Hidden Backers (6)

Most worries are resolved over time.

Most worries aren’t really important for your future life, and even if you completely push them into a corner of your memory, you can still live the rest of your life normally and happily without any issues.

However, excluding those, the remaining few worries are actually ones that you really can’t pass over in life.

And people often try to let those worries, the ones that really require careful consideration, flow away with time.

Meanwhile, they worry and worry about trivial concerns as if the world would end because of them.

I had tried not to do that.

I’m in a position where I carry the lives of countless people on my shoulders. I always had to show the image of a wise person making the best choices.

So I pushed myself to identify the most important concerns at every moment.

But now, look at me.

“…”

I am that pitiful girl, hiding under the blanket with my head wrapped, shutting out the sunlight like a child of darkness by drawing the curtains, forcing myself to sleep when sleep wouldn’t come.

I am that time billionaire, killing time with my fists, unable to distinguish whether what fills my head is a truly important worry or just a trivial thought.

I am that fool firmly convinced, at least at this moment, that I am the most suffering person in the world.

-Growl.

“…I’m hungry.”

Even amidst all this, I am that honest human who honestly responds to physiological phenomena essential for a living being’s survival, not wanting to die.

I am that pathetic human who self-defends by claiming that many people would be sad if I died.

I am that half-naked girl who gets up lifting the blanket, staring blankly at the window where a thin ray of light leaks in with half-open eyes.

Raising my body, heavy as a stone, picking up randomly scattered clothes to wear, Evangeline Failondia slowly walked out the door.

“Princess, you’re awake?”

Delphina, sitting on the sofa trying to dispel sleepiness with a warm cup of tea, turned her head toward me and greeted.

Quite some time had passed since we came to Polaris Academy.

Faced with this now-familiar morning scene, a childish whim suddenly raised its head in my heart.

The desire to confess everything and feel relieved took over my mind and whispered to me.

‘She is a trustworthy friend.’

Perhaps she might find a way out that I couldn’t think of.

Perhaps she might solve this worry in a way I never imagined.

Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.

“…Princess?”

“Huh?”

My mind snapped back to reality.

Delphina was looking at me with a worried expression.

“Are you alright?”

“Ah, y-yeah.”

I deliberately shook my head.

“You don’t look well.”

“I’m probably just not fully awake yet.”

I said, making an excuse, and plopped down diagonally across from where Delphina was sitting.

“There you go again, plopping down. I told you it ruins your clothes.”

“What does it matter, it’s just us.”

Delphina’s light criticism continued.

Only then did I realize what I had been about to do.

Perhaps I might never hear even these little criticisms from Delphina again.

Fear overwhelmed me that the woman before my eyes might follow in her mother’s footsteps.

‘I don’t want that.’

As soon as that thought came to mind, a chain of elaborate self-justifications followed.

The physical evidence isn’t certain yet. Even I am not yet convinced whether the Holy Nation is really behind Cornelio.

Even if the Holy Nation is indeed the backer, without physical evidence, anything I confess would surely be dismissed as nonsense.

This is the best choice. I haven’t made a wrong decision. I…

“Princess.”

Delphina said, putting down her empty teacup.

“How about going to meet some people tonight?”

“…People?”

“It seems there’s a light tea party at a teahouse near the academy.”

There’s no dress code, no need to follow formalities. Social status doesn’t matter.

It’s regularly booked and held so that people not only from the four countries—Failon Kingdom, Valentine Empire, Solaion Holy Nation, Delmaria Republic—but also from numerous small city-states can freely participate.

A regular tea party with only one small rule: each reservation allows a minimum of one companion.

“The training ends in the afternoon anyway, and the shop isn’t far from the academy main building. What do you think?”

“…Would it be okay for me to go to such a place?”

Hearing my words, Delphina smiled broadly.

“Of course!”

“…Mmm.”

“Princess, don’t you want to make friends?”

Delphina asked. I turned my head slightly without being able to answer.

“They say you can’t meet connections unless you go looking for them, right?”

Connections.

Would more connections have any meaning for me now?

Wouldn’t it just be increasing my vulnerabilities?

Perhaps, if it weren’t for my promise to my father, I might have shaken my head at this point.

But I promised. To make friends normally at the academy.

“…I’ll go.”

I nodded heavily.

“…Hmm.”

In the special research wing located in the basement of the academy, where the remains of Cornelio’s corpse were stored after the explosion.

A highly confidential space inaccessible without a Level 1 pass.

There, facing the bright red corpse, Liu Qingying twisted her face and shook her head.

“No matter how many times I see it, I can’t get used to this…”

“Neither can I.”

Eric also nodded.

“Even though I’ve been a formally appointed Holy Knight for over five years, I still can’t adapt to such a horrific corpse.”

“Looking at this, I wonder if we’ll be haunted by ghosts?”

