Chapter 30
Chapter 30
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 30
Chapter Title: Sense of Unease
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Late afternoon in the Cruise Bay Earldom.
“I had a bad feeling about it from the moment we sent him off, Mother.”
-Thud!
A hand hardened from years of gripping a sword slammed down on the desk, sending a precariously stacked pile of documents tumbling to the floor.
The beauty in riding attire, with her radiant golden hair and golden eyes, grumbled in frustration.
“An elite training officer academy, they said? What kind of elite throws rocks at people’s heads?”
“Brother got hit by a rock…?”
“That’s not all. That guy, on his stomach—”
“Luin.”
It was their mother, Tessa Cruise, who calmed Luin, who was so worked up she was about to blurt out things she shouldn’t.
Excluding Lilian Cruise, who had married and left the nest, the three women gathered here all shared the same radiant golden hair.
It was subtly different from the golden hair lightly mixed with brown of Arma Cruise and her husband, Count Joseph Cruise.
“Anyway, it’s probably best to bring Arma back for real now.”
“How did Brother end up getting hit by a rock? What happened to his stomach?”
“Bring him back as soon as possible. I have a bad feeling.”
“About Brother—”
“Let’s ask him directly. Once Arma returns.”
Luin cut off the youngest, Riche Cruise, and stared at the empty floor with her arms crossed, visibly anxious.
‘He just had to be stubborn. Holed up on that gloomy island no one can reach! He could at least be doing well.’
The women of the Cruise family had all inherited a characteristic trait from their mother, Tessa Cruise: sharp intuition.
The eldest daughter, Luin Cruise, had felt an ominous premonition from the moment her third child and only son, Arma Cruise, decided to attend the academy that disaster was bound to strike someday, but she had forced herself to ignore it.
Luin Cruise swept back her short, boyish hair and crossed her legs as she sat on the sofa.
“Anyway, it worked out. We just didn’t have an excuse to call him back.”
“…….”
Tessa Cruise pondered her eldest daughter’s words and lowered her eyes.
‘Is that really true?’
Arma Cruise, who had collapsed repeatedly from childhood, melting away Tessa’s patience.
He followed his mother around like a shadow, earning him scoldings for being spoiled, but Tessa Cruise wanted nothing more than to keep him close if she could.
If not for that sudden decision to attend the academy.
It wasn’t a great idea for her already frail son to spend his adolescence on a remote island closer to the border than the capital.
Yet she had allowed his enrollment because it was one of the rare times Arma Cruise had shown enthusiasm.
“How many years has it been since Arma last came home?”
“A little over a year.”
“And before that? He came a year ago, but when before then?”
“When he was nineteen. Just those two times.”
Hearing Luin’s answer, Tessa felt something off.
She was sure she was missing something, but she couldn’t pinpoint what.
“But he’ll graduate from the academy in just a year anyway. Why bring Brother back right before graduation?”
Unlike Luin, who kept her straight hair neatly trimmed short, the youngest, Riche, grew her curly hair down to her waist and braided it meticulously.
So while Luin vented her anxiety by constantly brushing back her hair, Riche expressed hers by twirling the ends around her finger.
At Riche’s point, Luin and Tessa looked as if they’d been caught off guard.
An intangible anxiety kept growing, driving the two into an inexplicable urgency to bring Arma Cruise back to the family home as soon as possible.
‘Why is that?’
Why did she feel this unease so strongly?
And why did this conversation feel so oddly mismatched?
Questions swirled endlessly in Tessa’s mind.
No answers came, and thus nothing was resolved.
Tessa simply recalled that after enrolling in the academy, Arma’s visits had been extremely rare, and even those were just to get seals on documents requiring the family crest.
“Arma really should come back this time… But if he doesn’t want to, there’s nothing we can do.”
A desperate longing mixed tangled with the feeling that Arma Cruise shouldn’t be called back.
The tangled thoughts soon settled quietly.
Though the silence felt unnatural, Tessa decided not to dwell on it.
***
False murder charge.
Stoning.
Magical beast attack.
Misfire accident.
The wounds had healed cleanly, but each incident had left a definite scar on my psyche.
“This is something.”
As I cleaned and set down the bloodstained gun I’d brought back, I belatedly realized it upon seeing my hand trembling pitifully.
It happened to be the day after the Autumn Thanksgiving Festival.
Fortunately, it was a weekend with no lectures today.
“Hmm.”
The trembling stops when I grip the gun, but starts again when I let go.
I quietly holstered the spare gun I’d prepared, tightened the belt, and secured it.
I’d learned two days ago that wearing it like this was the only way I could even nap.
No doubt, the future where I knock on Shirley’s door begging her to let me sleep because I’m scared of the night wasn’t far off.
-Rustle.
Lying on the bed staring at the ceiling, I tossed and turned.
