Tying Up Loose Ends (1)
"You've come, my lady."
Isabel, who had been waiting in front of the medical wing, bowed her head.
I gave a careless wave of my hand.
"It's been a while, Isabel."
"Did the investigation go well?"
"Well" would be a stretch. They said they were confirming the circumstances of the accident, but I couldn't believe how many questions they had."
Why I had moved before the professors did.
What I had seen on the lower stratum.
All ordinary questions, so I answered only as much as I could. I told no lies.
That I had wound thread around Theodore Graham's neck.
That I had thrown his body toward the Abyss.
There was no need to volunteer any of that.
"More importantly, I have a report. The Academy has moved up the end date for all remaining exams and practical sessions."
"Moved them up?"
"The tactics evaluation was to be postponed indefinitely until the accident was resolved, but they've decided to grade this assessment provisionally, based on the written answers submitted so far and the records from before the practical began."
"Hmm. So the exam is over, then."
"My lady."
Isabel's voice dropped a little lower.
"Don't tell me you're recalling your terms with Lady Velloa?"
"Not recalling. It was the original arrangement."
"Lady Velloa is not in a normal state right now."
"I know."
I looked down the corridor of the medical wing.
"Which is why I won't pull her out of it just yet."
"Am I to trust that?"
"Half of it."
"As untrustworthy as ever."
"Was that a compliment?"
"An insult."
I laughed and started walking.
The corridor of the medical wing was unnaturally quiet.
It should have been filled with the groans of injured students and the footsteps of healers. Instead, everyone seemed to be holding their breath.
A student had died during the exam.
That one sentence appeared to have pressed down over the entire Academy.
"My lady. Do you truly intend not to bring up the matter with Lady Velloa today?"
"Isabel."
"Yes."
"Do I really look that oblivious to you?"
"Not oblivious—deliberately ignoring it and pretending not to see, perhaps?"
"That's harsh."
It wasn't wrong, so I let out a small laugh.
The exam was over, which meant my bargain with Roseline was approaching its conclusion.
The clothes I had chosen for her, one question for every wrong answer.
And the fact that Roseline herself had accepted those terms.
But raising it right now would spoil the taste of it.
Roseline had not yet surfaced from Marien's death, and her bond with Chloe had cracked.
So I had to wait.
Not until the wound healed—but until Roseline learned to hide it.
That was when I would bring it up.
Roseline's room was at the far end of the corridor.
The door wasn't fully closed, and a faint voice slipped out through the gap.
"...I'm sorry."
It was Chloe's voice.
Neither sharp nor lively as usual—a voice worn out from crying for a long time.
"Roseline. I... I don't think I can look at your face right now."
"Chloe."
"I know. I know you didn't do it on purpose."
Chloe forced her breathing steady and went on.
"I know. If you hadn't brought back the Signal Stone, no one would have ever found us. If you hadn't been there, I might be dead too."
"......"
"But."
There her voice broke apart.
"I still can't look at you. Not right now."
Through the gap in the door, I could see Roseline's hand.
Though her bandaged hand held nothing at all, her fingers were frozen stiff, as if she still couldn't let go of something.
"I'm sorry."
It was an apology that came far too late. And one packed with far too many meanings.
For failing to protect Marien.
For following Theodore.
For being unable to speak the truth.
There was no way a single word of apology could cover all of it.
Chloe did not answer.
Only a long silence remained in the room.
Isabel asked carefully from behind me.
"Will you go in?"
"Wait."
I looked through the gap in the door.
Roseline sat on the edge of the bed, head bowed, unable to look at Chloe.
Barely a few steps separated them, yet absurdly, that distance seemed enormous.
"I don't even know what I saw."
Roseline's shoulders trembled, very faintly.
"That's..."
"Don't."
Chloe shook her head.
"If you try to explain it now, it'll only get stranger."
"......"
"So just... later. Let's not look at each other right now."
Roseline couldn't answer.
Chloe rose from her seat. Her body swayed, but she braced herself against the wall and held on.
Roseline reached out to grab her, but her hand closed on empty air and fell back down.
As Chloe walked toward the door, I stepped one pace aside.
The door opened, and Chloe looked at me.
In her eyes remained exhaustion, hostility, and a terror not yet sorted through.
"......"
Chloe said nothing.
Neither did I.
The moment I spoke, the girl might shatter—but there was no need to break her. Chloe was someone Roseline needed.
Chloe passed me by and walked toward the end of the corridor.
