Kays Translations

Chapter 45: On a Rainy Day

Fiona, dressed in her summer academy uniform, approached Ren shortly after he completed his application for the second entrance examination.

She had come because House Ignat had business with him.

“Ren-kun, thank you for your hard work.”

She smiled as she spoke.

Rain covered the Imperial Capital, and no brilliant sunlight reached the streets. Even so, Fiona seemed to shine in her summer uniform. She wore the academy’s short-sleeved gilet, and raindrops on her bare arms accentuated the elegance of her appearance.

“This is a letter my father asked me to deliver. I am sorry—Edgar is very busy today, so I brought it in his place.”

Ren smiled at her apologetic tone.

“Please do not worry. This is addressed to Lessard-sama, correct?”

“Yes. That is what I was told.”

“I will make certain he receives it. If you have no other plans, I can escort you back to your dormitory.”

“But that would make you go out of your way twice.”

“It is no trouble.”

They began walking together.

At first they intended to discuss the letter, but they had spoken very little recently, so their conversation naturally turned to Ren’s first entrance examination.

Fiona already knew he had passed. His presence at the academy to submit the next application made that obvious.

“How did the first examination go?” she asked.

“Licia-sama and I both received perfect scores.”

“That is wonderful! I was certain you would both pass, but I did not expect perfect scores. Then you will surely succeed in the second examination—no, even the final one!”

“I hope so. How did you perform on your own first examination, Fiona-sama?”

After asking, Ren worried that the question had been impolite. He was about to withdraw it when Fiona shyly admitted that she too had earned a perfect score.

“I was physically weak, so studying was one of the few things I could always do.”

Her self-deprecating tone made an answer difficult.

“That score is the result of your effort,” Ren said.

Fiona accepted the praise with honest happiness, smiling as her silky black hair swayed around her face.

“Chronois-sama will probably be surprised when she meets a boy like you.”

“You mean the academy’s dean.”

Chronois Highland was someone toward whom Ren held many complicated feelings.

I will undoubtedly be nervous when we are formally introduced, he thought.

Still, he would continue working to prevent the future depicted in the game. He had already changed many fates, and that knowledge made him less afraid than before.

“Chronois-sama is expected to return in October,” Fiona said. “You should meet her at next year’s entrance ceremony.”

“She is outside Leomel because of her duties, correct?”

“Yes. She has been working at the Silver Holy Palace of Nodias. After the incident in the Baldor Mountains, she apparently tried to return once.”

Chronois’s work involved not only Leomel but other countries as well. She could not simply abandon it. Ulysses had also sent her a letter asking her to leave the situation to him, so she reluctantly remained abroad.

“That reminds me,” Ren said. “Ulysses-sama seems extremely busy lately.”

“My father? Yes, now that you mention it. He has entrusted a great deal of work to Edgar, so I assumed it was connected to that.”

Ren fell silent while they walked.

Fiona glanced at his profile and quietly blushed at how much more mature he seemed. When Ren realized he had stopped speaking, he immediately turned toward her.

“I am sorry. I became lost in thought.”

Their eyes met.

“I-I was not staring at you!”

“What?”

“N-Nothing. I misunderstood something on my own.”

Ren tilted his head but returned to the question occupying his thoughts: why had Ulysses and Radius remained so quiet?

He had previously written to Ulysses asking what had happened after the bandit incident. Ulysses’s answer, reduced to its substance, had been: Do not worry about it.

The remainder of the letter had consisted of casual conversation and enthusiastic praise of Fiona.

“Why are you so concerned about my father?” Fiona asked.

“Have you heard that the Demon King cult may have been behind the bandits?”

“Yes.”

“That is what troubles me. I was told Ulysses-sama and Radius were cooperating on the investigation, but I have heard nothing since.”

“Forgive me, but the name you just said belongs to His Highness the Third Prince, does it not?”

“Yes.”

“Why are you calling him without an honorific?”

“Radius told me to call him that, so I decided to stop hesitating.”

Fiona’s surprise was understandable. House Ignat stood at the head of the Imperial Faction, so reverence for the imperial family was especially strong in her upbringing. The idea that Ren addressed the Third Prince by name—and that Radius had personally encouraged him—was difficult for her to process.

“Perhaps this is simply the sort of thing that happens around you, Ren-kun.”

She gave up trying to understand it.

“If that is allowed, then he could call me Fiona too… and speak less formally,” she murmured.

Remembering their exchanges in the Baldor Mountains, she felt a faint, irrational frustration toward the Third Prince.

