[403] The Final Decision (3)
After finishing the Omniscience implementation evaluation, Shirone headed to the dining hall with his friends.
He'd gotten a perfect score, but there had been several unsettling moments that left him uneasy.
His friends seemed to have noticed; the table's mood was heavier than usual.
Shirone didn't have the mental bandwidth to worry about anyone else's feelings.
When on earth would Gaold contact him? And even if Gaold did, what choice could he possibly make then?
Everything felt precarious.
"Shirone, what's been bothering you lately? You look really off. Are you sick or something?"
Amy put down her utensils and asked.
Even aside from Shirone, everyone looked deflated, but his face was paler than anyone's today.
"I'm fine. I just don't feel well."
"Some people have trouble keeping steady before midterms. I had that last year. Just hang on a bit longer—break's almost here."
Shirone forced a smile.
Having already gone through a graduation year, Amy probably worried he was wavering as the fifteenth week approached.
"Here, some water."
Maya poured water herself and handed it to Shirone.
She'd been watching him poke at his food and looked too sympathetic to ignore.
"Thanks."
Shirone accepted Maya's kindness without resistance.
He usually measured social distance before feelings, so his relaxed attitude toward Maya was unusual.
Amy watched Shirone and Maya exchange words, pouting slightly.
Maya was kind and cheerful. It wouldn't be a bad thing for her to get close to Shirone.
Still, an odd unease gnawed at Amy. It felt as if a place she hadn't even noticed was being taken from her.
Shirone checked Maya's tray and asked, "Huh? Maya, why aren't you eating?"
"I already finished. Lately I can't eat as much as before."
Since the High Ground Occupation evaluation, Maya had reduced her portions.
To be exact, she'd returned to the amount her body actually needed.
Having realized she lacked talent for vocal music, Maya planned, following Iruki's advice, to strengthen her sound magic using her natural voice.
Becoming a mage—the first goal—would be necessary for her future.
But more than a career, it was a longing that had grown inside her.
She wanted Shirone's love. She wanted to stand before him even more beautiful.
Even without overeating, Maya's looks had improved noticeably.
Her face slimmed, her eyes grew larger and deeper, and her nose bridge looked fresher.
The plumpness had reduced; her clothes hung looser and the shoulder lines dropped toward her arms.
Even the graduating students could no longer openly snub her like before.
It was bitter in a way, but people's tendency to grant power to beauty seemed inescapable.
Naed and Iruki peeked at Maya's changing face each day in wonder.
"She's really changed a lot. It's like the face from picture books is finally coming out."
That made the tension between them stranger.
Amy was sharp as always, but Maya was poor at hiding emotions; everyone knew she'd fallen for Shirone.
Amy suddenly raised her voice.
"Is any food even going down? Just from today's Omniscience evaluation — if you'd messed up one question, you could have failed. Class Two is at the level of competing with Class One. If you make mistakes in the first half, you'll be in real trouble in the second half when your stamina drops. Get your head together."
Having once failed the graduation exam, Amy knew this was the decisive time.
Even if everyone was dispirited after the Association incident, they needed a resolute sense of purpose.
Missing one meal won't kill you, but if he didn't get focused now, he might lose the single biggest part of his life.
Amy didn't want Shirone to have regrets.
"Try some of this, Shirone."
Maya cut a piece of Shirone's favorite meat into bite-sized portions and offered them.
It was an action that shut down any nagging—simple, earnest—and it even felt a little moving.
Being on a team and getting close raised a question in Amy's mind: did Maya really love Shirone?
Of course Maya also wanted him to become a great mage, but for someone losing sleep to nightmares and stress, what he needed wasn't advice but comfort.
"You're awful, Amy. If I were you I'd be delirious with happiness. If Shirone asked for anything I'd give it—so why do you treat him like this?"
Shirone picked up the meat Maya had given and ate it.
He chose it because it was ready to eat, but in truth he didn't even know who had placed it there.
