Part 7: Disciplinary Committee

Edwin sat in a chair. His mouth was bone-dry, matched by the cold sweat running down his back.

Before him, Constel’s renowned teachers were watching him. Surrounded by them, he sat like a criminal.

No, he was a criminal.

He was attending a disciplinary hearing.

“... Edwin.”

“Y-yes, sir!”

A white-haired man sat opposite Edwin. A piercing light shone in his eyes, framed by wrinkles, and his long robe concealed his build.

He was Constel’s ultimate authority and highest-ranking official: President Ospreet, one of the Zodiacs.

“There should be no need to explain what happened. You turned yourself in, after all.”

“... That is correct.”

Edwin nodded quietly.

A young man to his right spoke in a deep voice. It was Ales, the Basic Combat Skills instructor.

“You subjected students to a one-sided assault. Some were seriously injured! Geri, in particular, is still hospitalized with a shattered jaw! That is by no means a minor offense, even if you did turn yourself in!”

“Personally, I think the fact that he turned himself in is more important.”

The reply came from Jane, who taught Introductory Mana Theory and Basic Practical Training. She was the teacher who had led Frondier’s group through the Low-Level Dungeon. Even here on the committee, her cheerful face stood out.

“Until Edwin used the Golem, he was the one suffering a one-sided assault. Every injured student belonged to the commoners’ group Aktober, and we have already confirmed evidence that they were systematically bullying him.”

“Even so! They hadn’t injured Edwin anywhere near that badly!”

“It may only have stopped there because Edwin defended himself. It is wrong to describe something that should be judged as excessive self-defense as a one-sided assault.”

Jane and Ales were both full-time Constel teachers who taught the first-year core classes. They had taught Edwin and Geri during their first year, around the time the conflict between commoners and nobles had begun to deepen.

Jane had tried hard to judge each individual separately amid that conflict, but Ales had sided with the commoners from the outset. He himself had risen from the commoner class through honest, dogged effort.

The prejudice against a Fallen Noble was worse than the prejudice against a noble. Many teachers and students knew that Edwin drifted on the fringes, unable to fit in anywhere.

Yet he had steadfastly carried on, never becoming involved in any incident until now. That was why Jane trusted Edwin even in this matter, while Ales believed that this time, Edwin had finally done it.

“Please calm down, both of you.”

The graceful voice belonged to Malia de Roach, the school nurse. It was curious that Malia, merely a school nurse, was attending a disciplinary hearing, but no one questioned her presence.

“The assault is not why we brought Edwin here today. Is it?”

“Correct. The Golem is the problem.”

Ales sounded satisfied as he answered. Jane pursed her lips.

From the Constel teachers’ perspective, this was in fact more problematic than the assault. Much as Jane wanted to defend Edwin, she had little she could say on this issue.

“Edwin, you stole Professor Binkis’s Golem and used it to commit assault. Do you agree?”

Ales’s question was malicious. Edwin had already confessed to precisely that.

He closed his eyes and answered.

“Yes, that is correct.”

“Very little time passed between your theft of the Golem and the assault. It appears you stole it with the intention of attacking the students from the outset. Do you agree?”

“Professor Ales!”

Jane shouted. Ales’s argument rested on nothing but speculation and strained reasoning. But Edwin’s posture and expression had already been withering under his guilt since he first arrived.

Even such a baseless argument might work on him.

“Why aren’t you answering? Do you agree or not?”

“Professor Ales! You’re going too far!”

“I wasn’t asking you, Professor Jane!”

Ales rose from his chair. His heavy, unhurried footsteps were intimidating in themselves. He approached Edwin and threatened him.

“Answer me, Edwin! If you didn’t intend to attack the students, why did you steal Professor Binkis’s Golem? Immediately after stealing it, the very first thing you used it for was assault! What could that sequence of actions be if not deliberate?”

Edwin still had his eyes closed. It was not Ales’s browbeating that shook him. He was shaking himself, undermining his own resolve.

He had done worse than that.

He might have found some excuse for attacking those students. But he had tried to silence Elin, his close friend, and had sincerely tried to kill Frondier. He did not know where that inexplicable rage had come from, but it had unquestionably been his own will.

[“Have you truly fallen that far, Edwin?”]

Elin, you were right. Even trying to deny it would be laughable.

“Answer me, Edwin!!!”

At Ales’s roar, Edwin slowly opened his eyes.

Yes, it seemed he had intended all of it. Admitting it was the right thing to do. Edwin von Behertio had fallen, after all.

Slowly, his mouth opened.

CLAP!!!

A sharp sound swept through the entire meeting room, striking every wall and the ceiling. Everyone turned toward its source.

“... Professor Binkis?”

Ales tilted his head in puzzlement.

