The Confession Trap
Dealing with Ruina, who had been caught completely off guard, was no easy task.
She had been dragging me around the Literature Club booth at Anor Academy, introducing me to every invention and paper she had studied. She started from the research she had referenced and showed me all her creations in turn.
“Ta-da! This is the Bohr model of atoms as it would look under uniform circular motion. It’s a hypothesis that organizes all four elements into a single common pattern, and it caused a huge stir back then!”
“Whoa, waah…”
“Of course! At the time, this hypothesis had clear limitations. The main criticism was that all elements had to be in a stable ground state. And Paula resolved that issue with her exclusion principle!”
“O-Oh…”
I stared blankly at my sister’s explanation.
Eh? What the hell is Paula’s exclusion principle?
Uniform circular motion and the Bohr model…?
Reminds me of the theories we learned in high school chemistry.
Even with modern knowledge, the sheer volume of information left me speechless. My sister was moving so far ahead that I felt like I was being left behind.
She noticed my expression and immediately grew timid.
“Ah, sorry. Did it get too difficult for a first-year student? I prepared other things too… Hehe.”
Hey, sis, what else have you got lined up?
It seemed like the person who had quickly written “Becoming a Mage Even Humanities Majors Don’t Have to Apologize For” after only a few days was on another level. Her ideas and passion were almost too much to handle.
But.
After all, she’s my sister…
I forced myself to adjust my expression. If I couldn’t endure even a little of her distress because of a clumsy brother, then I certainly couldn’t let her down.
More importantly, there was a reason I had reluctantly accepted Ruina’s invitation to this “date.”
“By the way, Professor. I read a bit of the paper you referenced…”
“Y-You… you read the paper I referenced?”
“Yes, I read all of it. There are a lot of interesting theories.”
Why? Simple.
“First, the Fried equation that forms the basis of cosmology, and the Lorentz transformation that connects spacetime to Minkowski space. Both are papers dealing with spacetime and multi-universe interpretations.”
“Khh…”
“And there’s also the Kaluza-Yau manifold from string theory and the Kaluza manifold. Is this the paper that says the Kaluza manifold determines the number of basic particles and various fundamental interactions?”
“Y-You…!”
So that was why my sister’s referenced papers were all so suspicious.
Every single one dealt with multi-universes, cosmology, spacetime, and quantum theory. It was as if the next step in her research had already been decided: dimension transfer.
Suspicious. Definitely suspicious. Anyone else would have laughed it off, but Ruina touching these papers sent a weird chill down my spine.
“C-Cassel. If you keep doing this, I really don’t know what will happen to me… You’re making it hard…”
Even right now, Ruina was different from the one I knew. A five-year gap was enough to create unease. No matter how much the Ivory Tower Master protected her, being too far ahead of the times wasn’t good.
I needed to restrain myself just enough.
Because letting my life get tangled like this would be troublesome.
Ruina looked embarrassed and said,
“Actually, I didn’t see those papers to develop dimension transfer. You know? In an age when instant teleportation is used for huge sums of money, what kind of dimension transfer is that? I’m too ahead of the times.”
Wow.
I let out a silent cheer inside at my sister’s words. At least she had some awareness that she was moving too fast. It was a major development.
Of course, it felt dubious when I thought about the papers my sister had written and the club exhibit we made in a hurry.
“I wanted to study multi-universes just to check. You might know too—our family’s story is pretty complicated.”
While listening to my sister’s tale, I hit a heavy topic. Not just any topic—the family problem. The problem related to me.
“In other worlds, there might be a peaceful family like ours. In multi-universe interpretations, every moment the universe splits, so I just couldn’t hold back anymore.”
I hadn’t felt any impure motive.
Everyone talks about parallel worlds. In simpler terms, the multiverse. On the infinite chain of worlds, my sister had wanted to find one where she could see our family intact.
A family that lives harmoniously without my brother committing fratricide.
“I wanted to see it with my own eyes at least once. Imagine a world like that existing. I really wanted to see it.”
Simply with my own two eyes.
I was at a loss for words. Could I really hear this from Cassel’s mouth? Hearing my sister’s honest feelings made me feel pitiful.
