Chapter 69
At the academy’s central plaza, Lydia and Carla faced off.
“….”
“….”
It happened just three days after the start of the new term.
Both had brought their respective factions with them (though one was plainly just a tiny social circle) and looked at each other. Their expressions were similarly blank. The people behind them also seemed bewildered by the sudden situation.
The threatening letters Carla had thrown to the ground came fluttering down in a heap. There were so many that they looked like crudely made flyers.
“?!”
Flutter─
It looked as though paper snow were falling.
Thanks to that, cadets passing by stopped in their tracks. They saw the threatening letters scattered across the ground, filled with crude insults.
“!”
-Republic puppet, give up on becoming student council president.
-You magic monkey, forever betraying your own and defying all human decency.
-A witch from a country of rootless infidels.
-May the Sun God curse you.
And so on…
Things that should never be said in public.
If someone read those aloud in front of a Republic citizen, they’d get punched in the face by someone packed to the brim with reason and logic. Even while beating their opponent with their fists, they’d calmly refute the contents of the letters.
The cadets from the Kingdom of Gallia flinched.
“!”
Even if you said it behind someone’s back,
those were the sort of things you couldn’t say to their face.
The blatant discriminatory remarks made their heads spin.
“Oof, this is a bit much.”
“That’s pretty harsh….”
And that was true even of an ordinary person.
Their opponent was one of the Republic’s highest-ranking nobles.
On top of that, she was an upperclassman who deserved respect within the academy.
A royal of the kingdom,
and a family of representatives in the republic.
The gulf between the stations of those facing off was enormous.
A bewildered silence fell over the scene.
And most of them were freshmen, which made it all the more unsettling.
“….”
“….”
“….”
‘But Her Highness Lydia ordered these to be scattered? The woman who was so kind and mild-mannered in class until just recently?’
Could it be true?
There were so many that it was ridiculous to argue about handwriting and the like. If a royal gave the slightest order, there’d be more than enough servants to write this many letters on her behalf.
“….”
“….”
“….”
Even so, there was no reason to do it.
There was no reason for the kingdom to provoke the republic. Official diplomacy and alliances had been severed long ago to begin with. All that remained was ‘unofficial exchange’ through the Alchemy Guild and the academy.
There was no reason for two distant foreign countries to clash.
‘No matter how I look at it, Her Highness has no reason to do this.’
‘To begin with, is what they’re claiming even true?’
‘But why would the Republic provoke this in the first place….’
Countless question marks floated through the minds of the cadets from Gallia. After turning it over and over in their minds, they settled on one conclusion: this had to be false.
“Lies.”
Someone muttered.
It was Dominic, a freshman in the Department of Swordsmanship. Unable to say it directly to Carla, he shouted at the Republic cadets behind her.
“Lies! This is a lie! Do you think Lady Lydia would do something like that?”
“!”
At Dominic’s mutter,
everyone who’d been frozen joined in, agreeing with him.
“There’s no way Lady Lydia would do that.”
“This is all fabricated!”
“It’s slander!”
“You despicable bastards.”
“That’s what you get from people who sit cooped up in their rooms casting spells.”
The Gallian freshmen began to stir, growing angry. As befitted a country that revered the sword, many hotheaded cadets were among them. It didn’t take much to set them off.
“Are you picking a fight over the student council presidency?”
“Her Highness Lydia would’ve taken the position anyway, but you’re so greedy you resorted to this.”
“Now I see why those nouveau-riche reformists are sucking up to her.”
“No need for words! Let’s fight!”
In response to crude insults,
they answered with crude hatred.
That was how ordinary people reacted.
The swordsmanship cadets advanced threateningly.
Rumble─!
“!”
The Republic cadets standing behind Carla sensed the mood and tried to protect her. They, too, felt uneasy about the out-of-nowhere standoff between the two countries.
‘What are these letters…? Are they real?’
‘Why did Lady Carla suddenly do this without consulting us?’
‘Is it all right to cause a commotion in the academy, a neutral zone?’
‘A-are we really going to fight those Gallian bastards over something this absurd?’
In an instant, it had become an ideological conflict between nations.
It was a situation they couldn’t simply walk away from.
While they were still caught up in a chorus of ‘Uh, wait…’
a battle line was forming in the blink of an eye.
They were so shocked they could barely breathe.
‘Please, someone do something about this situation!’
In that situation,
they looked at the two central figures.
And then.
One of them slowly raised a hand. Like a flag rising to command a battlefield, it lifted slowly. The one raising it was…
“Enough.”
…Lydia.
“!”
“!”
“!”
At her words,
the cadets, who’d seemed on the verge of splitting into two sides and fighting, paused.
*
“….”
‘What the hell? It’s not as if she’s begging to get hit.’
Directly expressing hostility
was one of the stupidest mistakes one could make in high society.
