[561] Scramble Royal (2)
While Maya filled her tray, the men's gazes followed her without pause.
Not just her beauty—everyone was fascinated by how drastically she'd changed.
"She really got prettier. The picture in the red book wasn't a lie," Amy said, looking toward Nade.
"Red book? What's that?" Nade asked.
"Huh? Ahaha—it's nothing."
That was something Amy would never say out loud.
"Anyway, what's going on? Is it because of Shirone?" Amy guessed.
It seemed the only plausible explanation to her. Shirone had gone to Heaven, and yet Maya still came to school but never showed her face. She looked lonelier than before, and Amy couldn't shake the feeling that Shirone had contributed to that.
As if reading her thoughts, Amy sighed. "Invite her to sit with us."
"But—"
Amy had forgiven Maya, but Maya wasn't so oblivious as to miss that this might be her last chance.
"It's really okay. Fifteen weeks left. You can't keep living like this forever, can you?"
Nade thought Amy had a point and, as if to take some weight off Shirone, called out, "Maya, over here! Sit with us!"
Maya set down the utensils she'd been picking at and walked over to Shirone's table, though she didn't bring a tray.
"It's been a long time, everyone."
Her smile was as gentle as ever, but her new look changed the whole atmosphere around her.
"Yeah, it really has. How've you been?"
Maya shook her head and spoke to Amy. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make anyone uncomfortable. I just felt I should come once and say hello."
"Don't bother with formalities. Sit here. We always ate together before."
"No. Today is the last time. I won't be coming to the cafeteria anymore."
Every senior turned their attention to Maya.
"You're not coming? Why?"
"You know, Amy."
Amy's brow tightened.
"That's unreasonable. You're an adult now. Saying things like that just burdens us. If there's something bothering you, face it and deal with it."
Maya smiled bitterly at Amy's unchanged frankness.
"I'm jealous, Amy."
"Wha—what? All of a sudden."
"Sorry. But I'm not as strong as you. Even if it burdens you, I can't help it. I know better than anyone that I won't be able to stand it."
Maya added in a small voice, "So I'm asking you to put up with it for me. I know it's selfish, but this time I absolutely intend to graduate."
Her resolve made clear why she had come.
"And Shirone."
"Yes?"
"Honestly, it was really hard. It hurt a lot."
"Uh, that's—"
"It's okay. I can endure it now. But that doesn't mean I've completely forgotten you."
The cafeteria buzzed, and somewhere in that noise someone clenched a fist in anger.
'Of course—she still thinks about Shirone…'
"Anyway, if you ever change your mind, you can always come find me. I'll be waiting."
She whistled.
"But if that's not the case—"
Hesitating, Maya steeled her eyes and said, "I hope we never have to meet again until the graduation exams. Can you understand that?"
Putting aside his mixed emotions, Shirone nodded.
"All right. I understand."
He felt sorry for Maya, but his heart didn't race the way it had when Amy had given him that ultimatum.
A thought passed through his mind. Perhaps the tears he'd shed last night weren't only from grief for Peope.
Maya's eyes were full of sorrow, as if she'd been expecting a desperate reaction.
'What was she hoping for?'
Had she been counting on Shirone to break down, beg, or cling to her?
Shirone shook his head inwardly. He'd thought he could stand it, but seeing Maya's face made his heart pound and his months of resolve crumble like a sandcastle.
"Then... take care."
Maya offered a farewell, returned to her table, handed her barely touched tray to the kitchen, and left the cafeteria.
Even among the many eyes following her, Amy's gaze stood out.
'What's with you? You're the one who supposed to be strong...'
Watching Shirone chew his bread with a bitter expression, Amy let out a sigh from deep inside.
* * *
Until classes began, Shirone and the others hung out at the school store.
Shirone recounted what had happened in the club, and after hearing the full story from the previous night, Amy had no trouble understanding. But she had never heard of that underground club before.
"Hide-and-Seek Research Club? The school's got a club like that?" Nade asked.
"There are a few others, too. If they have enough members they don't need to do presentations like we do, so most people don't even know about them."
In truth, the Paranormal Psychic Science Club had only become widely known because of their presentation.
"But about those juniors—we sent them off, but why were they tailing me in the first place?" Iruki asked.
"Probably thinking the same as me. Graduation's coming, so everyone's starting to move. They're trying to uncover Istas' secret."
"But it was quiet last year, right?"
Nade rubbed his chin. "When you gave up the evaluation, rumors spread. Istas was off-limits for a while. That included even us members."
Ah—
It had been the period when the national intelligence agency was staking out the school to find Gaold.
"Those informants are hypersensitive; their switches flipped. There's definitely something at Istas. Today's group that got caught was the Hide-and-Seek Club, but other clubs may have already tried to approach."
Shirone spread his arms in frustration. "So who's the president of the Hide-and-Seek Club? You must know."
"Yeah, I have a rough idea. The Hide-and-Seek Club runs the on-campus black market. I've sold a few inventions there myself. The most likely candidate is—"
"I'm the one."
They turned to the voice and saw Prings, currently ranked third in the advanced class.
"So... it was you?" Nade asked, annoyed.
Prings had long, petal-like eyelashes and a thin mustache. A textbook genius with lightning-fast thoughts, his perverted, lecherous personality had never made him fit in with Shirone's group.
