Chapter 29
Chapter 29
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 29
Chapter Title: Two Souls
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“Arma Cruise! Pull yourself together!”
Someone kept forcibly dragging my sinking consciousness back to the surface.
The voice didn’t belong to Judit or Shirley, surprisingly.
It was Makina Christy, the one who had consistently maintained a calm demeanor to intimidate me.
“Winter...”
“What’s with all these weird things you keep saying?”
“You’re delirious from losing too much blood! Enoch Clark! Hurry and get someone!”
It was so cold, and my throat was parched.
Even with all these people around me.
Every time I briefly opened my eyes, the ceiling changed, but the last time I did, I saw the hospital ward ceiling that had become all too familiar—nauseatingly so.
I closed my eyes again.
“No... not here again... this sucks...”
“You call that something to say right now?”
Someone pinched my nose hard with their fingers.
The grumbling voice carried a tone of near resignation.
Without even opening my eyes, I rolled over toward the direction of the voice and asked,
“Maybe I should just take a leave of absence.”
“That’s exactly what’ll happen if you keep this up.”
“I’m taking a leave!?”
“Hoo...”
I jolted upright in shock, and Judit—dressed in the fresh blue garb of the Aegis Goddess’s attendant knight—let out a deep sigh.
The last time I’d seen Judit, her garb had been soaked in blood, but the one she wore now was pristine.
She must have changed into a new one while I was out.
“Your mother, Countess Tessa Cruise, has been notified. It’s only natural when your precious golden boy takes a bullet.”
“Oh no...”
I’d committed so many acts of filial impiety from every angle that this bordered on outright treason.
Shockingly, the fact that I’d been shot mattered less to me than the fact that my mother had been contacted.
“The wound’s all healed now, though.”
“You call that something to say? If it weren’t for Makina, you’d be dead.”
“Yeah, you’re right. Where’s President Makina?”
“She’s been handling the aftermath since that day.”
“What about the festival?”
“It was announced as your accidental discharge for now, so they closed early that day and proceeded as scheduled yesterday.”
“Oh man...”
Not only had I been framed for murder, but then stoned, nearly mauled by a beast, and now shot.
Even setting aside how the incidents were escalating, it felt like every disaster started with me somehow.
“They deliberately downplayed the report on the incident. They’re worried about mass hysteria among the cadets going too far. So, about that...”
Judit rubbed her temples as if it gave her a headache, then spoke.
“No, never mind. This probably isn’t the time. Just rest up for now. If anything’s wrong, yell for help. Given your situation, there’ll be someone stationed at your door.”
I nodded.
Judit watched me for a moment, then turned and left.
I watched her go and quickly fell asleep.
It was a deep, escapist sleep that pulled me under fast.
***
I still had some lingering anemia, but they said a good meal and solid rest would cure it right up, so I returned to the dorm that same day.
Even after discharge, I spent the whole next day in a daze.
Whether from stress or not, my fever wouldn’t break, my mind wandered, and in my dreams, Arthur shot me again.
The sensation of something writhing in my gut spilling out was something I never wanted to experience again, in reality or dreams.
The day after that, Theodore showed up out of nowhere, forcing me to listen to his long, rambling apology: “I’m truly sorry, Cadet Arma Cruise. I had no idea something like this would happen...”
Not knowing the full circumstances, Theodore seemed to be blaming himself for missing me and discovering the accident late.
“But... Arthur Usher is missing...”
Well, if he’d stuck around after shooting me, I’d be in a worse spot.
I still had no idea how to face him.
If Arthur Usher had just gone on living his daily life normally from the day of the incident until now, that would be even more terrifying.
In any case, his disappearance hadn’t become big news amid the festival, and it had stayed that way.
I brushed off the flustered, babbling Theodore with an excuse about being tired.
I was just wondering if falling asleep again would bring back the shooting dream.
*Knock knock knock.*
“Yes.”
“Sorry to disturb your rest, Cadet Arma Cruise. It’s just that—”
It was a summons from Makina Christy, president of the student council.
Thanks to Makina pouring her holy power into me, the aftereffects weren’t as bad as I’d thought, so by the time her call came, I could walk and talk on my own without assistance.
By the time I reached the Black Lily House, I’d regained enough composure to greet the fidgety cadet trailing behind me with a smile.
The student council room I revisited was still overwhelmingly grand.
Or maybe it just seemed that way because of Makina sitting at the desk.
“Hello.”
“I hope you’ve been well. Is your body all right now?”
“Thanks to you.”
Makina, hands neatly folded on her lap in her upright posture, gazed at me before slowly standing.
“Please, have a seat here.”
