The next day.
I was sitting on a bench in the central plaza, gazing blankly at the sky without anything in particular to do. Normally, this was the time I would be eating lunch with someone, but right now, I just wanted to be alone.
Mercedes was absent today.
She seemed like the type who would come to school even if meteors were raining down, so maybe yesterday's incident had given her pause. Either way, I was almost certainly the cause.
Things with Philie-san's magic sword had gone so well that I had lost sight of what was truly important. From Mercedes's perspective, it must have looked like the worst possible betrayal.
Regretting it wouldn't turn back the clock.
To be honest, I wanted to take the day off too, but I had already missed several days while working on the magic sword, and missing any more would interfere with my classes. Not that I was able to focus on them anyway.
"Bren. So this is where you were."
I immediately recognized Garry's voice.
Still, it took me a beat longer than usual to turn around.
"I was looking for you. Aren't you gonna eat?"
Garry sat down next to me as he spoke.
"I'm just not very hungry today."
"Is that so? More importantly, I heard from Vandenberg. You're not entering the rookie tournament, right?"
Now that he mentioned it, I remembered giving Amae-san a vague, noncommittal response that might have sounded like I was sitting it out.
"I get that you're buried in your research, but including me, there's only three people from the Imperial Archmage Faculty entering this year... It kinda takes the wind out of my sails, y'know?"
So Garry actually cared about that sort of thing.
Wait, three people?
The ones entering were supposed to be Mercedes, Amae-san, and Garry.
Leaving Philie-san aside, were Gerald and Luluck skipping it too?
"...No, I am entering the rookie tournament."
"For real!?"
He must have been thrilled, because a guy who usually refused to show honest joy couldn't completely hide his reaction today.
I couldn't go back on my promise to Mercedes.
It was right up against the deadline, but I had managed to squeeze my application in.
"A man's gotta be like that, after all! If you're in too, looks like I won't be bored! Hell yeah! I've been wanting to fight you anyway! Since we're doing this, I'm not holding back────"
Right there, Garry's voice cut off.
Looking at my face, he seemed to have finally noticed something.
".........Did something happen?"
I guess if my mood was written this plainly across my face, even he would catch on.
I couldn't drag Garry into my problems, though.
If I tried to consult him, it would just end up like what happened with Philie-san.
"Sorry. Professor Blanchard called for me, so I'm heading out first."
"H-Hey..."
Leaving his voice calling after my back, I briskly walked away.
It wasn't a lie.
The professor really had summoned me.
I just wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone right now.
◇
Naturally, professors had their own research laboratories.
Professor Blanchard's lab was larger than my room.
And as large as it was, it was equally cluttered.
"Man, you really saved me. If I tried to do this sort of thing alone, it'd take three whole days."
"It takes three whole days?"
"Because I get bored halfway through."
I sorted the research materials by category and filed them away.
I wonder why Professor Blanchard went out of her way to ask me to do this. I never had the impression she was this sloppy.
Well, it didn't matter.
Doing this kept me from dwelling on unnecessary thoughts.
In a way, it was probably just what I needed.
"So, how are things, Faculty Representative?"
"............"
"Having any trouble?"
Closing one of the sorted files, I reached for the next pile.
"I just feel like I'm constantly causing trouble for everyone, and I'm not doing anything that actually looks like a representative."
"Uh-huh."
"I'm starting to wonder if I'm even cut out to be the representative."
What the hell was I saying?
Of course I wasn't cut out for it.
Back then, there were plenty of ways I could have phrased things better.
Why couldn't I do it?
There was only one answer.
Because I was just inexperienced and childish.
"I think you're doing a great job, though."
Professor Blanchard said so, but I couldn't bring myself to look her in the eye.
"It's only just begun, but you understand the lectures properly, Bren-kun, and your drive to learn is high. As soon as after-school hours start, you immediately resume your research. You have a gentle demeanor, so in the end, everyone listens to what you have to say. Seeing you like that, I think everyone trusts you and feels like they should follow your example."
Even if that were true, the point was that I had betrayed that trust.
"At the very least, I think leaving it to you was the right call. Honestly, I was amazed to see the Imperial Archmage Faculty eating lunch together with their classmates in April. Compared to a little while ago, things are so much easier."
"You're exaggerating."
"Not really."
Professor Blanchard pulled out a single document and placed it where I could see it.
From the look of it, it was a student record.
The name was────.
"Wilhelm Braham. Just like you kids, he was in the Imperial Archmage Faculty, but he was expelled last year. He was brilliant, but there was constant friction with those around him, and he gradually lost his mind."
I had read one of this person's papers before.
I hadn't thought much of it at the time, but so he had been a student at Magias, huh?
"Extreme discriminatory ideology, embezzling vast amounts of research funds, deliberately repeating years for that purpose, forcing through dangerous research. The academy was still able to stop that much, though."
"Still able to?"
"Yeah. At a certain point, suspicions arose that he was conducting human experiments on vagrants and foreign orphans, and it ceased to be something the academy could handle on its own."
Human experimentation... this is supposed to be a nation governed by law, isn't it?
"...And he got off with just expulsion?"
"He came from a prestigious noble family, you see. Layer upon layer of cover-ups, selling off the family's assets and credibility, and they somehow managed to secure a suspended sentence. Right now, no one even knows where he is or what he's doing. That's one of the reasons supervision over the Imperial Archmage Faculty became stricter."
