That’s the king’s brother. I’m pretty sure, at least. Someone told me when I first came here that only members of the royal family could get that job.
If someone like that had been there as a witness, then nobody could object to Bear’s findings, which is probably why he’d enlisted his aid.
“I examined all of the devices I recovered. Just like we thought, they were made illegally. Not only that, they were defective.”
“Seriously?”
I couldn’t believe it. I knew they were illicit products, but they didn’t even work?
“Even when I try to activate them, they don’t do anything,” Bear said with an idiotic guffaw. “Oh, but those things Nielle made for you worked like a charm. But since their targets didn’t work, she did all that for nothing!”
Whaaat?
“Then what was that strange feeling I got during the performance?”
“Strange feeling?”
“Yeah, I felt it occasionally during the concert. Oh, but it stopped when we were finishing up.”
“Hmm. That’ll require another investigation. For now, I’m handing the stage to our visitor.”
With that, Bear gave the mystic-jockeying instructor a forceful pat on the back. At some point, the instructor had pulled out a small vial.
“Did you find out what that contains?” I asked.
“It’s poison,” he answered flatly. “A very painful one, at that.”
Just as I’d assumed. Back then, Gonsuke looked like he was in agony. This poison was to blame for that. If we had started running while that was in him, he would’ve collapsed before we were finished. In which case, I could’ve been flung off his back, which must have been the plan.
“I believe this poison was made for mysticstock—getting rid of them, to be precise, from a region or otherwise. At higher concentrations, even a single drop can induce considerable pain.”
Unforgivable.
“Cool it, Lera. I might be used to it, but this guy isn’t.”
“Ah.”
My emotions got the better of me, and apparently my mana went with it. Since that mana was carried by anger and spite, it could be overpowering for anyone who didn’t know how to manage it.
“F-Forgive me.”
“That’s quite all right. That’s just proof of how much you value your black greatbear. I understand. I understand very well!”
Oh god, that flipped his weirdo switch.
I thought we were going to have to listen to him talk about mysticstock until he was sated, but Bear thankfully interrupted by loudly clearing his throat.
“We can talk about mysticstock another time,” he said. “So, can you figure out who made the poison?”
“Well, according to the alchemy instructor, the distillation method is unique. If we could find other drugs made by the same culprit, that might lead us to them.”
“That won’t be easy to come by. Besides, a major noble family will have their own personal alchemist or apothecary.”
“Mr. Fulmanson...” The mystic-jockeying instructor looked uncomfortable.
Bear was suggesting that it was Lord Bilbroza who had commissioned and used this poison. But as long as he lacked solid proof, he couldn’t outright accuse the head of the noble faction of anything.
It frustrated me. If he went after me, I could handle whatever he sent my way. But instead he went after Gonsuke, who couldn’t fight back.
I can say with certainty, I will never forgive you for this, Lord Bilbroza.
For all the new information I had gained, I also learned that I couldn’t do anything in our current state. I hated it.
Leaving the prep room, I plodded my way back to the dorm. Times like these made me lament that I was still a minor—a powerless child. If I had power, status, or something else...
That’s as far as I got before I shook my head. If I occupied some special position or station, that would probably bind me in its own way. Things don’t always go as we’d like them to.
Walking along the small path connecting the main building to the dorm, I stopped and looked up at the sky, which was just the perfect ultramarine. Summer was pretty close.
After the academy festival, the next big thing was final exams. They covered a much wider range than the term exams, making them a real nuisance for us.
Being the last tests of the year, failure naturally meant you wouldn’t be able to proceed to the next grade—you’d be held back. If you didn’t like the idea of that, you could endure the hellish ordeal of spending your entire summer break studying.
Repeating a year at the noble academy was something you could never live down. Most of your fellow students would be people you’d continue to run into in high society. It was terrifying. They’d keep saying “Oh, that guy? Yeah, he repeated a year,” until you died. And if you were unlucky, even your death wouldn’t be the end of it.
So that’s why the only real option was remedial lessons. The problem with that was that the teachers weren’t thrilled by the idea of spending their own break doing even more teaching. As a result, remedial lessons were unpopular, and some instructors harbored secret grudges against certain students. Isn’t that scary?
Therefore, I was studying as much as I could. I put most of my effort into general education because those were paper tests. Electives were mostly practical exams. Not only that, our efforts during the academy festival were factored in, so I could pass mystic-jockeying and general magic without even taking a test, which was pretty sweet. That left archery, magic tools, and alchemy, which was actually a lot when I thought about it.
During lunch that day, my friends were off at private repasts, meaning I was once again with Colny. Loks’s prefect duties prevented him from joining us. Real dedication there, working during lunch.
All the two of us could talk about were the upcoming exams.
“I should at least be set for archery,” I said. “Lately, I’ve been hitting the targets more often than not.”
“Well that’s good,” Colny replied with a smile. “Now you’ve got more means of attack at your disposal.”
“Yeah. Yeah? Are you okay with that?”
“I think an optimistic approach is best.”