Night passed, and day two of Makia opened.
Since each class’s representative selection had finished on the first day, from today you could say the event truly began in earnest. Simply put, this was now the main tournament.
Students gathered to cheer for the representatives elected from °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° their own class. Yesterday only nobles and parents were in the stands, but this time most of Atlas’s students had joined the cheering as well.
Naturally, the cheers inside the gymnasium boiled several times louder than yesterday, and with all the students who’d been on the arena floor moving up into the stands, the place bustled riotously.
“Over here, over here!”
“Ah, this is Class 3’s side, you idiot! The other side!”
“Coming through! Just a sec!”
“Students, after the nobles and parents finish moving to their seats—”
At this level, you had to raise your voice to talk to a person right in front of you.
“Teacher. After this match, please keep your promise. Today’s Makia will be the place where I prove my achievement. If I win, please teach me the spell you showed me.”
One of the class reps, Vasileo, spoke to Frondier with a serious face.
Frondier, who had come as homeroom teacher to watch his performance, looked at him for a moment.
“Vasileo.”
“Yes!”
“It’s too noisy around us. I can’t hear you well.”
“Teach—! This match! After it’s over!!”
Fweeeet!
Just then, the whistle signaling the start of the bout.
Unfortunately, Vasileo was first.
Frondier turned Vasileo’s body and gave his back a light push.
“Go on, good luck. Vasileo.”
“Ah! Wait! Teacher! The promise, the promise!”
Tweet!
The teacher acting as referee in the center of the arena waved an arm at Vasileo.
“Student Vasileo! To your spot!”
“D—damn it...”
Vasileo gave up at last and trudged to the center of the arena.
Seeing that, Frondier checked today’s bout chart once more.
“The semifinals start tomorrow. Public interest will flock to tomorrow, but today’s fights will probably be the fiercest.”
In fact, the greatest number of duels would be fought today.
Which meant that even students who fell short of the semifinals were still worth observing.
Whether they knew it or not, not only students but far more nobles than yesterday were visible.
“...I knew it would end up like this.”
Too many—far too many.
Frondier hadn’t imagined this spacious gymnasium would be filled. It was a massive building that could contain the light output of his Wisps, even if a bit lacking. Apparently they’d hosted similar events often—there were plenty of seats, and care had been put into the traffic flow of people.
‘If Lady Achaia had moved today, it might have been harder to find her than I thought.’
The main reason she hadn’t worked to expose Carla’s identity today was because she didn’t know Frondier was here.
With this many people, it was good for hiding oneself, but just as much, it made exchanging with allies harder.
Just then, a voice crawled in from somewhere.
“E—excuse me, coming through...”
A woman muttering so quietly it seemed no one else would hear forced her way through the crowd and barely managed to reach Frondier.
“Phew, just made it.”
“...Principal?”
“Shh, don’t call me that. I’ll get caught.”
Carla brought a finger to her lips.
Yesterday she’d worn only sunglasses; now a wide-brimmed hat covered everything above her face.
Frondier asked quietly,
“Wasn’t the curse gone?”
“I’m not doing this because of the curse. I’m trying to hide my face. I don’t want to be the principal today.”
True, Carla’s looks were far too conspicuous to simply melt into a crowd.
On top of that, as principal, people’s attention would naturally turn to her.
“I want to watch in peace too. It’s fine, right—just for a day.”
“...Well, you’re the principal, so do as you please.”
“Right. I’m going to do as I please.”
Saying so, Carla chuckled. Frondier didn’t know why she was laughing, but he turned his gaze back to the arena and spoke again.
“So today’s a skip day.”
“Right. I was looking for someone to go on a date with.”
Carla smiled playfully.
Since the curse had lifted, much of the excessive shrinking Frondier had seen in her had faded. She could even make jokes like this.
Frondier nodded.
“In that case, seeking me out was a good choice.”
“...Huh?”
Carla, flustered, asked back. It had been only a joke—could Frondier have taken it seriously?
Frondier said,
“Even if the curse has been resolved, there are still nobles who suspect you. The lifting of your curse won’t persuade them at all. From the start, they suspect you not of being a monster, but a demon. In this situation, it’s safest to stay with me as much as possible.”
“...Ah. Ah, right.”
Only then did Carla understand and nod at Frondier’s words.
What—of course you knew it was a joke. Frondier was already thinking past the joke.
...So why do I feel a bit disappointed.
“So the nobles have started to move, as expected.”
“Yes. I put out the immediate fire, but the embers remain.”
At that, Carla looked at Frondier in surprise.
Not only had he freed her from the curse and defeated Antero—he’d also, before that, calmed the nobles’ suspicions?
“...Impressive, Frondier. As if you knew everything.”
At those words, Frondier’s smile took on a hint of self-mockery.
“There was a time when that was true.”
“What’s that supposed to mean. Swagger doesn’t suit you.”
Carla chided with a laugh—but it wasn’t swagger.
Until the war with Manggot ended, Frondier had been someone who knew something close to “everything.”
He had tried everything to cross the sharpest crisis of this game, and all of those experiences and that knowledge still lived in his head.
But now it was different.
The game continued even after crossing the crisis. With the clear conditions and endpoint of the game no longer knowable, Frondier now lived like everyone else—without knowing what lay ahead.
