Chapter 50
Chapter 50
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 50
Chapter Title: The Culprit Isn't Here (2)
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“Hold on. What do you mean—”
“Oh dear, time has flown by already. We'll proceed with the rest as per procedure, so please rest easy and wait.”
“Makina!”
The moment I tried to get up and step away from the bed, Makina pressed her index finger to her lips and shushed me.
Then she pointed at Theodore with her left hand.
“We have a patient here, don't we?”
Makina's actions seemed, at first glance, like those of someone deeply considerate.
That made sense, as her benevolent smile and gentle gestures carried a strange persuasiveness that made one trust everything she did.
But was Makina really holding me back out of concern for Theodore at this exact moment?
Once I closed my mouth, Makina added, “Well then,” before turning and leaving.
“Haah…”
Had I been played by Makina?
I might have looked anxious because I wanted to keep quiet about what happened in the cave—specifically, Theodore's actions and words.
Makina had exploited that psychology of mine.
In fact, even after I revealed that she could track my location with the resonance bracelet, she managed to stop me from pressing the issue.
“I'm weaker than I thought.”
A cold decisiveness that contrasted sharply with her saintly, compassionate appearance.
A shrewdness in steering conversations to her advantage, and an ironclad refusal to ever show her hand.
Then there was her audacity and the slyness of a strategist.
There probably weren't many young people her age who could stand up to Makina.
‘She definitely has an interest in me.’
Unfortunately, the interest Makina had in me felt less like romantic attraction and more like the hunger of a predator observing its prey.
She'd poke and prod at me occasionally, and sometimes flip me over to expose my weaknesses and threaten.
To avoid waking Theodore, who was sleeping soundly, I quietly lay back down on the bed.
***
The next day.
After packing our belongings for discharge and sitting on the bed facing each other, we pieced together what had happened yesterday.
Just like Shirley, Theodore remembered nothing.
The good news was that he did recall tailing the Literature Club on his own and urging me to leave after looking deeper into the cave.
“Why were you so insistent on leaving? Did it suddenly get scary?”
“…No.”
“I'm not grilling you, just curious. You went pale after seeing that pathetic magic circle and kept pushing to go.”
In response to my words, Theodore fiddled pointlessly with the eyepatch in his hand.
Thanks to a good night's sleep, he had mostly returned to his usual composed young master demeanor, though not perfectly.
He was still a bit pale from blood loss, but his artificial eye fit without issue, and having changed out of his blood-soaked clothes, he no longer looked like someone who'd been through yesterday's ordeal.
“…”
“Ignoring me again?”
“I'm thinking.”
“About what?”
“May I speak frankly?”
I started to worry if I was interrogating him too harshly right after he'd gotten up, but then Theodore lifted his head and looked straight at me.
His vivid violet eyes, like irises, gleamed with sharpness but trembled with anxiety at the same time.
I pondered what it was that Theodore was overly fixated on.
“By any chance, did you ‘foresee’ it? That scene back then.”
“…”
His lack of denial suggested I was probably right.
Theodore bit lightly on the inside of his lip anxiously before opening his mouth.
“It was when I was very young. As I mentioned before, I can't foresee anything anymore. But…the visions from my childhood still come true.”
“A scene from your childhood foresight…”
Back when Theodore's precognition ability was still intact.
I'd vaguely heard stories about the young heir of the White family who eerily predicted futures involving death.
It was something I'd heard as a child and dismissed as unbelievable until experiencing it myself, so I'd forgotten about it until now.
‘Wait, death?’
The thought suddenly hit me, and I widened my eyes as I stared at Theodore.
Reading my expression, Theodore nodded before I could even ask.
“When I first peeked inside from the cave entrance, the angle and location didn't match my memory, so I didn't realize. But the second time I looked inside…”
“It matched the place and situation from your childhood foresight?”
“Yes.”
“So, you die there?”
“…I don't know. This is the honest truth.”
Theodore had tried to drag me away from that spot, fearing his foresight might belatedly come true across time.
And right after that.
Unfortunately, something miraculously aligned, allowing the Literature Club's summoning ritual to succeed—and summoning the Theodore from the future. That was my current guess.
“Well, whatever. You're fine, I'm fine. The Literature Club guys are probably fine too. Good thing the foresight was wrong.”
“…Yes.”
Whether due to bad memories about his foresight, Theodore's shoulders slumped.
I grabbed my belongings and his, then pulled the dejected Theodore to his feet.
He fluttered in surprise for a moment before matching my pace.
“It's not all bad. Thanks to that, nothing happened.”
At my words, Theodore fell into thought.
I didn't press with a forced “Right?” until he finally nodded.
My eyes still heavy with fatigue, I turned Theodore around and sent him to his dormitory before turning back.
“Ugh.”
And came face-to-face with two furious women… Shirley and Judith.
‘Shouldn't have sent Theodore off…’
Both Shirley and Judith were thoroughly pissed, coming to pick me up after discharge without saying a word.
It sent chills down my spine.
Judith especially rarely got mad at me, but now she was completely furious, her eyebrow twitching.
“Um…”
“Shut it.”
