Chapter 167
Chapter 167
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 167
Chapter Title: Something Other Than Aegis
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We ended up moving on without finding even a single clue about where the missing Collette or Dylan might be.
I felt uneasy about taking a religious symbol from someone else's home without permission, but it seemed necessary to confirm what Collette—who followed the "Executors of Aegis"—actually believed in.
‘It has nothing to do with me. If anything, it’s more accurate to say she changed her mind because of me.’
The pendant rattling in my pocket every time I walked was incredibly bothersome.
A short while later.
We locked the door with the key Dylan had given us and headed toward the Wooden Cross dormitory.
“Ah, you’re back.”
Just then, Judith’s voice came from afar.
As usual when she was dressed casually, Judith approached us with her ponytail tied low.
But there was something off.
“Did something happen?”
I drew closer to Judith and examined her complexion.
There didn’t seem to be any major changes at first glance, but upon closer inspection, she clearly looked exhausted.
“Hmm.”
Judith seemed to be pondering something before closing her mouth again.
Judging by her uneasy demeanor, it didn’t appear to be anything good.
“The interrogation was unusually intense. It felt like I was the criminal.”
“Interrogation? Wasn’t it just a reference interview or something?”
“…No, forget it. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
When I pressed her again, Judith shut her mouth, looking tired.
My mind grew complicated.
What could have happened in yesterday’s report that warranted such intense questioning for Judith?
Was the Student Council still planning to use me as a scapegoat for something?
Had I been mistaken in thinking Makina had become even slightly amicable?
A whirlwind of thoughts crossed my mind.
“Anyway, they asked how I found out about the incident, what I’d been doing the past week or so, that sort of thing. I imagine you all got similar questions.”
“…They don’t seem like questions we can’t answer, but it still feels off.”
I felt sorry for Judith, who had gone through this ordeal because of me.
“But they don’t seem to think Arma is involved in the incident. Otherwise, they wouldn’t let us meet and talk like this without isolating us.”
“That’s true. If they suspected we were involved, they’d think we were coordinating our stories, but they haven’t taken any such measures.”
Shirley responded to Judith’s words.
There was some truth to that.
But Judith just shrugged her shoulders.
“As I always say, I’m a suspicious foreign exchange student. Even with something like this, I’m not all that surprised.”
We all fell silent at Judith’s words.
All we could offer someone enduring hardships we’d never experienced were simplistic remarks like “The Student Council sucks.”
In the heavy atmosphere, Judith crossed her arms and grinned.
“The reason I didn’t go with you was just in case someone was tailing us. It wasn’t because of the intense interrogation, so don’t worry.”
“Oh. About that, the three of us were enough. We didn’t find much in the way of clues.”
“Better than nothing, I suppose. Anyway, let’s head in before it gets too late. We’ll end up watching the sunrise on the street at this rate.”
“Yeah. I’ll explain the rest once we’re inside.”
Theodore, who had been silently listening to our conversation, took the lead.
In the midst of it all—and this might sound silly—but seeing him head to my room more naturally than I, the actual owner, was both amusing and oddly reassuring.
.
.
.
“Hmm.”
When I explained what had happened at Collette’s place, Judith closely examined the pendant on the table.
“A hawk symbol… I’ve never seen it before either. It might really be connected to the indigenous faith of Hazard Island.”
Judith impassively laid out the velvet cloth, the angel statue, and the pendant in order on the table.
It recreated the small shrine just as we’d first discovered it in Collette’s room.
“For now, based on what you said, if there’s this much dust buildup, it’s safe to assume the nurse named Collette has already converted.”
“And the religion she converted to… is about you, Senior Arma?”
“Huh? …Hearing it like that makes me uneasy all over again.”
This was hardly a topic fit for cadets of the academy.
Moreover, the fact that I was at the center of it was quite shocking.
“It’s hard to imagine Arma’s followers have grown into any kind of organized group. They haven’t shown themselves publicly, either.”
“That’s what I think too… but I’m living communally here. I’m not some mysterious saint holed up somewhere. I’ve been going about my daily life, and nothing’s happened until now.”
It was a different matter from the cadets chasing me, calling me an Executor of Aegis.
Within the academy, earning nicknames like Aegis’s blue lightning or Executor wasn’t all that rare.
In a closed society teeming with immature teens and twenties, idolizing or rivaling someone happened as naturally as breathing.
‘But it’s rare for that to spread to civilians.’
For example, it wasn’t uncommon inside the academy to hear someone referred to as “that guy, Arma Kruz, the shooting captain of Wooden Cross,” but it was rare to hear the same outside.
Because the primary environments we shared were different.
“What’s been bothering me is how Collette drew a line between herself and the followers who chase me inside the academy.”
No matter that she was a nurse affiliated with Aegis Academy, Collette was a local.
