by Yuu Miyazaki
“Hah. You talk big,” said Lester. “Why don’t you back up that confidence of yours right now?”
“How many times do I have to say it to get through to that mush you call a brain? I’m not interested in facing you again.”
“Just shut up and fight me!” Lester slammed the table so hard that Ayato thought it might snap in two. The patio shook with the noise of the impact, then went silent as conversations ceased.
“L-Lester! You can’t force someone to duel in a place like this!”
“He’s right, Lester! If you make a scene here, the city guard will be all over us.”
Silas and Randy tried desperately to calm him down. Lester didn’t seem to hear them.
“Maybe you should back off,” said Ayato.
“You keep your mouth shut,” Lester replied without looking at him.
“I can’t do that. Haven’t you heard about how Julis was attacked the other day?”
“So, what’s your point?”
“If you pick a fight with Julis here and now, everyone will think you’re no different from the ones who attacked her.”
That was more than Lester would stand to hear. Now he turned to Ayato to shout at him. “Take that back! You’re telling me that I’m the same as those sneaking cowards!?” He grabbed Ayato by the collar, dragging him to his feet. “Then maybe I should crush you first.”
“Nope. Sorry, but I don’t feel like dueling you, either.”
“What?”
“I have no reason to accept.”
Lester shoved Ayato away, his face full of seething rage, then brought his fist down on the table. This time, the unlucky table did split in two. “You call me a coward and then refuse to fight me? You spineless brat!”
“Call me what you want.” Ayato coolly shrugged it off.
“Why, you…!”
“Lester, c-calm down! Everyone knows how strong you are! You always fight everyone fair and square. He’s so spineless he doesn’t know what he’s talking about!”
As Lester raised his fist, Randy held him back in a panic. “Th-that’s right! You’d never pull a cheap trick like ambushing someone in the middle of a duel—everyone knows that!” Silas anxiously joined in.
Lester growled, glaring at Ayato with barely contained fury. Finally he spun on his heels and wordlessly stalked away.
“Whew…” Ayato brushed at his forehead.
Julis smirked at him. “You really are a tricky one.”
“Whatever do you mean?” said Ayato, all innocence.
“Never mind. More importantly…” Her smirk changed to a faint, strained smile and she wiped his lips with a paper napkin. “You had ketchup on your face. I really don’t know about you.”
The sun was sinking when Julis brought the tour to a close.
“Thank you, Julis. I learned a lot, and it was a lot of fun.”
“Well… I hate to repeat myself, but I’m only repaying my debt. No need to thank me.”
The two walked together through the twilit streets, meandering toward the subway station. Then they noticed some commotion near the entrance.
“Huh? What could that be?”
They approached to find a group of students in a heated argument, about a dozen yelling and jeering at each other. There were curious spectators, too, but most people hurried past, perfectly happy to stay out of it.
“They’re from Le Wolfe,” Julis muttered. “Behaving like fools, as usual.”
The Le Wolfe Black Institute had a reputation for being the most bellicose of the six schools. The culture there valued victory above all else, to the point that school rules and regulations were lax to nonexistent. This resulted in many students who exhibited markedly poor conduct, and the numbers proved it: The majority of dropouts living in the slums were former Le Wolfe students.
“It looks like there are two sides arguing…,” said Ayato. “Ooh, it just got physical.”
A student who looked like the leader of one of the groups shoved another student, prompting both sides to draw their weapons. In the blink of an eye, the altercation had escalated to a brawl.
“This is bad. We’ve been set up.”
“Huh?” Just as Ayato was about to ask Julis what she meant, a student holding a Lux knife lunged at them.
“Whoa!” Ayato managed to evade with a light step—but it had clearly been meant for him. The attacker was already disappearing amid the skirmish.
Meanwhile, Ayato and Julis suddenly found themselves surrounded by fighting Le Wolfe students.
“This is a trick that those idiots at Le Wolfe use to attack someone in the streets. They surround the target during a brawl and rough them up, and then simply pretend that the target got mixed up by chance. I had heard about it, but this is the first time I’ve gotten pulled in,” Julis explained while repelling several attackers.
So that argument they were having was all an act. Ayato looked around and saw that the students clashing swords seemed to be just going through the motions. They intermittently threw sharp glances toward himself and Julis as if looking for a chance to attack. “They sure go through a lot of trouble…”
“Both sides probably went through the procedure for proper duels,” said Julis. “They’ll have a defense even if they get rounded up by the city guard.”
They would still be punished in that case, but apparently, the administration was often forgiving where duels were involved.
“Does this mean that the people after you are from Le Wolfe?” Ayato asked.
“Not necessarily. Goons like these will do almost anything for a little cash. Oop!” As she dodged a Lux arrow, Julis smiled mischievously. “Besides, they’re all weaklings.”
“Uh…so what should we do?” Ayato could guess what she would say but asked anyway.
“Do I need to tell you? This is obviously a self-defense situation. So we’ll crush them and squeeze some answers out of them.”
“I’m not sure that’s the best idea…” The brawl itself was probably a trick to get Julis’s guard down. There could be another sniper aiming as they spoke.