“…”
Having apparently come from weeding duty, Shirley—in work clothes, straw hat, and leather gloves—glared back and forth between Judith and me before clapping her hands clean.
“Senior, you told the Classics Club every little detail but didn't say a word to Judith Senior?”
“It's not like that…”
“There's a limit to how thoughtless you can be. It's like ripping your friend's heart to shreds.”
“I have no excuses.”
The more I defended myself, the angrier they'd get.
I bowed my head low and waited for their anger to subside.
Shirley seemed somewhat appeased after venting at me and glanced between Judith and me, gesturing for me to grovel more.
“It was an important time, and I didn't want to add worries. Plus, I thought it was no big deal.”
“Hoo.”
“I'll just stay quiet from now on.”
Arms crossed, Judith tapped her fingers before sharply turning to face me.
“But let's make one thing clear.”
“Huh? Uh, yeah.”
“The Literature Club was just one trigger among many. I let it slide thinking you'd tell me yourself eventually, but if it goes too far, I'll interrogate you.”
Wasn't this already an interrogation?
My throat felt parched from guilt and frustration.
At the same time, I vaguely sensed Judith's patience was running thin.
For now, it seemed to stay within her defined “limits,” so I nodded.
“Anyway, it feels refreshing without the sick one dragging us down.”
Judith slowed her steps toward the main building of the Wooden Cross Class.
There, a wooden bulletin board much larger than us was posted, and right in the center was the disciplinary result for the “devil worship incident” from two days ago.
〔In accordance with Article 1, Clause 2 of the academy rules prohibiting private magic due to immersion in heresy, the following notice is issued.〕
“Seven offenders expelled…”
“Whoa, isn't that too harsh?”
I'd guessed Makina drew her sword to make an example of all the recent incidents, but this was harsher than expected.
Even if they were immersed in heresy and doped up into stupors, most Aegis Academy cadets were nobles' children.
‘Even so, expulsion for all involved, not just the ringleaders?’
I recalled my conversation with Makina yesterday.
She'd said all the culprits in the incidents related to me had been caught.
But I didn't believe her.
Makina surely knew I wouldn't.
“This feels off.”
Shirley nudged my shoulder with her elbow as I pondered deeply.
Judith, who had been pressuring me silently with fake anger, couldn't hide her puzzled expression this time either.
“The Literature Club's private magic couldn't have been that impressive.”
Though she was in the Swordmaster track, the reason Judith was in Wooden Cross instead of Thorn Crown House was simple.
Her magical aptitude was relatively low.
“Yeah. Even if we poured everything into it, we'd probably just summon jellyfish from the island seas.”
Shirley, who'd been listening quietly, chimed in.
Magical aptitude ultimately boiled down to innate mana quantity and magical sense.
Judith lacked strong magical sense, and Shirley had low innate mana.
That was true for most in Wooden Cross House.
Normally speaking.
‘The Literature Club's magic was something even Dylan—who transferred mid-way from Thorn Crown House—could dispel easily.’
Like the stunned Shirley and Judith, I didn't think the Literature Club had any real magical prowess.
Even Theodore judged it pathetic just from a quick glance inside the cave.
Yet those Literature Club members, lost in frenzy, wielding violence, dancing clumsily in their summoning ritual—it had seemed partially successful to me.
I recalled the Literature Club's summoning chant.
-The most resentful soul crouching within the corpse!
-Heir of death, agent of darkness, vengeful spirit who met death on this land!
Was it my imagination that their drug-fueled rambling chant coincidentally pointed to someone?
Or had it accidentally aligned with some incident here—past or future—actually summoning something?
And if what was summoned was ‘future Theodore’?
‘A stretch, but not impossible.’
The most resentful soul crouching within the corpse.
The vengeful spirit who met death on this land.
If that somehow affected the Theodore right there… pulling in his future self?
‘No, what am I even thinking? Is that even possible?’
My head throbbed.
The impossible assumptions and imaginations looping in my mind made me anxious.
Above all, if this hypothesis was true—if the most resentful soul who died here was future Theodore—
Would ignoring it and letting that death happen really be best for all of us?
“—Senior thinks so too, right?”
Shirley's voice snapped me back.
It felt like she'd read my mind and responded, startling me.
But then Judith added, “The Literature Club's actions weren't just that one ritual,” and I quickly nodded in agreement.
“Yeah, exactly. They were probably on drugs. I meant to tell you earlier, but a drug scandal could've embarrassed my family, so I wanted to handle it alone.”
From Shirley and Judith's exchange, it seemed they'd discussed how the Literature Club's accumulated misdeeds led to expulsion.
Shirley nodded, confirming my guess wasn't off.
“Good thing we nipped it early. If he'd gotten expelled without me landing a punch, it'd haunt me forever.”
Still in work clothes, straw hat, and gloves after nearly a week of service, Shirley clenched her fists.
I hoped this bold hero's qualities would shine someday.
I tapped the back of Shirley's clenched fist to make her unclench, then said,
“Let's go pull weeds. I'll help.”
Petty punishments set by small-minded fools held no sway over Shirley.
What weighed on my mind was the Literature Club room, probably empty by now.