On the very first day of school, I shoved a duke’s daughter out of an accident.
Put like that, it sounds like I’d secured first place in the new student popularity poll, but the actual feeling was nothing of the sort.
To be precise.
I was fucked.
Not in a good way, but in a very administrative sense.
People had been swarming in ever since the accident.
Knights, professors, administrative staff, upperclassmen, even assistants in charge of odd jobs.
They all looked serious, but the direction of that seriousness differed slightly.
Some checked Serena’s condition first, some looked at the broken statue, and some already had the face of someone thinking about how to clean this up.
I hated that last kind the most.
When an accident happens, people like that think of damages before the injured.
“This way.”
An administrative aide in a black uniform guided me elsewhere.
He called it guidance, but it was effectively an escort under custody.
With the ducal house’s knights present, there was no way a single new student could slip away, and I had no intention of doing so either.
Running here would only make me look more suspicious.
The problem was that my head wouldn’t stop working even while I was being led away.
The student with the clipboard who’d been at the main gate earlier was nowhere to be seen,
and it kept bothering me.
He had disappeared at far too perfect a moment.
And what Mia had mentioned—
“An unpleasant smell.”
It was definitely too unsettling to dismiss as coincidence.
I was taken into what looked like a small reception room beside the main building.
The inside was excessively tidy.
A sofa, a low table, a water pitcher, writing utensils, record sheets. The only thing missing was someone saying it out loud; it was practically an interrogation room.
“Please sit, Student Balter.”
Student.
Good. At least they were still treating me as a student.
Did that mean I wasn’t a common criminal yet?
I sat on the edge of the sofa without leaning back.
When your shoulders touch the backrest in situations like this, you somehow look weaker.
I’d realized that at work too.
Not that realizing it had made my life any better.
Sitting across from me were two middle-aged professors and one administrator.
One of the professors seemed to be from the magic department.
There was spellwork embroidery on the sleeves of his robe.
The other didn’t seem quite like a department head, but he gave off the air of someone who managed students.
His face was exactly that kind.
The physiognomy of a man who lived off rule violations.
The administrator spoke first.
“First, thank you for cooperating. I’m sure you must have been startled.”
He didn’t look thankful.
“We’ll ask you a few questions. This is simply to confirm the facts.”
Confirm the facts.
Usually, the people who say things like that hate facts the most.
I nodded.
“Your name and intended department first.”
“Yurian Balter. Department of Strategy and Administration.”
“Why did you approach Miss Serena Arsein at the main gate?”
Going straight in, huh.
“I wasn’t trying to approach her.”
“But there was physical contact in the end, was there not?”
That phrasing.
Physical contact.
As if I’d suddenly become some kind of pervert.
If you twisted I saved her as unpleasantly as possible, that’s what you got.
I spoke as calmly as I could.
“I heard a strange sound from above.”
“What kind of sound?”
“The sound of metal twisting.”
One of the professors cut in.
“Are you familiar with magical structures?”
“Not at all.”
“And yet, in that brief instant, you judged it was dangerous and pushed away the daughter of a ducal house?”
His tone was very subtle.
He wasn’t openly mocking me, but he didn’t believe me either. The most exhausting type.
I swallowed a sigh inwardly.
“I wasn’t certain it would be dangerous either.”
“Then?”
“I just… had a bad feeling.”
The moment those words left my mouth, all three of them paused briefly.
Ah. I guess that sounded suspicious too.
Well, of course it did.
The metallic sound was an explanation to get by, and a bad feeling was even more abstract.
But what was I supposed to do? I’d only changed the wording; that was the truth.
The regulation-faced professor asked,
“Do you normally act that way?”
Yes.
You end up that way if you don’t want to die.
That was what I wanted to say.
“Sometimes.”
“Based on vague intuition?”
“At the time, I judged that it was the right thing to do.”
When I said that, the administrator wrote it down.
The sound of his writing was especially grating.
Scratch, scratch. It sounded like he was classifying a person into sentences.
Then someone entered through the door without even knocking.
White hair appeared first.
No, to be precise, silvery-white furry ears.
It was Mia.
