The First Letter (53)

It was a pleasant afternoon, with a gentle breeze stirring the air. Drowsy sunlight streamed over the Academy. It was the time when students, gathered in small groups, were deciding what to have for dinner.

Under normal circumstances, I would have been swept up in that same routine. But today, I had a somewhat special errand, so I had stepped some distance away from the bustling central district, crowded with foot traffic.

A girl with chestnut hair stood before me. In the deserted open space behind an unused lecture hall, there were only the two of us.

The sapphire-blue eyes of the girl in the pointed hat wavered pitifully. She kept sneaking glances at me, but whenever my gaze happened to turn her way, she quickly lowered her eyes.

Then she clutched her pointed hat tightly and trembled all over. Anyone could see that she was afraid of me. Perhaps because of the girl's lovely appearance, the tableau alone made me look like the villain and her like an innocent victim.

It was absurd, as far as I was concerned. The girl standing before me was Elsie Rynella, a prodigy of the Rynella count family, one of the great magical houses.

She was a standout even among the Academy's fourth-years, a woman famous for her doll-like appearance and the cruel disposition that contrasted with it. Just now, she had been bullying another student until I stopped her.

And yet she was trembling so pitifully just because I had shown her a handaxe.

Still, perhaps her temper had not abandoned her entirely, because she had not come along willingly. She had shouted, ‘N-no, I don't want to!’ as though making a desperate stand, but the moment I approached to persuade her, she promptly raised a white flag.

It took only a few seconds for Senior Elsie to trail meekly behind me. The student she had been threatening was safely released, while the two hulking men accompanying Senior Elsie had to leave with awkward expressions...