Chapter 89
Chapter 89
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 89
Chapter Title: Scrolls of Rivalry
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Suppressing a torrent of yawns, I stepped out the main gate of Dragonwheel Hall and headed for the dorms.
Incomprehensibly, Christa Warden had skipped student council, leaving me to wrap up her grunt work instead. I was exhausted beyond belief.
As the summer twilight slowly settled over the horizon, a familiar yet utterly infuriating shadow appeared right around the time I reached the dorms.
“Hey, why didn’t you show up today? Because of you, I ended up handling all your usual chores too─”
Suddenly, something came tumbling out onto the ground in a heap.
It was clay dolls.
Unlike the ones I’d seen individually before, there were easily over ten of them at a glance.
“Thirteen.”
“?”
“Thirteen. The number of scrolls I lost to you in the first round of finals.”
She had her back to the sun, so I couldn’t see her face, but her voice carried a gravity that was unmistakable.
“I don’t have the luxury to focus on anything else until I catch up. I don’t want to either! You should stop wasting time on that crap and concentrate on your studies!”
“???”
“I-I get it, I know how you feel and all…… But we’re students! We’re supposed to focus on our studies! Where do you even find the time to waste?”
Studies? My feelings?
I tilted my head, clueless, until something flashed through my mind.
Come to think of it, earlier when I was talking with Valensidis, I thought I heard this guy’s voice……
‘She overheard the whole conversation with Valensidis.’
As far as I recalled, it was about that bastard being a black mage and me keeping tabs on him. I didn’t remember saying “black mage” out loud, though……
‘Or maybe this sharp one pieced together the truth from the undertones. Impressive.’
And she’s even worried about me. What a dutiful underclassman. Still, better to clear the air.
“Don’t worry. I’m doing it because I want to.”
“W-What?”
“And it’s not a waste of time. It’s extremely important to me.”
Christa’s face went slack like she’d been slapped, then flushed beet red in the next instant.
“W-What the hell are you saying with such a straight face! Important? How is that important! Nothing’s more important than studies!”
“Is that so? But to me, that’s more important.”
A moment of silence.
“W-Wha─…….”
“?”
“I-I didn’t hear that! Why? Because students have to focus only on─! Got it? I didn’t hear it! Not last time, not this time!”
With that, she bolted off like a shot, leaving Rain no chance even to tilt his head.
“What’s her deal?”
* * *
The wind sweeping through the forest carried the muggy dampness of the advancing rainy season front, clinging stickily to the skin.
The woods were eerily still. What shattered the peace that should have reigned was the buzz of flies swarming from the corpses.
Flies droned frantically and maggots writhed around the scattered bodies everywhere.
“The forest keeper found them already like this─limbs torn off by wild beasts.”
The Golden Rose administrative vice minister reported cautiously.
Special Forces Chief Doran Slade crouched silently and lifted a pocket watch embedded in the mud.
A badge issued only to Special Forces members. As chief, Doran always personally hung these around his subordinates’ necks.
“Poor operational judgment on my part.”
He had sent those two there while he kept tabs on Rain Ludwig.
The black mage who ambushed the old man Lin in the western frontier was powerful, but no match for Tyrintid and Lunen……
Doran’s knuckles whitened as he gripped the pocket watch tight, veins bulging sharply.
Madelia Page, the city’s lord who had accompanied the vice minister on the report, furrowed her brow.
“To take down two Special Forces mages single-handedly…… No ordinary foe. We owe the Special Forces now after finals.”
“But did he really take them down alone?”
“Hm?”
Pocketing the unclaimed watches, Doran rose and scanned the surroundings.
It looked like a massive typhoon had raged through─deep craters pocked the ground everywhere, broadleaf trees toppled indiscriminately or charred to ash.
Only a natural disaster or mana could wreak such devastation on nature…… Meaning powerful magic had clashed here.
“No matter how you look at it, it screams three-way mutual destruction in a magic battle. The suspicious part is that ‘no matter how you look at it.’”
“……?”
“Doesn’t it seem too perfect? Like the scene itself is screaming, ‘Don’t suspect a thing─these three fought and died here.’”
Madelia and the vice minister could only tilt their heads, unable to follow. They weren’t experts in this field.
“You still have that habit of beating around the bush. Doesn’t that mean the evidence is crystal clear?”
“To put it simply, scenes where every circumstantial clue points 100% to one scenario are rare. It feels off. You’d know that, Vice Minister.”
“Well…… Hm, is that so? I’m not sure myself.”
“Normally, you entertain multiple possibilities, pick the likeliest, and track the perp. But this? Too fishy.”
Doran’s ever-smiling eyes curved open, revealing a chilling glint.
“Someone else was definitely here. Someone who wanted us to believe my men perished in a mutual kill with one black mage.”
* * *
Gertrude Fenton’s day began at 0600. After her own morning preparations, she headed to Christa’s dorm to assist her lady with breakfast.
Delaiten strictly forbade scions of noble houses from bringing guards or attendants. Even great house heirs had to fend for themselves.
But if someone like Gertrude enrolled via regular exams to serve as an attendant, it was another story. The school turned a blind eye……
“If you’d been just a tad more selfish in the top seat match, you’d have been top cadet. Such a shame.”
