Chapter 32
A heavy silence settled over the hospital room. It was a frigid stillness.
The air was drawn taut, as if it might split with a crack at any moment. Neither Celine nor I was angry, but perhaps it would have been better if we had been.
To be angry meant revealing one’s emotions.
The more emotional someone became, the easier it was to see through their deception. Or, when people had something they secretly did not want to hide from the other person, they often became more emotional.
But Celine did not get angry. She merely stared at me in silence with her ocher eyes, without saying a word.
Celine folded her arms and leaned her back against the wall. Her gaze briefly slipped away from me and swept across the empty air.
It was only after some more time had passed that sound was born again from the silence.
Celine gave a small laugh and asked me,
“……Why are you suddenly saying something like that?”
It was a faint smile—the look of someone wondering why I would ask about something so strange. But I knew.
Celine tended to react that way when she wanted to hide something. The knot of suspicion in my chest only grew larger.
I sighed and rubbed my face. Good heavens, please.
“I heard that the bad rumors about Seria have spread mainly among the second-year girls.”
“There are more than one or two girls in the second year, you know.”
Celine’s indifferent response was a sign that she no longer wanted to continue the conversation.
She now drew a small knife from inside her clothes and began trimming her nails. My deductions continued all the same.
“The more I listened, the more I noticed that the second-year girls were bullying Seria almost exclusively with words. When I looked into why, I found out they were all lower nobles.”
Celine made a strange sound, “Hmm,” and turned her ocher eyes toward me. A cold light was beginning to linger in them. It was a look I could never have imagined on the usually lively Celine.
Come to think of it, there had been far too many clues.
Leto, for one. He had even mentioned Celine outright. He had told me to take good care of her, though I still could not understand how that could be a reason to torment Seria.
Even so, the more the pieces fell into place, the more reason I had to suspect Celine.
Of course, I had no decisive evidence. But after seeing Celine’s reaction, I was half convinced.
At the very least, Celine was involved, even if she was not the ringleader. Otherwise, there was no way she would hide something from me.
Our bond was not so thin and fragile as that.
Celine’s cold expression was a stark departure from her usual self, but I was not unfamiliar with that side of her.
Several years ago, I had stayed for a while in House Haster’s territory and gone all over the place with Leto and Celine.
At the time, Baron Haster had graciously allowed us to hunt in the family’s hunting grounds. It was only a small forest, but it was still a hunting ground.
We caught a deer there and served it to Baron and Baroness Haster that evening at the lord’s castle. It had been possible because all three of us—Celine, Leto, and I—were talented enough to aspire to attend the academy.
But the scene I remembered most vividly from that day was neither the moment we succeeded in hunting nor the dinner table laden with venison.
It was Celine’s merciless, cold-blooded attitude once she began pursuing her prey.
Celine had worn the same cold expression then. She pretended to be indifferent to everything, yet watched the situation with a chilly gaze before anyone else.
The portrait I had seen several years ago had been recreated here before me.
Not as a young and fragile girl, but as a lovely girl with the fresh charm of youth still clinging to her.
“And isn’t it strange? Rumors usually share judgments about the people involved in an incident, so why do they praise me while insulting Seria?”
Celine scoffed at my question. A cold smile hung at the corner of her mouth.
“Because that’s the objective truth? Ah, and Senior Ian is also the new idol of all us lower nobles.”
“You know it isn’t true.”
It was true that Seria had fled that day, but that was because she had accidentally injured her ankle.
If that hadn’t happened, Seria would have gone out with me to intercept the magical beasts. In fact, wasn’t I the one who stopped her and insisted that we flee instead?
There was no way Celine could have been unaware of that. And Celine’s standing among the second-year lower nobles, especially the girls, was substantial. Her connections were broad, if shallow.
Even so, the spread of such a false rumor meant at least one thing.
At the very least, she had been complicit in letting the false rumor spread. That was why I stared at Celine without saying anything.
She had been looking away from me as though she did not care, but only then did she turn her gaze toward me.
Irritation and dissatisfaction showed in her eyes. Her brows drew together slightly.
“To me, it is the objective truth.”
“Celine……”
A sigh escaped my mouth on its own. At my plaintive tone, Celine finally snapped.
“Then it isn’t?!”
“Of course it isn’t. Seria only made a mistake……”
“No, she was like that even before.”
