#111
***
She thought the smile spread across his face was truly disgusting.
Karn Kampani. Iria truly despised this boy standing before her. She thought the feeling was probably mutual. From birth until now, he had likely been the protagonist of his own world. Not for a single moment had anyone else taken that role. For such a boy, this school was a place that ruined his story.
No matter what he did, he couldn’t become the protagonist or the center of attention. It was only natural that things would increasingly go wrong in a place where the common sense he had always held wasn’t respected.
However, that didn’t mean his background excused his behavior.
Iria silently observed Karn standing before her. She didn’t particularly want to pay him any attention, but since she had committed to this, she needed to defeat him properly.
Whatever scheme he was plotting, the smile filling Karn’s face showed no sign of disappearing.
“Hey, you know what?”Â
Karn’s softly whispered voice pierced her ears. Iria remained silent, waiting only for the teacher’s signal to start. She planned to bring her wooden sword down on his crown the moment the signal dropped. She was confident she could move faster than him.
As she mentally traced the trajectory she would soon execute, Karn, apparently wanting to keep talking, didn’t stop.
“That commoner you keep saving. Don’t you notice he’s missing?”
Iria frowned and looked around. As Karn said, Tus, who should have been participating in the test, was nowhere to be seen. She had been wondering why Karn seemed so pleased with himself – it seemed he had done something strange.
He was an annoying guy. Iria wasn’t particularly patient. Given her position, she tried to be patient when possible, but with her usual temperament, she might have grabbed Karn by the collar and thrown him in front of the teacher regardless of what he said.
Since there were many watching eyes now, she decided to hear him out completely. Whether Iria was drawing on her last reserves of patience or not didn’t seem to matter to Karn, who continued snickering as he began explaining what he had done to Tus.
“I put him in a nice place. Since you seemed to care about him so much, I thought I’d give him some special attention too. Isn’t that noblesse oblige as a nobleman?”
‘It’s noblesse oblige, you complete idiot.’
Not only was the term not even used correctly in this situation, but now wasn’t the time to point that out.
“What have you done this time?”
“Who knows? I haven’t done anything yet? But I could? Honestly, does it matter if one commoner student disappears? Look at today. No one’s looking for him. No one cares. Even you didn’t know whether he was here or not until I mentioned it. Right?”
Karn was right. If he hadn’t mentioned it, she wouldn’t have paid any attention to Tus. Right now, getting a good grade on this exam was more important to Iria. The confrontation with Karn was merely secondary. But this noble boy apparently didn’t see it that way. He seemed determined to win against Iria, even if it meant doing something this despicable.
Iria looked at Karn and considered. How much danger was Tus in, and what would her position be if she lost to Karn now? This was something she had done since birth as someone born into royalty. Weighing pros and cons was a duty for those with power.
“What do you want me to do?”
“Lose.”
His demand was quite simple.
She had only helped Tus because he had been visible to her, not because she had considered any benefits that might come from the action. He wasn’t someone she particularly worried about or took interest in, but if there was something she could do, she would help.
What was the point of weighing pros and cons? Her nature was to do what felt right, even if it meant taking a loss. Her parents had scolded her for this. They said someone who would lead a country shouldn’t be like that… This was why Iria thought she wasn’t suited to hold power. If she would ultimately choose what she was drawn to, why bother deliberating? It was just a waste of time.
“Fine. All I need to do is lose?”
“Yes.”
“Both of you, prepare yourselves.”
Just then, the teacher’s voice was heard.
Iria raised her wooden sword that she had slightly lowered and took her stance.
“Alright.”
If he wanted her to lose, she would have to lose.
“Begin!”
At the teacher’s signal, Iria quickly brought her sword down on Karn’s head. He’d said to lose, not to refrain from hitting him. So she thought this much would be fine. According to her original plan, she was going to knock him out with the first attack, but since she didn’t hit him that hard, now she just needed to lose gracefully.
However, Karn apparently thought he wouldn’t take a single hit from Iria, because after being struck hard, his face turned red and purple with rage as he gritted his teeth.
“You bastard!!”
As if forgetting where he was, he blurted out vulgar words without hesitation. Unable to contain his anger, Karn launched a barrage of attacks at Iria. The attacks were so easy to counter that Iria stepped back and deflected his sword. Since she needed to lose as Karn wished, she was contemplating when to surrender when she saw something flying toward them from the sky.
The black cloud rapidly approaching them looked somehow familiar.
“Damn it.”
“What?”
“Hey, duck your head.”
Before Karn could say anything more, Iria forcefully knocked away his sword, quickly jumped forward, and pushed his shoulder down to make him fall. It seemed faster to push him down than to wait for him to duck on his own.
There was no time to worry about Karn screaming on the ground. Iria wrapped a layer of magic around her wooden sword. She could hear students screaming as they fled.
“Kieeek!!”
Even more painful to the ears was the howl of the magical beast that had approached right in front of her. A bat-like magical beast opened its huge mouth before Iria. Sticky saliva dripped from its widely opened mouth, as if it was about to devour whatever was in front of it.
Iria quickly slashed her sword sideways, cutting the magical beast in two. Blood from the beast gushed out like a fountain, drenching Iria. Karn, who had fallen beneath Iria, couldn’t avoid the sudden blood shower either. Having inhaled wrong at the moment the blood covered him, he kept coughing and groaning in pain.
Whether he did or not, there was no time to worry about Karn now. Iria quickly looked around to assess the situation. Endless magical beasts. Teachers evacuating students. Amidst the chaos, Iria tried to find familiar faces.
Neither Persis nor Andelion was visible anywhere. They might not be visible due to the complex situation. Iria drove her wooden sword into an approaching magical beast and looked around more carefully. That’s when Kuatrin, who was in the distance, came into her view.
Kuatrin, who was smiling, moved. He drew the sword from his waist, which she had thought was merely decorative, and quickly jumped in front of the students.
“Teachers, quickly evacuate the students.”
“Your Highness, it’s dangerous for you to be here!!”
“Instead of dawdling, gather the guards first. Hurry!!”
She didn’t know what the First Prince was thinking, but finding Andelion and Persis was the priority in this chaos.
Just then, she spotted a familiar face running into the training ground. It was Tus. The boy, with a pale face as if chased by magical beasts, quickly approached her as soon as he saw Iria.
“Help me!!”
The boy, who had barely reached Iria, shouted urgently.
“Young Master, Andelion…!!”
“Where is he?”
Iria asked for the location without asking for details. Tus silently pointed to where the magical beasts were pouring out from. And Iria ran there without hesitation.
***
My consciousness was floating somewhere. It was a sensation both familiar and entirely new. While my eyes were closed, numerous scenes flashed by, creating stories that then disintegrated and disappeared. They were various narratives that I seemed to both know and not know.
Sometimes Iria stood there, sometimes Persis, sometimes Yutis, sometimes Rikin, sometimes myself, and some died, some rose, some shed tears, and some were relieved. Countless endings and countless futures overlapped and then vanished.
All moments converged into one, creating a single picture. Whether it was right or wrong, I couldn’t tell, but it was something I had to accomplish.
The moment I made that judgment, my sleeping consciousness suddenly awakened.
“Andelion!”
My eyes snapped open at the voice calling me. The first thing I saw was Rikin watching me with a worried face. Unlike me who had immediately lost consciousness, Rikin appeared to have only suffered minor scratches from the recent impact, with no major injuries. Just as I thought how fortunate that was and tried to get up, I must have hit my leg wrong because I couldn’t move properly.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
