Chapter 103:
“What?”
“No, it’s not that… Sigh, okay.”
Sue grimaced.
“Since I know your secret, Miss Halo, I’ll tell you one of mine.”
“Your secret?”
She hadn’t planned to hide it from the moment she had decided to summon Halo to the outer wall of Crimea. Sue steeled herself and spoke,
“Those rumors you’ve heard about me… they’re true.”
“What?”
“Well, there are many rumors about Sue Byron.”
“….”
“So I’m threatening you. What offends Lady Enzhe also offends me, and I’m always prepared to make you suffer for her sake, Miss Halo.”
It was a classic third-rate villain line. Sue felt a pang of despair, uttering those words.
“But I don’t want to hurt you, Miss Halo. Your goal is to graduate from the academy safely, right? My goal is the same. I want to graduate safely, quietly.”
“…Hmm, really?”
“Yes. You graduate without getting close to those three, and I graduate without getting involved with you… That’s how we both survive. So… please.”
Soran Halo, please live quietly for my sake.
“What? …Ah, yes, yes, I understand. I’ll be careful.”
Halo nodded vaguely. Sue’s face brightened again. Her eyes, her hands clasped together, sparkled like teardrops.
“Thank you, Miss Halo.”
Her earnest voice was devoid of any jealousy, envy, or arrogance.
Halo was just bewildered by the situation.
She had heard all the rumors about Sue Byron.
That she would hit people for no reason, that she had a vocabulary of a million and twenty-one insults, that she was a master of curse magic, that she had used it on people dozens of times.
Julia had even warned her that the rumors about her being arrogant and looking down on everyone weren’t just rumors, they were true.
But Sue Byron, in person, seemed less arrogant and more…
‘…Pathetic.’
Halo gulped.
She had suddenly summoned her, revealed her birthplace, and then offered her expensive toxin removers and holy water for free.
She had boldly threatened her, then pleaded with her, her eyes on the verge of tears. She had even revealed her vulnerability to a mere transfer student she had only known for a month.
The fear Halo had felt while waiting for her at the foot of the wall had vanished, replaced by a sense of absurdity.
Halo stared at Sue, who was sighing in relief. She seemed genuinely concerned about Halo not getting involved with the grand duke’s children.
‘Why? Because she doesn’t want to bully me? …Why?’
She suddenly remembered Enzhe’s angelically kind face.
She didn’t seem like the type to bully anyone either.
‘Hmm, Julia said nobles have their own complicated circumstances. Maybe that’s the case with Byron too?’
According to Julia, the Byron family was allied with the Lopetrefer family.
As a mere Wastelander, Halo couldn’t comprehend the complexities, but she vaguely guessed that it was a messy situation.
“Ahem…”
Sue cleared her throat, her smile fading. She was a little embarrassed, realizing how openly she had expressed her joy at the success of her plan.
“Miss Halo, I won’t be the one to speak to you first from now on. I hope we won’t have to interact directly in the future.”
Her voice was unexpectedly cold and sharp.
Halo stared at her, then chuckled.
“We’re in the same class, so we have to see each other every day.”
“…That’s true.”
Sue looked away, embarrassed. Halo giggled. Her expression had softened considerably.
“I understand what you’re trying to say, Byron. I’ll be more careful from now on.”
Sue Byron’s words and actions were full of contradictions. So Halo assumed there must be a complicated reason behind it.
And Sue Byron’s complicated reason was none of Soran Halo’s business.
As Sue had said, Halo just wanted to live quietly and achieve good grades at the academy.
Soran Halo was cheerful, talented, sociable, and kind, but she was also rational.
“Hehe, you’re kinder than I thought, Byron.”
Her dream wouldn’t change. To bring her uncle and younger brother, who were still stuck in the Wastelands, to the capital and live together. As long as she could achieve that, she would take any advantage she could get.
***
After parting ways with Halo, Sue turned towards Hessen Cave.
She stretched under the midday sun, her stiff body cracking. She groaned and looked up at the sky, the hot sun warming her face.
