Episode 85
A flash of light blinded Elonia.
When the dust settled, she saw Lucius lying on the ground, unconscious.
Both Elonia and Simon gasped.
“L-Lucius!”
“Young Master Allen…!”
They rushed to his side.
Elonia checked his pulse.
He was alive and didn’t seem to be injured.
‘But how? Someone definitely took the hit.’
Had someone taken the blow for him?
But why had Lucius fainted then?
And who had taken the hit?
Elonia frantically looked around, but there was nothing there.
‘…Was it my imagination?’
But she couldn’t dismiss it so easily. There was a Heilan spy at the academy.
She had to find out who had intercepted her attack.
Elonia’s eyes turned cold, and Simon, misinterpreting her expression, asked in a trembling voice,
“D-did you try to kill him, Your Highness…?”
“Ah.”
Elonia turned to Simon.
His face was pale with fear.
Well, it did look like she had tried to kill Lucius.
Elonia quickly explained,
“It’s a misunderstanding. I just wanted to knock him unconscious.”
“…Unconscious?”
“…Yes, unconscious.”
“…”
He didn’t believe her.
Simon’s trembling intensified as she tried to explain.
Just then, something caught her eye.
A pure white feather was drifting down from the sky.
“…?”
Elonia reached out and caught it.
It was a pigeon feather, judging by its size.
‘Did a pigeon take the hit?’
But there should be a dead bird somewhere if that was the case.
Elonia couldn’t ponder the mystery any longer.
Voices were approaching.
“El!”
“El, where are you?!”
“Elonia! A body…!”
Llewellyn and Olivia came running, their voices filled with panic. Garnethia had also been with them, but she had fainted at the sight of Lucius, mistaking him for a corpse.
The other two also gasped when they saw Lucius.
Llewellyn, horrified that his beloved sister might have killed someone, asked,
“El, did you kill him?! Are you hurt?!”
He couldn’t be happy about this, even though he disliked Lucius.
Violence wasn’t tolerated at the academy, regardless of the reason.
That was why Alberich had been suspended. Even the princess would be expelled if she committed murder.
But if Lucius had attacked her first, with the intention to kill, then it might be considered self-defense.
Elonia, seeing Llewellyn’s panicked expression, quickly shook her head.
“No, he just fainted. I’m not hurt either.”
“Then what was that explosion?!”
“I… failed a spell.”
It was humiliating.
The former genius Sword Mage, Elonia, mumbled an excuse.
Llewellyn, who had witnessed her terrible acting skills countless times, remained suspicious.
Elonia glanced at Olivia, who was checking Lucius for injuries.
After confirming that he was unharmed, Olivia pushed Llewellyn aside.
“Move.”
“…!”
Llewellyn, who would normally retort with a snarky remark about hostages, was silenced by Olivia’s menacing glare.
Olivia, her voice cold and her eyes filled with fear, asked,
“Elonia, what happened?”
Elonia hesitated.
Could she tell Olivia the truth?
This wasn’t the right place or time to reveal what she had seen and heard.
And Olivia, despite her feelings for Elonia, was still a member of the Heilan royal family.
Olivia and Simon must know about Dianne’s true identity, just like Lucius.
Simon’s sudden appearance, his attempt to stop Lucius, was suspicious.
She couldn’t tell them about the Heilan spy at the academy.
A seed of doubt sprouted in Elonia’s mind.
‘…Did Olivia approach me with ulterior motives?’
Judging from Lucius’s words, Heilan was plotting something.
Olivia’s actions, her willingness to defend Elonia, suddenly seemed suspicious.
Perhaps even Olivia’s attack on Dianne, her defense of Elonia, had all been an act. Elonia was so overwhelmed with anxiety that she couldn’t speak.
Olivia grabbed her shoulders, her voice sharp.
“Tell me, Elonia! If that bastard tried to hurt you, I’ll testify for you!”
“…!”
Olivia’s olive eyes were filled with concern, not anger.
And that look in her eyes answered Elonia’s question.
Olivia was genuinely worried about her.
‘…I didn’t trust her.’
Elonia was ashamed of herself.
She had called Olivia her sister, her friend, and yet, she had doubted her.
Simon, seeing Elonia’s hesitation, spoke up,
“S-sister, it’s a misunderstanding. Young Master Allen was the one who threatened Her Highness.”
“…What?”
“What?! That hostage threatened Elonia?!”
Llewellyn’s face hardened, and Simon’s eyes darted around nervously.
Llewellyn, ignoring his fear, pressed on,
“Tell me everything you saw. What did Lucius do to make Elonia use magic? She’s not like Dolce, she only uses her fists, not magic, unless she’s dealing with trash!”
“W-well—”
“Simon, tell me the truth.”
“S-sister…”
Olivia also glared at Simon, her voice cold.
Simon was trapped.
He knew why Lucius had acted that way.
But he couldn’t tell them. He looked at Elonia with pleading eyes, as if asking for help.
Elonia remembered a time when Simon, as a child, had fallen while running towards her, his eyes filled with tears as he reached out for her help.
He was her youngest brother, the one she had to protect.
She had failed to protect him back then, abandoning him in Heilan. She couldn’t fail him again.
“…I’m sorry. I can’t tell you.”
“El!”
Llewellyn almost shrieked.
