Rosalyn Ropert
While Blow was still in the middle of making peace with Jane, Hervena was eating dinner in the student cafeteria with Cindy, who had only grown close to her as of the day before.
"What's gotten into you? Not going over to Blow's today?"
"Ah. The young master said he had something important to discuss with Skadi and Jane."
"And not you?"
"No."
"Figures. Yesterday those two had the strangest looks on their faces. Linne, was it? Her too. All three of them."
Cindy said it while cutting into the steak on her plate. Blood welled and dripped from the meat where the knife had opened it, the inside a raw, vivid red. Hervena, who liked her meat cooked all the way through, narrowed her eyes.
"You prefer it underdone, Senior?"
"Of course. The better the meat, the more you ought to eat it raw. Bad meat, you couldn't eat like this."
"I suppose that's one way to see it. Actually... I was surprised when you asked me to dinner today. I thought you were busy."
"Blow's business is finished, so I'm not busy now. There's time to eat."
"I'm glad. I wanted to get closer to you, Senior."
At that, Cindy's voice turned sly.
"Don't you dare pretend you don't know me later. I'm buying you dinner so you won't."
"I don't have many friends, so you needn't worry about that."
"Well, isn't that welcome news."
Cindy cut off another thick piece and put it in her mouth. She chewed for a long while, then asked, as if something had just come back to her.
"Hey. I heard yesterday that Rosalyn said something to you. Is that true?"
"Yes, well..."
"She really does whatever she likes, doesn't she? Four Great Houses or not, does she have any idea what you might become?"
"I'm still just a powerless academy student. Greig said things to me too."
"Even so, Rosalyn isn't quite on Greig's level, is she? Hmm... but the way she talks is really... how should I put it. No manners at all?"
"She does have an unpleasant side, doesn't she? She keeps catching the tail of whatever you say and hanging on..."
"I heard she told you to stop inspecting everything so carefully."
"Yes. To be exact, she asked what a commoner wench thought she was being so particular about."
"If Blow had heard that wording, the school would have been turned upside down again."
Cindy shook her head. She had seen for herself, in the report, how a remark made to Jane had set off the duel between Blow and Greig.
"But from where commoners like us stand, of course you have to check. Put it straight in your mouth, find out it's underdone, and your whole life splits in two."
"Ah. Senior, have you also...?"
"Mm. I've had offers from a few people. The fate of commoners who don't know their place, I suppose."
"I am not someone who doesn't know her place."
"Then I'll amend it. Someone who stands out. Either way, coming to school earlier than Rosalyn was a blessing, wouldn't you say?"
"Skipping a year has been terribly hard, but that part is nice. Our classes barely overlap."
"I truly never imagined it. Skipping ahead."
In truth, Hervena had decided to skip a year because she wanted to be free of the school even a day sooner, and to put distance between herself and the Blow of that time. While she was still marveling that all of it had already become a memory, Cindy finished the steak and dabbed her mouth with a napkin.
"Hervena. I'm entering Academia this time."
"...The main bracket?"
"Yeah."
Which meant they might meet on the dueling floor. Hervena thought of the way Cindy built a match, every exchange fitted tight against the next.
"You're a tiring opponent to run into, Senior."
"I'm grateful you think so. I'd just rather not meet you in the first round. Even in the preliminaries, going out in round one is a bit much, no?"
"Senior Yulia will be there too. And Rebecca."
"Still better than you, I'd say. Senior Yulia, at least I can predict. Rebecca even more so."
"Hmm... I'm not so sure."
She thought of Yulia's magic, risen a full tier since her advice, and quietly let the subject thin away.
"Then will you enter the team matches with me?"
"No. I've been busy lately. I'm not thinking about the team event."
"What a waste. If you won't enter with me, you're not allowed to enter with the others either. Understood?"
"I've got research underway. I couldn't enter anyway."
"How many bodies do you have?"
"One."
"Right. One body. And isn't that just the saddest fact there is. Anyway, could you help me? I hear you even looked after Department Head Yulia."
"For the price of a steak, that feels a little expensive..."
"Where in the world is anything free?"
Cindy said it with a swagger. Contrary to her complaint, Hervena nodded at once.
"All right."
"Let's match times first. How about tomorrow evening?"
"Ah, tomorrow evening I can't."
"Why?"
"The young master said he would buy me clothes. I have to go out and come back."
"Well, look at that. The bastard really grew up. Buying your clothes and everything."
Hervena smoothed her hair for no reason at all, and the corner of her mouth had lifted, just slightly. Cindy read the look and answered it with a wicked little smile, and so a dinner of a grand fifteen minutes drew to its close.
