Chapter 12

Honestly, I still didn’t get it.

Left alone in my room after the two of them departed, I agonized over the conversation. As a mystery fanatic, I couldn’t just leave a puzzle unsolved. My curiosity got the better of me before bed; unable to stand it any longer, I slipped out of my room and knocked on Leo’s door.

“Ah, come in.”

“Sorry to bother you… whoa, what is all this?”

Leo’s room was filled to the brim with glasses containing liquids of every imaginable color.

“Oh, this? I’ve been into compounding medicines lately. It’s quite fascinating. Well, don’t mind the mess, make yourself at home.”

Leo has many hobbies. He dives headfirst into everything and masters them at incredible speed. When he took up painting, he didn’t leave his room for weeks except for classes, and ended up winning a prize in a competition that year. When he was into sculpting, blocks of stone were rolling all over the floor. During his cooking phase, he even worked secretly at a popular restaurant in the royal capital.

“This one here—I suspect a single sip would make one’s body incredibly robust. Want to try some?” Leo offered a glass filled with a bubbling, crimson liquid.

“I’ll pass. Why don’t you drink it yourself?”

“I’m not that confident in it. That’s why I wanted a guinea pig. Oh well. I’ll just find a way to make Bob drink it.”

Leo set the glass on the table, casually saying something terrifying. “Anyway, what do you need?”

“Well, you know… about Kirio.”

“Ah, that. You didn’t understand the meaning behind our exchange?”

“Yeah,” I nodded honestly.

“It’s nothing strange. Being that overjoyed to meet the King or Victie is a typical noble value. I was just teasing her, saying that with an attitude like that, she’d never be able to convey her feelings. Forgive me—it wasn’t so much mockery as it was an attempt to give her a push.”

“No, it’s not about forgiving you, but…” Before that. “What do you mean by ‘feelings’?”

The moment I asked, Leo didn’t just widen his eyes; his mouth actually hung open. It was an uncharacteristically defenseless expression for a man like him. He hadn’t looked this shocked even when he heard about the royal visit in the cafeteria.

“Y-you… you haven’t noticed?”

“Eh? Noticed what?”

“About Kirio.”

“What about her?”

“That she’s in love with you.”

“Huh?” I heard him, but the meaning didn’t compute, so I asked again.

“I said, she’s in love with you. From what I heard, you saved her from Bob when you first met, right? Wasn’t it basically love at first sight from then on?”

“No, no, no way.” I shook my head. Kirio, in love with me? Where on earth was there even a sign of that? “Back then, she glared at me with bloodshot eyes so intense I thought she was going to kill me.”

“She was likely holding back tears and putting up a front while being captivated by the ‘knight’ who saved her.”

“But even after that, she kept glaring at me…”

“She was likely stealing glances because she was interested in you.”

“Even now, we’re just normal friends. Her attitude is exactly like that.”

“Think about it. Why do you think she—who was shackled by her house, her parents, and her nobility, covering her heart in armor and dressing as a man—has become this soft? It’s because you were by her side.”

“I-I mean…” It’s true she’s become incomparably friendlier than at the start. “But if that’s the case, her person of interest might be you, Leo, not me.”

I said it as a desperate reach, but he cut me down instantly.

“I can tell whether I’m being loved or not. Unlike you.”

“Ugh… B-but really? Is it true?” I couldn’t believe it. In my previous world, I had few friends, let alone a lover. Looking back, it made sense—I was a guy whose only topic of conversation was mysteries.

“It’s true. I guarantee it. But because of that, Kirio is suffering right now.”

“Suffering? Why?” That was something I couldn’t ignore. I straightened up, my expression turning serious.

“Her house. She is bound by a vanishing lineage and parents who are blind to reality. She probably thinks it’s forbidden to have a good relationship with a commoner. It would be a simple matter of quitting being a noble, but she can’t do that. Even if losing her status is only a matter of time anyway.”

“Her parents, huh?” The lighthearted mood from a moment ago vanished.

“Yeah. She still continues to dress as a man for her parents’ sake. She probably feels she can’t betray them.”

