“...No.”
Snicker—
A mocking laugh came from the other side of the classroom.
It was that boy who had been moving seats with his group.
The same one who had picked a fight with Aion earlier, only to be humiliated when Dorothy stepped in.
As if he had finally found his opportunity, he stopped, pointed at them, and clutched his stomach with laughter.
“Pfft, what is that pathetic sight? Isn’t that practically the Kingdom of Kaluak right before its collapse?”
He glanced around the room and continued.
“You certainly got the historical details right. A stutterer, someone regressing into infancy, someone about to be expelled, and...”
His eyes settled on Cassius.
“A naked king.”
Aion’s gaze followed his naturally.
Heh.
Cassius smiled faintly. Still leaning back with his arms crossed, he merely turned his head a little toward the boy. It was the unhurried movement of a man who had found something interesting.
“Tell me your name.”
The boy’s laughter abruptly stopped.
“...Huh?”
“The name of the one foolish enough to wish to become Cassius’s enemy.”
His voice remained gentle. But his eyes did not smile, and that contrast conveyed his intent far more clearly than any threat could.
As though only now understanding that, the boy’s lips moved soundlessly before stopping.
“Uh... well...”
He glanced behind him.
The apparent leader of his group wore a deep scowl, and that expression alone made it easy enough to guess what he was about to say.
“Idiot...”
It was a short, cold remark.
The boy’s face stiffened.
“Hey.”
Cassius spoke again. Unlike his lofty tone from before, this time his voice was brief and firm.
“Name.”
“R-Renard de Valois.”
“I see.”
Cassius nodded once.
“I shall remember it.”
Slowly—
As if dazed, Renard went and sat down. The leader of his group asked in a low voice at his back.
“What the hell were you thinking, provoking Cassius?”
“I-I...”
“You may pay for acting on your own.”
Aion looked away.
‘...Disgusting.’
He found those people, who were only now reprimanding Renard, more disgusting than Renard himself.
They had silently allowed Renard to mock Aion and his teammates—only reacting like this after Cassius intervened.
“Well, in any case.”
Cassius changed the subject.
As though nothing had happened, he uncrossed his arms and looked at his teammates. Then he opened one hand, gesturing for them to speak.
“The King asks you this: who shall become the vanguard of Cassius de Servang?”
Silence.
“I-I-I-I...”
Daren raised his hand.
His lips moved several times before, seeming to make up his mind, he forced out the words. Yet, despite that determination, what he said was not very promising.
“I-I-I-I’m not good at a-a-attack magic...”
“It matters not! Your loyalty alone has earned my deepest gratitude! You shall be my Rook!”
Cassius immediately replied. Without so much as glancing at Daren as he lowered his hand in embarrassment, Cassius extended a hand toward Vera.
As if urging her to answer.
Vera’s teddy bear moved its mouth.
“Same for me.”
“Miss Claire.”
“It’s Vera. Damn it, who the hell is Claire?”
A brief silence passed.
Cassius looked at the doll once, then shifted his eyes back to Vera.
“Can that teddy bear... not attack?”
“Mm. It’s weak.”
“A shame! Yet you need only prove your worth by guarding the King. In that case, you too shall be my Rook!”
Cassius’s hand finally moved toward Aion.
“......”
“......”
Cassius slowly let out a long sigh, like a man arriving at an unavoidable conclusion.
“Haah... This will be difficult.”
“...?”
Cassius did not seem pleased.
“I apologize, but...”
He looked Aion over from head to toe, then toe to head.
His was an appraising gaze, and his expression made it clear that he had not reached a particularly favorable conclusion.
“Aion... What’s-His-Name. At a glance, you seem far too lacking in aggression.”
“...Is that so?”
It was a rude thing to say, but since Cassius had told him honestly, it did not feel barbed.
‘Lacking in aggression, huh...’
Aion said nothing. Cassius was not wrong, and there was no reason for Aion to explain himself here.
Perhaps interpreting his silence as disagreement, Cassius spoke again.
“How many offensive spells do you know?”
It was an easy question for Aion to answer. The answer was small enough that he did not even need to hold up his fingers.
“...Two.”
At that, Daren and Vera’s teddy bear both turned toward him.
“...What?”
“That’s worse than me...”
Thunder Calling and Meltdown.
Those were the only offensive spells Aion could use, so it was close enough to the truth.
“Ha ha ha ha ha ha!”
Cassius burst into laughter.
It was not forced laughter, but the laugh of someone who had insisted on confirming an uncomfortable truth.
“I like your honesty! Though... that honesty does nothing to solve the problem currently facing our kingdom.”
Before the laughter had fully faded, Cassius’s gaze drifted to the side—to the vacant place on the list.
“The greatest problem still remains... so perhaps everything else is trivial.”
