(Rudeus POV)
After that ordeal in the hallway (plus the extra humiliation I gave Luke), I told one of the attendants to inform Jinas to postpone any chantless unlocking they had planned for now.
I then told Sara that she could return to Susanne and the others since this has become a private matter to discuss now. I needed to know what kind of twist in fate got Sylphy to get involved in the mess she is currently in.
She reluctantly agreed to it after seeing my expression, and so did Zanoba, who could already tell by looking at me from the beginning.
Sylphy, Ariel, and I entered a room designated for meetings in case any royalties were assigned as a student needed one.
Luke was ordered to stay outside this room as a punishment for acting out of control. He brought it upon himself, but I acted out of term by provoking him, so I was equally guilty.
For a Guardian Knight, he is mediocre regarding reaction speed and handling unexpected outcomes. But in his defense, Sara used a rather random and powerful weapon.
While Ariel and I sat on separate chairs opposite each other during the conversation, Sylphy explained her story about what had happened to her during my absence in Buena.
She continued to improve her chantless Magic by helping Zenith at the clinic and eventually managed to cast Healing Magic without the chant much earlier than I did.
Besides that, she got etiquette lessons from Lilia and usually helped out in the house during her spare time while picking up basic household stuff.
When the Metastasis Event happened, she got teleported up in the sky above the Royal Garden.
While that happened, a Terminator Boar that had gotten teleported at the time was about to attack the princess. Miraculously, in an attempt to lessen her fall, Sylphy managed to kill the monster but ended up severely injured.
After being nursed back to health and explaining herself, it was found that she was a student of mine, to which those aristocrats knew my name.
It turns out Sauros has been bragging about having a genius Magician in his household, therefore spreading my existence with the other nobles without much of my notice as I thought.
As a talented Magic user, she was offered the position of Guardian Magician of the second Princess of the Asura Kingdom.
Her effort required her to disguise herself as a boy and play the silent guard for people to look less down on her.
At that point, I couldn't help but lean my face into my left palm and lean forward from my seat.
At the very least, I can say that it wasn't fully my dense nature's fault for thinking she was a boy again... it still doesn't excuse me for thinking she was one... again.
The story proceeded with the princess getting saved by Sylphy from an assassin sent to kill the princess.
They already figured out that her brother, Gravel Zafin Asura, and Prime Minister Darius Silva Ganius had sent the assassin, but they didn't have solid evidence to prove it.
Ultimately, they had no choice but to flee the country with Ariel's few followers in her midst and get assigned to this school to spread their connections to other people.
Within that year, that has yet to show any major results. That is, until my name fell on the roster.
Under the hopes that I would hopefully join Ariel's faction, Sylphy wrote me a letter with the Asura Kingdom's emblem on it to ensure only the letter's receiver reads it.
Even with Luke's constant complaints and concerns about me being a potential enemy, Sylphy stayed adamant about meeting me after so long again and sent the letter against his disapproval.
"You two should have listened to him. With the rumor regarding the [Tri-Daggers], you should have predicted that outcome."
"I assumed you would recognize your friend even after all these years. For you to fail to do so was not a possibility I believed to be happening."
I remove my palm from my face to glare at the rotten fruit that is the princess.
"My apologies, but my vision seems to have deteriorated from getting a [Longsword of Light] go through my eyes by the Sword Saint of the [Tri-Daggers]. With that, it was hard to see someone's face when they were wearing such wide and dark glasses."
Sylphy looked at me, worried about the former part, but Ariel remained unfazed, not buying that as an excuse.
"Even so, the fact that there is a white-haired chantless Magician Elf should have tipped you off."
For a moment, I felt the need to retaliate against that, but I noticed the signals of worry coming from Sylphy.
The fact that Ariel doesn't mention that her hair color used to be emerald green makes me believe she is unaware of it. Sylphy likely kept it secret because of her past with those bullies. I can sympathize with that since I don't want to reveal my secret to anyone either.
Sylphy has something she built up right now through hard work, and I can acknowledge that despite my dislike of it. Therefore, I will play along.
Before starting, I straightened my back and maintained eye contact with Ariel.
"I'm not sure if Sylphy told you about it, but unlike hers, my white hair has not been like this in the past."
Ariel tried to keep her unfazed look, but my detection said she was confused. Meanwhile, Sylphy was surprised at my words.
"How do you mean? Did you use that paint Magic of yours to change your hair color?"
She looked at me skeptically as if trying to fathom my reasoning.
"Not quite. You may have heard this as well, but I suffered internal damage from pushing too much mana out of my body. Besides my arms having visible purple veins, my eye and hair color have changed as a result as well.
The white hair is a symptom of going over the boundaries your body can handle in mana output.