"Are you not going to follow her?"
"Me?"
"No. I meant Lady Velloa."
"I can't. If I go in now, I really think it would be the end."
Roseline was still sitting on the edge of the bed.
She was staring at the door Chloe had left through, yet her eyes looked firmer than ever before.
As I thought.
Roseline does not break.
She simply has too many things she must hold onto, and so she can no longer reach out even one hand properly.
I knocked lightly on the door.
Knock, knock.
Roseline's gaze turned slowly toward me, and the moment she saw me, her face went rigid.
"Am I interrupting?"
"...Please leave."
"I'd rather not."
I smiled and stepped into the room.
"Finish up your investigation?"
"That's none of your concern."
"I got mine too. The old men sure had a lot of questions."
Roseline's brow twitched faintly.
"What did they ask?"
"When I went down. Why I went down first. How far I'd extended my familiar. What I saw on the lower stratum."
"......"
"Where I last saw Theodore. What state Marien was in."
Roseline's fingers went stiff.
"You must have gotten the same."
"Stop."
"Why?"
"I hate hearing that name come out of your mouth."
"Theodore? Or Marien?"
The blood drained from Roseline's face in an instant.
I took a step back at once.
I mustn't tear her open too much.
Not yet.
"I'm sorry."
"So you do know how to say that."
"Once in a while."
"I find that hard to believe."
When I sat down in the chair beside the bed, Roseline looked at me with undisguised displeasure.
"They've cut the remaining exam schedule short."
"...I see."
"You don't seem very interested."
"Is that what matters right now?"
I tapped the armrest lightly with my fingertip.
"Well. Between us, it does."
Roseline's expression hardened.
She seemed to have caught on to what I was saying.
"Serena. Are you bringing that up now?"
"No. Not today."
"Then why mention it at all?"
"So you don't forget."
"......"
"The exam is over, so our bargain needs its proper ending."
Roseline clenched her teeth.
"Marien is dead."
"I know."
"Chloe says she cannot bear to look at me."
"I heard."
"They'll keep investigating us."
"Likely so."
"And even so, you insist on saying this now?"
Roseline was shaking, but she did not yield.
Even on the verge of collapse, she was raising something up from within herself. That was Roseline's nobility. Even in the moment she was falling apart, she tried to separate the things she should be ashamed of from the things she must protect.
Which made me want her all the more.
"A promise is a promise, after all."
Roseline's eyes brimmed with loathing.
"You truly are the worst."
"I know."
"And knowing that, you continue anyway?"
I looked her straight in the eye and said,
"Because I have to do it while you still have the strength left to hate me."
Roseline swallowed hard.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"If I demanded it after you'd completely fallen apart, where's the fun in that?"
"You..."
"So not today."
I rose from my seat as I answered.
"Get some rest. The investigation isn't finished either, is it? They'll call you in again. And Chloe will avoid you for a while yet."
"So you didn't come to comfort me."
"I never was."
"Then why did you come?"
I stopped halfway to the door.
"To check."
"On what?"
"Whether you can still hate me."
Roseline didn't answer.
I smiled.
"Thankfully, you still can."
Roseline was watching me.
Fury. Wariness. Guilt.
And a very faint thread of exhaustion.
That crack was barely wide enough to slip a single slender thread through—but it was enough.
"I'll come again."
"Don't."
"Sorry. Can't promise that."
I stepped out of the room.
Isabel was waiting.
"Are you finished?"
"Yes."
"Was Lady Velloa all right?"
"She hasn't broken yet."
Isabel fell briefly silent.
"Is that a relief to you, or a disappointment?"
I didn't answer.
Just then, a commotion rose outside the medical wing.
When I approached the window, I could see black carriages rolling in through the Academy's main gate.
They looked like nothing special, but the people riding inside them were another matter entirely.
When I suddenly fell silent, Isabel asked, puzzled.
"Do you know them?"
"Not personally."
"Then..."
"Geumeoncheong."
"I beg your pardon?"
Isabel asked again, looking as though she'd heard the name for the first time.
Of course she didn't know it. That was normal.
It was a name no one was supposed to know.
I watched the people descending from the black carriages.
"I assumed they were just imperial inspectors."
"Aren't they?"
"They're inspectors, all right—but not the ones here to uncover the accident."
Isabel quietly waited for the rest of my answer.
"They've come to shut everyone's mouths, rather."
Men in black gloves were walking toward the medical wing.