Chapter 37: The Professors Who Were Supposed to Die

Chapter 37. The Professors Who Were Supposed to Die

"Nia! Liora!" Ariel’s delighted voice broke the silence.

She hurried toward them, still clutching her bouquet, her damp hair spilling over the robe I’d wrapped around her. Lily followed with a cheerful wave, while Seris approached at a considerably more dignified pace.

Nia’s fox ears perked up. "Ariel!"

Her tail swished once before she caught herself and straightened.

Liora, however, barely glanced at the flowers. Her eyes remained fixed on me. "Rey," she said quietly. "Are you all right?"

I looked down.

Bare chest.

Bloodstained trousers.

A few scratches on my skin that weren’t even mine.

Hmm.

Reasonable question.

"You look..." Liora paused, apparently searching for a diplomatic description. "Rather disheveled."

Disheveled.

What an elegant word.

Personally, I would’ve gone with ’recently involved in a massacre’, but that was why Liora handled diplomacy better than I did.

Seris stepped forward. "We went shopping. Something happened along the way, and Rey had to give us his clothes."

A perfectly reasonable explanation.

If one ignored literally everything else.

Nia’s eyes traveled from Seris’s cloak to Lily’s oversized jacket, then to Ariel’s robe.

Finally, they returned to my trousers.

More specifically, the blood.

Her ears slowly flattened.

Liora’s expression didn’t change much, but her gaze sharpened.

The clothes weren’t the problem.

The blood was.

I turned toward the two men standing beside them. "And you brought guests?"

Both academy representatives straightened.

I recognized them immediately. "Long time no see, Professor Cedric. Professor Oren."

Cedric was a broad-shouldered man with graying hair and the permanently exhausted expression of someone who’d spent too many years supervising talented idiots.

Oren was thinner, younger, and carried enough documents beneath one arm to suggest that he considered paperwork a defensive weapon.

Cedric smiled. "Long time no see, Rey."

His gaze moved over me. Then stopped. "The last time we met was at your inauguration as SSS Rank Magus."

Right.

That ceremony.

My memories supplied an image of an enormous hall, hundreds of nobles, and a very uncomfortable ceremonial robe.

Cedric cleared his throat. "You look... different."

I glanced down again. "Sorry about my appearance." I smiled reassuringly. "It’s not my blood. You don’t have to worry."

Silence.

Cedric’s smile froze.

Oren’s grip tightened around his documents.

Nia’s tail stopped moving.

...

Okay.

Wrong words.

Apparently, telling people that the blood covering me belonged to somebody else wasn’t the comforting clarification I’d intended.

Who could’ve predicted that?

I tried again. "We encountered some monsters along the way and decided to clean up a bit."

Technically true.

There had been monsters.

There had been cleaning.

Admittedly, the monster responsible for most of the blood hadn’t existed until I’d created it, but that was an unnecessary detail.

Besides, I hadn’t killed those assassins.

I’d transformed one.

He’d killed the others.

Completely different departments.

If anyone wanted to file a complaint, they could take it up with Project Chimera.

Cedric slowly nodded. "I... see."

No, you don’t.

And believe me, Professor, you’re much happier that way.

I gestured toward the mansion. "Please, have a seat. I’ll clean up, and then we can talk."

Cedric looked relieved.

Oren looked even more relieved.

A pair of servants approached and politely escorted them inside.

The two professors followed, although Oren glanced over his shoulder one last time.

I gave him a friendly wave.

He immediately faced forward again.

Wonderful.

My social skills were improving tremendously.

Nia and Liora were about to follow the professors when I stopped them.

"Wait."

Both turned.

Nia’s ears twitched.

I reached into my dimensional ring.

First came two bouquets.

Then two small jewelry boxes.

Nia blinked.

Liora looked from the flowers to the boxes.

Then to me.

Then, inevitably, to the blood on my trousers.

Yes.

I understood the confusion.

Blood, flowers, and jewelry weren’t exactly a conventional combination.

It looked less like I’d returned from a romantic outing and more like I’d robbed a wedding after murdering the groom.

But here we were.

"I bought these for you."

I handed Nia her bouquet and box.

Then gave Liora hers.

For several seconds, neither moved.

Nia was the first to recover. "For... me?"

"Unless there’s another fox princess living here that nobody told me about."

Her ears perked up.

She opened the box.

Inside rested the Void Gale Feather.

A delicate feather-shaped pendant, its pale silver surface carrying faint currents of wind mana.

Nia’s eyes widened. "Oh!" She lifted it carefully. "It’s a feather!"

Her entire expression brightened.

And there it was.

The fox princess.

A member of a proud royal bloodline. A woman who could probably outrun most cavalry units without breaking a sweat.

And somehow...

Also a house cat.

She liked feathers.

She liked sleeping in warm sunlight.

And once, according to Lily, she’d spent nearly an hour watching a magical light drift across the ceiling.

