Chapter 6
“Thank you for arranging this meeting, Principal.”
“No, no, there’s no need to thank me. When the Secretary makes a request, the least I can do is grant it.”
The smiling principal turned his gaze toward me.
“Miss Rene, please don’t mind me and feel free to tell us what brings you here.”
“Yes, thank you, Principal.”
The principal naturally knew Rene’s face. I didn’t know whether it was because of her rare condition or because she was one of the few transfer students.
In any case, he wasn’t the vice principal I had been targeting, but if Big Sis helped me, persuading the principal shouldn’t be impossible.
I gave Eggan a slight nod as he set fragrant herbal tea on the table, then began in earnest.
“You came all the way here because you heard that Evan Friesna had fallen into a coma, didn’t you, Secretary?”
“……”
Starting a little aggressively, I had expected a stronger reaction, but Big Sis merely sipped her herbal tea with a calm expression. Could she really not even be surprised?
‘Even so… this isn’t like her.’
As I was slightly flustered by her unexpectedly lackluster reaction, Big Sis turned to the principal and asked a question.
“You said there didn’t seem to be any witnesses, didn’t you?”
“Yes, that’s right…. Where did you hear that news, Miss Rene?”
The principal was the one who reacted in surprise instead.
I shrugged and lightly shook my head.
“I’ll explain that in due course.”
I stared straight at Big Sis and continued.
“I know who is suspected of causing that incident.”
It was all right to put off revealing that I was Evan for now. Even if I brought it up now, no one was likely to believe me anyway.
So my priority was to make the freshman a person of interest.
The fact that I was the real ‘Evan Friesna’ would naturally come to light as Big Sis began investigating him in earnest.
“You know the suspect….”
Perhaps she had finally become interested; Big Sis looked me in the eye for the first time. Had her earlier indifferent response been because she couldn’t trust some unknown first-year brat?
“Yes, Secretary.”
There was no reason to hesitate anymore. I nodded firmly and finally spoke the name of that damned psycho.
“Kairos, a first-year student from Saint Petrus Dormitory.”
At the same time, the principal’s office froze cold. Big Sis tilted her head slightly with a still-unreadable expression, while the principal’s shoulders flinched and he squeezed his eyes shut with a sigh.
Yes, naturally they would react like this. He had already become [Saint Petrus’s Hope], after all.
Without showing any sign of being flustered, I continued firmly.
“I saw him with my own eyes, heading to Kairos’s dorm room immediately before Evan was found in a coma.”
“Evan regarded Kairos as something of a rival…. This time, he must have gone to Kairos’s room to discuss his studies.”
The principal smiled awkwardly, gauging Big Sis’s reaction. Then he met my gaze again and forced a gentle smile.
“Miss Rene, thank you very much for sharing this valuable information. I’ll have a separate meeting with Kairos myself.”
“I’m speaking seriously, Principal. I definitely saw Evan enter Kairos’s room.”
The main character in this conversation wasn’t the obtuse old principal sitting there, anyway. I stared intently into Big Sis’s golden eyes—eyes that looked exactly like the real ‘me’—as I emphasized my point once more.
“You know this better than anyone, Secretary. You know Evan has consistently suspected Kairos of suspicious activities. And you also know Evan is the sort of person who would try to uncover that man’s dark intentions even alone.”
“So your claim is that my little brother went to Kairos’s room to expose his wrongdoing, and lost consciousness after becoming entangled in some unsavory incident?”
“Yes, exactly, Secretary.”
That’s my Big Sis. As one of the few intellectuals I acknowledged, she had come up with a truly ‘clear’ deduction.
“That’s speculation, Secretary. Kairos could never have done anything so terrible.”
Meanwhile, the exasperatingly dim old principal still blindly believed in our ‘unparalleled genius.’
‘As I thought, that old man has already fallen for that brat.’
I frowned despite myself. Big Sis, who had likewise been deep in thought with a stern expression, only spoke again after quite some time.
