Book 3 Chapter 15
**Chapter 64**
“Section Chief, this.”
Section Chief of Special Affairs Section 1, Doran Slade, took the file offered by his subordinate mage, Runen.
It was a damage report and a list of fatalities. It recorded the results of a recent murder spree that occurred at an Alliance frontier branch.
As Doran scanned the list of victims, he quickly grasped what the document implied.
“Hmm, it seems the objective was to gather information, disguised as a retaliatory attack. With a bit of a smokescreen thrown in.”
“That’s right. And please take a look at the names of those who are missing or deceased.”
The victims had no point of contact. Their hometowns were different, their ages were different, and their areas of activity were polar opposites.
They had only one thing in common: all their names were Rein.
The crows are looking for Rein Ludwig… Doran’s eyes narrowed slightly, revealing cold pupils.
“I wonder what <Redacavel> did to make the Black Church search for it with such fiery eyes.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to take protective measures? There are now only two adventurers named Rein, including Rein the Forgery.”
“No, if we intervene here, they’ll immediately hide their tracks. Let’s wait until they take the bait.”
If my hunch is correct… Tureina’s mole is already inside <Delaiten>. Since they’re searching for Rein so overtly, that guy will also start to move.
“But wouldn’t Rein the Forgery be too dangerous if we wait longer?”
“Well, we’ll have to see about that, but he probably won’t die or anything.”
Rein Ludwig is an exceptionally strong individual, not fitting his young age. Perhaps due to inheriting magical talent from his parents… if he grows smoothly, he will surely become a giant leading the magic world.
So, it must be the other Rein we should be worried about now.
“I’ll go to that side. You and Ms. Tyryntyd wait near the school. Intervene as soon as black magic reactions are detected.”
“Yes.”
“Oh, and try to capture them alive if possible. We need to find out how they plan to resurrect Rin.”
The objective is known. The problem is the process and means to achieve that objective.
The opponent is a legendary priestess who accomplished great feats. She is someone for whom assuming the worst of the worst is not enough.
He smiled faintly, but thought somberly.
‘To stop such a monster, I wonder if we shouldn’t rather resurrect Rin.’
* * *
“This is an outrage!”
As soon as the assembly in the auditorium ended, he rushed to the Chancellor’s office.
After guiding Kasena, visiting the Chancellor’s office had become like daily life, so the secretary merely announced Rein’s visit and let him in without any particular hindrance.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Madellia Page brazenly bluffed.
“About admitting young lady Kasena to the school. And me being her guide…?”
“I merely followed a long tradition. And it was just a coincidence that you happened to be the top student after she was admitted.”
Was this really a coincidence? If someone else had been the top student, would Madellia have taken such an unreasonable step?
As if reading his mixed feelings, Madellia let out a sigh and a wry smile.
“Actually, it’s true that I could make such a decision because you were here. Kasena wanted it too.”
“Even so…”
“She’s my daughter, so she definitely has the aptitude. What I want you to do is to help her avoid public disgrace in the upcoming final exams.”
Is that as easy as it sounds?
Kasena certainly inherited the best lineage as a mage, but given the current situation, it was doubtful if she could compete with other students.
As his head ached and he squeezed his eyes shut, Madellia finally spoke in a soothing tone.
“Of course, I’m not so thick-skinned as to simply demand a Give. How about making a second deal with me?”
“Yes?”
“Kenith, bring the brocade curtain.”
Then, the secretary Kenith brought a banner made of purple silk. It was a luxurious item embroidered with the Page family crest, interlocking golden roses.
“This is a pass to freely enter the restricted section of the Central Library. Of course, only up to Class 3, the Xion.”
“???!!!”
“You’re like me… you have an endless thirst for knowledge. How about it, don’t you want to have this?”
As if dangling a fish in front of a cat, Madellia waved the banner in front of him, and he couldn’t help but drool.
With such good terms of trade, there was no reason not to accept. Could things really turn out this easy and good?
Think about it. How much trouble he went through just to get that one book by Tureina… and now he could read such books to his heart’s content?
‘Wait, this is the devil’s temptation.’
It was the devil’s temptation.
It was the devil’s temptation… oh, but he couldn’t resist it.
His trembling hand was reaching out to the banner on its own.
“Actually, I wanted to teach the young lady more, you see? I can’t miss such a good opportunity.”
Then Madellia blinked as if dumbfounded.
“I was worried that she might be as straitlaced as her father, but I like this.”
Then she put on a cunning smile. The contract was formed.
“Of course, I used it as bait, but this is only a fraction of the reward I owe you.”
“Reward? What reward?”
“Are you trying to be humble now? Hmph, we’ll talk about this after the final exams. Both you and I will be busy until then without a moment’s rest.”
He didn’t think deeply about what she meant. Right now, enjoying the feel of the banner in his hand was more important.
“Hehehe.”
Without even bothering to hide his expression, he stroked the banner repeatedly as he left the Chancellor’s office and closed the door.
“Why are you laughing like an idiot?”
Then, a voice came from beside him, and for a moment, he blinked, saying, “Uh?” Kasena Page was standing there in a school uniform.
‘Hmm, she suits it better than I expected.’
One differentiating point might be that she wasn’t wearing the pure white school uniform cloak?
He didn’t know if it was inconvenient when she used crutches, or if she just found it cumbersome and didn’t wear it.
As he scanned her attire, which was just a blouse, from top to bottom, Kasena made no attempt to hide her excitement.
“Today is a school tour! Rein is my guide, so you definitely have to show me everywhere!”
She chattered so much that his ears hurt. That’s why a sigh naturally escaped him.
“What! Why are you sighing?!”