“That person.”
Standing by the door, she abruptly pointed at me.
“I saw him earlier too.”
The expressions of the three professors all turned subtle at the same time.
Their faces said, What is this little beastkin child doing here?
At a glance, they weren’t expressions familiar with beastkin from commoner families or the borderlands.
When people try to hide their discrimination, it shows even more.
The administrator said smoothly,
“Student, right now—”
“I’m a witness too.”
Mia cut him off immediately.
Nice.
She ignored people fast.
“That person moved after smelling the strange scent first.
And I smelled something unpleasant then too.”
One professor narrowed his brow.
“A smell?”
“Yeah.”
Mia nodded without the slightest sign of intimidation.
“Metal smell, and oil smell. And a smell you don’t usually find where there are lots of people.”
The instant I heard that, something clicked in my head.
Oil. Metal. Clipboard. Main gate decoration.
If it wasn’t a simple collapse, someone could have tampered with it beforehand.
There was no need to go as far as magical devices.
Just slightly interfering with one support in the structure, one connected decoration, would be enough to cause an accident like that.
And to do that, you’d have to touch it, which would leave a scent behind.
Great. Now it was even more suspicious.
But the professors’ expressions weren’t moving in the direction I’d hoped.
Before surprise, there was discomfort.
As if it would be troublesome if the matter expanded in that direction too.
Of course.
So this school also put documents first, at least until someone died.
“Student,”
the regulation-faced professor said coldly.
“This is not the time to present speculation.”
Mia’s ears flattened backward.
That meant she was offended.
It was nice how easy she was to understand.
“It’s not speculation.”
“Very well. We will verify that separately.
For now, Student Balter—”
The door opened again.
This time, the atmosphere changed completely.
A knight entered first, and behind him came Serena Arsein.
Great. Truly.
The ducal house’s young lady herself entering the witness room.
The three professors stood up almost simultaneously.
The difference in attitude was so blatant that I couldn’t even laugh.
The people who had been looking at me like I was suspicious until just now reset their expressions the moment Serena walked in.
Serena swept her gaze over us once.
Me, Mia, the professors, the record sheets. It was an extremely brief glance, yet it felt as if she had taken everything in.
“Have you finished questioning Student Balter?”
Wow. Straight to the point from the first sentence.
The professor answered cautiously.
“We are still in the middle of confirming matters.”
“It sounded less like confirmation and more like leading.”
The air in the room cooled subtly.
I recalled the setting that Serena was someone who stood that way because if she didn’t act cold, she might crumble.
On the surface, she was refined, but inside, she was bound by a strong sense of responsibility and pressure on herself.
That was exactly how she felt right now.
Standing behind the knight, Serena looked at me.
“Student Balter.”
“Yes.”
“I would like to speak with you separately in a moment.”
The expressions of the three professors changed again.
No, I don’t want that either.
Why me, of all people?
I just want to go to the general dormitory and unpack.
I mean it.
But the world always ignored my sincerity.
Serena turned without saying more.
The door closed, and for a moment, a strange silence flowed through the room.
One professor cleared his throat.
“We’ll end today’s inquiry here.”
Good.
The interrogation ended with one word from the ducal house’s daughter.
What a truly fair school. I’m impressed.
I stood up.
Mia stood up as well.
Just before leaving the room, I glanced at the administrator’s record sheet.
Name, affiliation, summary of statement.
And one small sentence written at the very bottom.
Requires observation.
Wow. I’d been marked before even enrolling.
Really great.
The place where I ended up speaking to Serena separately
was a small reception garden behind the main building.
At a glance, it was clearly a space meant for receiving honored guests or high-status students.
A fountain, a low iron table, neatly arranged rose beds, and air as quiet as a painting.
It was a rather uncomfortable place for someone like me, who was supposed to be assigned to the general dormitory, to walk into alone.
To be precise, it was fucking uncomfortable.
I felt it the moment I entered.
Even the way you breathed was different here.
It was a space that made people lower their voices.
Serena was already there.
The two knights had withdrawn to a distance, and there were no attendants.
