A gathering of uncivilized otherworlders that calls itself the “Star Cluster Society” but might as well be named the “Transporter Discrimination Society”.
I looked at her, wondering if I’d really just heard what I thought I heard.
But Babienne wore an expression that said she’d simply stated the obvious.
In reality, Shishiroka never rose to greatness as a holy mage.
Her body was frail from birth; no matter how much she tried to study holy magic, she would collapse before she could make any progress.
Naturally, she likely never participated in the Star Cluster Society either.
Knowing Shishiroka, she would’ve spent her time studying rather than joining some gathering like this.
Rumors travel fast.
Everyone here probably knew that Shishiroka who rarely showed herself was considered subpar compared to the standards of this place.
“Oh, and Sir Haru, may I offer you a small piece of advice?”
Babienne gave a gentle smile, perhaps thinking our earlier conversation had made us close.
It was the kind of smile you’d expect from a noble lady who lived in a flower-filled world.
Someone who had never known hardship. Someone who was raised delicately and elegantly.
The kind of person who had no need to watch her words.
You could tell that’s the kind of life she’d lived.
“You’d be better off not associating with Lady Aransel too closely.”
Her eyes carried genuine sincerity.
Out of nowhere, she brought up Aransel.
Was she planning to criticize everyone I had ties with?
“Aransel doesn’t like Transporters. The way she pretends otherwise is what makes it even worse.
If you stay close to her, you’re bound to regret it.”
Well, that’s something I already knew.
But clearly, from an outsider’s perspective, seeing a Transporter next to Aransel seemed odd.
“Quite a few Transporters have been misled by her looks and ended up getting their feelings hurt.
Sir Haru, you deserve to be with someone better than a judgmental person like her.”
It was obvious Babienne didn’t like Aransel.
They probably didn’t get along too well.
“Well, she did grow up without parents, so it’s only natural she’d have her shortcomings.”
Babienne Asteria.
When it came to looks, she reminded me of a bleeding heart flower that was shaped like a red heart.
But just as that flower is poisonous, Babienne carried a poison of her own.
A poison called crazy bitch.
“…What did you just say?”
I asked.
“Oh? Are your ears not working properly?”
No, the problem is that everything’s too clear, you bitch.
A bee fluttering through a flower garden—
This one had bared her stinger.
And without a second thought, she’d dared to jab it around recklessly.
Well then, if someone all-powerful were to rip that stinger out, she’d have no right to complain.
Shouting and pointing fingers here would just make me look like some second-rate clown.
“Yes, I’m still not very fluent in Otherworlder language.”
“Oh dear, I heard all Transporters are granted translation abilities.”
“Then perhaps your sentence structure is so poor that my translation skill can’t process it properly.”
“…Huh?”
I jabbed my middle finger in my ear, pretending I hadn’t heard her clearly.
“My translation power is incomplete, you see. Especially when someone’s pronunciation is poor, I just can’t make sense of it. Ah… do you perhaps have a speech impediment or a short tongue?”
In reality, I had no idea about her pronunciation.
Everything gets auto-translated anyway.
What I was doing now was just messing with her…for fun.
Then I pulled my finger from my ear and showed it to her.
“Looks like no earwax. Pretty clean, wouldn’t you say?”
When I held my middle finger up in front of her face, her expression crumpled in disgust.
Middle fingers might not be a curse in this world—
But with so many Transporters having crossed over, those things spread quickly.
Especially swearing.
Babienne’s hand lashed out toward me.
“You filthy little—!”
The moment her hand smacked mine away,
I flew.
Literally, I was in the air.
Crash!
I smashed through a food-laden table and tumbled across the floor.
Food spilled everywhere, turning the area into a complete mess. The sound of breaking dishes echoed through the hall.
The venue fell into sudden silence.
In the stillness, every pair of eyes darted between me and Babienne.
“Wh-What…”
Babienne stammered with a dazed expression, unable to grasp what had just happened.
