Episode 30 (Bianca’s POV): “She Is…”
“I’m exhausted…”
Lying back on the inn bed, staring at the ceiling, she found herself replaying the day in her mind.
It had been a long time since she’d fought alongside Fiine, but her magic reserves really were overwhelming, just as she remembered.
And that was despite fighting through a magic doll today — a method that, by all rights, should have made things far harder to control.
(There’s a lot I still think about, but… I’m glad she seemed well, at least.)
Even so, watching Fiine fight had stirred up a certain impatience in her.
Unlike Fiine, who’d spent the past several years shut away in seclusion, Bianca had thrown herself into relentless effort ever since graduating from the magic academy.
And yet, no matter what, she still found herself trailing behind her all the same.
“Still not enough, huh. Me, of all people.”
Among her peers, she was called one of the fastest risers, but there were whispers, too, that her graduating class was weak, having lacked a top scorer.
In truth, several people from the class one year ahead of Bianca’s own — those who’d graduated a year earlier from the academy — were climbing the ranks several times faster than she was.
Just as Bianca let out a quiet sigh, something tapped against the window.
She assumed it was the wind at first, but the tapping was far too persistent for that.
Reluctantly, she got up from the bed to check outside, and found a black crow with red eyes striking the glass again and again.
Looking closer, she saw a cord wound around the crow’s neck, with a red envelope tucked between the cord and its throat.
(A red-eyed crow, with a red envelope… could it be…!)
She hurried to open the window. Even after she pulled the envelope free, the crow didn’t move.
If her guess was right, this crow wouldn’t leave until it had her reply in hand.
This was something different from the operation magic Fiine used. This was, most likely—
Opening the envelope, she found a letter inside.
“Lieutenant Bianca von Behrendorf —
Submit a report regarding Fiine Fellner, the civilian cooperating in the current mission.
You are to speak of this report to no one else, under any circumstances.
— Ridwan, Captain of the Royal Guard”
A second sheet of paper was tucked inside the envelope, meant for writing the report itself.
“So it’s true after—! —Whoa!”
The letter in Bianca’s hand suddenly burst into flame.
She dropped it in a hurry, and in an instant, it had burned down to nothing but ash.
(…So the rumors were right about this too.)
A letter delivered by a red-eyed crow, sent from the King’s own Royal Guard.
Requests for information, accusations of some crime, claims of knowing a secret — the contents apparently varied, but every one of them, without exception, came with a strict ban on disclosure to any third party.
She’d never once imagined she’d end up on the receiving end of one herself.
“…Sorry, Fiine. But I can’t lie about this.”
To begin with, she hadn’t even reported to her own direct superior that she’d be working alongside Fiine on this mission at all.
And yet if it was already known regardless, even a small lie stood a good chance of being caught out.
It was well known throughout the Magic Corps just how ruthless the man leading the Royal Guard, Ridwan, was said to be.
There had been more than one or two cases of people deemed hostile to His Majesty the King meeting sudden, suspicious deaths.
Submit a false report, and Bianca’s own head could just as easily roll for it.
Taking a breath, she set down the facts on the page, plainly, without embellishment.
And at the very end, she added a single line of her own honest feeling.
“She is a brave and honorable person.”
She was awkward, bad at communicating, sloppy in more ways than one, and had her share of pathetic moments too.
But she had never once run from an enemy in front of her.
And despite being a commoner, she carried a far stronger sense of responsibility than most nobles Bianca had ever known.
(You might act all world-weary, but that kind of thing doesn’t suit you one bit.)
Murmuring it silently to herself, she folded the report and returned it to the envelope.
Tucking it back beneath the crow’s neck cord, the bird gave a single cry and took off, flying toward the royal capital.