Chapter 27
“Bullshit.”
Kate spat the words out. I had merely said that I didn’t know, but she immediately hardened her expression and bristled.
“If you really don’t know, how could you have stopped me at that crucial moment?”
“I was tailing you.”
“Tailing me?”
Kate’s eyes widened.
“When you visited my office, I attached a ‘tag’ that let me track you.”
I lightly gestured toward Kate. A translucent butterfly tinted blue by mana fluttered out from within her clothes and flew onto my finger.
“What….”
“I’m sorry for snooping around behind your back without telling you. But….”
I clenched my hand, causing the butterfly to scatter and vanish.
“Honestly, it would be a little awkward to simply let a student whose mana is practically overflowing with malice go, wouldn’t it?”
I said, letting a little hurt show. Kate scrunched up her face and muttered,
“Damn. I thought you were just a ditz.”
“That’s harsh.”
I was genuinely hurt. A ditz? It was true that I looked young and harmless, but even so, calling me a ditz was going too far.
“Anyway. I have a lot of questions for you, Kate.”
I slowly approached Kate and held out a hand.
“If there’s a reason, I’ll hear you out. So….”
“Fuck off!”
With a furious shout, Kate threw herself out the window.
-Shrrr!!
No, she tried to.
Until a red chain clamped firmly around one arm.
“Ow!!”
“Don’t be such a baby. It probably doesn’t even hurt that much.”
Kate grabbed the chain with her other hand and screamed at the top of her lungs.
“L-let go of me!”
“No.”
Sooner or later, I had expected Kate to try to jump.
So I prepared a blood magic circle in advance. The technique was called Blood Chain Art.
It was a blood magic technique that shot out chains made of blood to bind its target.
I pulled on the chain, slowly reeling in Kate as she dangled by the window with one arm bound.
“Careful, so you don’t scrape your skin.”
I didn’t forget to warn her, in case her skin got scraped against the outside wall of the building.
“Now, give me your hand. One, two.”
I approached the window, took Kate’s hand, and pulled her up.
With a grunt, Kate obediently climbed back inside, then sank heavily onto the floor and looked up at me as she muttered,
“Don’t pretend you care….”
“Of course I care. You’re a student at the academy, after all.”
I dropped onto the bed opposite her and said,
“If you weren’t a student… I would have handed you over to the guards ages ago.”
“Is that supposed to be a threat?”
“Don’t underestimate the guards. Do you know how bothersome… I mean, frightening they are?”
I sincerely advised Kate, who was scoffing at the guards.
“…Well, anyway.”
I looked steadily at Kate and asked,
“There’s quite a lot I need to hear from you.”
“….”
“Just to warn you in advance, you’d better not think you can get out of this with some half-baked lies.”
“Hah.”
Kate openly scoffed. I was somewhat hurt, but I didn’t show it as I asked her,
“Were you planning to kill Miss Ayla?”
“….”
“Aren’t you going to answer?”
But Kate merely clamped her mouth shut and glared at me.
“Well, this is awkward.”
I sighed, stood up, and approached Kate as I spoke.
“But did you know? The tail I attached to you can detect not only your location, but also the sounds around you.”
“…Sounds?”
Kate replied, looking somewhat flustered, then smiled.
“What are you going to do with that?”
“I heard something interesting.”
I bent my knees and crouched down to meet Kate’s eye level, then stared straight at her.
“The thing you showed when the barrier stone was damaged. I don’t know whether it was beastification, a simple berserk state, or a rampage… but did you intentionally trigger it using some method?”
“….”
“You don’t have to answer.”
I reached out and firmly grasped Kate’s chin.
“I can roughly tell whether someone is telling the truth by looking at their eyes.”
Kate’s pupils trembled.
“Excuse me for a moment.”
I gripped Kate’s chin tightly and pressed both cheeks with my other hand, forcing her mouth open.
When I slipped my ring finger into her mouth and felt around the edge of a molar, I touched a hard fragment made of a material different from her teeth.
“A capsule. One meant to be wedged between your teeth and bitten open.”
“….”
“Come to think of it, I did feel that your speech was slightly slurred from the moment you came to my office… So it wasn’t because of a snaggletooth. You simply weren’t used to using the capsule, were you?”
Kate opened her eyes wide and glared fiercely at me. I removed my hand from her cheek and asked,
“It’s usually used to take one’s own life. Was there really any reason to hide a mere berserk drug this thoroughly?”
“…Are you trying to test me?”
“Of course not. I’m merely confirming.”
I answered calmly and placed the fragment of the capsule I had taken from her mouth on the table.
“How you broke the barrier stone and so on… You wouldn’t answer even if I asked.”
“…You’re certain I tampered with the barrier stone?”
“Not certainty—just a supposition. One very close to fact.”
I released Kate’s chin as I spoke.
“I have grounds. First, the damaged barrier stone was the one behind you, Miss Kate—not the one behind Ayla. If either of you had tampered with a stone, it’s far more likely that you, Miss Kate, were the culprit than Ayla.”
“….”
“Second, at the moment the barrier stone broke and the barrier collapsed, you broke the capsule and intentionally triggered a rampage to hurt Miss Ayla. The fact that the timing of the stone breaking and your rampage matched so perfectly could itself serve as ample circumstantial evidence.”