The room fell into a dead silence. I didn’t know what to say, and Leo watched my face in silence, as if gauging my reaction.

“Can’t we do something, Leo? It feels wrong to ask you, but…” The words I finally squeezed out were those of a pathetic man relying on someone else’s power. “It doesn’t even matter if we date or whatever, but isn’t there a way to free Kirio from her house?”

“Ultimately, it’s a matter of her own mindset. If Kirio herself decides to throw it away, she can do it anytime. If she doesn’t, there’s nothing anyone can do.”

Brought down by his sound logic, I looked at the floor.

“However,” Leo continued unexpectedly. “There is a way to change a mindset. Just wait for one week from now.”

I looked up to see Leo giving me a smug wink.

And then, one week later, in the middle of the night.

I had been summoned by Leo. He told me to come to the courtyard dressed in clothes that were easy to move in. Since I’m always dressed that way, I headed to the courtyard without much thought.

“Oh.”

In the courtyard were Leo, dressed in unusually inconspicuous clothes, and Kirio, who—conversely—was in her usual tight jacket and pants.

“Kirio, you’re dressed the same as always,” I remarked.

“This outfit is the easiest to move in for me,” Kirio replied.

“She probably didn’t want to show you an unseemly appearance,” Leo interjected with a hint of a laugh.

“Wh— don’t say stupid things!” Kirio said hurriedly, then tried to cover it up. “So, what’s this about, Leo? What on earth is starting now? Unlike you and Van, I haven’t finished my thesis yet, so I was planning to pull an all-nighter.”

She glared at Leo with a sullen look in her eyes.

“Hmph. I heard from Merlin that your thesis is shaping up to be quite something as well. You’ve been collecting medical charts that were stored haphazardly all over the place and classifying that massive mountain of data, haven’t you?”

“That’s right. That’s why I’m so sleep-deprived.”

As if on cue, Kirio let out a wide yawn.

“Well, I’m about to show you something that will blow that drowsiness right away.”

Leo was brimming with confidence.

“Something that amazing?”

I felt a natural spark of excitement. My voice brightened a bit; Leo had never once failed to deliver on his hype.

“Oh, absolutely. And so, my friends, first—let’s break out of this school.”

“Wait a minute! At the military academy, leaving the grounds after curfew is strictly forbidden!”

“Exactly,” Leo nodded, as if that were the most obvious thing in the world. “That’s why I used the word ‘break out,’ didn’t I?”

And so, swept along by Leo’s sheer force of will, the three of us snuck out of the military academy in the dead of night.

Guided by Leo, we moved through the royal capital under the cover of darkness. He was clearly choosing a route that avoided well-traveled paths.

“What if we run into highwaymen or something?” Kirio asked worriedly.

“No need to worry. Van can take most of them down with magic—his spells are in a league of their own, after all. And if that’s not enough, I’ll just punch them.”

True enough. If Leo decided to throw a punch, the fight would probably be over instantly.

As we navigated the night streets, Leo began to speak.

“One week ago, Kirio… you asked, didn’t you? Why Princess Victie is said to be the living image of the Saint.”

“Oh, yeah… that,” Kirio nodded.

“There’s a reason, of course. A simple one. There is something that preserves the appearance of Saint Fata.”

“Wait, that doesn’t make sense!” I accidentally raised my voice, the sound echoing through the quiet streets. “I thought idol worship was forbidden?” I hissed, quickly lowering my volume.

“It is. However, most nobles have heard the rumors: the rumors that a statue of Fata exists. It seems Kirio wasn’t aware, though.”

“My family… well, we’re barely ‘nobles’ at this point,” Kirio muttered with a self-deprecating smirk.

“But the statue is real. Only a handful of influential nobles, royalty, and high-ranking clergy ever actually see it. You know of the Foundation Festival held once a year, right?”

“Yeah.”

The Foundation Festival. The day Saint Fata is said to have founded Shark. It’s a nationwide celebration.

“Did you know that during the festival, the elites gather in a special room beneath the Shark Grand Cathedral to pray for the kingdom’s prosperity in the coming year?”