“I’d like to meet that boy Kairos myself.”
“Secretary….”
“It isn’t simply because of Miss Rene’s story. As a proud graduate of Luminus myself, I’ve been curious to meet the leading figure of this generation at least once.”
‘The true leading figure of this generation is me, not that bastard….’
My chest tightened with a pointless surge of emotion, but… well, if Big Sis had decided to meet the freshman, that was enough. She was one of the few people who could notice something suspicious about him.
“Thank you very much for the valuable tip, Miss Rene.”
Big Sis turned to me and smiled like the sun. Then she pulled a thick leather coin pouch from the luxurious handbag at her side and held it out.
“This is a small reward for today’s information. Please accept it gratefully, without feeling burdened.”
The coin pouch felt quite weighty.
It was the family’s traditional ‘dignity allowance,’ something anyone of Friesna blood carried around out of habit.
“No, Secretary. I’m fine without money.”
Of course, I didn’t need the money. I had no particular use for such pocket change in the first place.
“I see. Then, instead, Miss Rene, I’ll be sure to remember your name.”
“There’s no need for that either, Secretary. I didn’t do this expecting anything in return.”
I continued with a solemn expression, as though I were an apostle of justice.
“I only earnestly hope that Evan Friesna regains his health as soon as possible.”
※※
“It’s finally over….”
Big Sis had gone to meet Kairos, but unfortunately, I was held in the principal’s office and had to endure a meeting with the principal for over an hour.
To questions laced with sighs—whether I had fought with Kairos, or perhaps done something wrong to him—my answer was, naturally, a firm NO.
In the end, the principal surrendered and suggested calling the freshman to his office tomorrow so we could discuss things together, and I was finally freed from that tiresome office.
Now, at last, I was on my way back to the dormitory, swept up in relief and the liberating feeling that everything was over.
“Rene~”
“Ah.”
But the sweet relief and liberation lasted only a moment before an excruciatingly annoying voice rang out behind me.
“Underachiever….”
I slowly turned my stiff face, and sure enough, the crazy woman was running toward me from far away with a silly grin.
I glared at her with an unmistakably annoyed expression.
“I heard you got chewed out by a scary adult again today?”
Apparently unable even to see my obvious expression, the underachiever came straight over and linked her arm through mine as though we were close. I shook off her grasp with all my strength and snapped coldly.
“It’s not like that. And don’t put your hands on me without permission.”
“There you go grumbling again~ Honestly, you really can’t be honest, can you?”
The underachiever naturally fell into step beside me.
“So what did you and the Secretary talk about?”
The underachiever then started walking toward the dormitory. I let out an irritated sigh and trudged along a little behind her.
“Nothing much. We were just slightly acquainted.”
“The students in the corridor said it seemed incredibly serious, though?”
“Eggan… the guard who was with her was just overreacting.”
After a brief pause, I continued.
“And you? How were classes today?”
I didn’t want to talk about the underachiever and Big Sis.
Pretending not to know and brushing her off vaguely would only work for so long.
In times like this, changing the subject was the best course.
“Huh?”
The underachiever stared back at me with a blank expression.
“What?”
What was her problem? I asked even more curtly.
The underachiever stared down at me in silence for a while, then suddenly gave a small snort of laughter and shook her head.
“It’s nothing.”
Then she abruptly raised her voice, bursting with energy.
“Of course it was fun today, too! You know that boy Holmes from our class, Rene? Well, he….”
The underachiever chattered about the day’s events. I played along with suitably timed responses.
“I hope you can come to class soon, too, Rene.”
After finishing her story, the underachiever beamed, apparently delighted by something.
Must be nice to have so much to smile about. I simply answered, “Yeah,” and glanced up at the sky.
“Student.”
How long had passed since then? A familiar voice suddenly reached my ears.
“Did the Secretary send you?”
Eggan was standing there looking at me, just as I’d expected. He gave the underachiever a sidelong glance, then nodded.
“W-who is that?”
