Chapter 24
“Oh, yesterday! I heard Class A and Class E had a friendly spar in Practical Class!”
“…Huh?”
At Kate’s abrupt remark, I could only let out a stupid exclamation as I hurriedly tried to think.
‘What is this?’
It wasn’t even really a thought. All I did was put a single question mark in my head.
‘Wait, wait. Didn’t she say she had something to ask about the lesson…?’
I gazed steadily at Kate. The one who had spoken seemed just as flustered; her face bright red, she had frozen stiff and was merely moving her lips.
“Um, well….”
“I’m sor—!”
I cautiously reached out to speak to her. But her reaction was faster than I was.
“I’m sorry!!”
“…Huh.”
“For lying… The truth is, from the very beginning…! I wanted to ask Instructor Haru this question no matter what….”
With her face flushed so red it looked ready to burst, Kate babbled incoherently, making meaningless gestures in every direction and spilling out one word after another.
“Miss Kate?”
“The thing is, I have circumstances I can’t talk about… I absolutely have to find out about a student named Ayla in Class A… So, I came here on the strength of a rumor without thinking, and then started making excuses…!”
“Miss Kate!”
I clapped my hands twice and called to Kate. Only then did she gasp, jerkily turn her head, and look at me.
“…Y-yes?”
“Shall we calm down first?”
I said, gently nudging the teacup in front of Kate.
“Here, have some tea.”
“….”
Only then did her bright-red face turn deathly white. With a tearful expression, Kate slowly lifted the teacup and noisily slurped down the tea.
-Clink.
After setting the teacup down on its saucer with trembling hands, Kate mumbled, her voice quivering.
“…Am I going to be disciplined?”
“No.”
I immediately shook my head.
“I’m more curious about the intent behind your question, Miss Kate.”
I folded my hands together, laced my fingers, and lightly rested my elbows on my knees as I spoke.
“You want to know about Miss Ayla?”
“…Yes.”
Apparently remembering at least that she had brought up Ayla’s name, Kate slowly nodded.
“May I ask why?”
“….”
As though reluctant, Kate kept her head bowed and glanced at me.
“You don’t have to tell me if it’s difficult.”
“N-no! I’ll tell you….”
Perhaps taking my words as something close to a threat, Kate quickly shook her head and answered.
“A-actually, I… I’ve been a longtime fan of Senior Ayla…!”
“…A fan?”
“Yes.”
Kate nodded with a determined expression. I fell silent.
It was because I couldn’t immediately think of what to say.
‘I mean, it’s been years since I’ve had a proper conversation with anyone…!’
The inside of my mouth grew parched. After desperately racking my brain, I cautiously asked Kate in return.
“I-I’m only asking in case….”
“Y-yes….”
“What is it that you like about Miss Ayla?”
Even as I said it, I thought it was a stupid question, and the instant the words left my mouth, I cringed inwardly.
‘I mean, who needs a reason to like someone…? You just like what you like.’
Thinking about it after I had said it, I realized it was an utterly old-man-like question. My mouth grew parched with self-loathing.
Talking to strangers was still difficult. Thinking about it now, it was almost astonishing that I had managed to guide the conversation with the children so naturally yesterday.
“Th-that’s….”
Flustered by my old-man-like question, Kate stammered and practically squeezed out her answer.
“I-I suppose it’s how cool she is?”
Facing Kate as she answered in an unbearably awkward voice, I gave her an equally awkward smile and said,
“Sorry for asking such a strange question.”
“N-no, it’s fine.”
Kate shook her head as she answered. What a kind girl she was.
I let out a small sigh and sipped the warm tea. Its gentle fragrance calmed my body and mind and brought me peace.
“But… there is one thing I’m curious about.”
“Y-yes?”
“You said you’re a fan of Miss Ayla, right?”
“Ah, yes! That’s right!”
Kate nodded vigorously.
“Then why did you come to me instead of Miss Ayla herself or Instructor Rex?”
I asked as I gently set down my teacup.
“It would have been easier and faster to go directly to them than to come to me.”
“Ah, um… the thing is.”
Kate briefly looked away from me, then answered hurriedly.
“I-I’m too nervous to go directly to them….”
“Ah.”
I nodded. Fair enough. Even I get so nervous when talking to Rex that I don’t know what to do with myself, so how much worse must it be for her?
…No, perhaps my situation was a little different.
“S-so, that’s why! I wanted to learn about the magic Senior Ayla uses, and her fighting style. Whether she stays cool when she fights, or gets serious when she enters combat!”
“Aha.”
“So I wanted to hear about Senior Ayla from the instructor who watched her spar… That’s why I came here despite the imposition.”
Kate bowed her head deeply and pleaded with me.
“I-I’m really sorry for lying!”
“N-no, it’s fine. I’m not bothered by that.”
I waved my hands and hurriedly tried to dissuade her. But how should I put it? I felt truly sorry to say this to someone pleading so earnestly….
“But, Miss Kate.”
“Yes?”
