Chương 63: Chapter 64: “Arthur and I (2)”

The window in the second-floor corridor overlooked the office's garden, and Paimon had been staring at the same rose bush for the better part of ten minutes. Her duster was still in her hand. She was supposed to be working, but her mind kept drifting back to her mistress. Ever since they had returned from the Tower, Lady Celestia had been different; there had been small moments during the past few days.

Lady Celestia had been seated at her desk with a stack of correspondence on one side and a ledger open in front of her, and Paimon had been in the corner dusting the bookshelves, trying to stay out of the way. Her mistress had picked up a letter and broken the seal. Then, without warning, she spoke to herself, "I should at least do something to make sure Arthur—" Paimon had paused her duster mid-stroke. Her mistress's tone was soft, which came as a surprise.

But before Paimon could turn around to see whether she had been addressed, the voice's tone changed.

"Why do you have to care about that commoner?" The words came out sharp, and much louder.

"Is he really worth my time?" Paimon had frozen in place. A long pause followed. Then, in a calmer tone again: "There is responsibility, and there is responsibility. I must adhere to them if I wish to continue living my life."

"…Hmph." Paimon had turned around very slowly. Lady Celestia was writing in the ledger, and her expression was the one she always wore when working.

"M-my lady?" Paimon tried to ask. Her mistress looked up.

"Yes? Is something the matter?"

"Um… N-no, my lady. I was just checking if you needed anything."

"Continue your work." She hissed at Paimon.

"Y-yes, my lady." And that had been that. * Paimon pressed her forehead lightly against the cool glass of the window. She had wanted to ask Martha about it. But what was she supposed to say?

'My lady argues with herself in her office'? That sounded absurd even in her own head. She had also received her counseling after the Tower, the same way Lady Celestia had. Paimon had answered everything honestly and been sent on her way, being given a pass that said that she had no psychological problems. But Lady Celestia… Paimon did not want to think about her mistress getting worse.

The scene in the office kept returning to her at odd hours, while she was folding linens or standing here with a duster forgotten in her hand, and each time it came back, the two voices played out in her head all over again. And then there was the name. Arthur. Paimon had been thinking about the name over and over in her head. She had never heard Lady Celestia mention an Arthur before. No noble family of her mistress's acquaintance had a son by that name either. So who was he? A friend from the academy, perhaps?

But Lady Celestia did not have friends at the academy. There was Anna, but Anna was a girl. A business associate? But the tone had been far too personal for business.

'Why do you have to care about that commoner?' Paimon's eyes widened. A commoner. Her duster slipped from her fingers and thudded softly on the carpet. The soft voice had come before it, the one that had wanted to do something for this Arthur.

'And the soft voice sounded almost fond,' Paimon thought. Paimon's mouth fell open. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. It was just like in the books. The maids had been passing around a particular set of novels for a while now. Paimon had read them, of course; and those books were entirely inappropriate for a young woman of her age.

They were about the forbidden love between nobles and commoners, such as: "A noble girl fell for a commoner boy she should never have met. They kept it a secret from the world. The noble girl bottled up her feelings and eventually the commoner boy would do something brave, and then they would—"Paimon." Paimon jumped. One of the senior maids stood at the end of the corridor, noticing that Paimon was daydreaming.

"What are you looking at, Paimon?"

"O-oh, it's nothing!" Paimon scrambled to retrieve her duster.

"I'll get back to work—""See that you do." The senior maid moved on. Paimon stood still for a moment, duster clutched against her chest, then resumed cleaning the window frame. Her hand moved across the sill and down to the small ledge beneath it. But her mind was not on her cleaning duties. It was somewhere several chapters into an imagined novel, one in which Lady Celestia stood at a rain-soaked dock while a young commoner with honest eyes and rough hands promised to wait for her.

Her face was turning red from the thought as she continued to hasten her dusting.

