The break was a bit rough, so I'm doing daily updates!
It was a holiday when Clyde suddenly appeared at the Hartman household.
Illumina hurriedly showed her willingness to welcome him, issuing high-handed orders to the servants to prepare tea at once.
Thus, Illumina laid on a full barrage of flattery, and while Clyde accepted it all, he caught his breath with the tea that had been brought over and finally got down to the real matter.
His business was — roughly as Sarah had predicted.
"So that's what it is. This Lady Sarah's remarkable performance contributed greatly to the B-Class victory, even if foul play was involved. In other words, that is none other than proof that Lady Sarah possesses magical talent far too great for a B-Class placement!"
"That's exactly right, Lord Clyde!"
...What was unexpected was that he happened to arrive at what could only be described as the worst possible timing — right in the middle of her mother discussing that very topic.
As a result, her mother was so elated that she had completely hit it off with Clyde.
"That's why I've come to make a proposal. — Lady Sarah, how about transferring to A-Class?"
And with that, he announced one of his main proposals.
"Don't worry, I'll convince the faculty. Those incompetents are probably at their wits' end because they couldn't expose the B-Class's wrongdoing, so if I include that as leverage in the negotiation, they'll fold easily. Besides, I've always thought it was absurd that someone of your caliber was in B-Class."
"As expected of Lord Clyde! Sarah will of course accept, won't she!"
Clyde, fully convinced of his own correctness, wore an elegant expression. And Illumina, her cheeks flushing at his refined composure, affirmed everything.
"A man of Lord Clyde's stature has gone so far as to say this! Yes, of course we'll move forward with it positively. So, Lord Clyde, well... Sarah has been receiving proposals from many noble sons, and..."
"Ah, that is a serious matter. From my position as well, it is best to settle on a life partner sooner rather than later. Lady Sarah would be more than suitable — I shall give this serious thought on my end as well."
"Oh my!"
Having fully grasped the roundabout way Illumina had phrased things, Clyde gave the perfect answer from her perspective. She blushed even further, her joy spilling onto her face, and declared triumphantly.
"Ah, what a wonderful day this is! My Sarah is finally being properly recognized! Come, Sarah, rejoice — your happiness, your glory, it's all right here, just ahead!"
Illumina, gazing at Sarah with such heartfelt joy.
—No. For the longest time, what must have been reflected in her eyes was never her.
...That was painful.
Surely there had been no proper memories, and all she had ever seen was a mother who sternly, without question, remolded her into shape — yet still.
They were family, after all.
Which was precisely why, now was the time.
To speak of "her own feelings," she drew in a breath.
"You have surely been dismissing your own heart."
That day — the boy she happened to meet in a back alley of the lower town: Ermes.
Katia's childhood friend, a boy who wore about him an air unlike anyone else. The single words he spoke were enough to thoroughly shake Sarah.
" —
I am not
my own —
,
someone like me
can end up
however —
" — so he said.
How could he...
...so perfectly read the contents of her heart? That was what she had thought.
That was how her interest began. She grew curious about what kind of heart someone who spoke like that must hold. She wanted to see it for herself.
—And then, she came to admire him.
Calmly, yet fiercely. He wavered, he agonized, but the core of him never once faltered.
Watching him press steadily toward his goal, changing those around him not through words but through his very way of being, she was filled with an intense longing.
That didn't change even after she entered the academy. Hoping it might, she even resorted to a terribly overbearing attempt to hold him back.
...I want to be like that, she thought.
Even the her that could do nothing, the her that had simply been swept along by the current.
If only she could possess something solid enough to define herself by and move forward — how wonderful that would be.
I want to become...
...someone like him.
Someone who carries something so certain within them that it changes everyone around them.
—
Someone
I could change —
that is
,
who I want
to become.
With those feelings swelling inside her, she opened her mouth.
"...Clyde. Let's stop this now."
First, Sara addressed Clyde.
Without averting her gaze, without wavering in the slightest, she spoke head-on.
"Even if you were to recruit me into Class A, it wouldn't guarantee you a victory."
"!? W-Why would that—"
"You can figure that out for yourself. ...If anything, it would backfire. In that scenario, Ermes would almost certainly come at you with everything she has, holding nothing back. Everyone in Class B would only grow stronger than they were before. It would end up proving the opposite—that Class B is strong even without me."
She began by using her natural insight to see straight through the reason Clyde had come here.
And then, with perfect composure, she told him exactly why his plan wouldn't work.
"Most of all—Class B has done nothing wrong. They earned that power through honest, straightforward effort. ...I watched it happen with my own eyes. There's no lie in that."
