Karim Lake's gaze turned to Ethan, who stood right beside Nigel. His voice was gentle, yet the pressure within it seemed to press down on the air like a weight.
Nigel stole a glance at Ethan Lake's face. The boy wore the expression of a man standing at the edge of a cliff. And Nigel understood: whether or not Ethan Lake plunged off that cliff would be decided by his own answer, right now.
“...gave the same answer.”
There was no proof. Perhaps Karim Lake was nothing more than a relative trying to discipline his nephew harshly. But this conversation had led Nigel to one conclusion: Karim Lake was a dangerous man. Just as Ethan had urged him a moment ago to summon the Imperial Knights, it was now certain that within this academy there was a faction seeking Nigel's life.
That was when it happened.
“What are you waiting for, Karim?”
A cold voice cut in. Hm? Nigel turned his head and saw Ethan Lake's snake-like eyes. What was that expression? Just moments ago, hadn't Ethan Lake been speaking to Karim with deference? Nigel's brow furrowed. Wait...
He had the feeling something was wrong.
Beeeee
A bizarre, high-pitched sound he'd never heard before bored straight through his ears. Ugh, what was this? The instant Nigel raised his arm to cover his ears, a sharp prick stung the back of his neck.
“...!”
At once, whoosh, the mana inside his body churned. The protective magic embedded in him activated automatically. But that was as far as it went. The transparent barrier that would normally encircle Nigel like an iron wall scattered like a mirage, never even taking shape.
...Why?
Nigel's violet eyes widened slightly. There was mana enough. But the force that should have moved to draw the magic circle only unraveled and dispersed.
“As expected, the people of the Empire have no immunity to Sihar's poison.”
Hearing Karim Lake's voice above his head, Nigel felt his knees buckle limply beneath him.
“My apologies, Lord Tashar. For a moment I lost myself too deeply in the role of the uncle.”
Tashar, surely, was the surname of the Sihar royal family. Thinking this, Nigel slowly closed his eyes. His vision flipped over violently, and the floor rushed up to meet his face. Nigel felt a vicious humiliation at the fact that his own body could collapse so helplessly.
Just as he thought he would be dashed against the cold dirt floor, someone caught his upper body with a powerful grip.
“...I told you I'd bring the Crown Prince myself. You should have just waited at the agreed-upon spot. One slip and you nearly ruined everything, Karim.”
Ethan's voice came from above his head.
What? He'd been after this from the very start... Even with his eyes closed, Nigel's brow creased.
“Shall I be honest with you? For just a moment, I doubted you, Lord Tashar.”
Karim Lake gave a hearty laugh, then praised Ethan.
“But of course you'd never abandon Sihar. To deceive the great Nigel Kaiserion himself, how magnificent. Thanks to you, the task has been made easy.”
Through his blurring vision, Nigel looked at the arm supporting him. A firm body, and a familiar scent.
It was the Ethan Lake he had always known.
“...”
Ethan said nothing. But the fingertips gripping Nigel trembled ever so slightly.
No, was this really Ethan Lake?
Nigel wrung out the last of his strength to clutch at the hem of Ethan's clothes, but there was no sensation left even in his fingertips.
Ethan's gaze dropped onto Nigel's face. In his eyes, instead of a traitor's cold cruelty, there was a mingling of the wretched grief of a man whose heart had been carved out and a strange, feverish heat.
“...Ethan.”
Nigel ground out his name through gritted teeth, but Ethan only pulled Nigel's head deeper against his chest, hiding his face.
It felt like a gesture meant to shield Nigel from Karim's gaze, though that was surely not it. More likely it was preparation to carry him off to the central building they'd spoken of, now that they'd achieved their aim.
Karim, looking satisfied, clapped his two palms together and said,
“We'll just barely make the appointed time.”
“...Yeah.”
Ethan's reply was heavy and damp, like wet earth.
When he came to, Nigel realized he was lying in a place of terrible stillness.
The floor was hard and cold.
Even when he tried to open his eyes, his eyelids were heavy, as though something had been laid upon them. He didn't know exactly what had been injected into him, but they'd said it was Sihar's poison.
