Chapter 55

***

“What’s the matter?”

Ian tilted his head and looked at Filina. However, Filina’s gaze did not fall from the handkerchief he was holding.

“The embroidery… .”

She reached out and touched Ian’s white handkerchief.

The luxurious fabric felt soft to the touch.

“The embroidery?”

Ian frowned and looked at the handkerchief in his hand.

The two cranes sitting on a branch were embroidered near the edge of the white fabric.

Ian looked at it and said with a friendly smile on his lips.

“This is a painting that my mother embroidered.”

“… The Empress?”

“Yes. My mother likes crane drawings very much.”

At his words, Filina stared at her handkerchief, which Ian was holding, with a firm expression on her face.

Two cranes sitting on a branch.

It was familiar. She felt like she had seen it somewhere and it wasn’t just a coincidence.

There were no coincidences in this story.  Everything was just a script crafted by the author’s hands.

The sound of the sharp blade that stabbed her in her third life echoed through her like a hallucination.

The dark night sky pouring through the window and the bloody smell.

Filina, unknowingly, grabbed her chest. The hard side of her well-dressed uniform could be felt through her skin.

She had no pain.

It was a natural fact.

Because she’s not dead now.

Her third life was nothing more than a past that had already passed.  It was a life that only existed in Filina’s memory. No one could understand her…… It was a life that had disappeared.

Her chest was tight. She felt suffocated.

No matter how past life became something that no one else had, her body remembered everything.

“Filina, are you alright?”

Ian reached out towards her. But Filina threw it at once.

slap-

The sound of sharp hitting echoed through the quiet room.

It was the sound she heard as she slapped Ian’s hand roughly.

She dared to shun the Crown Prince… 

It was impossible in this world where the status system was strict.  Even if he yelled at her, she had nothing to say.

“Why are you sweating so much…?”

But Ian seemed more concerned about the sweat on Filina’s face than the fact that she had pushed him away.

He looked at her anxiously and tried to call someone. But Filina grabbed Ian’s hem with unsteady breaths.

Ian, whose upper body had been dragged helplessly as she pulled it, looked at Filina with a perplexed look on his face.

Ian looked at her with a bewildered face, as her upper body was dragged helplessly as she pulled.

“… was it Your Highness?”

“What?”

“I asked if the person who killed me was you.”

She asked sharply as if she had lost her reason. Tears welled up in her red eyes.

Ian couldn’t say anything, and just stared blankly at Filina.

“…  Let me see your sword.”

“….”

At the words she spat out, Ian narrowed his eyes. He had no idea what the hell Filina was talking about.

Ian opened his mouth with a calm voice, as if he was trying to appease her.

“You have to go to the clinic first. You might faint like this, Filina.”

Filina’s fingertips were trembling as she grabbed his collar. Ian looked down at her with an anxious face.

He didn’t know what to do with the look that he had never seen of her before.

No one had ever made himself so confused in the first place. So he didn’t even know what to do first in this situation.

“My body will get better as time goes by. Before that, please show me your sword. I beg you.”

“Why do you want to look at my sword?  I have no idea what you’re talking about right now.”

“I need to confirm something. I must see with my own eyes…… I have to check.”

Ian asked, grabbing her, as she repeated the most incomprehensible words.

“Then tell me straight. What are you trying to check?”

At his words, Filina’s eyes, which had been staring at the sword on Ian’s waist, rose sharply upward.

She said as she looked at him with her cold face.

“I want to see if there is a picture of a crane on the blade of your sword.”

She had to know if it was Ian who killed her in her third life.  Anyway, she still had the potion. She drew a picture of revenge on him in her mind.

Her heart was beating like crazy.

Then Ian let out a low sigh and opened his mouth.

“There is no crane on my sword, Filina.”

“… No?”

He muttered one more time to Filina, who said with a dismayed face.

“Yes, there’s no crane.”

Then, Filina’s hand that had been holding the hem of Ian’s robe fell helplessly.

As he gave Filina a direct confirmation, he stepped back and pulled his blade out of his scabbard.

Clank.

With the clear sound of iron, the brilliant blade was beautifully swung over the air. The sleekly stretched sword boasted a majestic appearance.

A deep sigh passed between Filina’s lips as she looked at it in vain.

…there was nothing.

There was only empty air at the tip of his blade.

Filina lowered her gaze and looked at the handkerchief that had fallen to the floor.

Ian seemed to have lost his handkerchief when he calmed her down.

However, the shape that had fallen to the ground was a position where two cranes standing on a branch could be seen in front of her.