“So that’s what you were getting at. Even so, it’s only speculation.”
“Everything starts with speculation. A trial needs physical evidence, but circumstantial evidence is enough to convince someone.”
I replied calmly.
“And… there’s physical evidence too.”
I glanced at the fragment of the capsule on the table and added. Instead of answering, Kate avoided my gaze.
“And one more thing. You came to my office and specifically mentioned Miss Ayla’s name. It doesn’t take much to figure out. Your target is Ayla. Or House Lucilante as a whole. Which is it?”
The instant I said that, Kate’s pupils shook violently, as though I had hit the mark.
I looked at Kate in silence for a moment, then said quietly,
“……The latter.”
-Grind.
I heard Kate grind her teeth.
She couldn’t control her emotions. She couldn’t hide them well, either. She was good at making plans, but never considered the backlash or what would follow. She never looked back and simply charged forward.
That meant she had either never done anything like this before or had very little experience.
She was immature. Still young.
But that was precisely why she hadn’t crossed the line yet. She could still turn back.
“Miss Kate.”
I looked at Kate and said,
“The truth is, you don’t actually hold a grudge against Miss Ayla, do you?”
“….”
Kate tried to avoid my gaze. The setting sun outside the window cast long shadows across her face.
“You deliberately chose the troublesome approach of rampaging head-on. You even destroyed the barrier stone and attacked her under the guise of a fair duel.”
“…I simply decided that I had no way to win in a direct confrontation.”
Kate desperately offered an excuse. But I shook my head.
“The truth is, you were afraid to hurt Miss Ayla with a clear mind, weren’t you?”
“…No.”
“The fact that you didn’t ambush her from behind or trap her means your conscience hasn’t completely worn away yet. Since you have no direct grudge against Miss Ayla, you were reluctant to lay a hand on her while sane.”
“Don’t just say whatever you want…!”
“The person you truly hate is someone else, isn’t it? Someone else belonging to House Lucilante. At the very least, there’s a good chance they’re closely related to Miss Ayla. You only came to hate Miss Ayla by association, simply because she belongs to the same family, didn’t you?”
“What the hell do you know!!”
-Crash!!
“Making things up! I told you not to spout nonsense! Acting so calm! Even though you said you didn’t know anything!!”
With a shout bordering on a scream, Kate lunged at me, flailing her fists. We grappled and rolled across the floor, and my back slammed into the cupboard, sending several small objects tumbling down.
I caught both of Kate’s arms, twisted them, and hurriedly pinned her to the floor. Kate’s face struck the floor with a thud, and she groaned.
“Ow….”
“You pack quite a punch.”
I rubbed my jaw, which had been struck by one of her wild punches, and muttered.
“I won’t force you to tell me what kind of grudge you have.”
“Ugh….”
“But I’m not saying this without knowing anything.”
Kate gritted her teeth and forced her head around to look back at me. I shook my head at her and continued,
“This is advice. You should stop harboring hatred toward people who have nothing to do with your grudge, without any proper reason.”
I slowly removed my hands from her forearms and stood up.
“Revenge that loses its proper direction will only eat away at you in the end.”
“What the hell have you been chattering on about as if you know anything…!!”
“I know.”
I said it quietly.
“That’s why I’m saying it. If you realize it too late, you’ll definitely regret it.”
“….”
Kate didn’t resist even after I released her. I bent my knees and picked up the objects that had fallen. Fortunately, none of the glass objects had broken.
After putting everything back in order, I closed the cupboard and stepped over the threshold of the stabilization room.
“…You could just hand me over to the guards.”
Kate’s muttering voice came from behind me.
“It’s not like you’re actually concerned about people, so you just preach as if you’re so great… and in the end, you’re leaving without doing anything? What are you trying to accomplish!”
“…Though, I suppose it would be a little strange to just leave.”
At her words, I nodded. Then I gathered mana and created a blue butterfly, sending it flying toward Kate.
“Shall I at least attach a safety device?”
-Flutter…!
The butterfly fluttered over, transformed into a cord, and wrapped itself around Kate’s forearm.
“I told you, didn’t I? As long as that ‘tag’ remains attached, wherever you go and whatever you say… it all reaches me.”
At that, Kate clicked her tongue. I nodded and muttered,
“It would be easier if I handed you over to the guards. No one would get hurt, and Miss Ayla would be out of danger. The problem would be solved, and everyone would be happy.”
“Yeah, you know that well! Then why…!”
I turned back to Kate and added,
“Everyone except you.”
“…What?”
“I’m still a rookie as an instructor. I have no experience, there’s much I don’t know, and I’m an immature kid who does nothing but talk about ideals.”
I shook my head and muttered,
“Even so, I… don’t want to give up on any of my students or leave them behind. Not a single one.”
I gripped the doorknob of the counseling room and said,
“You must come to class on Monday.”
.
.
.
-Rattle, click.
Haru closed the sliding door and left.
By then, the sun had already set, and pale moonlight illuminated the stabilization room.
Kate sat in the middle of the floor, silently stroking the blue cord wrapped around her forearm.