A harsh grinding sound came from Celine. Bright blue sparks flew from her eyes, as though a flame had been lit.
Her demeanor grew menacing. Like a feline predator confronting an enemy, she trembled as she gave vent to her fury.
“Didn’t she suddenly pick a fight with Senior Ian, and then beat him badly enough that he had to spend several days in the temple?!”
“There were circumstances behind that too……”
“Those damn circumstances, circumstances, circumstances! No matter what anyone says, there’s always some circumstance! What, is Senior Ian a premature ejaculator?! You pathetic oppa!”
I placed a hand against my forehead with a thump.
What on earth was a grown woman saying out loud? I realized that the time had come to scold Celine for the first time in a long while.
“Hey, you… Even so, what are you saying, as the daughter of an Imperial noble who ought to uphold her dignity……”
“Hmph, forget it. I don’t want to hear any of that old-fashioned sexist nonsense.”
She shook her head and shuddered as though thoroughly fed up. I wanted to launch into a long speech about how there were lines one had to observe regardless of how the times changed, but Celine’s sharp voice continued, so I kept my mouth shut.
Only now was she finally confessing her true feelings. There was no reason not to listen.
“Getting involved with that woman makes Senior Ian act strange. Isn’t he going around only with that rude bitch these days? And wasn’t it that bitch’s fault Senior Ian had to hunt the magical beasts?”
“……I was partly responsible because I made the wrong judgment.”
I made that excuse on Seria’s behalf in a low voice. As Leto had said, it would all have been over if I had given Seria a potion that concealed her presence. I had simply been foolish enough to put myself in danger.
Of course, I did not expect those words to get through to Celine in her current state of agitation.
“Anyway!”
As I had expected, Celine growled and leaped with both fists clenched tight.
She looked like a cat furious to the tips of its ears. Even in such a murderous atmosphere, she seemed so cute that the dangers of judging by appearances were truly serious.
“I don’t like that bitch, no matter what Senior Ian says. She only got back what she gave. Is that my fault?”
That was when it was my turn to lose my temper.
My face crumpled. I was about to shout something, but let the arm I had raised drop roughly. The sigh I let out was thick with irritation.
As my manner turned cold, Celine flinched in the middle of her outburst. It was around then that her fighting spirit began to falter.
She bit down on her lip and avoided my cold gaze. My voice came out low and heavy.
“Then it is your fault. Isn’t it?”
Celine seemed to flare up again at that, and cast me a dissatisfied look, but when she saw my utterly serious expression, she ultimately had no choice but to fall silent.
Her gaze turned toward the floor. She lightly tapped the innocent marble floor with her foot.
“What did Seria even do? Even if we assume Seria was at fault, it was still my choice to indulge her and clean up the mess. Why is that Seria’s fault?”
Celine’s fierce gaze turned toward me again. Her ocher eyes held both heat and cold—frost-sharp hostility and flame-like fury.
“……You’re taking that bitch’s side again?”
“I’m not taking her side. You crossed the line first!”
In the end, I could not hold back and shouted. I could not remember how many years it had been since I had last raised my voice at Celine.
Celine flinched in surprise at my shout, then her eyes began to brim with tears as though she felt aggrieved.
It was a painful sight, but because I cared about Celine, I thought I needed to give her a proper scolding while I had the chance.
Quietly, but with unmistakable feeling, I said to Celine,
“Even so, you cursed her over her unhappy family circumstances? Do you know how much that hurt Seria?!”
My voice was low, almost a growl.
At the unmistakable threat in my voice, Celine looked even more aggrieved and dabbed at the corners of her eyes with her uniform sleeve. She ground her teeth again.
I was even more baffled and incredulous. After committing such an obvious wrong, was she still claiming to be the one who had been wronged?
For an instant, memories of Celine and me flashed through my mind. Had indulging her every whim since childhood twisted her? If so, I was certainly partly responsible for her spiritual downfall.
At that moment, as I stared at Celine with a bleak expression, I wondered whether I might have to consult Professor Andrei of the Department of Theology or the saintess.
“……That wasn’t me, you idiot oppa!”
Celine shrieked as though she truly had been wronged.
Huh? My head tilted. Celine wasn’t the one? That couldn’t be.
But the redness around Celine’s eyes bore witness to the truth.
She was not lying. That left only one possible conclusion.
There must have been some misunderstanding after all.