Arc 2 - Chapter 10: Wizarding Academy (3/3)

"Give it up, girl. You managed to fuck everything up, well done." He was protesting by applauding Yurine.

The man who entered the headmaster's office and separated them was Maron Martin, the second headmaster. He told them to wait in his office and left Lylphia to keep an eye on Yu and Yurine.

"Shut up, stupid human."

"Shut up? All you had to do was be quiet and let me talk."

"Shut up."

She pulled her legs up to her stomach and rested her cheek on her knee, watching Yurine's face. He couldn't be angry with her because she was sweet. He was trying to empathize with her, trying hard not to blame her.

Yurine was depressed too. He could see it in the way her eyes seemed to pierce the ground. "I'm sorry," he said. He didn't want Yurine to feel bad.

"The academy hasn't had an incident like this since its inception," the girl said.

"Your name is Lylphia, isn't it?"

"Yes, Lil-fi-a," she puffed out her cheeks and spelled her name. "Did you forget it already?"

"No." He remembered her name but couldn't make it out because he hadn't been paying attention to her during the discussion.

"I didn't know Yurine was a powerful mage, so she's what they call Neko at the academy."

"If things had gone the way I planned, you wouldn't have needed to know."

"One of them cursed my mother, and the other is my mother's killer. What did you expect me to do?"

She was right. When Yu put himself in her situation, he felt he couldn't keep his cool either.

"Are you going to explain to me what's going on?" After five minutes of waiting, Maron Martin opened the door sharply and joined them. He was the one who stopped the fight.

"I'll tell you," Yurine and Lylphia said. When their voices overlapped, they both fell silent and Yu began to tell the story as Maron took his seat.

"I was walking on the road at night..."

---

"I gave her a new name, Yurine, and adopted her so she wouldn't go to an orphanage. And then we came here to question Salery. Also I won't hide the fact that we were intrigued by the Wizarding Academy library."

He had told him almost everything except about the scams, their aim to turn back time to bring Rie back, and the Blessings. These were the main topics that would take a long time to cover anyway, and once he took them out, there wasn't much left.

"I see," Maron began after listening intently. "And now I understand why Yurine was angry with Salery, I'm sorry for your loss."

"Hmph." Yurine ignored it. Maron didn't know it, but Yurine only saw herself as a child separated from her mother for a short time.

"But you were too hard on Stella, you should apologize to her. After all, she is a woman who has lost a son, and she is also in pain."

"Talking about Stella and forcing Yurine to apologize can only make things worse. We'd better just deal with our own business and leave Rolderhelm."

Maron was younger than Salery, but at least ten years older than Yu. He clasped his hands on the table.

"You want to interrogate Salery, I get that. What made you want to enter the library?"

"We want to find out if there's a way to bring Rie back from the dead."

His conscience was clear because he wasn't technically lying. Their goal was to keep Rie alive. At least that was Yurine's goal for the moment.

"The idea of bringing loved ones back from the dead is a common motivation, but I have yet to meet anyone who has succeeded. For centuries people have toiled their elbows in this library, dreaming of being reunited with their loved ones, but every single one of them eventually gave up and went back to their own lives."

Maron's words gave Yu, whose faith was already weak, another reason not to believe, but he couldn't say he agreed with him in front of Yurine.

"That's the deal between Yurine and me, I'll find a way to bring her back."

"If that's the deal between a human and a fairy, it's not for me to pry, but I assume the library you want to investigate is not the big one, but the small one. That's where the knowledge hidden from humanity is kept, and even I'm not allowed to go in there."

"How do we get permission to go in there?"

"That's a bit difficult now," Maron said. He opened the desk drawer and took out an organizer. On the last page was a folded map. "But I can help you if you help me."

He handed the map to Yu. It was a map of the Principality of Rolderhelm.

"Why do you want to help us?" asked Yurine.

"It's better if we talk about this alone with Mr. Valarfin."

"This guy will tell me everything he learns anyway. The stupid girl who's been hanging around with us will just have to leave."

"That's a little rude." Lylphia folded her arms under her large breasts. She had no qualms about exposing them to the public eye.