On top of that, she laid bare the part of herself that would not bend.
"I understand how you feel... but I believe this is something you need to accept. The Academy is changing, and Ermes is at the center of that change. It's something that simply cannot be stopped anymore. If you accept that reality and act accordingly, there's still time to make things work."
"..."
"But if you don't, then surely—you could end up losing even the position you hold now."
And for her final words, she was stern yet sincere, offering reasoning that could not be dismissed. Having understood what he truly wanted, she chose precisely the right words to convey her point.
"...And the same goes for my mother. As I've just described, the Academy is in the midst of a period of tremendous upheaval."
She then turned the same steady gaze toward her mother.
"Born as a noble lady and possessing magic of this caliber, the kind of problems you're describing will follow you no matter what. I appreciate that you've been giving this serious thought, Mother. ...That is precisely why—right now, I would ask you to set aside discussions like this."
"..."
"I believe that once the changes here at the Academy—and in this country—have settled down, you'll be able to make a choice you won't regret. And it would be better for me to decide after thinking it through properly myself. ...More than anything, that's what I want right now. So please—"
Having said all of this in a single breath, she bowed her head, her will unwavering.
In terms of pure persuasion, Sara's words could hardly have been more masterful.
She had shown her own will, and she had respected the other party's will too. She had presented her reasoning—clearly, methodically—and she had done so while giving the other person their due, never resorting to words that would provoke them more than necessary. It was, without question, a thoroughly persuasive performance.
……And yet, she didn't know. She simply hadn't had enough experience asserting her own will to truly grasp what she'd accomplished.
In a certain sense, her misfortune was that the very first person she had ever tried to persuade of her own volition had been——Ermes.
And that persuasion had succeeded in the most perfect way imaginable.
……Yes. When it came to expressing your own opinion and trying to convince someone—
—the other person wasn't always going to be an ideal figure like Ermes, someone who would listen to you head-on, take your words in, and carefully consider them. If anything, that kind of person was the minority.
Most people were not like that. Far from it——
——
In fact,
right from the start,
there were people who had
absolutely no intention
whatsoever
of listening
to what you had to say.
She had never truly grasped that a certain number of such people simply existed in the world.
"——How could anyone say something so horrible?!!"
And the two people standing before her now were the very worst of the lot.
The mask she had maintained so carefully in front of Clyde was nowhere to be found— Illumina screamed, her face contorted with rage and loathing.
"After everything I went through on your behalf, even going so far as to bring Lord Clyde here! How could you possibly say something that tramples all over that!? What kind of ungrateful, shameless daughter did I raise!? Where did I go so wrong?!!"
"It's just as your mother says, Lady Sarah!!"
A single line that made it perfectly clear he had disregarded every word of the careful, patient explanation she had just given for her actions.
On top of that, Clyde joined in with his own anguished voice, backing Illumina's hysterical screaming.
"How lamentable! Where has the refined, wonderful you from your time with Lord Aster gone?! Twisting incomprehensible words to try and tear others down — that is the furthest thing from the real you! What on earth happened?!!"
"Exactly! Ah, where did I go wrong, to end up with a daughter who can't understand a mother's love?!!"
They were terrifyingly in sync.
They fed off each other's sympathy, drunk on the tragedy they had constructed themselves, and the vast, amplified hostility was hurled at Sarah.
She flinched, but she refused to look away or cower — she glared right back at them.
But there was no way these two would stop at something like that.
"—I see."
On the contrary, the moment Clyde abruptly stopped shouting, he murmured as though something had occurred to him.
"Poor thing — you've been that thoroughly poisoned by Class B. You have a tendency to empathize too much with others; it must have worked against you in the worst way. Otherwise, there's no way you'd end up like this!"
"Oh, so that's it! But then it makes sense — she's just too kind. If that's the case, then there's only one thing to do!"
"!"
What came next, anyone could have predicted.
"Yes.
Right now,
we send her —
to A
Class."
Transfer
her over."
"I can no longer stand watching a gem buried in the mud!"
"Thank you so much! Yes, doing so would be what's best for this child."
"That's right — if we take our time teaching her what it means to be a noble in Class A, she'll surely return to how she used to be!"
It was abundantly clear that they had no intention of letting her will have any say in the matter.
They would forcefully frame it as her judgment being "dulled by the poison of Class B," and wouldn't give her the slightest opening to voice an opinion.
They were plotting to forcibly recreate the Sara of old — the one who had been obedient to her parents and her elders.
—Naturally, he could not permit that.
