In the Names of the Victims

After arranging a practice match with Senior Iris, I repeated the training I had just done one more time.

Looking around, I noticed that about half of the people who had been training had left.

Allen and his entourage were no longer visible, having apparently left as well.

Thinking I should head back too, I left the training ground.

While passing by the front of the academy on my way from the training ground to the dormitory, I spotted a familiar person.

A female student with black hair tied in two low pigtails.

Feris Baltreia.

I’m sure she was at the training ground with Allen earlier, but now she was alone for some reason.

She was looking around with an anxious expression before quickly running toward the academy’s main gate.

What’s going on?

That direction is indeed the right way to get to Koop Hall where she lives, but the anxiety emanating from her was a bit concerning.

But well, if it’s not something that would affect us, it’s probably not my business.

With that thought, I returned to the dormitory.

Koop Hall women’s dormitory.

It’s the dormitory where commoner female students affiliated with the academy stay.

It may not compare to Aurum Hall where upper nobility stay or Argen Hall where lower nobility stay, but it still provided living conditions that could be considered quite luxurious compared to the homes where ordinary commoners reside.

Of course, Feris Baltreia was also residing in this Koop Hall.

“I’m back.”

“Welcome back, Feris.”

The voice that greeted the returning Feris.

It was Aria Owen, her dormitory roommate who was currently suspended.

Due to her cut hair, Aria Owen, who had tidied it up into a short bob, was looking at Feris.

“Aria, how are you feeling?”

“I’m… feeling much better, I think.”

The previous day, Aria had been ill with a headache all day, and Feris had spent the entire day nursing her.

Originally, Feris had planned to go meet Allen again, but she couldn’t leave her sick friend behind.

“By the way, Aria.”

“What’s wrong? You don’t look good.”

Feris swallowed the saliva that had gathered in her mouth and spoke.

“Liliana has quit the academy.”

“…I see.”

Liliana Edwin hadn’t been friends with Aria and Feris for that long.

Although she was a lower-ranking noble, she was undeniably a hereditary noble, which made her feel like someone from a completely different world when they first entered the academy.

But at some point, they started doing many things together.

Somehow they became close, and somehow she began acting together with them, or rather, with Allen…

“Allen thinks she quit because of Kyo Wentos.”

“Well… that’s not entirely wrong.”

It had already been established that Liliana Edwin couldn’t continue attending the academy without receiving Kyo Wentos’s forgiveness.

For her to be absent from the academy for a long time and then suddenly quit?

Many people would probably think that the Wentos family refused to forgive her, forcing her to quit.

However, Aria Owen thought differently.

“…Of course, Liliana probably quit of her own accord.”

“What…?”

Feris, who had been thinking like most people that Liliana had quit the academy because Kyo Wentos’s family wouldn’t forgive her, looked at Aria in surprise.

“I wrote a letter to my father after being suspended.”

“To your father?”

Aria’s father, Albert Owen, was a commoner but a wealthy merchant who ran a large commercial enterprise influential enough to sway a city some distance away.

Naturally, he was quite well-off financially, and unlike his eldest son whom he was grooming as his successor, he had sent his daughter, who had magical talent, to Gransen Academy.

“My father hates inaccuracies… so I just wrote everything honestly. What I did and what punishment I received, all of it.”

“……”

Feris’s face turned pale.

Albert Owen was as resourceful and bold as his success as a merchant would suggest, but when angry, he was like a volcano.

The moment you tell such a person that you attacked a noble from behind… she didn’t even want to imagine what would happen next.

“Father… he just barged in here. Then he even slapped my cheek and was incredibly angry.”

While Feris was at the academy, Albert Owen had indeed barged into the dormitory where his daughter was staying.

Having rushed to the royal capital, the moment he saw his daughter’s face, he exploded in anger and even slapped her hard, something he had never done before.

“What on earth were you thinking when you did such a thing!! And of all people, the Wentos Count family?!”

According to Albert, the Wentos Count family was also a house that distributed various rare minerals from the north and precious magical beast materials that lived in the harsh northern environment.

In other words, they were also irreplaceable clients for merchants.

Albert Owen himself was trading with the Wentos Count family, so he was extremely worried about the terrible consequences his daughter’s actions might bring.

Eventually, after meeting his daughter that day and hearing the detailed story once more, Albert Owen rushed directly to the Wentos county.

Enduring the cold weather of the county and somehow arriving there.

