Chapter 134: At the Turm Theater
There is a theater within Magic Academy City Lindis.
It was made quite large and luxurious compared to other theaters.
On that day, Harold Nibelheim was on the second floor of the said theater.
The VIP seat was a private room where five or six people could sit comfortably, and Harold was sitting on the armrest of a leather-covered couch, looking over the stage under his eyes through the opera glasses.
Opening the deep red curtain that divides the room, a student in a grey robe appeared.
“Calling me to a place like this, what are you up to, Nibelheim-kun.”
Harold beckoned the student who appeared—Roald Llan—without turning around, while still peering into his opera glasses.
“Don’t say that. Do you hate comedy?”
“Please state your business. Even though I look like this, I’m pretty busy.”
“No, no, we’re right in the good part.”
Harold was wearing extravagant clothes that seemed expensive instead of his usual apron-over-his-uniform.
Dark green mantle finely embroidered with golden-colored thread, thick and robust soles made of cowhide.
The pin to hold his cravat was garnet and the opera glasses were decorated with pure gold and ivory.
Seeing Harold’s outfit, which was so luxurious that it seemed as if he was showing off his wealth, Llan knitted his eyebrows.
“Oops, it’s pointless to watch it from the middle. So, to sum up the story, it is about a princess, who has been unfairly deprived of her inheritance rights, overcomes her situation with her own ability.”
“……Are you listening to me?”
“Well, after that is the climax: the son of the Prime Minister, who accused the princess under groundless suspicion, gets convicted in a big reversal in the grand finale.”
Harold cut off his words and finally looked back at Llan.
“I’m only going to say this once. Stay away from Beatrice Glaw.”
Llan gave a faint smile and shrugged his shoulders.
“Who, me? That’s an unreasonable accusation.”
“Then I will get straight to the point. You’re aiming for the Wynt family’s inheritance rights, aren’t you?”
Harold, with a tone of voice as if talking about today’s weather, got to the heart of the matter calmly.
Llan’s smile froze slightly.
“No way. You have a rich imagination, Nibelheim-kun.”
“I also got the proof. Here it is.”
As Harold said that, he handed over a bunch of copies of the material.
Llan looked over the material.
“……!”
The economic situation of the Llan family and their blood ties with the Wynt family.
A copy of the documents about the adoption matter.
Furthermore, there was a detailed record about his behavior.
“How the heck did you investigate me up to this extent, you disgusting guy.”
“I just asked my friends and acquaintances straightforwardly.”
Because the guy who was likely to be the culprit would be at a location where he would be able to do the harassment, Harold added.
“If it wasn’t for that case, I wouldn’t have called you out here like this though.”
“……This, did you show this to anyone else?”
“Of course I only showed it to you.”
“Well, that saved me some trouble.”
After Llan chanted with a low voice, both of his hands were clad in flames.
In the blink of an eye, the materials turned to ashes.
Harold looked at Llan’s face and sighed as if he thought it was truly tedious.
“Good grief. Are you planning to sweep it under the rug like that? Naturally, I’ve made copies of those materials.”
“In that case all that’s left is……right, if you’re injured, I’m sure you will obediently give in.”
Llan pointed his staff at Harold with a sneer.
“Heeh, so now you’re taking this seriously, huh. Well, it’s better than completely feigning ignorance .”
“You’re pretty calm, even though you’re unarmed and alone.”
“That’s right.”
Harold smiled with a troubled expression.
There was no sense of crisis or fear in his expression.
“Because I cannot protect myself, is it?”
Harold snapped his fingers.
The sound of the musical performance and singing stopped right at that moment.
After a moment of silence, a sound resembling the roar of the sea resounded.
All the spectators on the first floor and the second floor turned around to their direction at once.
Even the actors and performers stopped their acting and performance and took the same pose.
All of them pulled out their wands and aimed at Llan.
“……!!! W-w-what the heck is this……?”
“This is like an antlion pit. Look, something even scarier appeared.”
Harold said so while pointing at someone over Llan’s shoulder.
“Llan.”
The one who appeared from behind him was Evan Haearn.
Haearn was smiling faintly, but cold air was blowing all around.
Thin ice bloomed under his feet every time he took a step forward.
“At that time, you must have been having fun looking on from afar, right? It must have felt good to laugh at us from the shadows.”
Harold took out another bunch of materials from his bag and handed them over to Haearn.
“Hey, Haearn-senpai. These are the promised materials.”
“Good work. I’ll make sure to supervise him properly.”
Haearn said so as he put the materials in his bag.
“Or, are you going to try to shut my mouth too, Roald Llan?”
“……Tch!”
Llan tried to raise his staff, but found that he couldn’t.
It was because his staff was already frozen and fixed to the floor.
“You’re good at flame magic. But without your staff, can you fight against me?”
After his duel trial against Erica, Haearn’s ice magic had deepened.
Haearn analyzed that it might be because of having the feeling of cold fear inscribed in his heart.
