I Start with a Bad Hand!

“At first, they just manipulated contracts, but later they covered up crimes, fabricated events, and even tried to research ways to alter people’s memories,” Irene continued, now tying her hair into a tight bun.

“And that’s not all. Remember I mentioned the group of commoner time mages? They didn’t possess particularly impressive abilities. They could do things like tell if someone had moved a piece on a chessboard when their opponent wasn’t looking. But even that level of power was sometimes necessary for commoners.”

Even for the smallest matters, Irene spoke with a bitter expression. A sense of unease washed over me. Surely not…

“But in the Empire, it was fundamentally prohibited for unauthorized commoner time mages to operate, and overnight, they were all executed.”

“Executed… all of them?”

“But in the end, it led to their downfall and eradication, so perhaps they got what was coming to them.”

Eradication. It was a word I wasn’t familiar with. Suppressing the unfamiliar feeling, I cautiously asked Irene.

“Is there a possibility that someone from the Viscount Lord Ferris’ family survived the process?”

Irene looked at me with an expression that suggested I had asked an obvious question.

“No, there’s no chance. As far as I know, the entire family was burned alive.”

“Burned alive… all of them?”

Irene added in a detached voice, “They disrupted the Empire’s order, so it was natural for them to receive the harshest punishment, ensuring they couldn’t return to the land of the gods even in death.”

That seems more horrific than anything else… Rather than pointing out the different perspectives on cruelty, I swallowed dryly and gestured for Irene to continue.

“The only thing not widely known is that it was the Duchess of Elexion who uncovered the truth. I only found out last year that it was the former Duchess who raised the issue.”

I diligently took notes on Irene’s explanations. As she patiently waited, sipping her tea, the only sound in my room was the scratching of my pen. Then, trying to appear nonchalant, I asked the question that had been on my mind.

“But, senior…”

“Why?”

“I’ve been wanting to ask… about Senior Hayden. It seems like you avoid him a bit.”

Could I ask why? I asked this without making eye contact with Irene, letting the question flow naturally.

“…Hayden Saturn?”

Irene froze, not moving for what felt like a long time.

“I don’t avoid him,” she replied briefly. Her expression remained unchanged, making me feel slightly awkward. Maybe I shouldn’t have asked. It seemed like I was trying to gossip about someone who wasn’t here. Just as I was about to explain myself, Irene spoke again.

“It’s not just avoidance… I despise him.”

Oh… Irene had never expressed her emotions so bluntly before, and I was a bit taken aback. I was just about to ask for the reason when she cut me off.

“But I don’t want to talk about him anymore. Can we stop here for today?”

Irene was usually willing to share at least a hint of even the most confidential matters if I was curious. For her to not want to discuss this topic any further meant I should respect her wishes.

“Of course,” I replied, suppressing my curiosity. Irene never explained the reason, but the intensity in her eyes showed that her hatred was not something trivial.

***

“…How was it?”

“Hmm…”

Having mastered the piece and played it flawlessly, I asked Icarus for his opinion. Beyond the archery range, in the academy’s backwoods where the flowers had yet to bloom, our two spectators enjoyed my performance amidst nature. Though it seemed like Agnes was more interested in basking in the spring sunlight than in my music.

“It sounded like a music box,” Icarus finally replied after a long contemplation. Lying nearby with a bored expression, Agnes lifted her head slightly to look at Icarus at this remark. Feeling her gaze, Icarus shrugged.

“A music box?”

“Hmm. That’s not a bad review.” Considering the mockery and indifference my playing usually received, I thought that was a positive assessment. Trying to suppress the smile forming on my face, I asked, “Does that mean it was pure and beautiful?”

“Hmm…” Icarus pressed his lips with his fingers before answering, “More like, it was faithful to reproducing the notes.”

“Faithful to reproducing the notes ‘only,'” Agnes added, finishing Icarus’s trailing sentence. Without saying anything, I started putting my banjo back into its case. That was the end of my performance for the day.

On the way back after the empty concert that didn’t even garner applause, Agnes muttered, “You really have no sense of artistry.”

“…”

“At first, I thought, ‘Oh, you just can’t write scripts well.’ But now I’m sure after hearing you play. I mean, how can someone play the notes so precisely yet evoke no emotion at all?”

“…”

I couldn’t respond to her factual yet harsh observation and continued walking with a cold, blank expression. Icarus chimed in with a slight comment to Agnes’s critique, “She keeps the tempo right and hits the notes accurately.”

“Exactly. Frank said your posture is perfect. You learn quickly, too. But how can a performance be so lifeless?”

“…Frank?” Icarus looked down at me with a slight frown while Agnes explained, “Oh, he made a bit of a mistake with Dietrich, so he’s been teaching her how to play.”

Pretending to walk nonchalantly, Icarus kept nudging me as if to demand an explanation, but I just quickened my pace. Before long, our leisurely walk had turned into a brisk march. Trying not to show my slight breathlessness, Agnes spoke closely behind me.

“You should have joined the music club. You would have completely destroyed it.”

“Indeed. No one would be able to keep up with Dietrich.”

“Right. As soon as they heard Dietrich play, everyone would probably want to give up their instruments out of sheer despair.”

“No matter how much they tried, they could never play like Dietrich.”

“Exactly. In a way, it’s fortunate for the music club that Dietrich joined the drama club instead.”

“It’s a blessing.”

Can they really say that so openly? Unbelievable… The blatant mockery and insults right in front of me made me glare at the two of them. Their twisted personalities only seemed to find more joy in my reaction, laughing even louder.

“Someone with ‘that kind’ of talent is rare. I think they could change the course of Imperial music.”

“Indeed, it’s something that can’t be explained with existing theories. It’s like a maestro the Empire can’t contain…”

The teasing grew increasingly intolerable, and just as I was about to snap back at them, I noticed something at the end of the hallway.

‘Huh…?’

A familiar figure was standing there. I couldn’t see their expression clearly due to the distance, but the silver hair, standing still and looking this way, could only belong to one person.

“No, we need to sign you up now. The music club.”

“Yeah. Let’s go conquer the Imperial music scene.”

Just then, Agnes pulled me by the arm around the corner of the hallway, and my brief glance towards Roxanne shifted forward again. Trying to ignore the persistent presence of that person, I resigned myself to my fate as the Empire’s musical rookie.

‘…She was probably just standing there. Why am I so conscious of Roxanne?’

Even knowing I was completely out of Roxanne’s sight, I couldn’t shake the awareness of her presence, causing my steps to slow. But… even if she did hear it, it didn’t matter. Anyone could see it was all in jest, and Roxanne hearing it wouldn’t likely cause any trouble.

When I finally returned to my dorm room after being mocked for what felt like an eternity, I found an unexpected letter waiting for me.

“What… a reply already?”

Seeing the Sereti seal on the envelope, I quickly entered my room and opened it with a letter opener. Skimming past the brief pleasantries, my eyes fixed on a particular line.

“What does this… mean?”

The words were entirely unexpected.