Shirone narrowed his eyes. "Why did you tail me? And you even ordered the juniors to use offensive magic—are you sane?"
"Hoho, why so touchy? The graduating class's big star, upset over some juniors being playful."
His voice was as greasy as his manner.
"This is only the start. The Hide-and-Seek Club is everywhere. For example, I know Amy snuck into your room last night for a little rendezvous."
Shirone's brow twitched.
He wasn't so inexperienced that someone could spy on him without his noticing, but he couldn't hide the fact Amy had come to his room.
'It's fine. They couldn't have gotten close.'
While Shirone felt relief, Amy bristled at the obscene implication.
"Don't talk like that. How can you think such filthy things about everything?"
"Hoho, Amy. You still smell delightful. No perfume could recreate the scent that comes from you."
Prings inhaled as if to press his nose to her; his eyelids fluttered and the whites of his eyes showed.
'Disgusting…'
Voyeurism, a fixation on scent bordering on madness, and a lecherous tongue—he was the sort of man who made you want to escape the sky itself.
"Anyway, enjoy your expectations. Fifteen weeks until graduation. Most of the underground clubs are sharpening their knives."
Nade snorted. "Yeah. We need to scrape together as much as we can. We're a small elite."
Prings tapped his finger under his nose and indicated Shirone's group. "Class One's mediocre lot, the graduating class's dead last, a bunch of fugitives. No elite among you ranks higher than me, I suppose?"
"This is the last straw!"
Nade leapt up; Shirone grabbed his arm to calm him. "Hold on. If we're confident, that's what matters."
As Prings walked away, Nade ground his fists. "That guy makes me want to hit him every time. He gets me angrier than Iruki used to!"
Iruki ignored the jab. "Anyway, a war's about to start. From now on we need to prepare."
Amy raised a hand. "Wait. Why are we getting dragged into this? Let me be clear—I'm not getting involved in your 'stupid whatever' clubs."
"It's the Paranormal Psychic Science Club."
"Whatever it's called, I'm not doing it. Unless it's about Shirone's portrait problem, my priority is graduation."
Shirone steered the conversation. "All right—let's sort this out. How many clubs are after Istas?"
"Hmm. Probably all the underground clubs. But the one we need to watch most is Fermi's Golden Coinwheel."
The Golden Coinwheel ran the underground economy and was the strongest club, with five powerful graduating members.
"Fermi's the president, with his right hand Electric Monster Lycan. As strategist there's Sona's Hershi, the field commander is alchemist Richard. And the fifth is—"
Iruki pointed at the school store window. "There—Kaiden."
Kaiden of the Cross Star.
A handsome man with neat reddish-brown hair and an honestly built face.
Even though Nade knew much about the Golden Coinwheel, he didn't know much about Kaiden.
"Yeah, with Kaiden that's five. Their rankings are mixed now, but until midterms they occupied one through five."
Shirone asked, "What's Kaiden's current rank?"
"Seventh."
"Still, Class One, huh."
Kaiden turned his head abruptly; Nade jumped and bowed slightly. "Ugh! He's looking. Be careful. His instincts are sharp. If Dorothy's intuition, that guy's instinct."
Kaiden glared at Shirone's group and left; Nade wiped an imaginary bead of sweat from his brow.
"Whew, that was close."
Iruki asked, "Why were you so tense? That's not like you."
"That guy's allowed to make me nervous."
"Oh?"
It was the sort of thing Nade rarely said. "Honestly, I don't know. Even inside the Golden Coinwheel, Kaiden rarely shows up. He's straightforward—so I don't understand why he'd hang with Fermi."
"You're saying he gives off a strange vibe."
In Nade's terms, that meant dangerous.
"Well, actually every member of the Golden Coinwheel is someone to watch. And Fermi supposedly made a fortune this time."
'Right—that's true.'
Shirone remembered what Miro had told him. Fermi had earned 190 billion gold by forging signatures for Undercoder. Even on installments, more than ten billion gold would be coming in; the scale of magic and resources he could wield was on another level.
"Okay, Golden Coinwheel is accounted for. Next?"
Nade held up two fingers. "Second strongest is the Hide-and-Seek Club. They run their own market, and Prings' skill isn't far behind the Golden Coinwheel. Pisho's Ant Language Club is a given, and the Doll Collecting Club isn't to be underestimated either—their president is none other than Anchal."
"Anchal? She's an underground club president?"
Shirone glanced toward the terrace where a straight-haired woman read her book with a cup of coffee. She wore an eyepatch over her left eye, though it wasn't from blindness.
Rumor said the eyepatch sealed a magical gaze passed down in her family. Scouts once said that if she'd unsealed it during last year's graduation exam, she would have been valedictorian.
"What's Anchal ranked?"
"Ninth."
'Class One, of course.'
What surprised them most was that she held a top-class rank without using her trump card.
"Golden Coinwheel, Hide-and-Seek, Ant Language, Doll Collecting. So all of these clubs are enemies?"
Iruki waved his hand. "No—there's one more. If we talk about underground clubs and leave this one out, it'd be a joke."
"Huh? What did we miss?"
Nade put on a serious expression. "The Female Human Body Research Club."