“Don’t worry. I can roast them whole and still look out for an ambush.” Flames rose up around Julis.
“Maybe you could let them off with just medium rare?” Ayato halfheartedly suggested.
The Le Wolfe students turned out to be poor fighters. The vast majority of them lay on the ground, plumes of smoke rising.
A few of them had tried to run, and from their shouts of dismay (“That’s the Glühen Rose!” “This wasn’t part of the deal!”), it was clear that they hadn’t even known who they were attacking.
“Hmph. Hardly even a warm-up.” Julis combed her fingers through her hair and ignored the heaps of bodies to glare viciously at Ayato. “But you—what was that all about?”
“Wh-what was what now?”
“What was that pathetic fight you put up!? That was really all you could do against them!?”
Julis had reason to be angry. She was the one who had defeated most of the goons, while it was all Ayato could do to evade the relentless attacks flying at him from every direction. Even if none of them were particularly skilled, they presented enough problems as a group surrounding him.
“Well, yeah. As I am now, that’s the best I can do.”
Julis stared at him dubiously and finally let out a long sigh. “Apparently, I overestimated you.”
The disappointment in her voice was unmistakable. Ayato could only smile apologetically.
“Forget it. Right now, we need to get some answers out of them.”
Julis examined several of the Le Wolfe students on the ground, then yanked up one with a Mohawk. Ayato remembered that he was the leader of one of the squabbling groups.
“You. How long are you going to pretend to be unconscious? Wake up. Or I’ll torch this freakish haircut of yours right to the scalp.” The threat worked splendidly, as the student with the Mohawk snapped his eyes open with a frightened yelp.
“I want nice, clear a
nswers. Who hired you?”
“I—I don’t know anything! We just got told to rough you guys up a little! He didn’t even say why!”
“What did he look like?”
“A huge, tall dude wearing all black. I didn’t see his face!”
“Did you recognize his voice?”
“His v-voice? No, I dunno.”
“You mean it was a voice you didn’t know?”
“No, the dude didn’t say a word. The job was written out on a piece of paper that was with the cash.”
“A piece of paper…? What else did it say?”
“That this was an advance and they’d pay the rest after they confirmed the job was done.”
“Confirm…” As Julis seemed lost in thought, the student with the Mohawk suddenly opened his eyes wide.
“H-him! It was him! He hired us to do this!”
Just as Ayato and Julis turned to look, the shadow fled into the alleys. They only caught a glimpse, but there was no mistake—it was a large male clad in black.
“Stop!” Julis ran after the shadow.
“Julis, don’t! It might be a trap!” Ayato called.
She turned to glance back at him, but did not give up her pursuit. She must be furious to act so recklessly. Which was precisely the opening her attackers were hoping for.
“What—!?” The large figure had been waiting for Julis in the alley and now swung his enormous battle-ax at her.
Julis leaped aside to dodge the blow, only to be attacked by another man clad in black. This one held a Lux assault rifle. As bullets of light rained down on her, she evaded the barrage by rolling on the ground. Her reflexes were nothing short of astonishing.
I can make it!
Just as Ayato was about to jump in between Julis and the second attacker, a shadow on a rooftop caught the corner of his eye. One more black-clad man stood atop the building, aiming a Lux crossbow.
A third one—!
The target of the next attack was not Julis, but Ayato. The arrow of light sliced through the wind toward Ayato. A perfectly timed sniper shot.
Deciding that he couldn’t dodge it, he made a quicker move and drew his Lux activator to use as a shield. The exterior shattered, fragments piercing his clothes. Luckily for him, the core stopped the arrow, but the activator was probably unusable now.
As he breathed a sigh of relief, Ayato marveled at the attackers’ skill in finding just the right instant to strike. These people must be of stunningly bad character.
“Hey! Are you all right!?” Julis ran to him, looking quite stern.
“Barely. My clothes are ruined, though.” Ayato smiled wryly at her and looked around to find that the attackers were already gone. They were also experts at fleeing the scene of the crime.
The Le Wolfe students who had been sprawled on the ground until moments ago were also scattering in clusters.
“The city guard will be here any second now,” said Julis. We should get out of here, too.”
“Are you sure?”
“We’ve done nothing they could hold us for, but I don’t want to have to explain everything, either. Besides, we finally have a clue. I’m not about to let the cops have all the fun with it.” Her eyes burned with rage as she spoke. “This is too much. I won’t be satisfied unless I settle the score with my own hands.”
“You’re their target. Maybe…you could be a little careful?”
Julis replied with a “hmph,” and Ayato wondered if he should take that for acquiescence.
In any case, he probably had to report this to Claudia…
“By the way, are you free after this?” she said.
“Huh? I guess I don’t have any plans…”
In the settling dusk, Julis stared at Ayato at length as if to inspect him. “Then come to my room.”
“Huh…?”
Still, he couldn’t exactly stride into the girls’ dormitory through the front gate.
“Hi, it’s me… Man, I really hate how I’m getting used to this.” Once again, here he was coming into Julis’s room through the window.
