When she had been passed the career path questionnaire by Aether, Rosemary had nearly stopped breathing.
What kind of plan is this....
She had almost let out a harsh sound. Trying to calm her pounding heart, Rosemary calmly read over the words to herself.
Although she was currently disguised with blue eyes, Rosemary was also a Golden-Eyed.
The biggest characteristic of the Golden-Eyed was their excellent mory. The body of steel that the Elentals had pointed at as being a curse was a blessing to Rosemary.
An electronic brain made up of zeros and ones could easily morize these short phrases that were not even poetry.
“.......”
It would’ve been better if she hadn’t morized it.
This is just a declaration of war.
She didn’t know who was declaring war on whom, but that was what was happening. If her judgnt was correct, then the tragedy of fratricidal war would soon begin.
She was sure that sis hadn’t recovered her mories. Or she might have and decided to put her fate with the humans.
It can’t be this way.
Without big sis, it would be useless even if their King resurrected. He’d still return sohow with the efforts of the other Great chas, but he wouldn’t be at full-power.
Ding, ding, ding
“.......”
When she ca to her senses, it was already ti to go ho.
“I’ll be going first, sis.”
Against second sis’s instructions to keep a close watch on Aether, she rushed for the palace.
There was a warp gate there. She had to get to the Demon Castle now and let them know.
As soon as Rosemary returned to her room, she found Duke Blanton, then hastily packed her bag and hurried to the room located in the deepest part of the palace. There it had a high-level teleportation circle that let them travel freely between the palace and Demon Kingdom.
“Should I co with you?”
“I’m going alone.”
In her haste, she even dismissed the words of Duke Blanton who followed her like an adjutant. She was acting independently.
In many cases, Cataclysms worked in pairs to prevent anyone from being killed by a high-ranking Elental by going around alone. As such, deserting your station like this was a felony of sorts.
But so what if it was a felony? Ti was of the essence right now.
Soon after arriving at the Demon Castle, Rosemary scread for Akasha by her nickna.
“Sis two! Sis twooooo!!”
“What, why are you being so loud.”
Akasha, who had been loitering in front of the empty throne, ca over to Rosemary.
When Rosemary arrived at the castle, Akasha had been playing with a unique-looking machine. It was a donut-looking iron device called the tokamak.
“Little sis, why did you co here in the middle of working? Did they bring in the Lodestone?”
“No.... big sis....”
“What about Aether?”
Rosemary explained the whole story on the spot like a chirping baby bird.
She said lots of things but it boiled down to this one sentence.
“Big sis is going to destroy all of us.”
“.......”
Rosemary threw a nice uppercut at the end, and was secretly awed. She had never seen sis two look this stupid before.
“She’s trying to attack us with the magic that should be aid at the Elental Realm?”
But unlike Rosemary, Akash quickly regained her composure. She wasn’t Secundus for nothing, it seed.
“Then does that an we’re now enemies with big sis?”
“That can’t happen. We have to bring her no matter what.”
“But Aether’s smarter than us. None of the plans I ca up with worked, so what do we do?”
In the very beginning, that is, when she’d first learned of Aether’s whereabouts–
Rosemary had first tried to purchase her from Hasfeldt using the Second Prince. She had purposely made an offer that was unheard of at the ti so that Hasfeldt wouldn’t think about anything else.
And as you could see, that plan had failed when she got accepted into Tilette.
Then she had tried to get her to withdraw from the Academy through the Prince. Thus, Prince Klion was smashed over the head with calipers.
“Think about it, Rosemary. When did things start going wrong?”
“When the brainwashing stopped working on the Prince...?”
“Exactly.”
“I see.”
It was sothing she had known.
“The only bastard who could break the control on the Prince is that elf. It has to be given the circumstances.”
“So I was going to find him and kill him but I didn’t see him.”
“What. He vanished?”
“They said he dropped out.”
Digging through her mories like rewinding a clock, Rosemary kept going.
“He must have gotten wind of it. He ran as soon as I got transferred to the class. Wherever he went, I couldn’t find him even though I looked everywhere with Scope.”
One thing was for certain: that elf was aware of her magic.
Which ant that he knew who Rosemary was. She had to get rid of him.
Where would he have gone? As Rosemary explored possible locations, Akasha started and urged her.
“Rosemary, go back to Tilette right now. Hurry!”
“Why?”
“What do you an why! Don’t you know that Aether told you about this plan because she predicted that you would co here?”
