It was now the day after the turbulent entrance exams. Ted and I had spent the night in a nearby inn and had decided to go out and check the exam results. The academy designated a representative from each family to pick up the results, which were sealed in envelopes. Ted was our representative, which left me with nothing for me to do, so I simply waited at a nearby café, drinking coffee while waiting for Ted to return.
“Master, I’m back!” The door to the café flew open, and through it came a kid with dirty-blond hair who was a little shorter than me. “Look! I passed! What do you think?! I worked so hard!” Ted said as he spread out a piece of paper that had “Accepted” written on it in big red letters.
He’s as loud as ever. I’d just started enjoying my coffee in peace, but then he had to go and ruin it. Back in my day, coffee had been known as the devil’s drink, so it hadn’t been nearly as widespread as it was now.
“Heh heh. I bet you wanna know how you did, don’t you?” Ted grinned, looking at me.
“Not really. The paper says I passed, doesn’t it?”
“Huh?” Ted looked incredibly confused, so I decided to explain how I’d arrived at my conclusion.
“It’s simple. Though slight, the envelope shows traces of having already been opened. Taking your personality into consideration, you wouldn’t have gone out of your way to ask me this if you knew I hadn’t passed.”
“Urk... Nothing gets by you, Master.”
Good grief. You’ll need another two hundred years under your belt if you want to get on my level. Ted’s shock at the way I’d seen right through him was transparent.
“Anyway, mind explaining who this might be?” I asked, attempting to get some clarity on the person who’d entered the café with Ted and had been listening in on our conversation.
She must’ve thought she was being stealthy, because I saw her jump a little where she was sitting on a couch. Her fiery red hair made her completely unsuited for this kind of stealth mission.
“Uh, well...” Ted averted his gaze while fumbling for an answer.
Okay, I see what happened here. Even though Ted had noticed her, he’d pretended not to and instead allowed her to follow him. And I understood why—it was awkward to tell someone who thought they were doing a good job at being stealthy that they actually weren’t.
“Oh, hey! You’re that girl!” Ted called out, pretending to be surprised.
“Wh-What a coincidence meeting here. I greatly enjoy this café’s cupcakes.”
What a terrible lie. They don’t even serve cupcakes here.
“You can drop the act. Do you need something from me?”
Maria, the Hero of Fire—Eliza’s ancestor—and I had known each other two hundred years ago. With that in mind, I would’ve preferred to remain on good terms with her descendant, but if she approached me as an enemy, I wasn’t sure how well that would go. If she intended to get all up in my business, I’d have to take a more stern attitude with her.
“I-I don’t really need something from you, but...” Eliza began fidgeting nervously. “I was just curious about what class you’re in.”
“My...what?”
“W-Well, you know, you’re one of the few people I know. I want to try and gather as much information about the academy as I can before we start the school year.”
Hm? Is there an interpreter who can explain what she’s saying? What was the value in finding out what class another person was in? It certainly wasn’t worth getting caught sneaking around just to find out. But she wasn’t showing any signs of lying.