I turned around, locked the door, and unfolded the letter.
As if my brother were holding the pen right now, magically inscribed dark green letters slowly connected themselves.
[To my beloved younger brother.]
[How have you been? Two months of the new semester have already passed.]
The same opening as last time.
Feeling my hand tighten, I looked down at the characters with cold eyes.
The worried greetings typical of an older brother with a significant age gap continued for a while, and then the main point appeared.
[I heard you ranked within the top ten in your department on the midterms. You can't imagine how proud and happy I was. I've always felt since you were little that you were a bright child, and seeing you remain unchanged, holding onto your childhood self through any hardship, moves me beyond words.]
I wanted to tell him to stop putting on airs.
I smiled and turned to the next page.
[But at the same time, I have some concerns. You've always been a diligent child who lived up to everyone's expectations. Even with your poor health, you constantly strove not to worry us. I'm anxious that my mention of grades might have been unnecessary, that my request might have burdened you, causing you to neglect your health and focus solely on studies.]
[I'm not criticizing your achievements or efforts. I probably can't even imagine the numerous trials and endurance you've been through. I'm writing this letter to tell you that if you feel burdened by my words, you needn't be. Your health is always my top priority. It's still somewhat warm here, but I hear the capital has grown quite cold. Always take care of yourself, and contact me anytime if you need anything. Let's meet again in good health on the day we reunite. Once more, I sincerely congratulate you on the results of your efforts. May the gods' blessings always be upon you.]
[—Sincerely, your brother.]
"...Haha..."
I let out a deflated laugh.
I resealed the wax and placed the letter deep inside a drawer.
The letter's contents were unimportant.
Only the fact that it came from him mattered.
Slowly, I needed to prepare to counter my brother's moves.
* * *
Let's list what my brother can do.
From the most extreme and impossible, to the minor but feasible.
First, come and kill me immediately.
Impossible. The burden is too great for him to drop everything he's doing, and during the semester no less, to come kill me.
Second, send someone to kill me.
Unlikely. My brother is a severe perfectionist who wouldn't want a single speck of dust left on this matter.
The possibility of him entrusting my death to another's hands is extremely low. Even if he hired an assassin, he's the type who would need to kill that assassin upon their return to be satisfied.
Even their relatives and colleagues. All of them.
Third, fabricate a new incident like in childhood to further tarnish my image.
Difficult to realize due to the physical distance. My brother has no experience staging incidents on the large-scale stage outside the territory.
He likely wouldn't choose this unless he deemed it absolutely necessary.
Fourth, actively seek information.
The most probable. By now, my brother has surely dug up all the news about Askanyen mentioned in the press after hearing about me.
He's probably carefully judging whether he needs to kill me or if it's not yet that serious.
Considering the characteristic of Luca, who would blindly obey and follow my brother's words, he might have left several possibilities open. Therefore, he likely judged killing me now to be premature.
Even if he chose the safe option of killing me sooner or later anyway, the circumstances aren't favorable, so the first and second routes are immediately discarded.
So the best method available to my brother now is the fourth. Placing a watcher within the school.
Arriving at the second-year floor of the Magic Department building, I passed by the regular classrooms and headed for the central special class.
Students lounging in the rest area outside the special class stopped talking and glanced at me as soon as I appeared.
"Are those people looking at Lucas?!"
Fye asked, smacking his lips.
This guy has always wanted people to pay attention to him. Not that it matters, since Narke's invisibility magic makes him unseen by others anyway.
I answered with a smile and opened the Magic Department special class door.
The special class classroom, which I was seeing for the first time, was spacious.
That was thanks to them giving us two lecture halls that could fit fifty people each, just for ten students.
With few desks and people, the view outside was clearly visible through the window occupying one wall.
The eyes of the nine already present turned toward me.
Melvin, tactless as ever, sprang up from his seat happily.
"Hel...! Ahem..."
Seeing my puzzled expression, Melvin cleared his throat, stretched, and sat back down.
Narke, who had widened his eyes in a panic, bit his lip tightly, suppressing a laugh.
Since yesterday's meeting, Melvin's favorability had rapidly increased to +3.
It seemed he liked the analysis materials on Pleroma I had organized. With us moving into full-fledged activities, whatever slight suspicion remained had probably vanished entirely.
Ignoring them, I asked nonchalantly.
"Anyone know where my seat is?"
"Next to me!"
Narke patted the seat beside him vigorously.
I set down my bag and slotted books into the desk shelf.
Then, an unfamiliar voice sounded.
"Lucas."
Leo's eyes, which had been thoroughly ignoring us as he focused on his studies, reflexively turned toward the voice's owner.
Narke did the same.
I turned to look. A tall student with a supremely confident expression extended his hand.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Christel Clyver."
I shook his hand lightly without any particular expression.
Since I hadn't heard the name during roll call, he must be from Class 1.
'A Class 1 student is acting familiar with me?'
Astonishing.
"I was very curious when I heard you joined the special class. Meeting you in person feels new. Let's get along from now on."
"Sure. Nice to meet you."
I answered his words with an appropriate smile.
A perfectly ordinary situation for regular students, but not for Luca. A situation that could absolutely not be called ordinary.
'Let's check the situation.'
Lunchtime came, and I went to the school cafeteria for the first time in a while to gauge the situation.
"Wow, everyone here is looking at Lucas~!"