Seated across from her at the luxurious mahogany reception table, I absently rubbed my stomach where the bullet had pierced it.
Just being aware of Makina made the spot near my navel—where her holy power had seeped in—feel ticklish.
“I know it’s too soon, but my impatience got the better of me, and I’m sorry for summoning you like this.”
“No, I understand.”
The wound itself had mostly healed the first day, to the point I could eat.
In that light, Makina’s patience in waiting this long was impressive.
Even so, she apologized politely, and I accepted it in kind.
“I won’t drag this out with a patient, so let’s get to the point. About what happened that day.”
“I don’t remember anything.”
I played dumb, knowing full well Makina wouldn’t buy it.
Makina didn’t seem to expect an easy answer from me either.
“That can’t be true.”
“I really don’t remember a thing.”
“You were rambling incoherently that day from blood loss. But now you’re clear-headed and have recalled at least some of it. And yet you don’t remember who the culprit was?”
“The moonlight was dim; I couldn’t see their face well.”
“It was a clear night without a cloud in the sky. No chance of that.”
“The culprit had their back to the moonlight.”
Makina twitched one eyebrow and tapped the desk.
Her slightly curly silver hair and her childlike pout made her look like a mischievous Cupid from a painting.
In the end, she shrugged and let out a small sigh.
“We went out on quite a limb for you here, Cadet Arma.”
“Thank you truly. They say I owe my life to you, President Makina.”
“No need.”
Makina, who had been tapping the desk in dissatisfaction at my words, lifted her left arm.
Peeking from beneath her academy uniform cloak was a slender wrist bearing the same restraint device that had been on mine just days ago.
The restraint looked profane, clashing with Makina’s saintly face.
“...Because of me?”
“I’m the student council president, aren’t I? I failed to set an example for the other cadets.”
“I’m sorry. I mean that sincerely.”
Perhaps deeming further talk pointless, President Makina fell silent.
The academy’s restraints were mainly used to bind the body and strip freedom at will.
But this was an academy training magic elites.
If simple binding failed to subdue the wearer, they could turn into one-time bombs if needed.
Despite the life-or-death emergency, Makina had violated academy rules and thus punished herself by donning the restraint.
“...”
“...”
A brief silence followed, soon broken by a knock.
“Yes.”
Few would visit Makina and me at this exact moment.
The one who appeared was Sir William Reynolds, chancellor of Aegis Academy.
Sir Reynolds was a stern-looking, irritable middle-aged man with a monocle.
His stubbornly arched eyebrows and sharply trimmed mustache amplified his prickly air.
“Good to see you looking healthy.”
He’d clearly come to see Makina, yet Sir Reynolds didn’t even glance her way and addressed me directly.
“I’m ashamed for causing such constant trouble.”
“Yes, this incident is... truly troubling. I hope you understand what I mean.”
“Yes.”
“And Arma.”
“Yes...”
Unlike his usual tone with Makina, Sir Reynolds lectured me in a rather intimidating barrage.
His nonstop scolding made my long-healed wound ache anew.
“Chancellor. Wasn’t your business with me?”
Makina shot up and positioned herself between Sir Reynolds and me.
“Providentially, I think we should wrap up today’s conversation here.”
“Anyway, I’ve said everything I can.”
“Fine, let’s leave it at that.”
Makina didn’t yield a single word.
She’d already guessed I’d recalled the culprit, so her reaction was natural.
I left the Black Lily House with the student council cadet who’d accompanied me.
-It was announced as your accidental discharge for now, so they closed early that day and proceeded as scheduled yesterday.
In any case, per Judit’s words, the incident four days ago where I was shot and collapsed had been publicly treated as my own misfire due to carelessness.
And I planned to push that narrative.
‘Good thing, actually.’
I wanted people to just think Arma Cruise was cursed with the worst luck.
Because I had no intention of admitting aloud that Arthur had shot me.
And truthfully, that wasn’t even the case.
‘Arthur definitely let go of the gun at the end.’
The loaded gun falling and firing wasn’t part of the ‘Arthur who dropped it’s’ original intent.
Thanks to that, I’d gotten off lucky with just a hole in my gut.
It had started with the barrel pressed to my forehead, so ending up with some gut piercing and blood loss delirium was a miracle.
Moreover, in that fleeting moment as Arthur’s dropped gun hit the ground, I’d had the illusion of seeing two Arthurs clashing: the one aiming at me and the one who didn’t want to.
As if two souls inside one body were vying for control.
‘That can’t be possible.’
It was absurd: two souls in one body, both belonging to Arthur.
Yet I couldn’t fully deny it, and that felt like a cruel joke.