“…….”
“Hehe, is it true that love turns even the strongest women into reeds?”
Teasing her lady about Rain as usual, but something was off today.
She’d been staring out the distant window before heading to class, moving sluggishly, and now she wasn’t even reacting to the usual bait about Rain.
Then, out of nowhere, she muttered to herself.
“Can you really focus on studies while dating?”
Thunder from a clear sky!
Gertrude’s jaw dropped in shock.
“W-What do you mean by that, my lady?”
“Oh, just curious.”
“No issues with Young Master Rain, I hope?”
At the mere mention of his name, Christa’s face heated hotter than the morning sun.
“W-What are you talking about?! Nothing happened, nothing at all~!”
What was with this honest reaction……?
Disaster.
That womanizer must’ve sunk his claws into my lady while I was away.
“It’s just, you see that in novels all the time! Dating while thriving in school life, so I wondered if it’s realistic. Ahaha.”
As Christa whistled nonchalantly to play it cool, Gertrude felt the sky crumbling.
She wasn’t rooting for Rain and Christa, exactly. Bluntly put, she opposed it.
She’d only tried pairing them for the cute reactions─not because she supported it……
“My lady, what do you think of Young Master Ludwig?”
Time to probe properly.
The less honest Christa was, the better straight questions worked.
“What do I think? N-Nothing special? No thoughts at all?”
“Seems like you have ~quite~ a few thoughts.”
“I said no, you idiot!”
Oh, that icy response.
No need to worry after all.
“True enough. A pure, noble lady like you doesn’t suit a playboy who can’t keep his hands off any skirt.”
She sighed in relief while badmouthing him, but Christa’s reaction was odd. Twirling her bangs busily, averting her gaze like she was embarrassed.
“Well…… Yeah, but he’s not that bad, nickname aside.”
?
“He must have his reasons. Seems like he’s got his own beliefs or something…….”
Excuse me, my lady……?
You’re this close to falling for him……?!
‘Alert! Alert! Ultra-emergency, Gertrude Fenton!!!’
Countermeasures needed. A plan to halt any further progress between them.
‘That is the duty assigned to me, heir of the Fenton family serving House Warden!!!’
Gertrude clutched her head with both hands, brain spinning at max speed on the way to class.
* * *
The first-year academic building, Dragonface Hall, was chaos from the entrance.
With semester exams wrapped and the seasonal festival a month away, excitement buzzed through the school.
But Kasena Page’s heart wasn’t at ease. If anything, it grew more uneasy by the day.
“Hey, let’s go to student council. Morning meeting, right?”
“Y-Yes……!”
“Yes? What’s with the dramatic acting?”
Lately, tagging along for “student council stuff,” the vibe between that bitchy girl and Rain felt slightly weird.
Truth be told, she didn’t care who Rain hung with─really didn’t……!
But as a friend, she had to warn him: trusting that wicked hag would bite him later.
‘But how do I split them up?’
She’d insisted on joining before, but Rain flatly refused.
─Student council’s only for officers. Why are you trying to go?
No rebuttal.
Begged Madelia to join student council the second she got home, but flat no.
─Student council’s steeped in tradition. Only top and runner-up cadets join─that’s why its prestige endures.
─…….
─Kasena, I’d love to grant your every wish, but pushing this would only bring you trouble.
Ughhh……
Headache mounting, she glanced at Rain’s empty seat─only to spot Christa’s lackey minion biting her nails with the exact same expression.
“Shut up and pay attention, you worthless midgets shittier than dung!”
Festival tradition: not just clubs, but classes too picked themes to show off to other cadets and guests.
Thus, Professor Owen stood at the podium first thing, face like he’d eaten shit.
“I need two volunteers to slave away unrecognized for the class like toilet cleaners! Hands up, quick.”
Owen bellowed, scrawling a title on the board with a meaty, veiny finger.
[Event Coordinator]
Event coordinator? What’s that?
Other cadets mirrored Kasena’s confusion, so Owen sighed pityingly and explained.
“The student council shitheads whine every festival about workload, so Delaiten tradition sends two slaves per class during festival week.”
“???”
“That’s one of Delaiten’s ancient curses surviving to this day under that fancy name.”
A cadet murmured, “Cool name~,” prompting Owen to glare.
“Idiot! Looks shiny, but it’s shackles! You become slaves to those arrogant council bastards!”
“!!!”
“Get it now? Any braindead monkeys willing to sacrifice for the class knowing all that?”
Naturally, no takers.
Do this, do that……whatever.
Owen smirked slyly, pleased with their faces.
“Fine then! Let’s play Truth or Dare.”
But Kasena’s eyes lit up.
Work with student council?
Non-officer but meddling in council activities?
“Write down cadets you hate. Top two vote-getters─”
Owen’s words cut short as two voices rang out, hands shooting up almost simultaneously.
─“Me! I’ll do it!”
─“I’ll take it!”
Owen and the cadets gawked at the sources…… who stared back at each other, even more baffled.
“Page…… miss?”
“That fox’s…… lackey?”
Gertrude Fenton and Kasena Page.
The moment two bearers of the same mission became Class [Clear River]’s event coordinators.
Of course, that day’s after-school council meeting would reveal it meant nothing……