[562] Scramble Royal (3)
"Female… what?"
Amy repeated, bewildered, but the boys who had already devoured the red book had no words to say even if they had mouths.
"Humph. Anyway, I don't even know who the president of the Female Human Body Research Club is."
Amy remembered the thing she'd heard in the cafeteria.
"So that was the red book? Shirone, have you ever seen it?"
"Huh? Uh, well… there is a book. I have eyes too…."
It was a ridiculous excuse, and it wouldn't pass as a lie.
Contrary to what he'd expected, Amy didn't scold them; instead she turned away with a look of relief. If she learned the person in the red book was someone at the school, she'd react differently—but that was a secret to take to the grave.
Having passed the awkward moment, Shirone asked, "Still, you must have a rough list of candidates, right? Who do you think it is?"
"Hmm, it's really hard. They're so well hidden I can't even get a bead on it. Still, if I had to pick…."
Nade glanced around the snack counter.
"Surprisingly, it could be Eden."
"Ma'am, one soda please."
Shirone looked at Eden, who had just come into the shop.
She was currently tenth among the graduating class.
A devout follower of the Yor sect, she specialized in defensive magic.
'Right—Gaold used to be a Yor believer too,' Shirone thought.
Because the religion abhorred violence, it made sense Eden focused on defense magic; yet she still held her place in Class One, so her magical talent was clearly considerable.
"But why would Eden be a candidate?"
"That's what I heard—Eden gets stronger the less she's wearing."
Shirone accidentally poured the cocoa he'd been sipping back into the mug.
"What nonsense is that?"
"You know how certain non-regulation acts—special rituals even if they're not official—can strengthen someone's power? Magical Actions are that kind of thing. Yor's nonviolence forbids weapons entirely. In short, God protects them so much they don't even need clothes."
"Hmm, could that be true?"
Amy said, "I know that story too. So last year, during dueling practice, some of the guys got all fired up and attacked like crazy."
The three of them asked in chorus, "So what happened?"
Amy regarded them with exasperation. "In a pinch she probably stripped down to her outer garment. Of course, the durability of her defensive magic increased."
Nade nodded. "That's it. According to sources, when Eden is completely naked her power spikes so high even professional mages can't land a scratch."
Iruki said, "If that's true, she was unlucky—during the graduation tests last year."
Amy recalled the time. "The first stage ended instantly under Fermi's lead, and the second was a mental measurement, so magic didn't matter much. But that's the graduation exam—two of the six tests are chosen at random, so you have to be ready for every evaluation. Got it? We don't have time to worry about stuff like this now."
Amy jabbed a finger and lectured them point by point, but no one paid much attention.
"In that case it wouldn't be strange for Eden to be a candidate. But the biggest trait of the Female Human Body Research Club is their incredible drawing skill, right?"
"Hmm, then Kongger could be a possibility."
Nade pointed to Kongger, sixth in the senior rankings.
Despite his huge frame and orangutan-like face, he wore a shy smile as he played cat's cradle. True to a steel mage who transmutes metal, his string was forged of steel.
"Feminine and dexterous. His looks are odd, but… maybe that actually fits," Shirone said, shaking his head. "He's eccentric, but he's a good person."
Kongger was loyal and kind to everyone.
"I think if we're judging by gloomy personality, Fjord's the top candidate."
A student sat with a hood over his robe, breaking insect legs. No wonder the seats around him were empty.
A poison mage; small, frail, with the face of a sixteen-year-old, though his real age was twenty-three—the drug side effects made him look younger. He'd once been in Class One but had fallen to eleventh as his juniors rose.
Iruki added her vote to Shirone's assessment. "He's the nastiest personality for sure. Not balanced, and in a survey he was number one as the student people least wanted to face in one-on-one combat. If that guy is the president of the Female Human Body Research Club, it'll be a tough fight."
Nade grabbed his head and shook it. "Ugh, I don't know. If we go like that, anyone could be a candidate. Who honestly hates the female body?"
Amy narrowed her eyes. "Do whatever you want. I'm not going to worry about it."
Iruki said, "Anyway, that's roughly our enemy profile. Plus they even recruit advanced-class students, so they could strike during senior classes—like this morning. So Shirone, you have to hold them off."
Before he knew it, Shirone had become Istas's gatekeeper.
"All right. I'll handle it somehow."
He judged that, whoever from the advanced class attacked, he could hold them off now.
Amy checked the time and stood. "Let's go. Oh, and Shirone—don't cast Shibulsangpokmae in Istas for a while. It could be dangerous."
"Yeah. I was thinking the same."
Once the students left for the senior-year afternoon schedule, only Shirone and the snack shop owner remained.
"Hmm. An underground research club, huh."
The last drop of cocoa slid down Shirone's throat.
* * *
That evening, the Golden Flower Wheel.
Leaders were summoned to the hideout hidden in the northeastern mountains beyond Alpheas School of Magic.
Unusually, there was no banquet; Fermi sat in a cold atmosphere, downing strong liquor and brooding.
