Chapter 38 - Quite a Pile

Esther had left.

The first heroine. A heroine whose endings were all locked, with no academy events left to trigger.

She had put everything in order and left. An early graduation.

She had looked thoroughly satisfied, though my last memory of her was of her repeatedly avoiding my gaze for some reason.

With Blash's recommendation, she would have the Church's help getting to the sisterhood. Probably some grand establishment at the central administration.

Esther would do just fine. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried, but she'd promised to write from time to time, so I would hear how she was doing.

“Oh.”

Right. Letters.

I finally remembered the letters piling up at my old lodgings.

Even if I wanted to notify people of my new address, I couldn't very well tell them it was Houndry in the Sixth District... so I'd left them sitting there for months.

“... Might as well go check, now that I remember.”

For the first time in a while, I headed to my old lodgings.

“It's been a long time, Lord Daywin. You've received quite a few letters...”

The hotel manager greeted me and brought over an armful of mail. There were even parcels.

Quite a pile.

“I kept them just in case. I thought you might come to collect them.”

“Thanks.”

I took the envelopes and boxes from him.

“Not at all. Please visit us again anytime.”

Perhaps because I'd stayed on the top floor, the manager was scrupulously polite.

I carried the mail outside and settled onto a nearby bench. The stationery was all different. There were various other letters besides the ones from Esther.

First, I gathered hers together and checked them in date order.

Eight in total.

Over the month I'd forgotten about Esther, she'd sent roughly two letters a week. I could trace her increasingly intense emotions as time passed...

Broadly speaking, they fell into early, middle, and late stages. The early ones were mostly pleasantries: talk of the Subjugation Festival, words of thanks, and questions about how I was doing.

In the middle stage, she began mentioning that I hadn't replied.

And finally, the late stage.

-Are you perhaps not replying on purpose...?

-You're not avoiding me, are you...?

I could practically hear her tearful voice through the letters.

-My parents say they sent you a letter too, but haven't received a reply....

-Unless you're deliberately ignoring our entire family... you must be away...?

Her parents?

I swiftly rifled through the pile and found an envelope from the Gray family.

“Here it is.”

There really was one. Not just Esther, but her parents had written to me too.

Naturally, it wasn't a plea to please read their daughter's letters.

As I'd told Esther before, I'd exchanged letters with her parents to ask permission for her to skip coming home over the vacation. That was how they knew my address and had sent another letter.

It was a letter of thanks.

-At first, she wrote to apologize for not being able to come home, but lately her letters have been full of how happy she is.

-The opportunity you've given our daughter seems to have been a tremendous encouragement to her, Lord Daywin.

-Ever since the accident in her childhood, Esther has always put on a brave face, but we know she feels she has wronged us.

-She has been living with self-reproach and guilt.

-My husband is content with life as a fisherman, and I enjoy teaching mathematics to young students, but our daughter apparently doesn't see it that way.

-You have eased our daughter's burden, Lord Daywin. We didn't know how to express our gratitude, so we are sending a small gift.

A gift, huh.

There had been a parcel among the envelopes. That must be it.

I tore off the wrapping to find an assortment of candles inside. Each color had a different scent. A light, soothing fragrance gently wafted out. I had a feeling lighting one before bed would help me sleep comfortably.

The letter went on at length after that, but by then my thoughts had wandered, and I couldn't give it my full attention.

Esther's parents had sent a letter and a gift. If I'd seen them before the term began, I would certainly have told Esther I'd received the gift.

But I hadn't.

Which meant Esther had known from the start that I hadn't read her letters.

Even knowing I was lying, she'd smiled and said:

[“Still... I'm all right. I understand. Is your family doing better now?”]

Was that what she'd done?

Even I couldn't just let this slide.

Self-reproach and guilt, was it?

The next time we met, I'd at least give her a cake like the one she'd enjoyed at the Hasgard mansion. I didn't know when we'd meet again, but I'd wait for that day.

038

“It was impressive.”

Blash spoke after briefly reflecting on the events in the marquisate.

“Yes, it was a valuable experience.”

“A valuable experience... you say.”

Unlike Blash, however, the bishop looked distinctly displeased.

“The commander of a knightly order went all that way in person, only to return empty-handed. Yet you call it a valuable experience...”

“Yes, we certainly failed to achieve our objective. He rejected me outright, after all. Hahaha!”

“Surely that's no laughing matter.”

“It's hardly something to cry over either.”

Blash shrugged and adopted a serious expression.

“We gained a great deal despite failing to achieve our objective. First...”

He turned and jerked his chin at Chris, who stood rigidly at attention.

“This one has learned some discipline.”

“Commander, I wasn't that lax—”

“I retract that. He clearly still has a long way to go. Well, second is Esther. We brought the talented young woman he sponsors into the Church. She will be a tremendous asset.”

“I've heard. Enormous mana reserves, and she's already learned holy magic, I understand.”

“Yes. I witnessed that power with my own eyes.”

Next, Blash held up three fingers.

“Third, of course, we found signs that the Death God's cult is reviving. That was our greatest gain.”

Even the bishop had to take that seriously.

“Of course, I do have some regrets. Esther alone is a satisfactory result, but he was our original target.”