The amusement disappeared from his voice.
Daren studied the list, then cautiously pointed to one line.
“U-U-U-Umm...”
“Mm?”
“W-W-W-When is Miss Aria... c-c-coming?”
Everyone’s eyes gathered on the list.
Aria di Valera.
The Star of Calion. One of the Empire’s foremost primas, said to be surrounded by flowers and gifts in the Imperial Capital.
Aion let his gaze rest on that name for a moment.
“She will return eventually, but...”
Cassius tapped the name on the list with his finger.
“That is not the problem.”
Vera’s doll raised its head.
“What is the problem?”
“Convincing that girl...”
Cassius trailed off. He studied the list for a moment, then looked around at his teammates.
“Will likely be impossible.”
He had clearly said that girl.
“...Do you know Aria?”
Aion asked.
“I have known her since we were very young. But...”
Cassius stopped there, as though he had no intention of saying more.
A half-naked blond man and an Imperial Capital songstress who drew everyone’s attention.
No matter how Aion thought about it, it was difficult to picture the two as childhood friends.
“T-T-T-Then...”
Daren spoke again.
“W-W-W-We cannot even take the evaluation like this?”
Cassius leaned his head back toward the ceiling. Something close to a sigh escaped him.
“To enter the Battle of Bosco without our full strength would be no different from fighting with one arm tied behind our backs from the start.”
No one refuted him.
They could not.
“Can’t Cassius bring Miss Aria here?”
Vera’s doll asked shortly.
Cassius lowered his gaze from the ceiling. He looked around at his teammates, then slowly shook his head.
“For me, it is close to impossible.”
It was an honest answer.
Silence fell for a moment. Then, as though to break it, the same theatrical glint returned to Cassius’s eyes.
“However...”
He slowly rose to his feet. The difficulty written across his face vanished as though it had been a lie, and his voice rose a notch.
“Perhaps it would be different for you all.”
“Pardon?”
“Now—who shall it be?”
Everyone looked at Cassius.
“Who will pluck the pitiful flower blooming at the edge of a cliff? Who will accept this courageous challenge and carve out the fate of our kingdom?”
Daren shot his hand into the air.
“I-I-I-I-I c-can’t... I-I-I can’t do s-s-something like that...”
His lips desperately tried to form the next words, but in the end, his hand fell first.
Cassius watched him and nodded.
“Mm! So it seems. In truth, I expected nothing else.”
Vera quietly raised the doll’s arm. The little hand pointed at Aion.
“Aion will do it.”
Aion looked at Vera.
“Vera.”
Vera’s doll raised its head.
“...At least Aion calls me by my name.”
Aion looked from Cassius to Vera, then Daren.
“Cassius, that...”
Cassius turned his eyes toward him.
Looking directly at Cassius, Aion spoke.
“I’ll do it.”
***
The moment he left the classroom, a warm breeze brushed against his cheek.
Aion wandered aimlessly before sitting on a bench in the campus park. He leaned against its hard wooden backrest, his gaze drifting into empty space.
— Aria di Valera does not stay in the dormitories. She lives in the residential district of Exion’s academy city.
The address of her off-campus lodging Cassius had given him. And Cassius’s other words.
— She has probably already returned.
Aion slowly considered them.
She had already arrived at Exion, yet she had not come to class.
‘...Did she never intend to come in the first place?’
If so, did that mean she would continue to—
Tap tap tap tap—
Footsteps rapidly drew closer.
The moment Aion raised his head, an old wide-brimmed hat entered his view.
Orange-tinted hair rippled beneath it in the wind.
Dorothy was running straight at him at full speed, her golden eyes fixed on Aion.
“...Dorothy?”
It was Dorothy, Grand Mage Granbell van Mayer’s granddaughter—the girl who had burst out laughing at the student provoking Aion in the classroom.
“Aion—!”
Then—
Trip.
“Huh—?”
A small, insignificant stone sent the small but very significant genius mage flying into the air.
Whoosh—
Aion rose from the bench almost by reflex.
One step.
He stretched out an arm and caught the airborne Dorothy around the waist.
“Gah—!”
Dorothy’s body came to a complete stop in midair. Only her hat rolled onward by itself.
A brief silence passed.
Frozen in place, Dorothy slowly lifted her head.
Her golden eyes met Aion’s.
“......”
“......”
Aion slowly set Dorothy down. She straightened her clothes, glanced at her rolled-away hat, then looked back at him.
“...Aion, did you just see me fall?”
“I was the one who caught you in the first place.”
Dorothy’s cheeks instantly turned red.
“Then you must forget it happened!”
“......”
Without a word, Aion turned and trudged toward the hat rolling across the ground. He bent down, picked it up, and returned.
Then he placed it firmly on Dorothy’s head.
