“It’s quite all right, sir… Um, what brings you to these parts?”
Henri and Gill exchange glances, like a pair of boys whose prank has just gotten foiled.
“Henri invited him here,” Gill says. “We figured you ought to hear what Paul has to say, too.”
“Ali, Paul gave us some very useful information,” Henri adds.
No way—Paul was an information broker all along? Is that a side job? Or is his plant shop the side job?
“Now I see how you’ve been so well informed, Gill. You’d get all the school news from Henri, you’d get all the town news from Paul, and you’d go to Roana Village yourself to cover all the bases.”
As I praise Gill, he smiles proudly.
……What a wonder of a child.
“Roana Village?” Paul gives us a dubious look.
……Oh, right. Everyone in my circle knows about Roana, so I let it slip out. I suppose Paul didn’t know Gill came from Roana Village.
“Paul, you know the josaiah you gave me many years ago? Well, I used it to cure Gill’s sickness.”
“Huh?” It is Gill, not Paul, who is surprised by my confession.
That’s right, Gill didn’t know the herb that saved his life came from Paul’s shop. I feel like I just dropped a big bombshell after years building up to it.
“I guess we’ve been connected ever since,” Paul says, a familiar soothing smile on his face. “I never would have dreamed that a daughter of the Great Five noble houses would go to Roana Village.”
“I know, every time somebody finds out, they’re always shocked,” I say.
Paul smiles sheepishly. Then he eyes Gill carefully and says, “Gill…so you’re from Roana Village.”
“Should I have not revealed that?” I quietly whisper to Gill.
“No, people will find out eventually anyway… Besides, I’m used to it. It’s okay.”
I’d rather he not get “used to” any sort of bad treatment, but as long as prejudice exists, that isn’t a very easy request to make.
That said, Paul doesn’t seem to have a very good impression of Roana Village. I suppose no matter how kind a person looks, they’re always capable of such feelings. No matter how much he recognizes Gill’s intelligence, he is still a nobleman, so I wouldn’t put it past him to be prejudiced.
“You come from Roana…and yet you attend the magic academy?” Paul asks, searching for answers in Gill’s eyes.
Aha…now he’s wary of Gill. I messed that up. I’d better be more careful with what I say from now on.
“He attends as my aide,” I answer.
“Does His Majesty know about this?”
“Yes.”
A conflicted look fills Paul’s eyes.
Hmm, things aren’t boding well for us… If Paul exposes Gill’s secret to the wrong person, we could be in real trouble. I need to nip this in the bud… I suppose I’ll be a good villainess and threaten him.
“Paul…can you keep this a secret? If you breathe a word to anyone…I’ll kill you.”
Paul freezes.
I continue, “Besides, Roana Village is not as bad a place as you think. Learning from books or word of mouth is indeed commendable, but you need to question the veracity of everything. I went to Roana Village on my own two feet, so I think I know it rather well. And there are people with fantastic potential there.”
I turn my lips upward into a smug smile.
“Understood. I won’t tell anyone,” Paul says. “Though being murdered by a beautiful girl wouldn’t be a bad way to go,” he adds with a chuckle.
Huh…… Was Paul always like this?
“Do you promise me?” I press the issue.
Paul smiles sheepishly. “Do you know what I receive in exchange for the information I give Henri and Gill?”
“……No?”
“Money.”
“Excuse me?” I blurt out.
“I love plants, and I love money.”
Hearing that line from somebody who looks like him is bound to make anybody lose trust in people.
“To be honest, I still don’t have a very good image of Roana in my mind, but I like Gill. Besides…if there are other people there like Gill, then maybe Roana isn’t so bad after all.”
I feel like I just caught a glimpse of Paul’s dark side. He always gave me the impression he was one of those everybody-is-equal, peace-comes-first types…… I suppose that’s just another flavor of prejudice.
“And that’s why I can trust him,” Gill says, smiling wide.
“So any news on the wolf front?” Henri asks Paul, his tone serious.
The wolf…? Does this mean Gill already told Henri about that? Boy, that kid doesn’t waste time.
When he heard Henri’s question, Paul’s eyes suddenly darkened. “Somebody sent that wolf to the magic academy on purpose.”
““I knew it,”” Gill and I say in unison.
“Alicia, Gill, you knew about that, too?”
“I just had the sense it was true,” Gill says.
“I mean, a wild wolf waltzing into the magic academy—it’s ludicrous,” I add.
“So was it a wolf from Laval?” Gill asks.
Paul isn’t even slightly surprised by his question. Instead, he nods. “Yeah, it was… You’re a smart boy.”
“What I want to know is, who the hell smuggled a wolf across our border?” Henri asks, sounding a little irritated.
“A valid question, but also, what became of that wolf?” I ask.
Paul and Henri both seem uncomfortable.
Um…what sort of reaction is that? Wouldn’t most people confirm the survival or death of the wolf?
“After Liz subdued it with magic, she let the wolf escape,” Henri says with great difficulty.
Excuse me?!
“She…let it go?”
“A wolf?”
“Didn’t it attack someone?”
“Where did it escape to?”
Gill and I ask Henri rapid-fire, with accusatory tones. We know Henri won’t give us any answers, but we just have to ask.
“I don’t know. But even though Liz didn’t say anything, the wolf’s corpse was discovered the next day.”
“Did somebody kill it?” Gill asks quietly, a conflicted look in his eyes.
……This is getting pretty dark.
“Liz Cather wanted to play the part of an animal lover,” Gill says, not a glimmer of light in his eyes. “So watch, I’ll bet Liz sent the wolf in.”
“Yeah, I really doubt that,” Henri rebutts, smiling cynically.
“But most girls would never risk their life to protect people who were mean to them. Liz Cather knew that wolf wouldn’t kill her, so she used it to make a show of protecting everyone.”
“You know……that is definitely a way to gain popularity.” Paul seems to understand what Gill is trying to say.
Wait a minute, you’re all reading way too much into this. She’s the heroine. She would never draw up some harebrained scheme to increase her popularity—she doesn’t need to. Gill’s hatred of Liz is sparking biased reasoning in him.
“She’s like the plague,” Gill spits out, a sneer beginning to form on his face.
……I don’t like the path he’s on.
“Gill.”
I look right into his eyes. He seems to know immediately what I am going to say. He slowly closes his mouth.
“You’re looking at things too subjectively. Take only the facts and analyze them with an objective eye.” I hold his gaze and continue, “Let’s organize our facts. First, if we put all our focus on the wolf, somebody brought it to Durkis from Laval, then the wolf trespassed at the magic academy. After Liz subdued the wolf, it ran off somewhere, and the next day, it was dead… What can we conclude from all of this?”
I glance at the trio. They say nothing, their expressions fixed into grim frowns.
I guess somebody bringing the wolf into Durkis is our main point of interest. But at present, we have no leads whatsoever.
“Was there no collar on the wolf’s corpse?” Gill asks.
Henri shakes his head. “No, there wasn’t.”