is that so......?"
When I cut her off so bluntly, Sophia Bianchi looked bewildered. It was closer to a 'blank look' than one of great disappointment or distress.
Perhaps that was a little genuine.
*
"Sylvia."
Strangely uncomfortable as that gathering had been, I did not stop eating my parfait. Only after diligently scraping the very bottom of the cup with my spoon did I part ways with my friends and return to my room.
And before I could even properly collect my thoughts, Alice came to find me.
"Do you happen to know something about Sophia?"
Alice asked with a serious expression.
"Sophia Bianchi is a spy sent by the Holy State."
"A spy?"
"To put it more precisely, she belongs to the Cathedral Knights."
At my words, Alice's expression went blank for a moment.
Her lips moving faintly, Alice swept a hand over her face, let out a deep sigh, and spoke.
"Well, fine. I won't ask how you managed to learn all that."
I was grateful for that. It was the kind of information that would be difficult to uncover even if one could turn back time, so there was no way to explain it other than admitting I possessed knowledge from another world.
It was far easier on my conscience when the other party simply chose not to ask, rather than me having to forcibly hide something.
Alice sat down on a chair by the guest table in the room. It was the seat directly opposite mine.
"I have a few things I'd like to ask. Can you answer them?"
"I can answer quite a lot, specifically regarding Sophia Bianchi."
"Good."
Alice nodded and said,
"Sophia claimed she was from Belbur, the daughter of a knight family in Lutetia. How can she be a person of the Holy State? Hiding her identity is a serious crime in itself, and if she also falsely assumed a knighthood, it could become a diplomatic issue. To think she even received the imperial family's authorization to enter the academy—doesn't that not make sense?"
"The Holy State and Belbur are in a cooperative relationship. Although the Holy State gained independence from Belbur, that doesn't mean there's significant friction between them. The autonomous territory of the Holy State is a small plot of land no bigger than a single county, and the people of Belbur are free to come and go as they please. There are also many followers of the Church of the Goddess within Belbur, so the atmosphere between the two nations is not hostile."
"So, you're saying the Belbur side cooperated in creating a false identity?"
Alice asked, her expression grave.
"Rather than a false identity, I would say it's another genuine identity."
The relationship of being a 'daughter of a knight family' could be called false. But the family itself genuinely existed. It had been so in the original story, so it was likely the same here. Thus, the knighthood itself was real, and legally speaking, 'daughter' was also correct. Even if it did not mean a biological daughter.
Couldn't the status of a legally recognized real daughter be fabricated as well, if the interests of both parties aligned?
"Are the two nations allied?"
"It shouldn't be a full-fledged alliance."
After all, I had caused such a mess last year. They had tried hard to appear as if there was friction on the surface there, too. Though they'd been planning to join hands behind the scenes all along. Their original relationship was one of surface friction and covert cooperation, so they probably hadn't completely abandoned it just because I'd caused a commotion.
But it must have become more secretive. To ensure that, on the surface, it seemed as if there was truly nothing between them.
"But... that's just too suspicious."
Alice tilted her head as she spoke.
"Even if we assume the other side never predicted that you knew Sophia's true identity, what reason would two nations that need to move so covertly have for suddenly revealing themselves like this?"
"It must be because they've grown desperate."
My answer was simple.
Yes, they must have become frantic. After several incidents occurred in the Holy State.
Starting with Berati, who still hadn't properly regained consciousness, and then an emperor's child who suddenly appeared in the Holy State, turned everything upside down, and ran off with an important object.
The Holy State might even have suspected the Empire as a whole. They might have thought all of Lucas's actions were a deliberate scheme orchestrated by the Empire.
Even if that wasn't the case, the situation being what it was, they had no choice but to act. From the perspective of Belbur or the Holy State, time was simply too short. A war was something you could only barely begin after meticulously preparing for several years to over a decade. Yet in this world, not a single nation was prepared for a war against the Empire. From the viewpoint of countries only now beginning to industrialize, it was a situation where they truly had to do something.
"So, you're saying they thought they'd foster friendly relations with us? That getting close to the imperial princesses might prevent a war?"
"......."
Hmm, honestly, I wasn't entirely sure about that.
She was a character who appeared around the time the war intensified in the second installment of the original story. She was never a character you met at the academy in the first place.
"I have yet to ascertain their objective. Perhaps...... they might wish to have a certain conversation with me."
"With you? What in the world—Ah."
Huh?
Before I could even tell her anything, Alice made an expression as if she had understood something on her own, and then her face suddenly darkened.
"Have you thought of something?"
When I asked her that,
"Huh? Ah, uh, yeah....... There is something, but."
However, Alice couldn't give me a proper answer.
"If you have an opinion, it would be best if you also shared it with me—"
"Ah, no."
Alice hastily shook her head.
Then she stood up from her seat and said,
"Thanks to you, a lot of my questions were answered. Thank you. I'll be sure to keep an eye on Sophia to some degree as well."
"Yes......."
As I dazedly looked up at Alice, who had risen, she simply left the room in a hurry with a quick, "Then I'll see you tomorrow!"
...... Wait, what was that about?
*
Sylvia had a special ability. Perhaps the ability to turn back time.
Though the teacher had said that time was something even the Goddess could not turn back—
If, according to the explanation given then, it was simply a matter of re-calibrating the position of the world, like moving an object, wouldn't that have to be called the power of a god?
She didn't know whether Sylvia was conscious of that or not. At the very least, judging by her expression alone, Sylvia herself didn't seem to think 'it must be the Goddess's power.'
The first time an anomaly appeared in Sylvia's ability was when she went to the place where the 'Divine Treasure' was.
The moment she encountered that being who wielded a mysterious power. After that being vanished, taking the Divine Treasure with it, Sylvia's ability seemed to return to normal. Because ever since then, there hadn't been a time when she'd been flustered by something while using it.
And then, again at the Imperial Palace......
Ability, Goddess, Divine Treasure, Holy State.
Thinking about it in terms of those four keywords—
"No way."
Alice turned deathly pale.
Perhaps in the Holy State.......
.......
No, that couldn't be it.
She shook her head firmly from side to side to dispel the intrusive thoughts. Although something still stubbornly lingered, lodged deep in a corner of her mind, she managed to calm down somewhat.
The ability itself was too limited to be truly the Goddess's power. Most of all, unlike the priests of the Holy State, Sylvia didn't know how to heal or protect others.
But even so, she felt she now knew the reason the Holy State had come.
"So that was it."
Lying on her bed and staring at the ceiling, Alice murmured.
...... She needed to make the story a little more certain.
Whether she heard it from Sophia herself, or from the one backing her.