Toward Qingying, who was muttering in an anxious voice, Oscar, who had been busily moving around and continuously rummaging through something, said,

“You don’t get possessed by undead-type monsters just by looking at a corpse. The place where you’re standing is protected by a barrier, so don’t worry.”

“But there’s an old saying that being next to a corpse gets you haunted. In my hometown…”

“That’s all superstition.”

Oscar said without even turning his head, staring at the corpse while frantically rummaging through a pile of paper-like documents.

Ignoring Qingying, whose face was turning bright red, and busily turning his head from side to side, Eric asked him,

“Can you really find clues from this… corpse that’s just remains after being blown up?”

“It’s possible.”

Oscar answered briefly.

After pausing his paper-shuffling hands for a moment, he turned his head toward Eric and said,

“More precisely, if we can succeed in finding what was originally ‘Cornelio’ in here… that is.”

“‘Originally Cornelio’?”

Liu Qingying asked, tilting her head.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Exactly what it sounds like. According to the parties involved in the incident, including my fian… Princess Evangeline, Cornelio’s original form was revealed within the corpse of the giant magical beast.”

“Ah, we know that because we saw it.”

Oscar continued while shuffling papers.

“Then the conversation will be faster. Strictly speaking, Cornelio didn’t ‘transform’ into a Magical Beast, but rather ‘wore’ a Magical Beast ‘shell,’ so to speak.”

“Wore a shell, you say…”

Eric muttered as if interested.

“I don’t know if it was the work of the ‘backer’ that made Cornelio look like that, but since Cornelio ‘exploded,’ it’s uncertain whether we can extract only the remains that were precisely him from that pile of corpse.”

Oscar slightly shook his head and looked at the scattered blood clots.

“If we can extract Cornelio from among those tangled pieces of flesh, muscle fibers, and bone fragments, we can obtain a considerable amount of information just by reverse-engineering the magical formula.”

“Reverse-engineering a magical formula?”

Liu Qingying asked.

“It’s the process of tracing back to determine what magical formula was applied to a specific magically treated subject. To specifically understand what kind of or what method of magical treatment was performed, the process of formula reverse-engineering is essential.”

Oscar said, closing the pile of papers with a thud.

“Probably, judging from the testimonies of those involved, there’s a high possibility that magical treatment was included in Cornelio’s ‘Magical Beast transformation’ process.”

“W-what about the possibility that no magical treatment was performed…”

“Creating ‘alien’ shells like the skeleton, muscle fibers, fur, etc. formed during the Magical Beast transformation process isn’t free. There must have been a trigger that caused the ‘Magical Beast transformation,’ and I believe magic must have been involved in that part.”

Oscar’s gaze turned again to the tangled remains of the corpse.

“However, with the subject in such a tangled state… unable to distinguish what is Cornelio and what are the remains of the Magical Beast transformation, the magical formula reverse-engineering itself becomes impossible.”

“W-why is that?”

“That’s because for magical formula reverse-engineering, impurities other than the subject that has been fully treated with the magical formula must not be mixed into the formula.”

Oscar answered Liu Qingying’s question.

“Only Cornelio’s intact corpse, excluding the ‘shell’ of additional bones, muscle fibers, skin, etc. generated during the Magical Beast transformation process, should be the subject of reverse-engineering. In the current state, formula reverse-engineering is impossible.”

“I see.”

Eric nodded.

“…?”

At that moment, Oscar, who had been looking at the remains of the corpse after taking his eyes off the pile of papers, suddenly raised his head.

Toward him, who was suddenly looking around with an anxious expression, Eric asked,

“What’s wrong?”

“…Nothing.”

Oscar soon shook his head.

“I just suddenly had a strange premonition.”

“Premonition?”

“Intuition, I should say. A premonition that something bad is going to happen…”

“As an honor student from the magic department, should you believe in such superstitious things?”

Liu Qingying asked with a smug expression, grinning.

Oscar, who had been staring at her, smiled slightly and answered,

“It’s fine as long as I don’t blindly believe in it. Like someone here.”

“Eek….”

Qingying, trembling with a reddened face, soon turned her head away abruptly.

Oscar, who had been staring at her, soon hardened his expression and said,

“…I will stay and sleep here tonight.”

“What?!”

At his words, Liu Qingying, who had been pretending to be upset until just now, exclaimed in surprise.

“With this ominous thing beside you?!”

“Are you worried?”

“Of course!”

“That’s touching. But it’s fine. It’s a corpse with life responses completely stopped, and I won’t be harmed.”

Toward Oscar’s rigid response, Liu Qingying trailed off.

“But still….”

“If that’s the Prince’s wish, I’ll stay and sleep here too.”

Eric nodded and said.

“One is better than none, and three is better than two.”

“…Three?”

Liu Qingying, who heard Eric’s words, carefully asked.

“…Does that include me?”

“Miss Qingying, these are all experiences.”

Looking at Eric, who said this with a bright smile, Qingying made a tearful face.

“Nooo…”

The cry of the assistant instructor who couldn’t escape echoed inside the special research wing.