Chapter 55
Chapter 55
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 55
Chapter Title: Interval of Misfortune (3)
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Arthur had grown a little gaunt.
He didn't show the dryness or fragility unique to the sick, so it seemed he hadn't been bedridden the whole time.
I had considered heading back if he looked seriously ill, but even that wasn't the case.
"Arthur. You feeling okay? I heard you were pretty sick."
"...Yes. But isn't that a question I should be asking?"
"Well, me. As you can see. I could be even healthier than you."
"Past tense..."
"If not for what happened just a little while ago."
The hole in my stomach had been neatly healed by Makina.
I had passed out once and been carted off to the hospital, but that wasn't due to any bodily damage.
So normally, I should have been in better shape than Arthur, who had mild amnesia, but unfortunately, I wasn't at full strength.
Arthur's gray eyes, nearly white, turned toward me.
Just that was enough to make it feel like all my hidden weaknesses were being laid bare.
"Did you hurt your leg?"
"Hmm, as expected, can't fool a swordmaster."
At my response, Arthur made a strange expression.
It was indescribable, utterly unreadable.
According to Judith, swordsmen at Aegis Academy learn to mask their expressions first and foremost, but that wasn't the only reason.
It didn't seem like a conversation for lingering outside, so when I shut my mouth, Theodore cut in.
"Arthur, I have a favor to ask."
"Sure."
Arthur agreed readily, without even hearing the request.
The two of them must have built up that level of trust.
'There must have been something unusual between them since they were kids.'
I couldn't help recalling the words Arthur had muttered in his delirium.
Arthur probably didn't want to tell me about such personal matters, but I couldn't pretend I hadn't heard them.
"Anyway, it's been a while."
"Glad to see you looking healthy."
"Thanks to you."
Arthur's attitude was brighter than expected.
Almost excessively so.
I followed behind him toward the dormitory where the Crown of Thorns Class majors lived.
'Coming back here again brings back memories.'
The dim interior of the dormitory didn't emit a particularly different atmosphere even in daylight.
If anything, with winter approaching, it had only grown starker and more desolate.
Gazing at the scenery outside the window where leaves were slowly falling, I imagined the dormitory in winter.
Dark rooms, cadets absorbed in research and silent, the isolation stirred by the cold season...
-Creak.
And the creaking sound unique to this wooden structure as it settled and shifted.
I entered Theodore's room, not far from Arthur's.
"Still a tidy chaos in here."
"Pardon?"
Theodore didn't keep his room dirty.
Yet there were so many questions about why it was organized no better than this.
The haphazardly folded blanket barely qualified as a problem.
Books on the shelf that weren't fully pushed in, research materials grouped by use but not neatly stacked...
Everything in Theodore's room was organized yet unorganized.
"It's odd. I think it's perfectly orderly."
"..."
Then Arthur caught an ink bottle tumbling from Theodore's clothes to the floor under the desk and placed it in the corner.
'Must happen all the time.'
I smiled inwardly, reminded of Theodore's oddly endearing quirks.
"Arthur, sit here. Arma Cruise, you sit there."
"Okay."
Theodore pulled two folding chairs from the closet, set them facing each other, and sat on a backless stool himself.
He then took out two notes from the small guest teatable in front of it, ones he had been keeping.
The action was so natural that I didn't even have time to comment on the chairs coming from the closet.
"I was wondering if these two are in the same handwriting."
"Handwriting?"
Arthur carefully examined the two notes Theodore had pulled out.
"This one has two different handwritings. And the content is disturbing."
The one Arthur pointed to was the note that had come with the loaned book and bundled belongings from the servant.
That bizarre note from the self-proclaimed guardian angel who vowed to protect me apparently looked suspicious even to Arthur.
"Ah, I'll explain that. Actually, someone forged my handwriting recently. It bugged me, so I decided not to leave my handwriting on official documents."
"So someone deliberately imitated your sloppy handwriting?"
"Exactly."
"And this name? Where was that written?"
"Library checkout log."
"Hmm..."
-Scribble scribble.
He looked unconvinced, but Arthur seemed somewhat persuaded.
Then he pulled a sheet of paper and a fountain pen from Theodore's desk and scribbled something.