When I heard about a white-haired Magician being here, I assumed they must have gone through the same thing I did."
"I never heard of such a thing." With one hand on her chin, she went into a thoughtful pose.
"Magic itself is already difficult to master, so to experience something like that is certainly a rare occurrence."
She then looked at me sharply while maintaining her pose. While what I said may sound reasonable to her, it's only suspicion since I don't know of anyone besides me having experienced it.
Well, Sylphy may have. It must've happened when she fell from the sky.
"What made you sure it couldn't have been her when thinking about the chantless Magic ability?"
"That's because me and Sylphy aren't the only true chantless Magicians out there. I assumed your kingdom found some and forcefully trained them to work under them as some state secret."
Getting offended by my presumption, she started slightly furrowing her brows before shaking it off her face again.
From the signals I was picking up, she felt a bit of truth behind my words as she believed it to be something they would do.
I felt a bit of accomplishment in getting a royal to admit to her people's lust for power.
"Leaving that aside," she said, changing the subject, "let's talk about the instigated assassin's attack against you."
My story must be accepted as truthful if she leaves it at that. Code emerald averted. You're welcome, Sylphy.
Now, Ariel wanted to talk about that story, as there were too many listeners in the hallway for us to speak privately. I was also more willing to answer her for now.
"As for the perpetrator, I have suspicions about a few people who could be behind it."
"I assume it is someone of equal or higher status than Philemon?"
"I can assure you, as my supporter, he would not do such a foolish thing."
Just now, I felt a sting like when Sandor lied about his name. There was also the signal of self-doubt, confirming that she also considered that possibility.
My emotion sensing must have evolved in time to get even lies detected. It would be nice to get that turned off if I can. Some things are better off not to be busted.
"Let me clarify that I will not trust everything you say, even if you saved my friend."
Closing her eyes momentarily, she rubbed her temple with her right hand. This must have been her attempt to change my perspective on the possible culprits.
"Anyway, your guess is correct. This could be a plan from my older brother, and the prime minister's doing. Though I cannot say for sure, it would certainly be in their interest to turn someone with a birthright to the Noto's head household position into an enemy of Philemon, one of my supporters."
Hm. Yes, that does sound plausible. After my survival had been confirmed during my time at the refugee camp in Fittoa, they must've sent their assassins under his name in hopes of that outcome. Something that would let Hitogami do his bidding with them.
"Prime Minister Darius Silva Ganius, am I right?"
"Yes, precisely. He has several nobles under his biding through horrendous methods of ransom, making him a dangerous person to defend against."
I think I can already imagine what she is implying with that. I'm already aware of his preferences.
The past me would have had barely any problem with that, but that was when I only thought about it in fiction for the most part, disregarding the incidents I had in the past.
But back to the topic. The Prime Minister. I didn't think I would ever hear from him ever again.
I was already brought to awareness of his corrupt actions when Phillip told me about him being the one who hired those kidnappers who kidnapped Eris and me before I was officially hired as her tutor. Because of the lack of evidence for his crime, they couldn't do anything against it except let it slide this once.
And then there was the fact that he stopped the funds for the Fittoa Region right after Eris's death was announced.
I don't understand why he would go so far to get his hands on Eris alone, but there is a suspicion I'm having right now.
"Could it be possible that Darius had his hands in Sauros Boreas Greyrat's verdict regarding the Metastasis Event?"
"Well… it was fairly known that Sauros and Darius disliked each other, so I believe that to be true."
A boiling feeling weld up inside me when thinking about it. I already knew that Sauros had a few enemies in the capital, but it still makes me want to kill that bastard for just that.
Regarding Darius being an apostle, I cannot say for certain if Hitogami advised him to kill Sauros. If I remember correctly, it must have been during my time at the Great Forest, a long while before my dispute with Paul in Millishion.
"I can see now why you dislike me."
A sudden confirmation from her brought me back to reality. I also noticed my hands clenched into fists, almost tearing my gloves apart.
"I already knew of your employment in the Boreas household, but it slipped my mind that you would be out for revenge for Sauros's execution."
Her tone conveyed consideration and sympathy, but I knew she was trying to lessen my grief.
"Even if his execution ignited my wrath against you and the rest of you Asura Royals, I'm not out for revenge." I said with a serious face.
They looked like they didn't understand my choice, so I explained it to them.
"Should I decide to kill all of your nobles and royals, then it would cause more problems than soothe my vengeful will.
There are a few historical examples of those who accomplished their revenge for the people they cared about but couldn't undo the damage already done in their hearts. The same will likely happen to me as well."
The example I meant just now was regarding the betrayal of Laplace against the Superd tribe.
Even after Ruijerd had helped in the victory against him, the damage and loss their tribe had suffered wasn't solved at all.
