“Miss Locktiss, what about your work?” asks a knight.
“It’s my day off.”
Three days later, I visit the knight order to offer my help in searching for the culprit, well aware they wouldn’t accept it so easily. Or so I thought—surely, I’d assumed, they’d see me as some civilian getting ahead of herself—but they welcomed my assistance without any trouble, probably thanks to my “outburst” the other day.
When I don’t have work, my time belongs to the investigation. Together with the knights, I use psychometry to trace the previously activated circles and destroy unfinished ones. A month later, our search reveals a suspect—a craftsman who lives at the edge of town. It’s him, for sure. When we grill him for a motive later, he replies, “My life was tedious and dull, and I was told I could do this.”
It’s clear he’s not the mastermind; someone else instigated all of this. Still, his detachment doesn’t make sense to me. How could he commit such atrocities on scarcely more than a whim?
He starts raving when we break the news to him that, regardless of who encouraged him, he’s not going to avoid a death sentence.
“I-I just did it because I was told I could! God helped me stave off my boredom; yes, it was God! If you want to punish someone, you’ll have to pass judgment on God!”
If I could, I would’ve done so long ago. This man is far beyond redemption.
“He got killed by such a lowlife! By such worthless trash!”
He was so talented, so brilliant. And he had to die for what, a moment’s stimulation for this selfish scumbag?
“Just die already! You deserve to die in a gutter like the dog you are!”
I lunge at the man and almost kill him with my magic before Grove restrains me.
“Sorry, Theodora.”
Though I flail, trying to press my assault, Grove’s embrace feels almost strong enough to break my bones.
“Sorry to let you say this. Sorry to let you utter such words,” Grove whispers into my ear as he holds my head in place.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Theodora, the least you could do is show your face when I come by.”
While Grove has a gentle smile on his face, I avert my gaze and hurl abuse at him.
Six years after Eruve’s death, Grove became knight commander. He’d always had the makings of a leader, so it was only a matter of time, and when he took a promotion test, he landed the top position in the order. He told me in person, even though I never asked.
I’ve tried to push him away over and over, and yet he still comes to my side. Something might be wrong with his ears.
Grove also told me that the order’s best magician—a man by the name of Alois Rockmann—had to protect my subordinate Nanalie Hel during our troubles with Orcinus. I’d heard Nanalie was on bad terms with House Arnold’s second son—so this is what it’s come to...
This is frustrating. What would she think if she knew that her beloved risked his life without ever telling her? That he could’ve died? Would she manage to stay calm?
In the end, I never even told him I loved him.
“It worked out in the end somehow. Case closed,” says Grove.
“‘Case closed,’ is it? I’m pretty sure it’s all thanks to that Arnold boy.”
“Come on, I worked hard for it too.”
“I wonder about that...”
I know he did. I’ve been told by a knight named Weldy that Grove was the first to rush to Alois Rockmann’s rescue when the latter was kidnapped, and that he lost a great chunk of flesh from his side in the ensuing brutal combat with the subordinates of Orcinus’s queen.
“I’m going back to my investigation, but how about we have dinner together when I get back?” asks Grove with a smile.
“Heh heh, spare me the jokes.”
I wave my hand as if chasing him off.
Never; not with him. Never.