Episode 176
Today is the academy's end-of-semester ceremony day.
In other words, it's the day the tumultuous second semester comes to a complete end.
"...It's already this time."
And the clock points to 1 PM. I definitely just closed my eyes for a moment after eating breakfast, so when did so much time pass?
"Ugh."
Trying to lift my heavy body, intense pain rushes in as expected. With 3 accumulated penalties, it seems my body can't hold up.
- Creak...
Still, I couldn't stay in the academy forever, so forcing myself up, I started looking for the cane the main heroines had gifted me.
After the third trial ended, they had enhanced the cane further, so just holding it allowed me to regain some vitality.
"...Oh dear."
However, the cane I had definitely propped up beside the bed is lying on the floor. Did I knock it over while sleep-talking or something?
"Ugh..."
At first, I thought about calling Kania with the wireless pager, but calling her just to pick up a cane seemed a bit much, so I desperately bent my waist and started reaching out with my hand.
Thanks to that, my waist throbs like crazy, but I can't show a weak side to Kania, who's already been clinging to my side every night lately, being overprotective, and would pull me into a hug with a tearful face if I so much as cough.
But come to think of it, something is a bit strange.
Kania knows my physical condition best, so that's one thing, but lately even Irina and Klana make tearful faces whenever I show even the slightest bit of weakness.
This pain is temporary, and from here on, only the path toward the 'true happy ending' remains, so I don't understand why they're overreacting like this.
"Take this, Frey."
While having such thoughts, someone picked up the cane and handed it to me.
"Ah, thank..."
The situation felt so natural that I was about to express my gratitude and take the cane.
"...Ah?"
Soon, I froze with my hand extended.
"You need this, don't you, this cane."
Professor Isollet is right before my eyes.
She definitely wasn't here just a moment ago? When exactly did she come in?
Did she perhaps become a magic swordsman like me?
"You hadn't left the dorms on your own even after the end of term. So I got the key from the head maid and came in."
"Ah ha."
Having foolish thoughts, Isollet gave me the answer.
After experiencing so many unrealistic things lately, my thinking naturally flows in abnormal directions.
"So what brings you here? Don't tell me you're worried about me now?"
Composing myself, I probed Isollet, but her expression was as cold as when I first saw her.
Looking at that, thankfully she's not worried about me yet...
"Take it."
While thinking that, Isollet spoke in a cold voice and thrust the cane toward my chest.
"...Sigh."
Since it felt awkward not to take it, I gently picked up the cane, and vitality started flowing through my body.
"I came because I have a letter to deliver to you."
While I was catching my breath holding the warm cane, Isollet pulled a letter from her bosom.
"Who sent the letter that Professor Isollet personally became the messenger bird for? Must be a request from someone quite high up..."
"Shut up and read it."
Knowing full well that Isollet, who detests corrupt power holders, wouldn't do such work, yet still provoking her, she commands me in an even colder voice.
- Aria has.
"...Hmm."
Suppressed by that force, I opened the letter with a composed expression, but after reading the first sentence, my expression couldn't help but waver.
It seems what was coming has finally come.
- I'm sorry, I'll be staying away from home for a while. Don't worry. I'll be staying somewhere safe.
"You understand what that letter means, right?"
Pretending to be calm, I finished reading the letter, and Isollet spoke while looking down at me expressionlessly.
"A declaration of disownment, I suppose. I wondered why she didn't do it sooner, and now she finally does? The timing is far too..."
"Only the official announcement hasn't been made, but the entire empire has been talking about this incident for months. The media including gossip papers and magazines, high society that runs the empire, and even people on the streets."
"......"
"So, it's only natural that Aria couldn't hold on any longer."
That's right.
Aria could no longer hold on.
I had spread plausible rumors throughout the empire that I was behind this slave market incident, and that there were connections with the Demon King's army that appeared at the market.
Aria was already at her limit, so naturally she must have run away from home.
Still, it's fortunate. At least she won't get caught up in the trials.
Of course, Isollet, who's making a cold expression right before my eyes, is also...
"Aria has been at my house for a few days now."
"...Is that so?"
Lost in thought, hearing about Aria's whereabouts, I asked with wide eyes.
Of course, I had tracked when she left the mansion and her destination from the start. I had planned to send Kania if she went somewhere dangerous, but when she went to Isollet's house, I left her be.
