Chapter 106
Chapter 106
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 106
Chapter Title: Special Report
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“Why does Sir Reynolds always act like that only towards you?”
“Probably…”
“Probably?”
“Because I’m getting in the way of his grand vision? I don’t really know. I’m not privy to Sir Reynolds’s delicate feelings.”
Ever since surviving that brush with death, Makina had closed the distance between us a bit.
Before, it felt like she was clearly drawing a line. Now, it was more like…
She was toying with that line, stepping on it playfully.
“Was it always like this?”
“Not in official settings.”
In other words, in private, she was always like that.
Makina seemed unwilling to dwell on the topic and quickly changed the subject.
“Judging by your reaction, getting help from Sir Reynolds seems realistically difficult.”
“…Yeah, definitely.”
“…”
When I fell silent, Makina stopped abruptly and turned back to me.
“But whether Sir Reynolds likes it or not, time will pass, and when graduation comes, priests dispatched from the mainland will visit for the commencement address.”
“…In that case—”
“You could ask one of them for help. Or even Cruise Cadet could go to the mainland directly.”
“No, I don’t go beyond the mainland.”
Going to the mainland would be truly dangerous.
That’s when ‘it’ might choose a host more wicked or vulnerable than me.
And that wasn’t my only worry.
‘Can I even cross the ocean safely?’
This place was an isolated island surrounded by sea on all sides.
Even on the fastest existing ship, it took about four hours and thirty minutes—and that was only with perfect weather, wind direction, and no rough waves.
Plus, the waters were shallow with many reefs, so even in good weather, if the crew’s skill wasn’t up to par, scraping the ship’s bottom was par for the course.
I had no idea why they built the academy here, but Hazard Island, where Aegis Academy stood, was both a natural fortress and a kind of prison.
‘Prison…’
Damn, thinking too much had given me another headache.
For someone who’d just survived a near-death experience a few hours ago, being in worse shape now was honestly embarrassing.
“Cruise Cadet, how about this then.”
Misinterpreting my silence due to the sudden headache, Makina spun around with a smile and said,
“Join the Student Council. You just bizarrely joined four clubs, after all. No one will think it’s strange.”
“Anyone would think it’s strange…”
What nonsense was that?
Snapping back to reality, I shook my head firmly and said,
“I’ve kept someone who needs rest for too long. Get some rest, Makina Christi. I’ll escort you.”
I said that, but it was just walking the short distance from the central building to the Black Lily Dorm. It was so short that calling it an escort was embarrassing—it was obviously a joke.
Makina gave a smile that might or might not have read my true intentions and matched my pace as we walked.
A dark night with no moonlight.
Unknowable dangers lurked, and with the anxiety that this brief peace would soon shatter, we walked slowly.
And the next day, I realized too late that I should have somehow stopped the flow of this incident.
***
-Blood-soaked campus grounds… Only two survivors among that year’s graduates…
-Who were they?
-Sigh… Arma Cruise and— Makina Christi…
On the day I’d half succumbed to madness and subjected Theodore to forced interrogation, I learned that Makina Christi and I would graduate in the same year.
Despite being a year older than me, we’d graduate together.
The words Theodore had said back then felt almost prophetic now, as Makina was now at risk of repeating a year due to Sir Reynolds’s unjust actions.
‘So it couldn’t be avoided after all?’
No matter how I struggled, it felt like I was heading toward the futures I’d seen in my dreams.
If Makina repeated the year, became my classmate, and we graduated late next spring, would all those events inevitably happen?
In my anxiety, I unwittingly clutched my head and groaned, only for Sherry, who’d been half-heartedly listening to the lecture beside me, to poke me with the rounded end of her fountain pen.
“If you keep zoning out like that and get kicked out again, Dylan the Second will become your senior.”
She even added a chilling remark.
I pretended to focus on the lesson before Sir August, who already didn’t like me, could strip away my last chance entirely.
Shifting my thoughts outward, I finally heard Sir August’s calm voice in my ear, somehow subdued and sinking.
“According to creation mythology, light and darkness are one. However, this is a metaphorical expression meaning that creation and destruction are one, just as beginnings and ends touch…”
Sir August droned on with his usual cryptic, puzzling words, continuing his lecture in a half-tranced state as if he didn’t care whether we understood or not.
I gazed hazily at him reading the creation mythology and contemporary context section, then turned my eyes away.
The Bible used in Introduction to Sacred Studies was a colorful one with illustrations, all hand-copied by monastery priests.
Magic had infiltrated printing over a decade ago, but Bibles were always replicated and distributed strictly by human hands in this handwritten manner.
-Flutter, flutter.
