Linus's House (1)
After mulling it over, I headed straight for the administrative office.
"Let me see tomorrow's outing list."
The chief administrator handed over the request roster, and sure enough, Sophie's name was on it.
"Take her off. We've arranged a makeup class."
"Understood."
I waited until he'd drawn a line through Sophie's name, then left the office.
No matter how I looked at it, I was going to have to keep Hindrastar with me over the weekend. She was a pretty important student at our academy right now. As the first Special Talent Cadet Kirlin had so ambitiously recruited from outside, her symbolic weight was enormous.
If a student like that ran away from the academy, what then? The academy's prestige would crater, and Kirlin would be utterly devastated. Hindrastar needed to graduate with excellent marks at the start of next year and land somewhere good — otherwise the whole Special Talent Cadet program would lose its meaning.
That meant I had to keep that chaos-dragon from bolting. But if I just coddled her, she'd pull another stunt like this one, guaranteed. I had a perfect method in mind for dealing with her, but it wasn't something I could pull off right away. For the time being, I'd have to keep an eye on her myself.
"Chief Professor!"
I turned at the call and found the Combat Department faculty coming toward me.
"Are you all right?"
Lina, who always treated me with such warmth and kindness, took my arm gently as she asked.
"The students had you pegged as a man of rather unsavory character, you know. I hope this incident has cleared up that misunderstanding..."
"Eh, most of them probably bought it. The ones who didn't can stay that way. If this whole thing ends up improving the kids' abilities, that's good enough for me."
"Ahh, that's our Chief Professor... I truly admire you..."
Lina's eyes sparkled, clearly moved by my words.
"Anyway... I'm glad it was all part of your plan. I was worrying over nothing."
"What kind of guy did you take me for?"
I grinned and clapped Morton on the shoulder, and Orendi jumped in.
"You always look like you're just winging it, but everything's perfectly prepared in advance!"
"Brog likes Dian like that!"
Brog pounded his chest with a boom, and Anna clapped her hands over her ears in horror.
"So that Special Talent Cadet Sophie was the ringleader you planted, then?"
"Something like that. She's a Special Talent Cadet — I can't treat her the same as the regular kids, can I?"
"You're amazing, as always."
Lina looked up at me, eyes sparkling all over again.
"So you were running a practical exercise for the Special Talent Cadet and the rest of the students at the same time."
"Wipe your drool, Infiltration Professor!"
Kazadar cackled, and Lina hurriedly wiped her mouth with her sleeve. There hadn't been any drool, of course.
Genev and Morton, on the other hand, stood in the back without any particular reaction, keeping silent. They were quiet types to begin with, but today's silence had a different quality to it. They were definitely suspicious of me. Given everything I'd done so far, suspicion was only natural. These professors weren't fools.
Even Lina, who was currently clinging to my arm, along with eternal-optimist Orendi and Waiver, had spent the early days digging into my background. I knew that. But when nothing turned up, they'd given up quickly, true to their easygoing natures. As for Kazadar and Brog — well, they were the "if it ain't broke" types.
The rest were a different story. Morton, a former Imperial Army Long-Range Patrol man famous for his tenacity, was using his old service connections to find people who knew me. Genev was moving behind the scenes too, in his own quiet way.
Most of the professors had suspected me, or still did. They just weren't being obvious about it — because I was the Chief Professor who held their mid-level personnel authority, and because I'd revived the Combat Department the moment I arrived and brought in a massive budget to boot. Pelemiya, though, had come close to using her abilities on me outright.
Yesterday, when I'd gone to Pelemiya's office and the two of us had planned to reframe this whole incident as a practical exercise, she'd kept talking to me, holding my gaze, and activated her interrogation ability. The trick was to get me to let the truth slip from my own mouth without realizing it. Didn't work on me, though.
When her ability got blocked, Pelemiya had been extremely shaken, and she'd gone quiet after that — but that probably only made her more suspicious of me. She'd pulled classified intel out of those goddamn Demon legion commanders like it was nothing, and some mere human had shut her down?
This was getting a little inconvenient. Next time I had business at the Imperial Palace, I'd have to ask the Princess about it. Either give me a cover identity so I could actually maintain operational security, or just let me tell everyone the truth and be done with it.
Though honestly, I understood the Palace's position too. Not that I was trying to be modest, but if my full record got out, it might be hard to live the way I usually did. Well, I'd get an answer once I talked it over later. For now, time to clock out. I had to get ready for tomorrow.
But what was her deal, standing there like that this whole time? Over in the corner, Anna had her shoulders hunched up like a wallflower, head hanging, not saying a word. Gloomy as usual, so probably nothing major.
Around sunset, I was walking through the faculty district when I heard a tap-tap-tap of footsteps behind me.
"Got something to say?"
"Eek?!"
