#33
“What are you doing?”
“Weren’t you going to eat dinner? I’ll have the meat stew. Please take care of it? Mr. Servant?”
“It’s Yutis. Address me properly.”
Calling him a servant? I glared sharply at Rikin, who quickly raised both hands and nodded. His slick behavior was irritating.
“Ah, yes. Yutis. I’ll have the meat stew.”
Despite Rikin’s annoying tone, Yutis didn’t say much. I don’t know where he left the conversational skills he had used to twist my words earlier.
“Andelion, what would you like to have?”
“Wow, are you two on a first-name basis now?”
“I’ll have the meat stew as well.”
I stated my menu choice, ignoring Rikin who kept butting in from the side. I planned to eat quickly and return to my room. I was concerned about the sword waiting alone, and I also felt uncomfortable being with these two.
Yutis ordered three meat stews from a passing dining hall employee. I was bothered by how Yutis seemed to be taking on all the unpleasant tasks, knowingly or unknowingly. This won’t do. Tomorrow, I should wake up early and come eat alone. I couldn’t trouble him any further.
“I heard you saw His Highness today.”
Rikin said to me while resting his chin on his hand. I recalled Persis, who had held my hand tightly until the trembling stopped. Though it hadn’t been long since I saw him, it somehow felt like it had been a very long time ago.
“We all saw him. He was standing on the platform.”
When I saw Persis standing on the platform, I felt nothing special. At that time, I was just happy to see his face after a long time. But when I actually faced him in person, my emotions began to fluctuate uncontrollably. I was shaken to a degree that couldn’t be excused by the sudden situation.
However, I didn’t want to show that side of myself to Rikin. It was partly a matter of minimal pride, and partly an intuition that I shouldn’t.
Rikin is very close to Persis. I couldn’t tell when he might relay my reaction to Persis.
If he knew how sensitively I reacted to his smallest actions, kind-hearted Persis might worry unnecessarily. Of course, Persis might not react much even if he heard about this. I would actually prefer that.
Our current relationship, neither getting closer nor growing apart, was the best.
“No, not on the platform. I heard you were dragged inside while panicking in the back?”
So he already told Rikin about that incident.
“How could you just stand there dazed when you’ve never even properly seen a magical beast before?”
“I wasn’t dazed.”
“He was looking for someone.”
Yutis, who had been silently listening, joined the conversation. He usually never initiated conversation when I was with other people, so I felt hopeful that perhaps he was changing a bit.
“Someone? Do you know someone here? Ah, could it be you were worried about me?”
Rikin said while casually placing his arm on my shoulder. I immediately brushed off his arm and looked at him even more coldly than before.
As if I’d be worried about you when I’ve been watching you use sword energy since you were nine. Rikin wasn’t the type to let his guard down in such situations, and what I saw before fleeing was him shattering a magical beast with just a piece of wood. I might have been concerned if there were too many, but we had the Duke.
The situation was definitely not dire enough for me to forget to flee while looking for Rikin. He surely knew this, yet his habit of making such pointed comments irritated me.
“How could that be? You’re not someone who would get hurt even if you fought there all day.”
“I would get hurt if I fought that much.”
“Then I would sincerely worry about you at that time.”
I didn’t intend to create such a situation, but the future was unpredictable. Even now, something unexpected had happened.
“So who was it? The person you were looking for? Don’t tell me it was His Highness?”
“No, it wasn’t.”
“It wasn’t?”
At my words, Rikin seemed genuinely surprised. The same was true for Yutis sitting next to me. Both of them stared at me with wide eyes. Had I said something that shocking? I tried to think back, but I hadn’t said anything particularly radical.
“Yes. It wasn’t.”
“Then who was it?”
Rikin asked, slightly tilting his head toward me. His interested face didn’t please me at all. I could clearly see him pouncing on what he thought was an interesting discovery.
“There is such a person. Let’s stop talking about this now.”