The next morning, Blow stood squared off against Rosalyn, who was looking the place over with a pinched brow and finding fault with everything her eyes landed on.
Youngest of House Ropert, the greatest of the Four Great Houses.
Rosalyn of Contempt.
Blue eyes deep enough to hold the sea, pale pink hair, and a height that fell well short of her presence. Her expression, as always, was frozen shut.
"Hello, Senior."
She offered it without so much as a dip of her head. Blow swallowed a sigh, raked together a welcome he did not feel, and answered.
"It's been a while."
"Has it? I heard you'd collapsed. Oh, and I heard you'd woken up, too."
"Your news runs slower than I expected. You might try actually reading the Redfrin articles."
The moment the name left his mouth, her eyebrow twitched.
"I simply wasn't interested. And some rumors aren't worth believing until you've seen them with your own eyes."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean Blow Deblique, keeping a shop in the Dusk Block... Obviously I took it for a rumor."
Jane had come out to see what the fuss was, and she bowed. Rosalyn watched her do it and held a smile, as if the sight pleased her.
"Our young master certainly knows how to keep his people in line."
"......"
"These days, you know? Put this uniform on them and the children won't even offer a proper courtesy. One can hardly kill them for it... wouldn't you agree?"
"Even so, killing them is a bit much."
"Even so. But seeing how well they're managed, I think you and I are of a similar mind."
"That's a compliment, is it? Thank you."
"...Being similar to me is a compliment, obviously."
And what, exactly, was he supposed to do with that?
He remembered Rachel saying the girl had an exhausting personality. Yulia had agreed by saying nothing at all, which was agreement enough. But letting a thing slide with a quiet sidestep, the way they did, did not suit his temper. He decided to hand himself over to whatever thought came next.
"Being like you isn't necessarily a compliment, is it?"
The air froze on the spot. Rosalyn shot him a glare. Blow did not look particularly bothered.
"So. What's your business?"
"Nothing else. I came to thank you."
"For what?"
"The Redfrin article. You had those commoner brats collect them, didn't you? The one my piece was printed in."
"Did I."
"Don't tell me... you didn't know?"
"I didn't read the contents. It was outside my interest."
There are people who believe the world turns around them. At the news that Blow had done it without knowing, Rosalyn's lips parted and closed again. She was one of them.
"So you didn't even know... Well. My thanks, then."
"Is that the whole of it?"
"Why?"
"Why do you think? I've got customers to receive."
Rosalyn looked where his eyes had gone, behind her. At the far end of the alley, three girls in the same uniform as hers hovered, unable to come forward and unable to leave. She let out a short, empty laugh and met his gaze again.
"Right now... with me standing in front of you, you're minding them?"
"I'm not minding them. They were simply in view."
"You still chose to say it."
"You're good at saying things that don't need saying, too."
Her eyes flew wide. Grinding her teeth, she looked to her butler.
"Elton."
He hurried in, drew five gold from his pocket, and held them out to his lady. Rosalyn took the coins and spoke as if she were doing Blow a kindness.
"I have more to say, so I'll buy everything inside. That should settle it, yes?"
"Rosalyn. Stop crossing the line."
"Oh, you're getting serious? And this is crossing the line, you say?"
The gold struck the ground, and the bright clink of it rang the length of the alley. One corner of her mouth hooked upward, and her eyes moved past him to Jane.
"Jane."
"Yes, Lady Rosalyn."
"Pick them up."
"What do you think you're doing?"
Rosalyn had been staring straight into his hardened face. Now she broke into a soft, needling laugh.
"Oh, come now. A joke. A joke. Wasn't it funny?"
"Sorry, but I can't find a shred of humor in it."
"You must be properly angry. I apologize."
As she shrugged, Blow looked at Jane. Her expression had not shifted by a hair, and at the sight his calm came back almost at once.
"Say your business."
Rosalyn tipped her head, as if his reaction were the last thing she had expected, and spoke again.
"The Black Bridge Gathering. I hear you're preparing the drinks?"
"I am."
"Just suit the occasion. Please prepare them properly. Quite a few are coming, and not only from Caipol. From the Imperial Capital as well."
"It's nothing you need to worry about."
"And don't pour too much expectation into it, or too much effort. Only what befits the occasion."
"Are you hosting? You fret over the strangest things."
"Strain too hard, and a thing can shatter to pieces, you know."
"Why?"
"As you know, we intend to unveil a new liquor."
