The place Ramsey led Theodora to was the lounge of the Misery Dormitory.
Unlike the quiet of dawn, the Misery Dormitory by day was bustling with young nobles.
“Do you intend to speak here?”
Theodora had lived with her will stripped from her, but she could at least tell that this was not a suitable place for a private conversation.
Ramsey smiled at her and replied.
“Of course not. A place like this isn’t suited to discussing important matters. Where I’m going is somewhere past here.”
With that, Ramsey leisurely moved on.
Before long, he arrived at two pure-white doors on one side of the lounge.
When Ramsey opened one of them, a spacious room came into view, along with a closely set lattice positioned between the two doors.
“Is this a confessional?”
“Yes, that’s right. Misery was originally a dormitory for the Faculty of Clergy, after all. Places like this are prepared separately. Though since it was made for nobles, it’s rather spacious.”
After speaking, Ramsey gestured for Theodora to enter.
“Now, go in. You’ll be on this side, and Brother Matthew and I will converse from the other.”
“…In here?”
“Yes. Don’t you think it’s truly a suitable place to convey the word of God in secret? For your information, Brother Matthew is already inside, so there will be no need for you to meet him separately later.”
Ramsey acted as though the original purpose of this place did not matter in the slightest.
Watching him, Theodora felt repulsed, but soon stepped into the room as he wished.
As soon as she closed the door, Ramsey’s voice came from beyond the lattice.
“Now then, I saw you today laughing quite happily with Ashen and his friends. To anyone watching, it didn’t look as though gathering information was your goal.”
Ramsey kept letting out amused chuckles.
Thinking his reaction was mocking her, Theodora flinched and immediately lowered her head.
“I’m sorry.”
“Sorry? Ahaha. It seems you’ve misunderstood. It’s the opposite. ‘Do not look like a spy.’ That is the basic rule of a spy. If anything, had you openly tried to pry information out of them, I would have had a word with you. You’re doing very well indeed.”
“I… see.”
“Please continue that way. At this rate, you’ll be able to get close to them before midterms in no time.”
“Thank you.”
Relieved that it was not a reprimand directed at her, Theodora let out a small sigh.
With this, she should be able to prevent the command authority from being used for a while.
If so, there would be no reason for her to directly harm Ashen and his friends.
Though it had not been long since they had properly spoken, Theodora felt deeply relieved simply by the fact that she would not have to stand against them.
However, as if betraying her expectations, a voice full of dissatisfaction sounded.
“I cannot understand it. Is there truly any need for the Hero herself to step forward just to extract information from a heretical student?”
“Hmm, what do you mean, Brother Matthew?”
“What about luring him somewhere suitable and abducting him? If we do that, he’ll be able to undergo a proper course of education within the Order. That should resolve the matter. The Hero herself was lacking in the beginning as well, but…”
“And now she has become a truly devout believer. Proudly so.”
The more the two men spoke, the more Theodora felt her heart pounding so fast it hurt.
At the same time, her breathing grew so ragged she could barely draw breath.
Theodora tried somehow to calm herself, but her condition only worsened.
Noticing this, Ramsey cast a healing spell on Theodora.
Her body was forcibly and slowly stabilized.
But her mind was still filled with the desire to flee.
Seeing Theodora staring at the lattice with eyes filled with indelible terror, Ramsey clicked his tongue softly as if annoyed.
“Oh dear, it seems the Hero became too agitated. Perhaps we were a little too extreme.”
“It must be that her education is still insufficient.”
“Haha, Brother Matthew, you’re strict. I like that about you. But for this time, please forgive me for taking a little time.”
“Why?”
“Because this is the Academy. Surely you don’t want to see the monster headmaster or the imperial family’s murderer step in… Hm?”
Ramsey, who had been speaking, suddenly opened the door of the confessional.
Following him, Theodora also cracked her door open slightly, but there was nothing outside.
“What is the matter, Brother Ramsey?”
“No. For some reason, I thought I sensed a presence. Did you not feel anything, Hero?”
“…I’m not sure.”
Even after Theodora’s answer, Ramsey continued looking outside for a moment before closing the door with a suspicious expression.
“…It seems I may have overreacted.”
“This is a matter of carrying out God’s will, so no amount of caution is strange.”
“Thank you, Brother Matthew. Now then, let us begin wrapping things up. Hero, you need only continue as you have been. I hope you will keep becoming close to Mr. Ashen without issue.”
With those words, Ramsey and Matthew stepped out of the confessional.
Theodora did not move even after watching the two of them leave.
She simply wanted to rest, if only for a moment, somewhere no one else was.
**
“I’ll be stepping out for a moment.”
After Ramsey and Theodora left the library, Cecilia left those words behind and headed out as well.
As soon as she opened the door, she was able to spot the two of them not far away.
On the surface, they looked as though they were walking together without any issue.
But in Cecilia’s eyes, Ramsey’s earlier actions lingered.
Ramsey, touching Theodora’s hair as if it were nothing.
Even if one considered it simply as behavior toward a noble lady, it was rude, but Cecilia, who had met Theodora before, saw more than that.
‘Theodora clearly dislikes having other people touch her body.’
Because of that, some noble students had even said she might have mysophobia, and yet she was allowing that kind of behavior?
If so, it had to be one of two things.
Either they were lovers, and she allowed him to touch her, or Theodora was in a position where she could not refuse him.
‘No matter how I look at it, they weren’t lovers, so it must be the second.’
Then what on earth was he trying to do?
An image surfaced in Cecilia’s mind of Ramsey taking Theodora to a room and harassing her.
That lecherous priest would be more than capable of it.