"I'm sorry, Yurine, it's a grown-up thing."

"Let's get out of here then," Lylphia said, trying to grab Yurine and drag her away. Yurine refused to let her drag her, pushed her away and went out on her own. Lylphia followed close behind.

"What do you want to talk about?" Yu asked.

"I feel really sorry for Stella," Maron began. "From what you said, her son's death was really caused by her own brother. And I feel sorry for Yurine too, and it's not an easy situation for her to get through. It's understandable that she would use you to bring her mother back."

Maron brushed back a few strands of hair that had fallen in front of his green eyes and stood up and went to the window. He ran his fingers through his blond hair, looking at his faint reflection.

"The truth is, being a witch is not a crime, but some people still don't like them. And since you are easily blamed, you will not find justice in the hands of the local forces of justice."

If Yu was blamed for the fire in the tower, he had no evidence to clear the charges against him. There wasn't much evidence to blame Yu, of course, but Yu was someone with no influence, someone no one really knew. Someone who had to blame someone for the fire and say, "He was in the tower, he must have done it," if he had some influence, he could have had Yu executed.

Where was Maron going with this? Was he threatening to put the blame on Yu?

"But it is also difficult to find justice on your own. You cannot question Salery, you cannot punish him. You have no authority. That's where my proposal comes in."

He turned around and pointed with his finger at the map on the table.

"Redchapel. The last place where Salery's son Sony was seen. Before he went there, a very important item went missing from the Wizarding Academy, a Blessing."

"A Blessing..."

He felt a heaviness in his chest as he repeated the word. He hadn't told Maron that Rie's Blessing had passed to him, because if the former owner had to die to get the Blessing, someone who wanted the Blessing and knew Yu had it might kill him.

"The Blessing that was lost, or rather stolen, was an artificial Blessing. One of a kind, the result of decades of work. You know something, Mr. Valarfin? By creating the Neko, Rie had achieved one of the most important events in human history, bringing humanity one step closer to the gods. The creation of this artificial Blessing would bring humanity a few steps closer to the gods..." Maron sighed deeply. "But unfortunately, the day Sony disappeared, so did the Blessing. The thing is, Salery was the only one allowed to freely enter the place where the Blessing was kept. Sony couldn't have gotten that permission despite his father."

"So you're basically saying that Sony stole the Blessing with the help of his father."

"Maybe he stole it with his father's help, maybe he stole the key secretly from his father and then stole the Blessing. Either way, Salery can be blamed. Anyway, this happened five months ago and for five months Salery has been looking for his son."

"Why are you telling me all this?"

"Because I want to be first headmaster, and I can tell you why I want to be headmaster, because the only place in this school where there is any chance of finding useful information is the little library, and I need to be headmaster to get in there. I've asked Salery for permission many times, but he won't give it to me. Because he is truly an envy asshole like all other House of Bishory."

"And if I help you and find Sony, you will help us question Salery and get access to both libraries."

"Yes," Maron said, nodding. "If you capture Sony and bring him here alive, I will allow you to stay at the academy as long as you like and use all the facilities of the academy to the fullest. If possible, I would also appreciate it if you could bring back the lost Blessing. Then I will get Sony to confess that he got into that room because of his father, and I will use that to get Salery removed as headmaster, and I will be headmaster for three years until the next headmaster is chosen, and that gives me enough time to do what I want."

"How do we know he's still in Redchapel or not killed by the Redchapel Killer?"

"The furthest he could have gone with the Blessing is Redchapel, and it would be terrible if he was killed by the Redchapel Killer. So it's best to hope that he wasn't killed, and anyway I don't think Sony is weak enough to be killed by him."

"What is this Blessing? Why that it can only go little far?"

"It's complicated, I'm afraid I can't tell you right now."

"Not telling me would make things difficult."

"I'm sorry."

Maron sat back in his chair. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking how can I be sure you'll keep your word?"

Maron Martin was not someone he could fool with the magic deal game.

"I swear on everything I love, I will do my part when you do yours." Maron held out his hand to Yu. "I wish you success, Mr. Valarfin."

Yu took Maron's hand in the air and shook it. "I hope you keep your promise."