The hat fell all the way over her eyes.
Dorothy lifted the brim with a hand and looked up at Aion.
“Why did you not wait for me outside the classroom?”
“You never told me to wait.”
“...Did I not?”
“No.”
“......”
Dorothy fell silent for a moment.
Her lips moved as though she wanted to protest, but eventually she simply closed them.
She walked to the bench first and sat down. Then she patted the empty spot beside her.
“Sit down, you see.”
Aion sat beside her without a word.
Silence passed for a moment. The gentle sounds unique to the campus park filled the space between them.
Beyond the path dotted with floating-stone streetlamps, the distant footsteps of students moving between lecture halls could be heard.
Dorothy spoke first.
“How has your time at Exion been, you see?”
It sounded less like a question than a greeting.
Aion thought for a moment.
“It’s been all right.”
He kept his gaze ahead.
“Nothing especially bad. Nothing especially good, either.”
Dorothy looked at him for a moment after hearing that.
“For something that is merely all right, quite a lot has happened to you, Aion.”
Aion said nothing.
“There was the fire, too.”
Dorothy’s voice lowered slightly. It differed from her earlier pouty tone.
“I heard you were hurt, Aion.”
“Not badly.”
“It is only natural that that sturdy body of yours is fine. I was not asking whether you were hurt badly.”
Dorothy lowered the brim of her hat slightly and looked ahead.
“I was saying that you were hurt.”
Aion looked at Dorothy for a moment.
“...Were you worried?”
“Worried? Not at all, you see.”
Dorothy’s feet, dangling just above the ground from the bench, lightly swung back and forth.
“I was simply saying it... that is all.”
Aion looked forward for a moment.
“I felt sore for a few days, but I’m fine now.”
Dorothy gave a small nod. Her hat bobbed along with it.
“Then that is fortunate.”
Dorothy gently swung her feet again before turning toward Aion.
“That boy who provoked you in the classroom today... Lunnar?”
“Renard.”
“...You are clever, Aion. Remembering a name after hearing it only once.”
Aion looked at Dorothy.
“You laughed on purpose, didn’t you?”
“Mm?”
Her golden eyes blinked beneath the brim.
“You laughed on purpose because you thought I might get into trouble.”
Dorothy’s hands busily waved through the air.
“That cannot be true. For what possible reason?”
“......”
“...Was it that obvious?”
Dorothy pulled her hat down low. Its oversized brim partly hid her flushed cheeks.
A moment of silence passed, then a small sigh escaped her.
“As expected, I cannot deceive you, Aion. You notice things far too quickly.”
Looking ahead, Aion spoke.
“But why did you bring up Renard?”
Dorothy’s feet began swinging again.
“It is not Renard you should worry about. It is the boy behind him.”
“...”
“I have heard some things as well.”
Dorothy’s voice grew a little calmer.
“Marc de Senel. They say he has a dark and vicious personality. You should be more careful around him than someone like Renard.”
“...Are you sure that is his name?”
“...Perhaps not?”
Silence passed briefly.
“In any case, Aion, it is best not to get entangled with wicked people for no reason.”
Aion did not speak for a moment.
“Well, I’ll try.”
Dorothy watched him for a moment, then let out a quiet sigh—the sigh of someone who knew there was no use in saying more.
“More importantly, about that kingdom matter today... I was not eavesdropping, but...”
“Mm?”
“You said you would bring Aria here?”
“Ah, yes.”
Dorothy looked up at him.
“Do you know Miss Aria, Aion?”
“No.”
“Then you said you would bring her back despite not knowing her?”
“Yes.”
Dorothy looked at him for a moment as though she had lost her words. Then she quietly murmured.
“...You have not changed.”
With a soft smile, she said her goodbye.
“I should go now. We will meet again, you see.”
Aion nodded.
Dorothy stepped down from the bench. Once her small feet touched the ground, she turned toward Aion.
“Do not get hurt, and do not push yourself too hard.”
After hesitating briefly, she placed a small hand atop Aion’s head.
It was neither a careful nor hesitant touch. It came naturally.
“Stay well, you see.”
Aion did not avoid her hand.
“You have not changed either.”
“It is only natural not to change when it has barely been a year.”
“...You are an old woman in a child’s body.”
“Who exactly is saying that to whom?”
Dorothy snickered and turned away. Her hat swayed gently.
Then Aion spoke.
“You do not need to worry about me like that anymore.”
Dorothy stopped walking.
He had to make his own way through what happened at Exion. This was not something for which he could borrow Dorothy’s help.
Aion knew that, and Dorothy must have known it too.
Dorothy slowly turned around and gave him a faint smile.
“But...”
She looked at Aion with her golden eyes.
“Aion will always be Dorothy’s student, you see.”