◈ Mistaken for a Masked Monster
──────
Meeting My Favorite
The next day.
Viktor arrived in the classroom riding something.
"Good morning. Lovely to see everyone."
A smiling mask.
An even brighter greeting to match it.
The Class E students, though, couldn't bring themselves to respond. All they could do was stare at the jester with blank, baffled expressions.
""......?""Total bewilderment.
Eyes that couldn't quite work out what they were seeing.
Satisfied by that reaction, the boy smiled. Something resonant and strange seeped through the gaps in the mask.
"Having a ride really does make things comfortable! The Class E main building is quite far from the dormitories, after all."
Not a short distance.
Student trams had been stationed at various points throughout the academy for exactly that reason. A campus practically the scale of a small city had to come with its own transit.
"The ride's smooth too. I'll have to use it often."
In context: a remark of wonder from someone riding a tram for the first time.
Except it wasn't the tram that had impressed him.
What was actually creaking beneath Viktor's feet. One by one, the students who noticed fell silent.
"You know, a rickshaw powered by human sweat and effort has something a mana-powered tram just can't match."
A large rickshaw. Roomy enough for a bed, with a canopy stretched overhead. Beneath that comfortable shade, a white mattress had been set inside.
Quite an impressive design.
Wide rickshaw, one bed.
The jester lay in it without a care in the world.
"Travel's going to be very comfortable from here on."
And at the front, clustered around the handles.
"Hah, hah..."
"Ugh, eugh..."
Several students stood there, completely spent.
The second- through eighth-ranked students in the class.
They were the ones pulling it.
Every single one of them wore the face of someone at death's door.
"This is, ugh... absolute..."
One of them biting back curses through heavy, ragged breath.
The jester caught it anyway. He leaned his head out through the door.
"Oh? Any complaints?"
"Hiyeek! N, no, hyung-nim! I can run for another two hours!"
Whoosh, whoosh.
Pale almost immediately, he shook his head. A desperate denial, like a man terrified out of his mind.
The other students pulling the rickshaw had the exact same reaction.
""......""
The moment Viktor turned that mask toward them, they arranged their expressions into perfect order. Even the sound of their panting got stifled, mouths pressed shut.
We have absolutely no complaints.
That's what the silence said. The sweat streaming down their faces and the twitch above their brows gave them away, though.
"Is everyone tired?"
""No, hyung-nim!""
"This is the fastest way to build muscle and stamina. Getting a real workout, aren't you? This is genuinely doing wonders for you."
""Yes, hyung-nim!!""
Snapped to attention.
The only one whose reaction came anywhere close to normal was the second-ranked student. He was the only one who hadn't smoothed out his scowl. Sweating like he was about to drop, grinding curses under his breath.
"The hell... building something like this overnight and just showing up with it..."
"Luyan-ssi."
Even he swallowed an involuntary gasp the moment their eyes met. Trying to glare at the jester, but the fear was plain in his eyes.
The masked boy looked at Luyan with an amused tilt of his head.
"Luyan-ssi?"
"......"
"Too heavy for you?"
"......No."
"Pulling a rickshaw really piles on the stress. That kind of stress is necessary. You'll be lying awake thinking about it tonight."
"......"
"Grateful that I'm putting you through the training, aren't you?"
"......Yeah."
Damn it.
He really was going to lie awake thinking about it.
Luyan answered with teeth clenched, lips pressed tight.
The reason things had come to this was simple enough. Not long past, just yesterday afternoon.
'Running into some lunatic like that...'
The Class E students had a lot of complaints.
The higher-ranked ones, especially.
What they were upset about came down, as always, to a ranking that made no sense to them.
-I get everything else, but how does someone with an E grade end up top of the class?
-Doesn't add up. Forget first place, I don't even know how he got in.
-Isn't this just admissions fraud?
-Something's definitely wrong here...
Absurdity. Suspicion. Frustration.
Foreheads creasing on their own.
-And on top of that... did you hear what the kids from the other classes were saying?
-Apparently E class is where even garbage like that can place first.
-If something like that is class president, you can basically guess the level of everyone beneath him.
Far from the truth, of course.
Even the students of Class E had been called prodigies somewhere, by someone. Kids who had worked themselves raw, run headlong into walls, and broken through them to get here. The mere fact of being admitted to Grandia Academy was already enough to mark them as the next generation.
-Damn those guys...
-When the gap between us is this small...
For the people directly involved, though, circumstances felt different.
Rankings, by nature, make some people arrogant and reduce others to feeling small. The world of numbers was merciless.
Upper-class students looked down on those below as a matter of course, and lower-class students stared upward and drowned in their own inadequacy. Common enough in a competitive environment. The Class E students were just another set of casualties of that system.
The wounded pride of having their potential and hard work dismissed.
-Why does something like that get to wear the top-of-class badge...!
-It's already bad enough without the other classes thinking whatever they're thinking about us!
Sharp, bristling feelings with nowhere to go always end up pointed in the wrong direction.
Viktor was that direction. The most obvious target. The easiest mark.
If they had stopped to think about it, they might have recognized how cowardly that was, but...
-Are we going to let this sit? Let someone with an E grade stay above us?
-We're all unhappy about it. We're on the same page, right?
-Don't know if it's admissions fraud or what, but he's met his match.
These were buds that hadn't bloomed yet. Immature shoots still in the process of growing. Those who had never even shed a petal had no way of knowing how to bear fruit.
-We could just rough him up a bit, right?
-He's from some rural commoner background anyway. Not even worth checking.
-Who said rough him up? Just scare him a little. That's enough.
Feelings in the driver's seat.
