"A relationship...? That's a rather stiff way to put it. Hmm, I suppose we’re the sort of people who spent last night together?"
Watching Celestia’s face fill with bewilderment, Lumina curved her lips into the cruel, smooth smile of a predator that had seized the upper hand.
She knew exactly what the sharpest dagger to bring her opponent down would be.
"By the way, Senior Celestia? Don’t you think the order of your questions is a little strange? I’m the one who’d like to ask. Just what sort of relationship do you have with our Senior Lowell that you’re blushing and guarding him so fiercely?"
Lumina’s crimson eyes pierced Celestia’s violet gaze head-on.
For an instant, Celestia felt a chill settle in one corner of her chest.
Faced with such blatant hostility and provocation for the first time in her life, she gathered what composure she could and barely managed to speak.
"We’re... friends in the same department..."
"Ah... only friends?"
As if she had been waiting for that, Lumina burst into a laugh like rolling silver bells.
That laughter lodged itself in the ears of the students gathered in the corridor like mockery.
"Then, in conclusion, you’re nothing to each other, aren’t you? Not engaged, not lovers who have confessed to one another—just friends in the same department. So why are you overstepping your bounds so much over whether I spend the night with Senior Lowell or not? It’s rather unsightly."
"Th-that’s...!"
Celestia’s pale cheeks flushed instantly with shame and confusion.
For Celestia, who had never once defined her own feelings, Lumina’s words struck straight at her heart before any defense mechanism could even take effect.
In the moment Celestia lost her words and faltered, Lumina led Lowell away as though putting an end to the match.
When Lowell instinctively resisted and tried to pull his arm free, Lumina rose onto her tiptoes and let a deadly whisper flow into his ear, one only the two of them could hear.
"Senior, if you keep playing hard to get here... things are going to become terribly troublesome for you. Or perhaps some part of your body might become uncomfortable."
A shiver ran down Lowell’s spine.
This woman was not joking.
That ruthless nature of hers, which had stopped at nothing as the master of a trading company, was now wearing the mask of jealousy as it threatened him.
If he refused any further here, all he could see was a future where an irreparable rumor swept through the entire academy, or where he was dragged into the underground of the trading company and met a bad ending.
"...Let’s go. I’ll go, all right?"
In the end, Lowell lowered his head as if admitting defeat.
Looking satisfied, Lumina pressed herself even closer against Lowell’s arm and curved the corners of her eyes toward Celestia, who stood there in a daze.
Until the two of them disappeared around the corner of the corridor, Celestia remained rooted to the spot.
Lumina’s sharp declaration—nothing to each other—echoed around her ears.
"Nothing... to each other?"
The fingertips of Celestia’s tightly clenched fist trembled.
###
At the end of an empty corridor.
The moment they arrived behind the main building, where dust had settled thickly, Lumina roughly flung Lowell’s arm away.
The bright smile she had shown until just now vanished in an instant, as though a spell had been broken, and in its place remained only the cold gleam in the eyes of a merchant company’s master.
With her arms crossed, she leaned against the cold wall and glared at Lowell as though she would bore through him.
"Senior. No, Mr. Lowell. The act is over now, so let’s get to the point."
Lumina took a thin but weighty bundle of documents from within her clothes and gave it a light shake.
In the few hours since they had parted last night, she seemed to have stripped Lowell’s entire life bare.
It was a moment that proved just how far the information network of the Chronos Lumina Trading Company extended beyond the academy’s walls.
"I did a little background check. From the trivial records of the gold you entrusted to our company, to all the delinquent acts you’ve committed at the academy and the impressive stack of disciplinary records that resulted from them. And most decisively... the fact that the Adrian family has completely cut off its financial support for you."
Her red lips drew a faintly bloody arc.
"Right now, on the surface, you’re a glittering noble, but in reality you’re practically penniless, aren’t you? And yet I have no idea where you found the nerve to play so hard to get yesterday. Now, make your choice. Don’t put on airs for some noble dignity you don’t even have. I’m telling you to be thoroughly practical."
Lumina took a step closer and tapped Lowell’s chest with the bundle of documents.
The subtle fragrance drifting from her was tempting, but the proposal hidden behind it was like a snake bearing fangs.
"Join hands with me and hand over the manufacturing method and information for that elemental compound. In return, I’ll guarantee not only your expensive tuition for next semester, but also a top-class villa near the academy instead of that ruined practice hall you’re staying in, and delicacies every morning fit for the royal palace. What do you think? For a delinquent young master who could starve to death any day now, it should be a hard offer to refuse, no?"
Lowell quietly listened to the tempting conditions she offered.
Certainly, for the Lowell of the present, they were urgent things tied directly to his survival tomorrow.
But he did not waver.
Rather, as if he had been waiting for Lumina to finish speaking, he lightly brushed off his rumpled clothes and opened his mouth with the same terribly courteous attitude as yesterday.
"I pay my respects to your competence, Chairwoman. It took you less than a day to look all the way down to the bottom of my circumstances. However..."
Lowell’s gaze deepened as he met Lumina’s eyes head-on.
"I will refuse this time as well. My answer is the same as yesterday."
"...What did you say?"
Lumina’s smooth brow visibly distorted.
As the owner of a trading company who had lived her life concluding countless deals, she had never even imagined being refused in the face of such overwhelmingly favorable terms.
Far from taking a step back, Lowell instead stepped close enough to feel Lumina’s breath.