‘I absolutely cannot forgive that.’
She was not that close to Theodora, but as a human being, she did not want to see her suffer something strange at Ramsey’s hands.
‘I’ll suppress my presence and follow them for now.’
Cecilia’s staff shone, and a transparent magical veil covered her body.
If a student versed in magic had seen it, they would have been amazed.
That was the Waitley Count family’s secret art: Void Stealth.
It was a secret technique that went beyond merely concealing one’s presence, preventing the other party from feeling any sense of incongruity about one’s existence.
‘As long as I don’t make direct contact, I should be fine.’
Having completed the spell, Cecilia immediately followed the two.
The place they headed to, contrary to her expectations, was the lounge of the Misery Dormitory.
Seeing the lounge bustling with nobles, Cecilia tilted her head.
No matter how she looked at it, this was not a suitable place to harass a woman.
‘Was I mistaken, perhaps?’
Just as she hesitated, she saw Theodora and Ramsey enter the confessional.
‘So they are heading somewhere without people after all.’
Thinking her guess had been correct, Cecilia slowly approached the confessional.
The confessional had been well soundproofed so that those outside could not hear, but it was not enough to block Cecilia’s hearing, enhanced by her sensory amplification spell.
‘I didn’t know what use it would be, but I’m glad I learned it from Professor Euphoria anyway.’
Thinking that Professor Euphoria would have laughed and said that was not what it was for if she heard, Cecilia focused on the conversation inside the confessional.
And what followed was not the kind of conversation she had imagined, but something far more brutal.
‘The Order does things like that?’
She had known that the Order was corrupt. She had also known that, at times, they even entrapped others.
But wasn’t this on an entirely different level?
‘Torturing people to tame them, and even considering abduction. At this point, they’re no different from criminals… Hm?’
Hearing the conversation suddenly cut off, Cecilia, seized by an inexplicable unease, hid herself behind a pillar.
A moment later, the door swung open, and Ramsey appeared, staring straight at the place where she had been.
‘This is bad.’
Void Stealth erased any sense of incongruity and allowed her to hide easily, but it was not omnipotent.
If the other party used detection magic, she would be discovered at once.
Cecilia prayed inwardly, hoping Ramsey would close the door.
Fortunately, he did not seem to intend to go so far as to use detection magic, and closed the door again.
Before long, Ramsey and Matthew came out.
Cecilia maintained her state for a long time even after the two disappeared.
Ten minutes later, when Theodora also came out and left, Cecilia sighed and released the spell.
‘That was dangerous.’
Placing a hand on her chest to calm her rapidly pounding heart, Cecilia sank into thought.
If what she had heard just now was true, the Order was plotting something against Ashen.
And it was a sinister scheme so foul that they were even considering abduction as an option.
‘I have to tell Mr. Ashen and Lena right away.’
Though she wanted to rest her body a little, Cecilia forced herself up and headed back to the library.
About ten minutes later.
When Cecilia arrived at the library again, the only one who greeted her was Lena, studying alone.
“Oh, you’re back? Are you feeling sick or something? I thought you went to the restroom, but you were gone for ages.”
“I didn’t go to the restroom! No, that isn’t what matters. Lena, where did Mr. Ashen go?”
“He left because he had something to investigate separately. Unlike us, Ashen is busy with all sorts of things.”
“Ugh, is that so?”
It was unexpected that Ashen was not there.
He would have given the most suitable advice for a situation like this.
‘It’s unfortunate, but for now, I have no choice but to tell Lena at least.’
“Lena, there’s something I need to tell you for a moment.”
“What is it?”
“It’s about Theodora. Just now, I followed her and…”
After that, Cecilia confessed to Lena everything she had seen, one thing at a time.
That the Order was plotting against Ashen, that Theodora was their tool, and that they were frightening enough to even consider things like abduction.
Perhaps because it had been so shocking, the memory was vivid, making it easy to explain.
Some time passed that way.
Having finished her story, Cecilia watched Lena’s reaction.
‘She must be terribly shocked.’
But the answer that came from Lena was completely different from what Cecilia had expected.
“Ah, um. Good work. You really went through a lot, Cecilia.”
“…Is that all?”
“It feels a bit wrong to say this to you after you went through all that, but…”
Lena briefly gauged Cecilia’s mood, then let out a sigh.
“The truth is, Ashen and I already knew. That the Order was plotting something.”
“What?”
They had known the Order was plotting something?
“Then why did you leave Theodora alone when she approached?”
“If we opposed it for no reason, the situation would just get even stranger. Besides, we could also watch the other side’s actions in reverse. That’s why.”
“That’s…”
Cecilia sat down with a hollow expression.
To think they had truly known everything and still allowed the approach.
She felt as though she alone had been made a fool.
Seeing Cecilia like that, Lena gave an awkward smile, took a bite of the tart she had bought from the snack shop, and placed a hand on Cecilia’s back.
“Don’t be too disappointed. Even so, the effort you put in hasn’t disappeared.”
“When you comfort me that openly, it actually makes me feel worse.”
“Ahaha, sorry. More importantly, Ashen said he has a favor to ask you.”
“A favor?”
“Your family is famous for magic, right? So he said there’s something he’d like you to look into.”
“What sort of thing?”
“It’s about geasa. A geas powerful enough to turn a human into a puppet.”
“Why on earth would he need something like that…?”
“Because we may have to undo it.”
Lena’s explanation continued.
The more Cecilia listened to Lena, the more appalled her expression became, but when the story ended, she nodded with a determined attitude.
“Understood. I will search for it in the name of House Waitley. A magic that grants freedom to humans.”