So I carefully asked,
“Do you want to go back to the past?”
Under the mask of Cassel, I spoke cowardly.
I was afraid to face my sister’s sincerity. She had made a pathetic brother.
What would she answer? As Ruina, she had every right to be angry with me. So I had to accept even a cold response.
But contrary to my expectations.
“Go back to the past? No, not at all. If there was nothing left to hold onto, I would have turned back. But that’s not the case now.”
My sister was strong.
“That’s because there’s still something I can hold onto. That’s why I’m not sad.”
It was an almost sentimental reason.
The moment I heard it, I couldn’t speak. My lips trembled as I hesitated.
How could I describe the warmth and relief I felt? I had to say it was emotion, right? I nodded at Ruina.
“Dimension transfer observation. I hope it succeeds.”
Then my sister smiled brightly and whispered into my ear.
“You can’t tell anyone else about this, right? It’s our secret.”
“Of course.”
A secret between siblings, not even a secret.
What a ridiculous situation. I let out a small laugh and left my seat, heading toward the club booth. A funny sight greeted me.
“Baroness Iris? Professor Laura? What are you two doing?”
“Shh! Shh! Be quiet! We’re urgently looking for something!”
“…It must be here.”
Iris and Laura were concentrating on a search using detection magic. They were clearly hunting for the trap I was planning to set.
I haven’t even set it up yet…
Do they know I’m watching from afar? Seeing them struggle made it hard to hide my pitying gaze.
I had to hide the trap tomorrow for sure. If I didn’t, they would cry.
And so came the next day.
The fourth day of the club festival.
The fourth day of the club festival.
I leisurely toured the academy club fair. It seemed like the event was nearing its end. More crowds than the first day filled the academy grounds. Of course, not all were visitors.
The guardsmen who entered under the excuse of a military drill, terrorists who had infiltrated to launch an attack, and the academy faculty preparing for the initial response were all mixed together.
A deadly combination indeed. It was fortunate the Empress didn’t know. If she had, she would have collapsed from hypertension long ago.
No, not now.
It had been different in the past, but now I could have drawn my sword.
I will definitely produce results and return…
No matter how well I silenced the surrounding people, the guards had been placed at the academy.
Even if they removed a few under the military drill excuse, the Empress would soon suspect something and interrogate Thierre.
Just thinking about facing the Empress, I had to produce results somehow. I quickened my steps toward the club booth.
Before me, Iris and Laura were still desperately searching for the trap I would set. They were still at it.
I stared at them with a puzzled expression.
“C-Cassel!”
“W-What? Cassel?!”
They had simply been staring, yet their reaction was absurd. Anyone watching would think they had stumbled onto a crime scene. I pretended not to notice and walked past.
Seeing those two made me feel sorry. It was time to install the trap. I moved to the back of the booth and set it without triggering Laura’s detection magic. I also set the bait trap without forgetting.
With color-sealing magic in place, they wouldn’t be caught by detection magic right away. By lunchtime, the magic would wear off and they would search elsewhere.
Everything was prepared.
Now only two tasks remained.
The first was the date with Rina today.
It sounded like a massive encounter waiting to happen, but it was actually just a status report. Meeting secretly in a quiet place to check if anything was wrong.
So the real issue would be on this side.
“C-Cassel! Do you have a moment today?!”
“Of course. What is it?”
“N-No, it’s nothing special! Just a quick chat… I-It’s not really important, but please listen!”
“I-I see.”
This was our club president who had been running away every time she met my face since the second day. I wondered what she was thinking.
She said it would be quick, so I left the booth and followed Yuri.
And then the words came from Yuri’s mouth.
“Um… Have you ever considered starting a good relationship with me?!”
A bomb dropped on me.
It wasn’t even a simple confession.
“The answer… I’d like you to hear it at the festival next semester!”
It was a timed bomb with a deadline.
At this crazy development, my head went blank for a moment before I finally snapped back. One of the common tropes from romance manga.
…Is this “punishing with a confession”?
I hadn’t expected to be the one punished with a confession.
This is ridiculous… Iris.
Are you kidding me right now?
This bold trick just gave me a headache.