After the “black magic runaway surge incident,” the new officials’ department tours were suspended.
Every trainee was ordered to remain home on standby until the situation was fully assessed.
But Grape-Head and I got hauled straight into the heart of the palace instead…
We were summoned to the First Council Chamber of the palace.
Not just the higher-ups we’d seen at orientation — people well above their rank were there too.
Meaning, essentially, everyone at the ministerial level.
The lowest-ranked life form in the entire ecosystem, stuck in a room full of the highest-ranked people in it?
I wanted to bolt on the spot!
More than anything — this never happened in the original story, did it?
The heroine, going into a runaway surge?
The three of us were held at the palace for questioning.
Grape-Head and I were interviewed about the circumstances of the incident. Julianna was undergoing a medical exam.
Chief Theodore’s people were the ones treating her, weren’t they?
By now, they were probably confirming whether any black-magic residue remained, checking for aftereffects.
…I hope she’s okay.
If someone who despised black magic ended up a victim of it herself — how would that feel?
Her pride was probably in pieces right now.
I should visit her once this is over.
Meanwhile, why did Grape-Head keep staring at me like this?
“Finley.”
“…”
“You have something to say to me?”
“You’re the one with something to say to me, aren’t you.”
Damn it.
Ever since he’d spotted the black magic core, Grape-Head had been staring at me like he wanted to grind me into dust with sheer intensity.
Under the circumstances, I’d managed to dodge answering him on the spot at the scene.
Not like I can hand him an answer I don’t have myself.
But I needed to escape that glare somehow, so I’d better change the subject.
“You’re right. I do have something to say to you.”
“Then how—”
“Thanks for helping me back there.”
“…What?”
“You know — you grabbed me and pulled me clear.”
Technically, he’d grabbed me by the collar to do it.
My neck was still sore, but that beat a crushed face.
So take my thanks and back off already, alright?
“I should’ve said it sooner. Sorry, Finley. It’s all thanks to you.”
“No, that’s not what I’m trying to hear—”
“Oh, look at you being so modest.”
“You—!”
Just as his voice started to rise—
The person in this room outranked only by the Emperor himself spoke up.
“I’m truly sorry we all had to gather over such an unfortunate matter.”
None other than Prime Minister Ruella Halifax.
Watching this middle-aged official — snow-white hair swept up elegantly — it hit me all over again.
The throne really is powerless here…
Not a single person from the Imperial household had bothered to show up.
Prime Minister Halifax addressed Chief Theodore.
“Lord Wordsworth. What’s Julianna Crosswell’s condition right now?”
“Neither of them shows any physical injury. But I judged it best not to bring them into a setting like this just yet.”
“I see. Using black magic, though… what kind of grudge could possibly drive someone to that?”
“Ahem. According to Crosswell’s own account—”
The Chief cleared his throat.
“It seems the pressure from the second team she toured was significant enough to trigger it.”
“And which team was that?”
That was when Allison Kafres stood up.
Her face was bone-white, but her expression was defiant, almost proud.
“Crosswell’s testimony is regrettable, Your Excellency. But I did nothing beyond teach her the basics.”
The Chief looked visibly uncomfortable at her bold response.
“Team Leader Kafres. With respect, Crosswell has testified that your language was fairly—”
“Crosswell’s testimony is also regrettable. But that new hire was unstable from the very start.”
Excuse me?
What is she even saying right now?
Allison pressed on, shameless.
“And even if a superior said something, is it really reasonable that it would push someone all the way to being consumed by black magic?”
Murmurs rippled through the room.
“Kafres has a point.”
“And she’s supposedly the top of her class — disappointing.”
“Did she hide something during her psychological evaluation?”
“Maybe there was already some connection to black magic to begin with—”
The room went ominously quiet.
Confirmed involvement with black magic meant a death sentence.
That absolute—
I ground my teeth.
However damning her testimony sounded, was Allison seriously trying to get someone killed over this?
I have to say something.
That what Allison said had crossed every line.
But I don’t have a single piece of hard evidence!
Grape-Head had been watching me clutch my forehead and struggle silently.
Then, without a word, he rose to his feet and raised his hand — fearlessly.
Every eye in the room turned toward him at once, naturally.
“May I speak?”
“And you are…?”
“Seamus Finley. Same trainee group as Crosswell.”
“Hm. Finley. What is it you’d like to say?”
“Team Leader Kafres’s statement is not reasonable.”
“Oh? What do you mean by that.”
“Because the claim that she was ‘unstable from the very start’ doesn’t hold up.”
“Now, now — I understand you want to support a fellow trainee, but—”
Grape-Head raised his skull bracelet.
“My artifact does more than attack. It also records.”
He pressed a point on the skull, and a painfully familiar exchange played back, clear as day.
—A waste of a desk. Oh my. Did that hurt your feelings? But you kids need things spelled out plainly, don’t you.
—Ah, n-no.
—Right? You’re all supposed to just take it straight, aren’t you.
From our very first day touring the Protocol Team.
—Marrying well and coasting through life, that’s what you’re really after. Playing the good girl doesn’t fool—
Right up to moments before the incident that afternoon, Allison’s tirades played out, one after another.
A stiff, uncomfortable silence fell over the room.
The abuse hadn’t only been aimed at Julianna.
Some of it was aimed at me too, mixed in.
—Someone’s trying to look experienced, hm?
—Thank you for the compliment.
—Well, I suppose you’d have plenty of practice doing grunt work, coming from an orphanage.
I’d deflected it smoothly enough at the time, but hearing it played back from the outside, it was genuinely appalling.
Awkward coughs broke out here and there around the room.
“Ahem.”
“Well, good heavens.”
“I’d heard rumors, but… my word.”
Allison’s lips trembled with fury.
She clearly hadn’t expected the second lead she’d written off to blindside her with magic of all things.
Not that I’d expected it either.
Well, would you look at that, Grape-Head.
No — from here on out, I should probably start using his actual name.
Seamus! I knew it — you really were second-lead material after all!
Carried along by the shift in the room, I stood up too.
Allison glared at me, trembling with fury.
“I’m Leila Rowell, also from Crosswell’s group. Everything Finley just played is true!”
“You—!”
“Crosswell was never unstable to begin with. From the very first day of our tour at the Protocol Team, there was abuse—”
“This is a setup! That artifact’s a fake too!”
Allison’s face flushed red as she shouted at the room.
“Whose testimony are you going to believe! I may not have much power, but I am the head of Protoc—”
But a low male voice cut through hers, mid-sentence.
The male lead, who’d been seated ahead of us, rose to his feet, and every eye in the room snapped to him instantly.
“Team Leader Kafres’s testimony has no basis in fact.”
“L— Lord Rupesk?! What are you—”
“Team Leader Kafres shoved Rowell when she was trying to take shelter inside the building, during the black magic incident.”
“T— that was an accident!”
“But you made no attempt to open the door and pull her back in, either.”
“…!”
“I witnessed that myself, and I’m testifying to it.”
The room’s collective gaze toward Allison turned as cold as a Siberian wasteland.
Prime Minister Halifax sighed and rapped her fingers against the arm of her chair.
“That’s quite enough. We’ve drifted far off the meeting’s original agenda.”
“My apologies, Prime Minister.”
“Never mind, Team Leader Rupesk. More to the point, your superior—”
Just then, the council chamber’s doors swung open.
“My apologies for the delay.”
Whose voice was that, dripping with elegance and unhurried ease?
Wait — could that be…?
The original novel’s mastermind, wasn’t it?
