Chapter 41: Kalia: Enemies! We are under attack!

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It was some time before help finally arrived for Roland and Iluvia.

Personnel from the General Inspectorate, the Imperial Guards, and the City Defense Force all came rushing over.

The three organizations responsible for security in the royal capital had each sent people.

An assault on a princess was no trivial matter.

Though, over the past month, such incidents had already occurred several times.

“We apologize, Your Highness. We arrived late!”

Similar words were repeated three times. Iluvia was beginning to grow tired of hearing them, so she merely waved a hand, indicating that they should handle the aftermath, then signaled to Roland that they should leave together.

“I’m sorry. I was supposed to show you around the royal capital.”

“And this is how it turned out.”

Iluvia lowered her head and kicked a pebble off the road.

Roland did not reply. He simply followed her in silence.

Iluvia did not speak again either, and the two of them walked silently toward the academy.

After five minutes of silence, Iluvia finally turned to look at Roland once they had left the cordoned-off area.

“Hey, aren’t you going to say something to comfort me?”

“I think you’d be better off being alone for a while than listening to me try to comfort you. I’m terrible at that sort of thing.”

“You could at least say a few polite words!”

Iluvia shot Roland an unhappy look, then turned her back to him.

“Come on. Since I’ve kept you waiting this long, I’ll make an exception and use a special method to get to the academy.”

“Perfect timing. I still haven’t completed my enrollment either. Let’s go together.”

The moment he finished speaking, Iluvia suddenly turned around and made a face at Roland.

“What are you standing there for? Come on!”

Roland remained where he was and smiled in relief.

All right. He took back his earlier judgment.

This woman was far more difficult to understand than Kalia.

The only thing he could be certain of at present was that Iluvia meant him no harm.

That was all.

Roland soon saw the special method Iluvia had mentioned.

It was a military teleportation array.

A small one, designed to facilitate the deployment of large forces across the vast royal capital.

Normally, military teleportation arrays could not be used to move fewer than a thousand soldiers.

After all, they consumed an enormous amount of energy. Even for nobles wealthy enough to drown in gold, the cost of activating one was enough to make them wince for quite some time.

But clearly, as far as Iluvia was concerned, that rule might as well not exist.

“Are you really going to use it?”

“Don’t worry. It’s only a few mana crystals. I can afford that much.”

Iluvia explained, “As long as I pay for the array myself, no one will say anything.”

“…It must cost quite a lot, though.”

“Oh, you’re so fussy. It isn’t your money, is it?”

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Iluvia urged Roland into the teleportation array, then nodded to the operator beside it to activate the formation.

A flash of light passed over them, and the two of them found themselves in a small plaza beside the road outside the Royal Capital Magic Academy.

Looking toward the end of the road, they saw a bridge stretching toward an island in the middle of the lake.

Once they crossed the bridge, they would reach the Royal Capital Magic Academy, built upon that island.

“As expected of a princess. Your wealth really is extraordinary.”

“The mana crystals consumed just now would have been enough to keep me working on commissions for half a year without eating or sleeping.”

Seeing Roland click his tongue, Iluvia laughed.

“We’re here. Let’s take care of your enrollment first!”

…

In front of the admissions office, Kalia sat dazed on the steps of the building.

With one elbow propped on her knee and her tilted head resting in her hand, Kalia let out a long sigh.

Fram had just left. She had said she needed to visit her own office in the Spell Institute to retrieve something.

Before leaving, Fram had intended to take Kalia to the dormitory, if only to show her the way.

But Kalia seemed to have taken Fram’s earlier words to heart.

She had decided to wait here for Roland.

She waited and waited. The sun was nearly setting, yet Roland still had not arrived.

“What’s taking that idiot so long…?”

Pouting, Kalia took a packet of biscuits from her pocket and began eating. At the same time, she started thinking about what she should say when she saw Roland.

The more she thought about it, the more confused she became.

Her thoughts wandered farther and farther from the point.

Her face had begun to flush, yet Kalia still could not decide what would be appropriate to say.

More precisely, she knew exactly what she ought to say. After all, she had not read all those romance stories since childhood for nothing.

To put it bluntly, she possessed an immense amount of theoretical experience in love, along with a vast store of knowledge consisting of hundreds of classic declarations of affection!

She had never put any of it into practice, but no one could deny that her theoretical knowledge was remarkably extensive.

She was merely afraid of failing.

She simply…did not dare imagine the consequences of failure.

Kalia swallowed the last bite of biscuit and looked toward the distant bridge. Still, no one was coming.

“Whew… It seems there’s still plenty of time.”

Relieved, Kalia opened the suitcase beside her and began rummaging through the snacks she had brought with her.

Before boarding the carriage, she had bought quite a lot at the station in Reskan. Most of it had already been eaten on the journey, since she had not eaten her fill at dinner the previous night.

Fortunately, some remained. Kalia was searching for the packet of dried squid strips she had bought the day before.

But as she searched, she suddenly heard footsteps, along with a familiar magical presence.

She stopped rummaging and abruptly turned to look behind her.

“Roland!”

Kalia spotted Roland at once. She sprang to her feet and waved enthusiastically.

Of course, her delighted excitement did not last even a second before it transformed into a chill wind that pinned her to the spot.

A woman! It was a woman!

Aaaaaah!

How could this be? It had not even been half a day! How had this fellow suddenly acquired a female companion?

Wait!

Kalia suddenly understood why Fram had apologized to her earlier.

If Fram had not taken her away then, would she not have been able to stay by Roland’s side the entire time?!

Once she realized this, Kalia unexpectedly calmed down.

Her entire bearing changed, as though she had returned to the version of herself who had confronted Parker in the alley.

Cold. Severe. Utterly without a smile—and carrying a hint of murderous intent.

She crouched down, snapped her suitcase shut, grabbed the handle, and strode rapidly toward Roland.

Roland, who had been making occasional conversation with Iluvia, also noticed the figure rushing toward him.

“Kalia?”

“Hm?”

Roland and Iluvia both turned their eyes toward the approaching figure.

Before long, Kalia arrived in front of them.

She did not even glance at Iluvia.

Well, she did glance at her briefly—just long enough to confirm whether the two of them were touching.

They were not. Apparently, they were merely ordinary friends.

Yes, definitely ordinary friends!

After her swift, nearly imperceptible inspection, Kalia turned to Roland and began complaining.

“Why are you only getting here now? I’ve been waiting for you forever!”

“I ran into some trouble… Wait, why were you waiting for me?”

“Didn’t you promise to take good care of me at the academy? You haven’t forgotten, have you?”

Looking at Kalia’s half-smiling, half-mocking expression, Roland realized that he had once again underestimated her.

But Iluvia’s actions were even more difficult to decipher.

She studied Kalia, then looked at Roland. Afterward, she covered her mouth and gave two light coughs.

“Looks like you’ve run into an acquaintance.”

“I’ll go take care of my enrollment first. You two take your time.”

“Keep in touch~~~”

Iluvia winked at Roland and waved before heading toward the admissions office on her own.

Though he had no idea what she intended, Roland felt that he had perhaps avoided a troublesome situation when he saw the smug look on Kalia’s face.

Then he thought of the trouble represented by everything behind Iluvia, and his headache only grew worse.

After all, on the faces of the rescue teams that had arrived so late, Roland had seen no sign of panic.

What he had seen was numbness and fear—even disgust.

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