Three days had passed since the Princess Colette Kidnapping Scare.
Then again, tales of her abduction petered out the next day around lunchtime. Since Colette had returned discreetly in the night after a full day away from the dorms with no explanation, criticism circulated that she was a naughty little princess… So the whole ordeal was reduced to a little joke.
To be strictly accurate, Colette hadn’t exactly been kidnapped. But she had been captured, and if things had gone down just a bit differently, we might have found ourselves in an international crisis or even a war. But not very many students knew the truth.
“So on that note…now that Professor Pearlman has officially retired, I, Ibrahim, shall be taking over as your homeroom teacher.”
When our new homeroom teacher was introduced to the class, the room was filled with whispers lamenting Pearlman’s retirement.
Ignorance really is bliss. No, scratch that. There’s nothing worse than something horrible happening without you knowing about it. I experienced that firsthand when Colette led Colorne’s army in a surprise invasion of Eltania.
Still, Colette hadn’t wanted what had happened to go public, so the case was closed as far as everyone else was concerned. The curtain had lowered on the dark rumors that had alarmed the school population; only Zelfore’s soldiers and higher-ups and the teachers at the Zelfore Academy of Magic knew the truth. Even the plausible rumors about the drugs were now no more than one of many urban legends. The more popular interpretation was that a nasty cold had circulated through the student body.
“Well, let’s begin our lessons for the day. We’re missing—three students, I see.”
But in spite of the matter being resolved, the academy was beginning to change. Two of those changes were huge. First, half of the absent students had returned to class. Once the school officials found out exactly what ludus was and that a cult was mixed up in it, they lifted the suspensions of the students who had been comparatively less affected by the drug. This included the those who had tried the drug once but were scared straight of it once its effects wore off.
Additionally, as far as I could tell, the ludus that had circulated this time was much weaker than the variety I was familiar with, probably so it could spread more easily among the student body without suspicion. So it was much easier to quit the stuff. All the students who had used ludus were undergoing treatment to get clean and be returned to school in turn. The only students who knew this were Albert, Colette, the other students who’d been deemed problem-free and had already been returned to class, and me.
What surprised me was how the drug use hadn’t really become a big problem. For a start, the government still hadn’t decided how they were going to deal with ludus. Along with that was the fact that not very many students or their parents admitted to them using the stuff.
But the most influential factor in this whole thing was the secretive nature of the Zelfore Academy of Magic. This was pretty admirable for an institution that advocated for world peace, but since they were designed as an academy for the sons and daughters of the nobility of various countries, they were built to keep secrets. Perhaps the noble life wasn’t as easy as I’d initially pegged it for.
Now that everything was over, my days at school were back to normal, almost the same as they had been before. My new homeroom teacher wasn’t as strict as Pearlman, but as I sat in the peaceful classroom, the students in front of me began to speak in hushed whispers.
“Hey, why do you think Pearlman left?”
“I dunno… Somebody said he went home to take care of his sick parents.”
The one teacher everybody trusted had vanished into thin air. Pearlman was highly regarded among the students, but our time with him had actually been quite short—not even a month. I was certain he would be forgotten not long from now.
But then again, because of all that, I had my normal, peaceful life at school back.
Maybe it was because I was in the beginning of my first year, but my days of relearning everything I already knew were dull. But thinking about it, I’d worked myself to the bone in my past life. And my days as Mylene had consisted of back-to-back daily training sessions and poring over books that might be useful to me. Taking it easy and killing time like this was a new sensation to me… And it wasn’t all that bad.
As I lazily sat at my desk, reviewing the main points the teacher had covered, my new homeroom teacher left and was replaced by another teacher to start my next course.
“Good morning, class. Let’s begin today’s geography lesson.”
Three exchanges of teachers later, we were at fourth period. It was history, a subject I wasn’t all that fond of. History would pan out differently in this timeline from the last timeline. The drug that reared its ugly head ten years from now in the former timeline was already on the rise in this one, and this time, Mylene would not bring about Eltania’s destruction—I hoped so anyway. At the very least, I was taking steps to ensure that it didn’t happen.
It just felt ridiculous to me to study something that was so uncertain. Inevitably, the lecture went in one ear and out the other as I began to think about something else.
And as expected, my mind drifted to Gods of the Moon.
In the former timeline, Gods of the Moon was a doomsday cult of fanatics that hadn’t reared its ugly head until ten years from now… Or at least that’s what I’d thought.
Screaming at the top of their lungs, the cultists had vilified and demeaned the Lord Eltania. And as the kingdom who worshipped him, Eltania was unscrupulous beyond measure. The cult condemned Mylene, God’s beloved chosen one of the Hair of Sulberia, fomenting anger from Eltania’s people with their harsh words.
Gracefully brushing my Hair of Sulberia out of my face as the wind rustled it, I remembered the past—rather, the future.
In the former timeline, I’d always thought that the Gods of the Moon’s proselytizing was one of their attempts at propagandizing the people of Eltania by riling their anger over Mylene’s tyranny and currying their favor. But in this timeline, the Gods of the Moon’s powers were already vast, and they already considered Mylene and the Lord Eltania as entities who needed to be crushed.
As for their master plan, it seemed to be something along the lines of making Mylene—me—a vessel for their Sovereign God or whatever by cutting off my head or something like that… I wasn’t at all sure just how serious they were about it or how much of it was true.