“No, I hadn’t heard of that.”

The Shark Grand Cathedral is located in the center of the capital. It’s the headquarters of the Church, a structure rivaling the royal castle in scale. I’d visited it a few times on my days off; it was a magnificent building, a grand edifice that made you feel the power of the Church just by looking at it.

“I think I’ve heard something about that,” Kirio said, narrowing her eyes as she searched her memory.

“That place of prayer… oop, right turn here.”

Leo turned right at a crossroad in a pitch-black, narrow alleyway, moving with total familiarity.

“That place of prayer is where the statue of Fata resides. It is the only place where one can behold the Saint’s form.”

Leo’s tone held a trace of irony.

“But isn’t that bizarre? If idol worship is banned, why is there a statue of Fata in the basement of the Church’s very headquarters?”

Without looking back, Leo answered my question. “It’s simple. It’s because that statue is said to be not made by human hands.”

“Not made by human hands?”

“Right. According to legend, at the very end, Fata turned to stone to become the foundation of the country. The being dwelling beneath the Cathedral is said to be the Saint herself, turned to stone. If you ask me, it’s a ridiculous story.”

“Whoa…” Kirio’s eyes went wide with surprise; she clearly had no idea.

“Wait a second. Based on the direction this conversation is going…” I had a very bad feeling about this.

At that moment, Leo stopped. “We’re here.”

We were at the dead end of an incredibly narrow alley. In front of us stood a wall so high my neck hurt just looking up at it.

“If we scale this wall, we’ll come out at the back of the Cathedral.”

I wanted to ask how he knew that, but another question jumped to my lips first. “How the hell are we supposed to get over this?”

The wall was flat and smooth with almost no handholds. In the darkness, it looked to be well over twenty meters high.

“Van, with your skill in magic, you could probably climb it if you enhanced your body to the limit.”

He said it lightly, but I wasn’t so sure. Even if I succeeded, I was guaranteed a level of muscle pain the next day that would make me feel like my whole body was falling apart.

“Hey! Leo and Van might be fine, but what about me?” Kirio complained, and rightly so.

“No problem,” Leo replied. He grabbed Kirio by the collar and hoisted her up effortlessly.

“Eek! Wait—wh-what are you doing?!”

“Relax, it’ll be over in a second.”

Tucking Kirio under one arm like she weighed nothing, Leo used his remaining hand and both feet to begin nimbly scaling the wall.

“You’ve got to be kidding me…” The words escaped my mouth.

He was actually finding the tiniest imperfections in the wall to use as handholds. Even if she was a light girl, who climbs a wall like that while carrying a person in one hand? Even with magical enhancement, this wasn’t human. What kind of monstrous strength was that? Even accounting for Ogre blood, his physical ability and coordination were absurd.

In no time at all, Leo reached the top and hopped over without waiting for me.

“Hey, hey!”

Seriously, he’s going to leave me behind. This is bad—I don’t even know the way home.

I steeled my resolve. I focused on every muscle in my body, imagining the flow of mana through them. Alright, let’s do this. I’m supposed to be the “genius mage” of the school, after all. If I can’t even manage this, what good am I?

An hour later, shaking all over and gasping for breath, I finally touched down on the ground on the other side of the wall.

“You’re slow,” Leo remarked with a straight face. He’d been waiting for me. I wanted to snap back, but I couldn’t even form words. Only ragged breaths came out. Scaling that wall so easily while carrying a person—Leo wasn’t human. I just collapsed onto the ground.

We had reached a narrow space between the back of the Cathedral and the high stone wall surrounding the grounds.

“A-are you okay?” Kirio crouched down, looking worried, but I didn’t even have the energy to answer.

“I’ll admit it’s a bit of a hard route, but it’s the only one I’ve found that lets you sneak into the Grand Cathedral while avoiding the constant watch of the guards.”

“Wh… what part of that… was ‘a bit’?” I finally managed to squeeze out.

“Now then, the goal isn’t just to be at the Grand Cathedral. If that were the case, we could have just walked through the front doors during the day. This way.”