Professor Binkis’s hands were pressed together. She had clapped.

“Ah, I finally understand.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Well, I couldn’t understand why Edwin was here like this. I’ve been watching for quite some time, but now I see. So that’s why he’s being scolded?”

Binkis spoke with the relieved expression of someone who had finally solved a problem. Ales frowned at her baffling behavior.

“Surely you know better than anyone what Edwin did wrong?”

“So that’s why none of you said anything to me. You were all under that misapprehension.”

Misapprehension?

Ales’s expression grew more displeased by the moment. For some reason, he had a premonition that Binkis was about to say something deeply unpleasant.

Binkis put both hands on her hips and declared proudly,

“I gave that Golem to Edwin. He didn’t steal it.”

Amazingly, it really was deeply unpleasant.

“W-what?”

“As you all know, Edwin has served as my assistant for a long time. He is such a gifted student that, embarrassing as it is to admit, I received a great deal of help from him in my Golem research. The Golem was a gift in return.”

Ales gaped in disbelief, letting out a breath.

A teacher had given a mere student a Metal Golem? Was that something that cost pocket change? Something that required only a book or two’s worth of knowledge? Something one could build with a day or two of practice?

Absolutely not.

Ales looked at Edwin. Even more astonished than Ales, Edwin was staring wide-eyed at Binkis. His lips trembled, and his eyes brimmed as though he might burst into tears at any moment.

“Judging by Edwin’s expression, that doesn’t seem to be the case.”

“Hah. His expression?”

Binkis sneered at Ales’s words.

“Where have all that proud ‘logic’ and ‘speculation’ you were using on Edwin a moment ago gone? Now, suddenly, you’re talking about his expression? Have you acquired the ability to read people’s minds from their faces, Mr. Ales?”

“Professor Binkis! Whatever you say, how can giving a Metal Golem as a gift possibly make sense?”

“Don’t you realize that your own claim is even more absurd?”

“Even more absurd...?”

At Ales’s disingenuous question, Binkis swept her gaze across the room. Once the gesture had drawn everyone’s attention, she smiled haughtily.

“Let me ask you a question instead. You all seem to think Edwin stole my Golem. How, exactly, did he steal it?”

“... Well, by sneaking into your laboratory.”

“And then?”

“... Hah.”

Every teacher understood what Binkis meant. Her intention was equally clear. She intended to protect Edwin, however far she had to stretch the truth, and there was no dismantling her argument now.

“My Golem has multiple layers of encryption and security. No one but me can interfere with its design in any way. Professor Ales, judging by your remarks, you seem well aware of a Metal Golem’s value. Do you think I would leave something like that sitting in my laboratory without any precautions?”

“B-but surely someone with extensive knowledge of Golems, metal, and magic could do it?”

“I can assure you of this.”

Binkis shifted her gaze to Ospreet.

“Not one of the teachers here could crack the encryption I placed on that Golem. Not even you, Mr. President.”

No one could say a word. They understood the weight of that claim: not even Ospreet could crack it.

Ospreet himself, however, showed little reaction. He might have been affirming Binkis’s claim, or simply ignoring it.

Binkis looked at Ales.

“Let me ask again. Which seems more likely: that I gave a Metal Golem to a student, or that a mere student bypassed security that none of the teachers here could defeat?”

“... Professor Binkis, that’s an absurd argument...”

“I’m not the one being unreasonable.”

As they exchanged those words, their conversation reached Edwin as nothing more than background noise. Guilt welled up inside him, and shame obscured his vision.

Professor Binkis was protecting him. Him, who had deceived her and stolen her Golem.

With Edwin trapped beneath the stigma of being a Fallen Noble, Binkis had been one of his few allies. He had betrayed her, and she had placed her faith in him once again.

That one fact made his entire being tremble.

Edwin bowed his head. Wretched, unsure even what expression he was wearing, he could only stare at the floor.

Ospreet watched him: the hands gripping his knees, his trembling shoulders, his bowed head.

‘... Behertio.’

He had thought the Behertio family’s sun had set for good. Its days as a distinguished house had coincided with the years when its head and Ospreet had shared their prime.

He had thought they would grow old together as the years passed.

What had been such a hurry? What greed and obstinacy had lured his old companion to ruin?

The family had withered so swiftly that he had thought it would never rise again.

“Professor Malia.”

Ospreet broke his long silence.

“Yes?”

“I hear that a boy and a girl went to the infirmary with Edwin from the site where the Golem was destroyed.”

“That is correct.”

“Did they have anything to say?”

“Ah, yes.”

Edwin’s eyes flew open. They meant Elin and Frondier. When he raised his head, his eyes met Malia’s. She was looking at him.

“Edwin, those two left messages for you.”