Chapter 3 — An Intriguing Poster

A change had come over Ren and Licia.

It had not yet been two months since he had stopped calling her “Licia-sama” and begun calling her simply Licia.

Something must have happened during the Lion King Grand Festival. That was all the students around them could tell. Some asked Licia about it, but she offered no particular explanation.

The change became widely known shortly after the Cage of Time surrounding Roses Caitas disappeared.

One day in the classroom, Ren called to Licia as he usually did.

“Licia, shall we go home?”

“Yes.”

The unfamiliar form of address startled the students in the Special Class.

Ren acted perfectly natural, and Licia answered as though nothing were unusual, leaving everyone around them at a loss.

Sera was especially surprised.

Yet she soon smiled, realizing that Licia’s efforts had borne fruit.

Among all the astonished students, Sera alone watched the two of them with visible delight.

People grew accustomed to anything, however. Little by little, the others stopped reacting when Ren called Licia by name.

Now, even when students overheard them talking, almost no one went out of their way to turn and look.

The atmosphere from before the Lion King Grand Festival had returned.

The change in how Ren addressed Licia became a topic of conversation outside the first-year Special Class as well.

Fiona, aware that Licia had pulled ahead of her, privately urged herself onward. But that was another matter. Her own struggle was only beginning.

That morning, Ren and Licia arrived at the academy earlier than usual.

They visited the headmistress’s office and met Chronois Highland, one of the finest magicians in the world.

Chronois rested a hand on Licia’s.

“There are extremely few users of Sacred Magic, so research into it hasn’t progressed very far.”

The winglike power Licia had manifested was unprecedented. Even Chronois, for all her vast learning, could not explain it.

Ren and Licia had discussed the matter and decided to come here together.

Licia could not simply continue her daily life without telling anyone that she had unconsciously wielded such tremendous power.

Chronois was the person they trusted most to help.

Licia had also told her father, Lessard, what had happened after the incident. Beyond him, only Chronois and Fiona, who had come to retrieve Ren and Licia that day, knew the full details.

They had decided to wait until matters settled down a little more before telling Ulysses and Radius.

“I’m sorry. I’ve searched through the books at my estate, but I still haven’t found anything promising.”

The headmistress’s residence was said to contain a library with more books than anyone could count.

Chronois had searched it, but found no record of the same phenomenon.

“P-Please don’t worry about it! This all began because I used a power I didn’t understand without even meaning to!”

“But it wasn’t something you chose to do, Licia-chan!”

“Both of you, the Cage of Time and the Sword Demon were the original cause, so the premise of that argument is wrong from the start.”

That was the heart of the matter.

Licia and Chronois nodded at Ren’s words.

“I no longer know whether I was the cause or Licia was, but either way, we were the ones dragged into it. Licia did nothing wrong.”

The power the Black Shrine Maiden had lent Ren in the Baldor Mountains might still have remained within him. Or perhaps the seal had sensed Licia’s power as the White Saint and drawn her inside to help defeat the Sword Demon.

If it was the latter, the influence Ren had received from Licia during the incident involving Viscount Given might also have played a part.

Perhaps both explanations were true.

Ren had been drawn in alongside her, so he could not have been unrelated.

“And as we discussed before, let’s keep our distance from the Elfen Church.”

Had the church intended to target the two of them from the beginning, it should have been capable of doing so far more skillfully.

Even so, after what they had experienced that summer, Ren now felt nothing but aversion toward becoming involved with it.

“There’s no reason to force any contact,” Chronois said. “If the Elfen Church approaches you because Licia is the White Saint, tell me. I’ll find a reason to turn them away.”

“Are you sure, Chronois-sama?”

“Of course. The most important thing is your health, Licia-chan.”

Her lustrous, golden-thread hair swayed as she spoke gently.

Chronois reached out and stroked Licia’s head.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

“All right! Attention, everyone!”

At lunchtime, a lively girl’s voice gathered her friends around her.

It belonged to Nemu Altia, daughter of House Altia, one of the Hero Houses.

