There's No Way Our Young Master Would Do That! (3)

"Are the men following without any complaints? The plan's changed quite a bit in places. The double agent, and all the rest of it."

"They're my direct subordinates to begin with, so they follow without a word. And the person you sent has one hell of a fiery personality. No problems."

"Is that so."

Iris rubbed both eyes with her hands, desperately denying reality. Nothing changed. Off in the distance, Kassel was still there, conversing with a suspicious visitor.

"H-how? Why is Kassel…?"

Her mind was a tangle she couldn't begin to sort. Why on earth was Kassel even there? And who was the visitor trading such shady words with him?

However much of a flower field Iris kept planted in her head, circumstances this damning left no room not to doubt. Unwanted distrust took root, and her pupils shook without mercy.

"P-Professor. That visitor over there—who is he? The air around him is… not ordinary…"

"He's a top executive of an organization called the Ash Wave. Name's Gashir. He uses some unidentified power that isn't magic, shamanism, or holy law."

"The A-Ash Wave?"

The Ash Wave.

She had just heard something she never should have. Wasn't that the organization the people who'd threatened her during the last train terrorist attack belonged to? She remembered the Academy Headmaster and Minister of Education Milia mentioning it in passing.

Why was Kassel meeting a force like that in secret? And why did the conversation they were having sound like that?

A double agent. An ally he'd sent himself. The talk was packed with words she could barely keep up with, and Iris's face went pale of its own accord.

Was it true? Was Kassel really a villain?

Not the kind of "bad boy" or "wicked young master" people tossed around between men and women—an actually bad human being?

Kassel's background unspooled through her mind like a panorama. The way he was so close with the children of the Four Great Ducal houses. The exhibition piece of an unnaturally high caliber. Things she had once dismissed with a breezy He's a one-woman man! He's a true romantic! now snagged in her sight and refused to let go.

And so—and so—

"N-no! There's no way our Kassel would do that…! There has to be a reason for all of this!"

"Anyone can see that's a terrorism prep site. Just accept it already."

"There's everything Kassel has shown us until now! There's no way a friend like that could be a villain!"

Iris denied reality even harder. She could not admit a truth this cruel. Laura clenched her teeth.

To think she'd believe in him this far…

She hadn't expected Iris to trust Kassel to this degree. The circumstances were already laid out in full, and still she believed in her friend to the bitter end. Was that purity? Or just stubbornness?

But Laura knew that turning away from reality here wouldn't do either of them any good. If this swelled into a larger incident later and became irreversible, even mending the relationship would be difficult.

Right. The way Kassel had once stuck his nose into things and put Laura and Ruina's relationship back on a normal track—maybe this time it was her turn to stick her nose in for this hopeless student.

Why am I thinking of that guy again here, of all places.

He might well be a villain. Every scrap of the situation made Kassel look like a mastermind behind the curtain. But Laura, like Iris, still remembered the good he had done.

Hadn't he said it himself, back then? That he was a menace who couldn't stand injustice. It was time to repay that kindness.

This is all your fault, Kassel…!

If he was going to be a villain, he should have acted like one and kept to the shadows. Why keep helping people and leaving room for doubt? Telling herself it was entirely his fault, Laura spoke.

"That executive over there—Gashir. He might actually be Eugene."

"Eugene?"

At that, Iris's eyes wavered all over again.

Eugene? Had she just said Eugene?

The Eugene Iris knew—and the Eugene Laura would be talking about—there was only one of him at the Academy. Eugene, the recently invited guest lecturer.

The Guillotine's Blade. Kin-slayer. A beast in human skin. War hero. The Princess's Shadow. The Night of the Revolution. He was known by a host of epithets, and throughout the Empire he was a figure closer to terror than a man.

When word got out that he would be lecturing at the Academy, the whole campus had been in an uproar.

And now Laura was saying Eugene might be that Gashir over there?

Iris thought of him as the benefactor who had saved her during the train attack. Did that even make sense?

She wanted to say no—but considering the infamy that clung to Eugene like a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠second name, it sounded uncomfortably plausible. A being like that would never come to the Academy just to give ordinary lectures.

If he had gone to ground for a while and was moving again, there would be a reason.

Then what about Kassel…? Cooperating with an evil faction without knowing Eugene was Gashir? Or had he been Eugene's subordinate from the start?

Her thoughts grew more tangled by the second. As if bewitched, Iris stretched a hand toward where Kassel stood.

"K-Kassel, please just say it isn't true…"

She called his name, aching, her voice on the verge of tears. Anyone watching would have taken her for a young lady who'd just had her heart broken. Laura stepped closer and offered counsel.

"Get ahold of yourself. It isn't too late. If we step in now, we can still stop this."

There was still hope. The attack on the Academy hadn't happened yet. If Eugene really was Gashir, he was probably inducing the terrorism for some purpose of his own.