“Huh...?”
That did sound plausible. If big sis was siding with the humans, she would’ve co up with a plan like this.
“But I planted a pawn amongst the humans. He’ll report about her to wherever she goes.”
“And what’ll you do if she realizes who that is and dunks him into regal water1 or sothing?”
“Naw, no way.”
For so reason, a chill ran down her spine.
“She wouldn’t.”
“If it’s Aether, she would.”
Rosemary quickly grabbed her bag and stepped onto the teleporter. When blue light flashed blindingly and disappeared, she was back at the palace.
She checked the clock. One hour–that was exactly how long she was gone for.
There wasn’t even ti for mana grass. Rather than sitting back and watching with Scope, it would be faster to go around herself.
A place ca to mind. Rosemary ran through the Academy on strong legs like a horse.
And then.
There she is.
She spotted Aether who was coming out of the Cultural Center like a predator eyeing its prey. All that was left was to go up to her and ask what she was up to.
“What are you doing here, sis?”
Hiding her panic, she casually struck up a conversation. Aether responded with the calst expression ever.
“I was eting with the chairman.”
“For what?”
“About the scholarship.”
She had to maintain her expression. Lifting the corner of her lips, she acted like nothing was wrong.
“Wow, are you in first place?”
“Yeah. So why did you co find at this ti?”
“I forgot sothing at school.”
The two exchanged lies so very naturally. Their shalessness was going to pierce the skies2.
Yet Rosemary instinctively knew that her lying was a step below Aether’s because despite having been ambushed, Aether showed absolutely no signs of being flustered.
“Alright, then. See you tomorrow.”
Aether walked past Rosemary as if she didn’t know anything.
At that mont, Rosemary noticed.
The sll of cigarettes....
There were only two situations in which a Golden-Eyed smoked mana grass.
When they used magic, or when they talked with soone.
She wouldn’t be blasting magic within the Academy. Aether wasn’t soone who’d do that for no reason.
“.......”
An odd sensation like a turbulence brushed past her cheek.
It didn’t take long for her to realize what that sensation was.
“... The elf bastard.”
With bloodshot eyes, she marched towards the back entrance of the Cultural Center. As she slowly craned her neck while walking, the sound of tal shing ca from her all over her body.
[So you won’t be returning to the palace tonight?]
“That’s right, it’s an overnight mission.”
She also didn’t forget to contact Blanton telepathically. After that, Rosemary began staking out in the Center’s basent like a snake nesting.
An hour passed. There was nothing.
Two hours passed. Still nothing.
Then three, four, five hours. And just as her legs started getting numb from sitting like a stone–
Clunk.
The sound of a lock clicking ca from outside. The security guard must have locked up the Center.
It was well-past midnight. This would be the ti to move.
Rosemary had a smoke of mana grass, then walked over to the room that she had had trouble spying on with Scope the other day.
She took a breath and closed her eyes. A cricket chirped loudly by the window sill. It was the perfect prelude to warm up to.
The stick finished burning all the way.
A blade just over a ter-long was held in her right hand. It was a violin string with a blade at the end instead of horsehair.
Since the first movent was done, it was ti to play the next part.
“I was going to be nice about it.”
She couldn’t take it anymore. This was the end of her patience.
Rosemary slowly opened her eyes again. Her blue pupils beca covered with yellow dust.
Gold eyes glowed brilliantly even within the dark, as if they were envisioning the future of that face.
When a high-ranking Beast entered combat mode, they unconsciously exuded a killing intent. It was the sa for Rosemary. As she moved with the intent to harm soone, the cricket’s song stopped.
“Oho.”
She grasped the door handle but it didn’t turn. They must have locked it from the inside.
They certainly did pay attention to safety.
But oh dear.
It was no use even if they did this.
Rosemary applied force and ripped open the door as a whole. Drrrrk–a tallic screech dragged along the floor. The screws that had been holding the door in place popped out one by one. Twisting, the iron door bent into a bizarre shape.
Soon, the door reached the point of being forced open.
The staleness of cigarettes and canned food wafted through the gap. It was a familiar sll from just a little while ago.
She slipped her hand into the opening and snapped the door chain with her teeth. Crunching on the lock, she slowly walked into the room.
Rosemary grinned with her eyes wide, all the whites visible.
“...... Found you.”
Footnotes
1. Aqua regia - a chemical mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acid2. Just an expression to say that they're so full of this attitude
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