Thoughts tangled until his head felt ready to burst.
Had Gaold met with Alpheas?
If he were flagged by the national bureau, continuing the evaluations could be risky.
Just as a navigation system doesn't guarantee a student's safety, entrusting one's life to someone else and acting optimistically would be foolish.
Shirone set his tray down with a thud.
Amy and Maya's tug-of-war made Naed and Iruki flinch and look over.
"Sorry. I'll head back to the dorms first. I don't feel well."
Maya rose immediately, but Shirone left the dining hall without meeting anyone's eyes.
Amy felt frustrated.
She knew he had visited the Association; that was why she wanted him to tell her first.
As he had before—when they'd gone to Heaven, when they'd gone to Kazra, when they'd gone to the old fortress—she wanted him to come to her first.
"What's his reason? Why won't he tell us this time?"
Maya watched the door until Shirone left and bit her upper lip, then turned to Amy.
There was no reason to hate Amy. What made her angry was that even her own feelings now seemed to need Amy's permission.
Amy felt Maya's eyes and looked up, then quickly turned away.
When she saw the resolute will in Maya's gaze stronger than ever, she knew the time had come.
"Amy, can you talk with me for a moment?"
Amy's heart dropped.
She'd hoped it wouldn't come, though some corner of her mind had expected this. When it finally did, she thought, "Just a little later—"
"Can't it be tomorrow? I'm a bit busy today…"
"It'll take a minute. I'll wait outside."
Maya picked up her tray and walked away; Amy's face drained. Yet, with a thread of reason, she rose from her seat.
Naed and Iruki shrugged as they watched Amy follow Maya as if in a trance.
* * *
In the headmaster's study, the book titled Seeing the Darkness slid into the bookshelf on its own, tilting forty-five degrees as it disappeared.
Within the closed study, gears turned and a lock clicked shut.
It was a secret place Alpheas had designed long ago to store Erina's memories.
But now her effects had all been moved to the annex, and the room on the 3.5th floor stood empty.
Alpheas and Olivia descended the stairs side by side.
Alpheas wore a bittersweet smile; Olivia's face was cold and sharp—perhaps even tense.
"Heh heh, long time no see, old man."
Gaold, sitting cross-legged on the bare floor, raised the hand that had been supporting his chin and greeted them. Flu stood guard nearby.
"Greetings. I am Flu, a certified Grade-8 mage."
"Long time, Flu."
At Olivia's greeting, Flu lowered his gaze.
He was blameless before the heavens, but socially he was a traitor now and felt no right to face his master.
'He was a brilliant child… so why did he end up with someone like Gaold…'
Flu had been someone Alpheas had watched since his time as headmaster of the Royal School of Magic.
But the bright path ahead had closed, and now he was a fugitive without even tomorrow guaranteed.
It was all Gaold's doing.
How many people could one madman tire out, how much chaos could he cause society?
Gaold looked around with an intrigued expression.
"So this is the much-rumored panic room. I didn't expect it to actually exist. You're cunning, old man."
Alpheas cut him off. "Why have you come to me?"
"Ah… my pupil went back to visit his old school and they put up a quarantine order? Isn't that a bit harsh?"
"You turned the whole school upside-down. Agents came daily and ransacked it. If you'd come a few days earlier everyone would have been put at risk."
"Heh heh, Alpheas, you're finished. The brats here probably didn't even notice the agents came, and if there were agents now they wouldn't have let me in."
"You know well enough. So I'll ask again: why have you come?"
Gaold exhaled.
If he were asking a difficult favor he should humble himself, but he couldn't bring that side to this school.
"I intend to enter Istas."
"You mean… you'll go see Miro?"
"Heh heh. Do you think I came to retrieve something I left behind?"
"Gaold, your selfishness has upset the world. Miro no longer wishes to see you. She accepted everything and went in of her own accord."
"How would you know that, old man?"
Gaold's eyes widened.
