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My plan was to use Kate’s earth magic to dig a tunnel underground and infiltrate the abandoned school building.
Even soldiers on guard against attacks from outside would almost certainly never anticipate an intrusion from deep underground.
Kate was bad at attack magic, but when it came to magic other than that, she had skills good enough to fully hold her own even in S-Class.
Even my classmates, who had strict standards when it came to magic, seemed surprised by how skilled Kate was at digging a tunnel with magic.
Thanks to Kate, we made it as far as beneath the eaves of the abandoned school building, then hollowed out the floor and infiltrated the former headmaster’s office on the first floor.
An empty display case.
The leather sofa, with its stuffing exposed, looked thoroughly worn out.
After delinquent students snuck in and used it roughly, it had probably far exceeded the durability it had originally been designed for.
An abandoned room where only useless things remained.
“From here on, it’ll get even more dangerous. So I’m going alone.”
“I’m coming too.”
The one who answered my words in a firm tone was Roy-kun.
“You should stop. I can’t guarantee your life.”
“My mission is to protect Felix.”
His eyes were filled with strong determination.
An expression unlike the cool, composed impression he usually gave.
“You should take him with you. If it’s Roy-kun, he can help you, Mythia.”
The one who strongly persuaded me when I tried to refuse was Kate.
“The truth is, I want to go too, but I wouldn’t be able to help. Please. Take Roy-kun with you.”
She seemed terribly worried.
Seeing tears welling on her eyelashes, I let out a deep sigh.
“Okay. I’ll take him.”
“Wait.”
The one who stopped me as I headed outside with Roy-kun was Camila.
“This is a map of the abandoned school building. I only drew it roughly, so it might be hard to read, but I marked the rooms where the prince and the girl from F-Class seem likely to be locked up. Also, for searching, it’s better to use the ventilation ducts running along the tops of the rooms.”
I lowered my gaze to the hand-drawn map she gave me.
After staring at it for a while, I said.
“Your handwriting is awful.”
“Shut up. As long as you can read it, that’s enough, right?”
“But you drew it very carefully. It’s easy to understand.”
It was a hand-drawn map that wasn’t skillful, but clearly showed how hard she had tried to make it neat and understandable.
“I did something awful to that girl.”
Camila spoke with her eyes lowered.
“If you think this is enough to make up for it, you’re gravely mistaken.”
“I know it’s self-satisfaction.”
“But I’ll gratefully make use of it. We can settle your sins slowly afterward. So for that too, make sure you absolutely don’t die.”
“You’re the one who’d better not die, because I won’t forgive you if you do.”
After glaring at each other, we exchanged a faint smile.
I put a chair on top of the desk and stood on it, then used a lockpicking tool to remove the screws from the vent.
I took off the cover and climbed into the ventilation duct.
Relying on the map Camila had drawn, we headed for the room where Claris and the prince were most likely being held.
The adults still had not noticed our scheme.
How long had it been since she was restrained?
Claris Maitland stared blankly into empty space with exhausted eyes.
Her whole body felt hot, as if she were covered in burns.
Bruises were scattered all over her body.
She was used to pain.
She knew how to endure it.
She detached herself from her body.
She observed the pain as though it belonged to someone else, and let it pass.
“Stop… please stop…”
A voice mixed with sobs came from beside her.
At the edge of her vision, she could see Felix with his eyes squeezed shut and his head hanging low.
He was crying more than Claris, who was being beaten for someone else’s sake.
He was probably kind, Claris thought.
Even though something like this was nothing much in her life.
Her parents had died, and she had been raised by her stepmother.
Her stepmother blatantly favored her blood-related children, and Claris received only the leftovers.
Insufficient food.
Violence that was used on her routinely.
“My life wasn’t supposed to turn out like this.”
Her stepmother was always angry about something.
Her dream was to leave home someday.
How wonderful would it be if she could live without anyone speaking badly of her?
Fortunately, Claris had hope.