And based on the evidence we’d found today, she was presumably a believer in Hazard Island’s indigenous faith.
For such a Collette to revere me—a mere cadet—as an Executor of Aegis.
“It feels like things are spiraling in a direction I can’t handle, and it’s unsettling.”
From a frail merchant’s son who’d entered mid-term via donation to this remote academy, to someone who’d overcome all sorts of trials as proof of Aegis’s omnipotence—an Executor.
The wildly dynamic arc was hard to fathom, drawing a wry smile from me.
The fact that neither the former nor the latter had been enjoyable was the most troubling part.
“Can’t handle it? Why not?”
“Hm?”
“Ah, was that a weird thing to say?”
The one questioning my words was none other than Shirley.
Looking troubled, as if she’d spoken without thinking, Shirley hesitated before opening her mouth.
“Of course, Senior’s current situation is terrible, and I don’t think it’s good that these things keep happening… but you believe there’s a way, right? That’s why you’ve held on this far?”
It would be a lie to say there was no hopeful outlook at all.
Half-resigned, yet on the other hand, searching for an escape.
Even I, the person involved, hadn’t been able to name that strange feeling, but Shirley boldly labeled the emotion.
“You’re holding onto hope. Don’t give up on something like this. I’ll help however I can.”
To Shirley, these events were just “something like this”—one passing ordeal in a long, dark, rugged path.
Simple in hope, complex in despair, she was making a straightforward hopeful assessment.
“…Yeah, I haven’t given up.”
And neither had I.
So rather than fearing what the future might bring, I wanted to seek paths that opened more possibilities.
“Thanks.”
“Ehh, I didn’t say it to hear that…”
Our deaths all hung in the balance, but to Shirley—who knew nothing of it—my troubles were those of a complete stranger, offering her no personal gain.
A way of life that ignored pros and cons was incomprehensible to me, a merchant’s son.
But that was precisely why Shirley stayed by my side.
“Anyway, let’s investigate this group using the hawk symbol a bit more. But there’s one thing I need to ask of you all.”
The dormitory lounge fell deathly silent once more.
“We have to keep this investigation under wraps. Proceed as discreetly as possible. Since Dylan and Collette are still missing, we don’t want anything affecting them.”
I still didn’t know if this symbol was connected to their disappearances.
But I didn’t want to tip anyone off and risk harm coming to the two who might be detained.
“Us non-locals quietly investigating the locals’ indigenous faith…”
Shirley wrinkled her nose and tilted her head.
Of course, it wouldn’t be easy.
“I’ll do my best.”
On the contrary, Theodore was fired up.
‘This guy’s reacting to danger again.’
What should I call his habit of diving into fire pits out of curiosity? Nothing but “madness” came to mind.
Unable to hide my complicated feelings, I looked at Theodore.
Theodore stared back at me with an expression asking if I had something to say.
“You absolutely have to go to Arthur’s promotion exam tomorrow.”
“Ah.”
“‘Ah’ is not the response, you heartless guy. Arthur’s a really good kid.”
“Not particularly.”
“This little squirt keeps nitpicking what I say.”
For a fleeting moment—barely perceptible—a look of injustice flashed across Theodore’s face.
But when I dismissed it without intending to respond, he turned his head and shut his mouth.
“Judith and Shirley are going as helpers, so of course I’m going too. We leave together tomorrow. Got it?”
“Understood.”
Judith, who had been listening quietly to our exchange while staring at the angel statue, lifted her gaze and spoke.
“About that promotion exam—your opponent is Adrian Nel Elman.”
“Oh.”
Finally, I’d get to see the face of the “elite said to leave his mark on history” from the Silver Chalice, a black mage from the Thorn Crown Class rumored to be as much of an eccentric as they come.
“Is it because of last year’s incident that no Master Class seniors are participating?”
“Probably.”
It might seem odd that no Master Class cadets were participating in a Master Class promotion exam.
I’d thought the same. Until just two years ago, the format had been to challenge a Master Class cadet and win a match for promotion.
But around this time last year, after two cadets’ promotion exam fight turned unexpectedly serious and nearly ended in mutual destruction, it had changed to this.
“Adrian Nel Elman’s been dodging all academic admin stuff so far, hasn’t he?”
“Makina apparently bet him that if he didn’t help this time, she’d expel him.”
“So he skipped school events but still wants to graduate?”
“Guess that’s fame for you.”
Adrian Nel Elman probably had his grievances too.
He’d only dodged school events not even in the curriculum, and major incidents had occurred each time, so his judgment had been right.
‘Though that makes me feel a bit hard done by? I burned like firewood and then got dunked in ice water.’
If I were steel, it would’ve been intense tempering, but as a human, it dragged me into even more incidents afterward.
Dylan came to mind again, weighing on my heart.
“For now, the Student Council’s tracking Dylan too, so let’s focus on what we can do.”