A few days later
In the afternoon after classes ended.
I was waiting to see whether the royal family or Kanna would send a reply first, but surprisingly, the first reply came from another direction.
Victoria received a letter addressed to her.
Not a reply from her parents, but in the form of a return to sender.
However, after sitting for about 5 minutes after receiving the returned letter, she immediately left the dormitory and headed to the school building.
And she enters the administrative office, what?
A leave of absence?
She says something came up in her family and she needs to go down for a few weeks, so give her what she needs to fill out? No, isn't this decision too quick?
The administrative office person asks about the situation in confusion.
Victoria answers that she sent a letter but it was returned, so she's going to check.
She says there's no way a letter would be returned like this.
The administrative office person tries hard to persuade her to wait a little, but Victoria isn't swayed by that.
She says she has an ominous feeling, and asks them to follow the procedure as she's doing. Both the staff member and I, listening from Victoria's perspective, know that this means she'll just leave if they don't do it now.
Eventually, the administrative office staff gives her the necessary documents.
Victoria fills them out without hesitation and leaves the administrative office. Through Victoria's gaze, I saw the administrative office staff contacting somewhere, but I don't know where they contacted.
Victoria immediately returned to the dormitory, packed simple luggage, then spread a paper and left a short note for me saying she's going home because she has business there, and left the room.
Since I'm seeing everything through Victoria's eyes, I don't need to go and see, but originally this is something I shouldn't know about.
Victoria eventually leaves through the main gate and heads towards the route home she knows.
She heads to the port in the southwest of the capital, then takes a ship directly to Bern City from there.
It's where the port where Victoria was kidnapped last time is located.
Shouldn't she avoid going to dangerous places?
No, Victoria caught all the fishmen who kidnapped her.
There's no reason to worry. Moreover, she doesn't need to fear strangers.
Really, most ordinary people would lose consciousness underwater before they could properly fight. And water is heavier and more powerful than you think.
Victoria, who can move it at will, is really strong.
Even though Maleficent was going easy on her, she could at least stand up to her.
To use a game analogy, it means she had surpassed the appropriate level to face a raid boss. Of course, she was still crushed due to lack of numbers and power.
At least in terms of safety, there's no worry.
Strength and courage are completely different genres, but...
Victoria left.
And I have no way to know that right now.
I just have to hear it from others tomorrow, unable to move. Hiding the fact that I'm seeing the world through harvesters is more important than Victoria's safety.
In short, it's about priorities.
So Belle spent this day quietly in her lodging. Because the body called Belle can only move if there's a reason.
○
The next day.
Classes started, but Victoria didn't come to attend. Of course.
Right now, Victoria is waiting for a ship at the port.
The school teacher simply checked her as absent and moved on. Seeing that they just mark her as absent, it seems they haven't heard from the administrative office yet.
Well, the first class today isn't with the homeroom teacher.
As soon as class ended, Polaris approached me.
"Belle. Did something happen to Victoria?"
"I'm about to go to Victoria's room now."
I said that and was about to go, but suddenly, I looked at her. It's an expression of pure worry.
Hmm.
"Do you want to come along?"
"Ah, no. But."
"It's not strange for a classmate to go."
Saying that, I head towards Victoria's dormitory using the lunch break. Unlike her stumbling words, Polaris follows without hesitation as soon as I say she can come along.
Both Victoria and Polaris are quick to judge.
I go to get information while pretending not to know what I already know. I thought about going while saying I can hear Victoria's voice, but in that case, the past becomes a problem.
Isn't it strange that I don't know about the royal family dissecting and experimenting on harvesters?
It becomes a fact that I knew about it. It's problematic that I cooperated with the kingdom without any criticism while knowing everything.
After acting like a very good person so far, they'll realize I already knew about the cruel experiments. If they're not fools, they'll interrogate my true nature.
So I don't say I can hear specific people's voices. It's appropriate to say I can hear faintly, but not clearly.
I need to keep a line that I can equivocate well.
So I enter the dormitory with Polaris. Although I know the room is empty, I knocked on the door before opening it.
The room is empty.
Then, to show Polaris, I walked to the desk and picked up the note Victoria had written.
"It seems something happened at home."
And I handed it to Polaris. Polaris takes the paper from me and reads it.
"What, did this kid just go without saying anything to the school?"