“Come on, that’s boring.”
My prediction was right. It seems he was planning to tease me about this for a while. I don’t understand why he keeps doing things that neither work nor are effective.
“Why haven’t you returned to the Parten family?”
“If I scurry back to the family over something like this, my father would surely be furious. Wouldn’t he tell me to go and investigate the truth?”
Indeed, it was behavior befitting the head of the Parten family, also known as the Empire’s guardian.
Despite being a Count family, the Parten family held as much power as the Crusay Duke family. The reason their status hadn’t risen further was simply the Parten family head’s wish to remain the Empire’s sword.
“Have you found anything out?”
At my question, Rikin’s continuously chattering lips closed firmly. The smile that had been on his face also slowly began to fade.
“Why are you curious about that?”
“I am also the heir to the Duke’s family. With such a major incident, I can’t just stand by with my hands tied behind my back knowing nothing.”
“Hmm. So does the Duke know that you have such thoughts?”
“He doesn’t.”
The one who answered Rikin’s question wasn’t me but Yutis. Earlier, I had liked seeing him join the conversation, but somehow the timing of his additions was suspicious. It felt like he never missed an opportunity when I was in a difficult position. But that couldn’t be right.
“Shouldn’t you get permission from the Duke?”
“He’s not the type to care about such things.”
I opened my mouth before Yutis could answer again.
The Duke would be investigating what happened in his own way. Perhaps he even had plans to use the power of the magic circle employed in this incident. I never knew when the Duke might suddenly change. I had no choice but to live with anxiety for at least a year.
“Have you found anything?”
“Well, I haven’t heard much either. Just that there was apparently a hidden room in the basement of this school. They say the magical beasts emerged from that room. I’m planning to go check the details myself tomorrow, following a teacher.”
Rikin was a member of the school’s student council. Now that the situation had calmed down, it seemed he had earned the right to visit the scene as a student representative.
“Can I go with you?”
“Young Master!”
Yutis called out to me, startled by my words. It seemed to have slipped out unconsciously, as he used the familiar title he had been using all along rather than my name.
“You want to go too?”
I nodded in response. Rikin said nothing, just looked at me and slightly raised one eyebrow. It was an expression he typically made when deep in thought. I had seen that face of Rikin’s often. He would occasionally make that expression when we played games together. I remembered struggling afterward because the moves Rikin made after that face were always outrageous.
“Alright, good. Let’s go together.”
Rikin nodded with a broad smile. His excessive joy made me uneasy instead.
“But in return, Ana has to come with me where I want to go too, okay?”
When I was young, Kara once told me this: ‘Everything in this world is about give and take. There is nothing in the world that is given unconditionally or received unconditionally.’
That statement struck me freshly at this moment.
* * *
Though I was seeing the building in person for the first time, I knew immediately where this was. It was the old school building, rarely visited by students. This building, closer to the dormitories than the main building, was where hidden events usually occurred.
In ‘Luper,’ choosing where to send Iria was as important as selecting dialogue options. That’s why the game made most areas accessible to Iria, and I, having played the game countless times, had been to every location.
But this was the first time I’d heard about such an underground space. It was hard to believe there was a place unknown to me, who had memorized the game’s setting guide by heart.
As promised during dinner yesterday, Rikin took me to the underground space the very next day. Since we were scheduled to meet the school officials in the basement, only Rikin and I were going down the stairs. It seemed all the other student council members had gone home.
“There probably won’t be much danger. Wasn’t it unnecessary to bring something you can’t even use?”
“Pardon?”
“There was no need to bring a sword.”
Rikin looked at the sword fastened at my waist as he spoke.
“Who is he to tell you what to do? If you want to bring it, you bring it.”
The sword couldn’t hold back and said something to Rikin, but only I could hear his voice. Thanks to the magic cast on the sword, it would look like an ordinary sword to others, but carrying this sword around outside was a bit dangerous.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