'The game’s habits still linger.'
So Frondier was starved for information. With his advantage gone, he still clung to the past where he had pushed through on what he already knew.
“This is perfect timing. There’s a lot we need to discuss going forward. Shall we talk while we watch Makia?”
“Before that, stop calling me Principal. Someone will hear.”
Carla glanced around as she spoke.
But in Frondier’s personal opinion,
'Even if we got exposed now, it probably wouldn’t be much of a problem.'
Still, he followed Carla’s wishes for the moment.
“Then how should I address you?”
“Just use my name. Carla isn’t that uncommon.”
Even if it wasn’t rare, there couldn’t be anyone at Atlas who didn’t know the principal’s name was Carla.
But if Carla wanted it that way, so be it.
“Very well, Ms. Carla.”
“...That sounds familiar somehow. Being addressed like that.”
Familiar indeed.
Frondier had addressed the Empress the same way.
“Then I’ll start by explaining the situation.”
When Frondier said that, Carla set her face and nodded.
Then, as if remembering something, she said,
“Ah, before that, let me cast ‘Wind Whisper.’ In a crowd this noisy, people can hardly hear our conversation anyway, but just in case.”
“...”
“Mr. Frondier? Please put up a soundproofing spell.”
“...”
Frondier closed his mouth for a moment and looked at Carla.
Carla tilted her head, having no idea why.
Frondier spoke honestly.
“I don’t know how.”
“...Pardon?”
“Wind Whisper—I don’t know how to do it.”
Carla blinked.
Then a burst of laughter escaped her lips.
“Pfft! Ahahaha! How can you tell a joke so deadpan!”
“...It’s not a jo—”
“A magic teacher at Atlas not knowing Wind Whisper? If that were true, you’d be fired on the spot.”
That would be a problem.
Frondier’s mouth, about to say it wasn’t a joke, froze as it was.
He said something else instead.
“...I’d like to receive my reward for helping you.”
“And that reward is ‘Wind Whisper’? That’s enough for you?”
“Yes.”
Frondier nodded, and Carla, head tilted, quietly watched him. Soon her eyes smiled again.
“Strange man.”
“I’m aware.”
“All right. If the reward is that simple.”
After saying so, Carla murmured a small chant. As expected of someone from the continent of Agoris—even for Wind Whisper, she recited a textbook incantation.
Of course, it was far better than Frondier, who couldn’t use it at all.
“...There.”
Soon a soundproofing spell formed around the two of them.
Feeling it, Frondier nodded.
“Then I’ll start with the most important thing.”
“Okay.”
“First, about the suspicions of demons directed at you, Ms. Carla.”
“You mean the suspicions the nobles have toward me.”
Frondier nodded.
Then he said,
“For the moment, I declared it true that you are a demon.”
“...What?”
Carla froze as she was.
Unperturbed, Frondier continued.
“And the hidden mastermind controlling you. The person closest to that role would normally be Antero, but at the time I didn’t know who the mastermind was.”
“S—so?”
“So for now, I declared that I am the mastermind.”
“What?!”
Carla shouted, beyond incredulous. If not for the soundproofing, her voice would have been heard even in this noisy crowd.
“F—Fr—Frondier. Is this a joke too? That’s too cruel.”
“I’m sorry, but this part is truly not a joke.”
In fact, he hadn’t joked even once.
“So the nobles—especially Lady Achaia—now believe perfectly that you and I are demons. Are you familiar with Lady Achaia?”
“Ah, you mean Ias’s mother, right? Ms. Eriboia. Of course I know her.”
“...”
Again, Frondier closed his mouth. Carla asked,
“Wh—what? Is there another Lady Achaia besides her?”
“...No. Ms. Eriboia. She’s the one.”
Eriboia.
Ias’s mother.
It was the first time Frondier had heard Lady Achaia’s name, but he knew for certain it was the proper one.
Because Eriboia was—
'The real Ias’s real mother’s name.'
Ias, the Greek myth hero Frondier knew from myth. In fact, his mother’s name was Eriboia.
'Not a name borrowed from myth, but a mother–child relationship seemingly lifted straight out of myth itself.'
This was different from Hector, the warrior Frondier had met and fought with on the continent of Falind.
Hector had only inherited that name; the people around him had nothing to do with the mythic Hector.
But Ias had not only the same name, but even his mother’s name matched.
This wasn’t just taking a name.
'...This continent is a bit strange.'
The dissonance he had felt ever since arriving in Agoris.
Each thing, taken alone, felt trivial and odd, but taken together, they formed a massive sense of incongruity.
A peculiar power balance somewhere, humans whose personal growth lagged behind those of Falind, a system where the state controlled all magi-tech weapons and everyone depended on it.
On top of that, the story of Medusa that should have ended as an old myth in the previous world, and Ias and Eriboia, who seemed to be treading the ruts of a living hero’s life.
And the only person who felt this as dissonance was—
'Only me.'
Frondier, who knew the original myths.
Only he realized that this situation was strange.
While Frondier briefly sank into thought, Carla’s uneasy voice reached him.
“Then what do we do, Frondier? Do we keep pretending to be demons like this?”
At those words,
Frondier’s eyes opened a little, and a glint swept across his pupils.
“Demon.”
“F—Frondier?”
“—A demon, is it.”