“That should be enough, right?”
She felt like she had overcome a huge obstacle.
She had been sweating nervously while giving Halo the medicine and advice, but now that she was gone, she felt a strange sense of emptiness, wondering if it had been that easy.
Of course, it wasn’t over yet. But if Halo kept her promise and stayed quiet, at least one of the many problems weighing Sue down would be solved.
“Fritz… He’s still in the cave, right?”
She checked her pocket watch, and lunchtime was just over. She hadn’t spent that much time talking to Halo, but she had wasted a lot of time taking care of Enzhe.
In the novel, the Crimea episode took place after Fritz and Halo had already become aware of each other through the glass garden incident. But in reality, Sue had stopped Halo, so they still didn’t know much about each other.
Halo, after parting ways with Sue, would go straight to Zemen Tower, where Julia was. So Sue didn’t have to worry about her anymore. She just had to go to Hessen Cave and tell Fritz about Enzhe.
It’s a perfect plan.
Sue finally realized that everything was going smoothly. She felt a sense of lightness, as if she was floating.
If she could just break the curse, if she could just endure until then, she would finally be free.
“You’re so mean, Master Woo!”
She was passing by the abandoned temple of Minent, lost in her daydreams, when she heard it.
“Sob… Sob…”
Someone was crying loudly in the distance. It sounded like an argument. And she recognized the voices.
“How could you… treat me like a fool…!”
The crying continued to torment her ears.
“What the…?”
She turned her head towards the sound.
Melaine Vava was sobbing uncontrollably in front of the headless goddess statue in the abandoned temple square.
Sue, startled, quickly hid behind a pillar.
‘What’s going on?’
She could see Acrea’s platinum blonde hair in front of Melaine. The two of them were arguing in front of the rusty, broken statue, in the empty temple.
“How could you do this to me?!”
Melaine yelled at Acrea, wiping her tears with her sleeve. She was devoid of her usual brilliance.
“Why are they fighting…?”
Sue, forgetting her original goal, peeked out from behind the pillar. She strained her ears, trying to listen to their conversation.
“Master Reeves… my sister… just… harmless!”
She couldn’t make out the words. They were too far away, and their voices were muffled.
All she could tell from the scene was that Melaine was having an emotional outburst, crying and yelling, while Acrea was calm, his eyes filled with a hint of pity.
“…Lady… unfortunate… but we…”
Acrea finally spoke, but she still couldn’t hear him. Sue gulped.
He seemed to be apologizing, but his face didn’t look apologetic.
She couldn’t hear their voices, except for Melaine’s yelling, so Sue unconsciously leaned forward.
And then, a shadow loomed over her.
“Sue Byron Chiqmefriar. What are you doing there?”
Sue froze at the unexpected voice.
“What are you looking at? …Huh? It’s Melaine Vava and Woo. What are they doing there?”
It was Fritz. He was frowning, watching his friend and Melaine Vava from behind Sue, who was standing in a strange posture.
“Master Fritz, you’re here.”
Sue hid her surprise and turned around quickly. Fritz’s large frame towered over her.
“I thought Woo said he wasn’t coming out of the ship.”
Fritz’s attention had already shifted from Sue to Acrea.
He was wearing a strange-looking explorer’s hat he must have found somewhere. He looked ridiculous, but this wasn’t the time to laugh.
“Hmm, so you were watching them.”
Fritz glanced down. Sue, feeling a pang of guilt, touched her neck as their eyes met.
She had thought he would scold her for eavesdropping, but Fritz took it a step further.
“I’m curious what they’re talking about. I’m going to ask them.”
“M-M-Master Fritz!”
Sue grabbed his sleeve and stopped him. Fritz pouted, as if he didn’t understand what the problem was.
He really was clueless.
Sue persuaded him gently, like a nanny soothing a seven-year-old child.
“It looks like they’re fighting. Don’t you think it’ll just make things worse if we go over there?”
“What? They’re fighting?”
Had he gone blind?