After preparing various items for his apology, he met the Count, who said with a slightly serious expression:

“That boy, he didn’t mention any of this in his letter…”

“My… my daughter committed such a great discourtesy… I don’t know what to say…”

“…So, was he badly injured?”

“N-No! Rather, he blocked the magic and even counterattacked… You truly have an excellent son…”

Albert Owen’s words were drowned out by Count Wentos’s loud laughter.

“Hahahahaha!! That’s my son indeed, all that training paid off!”

“…Pardon?”

“So, your daughter received punishment?”

“Y-Yes! She said she turned herself in and received a one-month suspension…”

“I see.”

Well, if the academy has already handed down a punishment, there’s not much more for me to say.

After muttering that to himself, Count Wentos looked at Albert.

Then he spoke:

“Well, since you, as her father, have come all this way with gifts, it would be ridiculous for me to refuse forgiveness and throw a fit, wouldn’t it?”

“Is… is that so…?”

“The Owen Trading Company is an important business partner for our county, and if my son wasn’t seriously injured, there’s no need for our relationship to sour.”

With those words, Count Wentos readily forgave Aria’s actions.

It was a bit bewildering, but Albert Owen, returning with a much lighter heart, told the entire story to his daughter.

“Even someone like me, who ambushed his son from behind, was generously forgiven by that family.”

“R-Really?”

It was honestly unexpected for Feris.

Feris’s family ran a clothing store that mainly catered to nobility.

As a result, they often faced nobles, and most of the nobles Feris knew tended to throw fits if they suffered even the slightest harm.

“But do you think they wouldn’t forgive Liliana to let her continue attending the academy?”

“That… that’s… right.”

“Probably, whether it was Liliana’s own decision or family circumstances, it’s more accurate to assume she quit on her own, don’t you think?”

After hearing Aria’s story, Feris thought that might indeed be the case.

But even if Aria and Feris thought so, there was someone who wouldn’t.

“But Allen seemed to strongly believe that Kyo Wentos was the cause.”

“…Even if he thinks that, there’s nothing he can do about it. Just leave him be.”

“Yes. That’s why he’s training hard to defeat him in the Mushin Festival.”

“Mushin Festival? Ah… that’s right, next week is the Mushin Festival.”

The Mushin Festival is a grand celebration that takes place over three days centered around the War God’s birthday.

Visitors to the royal capital increase, and for merchants, it’s an opportunity to make significant profits, just like the Kingdom Founding Day or the First Emperor’s Birthday.

Aria, being a merchant’s daughter, had been to the Mushin Festival many times.

“Do you think Aria will be able to participate in the Mushin Festival?”

“Simple sightseeing is fine. The Mushin Festival isn’t an academy event anyway.”

“Then would you like to go around together? We could also meet Allen after a long time…”

“…Ah, I’ll pass on that.”

Aria said with a slightly dark expression.

“…Somehow, I feel like I shouldn’t meet Allen anymore…”

The next day, Phyllis approached me as I was having breakfast.

“Young Master.”

“Phyllis, what is it?”

Phyllis held out an envelope.

“A letter. The sender is Lady Eve.”

“From Eve?”

Come to think of it, she did say she would let me know the progress when we went to Duke Ignis’s territory.

Still, isn’t this a bit too quick…?

I opened the letter and read it.

“……”

As I read the letter, I could feel my face hardening.

That’s because the contents of the letter were more serious than I had expected.

“Young Master?”

“…Huh, this is…”

I handed the letter to Phyllis, and she looked at me.

After I nodded, indicating it was okay to read, Phyllis set her eyes on the letter.

And Phyllis’s expression became serious as well.

“Young Master, what on earth is this…”

“I don’t know either, ah, this is driving me crazy…?”

All servants and soldiers of the Duke’s mansion, except for six, were in a comatose state.

This alone was shocking enough.

Additionally, the names of important figures among those in the comatose state were also written there.

Names I didn’t know, like the head maid and the head butler.

And…

Honestly, I thought that even though Allen was the culprit, he hadn’t done such things of his own will.

He had never shown such behavior, and from what I’d seen of him, I thought he was someone who acted impulsively according to his feelings without thinking.

So after hearing from Riel, Eve, and Phyllis, I had been suspecting one person in particular.

The person who introduced Allen to the Duke’s family members and had been working behind the scenes, such as driving Phyllis away…that’s who I thought it was.

But that name…

‘Albert Ludwig’

That name was among the important figures of the Duke’s mansion who had fallen into a comatose state.