CH 157

[What Is the Truth?]

The exciting and surprises-filled academy festival had finally come to an end.

The atmosphere only showed signs of calming down once dawn broke.

Today there was no class, but there were a lot of cleanups to do. All students were busy putting down signboards and removing decorations.

Of course, Tayte and I were no exception. We had been working hard at cleaning up since morning.

“Well, this year’s festival was so fun, wasn’t it♪?” Said Cornell after coming up to me and Tayte as we were removing decorations in our classroom.

“Yes. It was a lot of fun♪.” Tayte replied.

“Right ~♪.”

The two high-fived excitedly.

“You sure are in a good mood, Cornell,” I said.

“Of course! I had more fun this year than the last one, after all♪.”

“Is that so?”

“It is so. But I know a certain someone had more fun than me. Right, Barrett?”

“Are you talking about me?”

Cornell smiled at me. “Come on, don’t play dumb. Tayte won the contest and you received the acknowledgment from the knights at the tournament. Shouldn’t you be the happiest of us all?”

“Well… I guess so.”

Looking back, she had a point.

The academy festival did end on a high note for me.

–But that wasn’t all. One of the things I had been worrying about for a long time had been resolved, too.

Yup, I was talking about Raul’s curse mark.

At one point Raul had been shunned by other students because of the incident in which he went berserk. However, now that I had cut the curse mark that was the cause of his berserk, he should be able to rely on the power of the Demon Sword without a problem anymore.

So should Raul’s girlfriend and childhood friend Eureka.

Moreover, the odds were high that the Lekrusts and Halmans were deeply involved with the curse mark, and they were under investigation by Principal Abigail and the knights.

Principal Abigail had promised to let me know the results.

Most likely, there were others involved with the curse mark besides those two noble houses.

And the principal seemed to be hell-bent to pull them up by their roots.

“Barrett?”

“–?! W-what’s wrong?”

“Well, you seem to be lost in thought, so…”

“O-oh, it was nothing.”

I was caught lost in thought by Cornell.

There were still many mysteries surrounding this case.

I believed it would be better if I didn’t divulge it to anyone else until more information surfaced.

The principal had the same idea, as she had put a gag order on the faculty members and the knights.

I wondered, what information would the heads of the Houses of Lekrust and Halman spill out?

I couldn’t help but be curious, and my mind was about to be swallowed in a whirlpool of thoughts again, when…

“Is Barrett Albers here?”

…our homeroom teacher Mr. Walter entered the classroom, calling my name.

“Is something the matter, Mr. Walter?”

“Oh, there you are. The principal is summoning you.”

“!”

Finally, my body stiffened for a moment.

“…Tayte, Cornell, sorry, but I’ve got to go.”

“Please don’t worry.”

“Yeah, leave the cleaning to us.”

With that, I began to make my way toward the principal’s office.

The truth behind Raul’s curse mark—though I tried to suppress my impatience, my pace became faster as I went.