An hour.

I hadn’t personally witnessed that incident, but I desperately wanted to.

Nia held the pendant up, watching the tiny wind currents dance around it.

Her tail swished.

Then swished again.

She noticed me looking.

The tail stopped.

"What?"

"Nothing." I smiled. "Glad you like it."

She hugged the bouquet against herself. "Hmph."

Very convincing.

Meanwhile, Liora had opened her box.

The Obsidian Crystal Bracelet rested inside.

Its dark crystal facets caught the afternoon light, revealing faint silver veins running beneath the surface.

Liora touched one of the stones.

Her expression changed.

Only slightly.

But I noticed.

"You made this?"

"Modified it."

Her fingers moved over the bracelet. "Earth affinity... crystal resonance..."

She looked up. "Rey, this isn’t ordinary jewelry."

"Nope."

Her eyes widened.

That was satisfying.

Getting an impressed reaction from Liora was considerably harder than getting one from Nia.

Nia could be impressed by a feather.

Liora required evidence.

Preferably documented.

I made a mental note.

’Romantic gifts successful. Potentially repeatable.’

Nia was still admiring her pendant when I stepped back.

"I’ll change and meet everyone inside."

I turned toward my chamber.

"Rey." Liora’s voice stopped me.

I looked back.

She held the bouquet carefully in one arm. "Aren’t you going to ask why we left without telling you?"

Nia’s ears lowered. "Or why we brought those professors here?"

I studied them and smiled. "No."

They blinked.

"I already know."

Liora went still.

"You wanted them to examine my curse," I continued. "And see whether they could find a way to cure it."

Neither answered.

"They’re from my old academy. You figured they might know something the Light Temple doesn’t."

Nia looked down at her flowers.

Liora’s fingers tightened around the bracelet box.

Confirmation enough.

I sighed.

Honestly, these women.

Traveling all the way to Arcane Academy.

Finding two professors willing to help.

Bringing them here without knowing whether Rey would welcome the interference.

All because they wanted to save me.

Nia glanced up. "Are you... mad at us?"

Her ears were still lowered.

That expression was unfair.

Completely unfair.

I stepped closer and gently patted her head.

Her ears twitched beneath my palm.

"No."

She blinked. "Really?"

"Really."

I looked toward Liora. "I’m not angry. I’ll meet them."

Liora searched my face. Probably looking for the familiar signs of Rey’s old instability.

The sudden anger.

The unreasonable suspicion.

The curse turning concern into hostility.

She found none.

I gave Nia’s head one final pat.

"Just give me a few minutes."

Then I left.

My chamber was blessedly quiet.

I shut the door.

Removed my trousers.

And took one look at the bloodstained fabric.

Yeah.

Those were going straight into the laundry.

Possibly the incinerator.

I washed thoroughly, letting warm water carry the remaining blood from my skin.

The water turned pink.

Then clear.

For a moment, I simply stood there.

Thinking.

Two professors.

Arcane Academy.

Nia and Liora.

Something about that combination bothered me.

Not because I suspected them.

Because I remembered something.

History.

I closed my eyes.

There had been two Arcane Academy professors.

Both disappeared on the same day Rey supposedly sacrificed Ariel.

Their bodies were discovered approximately a year later.

Buried far from the estate.

The historical accounts hadn’t connected them to any attempt to examine Rey’s curse.

In fact, they barely mentioned their relationship with him at all.

Just two unfortunate scholars who’d vanished during a period of political instability.

But now... I knew why.

Nia and Liora had brought them.

To help Rey.

And they’d disappeared on the very day Ariel supposedly died.

My jaw tightened.

Had Rey killed them?

Had his curse finally overwhelmed him?

Or had somebody else murdered them and buried their bodies elsewhere to make their disappearance look unrelated?

I didn’t know.

That was the problem.

History told me what people believed had happened.

Not what actually happened.

And every time I uncovered another piece of Rey’s life, the official version became less convincing.

These professors had come despite his reputation, the curse and the political danger of associating with him.

They’d come because two princesses asked for help.

Maybe because they still believed in their former student.

And a year later, they’d been dead.

I turned off the water.

Not this time.

Whatever had happened in the original history, I wasn’t going to blindly repeat it.

I dressed in clean trousers, a dark shirt, and a fresh magus coat.

By the time I entered the sitting room, the servants had already arranged tea and refreshments.

Cedric sat on one sofa.

Oren occupied the other, his documents stacked neatly beside him.

Both held teacups.

Neither looked particularly relaxed.

Ariel, Lily, Seris, Nia, and Liora were gathered nearby.

Five princesses.

Two professors.

One cursed Royal Magus.

What a delightful little gathering.

Cedric looked up first.

I smiled. "Sorry to keep you waiting."

Oren nearly dropped his teacup.

Cedric cleared his throat. "Not at all, Rey."

I took the empty seat opposite them.