"In other words, you're making sure we don't end up like that..."
"Ah, sorry, sorry. Poor choice of words. I'm not worried about you kids at all, really. I just thought it was best that you knew someone like that existed in our past."
Well, certainly, compared to this Wilhelm generation, we were wholesome.
At the very least, the current Imperial Archmage Faculty crowd had a normal sense of right and wrong. From what I was hearing, this man was a mage who had crossed that line.
Age: thirty────wait, when did this guy enroll, and how many years was he at Magias? Expelled just last year?
"He was an upperclassman, you see. It would have been great if there had been someone he could confide in. But no one was able to become that person."
Professor Blanchard, who was usually so lighthearted, let a faint shadow fall across her expression. So basically, the professor had enrolled after him and ended up surpassing him, huh? It didn't seem quite that simple, though.
"But you and your classmates are trying to get to know your peers properly, and making the effort to let them know you too. True feelings might clash in unfortunate ways from time to time, but I don't think you're the kind of person to leave tangled threads unresolved."
"...Did you hear about what happened with Mercedes?"
"Yeah."
Professor Blanchard admitted it casually.
Well, logically speaking, there was no other reason for her to summon me.
"Filie-chan asked me to. I don't know the full details, though. That girl was worried sick about you."
"I... see."
Philie-san.
Placing her at the center of my thoughts made what I needed to do feel a little clearer.
I hadn't repaid Philie-san for anything yet.
I owed her a tremendous debt.
Leaving things like this with Mercedes wouldn't do any good, either.
"Mercedes-chan has a lot of pride, but she isn't stupid. Once she calms down and you talk to her properly, I'm sure she'll understand why you were doing what you did."
Talk to her.
Talk, huh?
Since coming here, the opportunities I had to talk with people had increased dramatically.
Still, assuming I could handle it all was just proof that I had taken human relationships too lightly.
"To be honest, I'm not very confident."
"Mercedes-chan can be scary, after all."
"But I think I'll try talking to her."
"Good. If it still doesn't work, come tell me."
The professor propped her elbows on the cluttered desk and gave a bright smile.
"The professor will take care of it."
The tension left my stiff shoulders.
Either way, what I could accomplish was limited.
If that was the case, I just had to do what I could.
"Thank you for looking out for me."
"Don't mention it. You're always working hard for us, Bren-kun. Besides, I have to act like a teacher once in a while."
Just then, there was a knock at the laboratory door.
"You can come in," the professor called out without moving from her spot.
The one who appeared was Garry.
"Excuse me, sorry to intrude───oh, Bren! You really were here!"
"Garry."
"Did you see the rookie tournament bracket? You're fighting Mercedes in the first round!"
At Garry's suddenly excited words, a different kind of tension ran through me.
"I'll help you practice, so come on! As the representative, teach her who's boss fair and square! That's fine with you, right, Professor!?"
"Yes, yes. We're all done here, so you're free to go. Thanks for the help, Bren-kun."
I left the research laboratory with Garry.
My steps felt a little lighter than when I had arrived.
◇
Mercedes was swinging her sword alone in the detached villa's garden.
She had already been swinging it relentlessly for nearly an entire day.
Whenever Mercedes was troubled, she always swung her sword.
Swinging her sword brought calm to her heart.
The sword was good.
Just swinging it made her current state clear to see.
It was supposed to make things clear, but this time, no matter how many times she swung her sword, she couldn't see what it was she wanted to do.
Looking at her opponent for the first match of the rookie tournament, for some reason, she found herself perplexed rather than pleased.
Mercedes had thought that destroying that man's magic sword would restore her dignity, but hesitation had crept into the act itself.
Brendan Walker had looked down on her.
Thinking of it that way made the anger simple.
He had deceived Meltzelia and forged a magic sword for another classmate.
Looking at that fact alone, there was no way she could forgive him.
Yet, even though she should have only looked at that fact, Filiestra's words got in the way. That groundless, seemingly concocted reasoning.
"...Brendan Walker."
Muttering the name for what felt like the countless-th time, she abruptly stopped her hands.
In the first place, she had never heard that Lord Walker was dead.
At the very least, her father hadn't known.
Nor had Golaphim, Van's comrade-in-arms.
If they had known, from the very beginning, something like that────.
Thinking about this any further wouldn't lead to anything good.
She was done for today.
She sheathed her sword and began the daily routine of measuring her magic coefficient.
It was the same equipment used at Magias.
Originally, it was not something a mere student could afford, but for Mercedes, whose research goal was her own strength, it was essential for her daily self-observation.
The moment she channeled her magic power, the gauge's needle jumped.
It effortlessly bypassed the number she had shown during the entrance exam, pushing even further.
The displayed numerical value was 1,800.
This was different from that demonstration back then.
Whether he was a person worthy of facing this full strength was something she would find out once they fought.
For now, she would focus on the match.
That was right.
If she crossed blades with that man and simply claimed victory, she would surely see what it was she wanted to do.
The fundamental reason no longer mattered.
If she cut him down completely, everything else would fall into place.
Everything would work out fine.
Convincing herself of that was the very best Mercedes could do right now.