Chapter 64 · After the Hunting Competition (1)

For the past few days, I hadn’t been able to hide the grin that kept spreading across my face. Ever since Paeon had pulled me into a tight embrace in front of everyone, watching him flounder under the teasing of those around him had been far too entertaining. Of course, only the bold-hearted ones—the three priestesses and Shellman—teased him directly, but even beyond them, the way people looked at him had clearly changed.

Knights who used to scramble to avoid Paeon whenever he passed now glanced at him with something oddly touched in their eyes. That the cold, aloof, bloodless man had been overcome by emotion and done such a thing was bound to capture people’s interest. He had been angry at first, then embarrassed, and finally seemed to resign himself to it.

“Princess, aren’t you in an awfully good mood?”

Mila, sitting beside me, whispered even during Professor Alfredo Caesar’s class. I must have been grinning from ear to ear again.

“The academy’s been gloomy because of that Frederick.”

Classes had resumed after several weeks. After Frederick died to the Baranus, the academy had suspended all academic schedules for a time to sort out the aftermath. To show a measure of mourning, they draped the school in black and held a moment of silence every morning.

But aside from Frederick’s parents, no one was grieving. His parents raged and demanded compensation for the death of their eldest son from a viscount family. And they even spouted nonsense that it was my fault he died.

Then, based on Giselle Caesar’s testimony, it was proven that he had met his death because of his own foolish actions.

Giselle had been thoroughly unhinged since that day. She cowered, flinching and fleeing whenever anyone so much as spoke to her, and couldn’t even meet people’s eyes. In the end, she fled the academy as if running for her life.

Everyone pitied her, saying she must have lost her mind from the shock of witnessing Frederick’s death right before her eyes. I didn’t pity her in the least.

“Everything seems to have worked out. With those two eyesores gone, the academy’s actually worth attending.”

“There’s still something left, though.”

Mila whispered into my ear.

“The princess’s formula!”

Come to think of it, the results of my formula’s review were overdue, yet there had been no word, which was strange. We glared at Alfredo, who was droning on with his musty lecture at the front.

“Even if it didn’t pass, shouldn’t he at least tell us? There’s definitely something going on here.”

“Hmm… I suppose so.”

“Let’s just blow it wide open, Princess. You have that, don’t you?”

The image stone containing Giselle’s exposé of the Caesar family’s corruption. I had already carefully copied it onto another image stone. But that was enough to hold over Giselle as a weakness; it wasn’t enough to completely destroy the Caesar family. At the time, Giselle’s situation had been so desperate that it would be hard to accept it as proper evidence.

“I’ll ask him once class is over.”

The moment the bell rang, I chased after Alfredo, but someone grabbed me and yanked me back hard at the door.

“?!”

Stella, looking haggard, was glaring at me and huffing.

“It was you, wasn’t it?”

“What is it, Aunt Stella?”

My voice didn’t come out nicely either. The building with the professors’ offices was so labyrinthine, and I had to chase after him now!

“Giselle going strange—it’s all because of you, isn’t it!”

“I don’t think you heard, but I’m the one who saved Miss Giselle’s life.”

“Ugh… She’s avoiding me! Unless you threatened her, there’s no reason for her to do that!”

“Isn’t it a bit much to blame me because your friend is being a little cold?”

“Why, you—!”

She raised her hand high, then, seeing the students filing out of the classroom, quietly lowered it. And with a face flushed bright red, she whispered.

“Listen carefully. In the end, no one will ever love you.”

“Hmm, is that so?”

My indifferent answer seemed to incense her even more.

“The people around you now are people who can turn their backs on you the moment you fall into ruin.”

Stella seemed to be trying with all her might to wound me. Normally I would have ignored her and gone on my way, but the words were already slipping out of my mouth on their own.

“But isn’t that the same for you, Aunt?”

That remark seemed to strike something in her. She lunged at me the moment she heard it. But because of the barrier I quickly raised, she ended up bouncing off.

“Princess Stella!”

One of Stella’s close friends helped her up as she landed hard on her backside. Stella was trembling with humiliation at having fallen in front of so many watching eyes.

“What do you think you’re doing! How dare you lay a hand on Princess Stella—!”

“I wasn’t attacking, I was defending. And it seems you’ve forgotten—I’m a princess too.”

I added a word to the other, whose face was heavily contorted.

“Oh my, your tie is crooked. That violates the dignity code, so you’ll need to be disciplined. Starting today, wipe the tables in the student cafeteria at least ten times. And report to me for inspection.”

“What nonsense… Why should I do that…!”

“The year president’s authority—apparently it takes effect starting today.”

On my chest, a golden laurel-shaped badge was gleaming. The hunting competition had ended in a mess, but when the final scores were tallied, mine had been overwhelmingly the highest, so the position of upperclassmen year president had come to me.

Stella and her companion’s faces twisted in fury. I smiled triumphantly and turned away.

‘Being year president is really sweet, isn’t it?’

Thinking about how I would gradually take revenge on the ones who had tormented Freesia made me hum without realizing it. I trotted briskly toward the building with the offices. Then Stella’s words suddenly came to mind, and my steps grew heavy.

