Even a Scoundrel Gets Tired

94 – Reinhardt

“So, what will you do, then?”

“..About what, exactly?”

The Pope’s gleaming teeth

Continue to flash at me.

He makes no attempt, it seems, to conceal his amusement.

“Why, your future actions, of course.”

“…?”

At my bewildered expression,

He lets out a sigh, as if finding me absurd,

Before tapping the wall of the carriage with his finger,

Resting his chin in one hand, he spoke again.

“First off, the most pressing matter, I suppose,

would be meeting the Emperor…”

“…Is it alright to address His Majesty

so casually?”

“Even the king gets cursed in his absence. What does it matter?”

“…”

“In any case, I am curious about where you will go next,

and what you intend to do.”

“Why would you be curious about that…?”

“Well, it wouldn’t hurt to know the movements of someone who has

the Emperor’s attention fixed solely on them, would it?”

“Is that why you pretended to know me from the start?”

It was just a passing remark, but

he seemed to have taken it rather seriously, for

the smile that had blossomed across his face

vanished in an instant, and

the intensity in his gaze

turned toward me.

“Of course, that’s not the only reason.”

“…”

“Come to think of it, the Saintess also expressed her gratitude toward you,

so shouldn’t I do the same?”

“…There’s really no need to go that far─”

“No.”

The Pope cut me off, holding out a hand toward me, palm open.

His eyes, closed and opened in a fleeting moment,

were the most resolute I had seen as of late.

“The truth is, I was practically helpless back then.”

“…”

“I only managed to stall their invasion.

I wasn’t able to stop it completely.”

His open palm, extended toward me,

gradually tightened into a fist upon his knee.

A clenched fist, trembling slightly.

His arm strained, the tendons standing out, so

great was the force he exerted.

As if he never wished to repeat that event,

a stronger wave of divine power surged within his fist.

“You were the one who stopped them.”

“Not I, nor the Holy Woman either, but you.”

“….”

“In that regard, I am truly

grateful to you.”

How often would he lower his head like that?

When attending the funerals of others and offering silent prayers?

Or perhaps when embracing children much smaller than himself?

He, the pontiff of an entire order,

standing at the apex of his flock,

possessing an immense quantity of divine power.

Now, he bowed his head to me.

“..Please, don’t do that. It makes me uncomfortable.”

That was truly what I felt, the reason I blurted those words,

but he raised his bowed head once more,

tilting it slightly as he continued the conversation.

“Do you not know your own worth, or

do you simply not comprehend what I am saying?”

“..Even so, I think you are greatly

overestimating me─”

“How many individuals of your age could have

slain a monster of that caliber?”

“….”

Even if it was in a weakened state,

a monster that had vied with that pontiff himself.

A monster that no mere academy student

could ever hope to face.

And that monster was single-handedly dispatched

by the disgrace of the Duke’s family, the good-for-nothing?

“Do you think that makes sense?”

“….”

“And undeniably, your movements were things

that, according to the rumors circulating, you should never have been capable of.”

“….”

“Well, I have no intention of fueling the rumors,

but do not forget that your future conduct is of vital importance.”

He rises from his seat.

As if his business is concluded, with a sense of relief.

His enormous figure

exits the carriage,

A jarring jolt, a considerable shudder.

Though the carriage wasn’t cramped by any measure,

it seemed to constrict him all the same.

He cracked his back, a sound like splintering wood,

and turned his head as if struck by a sudden thought.

Something left unsaid.

“Ah, and should you find yourself embroiled in some…substantial mishap,

try not to fret too much.”

“…What do you mean?”

“Well, barring some truly cataclysmic event,

I shall volunteer to intercede on your behalf.”

“…Is that even…permitted?

The Pope intervening based on personal sentiment?”

“And why shouldn’t I?

It is for the good of the Order’s very own Saint, is it not?”

With that, he tapped his forehead

repeatedly, gesturing toward himself,

and beyond him, the priests stood aligned,

having completed their ministrations to the wounded.

The sun, unusually brilliant, floods my eyes.

“…Reassuring, indeed.”

“Haha, then I’m glad to hear it!”

A sincere sentiment, not merely a polite platitude.

*

The Academy,

an independent educational institution,

untouched by the Empire’s influence.

Where scions of nobility congregate,

becoming, for the children, a second social sphere.

Within such a place, a rumor takes root

with ease.

“Hey, you know Jennison…”

“…Why bring up that vermin all of a sudden?”

“Hey, clueless much? Why mention him?

She really hates Jennison!”

“Ah…no, but still…”

“…What is it? Spill it.”

Jennison Reinhardt.

Or rather, the whispers concerning the man who *was* Reinhardt.

The genesis of the rumor was a trifling bit of gossip.

“Does he still have some sort of backer?”

