#43
I pulled my hand away from Persis’s grip and took a step back. This much distance needed to exist between him and me. When I stepped away, Persis’s gaze turned fierce. As his cutting glare fixed on me, my fingertips trembled slightly.
Straightening my back that wanted to shrink away, I looked directly at Persis and said, “I need to report about what just attacked me. Other students might be in danger if they go near there.”
“Other students can take care of themselves. The report can wait until tomorrow.”
“But still.”
“Please, Ana. Take care of yourself first.”
I’d never neglected taking care of myself. To begin with, I was only injured on the back of my hand, so I didn’t know what more needed to be done. If I were bleeding, I might have followed Persis’s advice, but my body was perfectly fine.
“Whatever attacked me must be related to the person who summoned the magical beast during the entrance ceremony.”
“How do you know that?”
I didn’t know how to answer Persis’s question. I could have said I found out using magic Kara taught me, but the moment I said that, Persis would surely ask why I did such a thing.
It wasn’t something a student, especially a regular student not affiliated with the student council, should be concerned with or investigating. Finding the culprit from the entrance ceremony was a matter for teachers or the school security team.
The moment I mentioned using tracking magic to find the culprit and encountering something strange, I’d definitely get scolded by Persis. After pondering briefly, I glanced at Persis. His eyes, fixed intently on me, wouldn’t look away.
“He said so, to me.”
“To you?”
“Yes. I think it would be good to check it out.”
Persis narrowed his eyes, suspicious of me. Even to me, it sounded too absurd. There was no way the culprit would confess “I did it all” to a student they’d just met. But I had no other way to escape this situation.
“Fine, let’s say that’s true. Why were you there in the first place?”
“Ah, well. I was just taking a walk.”
“At this late hour?”
“Yes. I enjoy night walks.”
“That’s the first I’ve heard of it.”
Of course it was the first he’d heard of it, since I’d never enjoyed night walks. There was no way Persis could know what I liked. When I was younger, I didn’t enjoy walks at night. He seemed to be recalling that time.
“Anyway, I need to report this quickly.”
“I’ll take care of that myself, so go back to your room and rest.”
After saying that, Persis crossed his arms as if to say he would watch until I entered my room. There was no way for me to get past him. I was about to say something, not wanting to give up, but when I opened my mouth, I saw Persis’s eyes harden and decided against it.
In the end, I walked to my room door with Persis’s unofficial escort. He stared intensely until I opened the door and went inside. Was I really so untrustworthy? I gave him a brief greeting before closing the door.
“I told you I wouldn’t wait.”
The moment I heard the voice resonating in my head, an awkward smile spread across my face. This was quite a predicament. I suppressed a sigh that was about to escape and approached the sword that had been waiting alone. What words could I possibly use to appease his anger? It truly felt like the phrase “when it rains, it pours” was made for moments like this.
* * *
The events of last night, when I went to track down the culprit, were substantial enough to drain me completely. But compared to this moment now, I questioned whether it was really such a major incident.
I scanned the old newspapers in front of me without raising my face once. The text printed on the paper was neat, but because magical effects had been applied, the letters would scatter and form new text with just a few touches.
This time too, as I gently waved my hand over the newspaper, new text formed. In this world, newspapers were a cultural artifact of the nobility. Not all newspapers distributed to them were in this format. What we were looking at now had special magical effects added for preservation in the library.
My current task was to investigate the truth behind incidents reported in the newspapers. Since the main readership was the nobility, the articles were written from their perspective. Cases like large-scale construction projects that gathered commoners were described as “sudden riots by commoners causing difficulties,” but in reality, the commoners had raised their voices demanding payment after not receiving wages on time.
So I needed to carefully read each piece, but my mind was unable to process the text.
“Ana?”
Startled by the sudden call, I looked up. I had been so focused that I’d forgotten someone else was with me.
“Oh, sorry. Everyone calls you Ana, so I did too without thinking. Have you found much? Andelion?”
Seeing Iria smiling at me as she asked, my mouth went dry. I couldn’t honestly say that none of the text was registering. I nodded with a stiff face and looked back at the newspaper.
She probably wanted a specific answer, but my mouth wouldn’t move, as if broken. Being alone with Iria was both wonderful and terrifying. I hadn’t planned to be this close to her.
“Oh, Andelion. You’re hurt here?”
Just then, Iria pointed at the back of my hand, which was red from last night’s incident.
“Ah, yes. I fell down yesterday.”
I quickly hid my hand as I spoke. I thought it was a small injury, but the red marks from being scratched last night hadn’t disappeared. Not only that, the part where something had grabbed my arm even had dark purple fingermarks.
The sword was horrified when it first saw this. It screamed until my head was spinning, demanding to know what I’d been doing. In the end, I had to promise that next time I went out at night, I would absolutely take the sword with me.
“Oh right. I wanted to show you this.”
Iria, as if remembering something, handed me the newspaper she had been reading. It was published 18 years ago.
“It’s about an incident in a certain village. It seems the villagers collectively launched a large-scale business venture. But things went wrong, and they only incurred losses and went bankrupt. The village was so ruined that they couldn’t recover on their own, so they requested help from surrounding nobles and the imperial family, but everyone ignored their pleas.”
Listening to Iria’s gentle voice, I looked at the newspaper she pointed out. The small article, without a single photo, described an unfortunate village. As far as I knew, that area was adjacent to the region governed by our Duke family.
While the Duke resided in the ducal residence in the capital, he also had separate territories he governed. Though he couldn’t visit often, I knew he went there several times a month for territorial inspections.
“But this village miraculously revived. They discovered a mineral called Clum that absorbs magical power, and through that, they launched another business.”
“Wouldn’t this incident support Rikin’s argument? It sets a precedent for individuals overcoming failure on their own.”
“The teacher asked us to mix both arguments and think of a new alternative. So finding events that support his side isn’t bad, right? Of course, that’s not why I found this.”
Iria grinned as she tapped the article with her finger.
“Do you really think the villagers found Clum on their own? This village had no mines, and no one who knew much about magic. So how did they discover Clum?”
“Someone… helped them, you mean.”
“It’s a conjecture, but yes.”
If it concerned that area, Kara might know something. I had heard that Kara was from the Duke’s territory.
“I’ll look into it.”
“I’ll search for more related incidents too. Shall we stop here for today? Aren’t you hungry? Let’s go get dinner.”
Saying that, Iria organized what she had been looking for. I quickly shook my head. My body was already overloaded with tension from being with her while searching for materials.
“No. I haven’t fully digested what I ate at lunch yet, so I’m fine.”
If I were to have dinner with Iria now, it could really be disastrous. I neatly arranged the newspapers I had been reading, held them in one hand, and stood up.
“Then I’ll go ahead.”
“Oh, okay. Sure.”
After leaving the library conference room almost like I was fleeing, I returned the newspapers and went outside. Although I told Iria I wasn’t hungry, my stomach was constantly growling. But having already said what I did, I felt awkward about going to the dining hall now.
I’d have to go to my dormitory room and wait until the end of dinner time. Thinking this, as I was passing the corridor corner, I bumped into a man carrying documents piled up to his head. It was my fault for not seeing him properly as he suddenly appeared.
The documents and books he was holding instantly fell to the floor.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
