Part 15: Fishing (2)

News of Frondier’s new record soon spread throughout Constel.

The staff responsible for the training-room programs promptly gathered to run another inspection. It was less that they doubted Frondier had broken the record than that a time of 3.14 seconds was simply too absurd.

“All right, I’m ready,” said Jane, standing in the middle of a private training room.

Several spheres of magical energy were already floating around her. After confirming that she was ready, a staff member set up the test: Target Practice, highest difficulty.

“Then... begin!”

The staff member activated the test, and Jane fired her magic spheres at the targets.

A little later...

“... Hmm. It’s working just fine.”

Her time was 34.6 seconds.

The assembled teachers scratched their heads. There was nothing wrong with the test’s functions. Jane had improved on her own previous time, but that meant little.

“Even if you finish casting in advance and have someone else operate the program, it only shaves off a second or two at most.”

“Apparently, the previous record holder, who achieved 31.5 seconds, specialized in rapid fire. In other words, they didn’t hit each target individually, but showered them with a barrage of magic bullets.”

“Then a time of 3.14 seconds makes even less sense.”

The program currently showed no malfunctions or display errors. Unless it had somehow broken and then fixed itself, Frondier’s record had to be genuine.

As they discussed this, one member of staff spoke up.

“Couldn’t this Frondier boy be good at programming? If he hacked it or something to fake a plausible result—”

The other teachers turned and glared at him before he could finish. For a moment, the man failed to understand their looks. Then realization struck, and his face went pale.

“... Well, we can’t rule it out as a possibility.”

The speaker was Malia. Malia de Roach, Frondier’s mother.

Making that remark with her present had been spectacularly tactless.

“But Frondier has no talent in that area. I rather wish he had a talent for something like that, at least. He’s never worked with programs at home, either. Does that answer your question?”

“Y-yes. My apologies, Lady Malia.”

“There’s no need to apologize. It was a good line of reasoning.”

Malia smiled as she spoke. To the man, that smile looked nothing but cold and frightening, but she was quite sincere.

‘... But if he didn’t hack it, how on earth did he do it?’

Malia had watched Jane take the test. A time of 3.14 seconds would be hard to accept no matter who had achieved it, not just Frondier. She couldn’t even imagine how it could be done.

“What about the spell Chain Lightning? Could the lightning have destroyed the targets in succession?”

“That wouldn’t work. The targets are only holograms, so lightning won’t latch onto them. And if the solution were that simple, the record would have been broken long ago.”

Lightning was fast, but its nature prevented it from being condensed into magic bullets. Besides, it was surprisingly difficult to aim. In terms of efficiency, using a large number of magic bullets was ultimately the only option.

‘The targets only appear after the test begins. So the instant it starts, he would have to count every target at a glance, create that many magic bullets, and then give all of them homing properties...’

Preposterous.

Preposterous, but it was the only possibility they could think of at present.

When the discussion reached that point, Ales, who had been silent until then, spoke up.

“But is Frondier even a mage?”

Everyone blinked for a moment at his question. Their eyes turned to Jane. Of those present, she was the only one who knew anything about Frondier, having accompanied him into a dungeon.

“... W-well, I’m not sure?”

But even Jane couldn’t offer a clear answer. Now that she thought about it, she had never seen him fight. A trap had separated them partway through their dungeon expedition.

‘But he wasn’t dressed like a mage. And he was carrying a dagger.’

The dagger Frondier had carried at the time was a basic one used for harvesting materials, but it was also true that he’d had no other weapon.

“At this point, wouldn’t it be best to ask him directly? It doesn’t appear to be a program error. Let’s look at this positively. If 3.14 seconds is his genuine time, then a student who will redefine genius has appeared at Constel.”

“Hmm, that’s true, but...”

The other staff members looked uncomfortable at Ales’s suggestion. In truth, even a charitable description of how most teachers had treated Frondier until now would have bordered on contempt. It was difficult to accept that he had suddenly set such an impossible record.

And there was a more immediate problem.

One of the staff spoke up.

“Then, um... who’s going to ask him?”

* * *

And so, here I was.

Somewhat dumbfounded, I looked at the two teachers seated across from me: Jane and my mother, Malia, the school nurse.

“So you came to ask how I set that record.”

“Hmm, well, that’s about the size of it.”

Jane answered with an awkward expression. After all, this was practically an admission that none of the teachers who had inspected the program had been able to figure it out.

I considered this for a moment. Breaking the Target Practice record had been a completely unexpected accident. Once again, I was reminded of just how powerful Divine-grade weapons were.

‘... But if this is how things are going to play out, that stone rolled in a rather convenient direction.’

Only Jane and Malia were here. Both were wholly good characters who had never once fallen into corruption in the game. I couldn’t pass up this opportunity.

I was particularly glad Malia was here. Much as Philly had inherited Foresight, Malia possessed hereditary magic, and that magic was essential to my plan.

“So how did you do it? How did you shave roughly twenty-seven seconds off the record?”

“... How do you think I did it, ma’am?” I asked in return.

Jane’s eyes narrowed. She probably didn’t appreciate my answering her question with one of my own. But whether I told her was my decision, after all.

She watched me for a moment before speaking as though conceding defeat.

“... The faculty believes you either generated a large number of magic bullets or used a rapid-fire option, then added homing properties.”

I see.

Apparently, no one thought I’d used a bow. Then again, there had been far more than one or two targets. It was hard to imagine in the first place. A single arrow splitting apart on its own was difficult to believe without seeing it yourself.