Ever since I sent back the monitor who’d been following me under extended protective measures because I didn’t want more attention, I’d been in this state.
With incidents piling up one after another, the academy’s atmosphere couldn’t help but be affected, so lectures were suspended after today.
Arthur, who had vanished, still hadn’t returned, and Makina seemed to have noticed something but hadn’t taken action since I, the person involved, said nothing.
‘I heard word reached Mother too. If I take a leave of absence, I’ll have to pack up and return to the family home.’
My mother, Tessa Cruise, who had married into the Senate and received her earlship, was the 21st head of the Cruise Earl family and the leader of the rapidly expanding Cruise Merchant Guild through maritime trade.
From birth, I’d been sickly, repeatedly entering and leaving sanatoriums like it was routine, boiling Mother Tessa Cruise’s blood as the family troublemaker.
With our somewhat strict family tradition, by the time my eldest, second, and third sisters were young and already competing for headship, the weakling that I was had withdrawn early.
There were also various incidents I couldn’t tell anyone about.
Anyway, sorry to my sisters, but having twisted my mind thoroughly after withdrawing from the headship race due to physical limitations, I applied to Aegis Academy right after.
Mother, who seemed to have somewhat sensed my warped feelings, didn’t stop me from going to the academy… or so I think.
“Like I was possessed by a ghost.”
At the time, I felt like enrolling in the academy was the only way to vent that aimless rage.
I think it was resentment toward myself for not even being able to join the battles deciding victory or defeat, despite all the sacrifices made to save this one life of mine.
But after ripping Mother’s heart to shreds like that and entering the academy, to face a false murder charge, get stoned, and get shot.
Even though it wasn’t my fault, I felt so ashamed I wanted to die.
Forcing myself to sleep despite it not coming naturally, my eyes finally closed, thankfully.
Naturally, I suffered nightmares of being shot and shooting someone, but the dreams I had that night weren’t the kind that materialized and affected reality. Fortunately.
-Knock knock.
Not having fallen into deep sleep, my consciousness hadn’t fully cut off, making the dawn feel endlessly long.
Even after napping, I couldn’t shake the fatigue.
Amid that, the knock made my previously calm heart race again.
-Click.
I swung open the barrel, loaded two rounds, and cocked the hammer to chamber a bullet.
At this point, I couldn’t tell if this was excessive or justified self-defense.
‘Morning already. A bit early for someone to visit.’
Even for a close friend, it was too early to drop by unannounced.
Though in reality it wasn’t, I cleared my throat to sound as casual as possible and called out to the one who had knocked.
“…Arthur?”
“It’s Theodor.”
“A bit early to come calling like this.”
“Yes… it is.”
The voice sounded somehow dejected.
Hoping the person outside couldn’t perfectly mimic Theodor’s voice, I slowly opened the door.
‘It’s him.’
Looking as sleep-deprived as me with his hollow face, Theodor peered up at me through the open door.
The men of the White family were famous for shooting up tall like poles after adulthood.
He looked up at me now, but someday he’d surely look down.
Unlike usual, Theodor glanced at me cautiously and tried to slip inside.
“Wait, stay right there.”
I stopped Theodor from squeezing through the door gap.
Then, holding the hammer with my finger, I slowly pulled the trigger to release the chamber.
“Some bad stuff happened these past few days. One was just my misfire accident.”
“Yeah.”
“I might’ve overreacted out of anxiety.”
“…….”
Theodor didn’t seem to mind much that I’d chambered a round before inviting him in.
Well, even looking this innocent, this guy was an elite in black magic.
If needed, he could wield more force than me, so he probably wasn’t too startled even if I’d opened the door with the gun aimed.
“So what brings you here? Something wrong?”
“I have something to ask Arma Cruise.”
I let Theodor in and led him to the parlor.
The parlor was just a small space next to the bedroom, half-blocked by a wall.
Theodor followed as I led, pulled out a chair, sat, and neatly placed both hands on his knees.
I never imagined sitting face-to-face like this with Theodor just a short while ago. Human affairs are unpredictable.
“No matter how I think about it, it seems like Arma Cruise met Arthur that day, and it’s weird that you’re saying nothing, so I came.”
“Haha, straight to the point…”
Theodor, diving right into the main topic without preliminaries, wasn’t unpleasant.
I sat across from him, legs crossed, pondered, then said.
“Yeah, we met.”
“Arthur’s the one who fired the gun too?”
“Not exactly.”
It was an answer that was subtly a lie but not quite.
After all, Arthur hadn’t meant to shoot me on purpose.
But Theodor nodded as if he’d gleaned some hint from my words.
“Whether on purpose or not, it was Arthur.”
“For my part, I don’t plan to blame Arthur for that.”
“I figured you’d say that. But separate from Arma Cruise’s mercy, I want to say Arthur’s in danger now.”
“…Not me, but Arthur?”
Theodor nodded.