The Parso Way of Saying Hello
Caught in that ferocious momentum, Delter's gang was already edging backward without quite realizing it.
"What do you think you're doing to our friend Kunsai!!"
Bahama and Rihendel bellowed it, voices like thunder swallowed whole.
The force of the shout was enough to make a man believe he stood in the middle of a battlefield. Delter's grip tore free of the collar he had been clutching. The rest of the gang behind him lost all sense of where to look, and their whole bodies began to shake.
For a moment Bahama and Rihendel looked ready to charge. While Ornn hastily held them back, Blow stepped up to Delter and spoke, low and unmistakable.
"I'll give you a chance to explain yourself."
"Wh-what business is it of yours!"
"I am this Kunsai Cherohun's business partner. So it is my business."
"Business partner?"
Delter let out a scoff of pure disbelief, folded his arms, and glared at Blow.
A face he had never seen. Definitely not someone from this Central Academy. He wasn't even claiming to be that dwarf bastard's employer — a partner, he said — and he went about with savage barbarians in tow besides. Some middle-class nobody who only got to throw his weight around in the back alleys of Caipol. That was plain enough.
His calculations finished, he raised his voice at Blow instead.
"Doesn't look like you're even from the school. What's an outsider got to do with this? What's your name!"
Jane, who had been listening in silence, stepped out in front of Blow and spoke in a voice gone cold.
"This is Young Master Blow of the d'Eblyk barony. You will show the proper respect."
The moment the words landed, confusion flooded Delter's eyes.
A son of an imperial barony? Why would a man like that take a dwarf's side? There was definitely no one like that around the little bastard...
To his disbelieving face, Jane held up the seal of House d'Eblyk.
However grandly he strutted through Parso as the scion of a noble house, Parso remained a vassal state of the Empire of Serdia. That gap in standing was not one he could leap. The color drained from Delter's face.
Blow stepped closer, and his eyes narrowed.
"Then what is your name?"
"Delter Zayd..."
"Again."
"Delter Za...yd..."
Blow could not stomach the voice crawling back down the boy's throat. His expression hardened, and at the sight of it Delter's knees went weak. He managed a bow and answered.
"Delter... of House Zayd, of Parso."
He could not meet Blow's eyes. His whole body trembled. Blow stared at him for a moment, then spoke.
"Parso, you said?"
"Yes, sir."
The answer had barely left his mouth before Blow closed the distance and seized him hard by the collar. Terror ripped through Delter, and he cried out.
"Wh-what are you doing?!"
"What was that?"
"S-sir?"
"Th-that's..."
"In my own way, I'm expressing a rather fierce pleasure at meeting you. Well? Can you feel how glad I am?"
The words were pleasant. The eyes were not. They flashed with a killing light, and Delter, certain that telling the truth would end very badly, could only look away and give no answer at all.
Blow tightened his grip, shoved his face in close, and asked in something near a whisper.
"If this isn't a greeting, then perhaps you've been tormenting my partner?"
"U-urgh..."
Teeth chattering, Delter shook his head. At the ugliness of it, his gang had already dropped to their knees beside Ornn, meek as lambs.
"I'm not hearing a proper answer."
Blow turned his head and addressed Bahama and Rihendel, who stood directly behind him, glaring at Delter as if they meant to kill him.
"Would the two of you care to exchange greetings with young Delter here as well?"
"Gladly!!"
"A southern greeting!! This'll be fun!!"
Bahama and Rihendel came on with a thunder of footsteps, and at last the words that needed to come out of Delter's mouth did.
"I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"F-for interfering with the young master's... b-business, I think..."
And then his eyes found Kunsai Cherohun, mouth shut tight, quietly watching the whole scene.
Moments ago, when Delter had him by the collar, those eyes had been proud and looking down, and Delter had burned with the humiliation of it. Now there was nothing he could do. He squeezed his eyes shut, forced his hands together, and spoke.
"I was also... discourteous to the young master's partner..."
"Were you? Then go and do what needs doing."
Blow released the collar with a shove and sent him stumbling toward Kunsai.
The contrast was stark. Delter stood there half-crooked, and Kunsai Cherohun looked up at him, perfectly straight.
Only after a long stretch of silence did Delter, shaking from head to toe, manage to force a voice out at all.
"I'm sorry..."
Kunsai looked at him, let out a heavy sigh, and answered without so much as glancing that way — tossed the word aside.
"Fine."
With that he swept straight past Delter, bowed to Blow, and offered a suggestion.
"Young Master, I think it would be best to proceed with the meeting about the booth."
"Let's."
Watching Kunsai treat the whole affair as beneath notice, Delter tasted a humiliation he had never known in his life. And to feel it from a demihuman — the very people he had so thoroughly scorned. The blood seemed ready to rush backward through his veins.
