Chương 80: “Wolf's Counsel”

The combat elective on Wednesday proceeded as it always did. Professor Cassia Flamesy ran them through aura application drills for the first hour, then spent the second on combat tactics. She delivered her lessons with a wooden sword in one hand and her voice at full volume, as usual. Celestia took her notes and kept her head down. What she did notice, halfway through the lecture, was an empty seat. It was the spot where Beatrice Hill usually sat, flanked by her two friends.

'Did something happen to her?' Celestia had not spoken to Beatrice since their arrangement. If something had happened, Celestia would not know about it. She had been relying on Martha for information gathering, but Martha had only hired people through the Reingarde connections in the underground world.

'I need my own people who are dedicated to this.' The rest of the week passed without incident. Thursday's lectures covered nothing Celestia didn't already know, and by Friday morning, she was walking toward the building where the mandatory class with Griffin was held. The mandatory class was always crowded at the start of a new semester, and today was no exception. The space was packed, and the energy was different from last semester. The reason was simple: Floor 10. Most of the first-years had not entered it yet.

Floor 10 was a milestone, another threshold the Tower presented, and the general consensus among students was that rushing in without preparation was a waste. The floor offered a week-long trial designed to push climbers to their limits, and failing it meant that they'd have wasted the opportunity. So, they wanted to check what information Professor Griffin had for them before they entered for this upcoming Sunday. In the original story, this entire week-long event passed very quickly.

A brief mention that students entered Floor 10 and came out stronger, a few names dropped for flavor, and then the plot moved on. Since Celestia had already been through Floor 10 herself. Her focus now was elsewhere, the untapped mining veins on Floors 11 through 14, and the operation that would begin once her slaves finished their climb on Monday. Griffin's lecture covered Floor 10 preparation. Celestia listened with half an ear and took notes for appearance's sake. The day ended. Evening came.

Celestia was at her office, reviewing supply contracts at her desk, when a knock came at the door.

"In." Liana stepped inside. She closed the door behind her and stood a distance away from the table, her hands clasped in front of her, her head bowed. Celestia set her pen down.

"I-I'm sorry," Liana said.

"About what happened to Anna. I'm so sorry." Celestia leaned back in her chair.

"What happened was not your fault. Leave it be."

"But I... I bear responsibility." Liana's voice was tight.

"If only I had left him a letter about where I was spending my time, he wouldn't have—""Are you dating him?" Liana's head snapped up. A blush of color flooded her cheeks.

"N-no! I'm not!" Celestia folded her hands on the desk.

"Then why do you feel the need to tell him where you are and what you're doing? You are your own person, are you not?" Liana opened her mouth and nothing came out. Celestia watched her for a moment, then spoke again.

"I assume that you grew up with him. Childhood, teenage years, all of it. When you spend that long at someone's side, you start to take on responsibility for them without realizing it. And when something goes wrong, your first thought is not 'why did he do that,' it's 'what should I have done to stop it.' That is the thought process of a caretaker, Liana, not a friend." Liana's eyes dropped to the floor.

"A friend would see that after Arthur kicked a girl into a wall, they would think, 'that was wrong of him.' And though that was the case at the moment, why are you here now apologizing for his mistake? Do you understand why that distinction matters?" Liana did not answer.

"It matters because you are holding yourself accountable for his judgment. That is a failure of his temperament, not your communication." Celestia paused. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"You have spent years managing him. Always around where he goes, making sure he's fed, making sure he's not upset, smoothing over the things he doesn't notice. And somewhere along the way, you convinced yourself that this is what you are supposed to do. So when he finally does something reckless and someone gets hurt, your instinct is to blame yourself, because if you were doing your job, it wouldn't have happened. Are you his mom?" Liana's hands had tightened around each other. Her knuckles were pale.

"It is not your job," Celestia said.

"He is responsible for his actions. Stop carrying that for him." Neither of them spoke for several seconds. Celestia sighed.

"It may be hard for you to immediately stop this feeling, seeing as it's so deeply ingrained. But I recommend you still stay by his side." Liana's head raised up. Confusion was plain on her face.

'I need the story's narrative to hold together,' Celestia thought. If Liana pulled away from Arthur too quickly, the ripple effects on the plot could be unpredictable. The original story relied on Liana's proximity to Arthur for several upcoming events. Cutting that thread now would be reckless.