‘Light and darkness are one…’
Then, according to creation mythology, from the goddess’s perspective, my body now consumed by darkness was one with the Aegis Goddess.
The tale of the great being Aegis, who destroyed her own body to create the world, was indeed awe-inspiring and worthy of reverence.
Setting aside the uncomfortable fact that those immersed in it, burning with academic passion, all seemed somehow unsettling.
“Then, shall Cruise Cadet interpret this part?”
After murmuring to himself in rapture for a while, Sir August suddenly pointed at me like it was a test.
But having memorized the textbook cover to cover for today, such sudden questions held no fear for me.
“The [Weapon Against Evil] in the Genesis Myth is the sword, spear, book, and the ‘Adversary.’ Only when all these elements are present can the Genesis God Aegis’s… knight order…”
I hastily smoothed out my words and sat down.
Life at the academy meant days of habitually cramming knowledge into your head and reflexively using it.
‘Wait a second…!’
And when I suddenly realized those passages I’d never once paid attention to, I felt not religious fulfillment, but a sudden chill of fear.
‘The Genesis God Aegis’s knight order…’
Could this be the answer I’d been seeking?
Had I become the knight order of the Genesis God Aegis to confront the ‘Guardian Angel’ and subjugate it?
If so, then without realizing it, I’d simply be repeating past events.
‘No. Don’t overthink.’
I couldn’t afford to get anxious now.
I wasn’t someone capable of anything greater than what I was doing.
Pushing for more output would break me from the inside.
To avoid that, I desperately pretended to concentrate so Sir August wouldn’t notice me.
“Extra! Extra!!”
That’s when scribbled papers began scattering from the hallway windows.
“William Jones!! Didn’t I tell you if you don’t stop that stupid club activity right now, I’ll report you to the Chancellor!”
“Yeah, do whatever!”
William Jones (probably Newspaper Club), with his baker boy cap pulled low, stuck out his tongue and bolted.
The papers lingered briefly in the air before raining down into the classroom.
“W-What is this?”
I snatched one of the flying papers and read the contents.
“Senior. This is bigger trouble than we thought.”
Sherry, who’d grabbed one even faster, said with a serious expression.
“…Damn, it’s finally happened.”
The extra distributed by Newspaper Club’s William read as follows.
[Breaking News! Makina Christi, Unable to Advance Due to Major Violation of Academy Rules!]
[Sources say a notice personally written by Sir Reynolds will be posted on the bulletin board in the central building where the Chancellor’s office is located. The content states that Makina Christi, who violated the major rule against using magic to attack cadets, will be…]
“Alright, sit down right now! You there, if you keep your butt off the seat like that, do you want me to tell you what happens next?”
Sir August frantically tried to calm the excited cadets, pounding the podium with a weary, irritated expression.
Sherry and I quickly exchanged notes, organizing what we’d do after class.
.
.
.
That afternoon.
Makina’s repeat year was officially decided.
When the person in question accepted Sir Reynolds’s judgment without protest, he publicly announced the circumstances leading to her repeat.
The announcement matched the extra from the Newspaper Club almost exactly.
The most ridiculous part was the passage describing Makina’s actions toward me through legalistic interpretation.
[Magical attack directed at a non-mage cadet.]
They’d phrased “hitting an unconscious person with magic” in such convoluted terms.
And it wasn’t even true.
Lower-year cadets gathered at the bulletin board whispered in lowered voices.
“The Student Council President lynched Senior Cruise?”
“No, apparently not. Senior Cruise posted a rebuttal notice. She was in the throes of a severe chronic illness, hallucinating, so Makina took a defensive stance.”
Fortunately, thanks to the small time gap between Sir Reynolds posting the notice and the rebuttal, rumors were settling this way.
“Sir Reynolds really lacks flexibility. Tsk.”
“The President’s impressive too. She made the call to save that person.”
“Because she’s the Executor.”
Plus, my reputation had oddly risen on the weird side just a few months ago, so Makina’s reason for sacrificing herself to help me was being packaged plausibly.
In any case, with the academy abuzz, Sir Reynolds’s already tenuous authority had plummeted, while Makina’s reputation rose.
‘Is it luck, or her usual prestige shining through…’
Whatever the case, the uproar seemingly triggered by me had ultimately caused her major harm.
Theodore’s words had been a clue, but I hadn’t expected her to actually repeat a year.
Still, we’d somehow prevented her reputation from hitting rock bottom, so the incident seemed resolved better than expected.
That didn’t mean we’d stopped the repeat, though, and now Sir Reynolds would act hostile not just toward Makina, but toward me too—a new problem.
‘Exhausted.’
In this tug-of-war where gaining one thing meant losing another, with victory uncertain, my mental fatigue had reached its limit.