Part 12: The Traitor (1)

Aten hurried over to check Frondier’s condition. A moment of panic was enough. She swiftly composed herself.

On the surface, Frondier seemed merely unconscious.

But...

'His pulse...'

She checked his pulse, but it was far too faint. Unless she focused all her attention on it, she could barely feel a beat. His breathing was the same.

“Let me examine him.”

A healer from the Imperial Knights approached. Spreading a hand, the healer assessed Frondier’s condition, sending mana through him to examine the inside of his body.

“... This is...”

The healer’s eyes widened in disbelief. Despair and fear filled them.

“How is he?”

“... Parts of his body are missing throughout.”

“Missing?”

“Not just his internal organs—his heart, lungs, liver, stomach—but his bones, nerves, and muscles as well. There isn’t enough of any of them.”

Not enough?

Aten recalled what Renzo had said.

[“I see, I see! A performance boost! I don’t know what you did, but that’s an unbelievable amount of mana!”]

A performance boost. That was what Renzo had called it. Without something like that, the amount of mana truly was impossible to believe. She did not know how Frondier had done it. But if this was the price his body had paid, it was far too cruel.

“Then what should we do?”

“...”

“Can healing magic restore him?”

“...”

Despite Aten’s questions, the healer merely kept silent, visibly at a loss.

“Why aren’t you answering?”

Aten’s expression turned cold. She was not panicking in the slightest. At times like these, she only grew more composed.

“... Lady Aten. Healing is a means of treating wounds. But his only wound is the contusion on his side. It is severe, of course, but even if I heal it...”

“Even if you heal it?”

“... It won’t restore the missing parts.”

At the healer’s words, Aten squeezed her eyes shut. When she opened them again, she looked at her mother, Philly.

“Then we must take Frondier to a hospital immediately, Mother.”

“... Aten.”

“Hurry. It may be too late for surgery.”

“Aten.”

“Quickly—”

Philly gripped Aten’s shoulders.

“We can’t move him right now.”

“...”

“You heard what was said. It isn’t just his organs. Parts of his muscles, bones, and nerves are missing too. We don’t know what might happen if we move him.”

Frondier’s body was now frailer than a child’s. Even compared to a baby, too much was missing, yet his body was far larger than a child’s. No matter how carefully they carried him on a stretcher and drove him there, they could not guarantee his safety.

“Even if he undergoes surgery, even if it goes perfectly, he’ll have to live with severe disabilities.”

At Philly’s words, Aten looked at Frondier’s face. It was the same face she always saw. Whenever she met him at Constel, she would trail faithfully after him. The same face, the same shoulders, the same body.

“... Then what am I supposed to do?”

No one answered her.

“Lady Aten, I’m afraid he...”

A knight approached her. Aten swept her emotionless gaze over him.

“He did everything he could to save you, Lady Aten. Having saved an imperial princess, surely there could be no greater honor for him—”

SMACK!

At the knight’s worthless attempt at consolation, Aten slapped him mercilessly across the face. Cold frost formed on the cheek she had struck.

“Shut your mouth. Frondier didn’t save an imperial princess.”

“L-Lady Aten.”

“It wasn’t anything like that.”

An honor? Because I’m a princess? Frondier de Roach saved me because I’m a princess?

No. If that were true, Frondier could never have treated me so casually. He would have bowed and scraped before me like so many others, addressing me with absurd honorifics.

No. Frondier hadn’t saved a princess. In his eyes, Aten must have been a person no different from anyone else. He had simply saved one ordinary person.

That was the choice Frondier had made.

Aten sank to both knees. She gazed at Frondier with her snow-white eyes.

“Lady Aten?”

... The imperial family stood above the people in order to protect them. What had all that undeserved wealth and power, and all the education they provided, been for?

Save him. That is your duty, Aten.

Aten’s magical power rose, and the temperature around her fell in equal measure. Ice magic had always been her specialty. But this went beyond that. She gradually grew colder, as though even her exhaled breath might freeze.

“L-Lady Aten! This is dangerous!”

A knight’s voice tried to stop her. She could not hear it. It was distant, like words heard from the other side of the water.

Aten had now reached a certain state.

'Think.'

Find a way. What must I do to save Frondier? I’ve never learned healing magic. Besides, healing won’t work. It can’t bring back what’s been lost.

'... What if it wasn’t lost?'

Frondier had increased his mana. In exchange, much of his body had disappeared. In other words, those parts had turned into mana.

What she needed to do was not heal his wounds. Just as his body had been turned into mana, she had to turn mana back into his body.

In other words, “reversion.”

She had never done anything like it, nor did she know whether it was even possible. Yet for some reason, Aten had a feeling she could do it.

Aten raised both hands over Frondier. The air glittered with every movement of her hands. Particles in the air were freezing. That cold mana seeped into Frondier’s body.

'... I see.'

Through that process, Aten understood the condition of Frondier’s body. In that instant, she had performed a technique that took healers years of training to master. Examining his insides, she could see for herself just how much danger he was in.

He was not dead. He was unquestionably alive. But the embers of that life were slowly dying out.

His depleted organs, muscles, blood, and bones—all of them had become far too “small” to sustain his life.

'Good. Now if I spread the mana evenly... '

Aten slowly channeled mana into the parts of Frondier’s body that were missing. The precision with which she manipulated it, dispersing it in strands as fine as thread, was astounding.

But...

'... You can’t, Aten.'