There are few places as safe as Isollet's house in the current empire.
Enemies who invade will mostly be handled by Isollet, and thanks to her terrible luck with men, no scoundrel would dare eye my pretty younger sister.
"Well, it doesn't matter. While I'm at it, how about adopting her into the Bywerk family..."
"Do you know how many times Aria rewrote that letter?"
Thinking that and feeling somehow relieved, I made a joke, and Isollet began speaking with a deeply furrowed brow.
"With tears filling her eyes, she rewrote that letter countless times."
"Did she?"
"...In the end, the letter she finally wrote was the shortest and gentlest of them all."
"That's truly touching..."
Harboring the stinging feeling in my heart, I muttered with drowsy eyes.
"But you...!"
Isollet, who had been managing her expressions until then, suddenly grabbed my collar and glared at me.
"............"
And then a brief silence follows.
In Isollet's eyes seen within that silence, there are all kinds of emotions.
Anger, disappointment, disgust, hatred, unpleasantness, revulsion, killing intent.
Those raw emotions, quite familiar to me, were clearly readable without needing to use any skill.
"Are you planning to kill me...?"
In that situation, I smiled and provoked her.
I've been feeling this since last time, but her reaction toward me was somehow strange, so I wanted to firmly establish her emotions before the next trial comes.
"Sister?"
Saying words she should hate with that thought in mind.
"...!"
Suddenly, Isollet's eyes waver.
"...Ugh."
And a small groan escapes her lips.
"What is it?"
That appearance somehow overlaps with her from the third trial, when she had become a broken wreck.
"...Forget it."
So when I asked with a flustered expression, she separates from me and quickly fixes her expression.
"Move out of the dorms within 1 hour. Countless security personnel are waiting on the ground floor just because of you alone."
Hearing her voice turn cold again, I just sighed thinking it must be my imagination, but.
"By the way, your body must be in a lot of pain, right?"
Hearing her question as she was about to leave the room with her hand on the doorknob.
"If it's to the point you can't attend classes for months... as expected, it's today or tomorrow, isn't it?"
I had no choice but to use a skill.
"Why do you ask that?"
After a while, I asked while staring blankly at the empty space.
"...I don't know myself either."
Muttering with a complicated expression, she suddenly turned around and began speaking in a calm voice.
"To be honest, right now I want to beat you to death."
"Hmm."
"Before you, who has already become a monster, grow into an even bigger monster, I want to end your life with my own hands."
It was a terrible statement that anyone else would have surely lost sleep over, but strangely, what I felt wasn't fear or terror.
"But... but you see, when I actually try to put it into action..."
Her calm expression started crumbling.
"For some reason, my body won't move."
And not just her expression but her voice was crumbling too.
Even though I could clearly feel terrible killing intent, I couldn't help but feel bewilderment and anxiety instead of fear.
"Actually, I just tried to kill you."
"What..."
"Deliberately stationing security personnel below, sending Kania on an errand to separate her from you temporarily, even breaking through your room's protective magic to intrude, it was all to kill you."
While I was feeling confused by those emotions, Isollet's statements flew and pierced my heart.
"Looking at you sleeping, I tried to draw my sword countless times. Even when you were desperately trying to pick up the cane that fell on the floor, even when you were mocking the letter your sister wrote."
"Ha."
"And just now when I grabbed your collar."
She, looking at me with eyes just as confused as mine.
"...Going against a knight's duty, I tried to strangle you to death, frail and sick as you are."
Finishes speaking in a low voice while looking at me.
"So."
After that, breaking the short silence that followed, I asked in a calm voice.
"Why didn't you kill me then."
At that, Isollet closes her eyes and speaks.
"The sword wouldn't draw."
"It wouldn't draw?"
"No matter how hard I tried, using every ounce of strength I had... the sword just wouldn't draw."
Eventually, she said that with a hollow expression.
"I tried to strangle you at least, but I couldn't bring my hands to rise up."
Quietly, she turns around.
"Let me ask one thing."
"......."
"Frey, are you really terminally ill? Not acting or disguising, but truly?"
When she asked in a trembling voice, I was pondering how to answer.
"If... if that's true... it's your own doing. You've received divine punishment, Frey."
She starts drawing her own conclusions.
"There's no need to cut down a life that will die anyway. Yes, there's no need to dirty my sword further. So, I'll give up on killing you."