"Cutting ties with him all at once would only make you the villain in his mind," Celestia said.

"He would not understand it. He would take it personally, and his reaction would create more trouble for you. The better path is to distance yourself gradually. Let him notice the change over time. Let him arrive at the conclusion on his own, so that when the distance is finally there, he accepts it as something that happened naturally rather than something you did to him." Liana stared at her.

"It's not complicated," Celestia added.

"You simply stop being available for every little thing. You don't stop being his friend. You stop being his caretaker. There is a difference. Do you understand?" Liana nodded, slowly.

"Good." Celestia reached into the desk drawer and pulled out a small parcel. She set it on the edge of the desk.

"And before you leave, here. I planned to give this to you two days ago." Liana looked at the parcel.

"Take it," Celestia said.

"It's a gift, not a test." Liana stepped forward and took it with both hands. She held it close to her chest, bowed her head, and murmured a quiet, "Thank you, Lady Celestia." Then she turned and left. The door clicked shut behind her. Celestia returned to her contracts. At the side of the room, Paimon stood with her back to the wall and her hands clasped behind her. She had not moved during the entire conversation.

'She did it.' Paimon's fingers tightened against each other behind her back.

'Lady Celestia just told that girl to distance herself from the commoner boy. She framed it as advice, but I know better. I've read Volume Four. This is exactly what Lady Ashford did to her rival in the drawing room scene, she told the other woman "find herself," and several chapters later, the man proposed.' Paimon's cheeks were getting warm.

'My lady is clearing the path. She is removing the competition under the guise of good counsel. Brilliant. Magnificent. The grace, the composure, the sheer tactical—' She caught herself and pressed her lips together.

'But there is a problem.' Her brow furrowed.

'The commoner boy. Arthur. He kicked sweet Anna.' This was the part that troubled Paimon the most. In the romance novels she had been reading, the love interest was supposed to be gallant. He was supposed to rescue the damsel. The hero of Volume Four had once carried a wounded woman through a blizzard for three days. Arthur had kicked an unarmed girl because he misread a room.

'That's going to cost him dearly in romance points.' Paimon's mental ledger was already adjusting. Prior to this incident, Arthur had been sitting at a respectable number, somewhere around sixty out of a hundred, based on Paimon's own scoring system. The kidnapping rescue had given him a solid boost. But kicking Anna? That was at least a thirty-point deduction. Maybe forty.

'He's at twenty now. Twenty-five at best.' She shook her head internally.

'My lady deserves better. But the heart wants what it wants.' Paimon resumed her duties and said nothing. The rest of the weekend passed without major incident. Sunday came and went, and with it, the first wave of students entered Floor 10 for their week-long trial. Celestia paid it little attention. On the afternoon, however, she had one meeting that required her full focus. A man named Oswald sat across from her in the Reingarde office.

His guild, the Sky Raiders, had been a growing mid-ranker making solid progress through the floors. They had also very recently been economically strangled from every market in Summit. It had taken them some time to trace the source. But they had finally found it. Oswald sat with his forearms on the table and spoke carefully.

"Lady Reingarde. The healer stationed at our checkpoint that day was assigned there through the Adventurer's Guild rotation. He was not a major member of our guild. He was there by obligation, and the decision to refuse treatment was his alone." Celestia stared at him, saying nothing.

"It is a common occurrence," Oswald continued.

"Slaves are refused healing at checkpoints regularly. Though it is not because of the guilds, it happens. If it had been any other guild's healer, the outcome would have been the same." Celestia looked at him.

"That doesn't sound like my problem." Oswald's face tightened. Celestia continued, "Let me tell you what happened after you and your people spent time scrambling to find out who was choking your supplies; the other guilds quickly noticed. They saw what happened to the Sky Raiders, and they, like you, arrived at the same conclusion as to what had happened. Since then, every healer stationed at a Tower checkpoint has been careful. Slaves who exit the Tower are being healed now."

She tapped her fan against the edge of the desk.

"All that was needed was for someone to be made an example of. You were that example. Now, what do you think happens if I rescind this ban?" Oswald did not answer. He understood the implication well enough: rescinding the ban meant the healers would stop caring again, as an apology would be enough to fix the problem. Oswald stared at the table for a long moment. Then he pushed his chair back and stood. He turned and walked out of the office without a word. Within the day, the Sky Raiders had disbanded.