“The people around you now are people who can turn their backs on you the moment you fall into ruin.”

Honestly, it stung. The more I chewed it over, the more complicated my feelings became.

If the worst-case scenario came—if I were branded a child of calamity like in my past lives and incurred the fury of the Santran people… could the people around me now really avoid turning their backs on me?

Actually, it would be a problem even if they didn’t. In such a situation, taking my side would only mean falling into ruin together. So I absolutely had to leave Santra before I turned twelve and knew the future. Now not just for my own sake, but for the sake of those who might suffer because of me.

‘There are still four years left… What if I grow even more attached in the meantime?’

I really needed to hurry. Train magic and divine power harder, work in earnest on preventing disasters, gather money, learn the southern continent’s language. If I did all that, there wouldn’t be time for my heart to go soft.

But I couldn’t prevent the corner of my heart from growing lonely. Lost in troubled thoughts, I found I had arrived at the office building. It was a very large and glittering building, as it also housed the offices of Naritas, the royal mage order.

“Hoo… How do I find that bastard Alfredo’s office here?”

I boldly entered the building first. Since academy students were forbidden from entering without important business, it felt like an adventure and made my heart pound. The interior was lavishly decorated with all sorts of statues and gilded frames, and magic books lay beneath the glass ornaments lining the corridors. They seemed to be a display of research achievements over the years.

I slowly admired them, then stopped, transfixed, at one spot. In a large golden frame hung a beautiful woman with the same eye and hair color as mine.

Beatrice Sirenchium Entimos.

Reading the letters on the nameplate beneath the frame made my chest ache.

‘So this is my mother.’

Except for having bangs, her long, rippling, fluffy curly hair, round eyes, emerald pupils, and the small dimples in her cheeks were exactly like mine.

‘Is this what I’ll look like when I grow up?’

Hmm hmm. Honestly, it felt good. My mother had a face so lovely that even I would fall for it at first sight. It wasn’t just her looks—there was something in her very atmosphere that drew people in. Thinking that she was the woman who had brought that cold Paeon to his knees made her seem almost wondrous.

As I stood there blankly for a while, a voice called out to me.

“Princess Anastasia?”

I turned in surprise. An unexpected person was standing there.

“Mawquis Laselles!”

It was a face I hadn’t seen in a very long time. He had been so busy with various businesses and matters related to the magic stone mine that he had barely come to Salus recently. We had only exchanged greetings in passing at prayer meetings now and then, never having a long conversation.

“Goodness! Princess, you grow more beautiful by the day. I thought a little angel had descended to earth.”

My face burned with embarrassment.

“It’s been so long.”

As he approached, he noticed what I had been looking at. His bright face turned serious in an instant.

“You were looking at Princess Beatrice.”

“Well… I just saw it as I was passing by…”

His eyes grew moist, and somehow it made me uncomfortable.

“Princess Beatrice was truly a great person. She was the youngest ever to reach first rank in Naritas, unmatched by anyone.”

He said in a slightly choked voice.

“If only she hadn’t passed so young, she would have left countless achievements…”

Not knowing how to respond, I silently examined the glass case before the frame. It was densely filled with a list of the many researches she had conducted in her lifetime. My mouth fell open on its own.

‘With this much, it seems she would have needed five bodies.’

But at the very end of the list, a sentence that had been carelessly struck through with scribbled lines caught my eye. Peering closely, I could see what had originally been written.

‘Making a magical tool that operates without mana infusion… Gasp! Is that possible?’

As I stared at the case in shock, Marquis Laselles asked worriedly.

“Princess, but what brings you here? This is a place where academy students aren’t allowed…”

“Ah, right!”

I recalled my original purpose and asked urgently.

“Do you happen to know Professor Alfredo Caesar’s office? There’s something I need to ask him.”

“Ah, I know it. I’ll guide you there.”

‘Oh yeah!’

I happily followed behind him. On the way to the office, he needlessly boasted without my even asking.

“Haha, though I’m retired now, I was once a member of Naritas too. I know this building inside and out. Today I came because a junior researcher begged for my help, so I had no choice.”

“I heard the Laselles family has produced many outstanding royal mages.”

“We tend to produce several dozen exceptional figures each century. You can’t fool blood, as they say… Just look at the princess! Haha.”

I smiled my best social-occasion smile and played along. Soon we arrived at Alfredo’s office, and Marquis Laselles knocked heartily on the door.

“It’s been a while, Count Caesar.”

“…What brings you here?”

Alfredo’s face scrunched up when he saw us.

“I was curious when the results of my formula review would come out. It’s already been over two weeks.”

I poked my head in and asked.

“That is… I did not submit it for review.”

He said curtly, eyes lowered.

“What? But you said you would submit it then.”

“I tested it beforehand, and the princess’s produced a poor result. I couldn’t put something like that into review and waste unnecessary effort.”

Marquis Laselles, who had been listening quietly, roared in a tiger-like voice.

“Who do you think you are to decide that on your own?”