“Young lady, do you not know what situation you are in right now?”
“What… what is it?”
“Final exams are in two weeks. And I was asked to make sure you don’t get disgraced in the final exams. But a school tour? Do you have 72 hours a day?”
Sarcasm about others’ mistakes had been his specialty since his Rin days.
‘Though I’ve been restraining myself since becoming Rein.’
Kasena faltered, her expression stung, then pouted her lips primly.
“Ah, I know! I was just playing a prank!”
Right, right.
Was it really just a prank?
But he didn’t know why she looked so downcast.
“So, where are we going now?”
“To the classroom. We skipped it today because of the orientation, but it’s now the first period class time.”
“Ah, I know!”
He thought she might get down again, but as the Dragon’s Rest Hall (龍眠館), the first-year academic building, began to appear, her eyes started sparkling brightly.
She even busily adjusted her school uniform as she watched students entering the Dragon’s Rest Hall from afar.
She must have thought she would never be able to come to <Delaiten> her whole life, so perhaps she felt nostalgic… He just chuckled and didn’t say anything in particular.
“W-wait a minute!”
As he was about to open the classroom door, Kasena quickly stopped him, then put a hand on her chest and quietly caught her breath.
She was a young lady who still possessed the frankness and shyness of a six-year-old girl.
As he thought that, she finally nodded, meaning she was ready.
“…”
“…”
“…”
The classroom, which had been bustling with talk about Kasena, immediately fell into a chilling silence as the two appeared.
The fact that these two had appeared so intimately proved that the rumor that had spread throughout the city earlier was true.
Krista Warden was one of those who stared blankly at the sight, and Gertrude chattered beside her, thinking it would be a very interesting situation.
“Oh my! Does this mean the rumor that the two of them tried to elope was true?”
Rein usually paid little attention to others’ whispers, but he was slightly worried about Kasena, who was quite conscious of others’ gazes. But it seemed there was no need for that.
“Woowww…”
She gasped in admiration. A classroom, it’s a classroom. I’m in the classroom I always dreamed of… Kasena pointed to a window seat.
“When it comes to classrooms, it’s the window seat! I’ll sit there! So Rein, follow me!”
Kasena’s innocent adventure was immediately blocked by a giant mountain. A mountain named Krista, who walked over, arrogantly crossing her arms.
“Rein, you and I need to talk.”
At Krista calling Rein’s name so intimately, Kasena instinctively felt a strange aversion. Kasena’s eyes narrowed.
“Rein is talking to me.”
As Kasena stood blocking Rein’s path, Krista’s eyebrows naturally shot up. Their gazes intertwined, and sparks flew.
“It’ll only take a moment… won’t it?”
Even Krista belatedly added an honorific. Only the five electors’ families didn’t have to use honorifics with the Page family.
“Do you have 72 hours a day?! What’s ‘just a moment’?! The final exams are coming soon!”
Rein glared at the back of Kasena’s head, dumbfounded. That’s what I just nagged about. Are you in a position to say that?
“Th-that’s true, but…”
Krista was momentarily speechless at the unexpectedly sound argument.
‘A fight broke out…!’
‘The Warden and the Page…!’
‘Because of the Benevolent Master…!’
The students in the classroom gasped, Wibert, a late disciple of the Lohfynem school, frowned in disbelief, and Gertrude covered her mouth, suppressing a burst of laughter.
Perhaps thinking she had gained momentum, Kasena scrutinized Krista suspiciously before looking back at Rein.
“Rein, who is this villainess-looking woman?! Are you friends with someone like her?”
“A-a villainess? The more I listen, the more outrageous things you say! You’re the one calling someone you just met a villainess!”
Actually, they had met once.
But back then, Krista had no particular distinctiveness in either skill or appearance, whereas Kasena could be remembered by everyone just by her hair color.
“You? To utter such undignified words, there’s no need to say more! So, what’s your relationship with Rein?”
“R-relationship…? I’m his rival! An archenemy among archenemies, fiercely competing for valedictorian! And what about you, what’s your relationship with him?”
“Ridiculous! Someone like you, Rein’s rival? I’m his employer. Rein is my tutor! If I had to say, my master?”
Rein, who hadn’t cared whether they were getting heated or not, immediately drew a firm line when his own issues were brought in.
“No, that’s not it.”
A tutor of the same age, no one was unperturbed by those words, but the one most shocked was undoubtedly Krista Warden, who had learned life from novels.
A tutor, a tutor?
To Krista, a tutor of the opposite sex was the optimal greenhouse for love to blossom. How many stories featured it as a common trope?
“Now I understand. You kept our young lady pining for 40 days, and Young Master Rein was two-timing her?”
Gertrude nodded as if she understood, summing up the argument bizarrely.
“Wh-what kind of nonsense is that, you again!”
Krista raised her fist, and Gertrude darted away like an arrow.
But it wasn’t wrong. Krista had always seen Rein sleeping in class and had been diligently studying mathematics day and night, gnashing her teeth…
Krista, suddenly the center of attention of all her classmates due to Gertrude’s slander, her face flushed crimson like a beetroot.
“I, I, I…”
“You?”
Rein, who had no interest in this squabble between the daughters of prominent families (he had little interest in others to begin with), yawned languidly, sat down, and took out his textbook.
“Didn’t they say ‘men and women should not sit together after seven years of age’!!!”
Krista grabbed Rein by the collar and began shaking him frantically.
“You, you bastard! You weren’t studying, you…?! What, what have you been doing running around?! What about your match with Krista Warden?!”
“No, I mean, this was, what do you call it, an irresistible force…”
“Irresistible force, my foot! Don’t you know the saying about men and women not sitting together after seven years of age?!”