He stood there groaning, unable to hold himself upright or decide what to do. Blow's eyes narrowed, and he spoke in a dry tone.
"What are you doing?"
"......Sir?"
"Go do your work."
Face blazing red, he bolted at once with his gang. Jane did not spare them a glance. She was already straightening Kunsai's rumpled clothes.
Until the lot of them vanished, Bahama and Rihendel watched their backs and snorted steam from their noses. Blow came over to them with a small smile.
"Thank you, all of you."
"Young Master? Whatever for..."
Ornn looked puzzled. Blow shrugged.
"I was terrified you were about to snap that fellow's spine on the spot."
"Hahaha!"
At that, Ornn burst out laughing.
"We couldn't do that. How we conduct ourselves decides the reputation of all barbarians, doesn't it?"
"That's right!! Kunsai said so yesterday!!"
"We want to kill him! But we hold it in till we die!!"
"We endure it for the sake of our people!!"
"Otherwise we'd have planted his head in the ground right then!!"
Rihendel and Bahama shouted it with fists clenched tight.
Perhaps because they and Kunsai shared the same lot — outsiders in a human city — they had grown close with startling speed. Somewhere in their talk the matter of reputation had come up by chance, and the words Kunsai had spoken with that serious face had apparently struck them hard.
"There. That's better."
Jane had smoothed his shirt and set his tie, and she smiled at him. Kunsai, who had been grinning at the barbarians' words, answered in a voice touched with feeling.
"I-I could have done it myself. Thank you."
"Not at all. We're on the same team now."
Jane's smile was easy.
...The same team.
Warmth sat in the words, and Kunsai could not hide his joy. Then Blow added, with a sigh,
"Kunsai."
"Yes?"
"Next time something like this happens, use my name."
"I... I couldn't..."
When Kunsai hesitated, Blow scratched at his red hair and ran a hand along his jaw.
"Right. My name doesn't quite land, does it?"
"N-no, sir!"
"Then use Skadi's. Hers will carry further. And when you do, be sure to stress the family name — Hetaya."
"No! Yours is enough! Young Master!"
Kunsai kept bowing. Jane, standing beside him, asked as if something did not quite add up.
"Did you clear that with Skadi?"
"She won't mind. If anything, she'll like it. Speaking of which — since when have you been carrying the seal around?"
"Hm? I brought it from Blanya. In case something like this came up."
Blow gave her a thumbs-up — well done — and Jane answered that of course she had; it was only what she ought to do. Just then, hearing Skadi's name, Bahama and Rihendel flinched. They tapped Ornn's shoulder and, quite unlike themselves, dropped to a whisper.
"Boss, if it's Skadi of Hetaya, that's the..."
"Enough."
Ornn shook his head at them, firm.
"...Let it pass."
Bahama and Rihendel swallowed hard and looked at each other.
Blow, finished talking with Jane, called to them in a deliberately bright voice.
"All right, let's actually have that meeting! Ready?"
"Yes, Young Master! What was it you said we'd do?"
At the call, Ornn lifted both corners of his mouth and went to Blow. Bahama and Rihendel had no choice but to follow quietly behind him.
Capall Municipal Magic School. Lecture Hall One of Becarion Hall.
The fourth-years, Hervena and Skadi among them, waited with tense faces for their names to be called.
The practical course, Understanding Attribute Magic, had a simple examination. Of the eight attributes — water, fire, wind, ice, earth, lightning, light, and darkness — a student cast four upon a testing mana stone. If the power of three of those spells exceeded the standard, the grade was an A. Failing to reach it dropped the mark to a B, then a C, and so on down. A term's grade was the sum of three such exams, and because magic was always conceived as something to be unfolded in war, it had to be cast like this: in front of everyone.
"Hervena Westriver."
The moment the instructor, Aurora, called her name, the examination hall heated up at once. Even Rebecca, who until then had shown no interest in the exam, and Cindy, cramming at her seat for the afternoon test, turned their eyes to the platform.
Confirming that Hervena had flown up onto it, Aurora — instructor for Understanding Attribute Magic — glided out herself and called in a bright voice,
"Start right away! You know the drill — hit that mana stone! Hervena, you especially, mind your aim!"
"My aim?"
"Yes! Björn Arena already got wrecked. We can't have the same thing happen here!"
Bouncy, with a rough edge to it — Aurora's particular way of talking. Hervena nodded at once.
"You know there's feedback afterward, right?"
"Yes. I know."
"Then start right now!! Aurora's expecting great things!"
Aurora stepped a few paces back and waited, eyes sparkling, for the magic. Hervena drew a careful breath, took careful aim at the mana stone, and summoned her circle at once — that deep violet light of hers rolling across it.