'Miro is back.'
That meant nothing would hinder Fermi's plan anymore.
'Maybe staying at the school will be over after this year.'
He finished his thought, looked up, and asked, "Is everyone here now?"
"Yeah. Except that one."
Including Fermi, the Golden Flower Wheel's leaders numbered five. Present were Hershi of the Hide-and-Seek Research Club, the Electric Monster Laiken, and Richard of Alchemy.
"Why the sudden summons? What's up?" Laiken asked.
"Prings proposed an agreement today."
"The Hide-and-Seek Research Club?" Hershi, Fermi's chief of staff, added, "It seems they've already offered it to other clubs. The presidents of Doll Collecting and Ant Language asked me to verify it."
"Then…." The leaders' eyes flashed, and Fermi smiled. "Right—Scramble Royal. The target is the Paranormal Spiritual Science Research Club. We drive them out and take Istas."
"Kukuku, the day we've awaited has finally come," Richard of Alchemy said, lips curling; a blue light shone in his eyes.
"In that case, we should send a representative. A champion to enter Scramble Royal."
"I'll do it."
Laiken, second-in-command, raised his hand. Now ranked second among the graduating class, he was a force no one could control except Fermi.
"No, you don't take the field this time. I have other business to take care of."
Laiken obeyed without question.
"Then who will you send?"
"Hershi will enter. Scramble Royal is only a preliminary battle to get close to Istas' secrets. Gathering as much information as possible is crucial."
In that sense, Hershi was the best choice. Although his senior rank had slipped to thirteenth, his information-gathering skills rivaled the Hide-and-Seek Research Club itself.
"So our side will be Hershi; Hide-and-Seek will send Prings; Doll Collecting, Anchal; Ant Language, Pisho—four participants?"
"No, the Female Human Body Research Club will join too."
"But that guy isn't active."
"This time he will be. Tell him to take part."
Fermi said with conviction. "If Shirone moves, that man will have no choice but to step forward."
* * *
Past midnight, Hershi arrived at the dorm and stood before someone's door.
He couldn't tail anyone here. His sound magic, Sona, could, if he wished, pick up even the sound of a heart beating inside a chest.
'No one can stop a heart from beating.' He smiled confidently and raised his hand to knock, but a voice called from inside.
"Come in."
He opened the door and madness spread before him.
Paintings covered the room, and every subject in them was Maya.
"You still have good instincts, Kaiden," Hershi said.
Kaiden of the Cross Star was currently seventh in the senior rankings. A Golden Flower Wheel operative and leader of the covert Female Human Body Research Club.
"What do you want?" Kaiden asked.
Hershi moved to the table and watched Kaiden work. A single unbroken line traced Maya's form in lifelike detail.
"You know why I'm here, right?"
"No."
"The underground research clubs proposed Scramble Royal."
"I don't care."
"Also, Shirone is included on the other side."
The line that had been tracing Maya's collarbone suddenly snapped and went astray.
"Do I look like someone who'd move out of petty jealousy?" Kaiden asked.
Hershi only laughed.
True to his honest nature and neat appearance, a cross-shaped greatsword stood in the corner of the room. Ironically, Kaiden had originally been a swordsman—indeed, a promising scion of the famed Cross family of Tormia.
'Swordsmanship and magic. Definitely a monster,' Hershi thought.
Members of the Cross family, blessed by the Cross Star, were born with special talents marked by star signs. Kaiden was born on the Red Cross Star day that comes once every forty-three years; he could draw a field's potential out to the fullest. By fourteen he'd graduated top of Kaizen Sword School.
Yet whether the proverb about Red Cross Star children living unhappy lives was true or not, Kaiden's deepest passion wasn't swordsmanship but art—painting in particular.
The Red Cross Law had granted him supreme skill, but art isn't only technique. He could draw anything exactly as he pictured it, but lacked that something to elevate it into art.
"Impressive. How about making the exposure a little bolder?" Hershi suggested, pointing at the painting.
Kaiden frowned. "Don't defile art."
If art's power is to stir human emotion, then the female body itself is art. With no natural gift for emotional expression, Kaiden's choice to draw semi-nudes might have been his only route.
"So… you'll participate?"
Kaiden rose without a word, set his family's cross greatsword upright, and stared at his reflected face in the blade.
"…I will."
'I thought so.'
When it came to reading and manipulating human emotions, no one matched Fermi. Kaiden had only needed time to rationalize it—calling it "petty jealousy" was already proof he felt it.
"Then everyone's gathered. Schedule will be announced later."
When Hershi left, Kaiden gazed at the huge canvas on the wall. He had run away from his family and hidden at Alpheas School of Magic. There, after meeting a woman named Maya, he understood why artistic sensibility had been given to him—the god of art had chosen Maya.
"Maya…."
Recalling the sacred thrill he felt the first time he heard her song, Kaiden knelt before the painting.
"If I can be by your side, I will do anything."
It was his private knight's vow to the painting.