She followed the proper procedures. But it seems that hasn't been communicated yet, but I left Polaris reading that and opened the drawer to pick up the returned letter.
"Do you know something?"
Then Polaris, holding that note, walked towards me.
"A letter with stiff content that they wouldn't usually write came from her family, so she sent a letter to her family."
I handed that letter to Polaris.
"Return to sender?"
"Victoria headed to her parents living in Bern City."
I deliberately don't say words inferring Victoria's state or feelings. I recently learned that there can be differences in perspective.
Instead, I say this:
"Shall we go after her?"
"Let's go."
Polaris doesn't hesitate.
Yes, she has a gallant temperament. Maybe she's similar to the current Kanna.
Classes?
For me, that's just a game to pass time. If there's something more important, we should go look for it.
"Do you know the way?"
"If it's Bern City, I have memories of going with my father a few times. And if we go through Bearington Street, we should be able to catch up right away, so don't worry."
Putting aside the question of how we'll follow with the physical distance, I nodded. If there's something she's good at, we should follow it.
I follow Polaris who immediately starts walking.
Meanwhile, Victoria has just boarded the ship.
And soon after, she asks the crew on the ship in a voice so cold it could freeze ice why they're not going to Bern City.
The shocking truth revealed to Victoria from the stammering crew member.
She heard that for several weeks now, the route to Bern City has been prohibited, along with the content that large-scale protests have occurred in Bern City, and protesters are still occupying Bern City now.
It's not the latest information, but slightly old.
So all routes heading there have been blocked, and they say if she has business on the other side, she can cross over there.
Victoria calms herself at the crew member's words. She looked down at her trembling hands and clenched her fists.
And she bows her head saying sorry.
When the crew member carefully asks what's wrong, she says her parents live there and haven't returned contact.
Then the crew member comforts Victoria saying it'll be okay, and people around also say a word each.
Victoria says she's okay with a stiffly hardened face and forcibly heads to her seat.
Maybe because she bought it in a hurry, it's a seat on the ship rather than a room like last time. As she sits down like that, a man who looks frivolous approaches and kindly asks what's wrong.
Victoria, amazingly, puts away all her emotions and slightly loosens her expression, answering that something urgent came up at home so she's hurriedly returning, and not to worry.
She must be very anxious, but now her hands don't even tremble.
Rather, she's become the state in her memories.
Around the time she was completed as a fishman slaughterer.
It means she's in a state of determination.
Seeing this side, she's not an ordinary child. Victoria.
The man who noticed Victoria's mood quietly left his seat. Ah, lust was visible but what a shame. He's quick-witted.
At that time, in front of the Royal Academy main gate, Polaris asked me:
"I'm going to run a bit, are you confident in running?"
"At the level of light jogging."
"Try running."
So I ran like when I went to Maleficent's house last time, and Polaris lets out a small sigh.
I thought I was running quite fast, but she comes to me and lifts me up. Fortunately, our heights are similar so my legs don't drag, but she's trying to carry me and run.
"Excuse me. What, why are you so light? Are you eating properly?"
"If you're going to hold me and run, please wait a moment."
The lodging is right in front of us.
I slightly struggled and got down on the ground, then knocked on the door of the lodging. After a while, a maid came out and I asked her to bring the butler.
"Did you call for me?"
"Yes. I might not be able to come back today."
"I see. If you're going somewhere in a hurry, shall I call for a vehicle?"
Hmm?
I immediately called Polaris.
"What?"
Polaris approached, and I grabbed her hand.
"I'm trying to go to Bern City with this child. Please give us the fastest one."
"I'll prepare it right away. Please wait inside."
Strangely enough, he does what I ask without asking about any intentions. I take Polaris and enter the lodging.
He might report this to the royal family as is, but that's fine.
Because in this situation right now, I'm not acting based on information I shouldn't know.
Polaris follows me inside with a blank expression. We go to the gathering place on the first floor, but the butler points to a room inside, so we enter there.
According to Kanna's knowledge, we entered a room decorated with interior furnishings 30% more precious than the room I'm living in.
As soon as the butler left and we were alone, Polaris urgently asked:
"You, weren't you just admitted to the Royal Academy for a special ability?"
"I guess that ability was worth this much."
She's looking at me with an expression of complete disbelief.
Polaris shrank like a young child, just like her appearance. She didn't open her mouth after the last words. She must be nervous.
And a few minutes later, Polaris and I got in a car.