The chairman was covering his face with both hands and muttering something.
Persona watched him through a crystal ball installed some distance away from the medical room bed, then turned her head toward another crystal ball on the table.
It was almost time for the regular report. Master Amici would once again demand information on the chairman—Master Calyps—that Persona had obtained while working as his secretary.
And the contents of this report were obvious to anyone.
The chairman sacrificed himself to rescue a student.
He had thrown himself into danger until every mana circuit in his body had twisted and shattered, leaving him half dead. It had even forced Persona to use holy water personally crafted by a Saintess, something she had never expected to use.
If Master Amici heard this, she would likely rejoice that she had finally found Master Calyps’s weakness.
Whether it was memory loss or an adjustment to his personality, she could be certain that something major had happened to Master Calyps’s mind.
Bzzzt—
The crystal ball emitted static on its own. While she hesitated, time had passed, and it was time to report to Master Amici.
In her room, as empty as ever, Persona clenched her fist.
Master Amici was someone who crushed people’s lives with a smile, who delighted in meticulous and vicious schemes.
Persona had long known what kind of person she was, but she had never resented her as much as she did today.
Hello, Persona. If you can hear me, would you answer?
Until Persona found Master Calyps collapsed, she had known nothing.
She did not know that someone would manipulate the barriers of the Exam Forest, nor that doing so would release the Lycanthrope.
If she had been unlucky, she might not have known even now, as Master Amici spoke to her as though nothing had happened.
Hmm, I will assume you can hear me well. What happened this time?
That was why Persona could not calmly accept Master Amici’s words.
Rather than restrain the heat rising from deep inside her lungs, she poured it directly at her opponent.
“Master Amici...! What in the world have you done?!”
At the very least, she should have said something to Persona.
No matter how strongly she believed that Persona had betrayed Master Calyps—no, precisely because of that—she should have said something.
The fact that she had proceeded with her plan alone without saying a word to Persona, who was more deeply connected to the academy than anyone in the Organization, could not be explained by any word other than disregard.
GRIND.
Persona gritted her teeth.
In truth, it did not matter if Master Amici had disregarded Persona herself.
The real reason for her anger was only that Master Calyps had nearly died.
However, even with a mind boiling with anger, Persona knew she could not say that. She had no choice but to say something far different from her true feelings.
“The academy is under my jurisdiction. If you intended to tamper with the barriers of the Exam Forest, you should have given me at least the minimum information...!”
Yes, she had to begin with the matter of jurisdiction.
She had to make it look as though she was angry over jurisdiction, without ever revealing that she was a double agent, and stop Master Amici from reaching her dirty hands into the academy again.
‘Things have become tangled....’
Persona had only become an unexpected double agent because Master Calyps had changed.
Her master, Master Calyps, had acted as though he had forgotten everything connected to the Organization after suddenly withdrawing into seclusion. In order to prepare for Master Amici’s schemes, Persona had no choice but to become a spy.
However, everything was ultimately for Master Calyps.
She could not simply stand by while Master Amici disregarded Persona and acted as she pleased....
How ridiculous.
...She could not, but Persona fell silent at the single weighty sentence from Master Amici, who had done nothing but receive her anger.
With the Boss missing, only the Masters lead the Organization.
As one of the two Masters chosen by the Boss, I am merely doing what I should. Is there even the slightest reason for me to seek the permission of a mere traitor?
A mere traitor.
It was something she had prepared herself to hear from the moment she decided to become a double agent, but hearing it in reality was different from merely preparing for it.
It was a cold and unpleasant sensation, like an icy dagger raking through her heart.
Before it, the burning anger Persona had been about to unleash had no choice but to cool.
Ahaha, do not take a joke too seriously. I believe you, Persona, will be of great help.
“......”
Persona stiffened at the voice that had become soft in an instant, but Master Amici continued speaking.
Was that joke too cruel? How should I comfort you...? Yes, how about this? For the next two months, I will not touch the academy. You have devoted yourself to the Organization, so I should repay you as a Master of the Organization.
Her opponent was mocking her.
Like taking away a child’s toy and giving it back, she declared that everything could be done as she pleased, only to suddenly say that she should offer repayment.
However, Persona could not resist in any way. As Master Amici said, Persona had no right to stop what a Master of the Organization did.
After Persona remained silent for a long time, Master Amici seemed to have exhausted the interest she had arbitrarily taken in her. She spoke her final words in an almost complaining tone.
It does not seem like today is a good day to hear your report, so I will contact you again next time. As always, work hard for the Organization.
Bzzzt—
The conversation ended as arbitrarily as it had begun.
Persona quietly stared at the crystal ball, which had lost its light, then recognized her own state and let out a groan.
Hng....
The moment she realized it, Persona understood that she had felt relieved by the favor her mocking opponent had thrown to her like alms.
A dark room where not even a speck of light remained after the sun set.
Master Calyps, her master who had always shown her the way, was no longer there to guide her.
Persona was lost.
Sita Calyps’s Notebook.
From the moment I first saw the reward to the moment it came into my hands, I had never stopped expecting it.
It was the reason I had not tried to refuse or avoid the Quest, “Avoid the First Danger,” despite its uncertainty, ambiguity, and extreme penalty of having a Trait removed.
Stroke.
Leaning against the soft bed in the medical room, I ran my fingertips across the cover of the small notebook covered in gold leaf.
The notebook did not break down into light and become absorbed into my mind like something from a movie or novel. Nor did an event occur where forgotten memories rose the moment my fingertips touched it.