So. A check.
Having read her cleanly, Blow leaned in.
"You must be straining rather hard yourself."
"I always give my very best."
"Always?"
"Of course."
For a moment he genuinely wondered what he was meant to do with her. Seizing her by the hair was, regrettably, not among the options. Then it crossed his mind that she was only a third-year, and with the thought came Hervena's face: Hervena, who no longer even bothered to boast that she stood first.
"True enough. You're talented enough to take second every single time, Rosalyn."
He said it through a grin, and her breath stopped dead. Before she could find an answer, his eyes moved to Jane.
"Jane. Who was first back then?"
"Hervena."
"Well, well. So it was our Hervena. Then second was doing well too, wasn't it? Jane?"
"Yes. I don't believe just anyone can take second."
"The opponent simply happened to be my own right hand, Hervena. Isn't that so?"
"Of course. Second was very well done."
Rosalyn let out a hollow laugh and snapped at the both of them.
"You collapsed, so perhaps you didn't know, but I am first now."
"Ah, is that how it turned out? Well, Hervena skipped a year, didn't she, Jane?"
"Yes."
"Second place... a grade this Blow Deblique couldn't even dream of. You too, aren't you?"
"Yes. I'm terrible at magic, after all. Even so, in the written portion, I was second while I was attending."
"Were you? You studied incredibly well."
"You might have taken an interest."
Blow drew a hand along his jaw and, watching Rosalyn go red enough to split, needled her again.
"So. Hervena skipped ahead, and Jane took a leave, which means you became first in the written exams as well, Rosalyn?"
"......"
"Ah, or are you simply first overall? I've never cared how the scores are reckoned."
"......"
"Heaven helps those who help themselves. Isn't that right, Jane?"
"Yes. I believe so, Young Master."
Rosalyn's eyes had gone sharp as axes. Blow listened to her breathing turn rough, set an easy smile on his mouth, and laid the courtesy on thick.
"Anyway, I'll see you at the Black Bridge, Rosalyn. Thank you for the precious visit, first thing in the morning."
"...Fine. I'll make certain no one can spare so much as a thought for your drinks."
She was shaking, and not trying to hide it. As if that were the cue he had been waiting for, Blow clenched a fist and held it up.
"That's the spirit, Jane! At this gathering, let's aim for second! Second is doing well too!"
"Yes, Young Master."
He mocked her without a shred of mercy, and at last Rosalyn's eyes wavered. She could not hold.
"The pair of you, really... Fine. Do as you please."
She whipped around and made for the carriage. When she had gone a little way, Blow pointed at the gold scattered on the ground.
"Elton, was it?"
"Yes, Young Master."
"Pick them up."
"......"
Rosalyn, ahead of them, stopped dead and shouted.
"Elton! What are you doing? Follow me at once!"
"...Yes, my lady."
Elton and Rosalyn drew away. Only once Blow and Jane had seen them climb into the carriage did the two of them break, laughing at the same instant, neither waiting on the other.
"Jane, you seem to be in a better mood. I'm glad."
"She's always been like that, so it doesn't really get to me. She hasn't changed a bit."
"There's a certain pleasure in taking her down a peg. Still, we have to win at the gathering. All right?"
"Yes. I'll put everything into the brewing. The samples should be ready before long."
"For lunch... shall we have a bean dish? A proper second-place menu."
"...Beans?"
Blow nodded at Jane, who had asked as if she couldn't see the sense in it.
"Yeah."
"I seem to remember you didn't care for them."
"Today I'm in the mood."
With that he bent, picked up the five gold, and brushed the dirt from them with his hand.
"Here."
"Shall I put them away?"
"Hmm. What to do with these..."
While he was still turning it over, the Traffic Light Trio came up and offered their greetings.
"Hello, Boss..."
"You're here?"
"Senior Rosalyn was frightening... We waited until she left."
Alice said it on the verge of tears. Blow jerked his chin toward the inside.
"Don't let her shrink you like that. She's the strange one."
Radness, who more or less led the three, answered with a sulky face.
"You have no idea how hard it is for the third-year commoner seniors. Because of her."
"Yeah? You're really angry, Radness."
"Slapping someone across the face in a group project, just because she doesn't like them, is too much."
She was fuming, breath sharp in her nose. Blow looked from her face to the five gold in his hand and back again, thought for a long moment, and then spoke.
"Is that so? Then... how about this?"
The smile he wore had gone faintly sinister. He suggested to Radness and the other two that they might try a certain thing, and Jane, who had been listening without a word, felt her mouth come open.