A Headache (3)

W-what?

Amon was so startled that he sucked in a breath without meaning to.

He’d used illusion magic, the Vincent house’s own specialty, to hide his presence and close off every route the boy might have slipped away by, and right up to the point of cutting Leonard off completely, it had worked.

Yet the very instant he moved in, Leonard had turned around out of nowhere, picked him out exactly where he stood in the crowd, and was now staring holes through him.

A coincidence… is it?

For the briefest moment Amon wondered whether he’d be better off waiting for another chance. But backing out of a moment this awkward without a proper explanation would only put the boy more on his guard.

Hooo…

— Step.

He tried a single step, but Leonard only went on watching him and didn’t move. Feeling an odd relief at that, Amon took a few more paces, and soon he was standing right in front of him.

“You… are you a student at Kestral Academy?” Amon asked.

“…”

Leonard said nothing, so Amon waved a hand and drew back a little.

“Sorry for talking to you out of nowhere. It’s just strange, seeing a kid who looks way too young to be a student wearing our academy’s uniform.”

It was a plausible enough excuse, since plenty of students still didn’t even know Leonard’s face. Pleased with his own cleverness, Amon couldn’t help a faint smile.

“No need to look so scared. I’m a Kestral Academy student too. Amon Vincent, fifth year.”

Amon thought even the lead-in to asking the boy’s name had come off naturally. He never dreamed that his act had already been seen straight through.

What the hell did this bastard just say?

Amon Vincent.

Back when Leonard was still on active service, fighting desperately against monsters at the front, this man had held a post at Kestral Academy as a professor.

In those days the academy had been grim, darkened by a string of untimely suicides. A good many honor students had died over a long stretch of time, and the imperial house, recognizing how serious it was, sent an investigator.

What came to light was a campaign of group bullying with Amon Vincent at its head. He’d singled out anyone he judged more able than himself, turned the other students against them, and used the family’s connections to keep the truth from getting out.

Public opinion turned on him with tremendous speed, and his crimes had long since grown too big for even the family’s power to cover. In the end, Amon was executed in the middle of Everton Square, in front of everyone.

It had been a famous case, and even Leonard, who had little interest in gossip, remembered it clearly.

“Well, this is good timing.”

Amon snapped his fingers. Without the faintest idea that his whole scheme had been laid bare, he rattled on as he pleased.

“I got swept up in the crowd and lost the people I came with, see. I was just wondering what I’d even do wandering around on my own. Sticking with you would be perfect.”

Leonard forced his face flat, though it wanted to twist with disgust and rage, and answered.

“That’s a good… idea.”

There was no reason to get tangled up with a creature like this. Left alone, the man was bound to destroy himself sooner or later anyway. But Leonard had lived that future through to its end, and he had no intention of leaving Amon be.

When he thought of Kestral Academy’s capable young people dying one after another because of this man, he couldn’t find the slightest urge to forgive.

“…Come to think of it, I forgot to ask. Your name?”

“Leonard Felix.”

“Ah, so you’re that famous new student? First time in Everton, huh?”

Hearing the name from the boy’s own mouth must have convinced Amon that things were going well, because he seized on it and pushed his plan forward without a hitch (?).

“Actually, there’s plenty worth seeing around here. Want me to show you around? I’ll pay.”

“Ah. But letting you pay for me on top of that, that’s a bit…”

“Come on, where’s the harm? We go to the same academy.”

By now his intent was so blatant it turned the stomach. Leonard put up just enough of a show of resistance, steering things so that Amon couldn’t even think of backing out.

“Good. Let’s go, then.”

Wearing the most triumphant look imaginable, Amon took the lead and set off through the streets of Everton.

His promise to show off the sights evidently wasn’t an empty boast, because the lane he led them down was lined with one fascinating thing after another. The staff-maker’s workshop and the magic-tool shops the young students had been so eager to visit were among them.

But Leonard didn’t feel a flicker of interest, and he had no intention of feeling any, either.

“Even this is nothing next to the capital. In the capital there are carriages made of magic circling the whole city, twenty-four hours a day. And there’s an institute of magical engineering researching every kind of new technology. If you ever get the chance, it’d be worth a look,” Amon said, as though he were showing off.

“Where does the rest of your family live?”

“They live in a backwater you won’t even have heard of, Sunbae¹. They farm there.”

“That’s too bad. Must be really hard on them.”

The last thing Leonard wanted was to hear that from the likes of him, and he barely managed to swallow the words that had climbed right up into his throat.

“What do you want to do after you graduate?”

“…I’m not sure. I haven’t settled on anything concrete yet, but I’d like to teach something, or be a diplomat, where I’d get the chance to go abroad.”

Words and turns of phrase that didn’t come easily from a nine-year-old’s mouth popped out here and there, but the flow of the conversation and the way he spoke were so natural that Amon sensed nothing off.

“Look at this street,” Amon said, sweeping a fingertip around at their surroundings. “There are way more people here than in most villages, and the academy’s close by. If your parents lived here, you’d all breathe a lot easier.”