'S-such depravity!' * The results of the final exam would not be posted for another week. The academy's examiners had collected the necklaces from the non-eliminated students, tallied the remaining competitors, and begun the formal review of footage from the monitoring magic that had tracked the students across the mountain. Which meant that so far, nothing was official yet. But the numbers were basically already public knowledge. Arthur had eliminated more students than anyone else in the exam's history.

Between the pairs he had dispatched during the opening hours and the group that had ambushed him during the final stretch, the next highest total belonged to a third-year heir of a Marquis house. First place was technically already decided if only accounting for the points gathered through eliminating competitors. This did not sit well with the lower nobility. A commoner outperforming every noble in the class was one thing, but a commoner outperforming them by that margin? It was another thing entirely.

This was why they couldn't help but cry "cheat" in their circles, though none of them were willing to openly complain to the instructors. After all, there was no mechanism by which he could have cheated. Everything was basically recorded, and the students who had been eliminated late in Arthur's exam corroborated the footage in their own words. A few of them sounded almost impressed. The outlandish cries settled into a sour muttering, and nobody on the academy's staff paid it any attention.

Students still holding their necklaces descended from the mountain and made their way to the academy grounds, where the examiners were waiting. Celestia had arrived early. She had walked down at an unhurried pace, handed her necklace to the nearest examiner, and then walked away from the gathering crowd. Few of the other students had already gathered into groups, and most were eager to finish reporting to the instructor and end their day. Celestia was in no particular hurry.

She leaned back against a wall and closed her eyes, resting. She had realized the importance of giving time for herself, albeit slightly. The sounds of the academy grounds were muffled at this distance. She could hear the shuffling of students arriving at the examiners' station, the voices of instructors calling out names. Celestia's plan had produced the result she wanted. Arthur had partially levelled up on the mountain, and his growth was back to where it ought to be at this point in the story, somewhat.

Everything had gone roughly to plan. She heard heavy footsteps nearby her, and she knew who it was before she saw him. Celestia opened her eyes, and Arthur stopped a few paces away. This was the third time the two of them had spoken directly. He still had the dirt of the mountain on his armor. A line of dried blood ran along his hairline where a scrape had already healed, and his sword was sheathed at his hip.

"What do you want from me?" he asked. Celestia tilted her head slightly.

"Whatever do you mean?"

"You know what I'm talking about." His voice was quiet.

"You sent all those people to hunt me. For what reason?"

"Do I need a reason?" Celestia said.

"Think of it as me being petty." His hands balled into fists at his sides.

"It would have been fine if it was just me," he said.

"But you dragged Serena into it."

"Oh?" Celestia chuckled. She produced her fan from the folds of her skirt and opened it with a small flick of her wrist.

"Already on a first-name basis with a noble? How scandalous." She watched the tips of his ears turn red.

"T-that's not the point!"

"Is it not?"

"I thought we already settled our differences. After that incident." Celestia lowered the fan a fraction.

"And?"

"W-what do you mean 'and'?" She closed the fan with a snap.

"Know this," Celestia said quietly.

"The line you have drawn for yourself is not the same as the line I have drawn. My debt to you has been paid, but my utter disgust for your existence has not changed." Arthur looked at the ground, contemplating about something. The wind moved the upper branches of the trees above them, and the noise from far away was being carried faintly through the wind.

'Ah. How naive.' Celestia watched him from behind the fan.

'You are about to say something. One that is delivered with the full conviction of a boy whose worldview has never been challenged.'

"Even so…!"

'And I will test it.' Arthur looked up straight at her. His eyes were bright.

'I will test your ideals over and over. I will put you at your lowest, and I will show you that you are no different from me. I will—'"I still think you can change," he said. Celestia looked at him. He was exactly the character the original author had written.

'You would have been much easier to deal with if you were a hypocrite like me.' She almost laughed. Then Celestia smiled at Arthur. It was the first time she had ever smiled at him.

'And I to you, Arthur.' [Arc 2 Completed] [Story Relevance Minimum Requirement: 15 → 25.]