Lightly pushing away the bundle of documents in her hand with his finger, he began, in a cool voice, to reveal the cards Lumina had hidden one by one.
"Chairwoman, you probably came here expecting that I would refuse today as well. In preparation for that, you must have arranged a few things in advance."
Lowell’s voice was calm, as though he were talking about someone else’s affairs.
"You could freeze the small amount of assets I have deposited with your company and tighten the noose around my throat, or you could cut off all future dealings between me and the Chronos Lumina Trading Company and make life difficult for me. Is that all? I know full well that you could use your power to distort the facts and drag me into even more exhausting rumors, or if not that, you could suddenly visit my hideout like you did last night, make physical threats, kidnap me, and put me in a very unpleasant situation."
Lumina’s eyes trembled.
Because Lowell was reciting, as calmly as if reading from a checklist, the underhanded methods she could wield if she wished—or had perhaps already prepared.
"Even so, the reason I persist in refusing is not because I fear that enormous background of yours. Chairwoman, the elemental compound I created is an extremely unstable prototype that has not been controlled. If an unexpected accident were to occur, it would become a problem for the trust the Chronos Lumina Trading Company has built up until now."
Lowell paused for a moment and studied Lumina’s expression.
Her complexion was growing visibly pale.
"I intended to improve this instability and, when it became a perfect product that anyone would have no choice but to acknowledge, formally enter into a deal with you. But seeing you now..."
Lowell’s gaze persistently pierced deep into Lumina’s wavering eyes.
"It seems you are in quite a hurry, more than you appear to be. For simple curiosity, the speed at which you dug down to the bottom of my circumstances was far too quick, and the terms you proposed were far too exceptional. As though you were someone who needed this card right now. What is driving the owner of the continent’s largest trading company into such a corner?"
The situation had completely reversed.
The hand Lumina had intended to use to grasp and shake all his weaknesses scattered helplessly before Lowell’s precise logic and insight.
Lowell’s sharp insight split the heavy air of the corridor.
Before that gaze, which seemed to see right through its opponent, Lumina Felicium, the merchant company’s master who had once held the continent in the palm of her hand, wore a completely disarmed expression for the first time.
After staring blankly at Lowell for a moment, Lumina soon let out a long sigh and released the tension in her shoulders.
The murderous force receded from her coldly burning red eyes, and in its place lingered a strange light mixed with defeat and interest.
"...Haa... You really do have a talent for making people feel unpleasant, Senior."
Lumina lightly tossed the bundle of documents onto the windowsill.
Then she spoke in a voice a little more human than before.
"I’ll tell you the truth. It’s true that I’m interested in that compound, but as you said, it isn’t so urgent that the fate of the company depends on it. It’s just... I think I was too confident last night. I thought someone like you could be reeled in fairly easily with beauty or money. But when you showed such unexpected stubbornness, it strangely stirred my competitive spirit. Not as the master of a trading company, but as a woman named Lumina Felicium."
She tilted her head and looked Lowell up and down.
Her gaze was still cynical, but there was no longer any hostility in it.
"I’ll formally apologize for being rude to you twice. To be honest, even now, when I see your... utterly repulsive appearance, I can’t help but feel prejudiced. Frankly speaking, you’re absolutely not my type. But I didn’t know such noble craftsmanship was hidden inside that shabby shell."
Lumina crossed her arms and let out a small snort of laughter.
Lowell stared at Lumina with a dry expression.
It was criticism he had heard until his ears were calloused ever since setting foot in the academy.
To Lowell, it was such everyday noise that even being called repulsive to his face did not change a single beat of his heart.
"I have already heard plenty of evaluations regarding my appearance from others. I also understand very well that I am not to your taste, Chairwoman. However, I do not think I am the one you should be apologizing to."
"Oh?"
Lumina narrowed her eyes with interest.
Pointing with his chin toward the corridor they had come from, Lowell continued calmly.
"You should apologize to Celestia. No matter how competitive you felt, provoking and insulting another person was a discourtesy unbefitting your position as the head of a company."
At Lowell’s unexpected demand, Lumina wore a blank expression for a moment.
In a situation where he should have been busy protecting his own safety and interests, the sight of a man protecting someone else’s honor over a mere incident from moments ago was outside her common sense.
"...How surprising. Is that perhaps a condition for your deal with me?"
"For now, let us say that it is."
At Lowell’s firm attitude, Lumina swallowed a hollow laugh.
This man, who was terribly rational yet revealed nobility in strange places, was becoming increasingly difficult to calculate.
"Fine. I just have to apologize, don’t I? It wounds my pride a little, but that’s cheaper than losing the perfect product you’re going to create."
As if surrendering, Lumina lightly raised both hands, then gestured toward the corridor with her chin.
"Are we done now? Then hurry along. Your precious girlfriend may be drowning in sorrow by now, you know?"
Lowell sighed and shook his head, but without responding further, he moved his feet.
Because the thought of Celestia’s face, surely stiffened by Lumina’s provocation, made his heart hurry.
Watching Lowell’s receding back, Lumina could not take her eyes off him until he turned the corner and disappeared completely.
"Haa..."
Letting out a long sigh, Lumina irritably swept back her hair.
"How annoying."
Grumbling as though she could not understand it, she walked off in the exact opposite direction from where Lowell had disappeared, her heels ringing loudly.
But unlike her rough stride, a strange ripple that had not been there before was deeply engraved in her crimson eyes.