Midnight at the Old Practice Range
Of course it was possible that no one in this place actually liked Serena.
But that did not mean she had no one on her side.
To be precise, they were on the side of the illustrious Ardel ducal house.
I looked down at my left hand, fixed in its splint, and twisted the corner of my mouth into a bitter smile.
That was when it happened.
“Lady Serena!”
A group of female students hurried toward me. The brown-haired girl at the front of the pack stared at my splint with open worry.
“Are you all right? You missed class for two whole days—we were so worried.”
Leia Belford.
Among the faces that surrounded Serena, hers was one of the few I actually remembered. Daughter of a count, and the real second-in-command of the faction that had gathered around Serena.
“I’m fine. This isn’t enough to kill me.”
Even after my answer, Leia’s expression did not ease.
“Still, it was too much. Attacking someone who was trying to surrender like that…”
“Exactly. Terren Hack, was it?”
The girl beside her cut in, bristling.
“No matter how skilled he is, how dare he do that to Lady Serena? We can’t just sit still.”
“Shouldn’t we report it to the ducal house and make it an official matter?”
“That’s right. If you want, we can gather people and—”
“Enough.”
The moment I cut them off, every mouth snapped shut at once. I waved a hand with a faintly weary look.
“No need to go that far. Just forget about it and mind your own business.”
“……Pardon?”
Leia’s eyes went round. The other students looked much the same. They had clearly expected me to order Terren expelled on the spot and his entire house crushed for good measure.
Well, the original Serena might have done exactly that.
“Don’t make me say it twice.”
“Ah—yes. Understood.”
Only then did Leia bow her head.
Honestly, I wouldn’t have minded landing one solid hit on Terren myself. If I could get away with it, I would have loved to crack him hard across the back of the skull. But I had no intention of creating extra friction. More than that, the Terren of now did not look like the sort who would quietly take whatever these girls threw at him. If they got hurt because of me, that would just become another headache.
The real problem was that I needed to learn more about Terren… yet the thought of approaching him myself and getting hit again was a little terrifying.
No.
Why am I even worrying about that?
Is he some kind of thug?
Whether it was regression, possession, or future sight—Terren almost certainly knew something I didn’t. The trouble was that I had no way of finding out what.
“All right, everyone. Let’s begin by looking at the table of contents on page five of your textbooks.”
The professor’s voice cut through my thoughts.
Ah.
Right. This was still a school.
I had almost forgotten.
The Imperial Academy had been founded to gather the children of powerful noble houses from every corner of the empire and educate them in the capital. Of course, beneath that surface lay the political goal of bringing those heirs under imperial influence. To keep the intention from looking too blatant, the doors were also opened to commoners of exceptional talent. On the surface, at least, it remained the empire’s finest educational institution.
Maybe, if I paid attention in class, I could pick up knowledge that would prove useful for the events still to come. Holding onto that faint hope, I tried to focus on the professor’s explanation.
About ten minutes later, I quietly reached a conclusion.
This young lady was apparently quite weak when it came to theory.
No.
I am not the stupid one.
It has to be this body.
……Wait.
Isn’t this body mine now?
My head started to ache. Better stop thinking about it.
Out of habit I twirled the tip of a silver lock around my right finger and gazed out the window. Beneath the blue sky the vast grounds of the academy stretched away. It was undeniably magnificent. Looking at it, I felt a fresh surge of awe—and an equal measure of helplessness. I still had no real plan for how I was supposed to survive here.
I was half-zoning out when a single sentence from the professor snagged my ear.
“And one more announcement.”
I turned my gaze without thinking.
“Recently, a phenomenon of magic pollution has been discovered on the outskirts of the academy. Until the exact cause is determined, please refrain from entering the affected area.”
……Magic pollution?
The lock of hair I had been twisting went still between my fingers.
Magic pollution was a phenomenon that occurred when natural mana became twisted under external influence. It usually appeared in places where powerful magic had been used for long periods, or where forbidden magic had been cast repeatedly. And in the original story, this magic pollution was no mere natural occurrence. It was the first sign that the black mages had begun their activities.
I immediately looked at the calendar hanging on one wall of the classroom and checked the date again. There was no mistake.
“……That’s strange.”