"Um! If I wasn't clear, I'll explain it as many times as it takes, so please, just listen—"
"Tch! At this point, and this child still—!"
Sara raised her voice, but that only stoked Illumina's fury even more.
"How much more unfilial behavior will you pile up before you're satisfied?! Even a rebellious phase has its limits! What makes you think you can act up when you can't do anything without me around?! How far will you keep losing your senses, standing in my way—!!"
And then, at last.
Perhaps the last thread of her patience — never particularly long to begin with — had finally snapped. Illumina, her features overtaken by loathing, raised her hand and brought it down without hesitation.
Faced with the danger bearing down on her, yet clinging to the iron resolve that she absolutely would not run, Sara stayed rooted in place and squeezed her eyes shut—
—Snap.
A light sound, as though a palm had been caught, rang out nearby.
"...Huh?"
The impact she had been bracing for never came. When Sara timidly opened her eyes, what stood before her was—
"—Pardon."
There stood the familiar figure of a silver-haired boy.
"I'm well aware of how rude this must seem, but I simply couldn't stand by and watch."
"Wh—who are you?!"
A mixture of shock and revulsion flooding her voice, Illumina forcibly shook off Ermes's hand.
"...Ermes...san."
"Ermes...!"
Sara murmured in a daze, while Clyde called out his name in fury.
Seemingly grasping the broad picture from that exchange, Illumina composed herself and launched into a tirade.
"What, an acquaintance of Sara's? Even so, this is absolutely outrageous—showing up at a noble's home without so much as an appointment! And for starters, look at you—clearly some kind of servant! For a mere servant to barge into a meeting between young nobles, know your place—"
"—Then,"
"if the Boss"
"showed up, would that satisfy you?"
This time it was Illumina's voice that was cut short, as a clear, dignified voice rang out from the entrance to the sitting room.
The sheer beauty of that voice forced everyone present to turn their gaze.
And there, at the center of their stares, stood a single girl so lovely she could be mistaken for a fairy.
Her features, her purple hair, her every movement—all achingly beautiful. Her attire was comparatively simple, yet it did nothing to diminish her charm in the slightest.
As if to form a perfect contrast with Illumina, who draped herself in excessive finery in a vain attempt to pass for noble.
As though proving with her very presence: *this* is what true elegance looks like.
"Lady Katia."
"...Yes. My apologies — I didn't expect you to act this quickly. ...But I suppose it's a blessing in disguise that I made it before things turned fatal."
When Sara called out to the young girl, she returned a reassuring smile.
"
As promised,
I've come to visit. ...How peculiar."
She then turned her gaze toward Clyde and Illumina.
"Sara told me that we were the only visitors expected today. So tell me — why are you here, you thoroughly unreasonable marquis's son who showed up at a noble's house without so much as a reservation?"
"You...!"
With a cutting smile that stood in stark contrast to Illumina's earlier words, she first made it plain that the real intruder here was him,
then casually brushed off Clyde's resentful glare before continuing in an entirely different, composed tone.
"...Or so I'd say. No — I expected this. I knew you, obsessed as you are with Sara, would resort to something like this. That's precisely why I came."
And then, as if to signal that was all the preamble she had to offer, she let out a soft breath.
"...So."
In that instant, the air shifted.
Something so terrifying emanated from Katia that it almost felt like a hallucination.
"When I actually got here, I walked into quite the scene. To make matters worse, I could hear your entire argument clear as day from the moment I reached the entrance — so I already have a fairly good picture of what's going on."
With a declaration that preemptively sealed off even the possibility of denial, she seized control of the room.
"Of course, I heard Sara's words as well. ...They were beautiful, Sara. And I'm grateful — watching him pay absolutely no heed to your sincere words... it finally let me see things clearly."
The sensation threatened to swallow everyone whole. Only Ermes and Sara recognized what it was.
It was strikingly similar to how Katia had been during the final stretch of the rivalry — standing as the absolute, insurmountable last gate.
The only difference was her expression. Unlike back then, she had firmly retained her composure, yet the intensity of the emotions she harbored was every bit as formidable.
"Clyde von Helmut. Illumina von Hartmann. Let me put this in simple, easy-to-understand terms that even you two can follow, alright?"
To put it bluntly, right now she was —
Extremely
calmly
furious
.
And at last, Katia declared in a voice of absolute zero.
"— What did you do to my precious friend?"
She would never forgive them.
With a pressure so immense it seemed to carry even those words as subtext, she fixed her gaze upon the two of them as cold sweat beaded across their brows.
Next time: The Duke's daughter means business. Look forward to it!