“Hmm. Perhaps he wasn't as capable as we'd hoped in the first place. Something about him doesn't sit right with me. I have a feeling... that if he'd joined the paladin order, I'd have hung him from the ceiling at least once eventually.”

“Is that so? What a remarkably specific premonition.”

“What did you make of him?”

At that, Blash thought of Daywin.

He had a variety of talented people under him, had subdued Chris with ease, and had calmly faced the founder who had risen as an undead.

“Considering that he was tracking the Death God's cult and shared that information with the order, he is certainly someone we ought to work with. But I can't say I understand him very well either. Just when I thought I had him figured out, he would prove me wrong.”

“I see. Best not to dwell on him, then.”

“One thing is certain: we're fortunate he isn't our enemy.”

“... Hmm.”

“Even if he won't join the order, I can't tell you how fortunate that is. Thanks to him, we've been able to confirm that the Death God's cult is active.”

Blash prepared to leave with Chris.

“Now all that remains is for us to act.”

* * *

Wow.

There really was a letter from Commander Blash.

As I sorted through the pile, I found an envelope stamped with the paladin order's crest.

The paladin order is looking for you.

We'll arrive around such-and-such a date.

See you then.

That was more or less what it said. It was curious how his writing captured his way of speaking perfectly.

I went through the other letters next. There were bills, notices, and the like. Letters from the bank confirming that my money had been safely transferred to the academy, for instance.

As I leafed through them, another letter caught my eye.

The royal family.

The letter bore a lion crest.

Was it from Amelia? She was the only person who came to mind when I thought of the royal family.

But wait.

Had I ever given her my address?

Goosebumps rose all over me. The thought of Amelia knowing my address was unsettling, and even if it wasn't her, the royal family knowing it was no better.

I swallowed involuntarily and opened the envelope.

At the very top of the page, I saw the sender's name and swallowed again.

The sender was Chiron. The fourth prince, who was said to dote on Amelia.

His message to me was as follows.

I am looking for you.

I'll arrive around such-and-such a date.

See you then.

“... Why do they all say the same thing?”

Unlike Blash's writing, his didn't seem to echo a boisterous voice. He even had beautiful penmanship, unlike Blash.

Amelia had mentioned in passing that the fourth prince was grateful to me, but I hadn't expected him to send me a letter himself.

I had no idea how he'd found my address, though...

In any case, he was someone I wanted to meet too. Chiron seemed to have been a potential villain, just like me. I needed to get a handle on him.

I wouldn't turn away anyone who came to me.

“Hmm.”

That finished my backlog of mail. I'd only meant to check Esther's letters, but I'd ended up with far more information than expected.

From now on, I'd make sure to read Esther's letters on time.

With Esther out of the academy, I couldn't have felt more at ease.

There had been five people, plus one more, to worry about. Now there were four plus one. It was only one fewer person, but I felt as though I'd finished an overdue assignment.

I should keep sending the heroines out into the world like this. Plant them among influential powers across the country, then reap the harvest around the time Laward graduated.

We'd be facing off against the other side with the world's destruction at stake. I could gather the heroines once they'd matured nicely and unleash them all at once.

Priority for graduation would go to heroines like Esther, whose endings were all locked and who had no academy events left. Heroines who would gain nothing from staying at the academy, only slowing their growth.

“There's exactly one... isn't there.”

The royal family again.

Amelia.

Just as I'd successfully placed Esther within the enormous power that was the Church, if I coaxed Amelia into going home, I could gain the royal family as a dependable backer.

She was currently an academy student and tried to stay true to that role, but blood was blood. And hers was useful as long as I lived in this country.

Most importantly, I'd already finished grinding Amelia's affection. All I had to do was send her off.

The only problem was...

“Hmph. This is absurd.”

Amelia irritably flung her midterm report card aside.

The problem was that her grades were still abysmal.

The report card fluttered away, warnings from her teachers written on it. Both the swordsmanship and magic department teachers had warned that they wouldn't turn a blind eye next time.

Esther had grown splendidly and left, but Amelia still had a long way to go. This was nothing like leaving because there was nothing left to learn.

If she did have something in common with Esther... it was that she wasn't utterly without ability. Whether she showed that ability was her own choice.

“This school simply cannot contain me.”

“How strange. You study harder than anyone, yet your grades still... refuse to improve. Could there be some fundamental problem? Your ‘will,’ for example.”

“... A fundamental problem.”

I decided Amelia would be the second.

Still, this would be a much easier journey than Esther's.

“By the way, Hasgard, you've been coming and going from the academy quite frequently lately. I hear you made a spectacular intervention during the first-years' outing recently, too. Are you this academy's guardian deity rather than its patron?”

“It was a coincidence.”

“Tch. Was it also a coincidence that you never once came to see me while wandering all over the academy? You insolent thing...”

... It would be much easier.

Unlike Esther, whom I'd first had to separate from Laward to manage her affection, Amelia was, as the Scouter showed even now—

“You insist on making me come to you first.”

Affection 99. MAX.

Whatever she might say, I'd already won her over.

... Huh?

While checking her affection, I noticed that the Scouter's display had changed.

The second part of the Stage 2 perk.

Scouter function upgrades unlocked.

[Congratulations!]