A boy she had happened to meet when she was five years old.
“You have talent for magic.”
She had been so happy to be praised for the first time that she studied magic even while her family laughed at her.
When she turned ten, the apothecary older brother whose door she had worked up the courage to knock on looked utterly astonished when he saw Claris’s magic.
“Amazing. I can’t believe magic like this exists.”
In the blink of an eye, Claris became well known among the mages living nearby.
The apothecary older brother took Claris in as his adopted daughter, and she was able to gain a home where she would not be beaten.
“This child needs a higher quality education.”
The first school she entered was a D-rank elementary school.
Rumors that she could use magic no one else could use spread quickly, and she transferred to a B-rank school.
“She’s a prodigy. We would very much like her to come to our school.”
She transferred into the S-rank school said to be the best in the country.
It was hard to adapt to the changing environments, but in some ways it was easier too.
Because each time she transferred, she could reset her relationships.
Most of the students attending the school were from noble families, and Claris, despite being a commoner, was singled out for high praise by the teachers, making her a target of bullying born from jealousy.
She never made a single friend.
If someone stayed with Claris, that girl would become a target of bullying too.
(It must be nice to have friends.)
Thinking that, she always spent her time reading books.
(I’ll have to live alone forever.)
For Claris, who had been thinking that way, meeting that girl was so shocking it completely changed her life.
“What are you doing?”
A small classmate who had saved her when she was being bullied, and then treated her to a special school lunch that was unbelievably delicious.
Even when others looked at her strangely, she did not care at all, and she steadfastly stuck to what she believed was right.
To Claris, she looked as though she were shining.
(Big Sis Mythia… so cool.)
She taught her many worlds Claris had never known.
Many of the books she recommended were slightly more mature and dark than anything Claris had known, and Claris was instantly captivated by their cool worldviews.
She had also learned that the boy she met when she was five was His Highness the Third Prince, but Mythia’s presence shone so brightly in Claris’s heart that it made something like that feel unimportant.
Every day was unbelievably fun.
The time they spent in that secret-base-like place in front of the rooftop felt as though it held something different from ordinary life.
The stylish girl who seemed to be Mythia’s friend was a little scary at first, but Claris quickly realized she was kind and strong-willed.
“Ah, that magic formula might be better if you write it like this.”
When Claris practiced on her own, Kate-san would come over and teach her various things.
“U-um, may I tell my older brother that Kate-san is my friend too? Ah, no, I know a plain girl like me is being presumptuous to say something like that.”
When she said that timidly,
“Huh? Claris is cute, though. What are you even saying?”
Kate said that with an offended look, then narrowed her eyes with a grin.
“Of course. We’ve already been friends for a while.”
Kate, a stylish and fashionable girl, told her that she had become isolated in class because her father had caused a scandal.
“So I’m happy I made a friend. I thought something like this would never happen again.”
A happy time so wonderful it hardly felt like it belonged to her.
But she had probably been blessed with too much good fortune.
The backlash came with cruel force.
And now, she was lying on the cold floor.
“This is what happens when a mere commoner dares trespass into the domain of nobles.”
“As long as you’re alive, you cause trouble for lots of people.”
The two soldiers were probably connected to nobles.
They punched and kicked her, wearing sadistic smiles.
Her body was hot.
It happened just as the hard tip of a boot struck her cheek.
“U-… aah…?”
One of the men suddenly began clutching his throat in distress.
“What’s wrong?”
The other man turned around, only to clutch his own throat immediately afterward.
The two staggered, writhed on the floor, and then collapsed.
“Don’t worry. I struck with the blunt edge.”
The vent cover hit the floor at that moment.
A small girl dropped down into the room, her long hair fluttering.
Those familiar thick-soled shoes.
She felt hope.
She thought there was no way something so convenient could happen.
And yet, that girl was truly there.
“Sorry I’m late.”
The coolest friend in the world ran over to her and said.
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