“I’m really sorry to say this, but… if you came here to ask about Miss Ayla, I don’t think I have anything worth telling you.”
Kate gazed at me with an unmistakably flustered, pleading expression.
But no matter how she looked at me, there was nothing I could do for her.
Because, you see.
“The thing is, I don’t really know much myself.”
“What?”
I didn’t really know anything about Ayla myself. And it made sense; the answer became clear as soon as I thought back over how yesterday’s spar had unfolded.
She had done nothing but spew mana endlessly, then forfeited on her own without casting even one proper spell.
In other words, I couldn’t give Kate the answer she wanted.
“Well, you see….”
I hesitated for a moment, then twisted my words as vaguely as possible.
My—well, the Class E representative—put up quite a fight, but her opponent was a powerful third-year ranked second. She was overwhelmed so thoroughly that the spar ended anticlimactically before there was even time to see much of anything… Something along those lines.
‘Sorry, Roxanna.’
Still, I protected your honor as much as I could.
“…Is that what happened?”
Fortunately, Kate seemed satisfied and nodded. Then, as though deliberately trying to feign composure, she raised her voice brightly.
“Ah, if it’s Senior Ayla, I can see her doing that! Thank you for telling me!”
“It was nothing. Sorry I couldn’t be of help.”
“Th-then I’ll take my leave! I’m really sorry again…!”
“It’s all right. See you Monday.”
Kate abruptly stood and bowed repeatedly. I waved her off.
-Click.
The office door closed.
Once the office was wrapped in silence again, I reclined against the sofa’s backrest.
“…Phew.”
Then, narrowing my eyes, I focused on the residual mana Kate had left behind.
More precisely, the malice she had failed to erase completely.
=
Kate was the illegitimate daughter of House Lucilante.
Kate’s father was Kalud Lucilante, the younger brother of Paris Lucilante, the current head of House Lucilante, and the family’s wastrel, once known by the nickname ‘Mad Dog of the West’.
At some point, he had become docile as though possessed, and had steadily reformed; by now, he had made a name for himself even within the family as a distinguished magic knight. Before his reformation, however, he had been an utterly promiscuous man.
Naturally, he visited brothels without discriminating between women, changed lovers three times a month, and scattered his seed recklessly. Kate was the child born of that.
Kate’s mother was not a prostitute. That was only natural. Had Kate been born in a brothel, then even if she had displayed her talent and entered the academy, she would never have harbored a desire for revenge against House Lucilante.
It was more common than one might think for a woman from a brothel to become pregnant by a stranger. This was the age they lived in. Perfect or near-perfect contraceptives like ultrathin condoms did not exist.
At best, people washed an animal’s intestines clean and turned them inside out to use them, or made something akin to a suppository out of acacia or honey.
Kate’s mother was an ordinary village girl who dreamed of rising in status and did not even know those contraceptive methods properly.
Unfortunately, she fell for the Lucilante family’s wastrel, Kalud Lucilante. She loved him passionately, only to be discarded like a worn-out shoe.
It was hardly surprising. A wastrel had merely acted like a wastrel. But the fever of love was so fierce that it could sometimes blind even a perfectly sensible person.
Kate’s mother became a single mother.
Fortunately, she was not the sort of person who took out the cause of her misfortune on her child. She decided to raise her daughter and found work as an employee at a small inn. The old man who ran the inn was not particularly unkind, and paid her regular wages enough for the two of them to live without going hungry.
Kate’s mother never got involved with another man after that.
The shock of being betrayed by her first love had been etched deep into her soul.
Every night, Kate’s mother regretted the past and suffered alone, unable to fall asleep without alcohol. She would say that the man’s face always appeared in her dreams, then get drunk enough to lose her senses and cling to her young daughter as she poured out her grievances.
Seeing this utterly unfamiliar side of a mother who was sometimes strict but always kind and benevolent would make young Kate anxious.
The bad memories of her childhood gradually took shape and turned into hatred.
Hatred for the man who had ruined her beloved mother’s life, and, by extension, a desire for revenge against the entire family that man belonged to.
That was also why she had tried to ask Haru about Ayla.
Her goal was to learn the weaknesses of Ayla, House Lucilante, and cold magic—to learn how Ayla fought, and how users of cold magic fought.
Only then could she deal with them herself.
But going directly to Rex, Class A’s dedicated instructor, carried far too much risk. He was a hero of the Seven Years’ War and a man called the strongest knight in the world. There was a high chance he had seen through her true intentions long ago.
It was fortunate that, in the midst of this, she had heard the rumor that Classes A and E had held a mock spar. She recalled Haru’s foolish appearance at the entrance ceremony, when he had made the students laugh by straining to stick his head above the tall platform hiding his face during the introduction of the new instructors. Compared to Rex, the instructor of Class E looked relatively full of openings and like a fool, so she thought she could easily sweet-talk him.
“What a useless bitch.”
Kate muttered under her breath with her face twisted in disgust, glanced back at the firmly closed office door, and walked down the empty corridor.
And a little while later.
The office door that Kate had closed so firmly slowly opened without a sound.