It might be different for knights, but impulsive behavior wasn’t a noble virtue. And no matter how much the other person might be an outsider, if they were royalty, all the more so.
Yet Carla had made that foolish move. To anyone watching, it looked like some Republic noble was throwing a tantrum at a royal from another country.
She had turned the sword hilt toward Lydia herself.
“…Phew.”
‘She can’t not know that pushing things this emotionally will give me the moral high ground, no matter what I say. Did she leave herself open to being attacked on purpose?’
To Lydia, this situation looked like an exaggerated stage play.
To put it metaphorically,
it was as if her sparring opponent had shown up with a sign around their neck that said, ‘Hit me here.’ That was how much this situation was going in Lydia’s favor.
And yet Carla was calm.
“….”
Which made it seem even more like a play.
“….”
‘If she had something on her mind, she could’ve just said so. It feels like she’s trying to resolve this on too grand a scale….’
Even so, she had to do this now.
If a masked wrestler made an entrance from far away amid flames, then surely the righteous wrestler had to pull a chair from under the stage. It was only natural.
『Do not try this at home.』
…If she even displayed that caption,
people could feel at ease.
“….”
‘Everyone’s so startled by how sudden this is that they think they’re witnessing a combat-sports match or a murder.’
As the righteous wrestler, Lydia decided to pull out an imaginary chair. Looking at the letters scattered across the ground, she spoke to Carla in a low voice.
“I do not know the customs of the Republic, but”
“!”
“At least in Gallia, there is a saying: if you mean to frame someone, dig a grave first. Either make them a complete criminal and kill them, or bring about your own downfall and die.”
“….”
“Have you dug your grave and climbed out of it?”
Lydia raised her gaze. A faint shimmer of mana flowed from her blue eyes. It was the gaze of a beast that made anyone who saw it shrink back.
“Even if this is a foreign country. Even if this is neutral ground…. What gives you the courage to act so carelessly? Do you find a royal out of favor with the king so laughable?”
“….”
The atmosphere around them turned icy.
Amid this uncontrollable chaos and widening rift, they felt they were witnessing a new diplomatic conflict in the southern continent with their own eyes.
-It’s over….
-Now it’s war.
-Will the severed ties between the two nations finally end in catastrophe….
Carla, the masked wrestler, reacted to Lydia’s righteous chair attack.
“I seem to have been so flustered that I spoke to myself without realizing Her Highness Lydia was present. Allow me to introduce myself properly. I am Carla Driagh, legitimate heir to House Driagh, a member of the Noble Assembly of the Aristocratic Republic of Arcana.”
“That was quite a loud soliloquy. Everyone passing by may have been startled and ‘misunderstood.’ Since it was directly connected to Gallia’s honor, they may have taken it even more sensitively. I cannot simply pretend I did not see this.”
The cadets nearby tilted their heads.
Something about the atmosphere was puzzlingly strange.
Carla bowed respectfully.
“I have always been so full of passion and courage that I tend to make mistakes….”
“You will explain in detail what that courage stems from.”
“I feel guilty for keeping Your Highness waiting for so long. Please allow me time to explain.”
“The crime of taking up a royal’s time is a grave one. You would do well to keep that in mind.”
“I will remember.”
Thus, a hierarchy was established out of nowhere.
The two headed somewhere at a leisurely pace, accompanied only by their trusted confidants. Their change in attitude was so natural it was almost bewildering.
The cadets around them tilted their heads.
“…?”
“?”
“What’s going on?”
From the outside, it looked like a prominent noble of the Republic had made a mistake, and a royal from another country was going to call her to account to defend her honor. The conflict between the two still hadn’t been resolved.
But.
But….
Something
was strange.
A strange caption flickered before their eyes.
『Do not try this at home.』
*
A quiet garden.
Lydia and Carla met in private.
Lydia sighed and said,
“…You do favor an exhausting approach. You’re not an actor, so was it really necessary to pretend to fight with me for such a trivial reason?”
“Sometimes a single scene can make a stronger impression than ten words. I only wanted to send a message.”
“By making me, a royal, look good?”
“Yes, just as ‘they’ want. It needed to look as though the conflict was about to erupt.”
Carla bowed her head deeply and said in a respectful voice,
“But I apologize for setting things in motion so suddenly. I’m sorry. I knew it wasn’t Your Highness who did this.”
“I know that as well.”
“I see.”
She nodded and said,
“Indeed. It seems you already know something is happening inside the academy. Something meant to stoke a conflict between you and Princess Lydia…. That sort of movement.”
“Lydia.”
“Yes?”
Lydia gave a wry smile and said,
“Just call me Lydia at the academy.”
“….”
And thought,
‘The other side is asking to work together of its own accord. Somehow, things are getting easier and easier.’