Long shadows stretched their way toward the setting sun before gradually disappearing. Everyone was standing at the school gate, waving good-bye.
Redwolf, who had been beaten to a pulp by the Scions of Flame and Ice, waved his claws as he walked away, a refreshing new sense of clarity in his mind. He had the weapons he wanted, and he considered that enough of a triumph.
“Well, there goes Wolfy.”
“Yeah. Though I guess I’m glad he’s just leaving the school instead of life in general.”
“There he goes. It was nice to see Earnest’s cute side while he was here.”
Claire, Yessica, and Lunaria each saw him as more human than not.
“Better luck next time!”
“And don’t come back!”
“Hmph. Don’t you dare darken my lady’s door again. Final warning.”
Clay, Kassim, and Leonard, meanwhile, were treating him as a loser mutt, Leonard in particular ready to declare war right now.
“Byeee!”
“You’d better come back. Try to eat me next time. I’ll eat you back.”
Cú and the Overlord saw him off as fellow magic beasts. “Eat,” in this case, had a meaning more akin to “let’s fight again” in human language.
“That magic beast was a very interesting creature. I would like to become his disciple and learn the secret of how he managed to disturb my master’s heart so deeply.”
Iona was her usual high-spec self.
“I’m not disturbed! I’m glad he’s gone! Hey, you piece of junk! What’re you even talking about, huh? What’s wrong with you?”
“C’mon, Blade. Stop carrying on. We’re saying good-bye here.” Earnest reached out with one hand and touched Blade on the cheek.
“Um, okay…”
That little motion was enough to shut him up. He stood side by side with Earnest, watching the back of the nosy magic beast as he gradually disappeared into the distance.
“You know…”
“What?” replied Earnest, startled.
“I-if you’re feeling that lonely…like, I can start practicing with you a little more from now on. So…like, stop feeling lonely.”
“…What?”
Earnest suddenly understood what Blade was saying.
Hee-hee-hee!
She smiled.
He’s worried about me. He cares about me. My apprentice Redwolf is gone, and now Blade’s worried about me.
Earnest moved about six inches to the side, leaving almost no space between them. She tilted her head a bit, halfway resting it on Blade’s shoulder.
“So were you jealous? Like, really, really jealous?”
“Wh-wha—? No, you dumbass! Of course not! Besides, I don’t even know what ‘jealous’ means! I’ve never even felt it before! I don’t get it at all! Moron! You’re such an idiot! Idiot! Idiot!”
“Hee-hee!”
Blade was completely flustered, his face bright red as he spat and cursed. Earnest responded with a dazzling smile. The sun set, marking the end of the day.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Hey, did you hear the story?”
“Yeah. Real scary, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, for real.”
It was morning in a school hallway, and the students were talking among themselves.
“Good morning,” Earnest said, cheerfully smiling at them all. She had been feeling exceedingly good lately; recent events had put her in a really good mood. But…
“Oh. Empress…um. Good m-morning.”
…the students who usually greeted her just as cheerfully were now quickly averting their eyes, walking off like they were fleeing from her.
Huh? What? What’s going on?
Earnest, left in the dust, helplessly blinked.
And why the stutter? That’s weird. What’s up with today?
Back in the classroom, she looked for Yessica. She was always the first to hear any rumors around school—she wanted to join the kingdom’s intelligence agency, after all.
“Hey, Yessica, can you tell me why everyone’s avoiding me right now?”
“Huh? …Oh! Earnest! M-morning! ♪ Oh, right, I gotta go to my next class!”
Earnest turned to block her best friend. “No running away. Tell me.”
Yessica looked to her classmates for help. She received nothing but cold stares in return, as if she were the designated human sacrifice for the day.
“Haaah…” She let out a big, reluctant sigh, then began to speak, resolved to her fate.
“…It’s just an unconfirmed rumor. I’m thinking about sending some scouts out to check on it later.”
“Okay.”
“Over on the Fifth Bridge down south…there’s apparently been a series of random attacks.”
“Well, someone needs to address that. What’s the CDF doing?”
“This attacker doesn’t strike regular citizens, though. Just the police, military, and other armed people.”
“Armed people?”
“And when he defeats them, he seizes their weapons.”
“Their weapons? Why?”
“We’re talking almost a hundred weapons by this point. The people who lost them are really pissed about it, let me tell you.”
“A hundred? Wait, wait, wait. Why did it get that bad before anyone talked about it?”
“Well, supposedly, the reason it didn’t come to light until now was because the CDF kept it a secret until they were stripped completely naked…”
“What? Wow. That’s beyond negligence. That’s treason!”
“Right, so the culprit, so to speak, is supposedly based around that bridge. He’s completely covered in hair, about ten feet tall…”
“Big guy, huh? Wow. No wonder he’s strong.”
“‘Strong’ is an understatement, I think…”
“All right. Let’s go on patrol tonight. Another girls’ mission. Let everyone know for me, okay? We’ll do it tonight.”
Earnest was the leader of this sort of female-only town watch that assembled as needed to protect the city. “Girls’ Mission,” they called themselves.
“W-well…I mean, if you’re going out, Anna, I think the problem’s gonna solve itself pretty quickly, uh… Ha-ha-ha-ha…!”
“Huh?” Earnest raised an eyebrow. “What’re you talking about?”
“It still hasn’t dawned on you yet?”
Her best friend, now dead serious, poked her hard in the chest—her way of telling Earnest to just shut up and listen to the voice in her heart. Then…
“…Oh.”
Now she knew. And she wished she didn’t.
“Ughhh…”
The identity of this serial weapon thief was fairly obvious to her now.
“Boy, oh boy,” remarked Yessica, “I bet he sure loved getting those weapons, didn’t he? Like, super delighted. I bet it’s made him into a hardcore weapon maniac, in fact… So! Here’s a question for you, Earnest. When a trainee falls to the dark side like this, what should his master do?”
“Tch…” Earnest clicked her tongue and turned her head away, muttering to herself. “You were supposed to just cleanly disappear forever after that. Damn moron…”