Leo half-dragged me to my feet despite my desire to keep lying there. He marched toward a section of the Cathedral wall, which was constructed from stacked blocks of gray stone known as “gray-blocks.”

“Here.”

Leo crouched down casually and placed his hand on one of the blocks.

“Hup!”

He gave it a forceful push. What is that supposed to accomplish? I was about to ask when—

Thud. With a dull sound, the block sank inward. Right before our wide-eyed gazes, the blocks shifted, and an opening appeared in the Cathedral wall. It was a hole just barely large enough for a child to crawl through if they crouched down.

“There we go.”

Leo was busily arranging the crumbled stone blocks neatly next to the hole.

“I have to be able to put them back exactly as they were later, after all.”

“No, that’s not what I mean. Leo, did you…”

Did you just commit a major federal crime? Or rather, Did you spend this past week personally sabotaging the structural integrity of the Cathedral just for this?

I had a mountain of questions, but I had a feeling that if I asked, the answers would only make me an accessory to something even worse, so I kept my mouth shut.

“It’s a bit tight, but bear with it.”

With that, Leo flattened himself against the ground and began sliding through the opening. Even though it looked physically impossible for a guy of his build to fit, he twisted his body with feline grace and vanished into the darkness.

Kirio and I exchanged a look of pure dread. I’m sure my face looked every bit as pathetic and anxious as hers.

But there was no turning back now. In for a penny, in for a pound.

I gave Kirio a small nod of encouragement, then dove into the hole after Leo. Behind me, I heard the scuffling sound of Kirio following suit.

Even past the wall, the space remained suffocatingly narrow. It seemed we were in the crawlspace beneath the Cathedral floor. Leo moved through the darkness like a serpent, and I did my absolute best to keep up.

At one point, the sound of heavy footsteps and muffled voices of guards echoed above us, making my heart skip a beat, but Leo didn’t even pause. He just kept slithering along.

Through the winding, cramped tunnels—up, down, turning, and down again—the journey finally reached its end.

“We’ve arrived.”

At Leo’s whisper, the ordeal was over.

“Whoa… where are we?”

As I stood up in the cavernous space, I found myself in a vast, dark hall. It appeared we had emerged from what was essentially a ventilation shaft.

“Finally…” Kirio clambered out behind me.

It was too dark to gauge the exact dimensions, but it was immense—roughly the size of our dorm’s cafeteria, meaning it could easily seat fifty people at tables. Yet, the only illumination came from torches placed at wide intervals. The room was draped in thick, heavy shadows.

“This is the room. This is where the royals, the high nobles, and those priests gather to pray for the kingdom’s prosperity. They pray to that.”

Leo jerked his chin toward the center of the room.

There stood a massive object. The weak, flickering light of the torches licked at its surface, but I couldn’t make it out clearly. Unconsciously, I began to walk toward it. Kirio followed close behind me.

As we drew nearer, the silhouette sharpened. It was a statue. A statue… which meant…

When we were about ten paces away—

“Go any further, and you’ll be standing closer to it than the King himself,” Leo’s amused voice rang out, bringing our feet to a halt.

“Huh?” I turned back, confused.

“During the Foundation Festival prayers, that spot right there is the limit. That’s the King’s designated position.”

Leo walked up to us, wearing a smirk.

“Feeling awestruck? No, not you, Van. You don’t care about things like that. But Kirio… how about you?”

I looked over and saw Kirio was trembling. Whether it was from the sheer insanity of the situation or the weight of standing in such a “sacred” place, I couldn’t tell.

“No need to force yourself. You can see it from here, can’t you? Look closely. Look at the face of the Saint—the face that belongs to Victie as well.”

As if hypnotized, Kirio and I slowly turned our eyes from Leo to the statue.

And then, we saw it. We saw it clearly.

It was a stone statue of a young woman. She had a slender frame but was tall, with a solid, well-defined skeletal structure. Her face was a mysterious blend of a beautiful youth and a lovely girl—looking at once like a fierce warrior and a pure maiden. The sword held in her right hand only reinforced that impression. She wore nothing but a single, smooth cloth wrapped around her body, draped like the surface of a still lake. Her hair was tied up, and every single strand—even the curve of her nape—was rendered with terrifying precision.