"Wave, the first."
⟨ Wave One ⟩
At the incantation, confusion crossed every face.
"What?"
"Wave One? Not even Three?"
Amid the surprise, a single wave rose from her circle. The doubt lasted only a moment before every mouth fell open. Hervena's wave carried a density of mana beyond any high-grade spell, and it rushed the stone as if it meant to shatter it.
KWA-AANG—
Wave One slammed home with a tremendous roar. The mana stone, straining to absorb the spell, lost its original color and began to pour out red light. Seeing it, Aurora hurriedly stopped her.
"Aigoo! Wait! Hervena! We'll have to do this five minutes from now!"
"Did it go past the limit?"
"Yes! At this rate we could all get crushed flat and die!"
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be! It's because I'm so damn incompetent at laying magic on the stone! Anyway, this is the first time since Yulia!! Everybody, applause!!"
Most of the lecture hall had to compete with Hervena, so the clapping was half-hearted at best. Aurora shouted at them as if she could not understand it.
"Hah? Did everybody fracture their hands? Why is the applause so small?"
The moment she finished, applause crashed down like thunder. The most fervent of all was, of course, her friend Skadi.
Embarrassed, Hervena waited for the clapping to end, then asked Aurora carefully.
"Teacher, I just go again once that red aura fades, right?"
"Yeep. I'll give you the signal! There's nothing to give feedback on? Hervena, I think I'm about to lose my job!"
"...There are the other students."
"Aha! That's right! Our Hervena really is smart!"
A little later, once the stone had regained its original blue-black, Hervena cast the basic spells of fire, wind, and earth just as she had before. And each time, as if it were only natural, the stone flushed red. Under Aurora's razor-sharp look, everyone in the seats had to applaud every single time.
To Rebecca, who had held the top of the year before Hervena arrived, her retainer Danvers was whispering something with a thoroughly sour face. Cindy, who had been second, muttered so that only Indoor beside her could hear, looking thoroughly displeased.
"Crazy bitch. She's so damn good...."
And so Hervena's exam ended, and Aurora glided back over to her.
"That was wonderful! Hervena! No feedback! Not overdoing it like the idiots and casting only basic magic — that was incredibly impressive!"
"Thank you."
"Come to my laboratory when the exam's over!"
"Um..."
At those frightening words she hesitated. Aurora's face darkened at once. She dropped into a crouch on the floor.
"Right. Of course a talent like our Hervena wouldn't care about a speck of dust like me...."
"N-no! I'll stop by...! Teacher..."
Color rushed back into Aurora's face. She seized Hervena's hand tight.
"R-really!? That's our Hervena! I'll have obscenely delicious cookies ready, I swear!"
Aurora's feedback, held the moment an exam ended, was one of the distinctive features of this subject's tests. There was even a rumor that if you stood out the way Hervena had, you were dragged straight to her laboratory.
A little later, free of Aurora and back in her seat, Hervena opened her notes for the afternoon exam at once. Skadi saw it, shook her head, and spoke as if she were sick of the sight.
"What are you, a studying machine?"
"Hm? Why?"
"You went straight for the notes, so I said something."
"Well. No reason not to."
"Just like you said — Teacher Aurora loved Wave One."
"It's fresh. Teachers like that. The thing nobody else does."
"What was surprising was that it worked exactly the way you said it would. Anyway, congratulations on getting into Teacher Aurora's lab?"
"...I'd rather you just swore at me."
A few more turns passed, and then it was Skadi's.
"Skadi Hetaya."
Called by name, she too flew straight to the platform.
"Start right away!"
The moment Aurora's voice reached her, Skadi did not hesitate. She cast the highest-grade fire and wind magic she could muster straight at the stone. Strong enough that the stone's color shifted a little. She had always been stronger in practical work than on written exams, even if the reverse was less certain, so everyone watching nodded as if it were only to be expected.
"Go right ahead with the third and fourth."
The moment Aurora said it, Skadi cast earth and water at the stone. As expected, both fell well short of the force of the first two.
"Skadi's pretty good with fire and wind, but the rest is kind of flat, right?"
"Her flight magic's better than Hervena's, though."
"That part really is uncanny."
The voices drifted sparsely from the seats. It was something Hervena herself acknowledged, so she nodded along.
Then, as Skadi stood on the platform catching her breath with a relieved face, the exam finished, Aurora glided up to her.
"Skadi?"
"Yes, Teacher."
The frown Aurora wore the instant she drew near left Skadi with a prick of guilt. She could only stand there, hands folded.
"I'm asking because I'm genuinely curious. Skadi."
"Yes... Teacher, what..."
Aurora's voice — pure incomprehension — rang clear through the lecture hall, and at those words the seats went silent, as if water had been thrown over them.