The crane she saw in her third life was a pattern that took flight with its beautiful wings wide open. There was only one bird.

Filina faltered as if her legs had lost strength.

“…  I don’t know why you’re doing this.”

Ian, who caught her carefully and held her in his arms, whispered in a low voice.

“You better take care of your body from now on, Filina.”

A tingling feeling came rushing in. Her heart was stuffy, and like a fool, she grabbed the hem of his robe. She bit her lip hard and the smell of fishy blood spread in her mouth.

***

“Filina Debussy is a cadet who killed a superior demon in the Wind Forest?”

Weaver, who was stamping the papers on his desk in the office, looked at Lawrence with a frown.

“Yes, according to Carmen’s report, Sir Argeny broke the wing of the demon, and Sir Debussy finished it.”

“Did they use a sword?”

“Sir Debussy had taken out her sword, but he did not hold her responsible.”

Asked Weaver, frowning slightly.

“Did Carmen suggest it first?”

“Yes. He suggested that we handle the simple accident and not mention it separately to the cadets to avoid confusion.”

Weaver snorted, raising his lips.

“It’s not even funny.”

Lawrence went on cautiously.

“Although Carmen did not mention it, I suspect that Sir Argeny might have taken out his sword first. If it was a high-level demon, it couldn’t be defeated by a wooden sword or a bow.”

Replied Weaver, grinning.

“He can’t decrease the score of the first Order anymore, so he must have hidden the fact that his student was the one who drew the sword first. If it is known that one of the two has drawn a sword, the other will naturally be mentioned.”

Weaver covered the papers that had been spread out on the desk and pulled out another report. There was a picture on the white paper.

It was Hugh Fieldman with a mischievous smile on his lips.

Lawrence, glancing down at Weaver’s papers, spoke again.

“Sir Fieldman has a very low attendance rate. Lately he has been walking around the Swordsmanship Academy and acting strangely, as if he was looking for something.”

Weaver, who was quietly listening to him, was reading the text in the report.

On top of the white paper, there were dozens of tables with separate places for each time zone. Weaver, who was watching it carefully, opened the desk drawer and took out another paper.

It was a report in the same format as Fieldman’s, and the top name was none other than Carmen Gellers.

“Sir Fieldman must have met with Deputy General Carmen before entering the academy.”

As Weaver murmured in a dry voice, Lawrence nodded quietly, perhaps he also suspected it.

They were not surprised, because it was Carmen who had initially started tracking Hugh’s location. It turned out that he had visited the magic tower without anyone’s knowledge.

However, Carmen had not moved since his first visit, except once in a while going down town to see the arms dealer.

However, the reason why they didn’t have much doubt about this was that Carmen often met arms dealers to purchase necessary items for the school.

The problem, however, was that the time overlapped with the time Hugh Fieldman visited the arms dealer.

Of course, Hugh was also a businessman, so he went around various stores to sell his own magic goods.

So no one would have doubted it. The fact that the two had secretly met.

It was very clever.

What reason could there be for them to meet in secret?

“Maybe Fieldman entered the Academy of Swordsmanship because of Carmen.”

Asked Lawrence, opening his eyes wide at Weaver’s words.

“If that’s the case, isn’t it a little dangerous?”

“…I’m sure it’s a headache.”

“How on earth did Carmen entice Sir Fieldman?”

Weaver said with a stiff face.

“There must have been something going on between the two.”

He covered the papers that had been scattered on the desk, and covered his eyes with his hands, and said,

“First of all, let’s see if they are secretly meeting even in the school.”

Weaver looked up, lowering his hand that had covered his face.

“Is the Crown Prince still in Sir Debussy’s room?”

This was why Weaver looked particularly tired today.

Even just to keep an eye on Carmen was a headache, but to have to add Hugh Fieldman and the Crown Prince to the mix….

.

The throbbing head was causing a sharp pain.

Lawrence, who was looking at him, sighed low and said,

“No, His Highness is pushing and shoving to get Sir Debussy to go to the hospital outside.”

“The instructor is fearless. How dare he argue with the Crown Prince?”

Weaver grinned and murmured, and Lawrence rolled his eyes with a puzzled look.

“…no, I think it’s Sir Debussy, not the instructor.”

At his words, Weaver wriggled his eyebrows as if wondering what he was talking about. Lawrence smiled awkwardly and went on.

“Sir Debussy insisted on not going to the hospital, so they had no choice but to let her take medicine and rest in the infirmary.”

An absurd smile leaked through Weaver’s lips. Filina was the only one who had reached an agreement with the Crown Prince.