Fye climbed onto my shoulder, standing on two legs, and swiftly turned his head around.
As Fye said, I could receive an enormous bombardment of gazes here.
Throughout the meal, students kept glancing at me.
Occasionally, words like Askanyen or Lucas drifted to my ears.
'According to my memories from last semester, it wasn't to this extent.'
No, even just before the midterms, people didn't stare at me like I was an animal in a zoo. If anything, they averted their eyes or left.
'So that Class 1 guy wasn't unusual.'
Clearly, since becoming a second-year, and especially after the midterms ended, the students' interest had grown.
Arriving at the training grounds, I brought this up, and Leo gave a clear answer.
"Lots of people are interested in you lately."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah, even among my friends, some were thinking about talking to you once. Well, it's more out of curiosity than genuinely wanting to be friends."
Curiosity? A laugh burst out.
"What about Pleroma? How careless."
"Your change was just that shockingly unbelievable. Honestly, if the school's former bottom ranker instantly becomes top 10%, wouldn't you be interested? And... the reason kids avoided you wasn't just because of the Pleroma rumors, you know."
I'll admit that.
As I thought on the first day of school, there are multiple reasons students openly shun me.
First, for being a donation admission who can't even use magic.
Second, because of the Pleroma rumors.
Third, because students with good standing in school, like Leo, dislike me.
Of course, that's not all.
A friend who always trails off, has a completely unkempt appearance, and walks around hunched over with tense shoulders—if there's no special connection, you wouldn't actively want to befriend them either.
If we count four reasons, the first and last have already been resolved.
It's still known that I can't use magic, and the fact I entered through donation hasn't changed... but now that I've crushed most students with written exam scores, those points hold little significance.
Leo added to my reaction.
"Of course, it's not like they're pretending your rumors don't exist. It's just... you know. 'Anyway, seeing he even raised his grades this time, he must really be planning for university. Surely he wouldn't openly do something crazy.' Get the feeling? There's also talk that Askanyen won't stay quiet."
"I see."
It clearly shows their narrow-mindedness, assuming others would stake their lives on college entrance exams just because they do. Anyway, I welcome the shift from negative emotions to curiosity.
"Obviously, there are still more friends who fear you might win people over and turn them into Pleroma. But the proportion of the friends I mentioned earlier has also grown to a point that can't be ignored."
"That's fortunate. Good news. But..."
I ran a hand through my hair and continued.
"Except for one thing. My brother sent a letter today."
Leo froze for a moment, mouth slightly agape, then rubbed his chin.
"Things got complicated."
"Yeah, I can't easily figure out who among those approaching or showing interest in me is my brother's watcher."
"Do you think His Lordship has already placed someone? Or are you saying he will soon?"
"Hard to say."
Today, when the letter arrived, was already a week after the ranking announcement.
From my brother's perspective, there's no reason to delay gathering information any longer.
'But given his caution, it would take time to choose someone to use as a watcher.'
The letter's postmark was this past Tuesday.
Meaning he hasn't had the information for more than a few days.
I stood up.
"We just need to check. If there's a watcher at school now, someone other than me would have received mail from my brother today."
"Going to the post office? They won't readily tell a non-recipient or non-sender about delivery status."
"They won't tell. Doesn't matter."
I could feel Leo looking at me incredulously.
I put Fye, who was playing in Leo's bag, into my jacket pocket and checked my watch.
8:57 PM.
All school facilities close at 10.
Plenty of time.
* * *
"Hello."
I entered the on-campus post office tucked away in the left corner of the campus.
Fortunately, there were no other people, and only one staff member was present.
The sole remaining staff member, who had been writing something in a ledger with dead eyes, slid his chair back slightly, his eyes growing even more hollow as I sat at the counter.
Pretending not to notice his reaction, I put on a troubled expression and broached the subject.
"I think there might be a piece of mail missing from what I should have received. Could you check how many pieces were sent under a sender's name before mine arrived?"
"Yes, go ahead."
"Adrian Askanyen."
He nodded, pulled out a file. Whether he already knew without me giving my name, he asked me no questions. He seemed disinclined to initiate conversation.
I waited for a while, watching his quick hand movements.
The staff member ran a short pointer down the names, then stopped at one entry.
"We delivered one letter to you this morning, right? That's all."
"Ah, I heard there was something else. Could it not be addressed to me?"
The staff member re-examined the entry I was pointing at and shook his head.
"Yes."
"I see. There must have been a mistake. Thank you."
Feigning a puzzled look, I left the post office. Fye poked his head out of my jacket pocket.
"What was that just now? Why a mistake?! Did you mess up?"
"No, I had something to check."
I shook my head, the corner of my mouth lifting.
Leo's point was valid.
If I had asked if Adrian Askanyen had sent other mail to the school, and who received it, the staff member wouldn't have answered.
There's no reason to tell a third party about mail sent between other people.
So I led the witness.
If there hadn't been 'something else' sent by Adrian Askanyen, the staff member wouldn't have answered so cleanly with 'Yes.'
But by affirming my question, he clearly confirmed that other mail existed and, moreover, that it wasn't addressed to me.
My brother sent mail to someone at the Imperial Second Academy of Education.
For what purpose?
To receive news about me, of course.
The surveillance must have started today.
Then, I need to find the recipient of that letter now.
—-----------
T/N:
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