In that case, talking Kassel around along the way should be more than possible—and with Iris's connections, they might even be able to prevent the Academy assault altogether.

That was why Laura had chosen Iris.

Iris looked at Kassel with a gaze full of pity.

"What should I do…?"

"First we need proper evidence. There might be decisive physical proof somewhere near you all."

Kassel had walked into the literary club, where every distinguished guest was gathered, despite a background shady enough to invite suspicion. That meant the attack itself was aimed at the literary club. There might even be a trap Kassel had prepared not far from here.

A snare for kidnapping precious personages, for instance.

"Kh…! I believed in him. I believed…!"

"I know. Now get up."

It would be hard to accept—truly hard—but sitting here with their hands in their laps wouldn't make anything better. Laura was just about to lead Iris away from the spot.

Crunch.

"Huh?"

Suddenly there was the sound of grass being trodden, and someone else's presence. A sense of unease made them turn their heads—and standing before their eyes was a woman in a black cape, as if she had always been there.

Who…?

The hood of the cape was pulled down so deep they couldn't make out her face. Even so, the mere fact that she had approached without their noticing was enough to tell them she was skilled. Laura held her breath.

She had used concealment; there was no way their identities had been exposed. Not unless the other party used some unidentified ability the way Gashir did.

Right. They should be safe.

Then why?

Why was the woman standing in front of them looking at them as if she could see their side perfectly? A gaze that coiled around their whole bodies like a snake made Laura and Iris swallow dryly.

It was chilling. The voice that rang out, bright and clear, was far too sweet, far too childlike. Their bodies froze solid.

"Can't even kill these ones. What to do?"

"…!!!"

The woman in the deeply drawn hood smiled a sly, unpleasant smile. The two of them locked up as if a predator had just stepped into view.

They hadn't even started yet, and already this kind of reaction. Rina was nothing but satisfied with how immediately it landed.

How to play this. If she wanted Kassel to look like a proper mastermind, she needed one short, thick blow driven straight in.

She turned the thought over, and a good idea surfaced.

Yes. This much would do for now.

She closed in at a speed the eye couldn't follow and took them from behind. Iris and Laura flinched hard, their bodies trembling.

In that brief instant they felt a horror that crawled over the skin, cold sweat breaking out as a voice whispered against their ears.

She laid the faintest thread of killing intent on her fingertip and set it against Iris's throat.

That ought to be enough. Iris, her face drained white, slowly turned her head. Rina was already gone.

At a presence that had appeared and vanished like a ghost, Iris spoke to Laura.

"Professor. We need to go to the booth right now and see what's there."

"Finally opened your eyes, have you…"

Something was badly, badly wrong.

That was what Iris thought.

I snorted at Iris's thoroughly satisfying reaction. Had she run into Rina by now? Curious, I sent a message through the communication orb, and a reply came back almost at once.

That's Rina for you. When it comes to getting a job done, she's second to none. After checking her reply, I used Observation to look in on Iris and Laura from a distance.

Judging by those thoroughly drained faces, Rina had put them through it properly. In that state, their suspicions about me would have swollen considerably.

If I kept leaking bait like this and hammered the doubts about my identity into conviction, it would make excellent ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠nourishment for the heroine's awakening that was coming soon.

"So. Anything else you need to check? The plan's running without a hitch, for what it's worth."

I was savoring the footholds stacking up, nice and slow, when Gashir spoke up beside me.

Anything else to check. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Unfortunately, there wasn't. I hadn't come to inspect the on-site progress in the first place.

There was, however, something I needed right now.

"The trap for dropping people into the dungeon. Hand a few over so I can set them in advance."

"…Traps? Why already? It's only day two."

"I'll need them for a smokescreen at some point. Don't worry about it."

"If you say so."

When I asked for traps to kidnap the club members, Gashir produced a small magic tool without a word of protest. The trap glowed a faint ashen color; it was a snare fashioned with Dark Arts.

Anyone short of exceptional wouldn't be getting out of it easily. The size was decent, too. I'd hide it somewhere that would turn up if they searched well enough.

"Memorize the script properly, Gashir. Understood?"

"…You're actually going through with that? It reeked of being thrown together on the fly."

"It only looks thrown together because it's us. The people watching won't think so."

Gashir kept asking the obvious. I let it slide and ignored him. Their imaginations were running at full tilt right now, and the reactions were excellent—what more did he want? I was putting in the work to lure them, in my own way.

And so, amid everyone's misunderstandings, day three arrived.

"Ah, Kassel! You made it!"

"There you are, Professor."

The date with my little sister began.

And there, I—

"Um. What is that?"

"Oh, this? It's a multidimensional scaling plot drawn from a Euclidean distance matrix! A multivariate graphical method that geometrically represents similarities and dissimilarities defined in a high-dimensional space onto a lower-dimensional one, so you can examine the relationships among the objects!"

"…Excuse me?"

I had seen far too many things a humanities major was never meant to see.

Wow. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠What even was that.