Ren and Licia had been eating nearby. Sera and Vayne joined them as the four approached Nemu.

“What is it, Lady Altia?”

“See? You’ve gone back to your old habits again, Ren-kun!”

The petite Nemu grinned and crossed her index fingers into an X.

“We talked about this before, remember? You’re supposed to call Nemu and Sera-chan with ‘-san.'”

Even with classmates his own age, Ren had always been careful about how he addressed nobles.

Since he had begun calling Licia by name, however, his manner with the others had also grown more relaxed than it had been in spring and summer.

“It’s a habit. I’ll be more careful, Altia-san.”

“Mm-hmm. I suppose I’ll forgive you this time!”

“So what did you call us over for, Nemu? And this is my desk, you know.”

Sera addressed her directly.

There was a reason Nemu had gathered everyone around Sera’s seat.

“I wanted you all to see this! It’s something special Nemu got her hands on this morning!”

She planted her hands on her hips and puffed herself up proudly.

Without asking permission from the desk’s owner, Nemu unrolled the large sheet of paper she had tucked under one arm. It appeared to be a poster.

“Well? Isn’t it amazing?”

Vayne looked at it and clapped his hands as though he had just remembered something.

“I’ve heard about this. It’s a new long-distance railway, isn’t it?”

“Exactly! They say it’ll finally open to the public this winter!”

The poster depicted a handsome, state-of-the-art magic train. Its name was the Guardian Knight.

In the old language of Leomel, the name meant “a knight free of impurity.”

“It’s the most talked-about railway in the country! Marquis Ignat led the project and finally brought it to completion!”

Until now, travel through the sky aboard magic ships had been regarded as the finest way to journey.

This time, however, the route would run over land.

Leaving the Imperial Capital, the train would stop at several cities without magic-ship ports before reaching its final destination, Eupheim.

The new line would also serve as a useful transportation network for national defense.

In Legends of the Seven Heroes, Ulysses was destined to die that winter and never completed the project. After losing Fiona, he had likely stopped caring about everything else.

“Wait. The Guardian Knight stops in Elendil too?”

“It does. Ashton-kun, did you really not know?”

“No. This is the first I’ve heard of it.”

Ren had heard that many projects were underway under Ulysses’s direction, but nothing more than that.

He looked at Licia beside him.

“Did you know, Licia?”

“I did.”

Licia lowered her voice so only Ren could hear.

The physical distance between them had shrunk along with the change in how he addressed her.

“Construction started years ago, but apparently the original plan didn’t include a stop in Elendil. Still, we’ve established ties with House Ignat now, haven’t we?”

“Ah. So that was part of it.”

“But knowing Marquis Ignat, I’m sure the decision was made after proper planning.”

“A project this large could hardly be altered for personal reasons alone.”

Ulysses would not change an undertaking of this scale merely out of sentiment.

Ren could easily imagine him weighing every factor and approving the change only after deciding it offered real advantages.

“So, Nemu,” Sera said, tilting her head, “why did you suddenly bring in a Guardian Knight poster?”

Nemu blinked at her for a moment, then answered with complete nonchalance.

“Because it looked fun.”

The bell signaling the end of lunch rang.

The afternoon lessons followed, and before long the school day came to an end.

After class, two people walked together through one of the academy’s corridors.

“The information was released this morning. Since today was the official announcement, Lady Altia may have gotten that poster from someone involved.”

Fiona spoke with a smile, the evening light from the windows illuminating her profile.

A silken sheen fell across her obsidian-black hair. Her beauty, often said to be capable of toppling a nation, existed alongside an open friendliness that made every jewel seem dull by comparison.

Even beneath her jacket, her graceful figure was apparent enough to captivate the opposite sex.

“That’s right! Father will probably visit Elendil soon. He has something to discuss regarding the Guardian Knight!”

“Ulysses-sama will?”

“Yes! Before it opens to the public, everyone who helped with the project will be—”

Fiona nodded, and the crimson light beyond the windows colored her smile.

Her beautiful black hair swayed softly with the motion.

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