She had only lightly swatted my hand.
There hadn’t been any real force behind it.
So of course, watching someone get flung through the air because of that must’ve been shocking.
Naturally.
The one who flew was me.
Totally on purpose.
“Ow… ugh… ngh…”
In the dead silence, my groans rang out dramatically.
My clothes were soaked in food, and blood dripped from my forehead.
“Haru!”
Aransel who had been chatting with the other disciples shouted and rushed over.
She quickly cleared the broken tableware and helped me sit up.
“…What the hell are you doing?”
She whispered low enough that only I could hear.
Sharp as ever.
She’d caught on immediately that I was putting on an act.
I guess after spending time around me, she’d come to understand my nature.
I was grateful she didn’t butt in too soon.
The disciples were murmuring.
Out of everyone, the most flustered was Babienne.
“Goodness… you nearly killed me! Is it okay to just strike a person like that?”
I asked with blood dripping dramatically from my forehead.
Babienne flinched at my words, her shoulders twitching.
Her face turned beet red.
Even if her head was full of flowers, that didn’t mean she was stupid.
She clearly realized she’d just been had.
“I-I didn’t hit him that hard! What a liar!”
“Oh really? Then how did I end up flying across the room on my own?”
Babienne’s face went stiff.
Of course she couldn’t explain.
Her insults toward Aransel had only been said between the two of us.
So if she denied it, that was the end of it.
But if Babienne were to explain herself here and now, she’d be openly admitting to badmouthing Aransel.
And among those gathered, there were plenty of Otherworlders who liked Aransel.
If that came to light, Babienne would be the one drawing backlash.
So she couldn’t say anything.
Only I could open my mouth here.
“Ugh… I think my arm’s broken from how hard she hit me…”
“Th-That’s impossible!”
“Oh? Are you saying I’m lying? Feel free to check it yourself, Lady Babienne.”
I held out my wrapped arm.
Go ahead, touch it.
I’ll cry like I’m dying right on the spot.
I might not cry for someone else,
But I’ll cry for myself whenever I need to.
Babienne must’ve picked up on that too—
Which was exactly why she didn’t dare reach for me.
If I started bawling about how she hit my already injured arm,
She’d look even worse.
“N-No matter what, there’s no way someone would fly like that…”
“I’m just an apprentice holy mage, you know.”
Let me make one thing perfectly clear:
Apprentice holy mages are the weakest creatures on earth.
An apprentice mage can probably burn down a whole house.
But an apprentice holy mage?
We’re the kind who get beat up by common thugs and still can’t recover.
That’s who I am.
My unusually pale skin only amplified my fragile image.
Now, Babienne had become the villain who went full force on a weak, frail apprentice holy mage.
“Lady Babienne… just because I’m a Transporter, I never thought you’d hate me this much.
I was actually hoping we could be friends. This really… hurts.”
And with that, I sealed her image as a Transporter discriminator.
“A-As if someone like me would ever do such discriminatory things!”
“But I did get hit by you and sent flying.”
Babienne opened and closed her mouth, speechless.
The stares of the other disciples turned squarely onto her.
They were the type who cared very much about their image as elite heirs.
Even if they discriminated against Transporters, they couldn’t afford to do it openly.
They had to keep their prejudice classy and behind the scenes.
So, not a single one of them stepped up for Babienne.
If they got dragged into it and ended up getting criticized too, it would be a loss for them.
Thanks to that, I was reminded once again that this was a thoroughly self-serving group.
“It hurts. I can’t stand anymore. Aransel, could you take me to the infirmary?”
“Alright.”
Aransel cooperated without a word of complaint.
Babienne couldn’t say a single word until I left.
She just stood there, trembling.
It was the price she paid for baring her fangs at someone like me who had survived in a country overrun with swindlers.
A girl with a flower garden in her head.
She had better remember not to show her fangs so carelessly again.