The underachiever asked cautiously. The other students heading toward the dormitory alongside us began whispering as well.
“Shall we move somewhere else?”
I nodded to Eggan. Then I turned to the underachiever and answered as if it were nothing.
“It’s nothing. Go back to the dormitory first.”
The fact that Big Sis had sent Eggan specifically to me meant that she must have found something suspicious about the freshman after all.
If so, there was a good chance this would be the last time I met the underachiever in this body. I patted her shoulder to reassure her that she needn’t worry, and the underachiever carefully nodded with an “Mm-hmm.”
“Please come to the herb garden in ten minutes. I’ll be waiting.”
Eggan glanced around, then dipped his head toward me and whispered.
I nodded obediently, and Eggan immediately walked past me toward the gymnasium, its shadows stretching long.
“Phew, what a frightening-looking person.”
The underachiever shuddered and approached me.
“I told you to go back first.”
Without even looking back at her, I headed toward the main building.
“R-Rene?”
I could faintly hear the underachiever’s voice behind me, but I ignored it and quickened my pace.
Asking to meet somewhere else must mean she wanted to avoid other people’s eyes. For now, my priority was shaking off the students’ gazes focused in this direction.
……
Ten minutes later.
I circled around the main building to shake off people’s attention, then headed to the herb garden through the rear entrance of the cafeteria, where only dim shadows stretched long. The herb garden lay steeped in silence in the late afternoon.
In the quiet herb garden, Eggan stood alone with a stern expression, keeping watch over his surroundings. As I quietly approached him, a strange sense that something was off began to emerge amid the scent of herbs brushing the tip of my nose.
“A perception-obscuring spell has been cast here.”
I spoke first as I approached Eggan.
Eggan stared at me with the same expressionless face and gave a short nod.
“Your senses are quite sharp.”
“It’s a spell I’m familiar with.”
Of course. Whose magic did he think it was?
“The Secretary is waiting for you.”
Eggan pointed to the raised strip of earth beside him.
I nodded silently and walked toward the ridge Eggan indicated.
After about five steps, the strange sense of incongruity weighing down my whole body disappeared in an instant, and my view opened wide.
In the middle of the vast herb garden, Big Sis stared at me with an icy gaze, a black crow perched on her shoulder.
“Secretary.”
I barely swallowed the laugh trying to burst out and approached Big Sis.
Big Sis opened her tightly pressed lips and spoke in a cold voice.
“Sanguis Glaciem.”
“Huh?”
At that moment, my leg locked in place as though an invisible wall had appeared before me.
“Agh…?!”
Then terrible pain surged over me all at once, agony as though every bone in my leg were shattering.
Big Sis’s cold gaze… her golden eyes were fixed on my right leg. The instant the spell touched it, the blood in my leg froze into blue crystals, shredding my blood vessels and nerves.
“S-Sanctus Sana!”
Along with the cry that burst out reflexively, a barrier of light wrapped around my leg.
Pure survival instinct, springing out before I could think.
“Agh….”
But the nerves already damaged could not be helped by a flimsy membrane of light.
The healing spell merely covered my writhing skin and barely pieced my bones back together; the torn wounds would not close. All I could clearly feel was the frigid sensation of sharp shards of ice boring into my very bones. Overwhelmed by pain, I collapsed to the ground.
Right before my eyes, Big Sis was slowly approaching, her expression icy—or rather, she seemed to be barely restraining boiling rage. Her eyes were terrifying, a mixture of fury, contempt, and icy bloodlust.
“That was a good attempt. You got ahead of everyone by pointing to the person who looked most suspicious in that situation.”
Click-clack, the heels of her shoes slowly drew closer.
“B-Big Sis… agh.”
What on earth had happened? I didn’t even have time to grasp the situation. Big Sis’s pale hand seized me by the collar without hesitation, and her eerily gleaming golden eyes glared as though they would bore through my own as she whispered.
“What the hell did you do to my little brother?”
It was clear that something had gone terribly wrong.