Flu, sensing the danger in the moment, squinted one eye, but Gaold only let his face turn fierce—no killing intent spilled out.
"Do you know how many people I've sent to their deaths trying to approach Istas? Including me, in twenty years not one person has been allowed in. How could you possibly know Miro's thoughts?"
"Gaold, Miro—"
"Enough. I'll go into Istas myself. It was made by us anyway. Actually, besides that, there's one more favor I need. I need you to do me a service."
Alpheas's voice sounded resigned.
"All right. What kind of service?"
"As you know, my hands were cut off. The Association captured my people. Of course the key figures remain, but a head alone can't do anything. Lend me some people—someone capable."
No matter how excellent Gaold was, no one could carry out operations alone.
They needed more than a person with a powerful strike: tacticians, executors, supporters—a minimum party.
"You're asking for students from this school—are you trying to send them to their deaths?"
Olivia sprang forward. "And what you're planning will oppose humanity's survival. If your rebellion wasn't enough, now you intend to throw the world into chaos?"
"Shut up."
Gaold faced Olivia for the first time since entering the room.
Though the extreme heat hadn't erupted, his gaze radiated a pressure that seemed to bore holes in the air.
"Do you know why I've kept you alive until now? Huh? Answer me."
Olivia shut her mouth tight and glared.
"You're not even worth killing."
A grinding sound came from Gaold's teeth.
"Abstention? The auditor of the teachers' council abstained—when a student of the kingdom was about to be dragged into the Dimension of the Void, you abstained? Do you know what to call someone like you? A hypocrite. You dislike this and dislike that, you hold one of the twenty cards that can sway humanity's survival, and your choice was to abstain?"
Olivia's lips trembled. The stare that had been fixed on Gaold slid slowly downward.
"I—it was unavoidable."
Whatever she'd chosen, it wasn't the outcome Olivia wanted. In truth it was an excuse.
She had been terrified—too frightened to choose at all.
Tears welled transparently in Olivia's eyes, the helplessness of that time still vivid.
Gaold looked away with a disgusted expression.
She was recognized as a Second-Rank archmage by the world, but she couldn't cast off the weaknesses of a woman. That was why she was only a Second-Rank archmage.
'I didn't want to come to this place for that reason.'
This place was full of the past.
A past that couldn't be erased no matter how hard he tried.
Gaold might not remember what happened an hour ago, but he could recall the scene on the day of the Twenty's Judgment with the clarity of an insect's antenna on a leaf.
"Sigh."
He turned back to Alpheas.
It was perhaps the most human expression those who knew him had ever seen.
"Please… help me, Master."
"...."
There had been a day called the Twenty's Judgment.
Twenty people representing the world and entrusted to stand for Miro's position gathered to decide humanity's future that day.
The result: sixteen in favor, one against, three abstentions.
Only one person valued one life more than the lives of all humanity—Alpheas.
The only one who sided with Gaold had willingly cast his card as a dissent.
"You know I trust no one but you, Master. Help me. We have to find Miro. She's not dead. She's alive and well over there—so why won't you look for her?"
Alpheas sank into thought.
Perhaps Olivia's choice at the Twenty's Judgment had been the most reasonable decision virtue could yield.
But he also knew the feeling when someone precious vanished before your eyes—something no one could trade for anything else.
It wasn't a choice made for the world. Alpheas, too, was an unavoidable madman.
"I'll ask Etella."
Etella would likely grant permission.
A bishop of the Carcys Order and the immediate successor to the Yin–Yang Oscillation Fist.
If she had not humbled body and mind with single-minded conviction, she wouldn't be in her current position.
She would be a fitting recruit for Gaold's purposes.
"Stay here for now. Olivia and I will handle the agents. Prepare to open Istas."
Alpheas turned away, exhausted, and Gaold finally regained his smile.
Then, as if remembering something, he raised his hand.
"Ah, wait a moment."
Alpheas stopped at the stairs and turned.
"While you're at it, recruit one more person for me."