Generally speaking, that was true. Troops stationed in Keld Village had eased the worry somewhat, but to get clear of the monster threat altogether, settling in a big city like Everton would be the better choice.

And whatever else, Leonard was nine. Studying alone, far from his parents, was bound to be a heavy burden.

“I’m not sure.”

But Leonard showed every sign of not caring about any of that. As far as he knew, he had no memory of ever hearing about another dimensional rift forming anywhere nearby after Keld Village’s first attack.

So the odds of the village being attacked again were, at the very least, infinitely close to zero.

And above all, he had no wish to borrow the hand of trash like this to keep his parents safe.

“…You know, the Vincent house has a few people working on the diplomatic side of things. And my uncle’s a professor at Kestral Academy, too. We might just be able to help you out.”

At that, Leonard’s eyes glinted sharply. Amon snickered, taking it for interest in his offer, but the truth was the exact opposite.

What an imbecile. Nobody even asked, and he spills the whole thing on his own.

His plan was plain as day: draw in a powerful card by the name of Leonard Felix and turn him into the family’s puppet. Yet it was hard to believe the idea had come out of Amon’s head in the first place.

Then who had put him up to this?

Someone with information about Leonard, someone in the Vincent house, someone in a position to give Amon orders. Of everyone on the list of suspects, only one met every condition. His uncle.

“—ey. Hey!”

Leonard had gone quiet again, so Amon called to him once more. His voice was straining to sound relaxed, but it carried the faintest edge of impatience.

“Since fate’s thrown us together, why not come visit our family estate over the break? There’s a lot more to see around there than here.”

At that, Leonard broke into a bright smile.

“No, I’m all right.”

“No need to feel pressured. It’s pure goodwill, nothing more—”

“My parents told me never to go through life owing anyone anything.”

With each knife-edged refusal, Amon’s face twisted a little more savagely.

He’s not hearing a word I say.

He was a member of the Vincent house, a family with a long history. The boy might have lucked into semi-noble standing, but by rights the gap in rank between Amon and Leonard wasn’t something that could close in any short span of time.

Reality, though, was very different.

He was bowing his head and promising wealth and glory to Leonard, an outsider and a commoner on top of that, all so the Vincent house that treated him as dead weight would finally acknowledge him. Where in the world could there be anything more ridiculous, more absurd than this?

Amon pictured how he must look doing it and ground his teeth.

Insolent little brat…!

A man branded incompetent would never be handed a chance like this twice, and a mere child was kicking it aside.

So he couldn’t understand it, and he seethed.

“Listen. You don’t seem to get it, so let me spell it out. What I’m talking about isn’t an offer you’ll hear just anywhere.”

“Right. I suppose that could be true.”

“Think it over again. The Vincent house is seriously powerful. We can guarantee your family’s future and your own, all of it. And if you turn down the goodwill I went out of my way to offer…”

Amon was about to go on explaining, but he simply shut his mouth. It was plain to see that Leonard’s reaction had gone past disappointing. He wasn’t taking in a single word.

“…Hah.”

Enough of this, Amon muttered inwardly.

Having to bow and scrape and humor a brat like this in the first place… he felt he’d kept up something so against his nature for long enough. He slowed his pace a little to let Leonard get ahead, then slid a hand inside his coat.

What he drew out was a bracelet.

“The Bracelet of Subjugation.”

True to its name, it let the wearer control the mind of a single living creature semi-permanently. But because it worked on beasts and humans alike, and because it wrecked the mind beyond any hope of recovery, it was a forbidden magic item.

It didn’t work on people with strong mental resistance, but against a mere nine-year-old it was well worth a try.

Graham, of course, would never want a method like this used. For the Vincent house, which wanted Leonard’s genius whole and intact, the risk was far too great.

But Amon’s heart was too warped by now for that kind of rational judgment.

Plan, my ass.

It had nothing to do with the family or with honor. All he wanted, here and now, was to crush Leonard by any means whatsoever and prove that he was the better of the two.

— Wooooom.

With the bracelet on, Amon carefully aimed his palm at the back of Leonard’s head. As a dark, dismal green energy gathered itself into a small bead, he felt a base pleasure at the sight and smiled quietly.

It was just then.

“So it’s true what they say. You can’t fix a person.”

The instant Leonard muttered it as he walked on ahead, the air changed.

He turned his head slowly, and the face he showed held no childish innocence. A boiling anger had filled it at some point, and the presence pouring off his whole body was in no way a nine-year-old’s.

How.

How could a mere child wear a look like that?

Only then did Amon realize they’d come into an empty back lane, without a trace of anyone else around. When had they come so far, to a place this bleak? And why hadn’t he noticed until a moment ago?

“I was just wondering how I ought to deal with you… and here you are, kindly pulling out something like that for me yourself, Amon Vincent.”

— Crackle!

Deep behind the eyes Leonard had fixed on Amon, mana sparked and flashed.

“Thanks to you, I’ve made up my mind.”