“I have been wondering constantly why Ulysses-sama has not contacted me,” Ren continued. “Even when I asked directly, he evaded the question.”

Fiona set aside her own thoughts and focused on his concern.

“I cannot imagine Father doing nothing.”

“Neither can I. If anything, it would be natural for him to be acting somewhere beyond my knowledge.”

Fiona suddenly remembered something discovered shortly after the bandit incident.

“This may help. I heard that the thieves stole documents stored in the affected workshops.”

She referred to information Ulysses and Radius had discussed when they met in Eupheim.

The stolen papers all described magic tools commissioned from trading companies and individual craftsmen. More specifically, they disproportionately concerned magic tools installed throughout the Imperial Capital and Elendil.

“Were they searching for weaknesses in the cities’ defenses?” Ren asked.

It was the same question Radius had voiced.

“I do not believe that is their only purpose,” Fiona replied immediately. “They are members of the Demon King cult. After what they attempted in the Baldor Mountains, I cannot imagine them being satisfied merely with examining security.”

“Then the information must support some other objective.”

They considered the possibilities in silence.

The theft probably did include an effort to identify defensive weaknesses, so most details had been kept secret. That was particularly true of the testimony obtained from the Dispel skill user Edgar captured on Ulysses’s orders. Only a handful of people knew everything.

Unfortunately, they reached Fiona’s dormitory before finding an answer.

Fiona insisted that she did not mind continuing the discussion, but Ren did not want to detain her indefinitely. They parted, and he spent the magic-train journey back to Elendil thinking.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

That night, after the rain had stopped, the air remained humid and warm.

Licia invited Ren onto the balcony. They drank chilled fruit water together while enjoying the evening breeze.

“Ren? Is something troubling you?”

Licia noticed almost immediately whenever he became lost in thought.

“Actually…”

Ren explained everything that had occupied his mind.

Licia had already known Fiona would deliver Ulysses’s letter that day. Once Ren repeated what Fiona had told him, she too began considering the implications.

“I also doubt that they were only searching for gaps in security,” Licia said. “Perhaps they intend to use the information as a foothold for something else.”

“I agree. The problem is that we do not know what that something is.”

“Did Marquis Ignat refuse to tell you?”

“When I asked by letter, he avoided the question. I think he is trying to keep us from becoming involved.”

“Marquis Ignat is kind to the people he cares about. And you have a habit of trying to shoulder too much alone.”

“I cannot deny that.”

They both understood and appreciated Ulysses’s intention. Their conversation continued not because Ren wanted to force his way into the operation, but because the concealed purpose worried him.

“Did Fiona-sama tell you anything else?” Licia asked.

“She said Dean Chronois will return in October. She also explained what the stolen documents had in common.”

Ren repeated the details.

“Hmm.”

Licia covered her mouth thoughtfully, then took a sip of fruit water.

“If the Demon King cult intends to act, do you not think they will do so before Dean Chronois returns?”

“That makes sense.”

Chronois was one of the world’s greatest magicians. Her presence would be an enormous obstacle and threat to the cult.

If they move, it will be before October.

The limited timeframe allowed Ren to see the other clues differently. A possibility flashed through his mind.

“Licia-sama, please tell me about the magic stone scheduled to be replaced this summer—the one at that place.”

He had almost spoken the answer aloud.

The stolen documents pointed toward a single likely conclusion: the Grand Clock Tower and the replacement of its enormous magic stone.

Licia nodded and immediately rose.

“We must tell Father.”

Ren caught her hand and stopped her.

“Wait. Think about the letter delivered today.”

“Do you mean Father may already have heard about this from Marquis Ignat?”

“I think so. Otherwise, the situation does not fit together. They would have needed to inform Lessard-sama so their own plan was not disrupted.”

Licia nodded gravely while Ren continued holding her hand.

“But if that is true, should we interfere?”

Ulysses and Radius were acting for a purpose while deliberately preventing Ren and House Clausel from becoming involved. Necessity had forced them to contact Lessard, but they probably intended his participation to end there.

Ulysses’s earlier behavior made that easy to imagine.

“If Lessard-sama knows and chose not to tell us,” Ren said, “then they are protecting us. The question is whether we should intrude despite that.”

Licia nodded.

In other words, Ulysses and Radius had assembled enough strength to confront the Demon King cult without Ren. His involvement would offer little practical benefit, expose him to needless danger, and might even obstruct their plan.

“Perhaps we should watch and wait for now.”

Only then did Licia notice that Ren was still holding her hand.

Her sudden panic was entirely understandable.

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