If my memory was correct, the official discovery of magic pollution was supposed to happen about two weeks from now. No matter how roughly I had read the original, I would not have mixed up the order of an event this large.
Which meant…
Was Terren going around changing things?
I did not know the exact reason, but one thing was certain: the flow of the original story I knew had already begun to warp.
I propped my chin on my hand and sank into thought. There were roughly four options open to me.
Tell the professor.
Tell Terren.
Go look myself.
Or simply ignore it.
The first two were the problem. If I told the professor about events from the original, the question that would come back was obvious: “How do you know that?” Terren would be worse. The moment the words “black magic” left my mouth, he might grab me by the hair again.
I flinched instinctively, then glanced around. No one seemed to have noticed.
“…….”
This is seriously annoying.
But I could not pretend I knew nothing, either. In the original, this incident was the starting point from which everything steadily worsened until Serena herself walked the path to ruin. If the future was already changing, I needed to confirm at least the things I still knew.
I let out a small sigh.
“Ugh…….”
No choice, then.
I would have to go myself.
Of course, first I still had to survive this boring class somehow.
At last night fell.
How did I spend the rest of today’s classes? I slept. This body turned out to be surprisingly fond of sleep. The drop in stamina from my injuries probably played a part, but still—fine. They do say beauties are sleepyheads, don’t they?
Anyway.
I changed clothes and prepared to head for the place where the magic pollution had been found. To avoid drawing eyes I pulled a black cloak deep around myself. My frame was already small, so once the cloak was on, most of my body disappeared completely.
I turned a full circle in front of the mirror. A few strands of silver hair spilled from beneath the oversized hood, and between them only a pair of vivid red eyes showed faintly. Wrapped snugly in black, I looked less like the cool-headed young lady of a ducal house and more like a little mage sneaking out of home.
I studied the reflection for a moment, then murmured,
“……This actually looks kind of cute.”
Thinking things like that about this body was starting to feel a little more natural.
Just then—
Dong—
A heavy bell tolled in the distance. The midnight bell.
I opened the window and looked down. Most of the lights in the student dormitories had already gone out.
“Now.”
I carefully climbed onto the windowsill. My dominant left hand was useless because of the splint, but with my right I could still manage simple low-level magic like cushioning a fall. Without hesitation I threw myself out the window.
A brief weightlessness, then the drop.
“Ugh……!”
A magic circle flared from my right hand and slowed my descent. I landed safely on the grass.
The real problem came after that. Complex spells like speed enhancement or levitation were impossible without my left hand. In the end I was left clutching my aching stomach and walking as hard as I could.
“Hah…… hah…….”
This body’s stamina was pitiful as well. Even a slightly faster pace left me winded, and every step made my abdomen throb.
“I…… didn’t see this coming.”
Ordinarily the distance would have taken twenty minutes. But stopping again and again to catch my breath and hold my sore stomach stretched it to nearly an hour. Only after that long walk did I finally reach my destination.
The outskirts of the academy.
The closed-off Old Practice Range, a place students almost never set foot in.
There was not a single human presence nearby. Only a cold night wind blew between the dilapidated buildings, and under the faint moonlight blackened, dead grass swayed.
I lifted the hood a little and scanned the surroundings. The air felt wrong. Every breath left the inside of my throat cold, and a sticky, unpleasant sensation seemed to cling to my skin.
Magic pollution.
This was definitely the place.
I took a slow step deeper in.
That was the moment.
“So it was you.”
A low, sunken voice drifted out of the darkness.
My feet stopped cold.
No way.
I slowly raised my head.
At the entrance to the ruined practice range, someone stood beside a collapsed stone pillar. The moon slipped free of the clouds and cast a thin light across his face.
A face so expressionless it was almost familiar.
And two eyes fixed on me, heavy and still.
It was Terren.
The instant I confirmed it, my body reacted faster than my mind. The splinted left hand vanished deeper into the cloak, and without thinking I took a step back. My heart began to race.
Terren’s gaze followed the movement with unhurried precision. He showed not the slightest surprise, as if he had known from the beginning that I would come here. If anything, he looked as though he had been waiting.
“Just as I thought.”
Terren turned slowly toward me.
“I knew you would appear here.”
……Wait.
I pressed my lips tightly together beneath the cloak.
This…
Somehow, from the very start, things already seemed thoroughly wrong.