It seemed highly unlikely that the teachers would reach the truth by discussing it among themselves.

‘I wonder if Aten figured it out.’

She had seen Iocheira split during my fight with Renzo, so she could probably make an educated guess. I hoped she wouldn’t say anything unnecessary. And knowing Aten, she would keep quiet for me.

“Now it’s your turn to answer, Frondier.”

“... Nothing we discuss here will get out, will it?”

“Of course not. That’s why we arranged this private meeting.”

“Are you certain?”

“Malia and I cast the security spell together. No information from inside this classroom can leak out.”

Good. That was everything I needed to know.

I brought my hands together. That single movement drew both Jane’s and Malia’s attention.

“There’s something I need to tell you both.”

“What is it?”

“I know who the rat is.”

The moment I said that—no, before I’d even finished half the sentence—their tension peaked. Jane even gathered her Mana for an instant.

She forced a smile onto her rigid face and asked,

“... What do you mean by that?”

Well, that was the normal reaction.

Malia, however, reacted a little differently. She leaned closer to me and spoke.

“... Frondier, is that true?”

Instead, Malia dropped her formal manner of addressing me. Right now, she wasn’t a teacher, but my mother, Malia de Roach.

“M-Malia. It’s far too dangerous for a student to hear about these things.”

“But it seems Frondier already knows everything.”

By “rat,” I naturally meant the traitor within Constel. Renzo had two other accomplices in the intrusion: one in the Imperial Palace, Philly’s daughter, and another among Constel’s teachers.

That was a far more urgent and important matter than how I had broken some record.

Constel didn’t know I had stopped Renzo and severed his arm. They believed I had discovered him without being noticed and reported him to Eden, bringing the incident under control.

But even with that altered account, Malia would understand what my actions meant: why I had gone to Eden rather than the teachers. That I, too, suspected someone among the faculty.

That was why she could trust what I was saying now.

“I know you wouldn’t believe me even if I named them right now.”

But that still wasn’t enough. Suspecting someone among the teachers and knowing exactly who it was were two entirely different matters.

“So I’ll prove it.”

“... How?”

“I’ll draw the traitor out into the open.”

Malia and Jane exchanged looks at my words. I’d said nothing but outrageous things so far, but this must have been the most outrageous of all.

“... You’re going to draw out the traitor hiding among Constel’s teachers?”

“Yes. So please don’t breathe a word of this to anyone, and help me when the situation arises.”

“... What situation?”

“When the time comes, you won’t be able to miss it.”

I was being sparing with the details because I didn’t know precisely how the situation would develop. I had a plan, and I was confident it would succeed, but several different outcomes were possible afterward.

Whichever way it went, I needed witnesses. Witnesses who could testify that I had been targeting the culprit from the start.

* * *

After finishing his explanation, Frondier left. Jane and Malia remained, each lost in thought.

Jane was the first to speak.

“Does Frondier really know who the traitor is?”

“... I’m not sure. We’ll have to wait and see.”

Malia usually took Frondier’s side, but even she found it difficult to believe him this time. Until Renzo’s intrusion, the faculty hadn’t even known there was a traitor within Constel. Even now, after the attack, their identity remained a mystery.

Yet Frondier claimed to know who it was.

“You seem to believe in Frondier, Malia. What were you thinking, then?”

“... I...”

In a rare display of hesitation, Malia trailed off. Lightly biting her lower lip, she seemed deeply troubled.

“... About Frondier breaking the record.”

“Oh, right. That was why we called him here in the first place.”

Jane smoothed her hair. Frondier’s statement had been so shocking that she had briefly forgotten their original purpose.

She asked, “Malia, have you figured out how Frondier broke the record?”

“No, that’s not it. It’s just... the timing strikes me as far too convenient.”

“The timing?”

“... Jane.”

After lengthy deliberation, Malia looked at her as though she had made up her mind.

“Doesn’t it seem to you that Frondier broke the record deliberately?”

“... What do you mean?”

“I mean this meeting, this situation we’re in. We called Frondier here because he broke the record, didn’t we? And we cast soundproofing and security spells on this room.”

“... Surely you don’t mean...”

“And most of Constel’s teachers know we’re here. In other words, to anyone else, our meeting with Frondier looks perfectly reasonable and natural.”

Jane’s eyes widened at Malia’s words.

“Are you saying Frondier broke the record so he could give us information about the traitor? Malia, you’re reading far too much into this.”

“But if this is true, it explains everything he’s done. Even his suddenly breaking the record makes sense.”

If someone shattered the previous Target Practice record by a huge margin, the teachers would naturally inspect the program. All the more so if that student was Frondier, with his poor reputation.

And if they couldn’t figure out how he’d broken it, their natural next step would be to ask him directly. It was also possible to predict that Jane and Malia would be chosen for the task.

“What if all of this went exactly as Frondier intended?”

“...”

For a moment, Jane was speechless. She wanted to dismiss the idea as absurd, but the more she thought about it, the more Malia’s words sent a chill through her, too.

Suppose it was true that Frondier knew exactly who the traitor was. He would have wanted to pass that information to teachers he could trust. But that wasn’t easy at Constel, with so many watching eyes and listening ears. He would have needed an opportunity to convey it.

But in that case...

“... Does that mean Frondier could have broken the record whenever he wanted?”

“Yes.”

“His 3.14-second Target Practice record wasn’t a fluke or an error? He could have achieved a time like that whenever he wanted?”

“... That would be the implication.”

Jane held her head.

She was still far too sensible a person to accept all of that at once.