And Viktor's provocation sent all of it erupting.
-What exactly did he say earlier?
-He said he'd lay us all out? Some nobody who wandered in from wherever...
-Couldn't stand him walking around in that weird mask to begin with.
-Doesn't seem like the type you can reason with. Should we just teach him a lesson?
So after the day's schedule ended, they surrounded Viktor.
A threatening atmosphere.
Honestly, they expected the jester to flinch or run. E grade in every stat except theory. What did that mean? It meant a study-room type who only knew how to spin a pen. Nobody was going to hold their ground when the second-ranked and the rest of the top tier closed in on them.
-You were running your mouth earlier, weren't you? Said you'd lay us all out?
-So why the hurry to leave? Scared?
-We're not done here.
Even if it hadn't been this particular boy, anyone would have shrunk under those circumstances. Seven well-built students forming a ring around you.
They'd meant to give him a scare, sort out the hierarchy, and be done with it, but...
-Should I handle all of you right here?
-Since we're doing this anyway, how about we make it a real contest? Seems a shame to just end it like this.
The boy's reaction was something else entirely.
Nothing like what the students had expected.
-Losing side does whatever the winning side wants. For one full year.
What happened after that, they didn't remember very clearly.
Hard to even know what had been done to them.
But they had been completely, thoroughly wrecked.
By the end they were begging with both hands.
-Hmm... surrendering already? What a shame.
The mask, twisted into something wrong.
That was about all they could remember.
-You remember the terms, right?
-From now on, you do what I say. Nice and easy.
Heh heh.
That voice behind the mask, laughing in a way that settled wrong in the chest.
""......""
And now here they were.
"You'll all be putting on serious muscle at this rate. This is genuinely doing wonders."
The jester stepped lightly off the rickshaw, saying this. He went along and gave each student a pat on the shoulder.
'Damn it...'
The students packed up the rickshaw, curses of resignation running through their heads.
***
A few days later.
Days spent running around with the underclassmen.
Two days left until the Freshmen Welcome Exam.
'I mean... holding an exam one week after enrollment is a little insane.'
Then again, this was a place for elites. The finest educational institution on the continent, or so they claimed.
Squirm, squirm.
Lost in thought for a moment, the breast pocket of his uniform started wriggling again.
[Viktor!]
"Yes, princess."
[It seems you're not spending time with those children today.]
"Luyan's group, you mean? I've let them rest for now. Yesterday was a long day of fun."
[Ah, that's right. You did seem especially hard on them yesterday.]
"Hard on them? Come now, kids will be kids. It was all just fooling around."
[Was it? No matter how many times I hear it, human culture is hard to understand.]
Light conversation.
Then Carmilla asked, as though something had just occurred to her.
[Come to think of it... didn't you say you were going to meet someone in Class E?]
"I did."
[You said you deliberately enrolled in the lowest class to meet that person.]
"That's right. But they haven't turned up at all. Hard to say whether they're hiding or skipping classes..."
[How curious. There are things even Viktor doesn't know.]
"What do you take me for?"
[An exceptionally capable confidant?]
"That's an overestimation, but thank you all the same."
[No it isn't! Viktor is remarkable! Yesterday alone, when that child dove to the bottom of the lake saying they were going to run away, one gesture from you and you had them right out of there...]
Eyes sparkling, the little bat.
He really was weak, but she never seemed to believe it.
Still. She was adorable, so that was fine enough.
He ran a finger gently over her head.
[Hyack... h, how dare you! Do not pat my head!]
Scolding him furiously, yet melting all the same.
Before long a soft purring leaked out; she'd grown drowsy. The fur was soft too, which only made it feel nicer.
He was still walking when something nearby caught his attention.
Rustle.
"......?"
A bush that had moved unnaturally.
He looked toward the sound.
'Are they watching...?'
To be honest, he hadn't really sensed anything. He'd just seen someone behind a tree.
How was he supposed to sense anyone's presence.
E grade couldn't do that sort of thing.
A head peeking out, and from fairly close range at that.
'Who on earth...'
Might as well check.
Thud, thud.
He set off.
A few off-beat steps, then space crackled around him. He vaulted off the shimmer like a springboard.
The next moment.
He had moved to the other side of the bushes.
At the same time, a pair of blue eyes met his.
'Oh?'
Dark hair fell as her head turned. Loose strands, disheveled and hanging low, framing those deep, clear blue eyes.
Startled, she toppled right over.
"H, hyak...!"
A body disappearing into the bushes.
He stood there, staring down at her blankly.
Moisture had welled at the corners of her eyes.
"I'm, I'm so sorry for peeping...!"
"......"
Even the voice came out small and trembling.
It was exactly who he remembered.
'Why is she here...?'
She was the very person they'd been searching for just moments ago. The girl he'd deliberately enrolled in the lowest class to find.
A seed of disaster.
The monster who, two years from now, would level half the academy. The grinder who would go on to kill countless supporting characters.
'Again.'
RGM.
(Ranne & Grandia Academy: The Märchen.)
In the original game, his favorite supporting character. The one who had made him cry more than once. His all-time favorite from the source material.
A child of tragedy.
A girl soaked in dreams.
'Alice.'
Exactly as she'd looked in the illustrations. Pupils trembling faintly, hair hopelessly undone.
A mechanical chime drifted through his mind.
Ding!
[Story 'Alice's Nightmare' in progress.]
[Main Quest begins.]
A status window bloomed before his eyes.
[Main Quest]
-Prevent the fall and rampage of the third calamity, 'Alice.'
-Time until Alice is consumed by the Nightmare: 2 years, 1 month
He was standing at the edge of the calamity he had loved the most.