First Year Second Semester – Q of Hearts (Part 7) Note: Please don’t read it in the little pop-up for the reader. For some reason it doesn’t reflect my later edits (which I often make a lot of after publishing), so please click ‘view original’.
“Camille, Camille?”
Knock knock, went my door.
“Ohh c.r.a.p! I just barely made it.”
Entering my room from my window, I shrank the quill. I covered the flower basket with a cloth and pushed it into a corner of my room. Alright, evidence destroyed. If he found out that I was outside, he’d definitely get mad at me, right?
“I’m coming, okay~?”
When I opened the door with a click, as expected, Achille was standing there.
“Achille, what’s up?”
“…I should be asking you what you’re doing.”
Achille looked at me with suspicious eyes. …I-, I didn’t get found out, right?
“N-, Nothing really? Just sleeping, you know?”
“Hm~mm?”
His eyes narrowed. c.r.a.p… His face tells me he’s definitely certain about something. Even now, I was desperately fighting back the urge to throw my body to the ground in a dogeza.
“F-, For now… want to come in?”
When I pulled his hand, he obediently followed me in. I had him sit down on the fluffy clawfoot sofa, and put on tea. I was going to sit opposite him, but he pulled my hand, and in the end I settled down next to him.
“Camille…”
Achille is acting kind of weird.
“You’re making such a serious face. What happened?”
Achille looked like he was thinking a little, but after that he looked straight at me and spoke.
“…Camille, I,”
“Mn?”
“I… And His Highness as well, have decided to withdraw from the academy.”
“Withdraw?”
“The extremist commoner faction has been growing stronger than expected… To suppress this, His Highness is returning to the castle. I’ve decided to follow him as well.”
…It’s kind of suddenly become an incredible topic, you know?
“U-, Um,”
“Camille, what do you want to do?”
Does it feel like both Royce-sama and Achille have already made up their minds to quit the school? While I was out plucking flowers, just what happened…? The situation seems to be more serious than expected. The Revolution End might really happen. …In that case, I only have one answer.
“Then I’ll quit school as well.”
“Camille? Is that really okay? To decide so suddenly…”
“To begin with, I only entered this school to protect Royce-sama from danger after all. Now that it’s come to this, I think that there will probably be things that I’ll need to do as well.”
For some reason, Achille is making a heartbroken expression.
“Achille? It’s okay, you don’t have to worry. I’ll cooperate with you two. It sounds like it’ll be hard to suppress the extremists, but when it comes to me, I’ve mastered magic to an extent, right?”
“That’s not it… That’s not it at all, Camille.”
“…It’s not?”
From the seat beside me, Achille embraced me.
“I don’t want you to help us…”
“Eh-, why?”
Do I hold these two back that much? It’s a little shocking.
“Rather… why did you get confused about that? Helping us suppress the extremists means that you’ll have to do dangerous things, you know?”
Ahhh, that’s what he means…
“I definitely know that. And even if it’s dangerous, it’s fine.”
“Depending on how things go, you’ll have to hurt or kill the extremists, you know?”
“Uu-…”
Achille knows. That in the past, I’ve killed another person. When I was six years old, I took the life of a villain who plotted to murder Royce-sama. And at that time, I was shaken and cried in front of him. That’s why he’s worried about it even now.
“B-, But… I’m different from that time.”
A bluff. Since then, I haven’t killed a single person. The only things that I’ve ended are monsters. But I know that I can’t stay like this. Becoming Royce-sama’s bodyguard means that I’ll surely have to kill people again.
“…You liar. Even though you’re scared.”
Achille easilly saw through my lie. For some reason Achille knew I was lying.
“I don’t want you to be in danger, and I don’t want you to get hurt. If possible, I’d like you to stay out of the fight this time, and hole up in the marquis’ estate.”
His left hand stroked my back lovingly. I’m happy that Achille is worried about me.
“But, I…”
“It’s fine, I know. You’re going to help His Highness anyway, right?”
Achille smiled sadly, so I was bothered that I would be doing something extremely inexcusable to him.
“…Achille, sorry.”
It’s because he was worried about me that he didn’t want me to get involved with the extremist issue. And despite being aware of his feelings, I have no intention of changing my actions.
There shouldn’t be any way that he’s not dissatisfied with this, but even so he’s prioritising my choice. I don’t want him to make sad expressions, but my views won’t yield… I don’t know what I should do.
Before I knew it, I was hugging Achille face-on.
“Sorry, I’m sorry. But thank you for worrying about me.”
He’s my fiancé who always, always worries about my safety more than I do myself. Even so, I can’t do as he hopes.
“Camille…”
It’s one of the rare occasions where he’s frozen for a while with his eyes widened.
But, it seems he immediately recovered, and gently hugged me back.
“I have no intention of letting you be in danger by yourself, you know.”
But honestly speaking, Achille’s job isn’t combat. He’s The Thinker type. It would be terrible if by some chance the excellent Achille was wounded.
“I’m more worried about you getting injured, Achille. Ah-, that’s right, I have to create a magic tattoo to protect you too.”
“…Tattoo?”
Achille looked at me with a dubious expression.
“Mn, mn! Expect great things, okay?!”
There are a mountain of things that I have to do before I leave the academy. My fighting spirit was fired up. Beside me, certain about something, Achille was lecturing me, all without knowing about the fighting spirit burning secretly in my heart.