Flames were crawling over the floor, beginning to encircle them. Brigitte didn’t think she could last much longer. It was so hot and bright, and every breath was torture. Still, she took the handkerchief from her mouth and smiled. She could speak now without shame.
“…Yes. He’s my hero.”
She turned toward the wall, tracing it with her scarred left hand. Not to tell Joseph, but to tell the person she knew was on the other side.
“I love Sir Yuri.”
The moment she said it, her arm began to glow. Surprised, she tried to look down, but she couldn’t. The light seared the back of her eyelids and made her forget to breathe.
Then she heard it.
A beautiful, dignified sound like the call of some enormous bird.
She had never heard that voice before—still, she knew.
…Peep…?
As if to guide Brigitte, who still could not open her eyes, the column of light burst through the ceiling and high, high into the sky.
A short while earlier, the spiritologist Tonari was walking alone on the school grounds. With his slightly dirty clothes and five-o’clock shadow, he was out of place at the academy of magic. Every student who passed him glanced back curiously. Some of them should have known who he was, but he felt like they were still suspicious of him. He wasn’t the type to worry about trivial things, though.
As for why he was wandering around, he was simply trying to clear his head during a break in the interviews. Since the chief priest doing the inspection with him was an inflexible man, all he’d been allowed to do before today was wander around the neighborhood. At least today someone higher up was with them, and Tonari had easily received permission to participate.
The chief priest’s been pricklier than usual lately.
This was the same priest who had overseen Brigitte Meidell’s contracting ceremony. He had been questioned by his superiors, the bishops, and was likely still seething. But Tonari wished he would stop taking it out on him.
The interviews with students and their contracted spirits at Otoleanna Academy of Magic were scheduled to take four days. Tonari had only been dispatched to the Central Shrine this year, and this was his first school inspection. As far as he could tell, not many spirits were strongly dissatisfied with their contracted humans. That is, most of the pairs were building decent relationships.
First-year students had been interviewed during the first two days, and today they were interviewing two second-year classes.
The boy from the Fire Clan was there…
He was the only first-year student contracted with a first-class spirit. Tonari’s main goal at the inspection was to gather information about Brigitte, who was possibly contracted with the spirit that had produced the column of light, but he had decided not to ask the boy about her.
Apparently, the situation in the Meidell family was complicated. If he poked those bushes, he would be lucky if the only thing that came out were some wild spirits.
Anyway, he’d be meeting Brigitte in person later that day during her interview. He could see her contracted spirit for himself.
I wonder what incredible thing will show up.
Just thinking about it was exciting. Ever since he saw the column of light on that cool, breezy summer night, he had felt restless. Suddenly, he snapped out of his daydreams.
“Damn…where am I?”
He scratched his head. He’d wandered into an unfamiliar building with a clean white nondescript hallway and a stairway. Was this a student dorm? He guessed no one had stopped him from entering because of the guest pass pinned to his chest.
He remembered belatedly what a bad sense of direction he had. No doubt the chief priest would give him a tongue-lashing if he caught him wandering around a place like this. Just then, he heard people arguing.
“…Lisa, you’ve got to come out.”
“Leave me alone! It’s none of your business!”
The girls’ voices were coming from the end of the hallway. One sounded sad and the other quarrelsome. Quarrelsome but weak.
Tonari had no interest in the interpersonal problems of students. Pretending he hadn’t heard them, he turned to leave.
“But Lisa, Brigitte is a kind, lovely person.”
His ears perked up.
…What’s this?
He stopped. They were talking about Brigitte, the much-discussed daughter of the Fire Clan. Maybe he would learn something helpful here, of all places. Turning on his heels, he peered down the hallway. A girl with black hair was standing in front of a closed door; he had interviewed her an hour and a half earlier. She was contracted with a brownie, a cleaning fairy. In the time it took him to remember that much, the girls’ argument had moved on.
“I told her I hid her pens…and she still said I had pretty eyes.”
“…Ha-ha…are you being sarcastic? I told you before that you might as well hide your face. You have no confidence, after all.”
“No! I feel like your advice was right at that point in my life.”
So the one with black hair is Kira, and the one in her room is Lisa.
He had a hard time remembering names, so he repeated them silently several times. Kira, who didn’t notice she was being watched, clasped her hands as she continued. “But I’m telling you, no matter how hard things are for Miss Brigitte, she always stays positive. She’s so—so amazing. You’ll see if you talk to her, Lisa.”
“It’s a bit late for that…”
“We were going to come together to see you today. She had to help a teacher, and that’s why she’s not here yet.”
Lisa was silent for a moment.
“…Help a teacher? Where is she now?”
“Mr. Inad, the medicinal herbology teacher, asked her to help him. I don’t know where they went.”
“Mr. Inad…”
“Pardon me, but what are you doing here?”
Tonari blinked and glanced in the direction of the voice. A frighteningly handsome boy with blue-black hair was standing next to him. Beside him was a stern-looking boy with his arms crossed.
Tonari reflexively pointed at him. “You’re the one who sent your ariel on a rampage!”
“Yes. Nival Weir.”
“Right, that’s your name. How are you?”
“You asked me that already today…,” he replied irritably.
Tonari had forgotten his name since the interview.
The blue-haired boy, noticing he was being ignored, repeated his question.
“Anyway, what are you doing here?”
“Me? Why, listening in on the conversation between those two girls, water boy,” he answered nonchalantly.
The blue-haired boy pressed his lips together. Now, what was this one’s name?
He remembered that he was the Duke of Aurealis’s son and was contracted with two first-class spirits, but unsurprisingly, the name wasn’t coming back to him.
Nival strode past him and walked up to Kira.
“Hey, Kira, where’s Miss Brigitte? She’s not with you? I came looking for her because you were taking so long.”
“Oh…Mr. Inad asked her to help him with something.”
“Kira!”
They all stared at the door. It did not open, but a weak voice came through it.
“I think…you ought to go look for Brigitte right away.”
“Lisa?” Kira said.
“What do you mean?” the blue-haired boy interrupted.
Lisa seemed to be trembling behind the door. “…That day, when Sir Joseph…gave me the burning torch, he said something.”
“You mean during the magic-stone hunt?”
“…Yes.”
All of them listened in silence. Nervous tension filled the hall. Tonari picked some wax from his ear and listened, too. Interesting place to hear the prince’s name.
Never thought they’d start talking about Joseph!
“He said, ‘You’re just another stupid girl. Go find Brigitte and play best friends with her…’ But I think he said it on purpose to make me mad.”
“What’s that got to do with this?” the blue-haired boy asked, ignoring her tearful voice. She sniffled a few times before answering.
“I heard that Mr. Inad’s father…works at the palace. I think maybe Sir Joseph…”
“…Is using Mr. Inad to hurt Brigitte?” the blue-haired boy muttered, his expression grim.
By that point, Tonari had a general grasp of the situation.
I see I’ve stumbled into a hornet’s nest.
He was in too deep to back out now, so he decided to make a suggestion.
“I’ll search for them,” he said.
Three pairs of eyes turned toward him. The blue-haired boy looked suspicious, but there wasn’t time to explain.
“What’s this Brigitte girl look like?” he asked, adding, “Tell me anything you can think of.”