Nigel barely managed to open his eyes. His vision swam and blurred, but the violet night sky beyond the window and the night view of the academy spread out beneath it gave him a guess as to where he was.
The upper level of the astronomical observatory in the Magic Faculty building. A bell tower from which one could look down over the entire academy from its highest point, yet which was utterly cut off from the outside world.
Why have they moved me here? Nigel was rubbing his furrowed eyes with his fingers, lost in thought, when it happened.
“...You're awake.”
At the voice from behind him, Nigel whipped his head around. But the price of the sudden movement was severe. A ringing like a bell tolling inside his skull came with it, and his vision flickered white.
“Ugh...”
“Careful.”
As Nigel started to topple to the floor again, Ethan Lake steadily caught and propped up his whole body.
“It was a poison that does no harm whatsoever to your health. If you lie still a little longer, it'll all wear off.”
“Get away.”
Even as he swayed, Nigel shook off Ethan Lake's help and spoke coldly. Where had that mocking, cynical attitude gone, the one that had sneered at him for trusting Ethan Lake? Now the boy played the part of the dutiful junior before him again, and it was loathsome. How ridiculous he must have looked all this time.
Damn it. His head was a mess. It felt as if the headache was about to return.
“I said get away!”
Smack! He shoved Ethan Lake's arm away hard. Then he let out a hollow laugh.
“Ethan Lake. So it was you.”
“...”
“You were the one trying to kill me. And I never dreamed of it, living all this while with you idiotically at my side.”
Ethan offered no excuse, only gazed quietly at Nigel as he wore a self-mocking smile.
“So what's your plan now? If you'd meant to kill me, you've had more than enough time to do it. Is it so you can kill me as gruesomely as possible, to make an example of the Empire?”
Even at Nigel's sneer, not a muscle in Ethan's face moved. Instead he bent his knees and crouched down, bringing himself level with Nigel where he lay collapsed on the floor.
“...”
At that straight, steady stare, Nigel's violet eyes twisted faintly. It was a terribly close, terribly impolite distance.
“I have no intention of letting you die.”
“You think I'm going to believe a word you say now?”
Nigel gave a bitter smile and leaned his body against the wall. Maybe it was the cold floor, but his fingertips tingled and his heart beat slower than usual, yet his violet eyes alone still gave off a cool, sharp glint.
“Is this the result of that trust you kept talking about?”
Even at Nigel's barbed words, Ethan did not so much as stir. It was as if Nigel were pressing the point, Wasn't every word you said wrong, in the end?
The eyes that had always kept their composure behind his glasses now swept over Nigel's body, clear as glass.
Then, very slowly, Ethan reached out a hand.
Nigel tried to turn his head away in disgust, but the cold wall at his back cut off his retreat. Ethan's fingers grazed past Nigel's disheveled hair and came to rest near the sweat-beaded nape of his neck.
“Your Highness always seems to value your pride above your very life. That's why, in the end, you didn't even summon the Imperial Knights as I'd advised.”
Ethan's voice was low and calm.
As though it were an ordinary afternoon, the two of them turning pages and chatting in the dining hall over lunch. But to Nigel, that calmness sounded more bizarre than anything else.
“And it's because of that pride that you're lying here on the floor now.”
Nigel, who had listened in silence, let out a snort and said,
“...No. Ethan Lake.”
Then, brushing off the sleeve of his garment, wrinkled and dirtied from lying on the floor, he went on.
“The reason I'm lying here isn't my pride. It's your betrayal. Isn't that right?”
At Nigel's cold question, Ethan's hand stopped for the briefest instant.
Betrayal. The word sank into the silence between the two of them.
Instead of answering, Ethan very courteously tucked the damp hair that had slid down Nigel's cheek back behind his ear. It was the movement of a servant observing propriety toward his master.
“Well...”
A low murmur came. It seemed faintly laced with a laugh, drawing out longer toward the end. In Ethan Lake's eyes, in place of his usual formality, there mingled a desire deep as an abyss and an indescribable weariness.
“From the moment I brought you here, I was prepared for it.”