“Now, why don’t we watch the play together, Llan? I think we’ll have a long friendship from now on, after all.”
“Y-yes……”
Haearn grabbed Llan by his neck and tugged him into the seat.
Llan shrunk into himself while trembling in his seat which was getting colder and colder.
“This is great. It looks like both of you are getting along well.”
“Aa, thank you, Nibelheim.”
“Well then, I’m going to withdraw for today. Haearn-senpai, I’ll leave him to you, alright?”
Then Harold left, leaving behind a chilled spectator seat.
☆
Evening, two days later.
Harold explained the course of events of that day to Erica at his alchemy workshop.
“With that, Glaw-jou’s case is resolved.”
“As expected of you, Harold.”
While enjoying the tea Harold served, Erica, who was his client, nodded in satisfaction.
“It would be problematic if I overdo it and incur Llan’s enmity, but after thinking about the people involved, the result ended up being something like this.”
He also thought of giving the school the details about the bullying and driving Llan out of school, but in that case, Beatrice would be hated.
It would be rather unpleasant to be resented by a magic user for a lifetime.
“But I’m glad that you came to an understanding with him.”
“Well, there is no one more suitable than that person.”
Harold decided that it would be better to leave it to a reliable person—which was Haearn.
Haearn, who was a man of justice, wouldn’t treat Llan harshly without reason and would discipline him properly.
“All things considered, Llan’s specialty is in fire magic. I didn’t know that he attended the same class though.”
When Erica considered the indirect conditions of the Wynt family, it seemed that Llan would have been unsuitable for it.
It would be better for Beatrice Glaw, who mastered the future vision, to succeed the family as Dolores Wynt’s successor.
“Now then, that is the conclusion of your request……oops, there’s one more, huh.”
“Oh my, did you forget about it?”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. There’s no way I would forget the mist golem.”
Having said so, Harold took out the small jar with the golem’s core in it from his work shelf.
“Right, right, I found out that this is a rather complicated product to handle. Looks like this is a rare golem with an incorporated artificial spirit.”
“A golem with a built-in artificial spirit? Isn’t that illegal?”
“This is legal since this thing seems to have been manufactured before it became illegal, but it will be illegal if it’s remodeled.”
Harold continued to explain while rolling it on the palm of his hand.
“I daresay that the production period was after Aurelia arrived by ships and before the Giant War with Gigantia. More specifically, it should be before the legend of the 〈Cursed Sword of Fire〉.”
In summary, it was an event before the relationship between Aurelia and Lucanrant worsened, Erica also realized.
“In addition, some troublesome processing was incorporated only in the artificial spirit side, and it was designed so that it can’t be tampered with from the golem side. Well, I can alter it more freely if I tamper with it, but if I do tamper with it, just having it will be dangerous. So, my hands are tied.”
“It’s troublesome to handle, huh……”
“Right?”
Erica received the core that Harold offered and looked at it for a while.
“If that’s the case, alright. I will take my time observing it.”
“Oh, and be careful about handling the humidity.”
“Yes. I think I can handle it if it’s only this degree.”
Suddenly, Erica felt like she remembered something.
“By the way, how did you know that it was made before the legend of the 〈Cursed Sword of Fire〉?”
“An unrelated character string was incorporated, and after deciphering it, it turned out to be a golem that was sent by an Aurelian nobleman to a girl in Lucanrant. Aurelia and Lucanrant mended their relationship after the Second Giant War, but golems with built-in artificial spirit already became illegal at that time.”
“I see.”
A golem made before the legend of the 〈Cursed Sword of Fire〉.
The tale of the 〈Cursed Sword of Fire〉.
There should be a related story that was compiled along with that tale.
Erica tried to remember the title but found that she couldn’t.
“Speaking of which, there is a famous folklore. About an alchemist prince and a princess of Lucanrant.”
“Ah~~~! I think there is something like that.”
“What do you remember about that story, Harold?”
“I only remember bits of it. Uh, umm……”
Erica and Harold pulled in the threads of their memory as if turning the potter’s wheel.
“It’s the story of a prince who finally died after doing his best to fulfill unreasonable demands in order to marry a princess whom he fell in love with!”
“It’s the story of a pitiful alchemist who had been deprived of the essence of alchemy after he fell to the North’s schemes!”
It seems there was a discrepancy in the story that both of them knew.
The two of them stiffened with a puzzled expression as they stared at each other for about three seconds.
“……Ah, this pattern.”
“A story that has been altered into a fairy-tale, and a story with crude historical facts that remains only in the local area, huh……”
“So, is this thing the legacy of the alchemist prince?”
“Good grief, you, you’ve brought something outrageous again—”
Harold cut off his words and stared at Erica, who was looking at the golem with great interest.
Even though she just heard that it was illegal and had a shady history, Erica didn’t look scared at all.
“Well, this is just the kind of thing that interests you, huh.”
Having said that, Harold smiled with a troubled expression.
End of Arc 4