Watching her, Philly suppressed her troubled expression. Even if Aten filled him with her mana using that astonishing control, even if she truly could turn mana back into flesh, she would ultimately be stopped by her lack of knowledge.

“...!”

Aten’s fingertips trembled. It was just as Philly had thought. She had succeeded in putting mana into him, but that was as far as she could go. Aten intuitively felt that her ability could perform “reversion.” But she could not do what she did not know how to do.

“... Lady Aten...”

Everyone was watching her. Watching anguish spread across that cold face. Watching blood trickle from the lower lip she had bitten so hard.

'Find it... '

Find a way, Aten. You’re an imperial princess. You’re supposed to save people.

'... No.'

That wasn’t it. After coming this far, even now, was she going to keep lying?

It wasn’t as a princess. Just as Frondier had saved Aten Terst, not an imperial princess, she wanted to save Frondier.

I... I, Aten Terst, want to save Frondier de Roach!

... Huh?

At that moment, she saw a vision. Something that was not real, a sight that reached her eyes alone.

STEP.

Philly stepped forward from where she had been watching. She would stop Aten. Afterward, she would tell Aten about her foresight—that a future existed in which Aten would one day be able to perform “reversion.”

Then Aten would surely hate her. She would demand to know why Philly had not told her sooner. Say that she could have saved Frondier if she had known. Aten, the very purpose of Philly’s life, would curse her for years to come.

That was all right. A little hatred was something she had prepared herself for long ago.

“Aten, that’s enough—”

Philly stopped short as she began to speak. Aten was gazing into empty space rather than at Frondier. Troubled by that strange behavior, Philly looked into her eyes.

And she knew. She knew what Aten was seeing.

'Aten, don’t tell me...!'

[“I’m descended from the völva.”]

[“My mother could do it, apparently.”]

[“I hope my daughters don’t have this ability.”]

Philly had told Frondier. She could see the future because she was descended from the völva. Her mother had possessed that foresight too.

Then her daughter Aten could also—!

'... Ah.'

Aten saw it. Unlike Philly, she did not sense every future through her feelings. The blood of the völva grew thinner with each generation. Right now, Aten could see only herself. Only her own future.

'I see.'

She saw herself standing as a healer at some point in the future, and she saw the knowledge that self possessed.

Aten poured out her mana. Her cold mana flowed into every part of Frondier without leaving a gap. Amid that chill, where the air froze and shattered into light, her gaze rested warmly on him, as though she were gently waking him from sleep.

Frondier, Frondier.

Wake up.

Frondier’s eyelids trembled. His eyes slowly opened, and he saw Aten smiling as though she might cry.

“... Aten.”

“Frondier.”

“... Why are you smiling? No, crying?”

Seeing Frondier chide her as he always did, Aten let out a little laugh, quite unlike her usual self.

“I saw the future.”

“... Aten.”

Frondier sighed at her answer.

“From the moment we met, right up to now...”

There was just no getting through to her.

* * *

Renzo’s intrusion put every part of Constel on high alert. All classes were suspended while the extent of the damage and the causes of the incident were investigated.

But that was only the official reason. Constel had suspended classes for a much simpler reason.

“There’s a damned rat among us.”

In the central conference room, Combat Skills instructor Ales growled those words before the assembled Constel faculty.

Even Jane, who was always at odds with Ales and seldom agreed with him, remained silent. She felt the same way. Indeed, when she slowly spoke, it was in agreement.

“... Earlier, during the third-years’ Professional Work Experience, monsters from the Outside invaded the site.”

Those were the monsters from the Outside that Frondier had warned Quinier about. Although Quinier had handled the situation well, there had still been casualties. Many teachers had left Constel to pay their respects to the bereaved families and investigate the cause. President Ospreet was among them.

“Renzo chose precisely this moment, when so many teachers were absent, to attack.”

“According to the report, Renzo appeared out of nowhere and attempted to abduct Aten. As though he’d simply popped out of thin air.”

“... Teleportation magic.”

Binkis, who had been listening, reached that conclusion, and everyone nodded.

But teleportation magic was not as easy as it sounded. All the more so when transporting not an object but a living being—and a human at that.

“It’s fortunate that a student handled it so well. Things could have been far more horrific,” Jane said.

Malia, the school nurse, smiled wryly.

“He handled it exceedingly well.”

Everyone nodded in agreement.

They did not know that Frondier had severed Renzo’s arm. The account they had received was somewhat altered.

During the practical exam, a student named Frondier de Roach had happened upon Renzo. He had then slipped away and informed Eden and the others, thwarting Renzo’s plan with his deft initial response.

That was the version of events they knew.

Frondier did not want his exploits made public. Of course, the people present had inevitably found out. But he already knew Philly, Aten, and Elin, and Eden was naturally discreet. As for the knights, he had left them to Philly. With Philly handling them, it was safe to assume that nothing would leak from their ranks.

'Perhaps Frondier handled it a little too well,' Malia thought.

She did not know the precise circumstances of Renzo’s infiltration, but he would not have entered without a plan. Especially considering there was a traitor among them. It was difficult to accept at face value that Frondier had discovered Renzo before he could even put his plan into motion.

'Could Frondier be the traitor? ... What a ridiculous thought.'

Malia’s mind raced.

'But if a student wanted to stop Renzo, normally he would try to call a teacher.'

Yet none of the teachers had known about this incident. Why, then, had Frondier not informed a teacher?

'... Of course.'

She did not know how he had figured it out, but Frondier must have suspected it too.

There was a traitor among the teachers.