Chapter 27
Chapter 27
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 27
Chapter Title: What Happened at That Thanksgiving Festival (2)
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Yeah, so let's rewind to just before I got shot.
Right after quarantine was lifted, Aegis Academy's Autumn Holy Spirit Festival—the Autumn Thanksgiving Festival—kicked off almost immediately.
The Autumn Thanksgiving Festival was the academy's unique event, toned down on religious overtones for cadets of all faiths.
But since it was the Royal Aegis Academy, completely stripping away the religious elements was impossible.
As the name implied, it was also about offering the autumn harvest to the Creator God Aegis.
In any case, I was genuinely surprised by how grandly they were pulling off this autumn festival.
"Whoa."
Even for an academy full of elites, there was no need to prepare something this extravagant on a remote island in the middle of nowhere.
Wreaths encircled nearly the entire island, flags bearing the crests of the families that sponsored them fluttered everywhere, colorful garlands and vendor tents filled the academy grounds to bursting.
On top of that, the paths from the chapel to Fountain Park were lined on both sides with enormously expensive mana stone lamps that glowed on their own.
"This has to be corruption."
"Corruption? No—"
"Eek! You scared me!"
"S-Sorry."
Thanks to President Makina's special measure, we had to move in pairs of two, and my assigned partner was, predictably, Enoch Clark.
Enoch kept a slight distance but trailed me persistently, never letting his guard down.
"Um... I'm sorry it's come to this on festival day. If you had a prior arrangement with someone, you should go to them."
"No, nothing like that."
Enoch spoke in a somewhat resigned tone.
It was as if he was convinced of his own unpopularity, which was all the more regrettable to me, having witnessed his hidden power.
"Cadet Enoch... has potential."
"Potential...?"
"There are many kinds of potential. Everyone keeps an ace up their sleeve. And from what I see, Cadet Enoch has one too."
"Concealed carry isn't permitted."
"Remember this: Cadet Enoch has potential."
"......?"
President Makina needed to discover that ace Enoch had hidden in his bangs sooner rather than later....
As I just smiled without a word, Enoch tilted his head in confusion.
"Anyway, we'll just watch the sacred fire ritual at the chapel and call it done, then you can wander freely."
"I'm fine, you don't need to worry about me."
"I don't need worrying about either."
The festive atmosphere was fun, of course, but for a senior like me, it felt more like a stale year-end office party—familiar faces drinking and dancing.
But this year, perhaps to emphasize it was special, the bridges connecting the chapel and department buildings were adorned with a stunning array of lily arches.
"Saving summer flowers for autumn—impressive resourcefulness."
"All greenhouse-grown."
"Ah."
It was a bit late in the season for lilies to bloom.
Walking under the lily arches, I vaguely recalled how building greenhouses in one's capital estate had become trendy lately.
*Mother imported the bulbs for greenhouse flowers right on time.*
Two years ago around this season, Mother had foreseen the greenhouse trend from a royal exhibition.
*-They invented a frame that keeps greenhouse glass from shattering easily. Greenhouses will pop up in every noblewoman's garden.* (Mobile)
Without delay, she imported bulbs of dozens of variants from a distant land across the sea and another continent, boosting Cruise Trading Company's fame once more—that was just last year.
It was around then that I hadn't seen Mother, so time really flies.
*-Arma. Come next year, will I see your face more often?*
Having spent much of my early childhood bedridden, I was isolated in a rural sanatorium during the age when most kids throw tantrums at their families.
From age five to ten—about five years—in the countryside for recovery, by the time I reunited with Mother, we both felt like strangers.
Maybe that's why, even now as adults, there's always this awkward vibe when we meet.
*-I can figure out everything else easily, but I have no idea how to be a good mother.*
That was all Mother ever said.
I think she feels as much affection for me as I do for her.
If only our feelings were simply parent-child love.
But the peculiarities of my childhood, certain incidents, and Mother's position as head of a successful trading company made our emotions far more complex.
Her clumsy affection, rooted in guilt, was both longed-for and unwelcome.
"Maybe I should visit home this year...."
Better to end this belated teenage rebellion here.
With all the weird stuff happening this year, leaving the academy for some hometown rest wasn't a bad idea.
Thinking of winter preparations and ships home, I quickened my pace under the lily wreaths.
"I hear this year's Aegis is Miss Spencer?"
"Don't even ask. She got dragged out mid-lecture, then bolted out the window saying she'd die before fasting. They probably burst in during class fearing she'd run."
"Impressive."
Buoyed by the festival buzz, passing cadets gossiped about Shirley's heroic exploits—news I hadn't heard.