“So are you actually going to the infirmary?”
Aransel asked as she helped me out.
“Why would I? I’m a holy mage.”
Honestly, the bleeding from my forehead had been unexpected even for me.
Maybe it was because I’d recently died from a head injury.
Throwing my body like that didn’t feel as reckless as it used to.
But it wasn’t serious enough to need a trip to the infirmary.
“I kind of want to make her pay damages or something, but Valterion doesn’t have laws like that, does it?”
People here rarely compensated injuries with money or offerings.
Especially not nobles.
That kind of system only worked in democratic societies.
Of course, in those kinds of societies, people often just killed the offender or sentenced them to death right away if someone got hurt.
What an uncivilized world this was.
“Still, I definitely wrecked her image.”
“Babienne’s from the Asteria Barony. This’ll blow over soon enough.”
“That doesn’t matter. What matters is how she feels about it.”
Everything I did had one goal: to hurt her feelings.
Pure malice and nothing more.
“Why did you do it? Haru, you’re not someone who acts without a reason.”
Aransel asked while I was healing my forehead with holy magic.
Honestly, there was no reason for her to feel bad about it too.
But looking into Aransel’s eyes, I could tell. She was determined to hear me out.
“Because she insulted Shishiroka. And she insulted you too.”
“Hah…”
A stunned breath escaped Aransel’s lips.
“I’m sorry. Babienne picking a fight with you was probably because of me.”
“Because of you?”
“She doesn’t like me.”
“Sounds like something happened between you two.”
Aransel let out a sigh, then pressed a hand to her cheek.
“I don’t even know. She hated me from the very first moment we met.”
Aransel pretended otherwise, but she was giving me the reason.
Then she glanced sideways at me with a slight smile tugging at her lips.
What a sly girl.
Babienne seemed to have a lot of pride in her appearance.
From the expensive jewelry she wore to her clothes and her every mannerism,
Her attitude screamed confidence in her looks.
But even with all that effort, Aransel’s appearance easily outshone hers.
If I were to compare it in modern terms, Babienne was like a fairly successful influencer.
Meanwhile, Aransel looked like someone who’d stand out even among actresses.
That kind of gap wasn’t something that could be closed easily.
She lost in looks.
And to Babienne, that must have been more humiliating than anything else in the world.
So when I appeared at Aransel’s side, she chose to target me a Transporter and take it out on me.
“Still, Aransel, you’re not exactly an easy personality either.”
“Just so you know, I don’t show it around other people. I usually hide it.”
It’s human nature to feel resentment toward someone who’s full of self-love.
Aransel knew that well, so she never went around flaunting her looks in front of others.
“But with you, Haru, I’ve already revealed worse things. So hiding this felt pointless.”
She’d already admitted to being a racist, so pretending not to be proud of her looks would’ve been even more ridiculous.
“Must be nice, being pretty. What’s it like, living life that beautiful?”
“It can be annoying sometimes, but right now? It’s kind of fun. I’m enjoying being pretty.”
Aransel leaned in close while grinning slyly.
A woman who knows she’s pretty… rather than hating her, you just end up admitting, “Yeah, she really is pretty.”
I’d learned something new.
“More importantly, are you going back?”
Aransel pointed toward the Star Cluster Society.
Maybe because of the whole Babienne situation, her face already looked sour.
“Before that, did you hear anything?”
At my question, Aransel hesitated.
She averted her gaze and her eyes shifted slightly.
She knew something.
When I pressed her with my eyes, Aransel finally spoke, albeit reluctantly.
“…It’s about the Grace Magic Tower.”
“The Grace Magic Tower?”
“The Valterion imperial family is investigating it directly.”
What was that supposed to mean?
“Tell me everything.”
Aransel looked hesitant, but in the end, she opened her mouth.
“There are rumors the Grace Magic Tower is connected to Black Dawn.”
My house is going to burn down.
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