Even if he hadn’t known it the first time, this was Ayato’s third time coming into the dorm this way. It sent a shiver down his spine to think what the dormitory watch might do to him if they found out.
“Oh, you’re here. Sorry, just give me a few more seconds.” Julis, having gone home ahead of him, was rummaging for something in a corner.
Ayato sat down on the windowsill and looked around the room, noting its considerable size. It must have been a perk of being a Page One, like Claudia’s room was.
The atmosphere of Julis’s room, however, was markedly different. What stood out here was the number of plants. With rows of pots and planters, it looked like a small botanical garden, but carefully arranged so that one could still walk around the room unimpeded. Some of the plants were flowering beautifully, and just looking at them was calming.
“The last time I was here, I didn’t really get to take in the surroundings,” Ayato thought aloud. And if he tried to remember, too many of the images that came up were supple and fair… The way she’d looked that morning…
“There, I found it.”
“Augh! S-sorry!”
“Why are you apologizing?” Julis tilted her head at him.
“Oh, uh, nothing… So why did you want me here?” He wasn’t necessarily trying to change the subject—or so he tried to tell himself. It was a legitimate question.
There was still some time until lights-out, but the sun was long gone from the sky. Just like with Claudia the other night, Ayato found that being invited to a girl’s room at this hour was something of a strain on his mental health.
“Right. Let’s get this over with. Take off your clothes.”
“Wha—!?” Ayato flailed backward and almost fell from the window. “Um, uh—J-ju-ju-Julis?”
“Why are you so upset? Just hurry up and—” In the middle of her sentence, Julis realized the reason for his consternation, and her face steadily flushed into bright red. “Y-you idiot! Wh-wh-what did you think I meant? I’m only offering to mend your ripped clothes!”
“Clothes…?” Ayato remembered that his clothes were torn from that attack outside the subway station. “Oh—mend them? You can sew, Julis?”
“I’m not the best there is, but I can manage,” she replied sullenly. “I bear some responsibility for what happened. I don’t want to incur any more debts to you.”
“Well, if you’re offering…okay.” Ayato obediently removed his shirt and handed it to her.
Julis threaded the needle from her sewing set and began to stab it through the fabric with unsteady hands. She did seem a little clumsy, but she wasn’t a complete novice, either.
“Let me guess… Did you learn that from your friends, too?”
“Good guess.” Julis nodded without looking up as she concentrated on the needle.
“I had a feeling.” Ayato watched her sew for a while, then resumed looking around the room anew once he saw that he was worrying too much about her.
Unlike Claudia’s place, Julis’s was a studio, but that single room was larger than either of Claudia’s rooms, tidily kept and neatly organized. Next to the bed was a sturdy desk, with a rose in a small vase on the corner, and beside that a photograph—a rarity these days.
Curious, Ayato went for a closer look. It showed a woman who looked like a nun with children of varying ages. Judging from their appearance, they did not seem very well-off.
There was one child, however, who stood out from the others. She was dressed just as plainly as the rest of the children, but even from a photograph, the difference in upbringing was clear. She looked carefree, smiling just as happily as the other children—with her dazzling rose-colored hair.
“Hey, Julis. Are…these kids your friends?”
“Hmm…? Hey! Did I say you could go through my things!?” Julis rushed toward him, flustered, and snatched the picture from his hand.
“The girl in the middle… That
’s you, right?”
Julis shot him a piercing glare, then let out a sigh and placed the photograph back on the desk.
“Yes. You’re right, this is a picture of my friends,” she said, then returned to her seat to finish sewing. “It might be hard to imagine, but I was a tomboy growing up…”
“Hard to imagine?” Wait, a tomboy growing up? Then, what is she now?
“You have something to say?”
“Not at all. Please continue.”
“Hmph. Anyway, I would often sneak out of the palace as a child. It was too stifling, I guess. My family has royal blood, but not a direct line of descent. When the monarchy was reestablished, there were very few bloodlines left and our family was chosen for the throne.” Her needle never paused as she went on. “But one day, I went farther than usual and I got lost. I wandered for some time and eventually ended up in a bad part of town. Lieseltania is a relatively safe country, but you can imagine what might happen to an affluent-looking child drifting by herself in a place like that.”
“How developed were your powers then?” Ayato asked.
“Enough to make a little flame like a lighter. Not very useful. And even with more of my power, I still would have been helpless, never having been in a fight before. A mean bunch spotted me and herded me into an alley. I couldn’t do anything—I was just crying. Then, just in time, they came and saved me. Can you imagine how I felt? Those girls were heroes to me.” She spoke with a fierce admiration that clearly hadn’t dimmed since that day.
“After I made my way back to the palace, I found out that they lived in an orphanage in the slums. And I would keep sneaking out of the palace to follow them around. They saw me as a nuisance at first, but I was so stubborn that somehow we ended up becoming friends.” Now her voice was shaded with fond reminiscence.
“Did those girls know you were a princess?”
“No, I hid it from them at the time. But the nuns must have known.”
“What about your family?”
“Everyone around me tried like mad to stop me. But by that time, my father and mother were already dead, and I didn’t care what the others said.”