"Isollet."
"But remember, Frey."
I unconsciously called her name.
"No matter your condition, if you cause even one more incident..."
Leaving a warning disguised as a farewell.
"...then I really will cut you down."
Finishing her words, she opened the door and disappeared.
[Isollet Arham Bywerk's current emotions: Anger, disappointment, disgust, hatred, unpleasantness, revulsion, killing intent......]
Still staring blankly at where Isollet had been, I soon fixed my gaze on the skill window that had been floating before my eyes.
[......???]
At the question mark at the end of the long string of negative emotions.
"This is driving me crazy."
Compressing all the thoughts in my head into one word, I muttered while clutching my head and lying back on the bed.
"...What on earth is this."
Staring blankly at the ceiling for a while.
- Shhh...
From my shadow cast on the wall, a dark energy suddenly rose.
"...Young master, are you alright?"
After some time passed, Kania, who popped out from the shadow, lay down gently beside me and muttered.
She succeeded in awakening advanced black magic a few days ago, so it seems she can now freely use shadow magic.
"Now that I'm here, please rest assured..."
"Something strange is happening."
"...Pardon?"
Looking at her eyes as she lay beside me with a tense expression, I opened my mouth with a dark expression.
"Surely after the trials ended, I had completed the verification of all 'sub-heroines'..."
"...Are you referring to the surveillance in case any memories returned?"
"Yes, most of them weren't affected by the third trial at all."
Saying that, I rubbed my eyes and muttered.
"So why... is a strange phenomenon suddenly occurring with Isollet?"
"...Young master."
"I'm tired of variables now... I want to rest... no, I have rested quite a bit until now but..."
"I will protect you."
Looking at Kania who said that, I sighed and asked.
"How is Aria? Has she completely stopped worrying about me?"
"It seems so..."
Then Kania, who was answering, suddenly stopped speaking and stared intently at my face.
"...You look sad."
"No, not at all..."
"More than any other time."
Eventually, I tried to deny her words by shaking my head.
"...Today looks the hardest for you."
"........."
Hearing her words as she moved to lie right in front of me, I quietly closed my mouth.
Lately, I feel like Kania can completely read my thoughts. Is this a side effect of shadow magic?
"Um... y-young master."
While having such thoughts, Kania suddenly started stuttering.
"By any chance, do you... have time tonight?"
"Huh?"
"If nothing comes up, would you like to have a drink with me?"
I wondered what she was saying, but a quite unexpected proposal came.
"I do like drinking, but lately... originally, thanks to mental power, I don't get drunk..."
"I-I can make you get drunk."
"Huh?"
I was about to politely decline saying I can't get drunk, but Kania says while turning her gaze to the side.
"I've prepared a way for you to get drunk. And, um... alcohol too..."
"...Fine, if my most cherished subordinate says that much."
Answering with a flushed expression at the mention of being able to get drunk, suddenly Kania started making a sad expression looking at me.
"I'll prepare everything so you can enjoy yourself to your heart's content..."
"Oh right, I need to get ready to leave now."
Getting up from my seat, leaving behind her who was muttering something with her head down, Kania suddenly started making a tense expression.
"...Are you really going today?"
"Yes. Isollet and Aria have me rattled, and it feels wrong to delay further."
I, who also started putting on a coat with a stiff expression.
"Today..."
Touching the robe of deception placed on the desk, I muttered in a cold voice.
"...I'm going to declare war."
It's time to meet the hypocritical hero.
.
Meanwhile at that time.
"Oh, Ruby! Long time no see!"
"Hello~!"
Ruby, who appeared at the orphanage Frey established after several months, was greeting the administrator with a bright smile.
"I was worried when you said you couldn't come for a few months due to work, but I'm glad to see you're well!"
"Ah, yes... haha."
Her expression wavering for a fleeting moment at the administrator's words, she soon managed an awkward smile and played along.
"By the way, is it a coincidence?"
"Yes?"
"Today, the person who established this orphanage said they're visiting!"
Hearing that, she failed at expression management again.
"They'll be here shortly, so hurry and prepare..."
"Yes, yees! I understand!"
Turning around quickly and starting to head somewhere.
[Stack: 1]
"...Don't tell me, after all this time?"
Bringing up a semi-transparent window before her eyes, she started muttering with a furrowed brow.
".........."
And, a young girl was watching that sight.