The notebook was still a notebook.
“Hmm....”
Perhaps because of that, I could look back at the situation with a somewhat calmer mind.
‘I killed the Lycanthrope, received a clump of dirt from Professor Nia, and collapsed in the chairman’s office... so I ended up in the medical room.’
Killing the Lycanthrope was a good thing. In the end, I had confirmed that I would not lose my mind even when using the demonic sword Palakia, and I had managed to save Emma.
The clump of dirt Professor Nia gave me was somewhat sudden, but it was clearly worth investigating.
‘...She said it was a catalyst used in illusion magic.’
The author of the original work had used Gerbera Daisy Powder again and again, so I had heard of it as well.
It was a narcotic substance favored by criminals in the underworld, or so I understood.
Remembering that fact, I faintly furrowed my brow.
‘A strangely clean sign. Zones changed without an official notice. The Central Zone happened to be connected to the second-year zone. If a catalyst that criminals would use appeared in such a situation....’
There was nothing more to see.
What happened in the Exam Forest was not an accident that occurred by chance, but an incident deliberately created.
An incident deliberately created by someone who knew in advance that I would visit the Exam Forest.
‘If the barriers between zones were damaged, rather than the barriers protecting the forest paths, then the target was probably either Emma or Gess. It might have been both.’
There were not many pieces of information, but I might still be able to glimpse part of the larger picture.
With that thought, I continued fitting together facts after facts, then came to a conclusion.
“I do not know.”
Honestly, I did not know.
The Lycanthrope was originally a magic beast that Medio had to deal with in his second year.
There was not even the slightest reason for anyone to target Emma and Gess. Above all, not many people even knew I was going to visit the Exam Forest.
In that sense, perhaps it would be more accurate to say that I could not be certain rather than that I did not know.
‘The only people who knew, at least, were the four members of the Special Department... and the secretary.’
A question about the secretary suddenly invaded my mind.
It was a natural and obvious question: Whose side was the secretary on?
I swung around my limbs, which somehow felt even healthier than before, and continued thinking.
‘I decided to act like the chairman in order to avoid danger, but what I did in the Exam Forest was the exact opposite of the chairman. If the secretary is the mastermind’s subordinate, then the Quest should not have been completed, right?’
What had the secretary thought when she saw the chairman throw himself into danger to save a student?
What had she thought as she carried me, gravely injured and with no one else to help me, to the medical room?
I was not the secretary, so I did not know the answer. However, there was one thing I could vaguely understand.
‘Maybe.’
Maybe the secretary was someone on my side.
There was no reason to deny the relationship between the secretary and the mastermind, but the fact that the Quest had been completed meant the secretary... No, it was still too early to jump to conclusions.
It would be more than soon enough to decide after checking Sita Calyps’s Notebook.
Creak.
I threw open the medical room door and stroked the notebook tucked inside my clothes.
Truths that were distant and hazy, as though covered by fog.
Now it was time to uncover those secrets.
Step. Step. Step—
The footsteps grew farther away.
Emma, who had been holding the curtain surrounding her bed, finally relaxed the strength in her tightly clenched hands.
Glance.
After peeking beyond the curtain and confirming that the chairman had completely left the medical room, she lay back down and recalled the recent past.
More precisely, she recalled the moment a few hours ago when the chairman had saved her.
I am glad I was not too late.
The same situation. The same scenery. The same words.
The interaction created by those three things coming together was the replay of a forgotten memory, something even Emma had never expected.
“Surely, back then too....”
The day when the young Emma met a wild dog and was driven to the brink of death.
There had definitely been someone who saved her then, saying those exact same words.
Emma curled herself up more tightly, lying with her knees hugged to her chest as she searched through the memory that had surfaced for the first time in years.
‘He wore a robe, and he was blond. I do not know if he had golden eyes.’
The benefactor in her memories was as distant as the time that had passed, so she could not fully recall his appearance.
However, she was certain that he was a man surrounded by unwavering golden light.
A man who wore a robe adorned with golden thread, with hair as golden as though the sun had been gently boiled down and shaped... Yes, a man who gave exactly the same impression as the chairman.
“Ugh....”
Emma rolled around on the unnecessarily soft bed and let out an incomprehensible groan.
At this moment, she felt neither resentment toward Gess, bitterness toward Professor Tuvan, nor defiance toward the chairman.
She felt neither guilt toward her family and house nor regret over the highest-grade magic stone she had lost.
Instead, emotions equal to the sum of all those feelings became a raging torrent and swept over her.
“Maybe.”
Maybe the chairman was that person from that time, that moment.
Whenever she thought that, her head grew hot and her heart pounded. What name could properly and perfectly explain this feeling?
In the end, she gave the emotion bursting from deep in her heart the rough names of admiration and longing, and said only the obvious.
“I should... thank him.”
She no longer needed to suspect the chairman or treat him defiantly.
If he truly had bad intentions, he would not have thrown himself into danger to save her.
So first, she had to thank him.
However, it still seemed as though her body had not fully recovered. Though she had not fought the Lycanthrope directly and did not seem to be injured anywhere, she still did not seem fully recovered.
“...Just a little longer.”
After just a little longer, she would visit the chairman’s office.
Then she would tell the chairman, who would surely wear his usual impassive expression, that she was grateful.
Somehow, just imagining herself visiting the chairman and thanking him made her cheeks feel hot.
So Emma pulled the blanket over her head and squeezed her eyes shut.
For now, this was enough.