And just like then, my situation wouldn't solve anything should I kill them. It bears too much risk to do it in the first place. My name would fall back to Paul's family, and I would cause them trouble for it.
"Even so," I said, narrowing my eyes. "It still doesn't change my view of you."
She was startled when I declared my unwanted image of her.
"I can assure you that I had no involvement regarding Sauros's judgment back then. It was outside of my area of influence."
"Your fake smile already told me everything I need to know about your person. You were trying to get me at least as one of your supporters, but someone with a smile like yours already deceived me."
Her eyes widened a bit at the mention of her smile. Sylphy, as well, was surprised.
"Don't think that your beauty can blind me. The moment I gazed upon you was when I was aware that you were only after my power and status as a Great World Power."
"But Rudy," Sylphy interjected. "She is not like other people. She thinks and cares about the people who follow her and the commoners. Because of that kindness, I survived after falling in the Royal garden."
"And I'm great full for that. But I have something more important to do than get myself involved in this suicidal political power struggle she is willing to stay in."
"You mean the sudden overhaul of monsters in the region?" Ariel asked.
"No. That is of secondary importance for my actual appearance in the Northern Territories. Something of a more personal matter."
"May I ask what could make our current predicament less important?" Ariel asked again.
"Out of my family, only one person is still missing after the Metastasis Event of the Fittoa region."
"Who is it?" Sylphy asked, concerned.
"It's Zenith. Lilia and Aisha should have arrived at Millishion, where Paul and Norn are.
The southern part of the Central continent is already covered by people of his group from the search and rescue squad.
He asked me to cover the north, but I was teleported a bit far away from it, so it took me a while until I got here.
I planned to let my name get spread around to let her know I'm here while also looking for any details regarding her location."
"Wait, Rudy, where did you get teleported anyway?"
"On the Demon continent at the Biegoya region at the northeast."
"The Demon continent?!" Sylphy shrieked, almost having her glasses fall off from having her ears flap around.
"You survived traversing through that dangerous place?" Ariel said, equally shocked at that detail.
"It is not like I survived going through it on my own. I had help from an experienced, strong warrior who promised to help me. Without him, I wouldn't have survived in the first place."
Both of them started to sweat a bit. They probably thought that the person must be terrifyingly strong if the likes of me praised him for his help.
Can't I call someone a great fighter without people assuming he is a force to be reckoned with just because I'm a Great World Power?
I mean, he is, but he is a good-hearted person. Just disregard the fact that he is a Superd, talk with him for a bit, and you will change your mind about their tribe and perhaps become good friends with him…... except when he sees you harm children. That's when you should pray to your god that your death will be swift enough to suffer the least amount of pain.
"Anyway," I said as I stood up. "I should probably go to Vice Principal Jinas regarding the matter I wanted to discuss with him."
I wanted to move a bit anyway. These seats were not good for long-term conversations. My lower back hurts a little from all this talking.
"I want to clarify that I am choosing to remain neutral after this conversation. I urge you to respect my decision and refrain from trying to convince me otherwise."
Slumping her shoulders and sighing, Ariel seemed to admit her failure in getting me to become her ally.
"I guess due to your circumstances, it was bound to happen. I am sorry for having bothered you during the predicament."
"No. It was good that you did. I constantly worried that something may have happened to Sylphy. Knowing that she is alive and well gives my mind some peace."
Once I said that, Sylphy started to feel flustered, her cheeks red and ears flapping around again.
Suddenly, I want to... nibble on her ears. Even back at Buena, I always wanted to touch her ears just once but felt it would be inappropriate due to an experience in my previous life.
'I haven't even truly started something with Sara, and I'm already starting intrusive thoughts about cheating? What is wrong with me?'
Shaking that thought off, I started to leave the room.
"I need to talk with Jinas for a bit, so I'll have to excuse myself."
Neither objected, but they both had signals of being dejected, Sylphy stronger than Ariel. I guess they had high hopes of this still working in the end.
While I headed to the door, a familiar person got noticed by me through my detection.
Sandor was heading towards us, a weird feeling emitting from him.
From my first impression of him, he seemed like an easygoing person who could discern threats alike.
My senses are telling me that something bad is happening. He must have gotten some information from Perugius if he gets that tangled.
"Rudy, is something wrong?"
There was no time to answer her as Sandor moved Luke to the side and opened the door.
"Hey, what is the meaning of this?!"
Luke's irritated exclamation went unheard of by Sandor, who looked at me with an emotionless expression.
"Rudeus Greyrat. We need talk."
Calling me by full name? This must be something important if he says it like that.
"I would like you to sit the monster raid out."
"..."
Huh. Well, that was random.
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