But Elonia couldn’t back down.
She was always weak against those who were weaker than her.
And she had already caused enough trouble at the academy.
If she revealed what she had seen and heard, Artius would punish Lucius and Simon, and Olivia might also be implicated.
“No one was hurt, so let’s just leave it at that. I was the one who saw something I shouldn’t have.”
“…Something you shouldn’t have?”
She had to sacrifice something to resolve this situation.
So she decided to sacrifice Lucius’s reputation.
“He seemed to be seeing things.”
“…What?”
“He was talking to thin air.”
“…What?”
Everyone, except for the unconscious Garnethia and Lucius, looked baffled.
Elonia continued,
“I happened to see it, and he seemed embarrassed. He asked me to keep it a secret, but I overreacted because he reminded me of Dolce. Simon was just trying to help me.”
It wasn’t entirely a lie, so the words flowed smoothly.
She wasn’t sorry for attacking him. He had been the one who had provoked her.
Her expression was natural, and Llewellyn, at the mention of Dolce, seemed to understand.
Elonia pointed at Garnethia, who was still lying on the ground.
“Everything’s fine, so Llewellyn, go wake up Garnethia. And Olivia, Simon, take Lucius back to his dormitory.”
“…Fine.”
Llewellyn, grumbling, went to wake up Garnethia.
Olivia, experienced in social circles, knew Elonia was lying, but she didn’t say anything.
As she went to wake up Lucius, Simon bowed his head to Elonia.
“T-thank you, Your Highness.”
His eyes were still filled with tears.
Those eyes always made Elonia’s heart ache.
Elonia returned his handkerchief and left without another word.
That evening, Elonia sat at her desk, her arms crossed and her brow furrowed, staring at the communication crystal, lost in thought.
“I think I should tell Dad what I saw…”
If it weren’t for Olivia and Simon, she would have already told him everything.
But they were members of the Heilan royal family.
Artius, who had always been lenient towards his enemies, had changed after Elonia’s birth.
If he thought someone was harming his only remaining family, he wouldn’t hesitate to retaliate against Heilan, which meant Olivia and Simon would be his next targets.
‘Well, I don’t care if Felix gets executed.’
What was that bastard planning?
And how had he managed to infiltrate the academy, a place with strict security and thorough background checks, with a spy from Delan disguised as a Ravanta noble?
Everything was unclear, but one thing was certain.
There was a collaborator within Ravanta.
And House Rossi was definitely involved, but she didn’t know if there were others.
“Ugh… I should have studied politics. What am I supposed to do?”
Elonia slammed her head on the desk in frustration.
Even in Heilan, Vermon had been a figurehead, and it was Felix who had truly held the power.
And he was a cunning and manipulative snake.
There was no way Elonia, who was just starting to learn the basics of politics, could outsmart him.
‘And that good luck charm… it might not be just a stone.’
She rarely felt such revulsion towards an inanimate object.
Heilan was plotting something.
Something potentially more dangerous than Chelon Heilan.
The thought made her feel a sense of dread she hadn’t felt in years.
“…Dianne, or Noah, was it? She gave me something truly terrifying.”
But why hadn’t she sensed the ominous aura back then?
“Is it because it passed through Lucius’s hands?”
Lucius had strong Holy Power, and Holy Power and mana clashed.
And sometimes, an object would absorb its owner’s aura.
But she hadn’t felt any revulsion towards the stone when it was in Lucius’s possession.
‘His Holy Power felt pure, not ominous.’
…Should she tell Artius?
There was one person who came to mind.
“Would Ricardo know anything?”
No, that was unlikely.
Ricardo had left Heilan immediately after Chelon’s death. He couldn’t possibly know anything.
And he had been a mere soldier. He wouldn’t have access to such classified information.
‘Would I find anything at the Rossi estate?’
The Rossi estate couldn’t possibly be Noah’s home, and yet, she had returned there without any issues.
There was definitely something going on with House Rossi.
She wanted to investigate personally, but it was still the middle of the semester.
And she couldn’t ask Ricardo to go there. He always traveled with Ethan, and Ethan reported everything to Artius.
She didn’t want to cause a commotion if it turned out to be just Lucius’s delusion.
She had to figure this out on her own.
“Simon seemed to know something, unlike Olivia.”
She had hoped to avoid any further involvement with him after returning his handkerchief, but if he knew about Heilan’s plot, it was a different story.
But what if he wasn’t just aware of the plot but also actively participating in it?
“…I can’t spare him, not even Simon.”
She couldn’t abandon him, the boy who had saved her life in that hellhole.
But she couldn’t question him either.
She had no options.
“This is driving me crazy…”
The only consolation was that Olivia seemed clueless, so she would probably be spared from Artius’s wrath.
Just as Elonia was banging her head on the desk in frustration, the communication crystal lit up.
And at the same time, a knock came from behind the door.
“Seriously, what’s with the timing?”
She was being bombarded from both sides.
Assuming it was Artius calling, Elonia ignored the crystal and went to answer the door.
“Who is it?”
The visitor replied after a brief pause,
“It’s me, El.”
“Olivia?”
It was Olivia.
Elonia quickly opened the door.
“Olivia, what brings you—”
“To confirm something.”
Olivia, her chin held high, spoke curtly, without entering the room.
And her next words made Elonia freeze.