On the paper were several circles, slanted consonants at certain angles, periods shaped almost identically copied.
Then Arthur handed me a fresh sheet and pen.
"Write your name in your normal handwriting and your sloppy one."
"Ah, uh, okay."
After I wrote 'Arma Cruise', Arthur magically mimicked my handwriting almost perfectly below it.
"A person's handwriting reveals their personality. Neat, upright script without sloppiness usually indicates strong patience."
"Ahem..."
It felt awkward having my personality analyzed right in front of me.
Arthur pressed on regardless.
"The choice to deliberately write sloppily stems from Arma Cruise senior's naturally angular and precise handwriting, right?"
"Yeah."
"But even so, you can see certain habits remain intact."
Arthur handed me the paper he'd been scribbling on.
The circles and periods he'd just drawn must have been to illustrate this.
"It's spot on."
Arthur had pinpointed my handwriting habits just from the forged note.
If this wasn't magic, what was?
As Arthur said, I marveled at the traces of my specific habits.
"Even if you draw circles clockwise instead, the starting and ending points are ingrained in Cruise senior's mind."
"True."
"Even twisting the slant differently, where to apply pressure and where to ease off is dictated by your original habits."
"Yeah."
My efforts suddenly felt a bit futile.
"So we can conclude this note was indeed imitating Arma Cruise's actual handwriting. But the part I find strange is elsewhere."
"What part?"
"It's less like copying handwriting and more like drawing it."
"Meaning—"
"Both were drawn by someone who can't read the letters, imitating Cruise senior's script. It's clearly the same person's work."
Theodore nodded as if he'd expected as much at Arthur's words.
But I was speechless for a different reason.
If someone was deliberately trying to trap me, I'd assumed it had to be an Aegis Academy cadet.
Yet it was hard to imagine an illiterate in this elite officer academy.
"There's another reason I suspect the so-called guardian angel who wrote this note is illiterate."
Arthur laid the two notes side by side and tapped a specific section with the fountain pen tip.
"Look. If the original—Cruise senior's handwriting—fits a 2:3 rectangle ratio, the imitation in the first note Theo received is narrower."
"You're right. That's exactly what Theodore said when he first showed me this note."
I recalled what Theodore had said a few weeks ago when he handed me the first note.
-The letter itself had messed-up character width and spacing. You should check if your notebooks or letters have been stolen.
There was evidence of imitating my handwriting, but with botched width and spacing.
Arthur nodded and continued.
"This happened because there were too many characters for the paper's width. They deformed the 'drawing' they were copying to fit the paper. Not something someone who can read and write would do."
"Definitely."
Normally, literate people line-break at appropriate spots or shorten the text when paper runs low.
But the note Theodore received had oddly compressed character widths and awkward line breaks.
"Composing a sentence like this without knowing how to write isn't easy."
"So the person who wrote this note and the one imitating my handwriting are different. They showed their imitation to someone else to copy, right?"
"Yes."
If true, it was an bizarrely elaborate scheme.
Unless they had a massive grudge against me, there was no reason to go to such lengths.
Even with Arthur's sharp deduction, some unease lingered, but there was nothing more to uncover now.
Theodore, who had been listening, stared intently at the two papers and spoke.
"That means accomplices."
It was something I couldn't bring myself to say.
I replied with a heavy expression.
"Thanks for the clean analysis. Feels like I came to remove a worry and picked up another."
"I heard all the culprits related to Cruise senior were expelled. This isn't over?"
"I don't want to believe it either."
"This calls for clear assistance."
"Yeah, but I won't tell the student council."
Makina had closed the case.
Much as unease remained, I didn't have enough grasp of the situation to challenge her decision.
"Arma Cruise's judgment makes sense. Arthur, keep it quiet too."
"I won't say anything."
Was this the same resolute Arthur from when we were alone?
Paranoid or not, with Theodore here, Arthur seemed much softer.
"Sorry for barging in like this and taking up your time. You must be tired—go rest. Theodore, thanks for making time."
"No problem."
"—I have a proposal."
It was the moment I gathered the papers from the desk to leave.
Arthur placed his hand on the note I was picking up, pressing it down so I couldn't take it.
"Until we catch this guardian angel, let us help you."