“Are you out of your mind?”

“What backer could he possibly have?

He’s a half-wit, a moron, kicked out of the Duke’s household.”

“No, but listen…”

How he even got into Class A was dubious,

and now he’s become strong enough to defeat Leon.

He even succeeded in subjugating a mid-tier monster,

an Elven Princess showed him interest,

and on top of that, she took him to the Great Forest.

For an ordinary student, especially one who is now a commoner,

such things were beyond impossible,

so perhaps such suspicion was only natural.

“Hey, no matter what, he couldn’t have a backer.”

“But if not… it doesn’t make sense, does it…?”

A word without wings travels a thousand *li*.

As time passed, the rumors spread like wildfire,

at a speed that even the original spreader couldn’t have foreseen.

“Jenison has someone backing him?

That incompetent simpleton?”

“No, actually, it’s that he made a pact with a demon…”

“That he raided a noble’s estate, stealing all their relics─”

As rumors are wont to do,

the story was fragmented, inflated, and distorted.

That he made a pact with a demon,

that he raided the relic vaults of the nobles

and stole a pile of artifacts,

all kinds of speculative information ran rampant.

“What? In the end, it’s all just rumors, right?”

“No, maybe it could be true, couldn’t it?”

“…Yeah, no matter what, there’s no way we’re weaker than that moron.”

“…Indeed, unless he’s using some kind of trick,

it’s hard to explain.”

And for rumors that attract this much attention,

there’s always someone who tries to uncover the truth.

For example, people approaching those who seemed to befriend him,

and asking them questions about him.

“Excuse me, while you’re grouped with him…

“Did you notice anything suspicious, maybe─”

“Actually, like he was about to pull some strange stunt─”

“Or even just a feeling, like something… unsettling─”

From Lianna, who was quietly reading,

To Albert, building his strength with exercise,

A storm of questions rained down on everyone

who’d spent time with him during the midterms.

“S-sorry… I really don’t know anything.”

“..Piss off, you’re interrupting my workout.”

“I… I don’t know any…thing… hee hee.”

But for all of them,

the answer was always the same.

A unified front of ignorance.

Their very reactions, though,

only served to further inflame the gossip.

“..How can everyone have the exact same answer?”

“Well, maybe they’re all in on it together…

Or, failing that, it must mean there’s something more.”

They were hiding something.

Regarding Jennison.

The tide of public opinion had turned in that direction,

and as attention focused even more intensely on Jennison, on him,

Someone gathered the people.

Every single student from every class.

“W-we were told to come, but…

Who called this?”

“I don’t know either. Someone just handed me a letter…”

“It was in my bag! It gave me the chills, it really did!”

The students, summoned to the plaza without a clue,

all shared one thing in common.

Each had received a letter

instructing them to come here at a specific time.

“Seriously, who sent these?

Why don’t you just come out already?!”

“..Was this just a waste of time, then?

I had a feeling something interesting was going to happen.”

But no matter how much time passed,

the person who sent the letters

didn’t appear.

So it was, that most students, weary to their very core,

were on the verge of turning their backs,

“…Greetings, students.”

A voice echoed from somewhere.

A beautiful voice, the kind that instantly captivated.

“Hey…stop pushing…huh!”

“…Pardon me, could you please move aside for a moment?”

“Y-yes! Yessir!”

As everyone strained to find the source

of that enchanting voice,

someone began to push through the throng of students,

making their way to the front.

“My name is Aria Reinhardt.”

“A-Aria-sama?”

“The…of the Reinhardt Ducal House…!”

A woman with flowing black hair,

uttering those beautiful words.

The subject of the rumors that had set the Academy ablaze,

Jenison’s younger sister.

It was Aria Reinhardt.

“The rumors currently swirling through the Academy…”

“…Aria-sama, do you perhaps know the truth regarding…!”

“I am the one who ordered those rumors to be spread.”

One student, who had been about to say something,

found himself speechless.

It was an utterly unforeseen statement.

“And I am also the one who gathered you all here…”

“W-why?”

“Why… would Aria-sama call us here…?”

It made no sense.

Not to most of the students, anyway.

Everyone knew well of her reputation.

The daughter of the Reinhardt Ducal House,

a genius proclaimed to possess unparalleled magical talent,

the Academy’s very own flower.

Perhaps that was why no one could fathom it,

why no one had anticipated it.

That she would be the source of the rumors.

Furthermore, why she had spread the rumors,

and why she had gathered so many people.

No one, not a soul, knew.

Not until she began to speak.

“…The reason I have gathered you all here…”

“…”

Silence hangs heavy, everyone holding their breath.

Waiting for the next words to fall from her lips.

“It concerns my brother, Jennison…Reinhardt.

I have something to tell you.”