Instead, because she stood there alone, she was even harder to approach. Even by herself, she looked like someone who had already put her surroundings in order.
“You came.”
“You called, so I did.”
My words came out a little curt.
But it couldn’t be helped.
This day had been far too long.
Serena didn’t point that out.
Instead, she got straight to the point.
“First, thank you for what happened earlier.”
Can thank you really feel this burdensome?
I pointlessly shifted my gaze toward the flower bed.
“I was lucky.”
“I don’t particularly like the word luck.”
Ah. Of course. You would be exactly that type.
She slowly looked toward me and continued.
“Because if you call it luck, responsibility disappears.”
“…That wasn’t what I meant.”
“I know.”
A brief silence.
Honestly, I wanted this time to end quickly.
When I’m alone with that kind of person, my posture stiffens for no reason.
To put it in military terms, it felt like being called alone into the commanding officer’s office.
I hadn’t done anything wrong, but it was exhausting from the start.
Serena asked,
“Did you truly move just after hearing a sound?”
Here it came.
The core of it.
I’d expected it.
“Yes.”
“And you judged that I was in a position where I would be injured.”
“That’s right.”
“You were too fast.”
Wow. What a gloomy way to give a compliment.
I cursed inwardly.
Outwardly, I endured it.
“I was close by.”
“For someone who was merely close by, you had no hesitation.”
That was true.
I knew it too.
That single beat had been suspicious.
I kept my mouth shut for a moment.
If you lie at length, you usually fail.
And I wasn’t the type who was good at lying to begin with.
At most, with the experience of an office worker, I could vaguely gloss things over in the tone of a report. Deceiving someone head-on was not my talent.
In the end, I went with a half-truth.
“I’ve had things like that happen occasionally since before.”
Serena’s gaze changed faintly.
“Things like that?”
“It’s difficult to explain.”
“Intuition?”
“Something like that.”
She looked at me for a while.
It wasn’t the look of someone searching for a lie, but the look of someone measuring words.
A look that watched how much I was hiding and how much I was bringing out.
Good.
As expected, she wasn’t an easy opponent.
“That intuition,”
Serena asked,
“was today the first time it worked?”
“No.”
I regretted saying it a little after I did.
But it was already too late.
Serena didn’t press further.
Instead, she changed direction.
“Balter.”
“Yes.”
“That is an old name.”
My heart stopped for the briefest instant.
My father’s words came to mind.
“Do not reveal it. There may be more people who remember it for other reasons than people who seek it out fondly.”
Serena seemed to have read the change in my expression.
But she didn’t strike at it right away.
“I’ve heard that it has fallen. I know nothing beyond that.”
“It would be better if you didn’t.”
I answered like that without realizing it.
The words were a little harsh.
Her eyebrows moved ever so slightly.
Still, she didn’t get angry.
Instead, she asked back in a low voice,
“That sounds as if your side is more dangerous.”
“…It might be.”
That was sincere.
Serena looked briefly toward the fountain instead of the teacup on the table.
The ripples shook in the wind.
When she spoke again, her voice had lowered a little more.
“What happened earlier will be handled as an accident.”
“I expected that.”
“But you, I, and that beastkin student… won’t think of it that way.”
Good. We could communicate.
No, that made it even more exhausting.
It meant she had already caught on too.
“As a daughter of a ducal house,”
I asked carefully,
“do you normally suspect those kinds of things?”
Serena did not smile.
“Noble houses learn those things first.”
She was calm. But that calmness made it worse.
Because it made me think she accepted that as part of everyday life.
“Do you think they were targeting me?”
This question was very direct.
I hesitated for a moment.
Saying I didn’t know would be safe.
But then it would mean nothing.
“The possibility is high.”
“Your basis?”
“The timing was too perfect.”
“The first day of school, the main gate, a place where many eyes were gathered. It’s strange for a simple accident. And…”
I stopped speaking.
The student holding the clipboard. The guy who disappeared. Should I mention him or not?
In the end, I did.
“There was one student who looked like an administrative assistant.
He was nearby until just before the accident, and after that, I didn’t see him.”
Serena’s gaze sharpened ever so slightly.