I turned around to find Anna, the Combat Horsemanship Professor, fidgeting and glancing around.
"How did you know...?"
"I'm not so deaf I can't hear riding boots."
"Ah..."
Anna looked down and started crossing her legs, as if trying to hide the boots.
"If you've got something to say, say it."
"How did you know I had something to say...?"
"Your quarters aren't over here. They're in the dorms that way."
"Ah, right..."
Still twisting her legs, Anna hesitated, her lips working.
"Chief Professor..."
She scratched her head for a while, apparently searching for the next words.
"Um... the stables... no, gratitude first... wait, no, I should apologize first..."
Her words tangled. She shook her head vigorously and let out a loud, theatrical cough. Then, as if steeling herself for something momentous, she drew a deep breath and opened her mouth.
"I'm sorry... I misunderstood you, Chief Professor..."
"A misunderstanding? If you mean Knightly—"
"I kept telling myself you weren't that kind of person... and I knew you were running a separate intensive course... but the rumors just kept coming from everywhere, and I ended up suspecting you for no reason..."
Anna cut me off and kept talking.
"That so? Well... you're free to think whatever you want on the inside..."
"But still, I did think something bad about you..."
She bowed at the waist, then straightened. Her ample chest heaved heavily with the motion. That was a little startling. Until now, Anna hadn't shown any particular sign of this. I'd figured she was only interested in horses.
"And thank you for restocking the stables..."
"Well, I did it for everyone's benefit..."
"When the Principal cut back on practical exercises... I could barely keep the existing kids... ah, by kids I mean the horses..."
Anna pressed on before I could get a word in.
"It was sad that the students couldn't learn horsemanship properly... and sad that I couldn't give the kids the best environment..."
"There were complicated circumstances—"
"Of course I don't blame the Principal..."
Cutting me off yet again, Anna offered a faint, thoroughly gloomy smile.
"I'm sure the Principal had her own reasons... I heard she doesn't get along with someone high up at the Imperial Palace... maybe it had something to do with that... Not that a mere professor like me should know, or even could know..."
"Actually, that's exactly—"
"But ever since you arrived, Chief Professor, everything's changed..."
Anna twirled a lock of her messy hair around her finger as she spoke.
"The Combat Department is back to normal... you brought in a lot of bright kids... and you even built a commercial district in this dreary academy..."
"I didn't do it alone. You all and the Principal—"
"Thank you again... for saving Combat Horsemanship, and the Combat Department... and I'm sorry for misunderstanding you..."
Anna bowed deeply once more, her chest swaying with the motion.
"I'll work hard too... I'll do my best so the graduates can achieve the best possible results..."
"Just keep doing what you're doing—"
"Please get some rest... I'm sorry for bothering you after hours..."
With that, Anna turned on her heel and bolted toward the single faculty dorms. What was with that girl. She'd dumped a whole speech on me and then run away. Cute, though...
The next day, I left the house in the Chief Professor's private carriage as Olicia saw me off. She'd wanted to come along, but then decided to do a deep clean while she had the place to herself, so I told her to go ahead.
Once we left the faculty district and headed toward the main gate, the place was packed with students heading out for the weekend. Now then. Where would she be...
"What?! What do you mean?! I definitely applied!!"
I looked toward the commotion and found pink-haired Hindrastar arguing with an administrative staffer at the gate.
"Talking about it won't help. Your name isn't on the list."
"That's impossible! I made sure it was included when they compiled everything on Wednesday! There's been a mistake, hasn't there?! This is ridiculous!"
I'd told the chief administrator to take her off the outing list, so Hindrastar was currently being held at the gate, unable to leave, and sinking into despair. I stopped the carriage and asked, all casual.
"What's with you? What's going on?"
"Eek?!"
Hindrastar caught sight of me and recoiled in horror.
"You're holding up the other kids. What's the problem?"
"Her name isn't on the outing list, but she keeps insisting she wants to go out."
I turned to Hindrastar at the staffer's answer.
"You sure? You actually applied?"
"I did... the other kids all saw it too..."
Hindrastar finally started dripping tears, and the students beside her chimed in that she was telling the truth. I pretended to think it over for a moment, then spoke to the staffer.
"Looks like something got left off somewhere along the way. Putting her back on the list now would be a bit of a hassle, so I'll just escort her out myself. That work?"
"Well... if the Chief Professor says so..."
"Good. Cadet Sophie. Get in the carriage."
I pointed at the carriage, and Hindrastar stared at me with eyes full of suspicion.
"Get in. I was heading into town anyway. I'll drop you off there."
"You mean it...?"
"Get in, or stay stuck at the academy."
"I'll get in!"
Hindrastar scrambled into the carriage, and I set off with a smile.
And about an hour later, Hindrastar looked around, her voice thick with dread.