*Shirley...*
If you were getting dragged off anyway, going quietly would've been better for your dignity.
I shook my head.
Process aside, Shirley ended up selected as Aegis's incarnation, hauled away and locked in the chapel, starved for the purification rite.
"Senior Arma, flying solo this year?"
The speaker was Neon Dazani, the violinist from Wooden Cross Class known to everyone for her bubbly personality.
With her slender limbs, pink straight hair, and lovely green eyes tinged yellow, Neon was like a fresh spring flower.
But as a violinist glued to her instrument all day, those slim arms surely packed a punch.
Neon's eyes flicked briefly to Enoch standing quietly behind me, but she clearly wasn't counting the student council rep as my partner.
"Yeah. Can't exactly drag Aegis around personally."
"Ahaha!"
The academy had this odd custom: normally no pairing off, but during events and holidays, everyone suddenly went in mixed-gender duos.
I didn't like standing out, so I'd tag along with Judith or Shirley as needed, or whoever approached first.
Neon and I had wandered festivals together a couple times back when she was a freshman, for similar reasons.
Being a mutual compromise, no sweet vibes flowed, as I recalled.
Neon flashed a cute smile and bowed politely to me.
"See you later, Senior Arma."
"Take care."
Neon waved and walked off.
A sudden gust tousled my neatly combed hair.
"Chilly wind...."
Sweet floral scents filled the air, yet the autumn breeze felt piercingly cold for some reason.
Like plunging into an ice-cold barrel.
Despite my young age—relatively speaking, half a lifetime at the academy—this was the first time it felt so alien.
Like crashing an uninvited party.
Where was this unease coming from...?
"Arma Cruise."
Moments later.
Theodore White called out, his brash familiarity with my name no longer off-putting.
*Huh?*
But Arthur, his usual shadow, was nowhere.
In Arthur's spot was just one of the monitors assigned to special admits.
"Arthur?"
"His condition's been worsening since that day."
"Oh no. From the mana beast?"
I recalled the last time I'd seen Arthur.
He'd been flushed with fever, reactions a bit sluggish unlike usual.
"Not related to the mana beast incident. Just..."
"Just?"
"Fever with chest pains."
"Chest pains?"
Blood drained from me in an instant.
Staring at Theodore's prosthetic eye and Judith's prosthetic arm, how had I not sensed the wrongness?
In my dreams, it wasn't just those two who died.
In the last one, hadn't I seen with my own eyes what became of Arthur and Shirley?
Though shoved aside by Shirley before confirming Arthur's cause, if he'd been impaled through the chest by her spear, and if that affected the Arthur here...
"Where is he now? Can I go to him?"
"To Arthur? He took medicine and is sleeping..."
Before Theodore could finish.
Festival-starting fireworks boomed, drawing scattered cadets toward the chapel.
-Waaah!
"Urk, wait...!"
Bad positioning.
Excited cadets shoved for prime fireworks spots.
I was pushed farther from Theodore.
Enoch belatedly caught on and tried shoving toward him, but surrounded by dozens, even he was helpless.
"F-First, meet at the fountain! Got it?!"
"...Yes!"
These cadets were surely rushing for the day's highlight: the "Aegis Lights the Sacred Fire" parade.
Central Fountain was the parade's finale; with everyone fixated on the start, slipping through the crowd shouldn't be too hard.
"Excuse me, coming through... Ah, excuse..."
Unfortunately, unlike us near a corner, Enoch was smack in the thoroughfare.
As student council, he couldn't injure cadets, so he helplessly drifted away, stuck between pushing and not.
*Actually, perfect.*
With Enoch, I couldn't freely probe Arthur's condition.
I carefully advanced, avoiding tripping overexcited, inattentive cadets.
-Boom! Pop!
-Tap-tap... tack!
First fireworks lit a still-twilight sky, but by the second and third, full night made them stunning.
-Baaaang!
Smaller than range gunfire but relentless booms threatened deafness.
"It's Aegis!"
"Aegis!"
Finally, Shirley emerged from the chapel as Aegis's incarnation, costumed like the mythical Creator God—violet hair piled high atop her head, huge white lily adornments, white silk ribbons binding them.
Fasting had soured her expression, but to strangers, it fit the theme of divine dignity.
*If only she'd keep her mouth shut, she'd look so elegant... No, not the time.*
Sorry Shirley, but incarnation greetings could wait till tomorrow.
I reached for Theodore's receding elbow, only to be seized by someone's grip and yanked back.
In this chaos, few had the strength to extract an adult man against the flow.
Whirling in shock just as the procession began.
Backed by the biggest, flashiest fireworks, I stared into the shadowed face of my captor.