I could see why people believed the Saint herself had actually turned to stone. It was a masterpiece of realism.

“Well, Kirio?”

“…Eh?”

Kirio, who had been staring up at the statue in a daze just like me, snapped back to reality at Leo’s voice.

“It’s just a stone statue, isn’t it? Is it going to spring to life and punish us for trespassing?” Leo shrugged. “The things the nobles prize so highly, the ‘faith’ the Church prattles on about… it all amounts to this. A piece of carved rock. When you see the real thing, it’s almost trivial.”

Then, Leo’s expression softened into something uncharacteristically gentle.

“Be honest with yourself, Kirio. There are things in this world far more important than a lump of stone, aren’t there?”

“…Huh?” Kirio’s eyes went wide. She stared at Leo, looked back at the statue, and then back at Leo again. “Are you… are you telling me you dragged us all the way here just to say that?”

“Exactly.” Leo nodded, as if it were the most logical thing in the world.

My knees finally gave out, and I sank to the floor. “There had to be a hundred easier, safer ways to make that point!” I groaned, especially since I had genuinely prepared to die while scaling that wall.

“Hmm? Really? But wasn’t it fun?”

Looking at Leo’s nonchalant face, I was reminded once again: this guy is absolutely out of his mind.

“T-this is no joke! Let’s just go home already!” Kirio said, shivering. The fear was finally catching up to her; she looked pale.

“Is that so? Alright, let’s head back.”

“Just for the record, Leo… how exactly are we getting back?” I asked, clinging to a sliver of hope.

“The same way we came, of course. We’re scaling the wall again.”

By the time we successfully snuck back into the academy, the sun was beginning to rise. We gathered in the courtyard to disperse.

“I am seriously going to re-evaluate our friendship after this,” I told Leo with genuine resentment. My body was already screaming; I knew for a fact I wouldn’t be able to move a muscle tomorrow.

“He’s right! Honestly!” Kirio added, sounding angry. But then, she added in a tiny whisper, “…But you did it for me, didn’t you? So… thank you.”

“Think nothing of it. Well then!” With a sharp grin, Leo strolled away across the courtyard with his usual flair.

I turned to head back to my own room. “See ya—”

As I turned away from Kirio, the strength left my legs and I started to pitch forward.

“Watch out!” Kirio caught me.

“Oh—”

I went to say something, but the words died in my throat. My brain stalled. By some quirk of fate—or perhaps the Saint’s revenge—Kirio and I were locked in what was essentially an embrace.

She was soft. Even though she dressed in a way that could be mistaken for a boy, the moment we touched, I felt the unmistakable softness and warmth of a girl.

I knew the best move was to say “sorry” and pull away, but my body wouldn’t obey, and my panicked mind couldn’t find the words.

“Just like this…” Kirio whispered. “I’ll carry you to your room just like this. You can’t walk, can you?”

With her face and neck flushed a deep, burning crimson, Kirio practically carried me back to my room, holding me close. I don’t weigh a ton, but it must have been a struggle for her. She didn’t say a word the whole way, her red face tucked down as she hauled me along.

“S-sorry.”

In front of my door, I finally found my voice and stood on my own two feet. To be honest, I probably could have stood up a while ago, but I had been too paralyzed by the situation to move.

“No, it’s fine… I mean, Leo said it too, right?” Still looking down, her face bright red, Kirio began to speak at a rapid-fire pace.

“Eh?”

“About being honest… so, I thought this was a good chance!”

“Hey, Kiri—”

“A-anyway, goodbye!”

Without listening to me, Kirio turned and bolted away like her life depended on it.

I stood there for a long time, staring blankly at the spot where she had been. Eventually, I shuffled into my room and collapsed onto my bed.

In more ways than one, it had been a day I would never forget.

As I drifted into a leaden sleep, Kirio’s face was the last thing I saw behind my eyelids. To my great irreverence, the face of the Saint didn’t appear even once.