“What were the distinctive features of his attire?”
“A dark gray vest. He was holding a clipboard… and he was a little shorter than me.”
“His face?”
“I didn’t see it clearly.”
I had only barely caught a glimpse.
I was looking at the structure first and missed him.
This was the sort of thing you ended up bitterly regretting later.
Serena nodded.
“Thank you. I’ll verify that information separately.”
The moment I heard that, a chill ran down my spine for no reason.
The daughter of a duke was going to verify it personally.
That wasn’t good news.
It meant this person wasn’t the type to sit still, either.
And people like that were targeted even more readily.
“Don’t go around alone.”
The words came out of my mouth first.
Serena looked at me.
This time, openly.
“Are you worrying about me right now?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Wow. That question really puts a person on the spot.
Because in the original, there are several more points where you nearly die, and there’s a high chance we just twisted the first one.
I couldn’t exactly say that.
I spoke as dryly as possible.
“Because this might not be the end of it.”
Serena was silent for a while.
The wind blew, stirring the rose leaves.
The sound of the fountain was unnecessarily clear.
Then she spoke slowly.
“You are a strange person, Student Valter.”
As soon as I heard it, I answered inwardly.
I know.
I think so too.
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“That was not my intention.”
“Thank you.”
At the end of that brief exchange, the corners of Serena’s mouth moved ever so slightly.
Good.
First impression on the duke’s daughter = strange person.
Excellent.
I’ve really made it in life.
She returned to her original expression.
“I’ll remember this matter. And.”
After hesitating for the briefest moment, Serena continued.
“In official settings, I will side with you.”
For a moment, I was at a loss for words.
One of Serena’s ways of expressing affection was
“siding with someone publicly, shielding them in official settings,” and in the early stages, the structure was that she grew attached first through public trust rather than romantic feelings.
In other words, that seed had just been planted naturally.
She said it as if it were nothing.
But I wasn’t ignorant of how significant those words were.
The daughter of a duke siding with you in an official setting.
That was protection, but at the same time, it was a mark.
It could help, but it could also make you stand out more.
It was a favor whose benefits and drawbacks were genuinely ambiguous.
In the end, I answered briefly.
“Thank you.”
“However.”
Of course that wasn’t the end.
“You must not hide what you know, either.”
“To the extent possible.”
“It seems I may not be the one who decides where that extent lies.”
Something about those words caught on strangely. If not her, then who? The Sanctuary? The faculty? The Imperial Liaison Office? Or someone even less pleasant?
Perhaps Serena read my expression, because she did not explain further.
The conversation ended there.
I left the reception garden and walked toward the general building.
The sun had tilted far toward the horizon.
The hand holding my temporary pass was slick with sweat.
These days, each day had grown so long that it actually felt unreal.
Possession. Valter. Falling rocks. The academy. Serena. Suspected assassination. The duke’s daughter giving notice of official protection.
Seriously, one thing after another.
By the time I arrived in front of the general dormitory, my legs felt fairly heavy.
The building was bigger than I’d expected, and noisier than I’d expected.
From every open window came the voices of new students.
Laughter, arguments, the sound of luggage being dragged, the sound of servants being ordered around. It wasn’t as quiet as the noble dormitory, but if anything, this side smelled more like people actually lived here.
Good.
At least here, I didn’t have to look quite as poor.
After checking the room assignment chart and going up the corridor, I found someone standing in front of my door.
It was Mia.
Her silver-white ears were perked upright, and her tail was openly excited. That was half nerves, half happiness to see me. Easy to read.
“Why are you here?”
“I was waiting.”
“Why?”
“Just because.”
After she said it, her ears twitched slightly.
Bullshit.
What do you mean, just because?
I was about to open the door, then stopped.
A very faint black line was floating above the doorknob.
For only a brief instant.
Almost like a hairline crack.
My heart went cold.
Seeing my expression, Mia sniffed.
“What’s wrong?”
Instead of answering, I slowly looked at the doorknob.
Someone had been here.
And under that door, a very thin sheet of paper had been slipped inside.
Great.
Looks like I’m next.