Chapter 18: 4

Volume 2 Chapter 4: The Oracle

Having lost track of Melissa, we moved on to the cafeteria for lunch, sitting down at our usual table for four.

As I began neatly cutting into the glazed carrot with my knife, Colette raised a question.

“So what exactly is this ‘Oracle of Iltania’? From the name, I can at least guess it is related to your God Iltania, but…”

We were continuing our discussion about Melissa.

Melissa had been observing us — no, observing me — but she disappeared when we confronted her. After that, Albert had said she was the ‘Oracle of Iltania’.

The country Albert and I were from was the Kingdom of Iltania, a country that took its name from the God they believed in. If Melissa was the ‘oracle’, then she had to be related to the God Iltania and the religion in some way.

“Yes, that is correct. It is said that the Oracle bloodline holds the greatest devotion to Iltania, and because of their unwavering dedication, Iltania granted the chosen Oracle the power of prophecy.”

Our assumptions seemed more or less accurate.

But the power of prophecy? Supposedly granted by God, no less? I hadn’t expected our conversation to go in this direction.

I could feel my mouth twist with suspicion, clearly showing how dubious I found the story.

Albert, seeing my grimace, gave a troubled chuckle before continuing.

“I understand your wariness, Lady Mylene, as I know you do not follow the teachings. Even so, the Oracles correctly predicted many of the diasters that have come to pass, such as the Flooding of Imron, the Eruption of Mount Zevent and even the Silver Spoon Scandal.”

Albert, a devout believer of the Iltanian faith, must have felt troubled knowing that the person he trusted the most was also the one that had the least trust for the beliefs he followed.

But after hearing what Albert had to say, it seemed I would have to change how I viewed Iltania; the events Albert mentioned were all things that I had learned about in my own studies as a noble lady — in other words, they were all incidents major enough to be recorded.

…Actually, now that he’d mentioned it, I could feel vague memories about those events come to mind.

The two diasters Albert mentioned had been huge in scale, and yet they had done very little damage for their size because of the evacuations and countermeasures in place before they struck.

…Was that it then? I always believed God didn’t exist, but now there was a reason to believe that one could exist.

Of course, that didn’t mean I would suddenly prostrate myself in worship of Iltania. Now, it was more I questioned the personality — more specifically, the choices God had made — rather than the existence.

After all, what kind of God would bless Mylene with such incredible talents? Had the bearer of the Hair of Sulberia been a better person, the previous history — the one that I knew — would not have gone as disastrously as it had.

“Does she… does Miss Melissa also have the power of prophecy as the current Oracle?”

“That is correct. I have heard that the prophecies are often too difficult for most people to understand, to say nothing of the fact that only Miss Melissa’s family is able to receive them.”

If Melissa really did receive prophecies from Iltania, did she begin monitoring me now because of a new one?

“I see… is what I would like to say, but I must confess that this is a little difficult to accept.”

“I believe it may be the natural skepticism of having come from Colhoun, an empire whose people are free to follow any religion. Are you a follower of any particular faith, Princess Colette?”

Albert wore a wry smile as he asked.

“I would not say I am, no. The only thing I follow is the path that I have chosen for myself. I do not intend any disrespect of course, but I simply cannot follow or believe in something I cannot see or hear for myself.”

I had expected Colette to say something like that.

After all, I followed that same belief. At least, I did until…

“Even so, the truth is that there are things that we are not able to explain, such as what Pelmann was able to do.”

“Mmm… That certainly is true.”

I could no longer deny the existence of some higher power.

And in a strange twist of irony, it was because of a cult that utterly hated Iltania that my thinking had changed.

On that day, Pelmann had entreated his god, and he suddenly grew more powerful. Only through divine intervention could he have gained so much power in such a short amount of time.

“However, I do agree with what you say: that people should follow the path they have chosen for themselves.”

“Yes, of course. I have always known that you and I are cut from the same cloth, Mylene!”

Well, I had already seen how Iltania had done nothing to help a certain ‘chosen one’ at her final hour, to say nothing of a certain country’s downfall or how its citizens had rotted at their core.

And I suppose I could very well add “turned a blind eye to the plight of a certain devout Oracle” depending on how this current history continued to unfold.

Pretending not to see Albert’s lonely smile, I took a sip of my black tea.

Another thought came to mind: if that small critter of a girl really had the power of prophecy, then this was an unbelievable opportunity for us.

“I fully believe in choosing my path for myself, but… I can’t say I’m not interested in Miss Melissa.”

I didn’t know for sure what kind of powers the Oracle had, so it was possible that the power as actually on predicting major events rather than receiving prophecies from God… It was even possible that the Oracles themselves were instigating the events to make it seem like their predictions were right.

On the other hand, if Melissa really could predict the future, then it might be possible for me to understand better what eventually led to what I knew to be the fall of the Kingdom of Iltania.

In other words, it was a chance to guess what the ‘Gods of the Moon’ might try to do.

“So by all means, I would like to speak with her.”

“That may be more difficult than you think.”

I looked over where Colette gestured with her chin and saw Melissa. Since when had she been there?

She was peeking over from under a table… one with students already occupying it.

I already knew Melissa was observing me from somewhere — and for some time now even — but I couldn’t act that I had seen her because…

“…!”

…if our eyes met, she’ll immediately ran away.

“I can’t help but worry about what is to come…”

“Ngh..!”

I couldn’t help but sigh as I watched Melissa react to me in panic before running away with tears in her eyes, having bumped her head against the table.

◆

A week had passed from when we confronted Melissa.

She was still watching me as usual, but the addition of a tiny observer constantly watching our group — already the center of attention between two members of royalty and the bearer of the Hair of Sulberia — had become a popular topic around the Academy.

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She still fled every time our eyes met, but because she continued to do so, I suspected she was under the mistaken impression that she was doing a good job at keeping herself hidden.

“She came to watch today as well. Will she never tire of this..?”

“As diligent as ever, she is. Would it not be better for her to come closer for observation?”

Any apprehension we might’ve felt for her before was completely gone. Even now, Albert and Colette smiled awkwardly as they looked towards the tree Melissa was hiding (unsuccessfully) behind today.

I, on the other hand, continued swinging my wooden sword without regard to our watcher. She would just run away if I so much as twitched in her direction; she might as well be a fairy or something. I caught myself sighing in exasperation.

“She just doesn’t trust us. More importantly, I’m not sensing any magic out of either of you…”

“Ah, oops.”

“My apologies, I shall be more careful.”

Both of them began channeling their magical power after I coldly pointed out their slackening focus.

This was another part of their training: covering themselves in a shell of magical power. It would increase their resistance to attacks, and they would become less vulnerable to surprise attacks once they became used to doing it all the time.

I still hadn’t figured out what those cultists were trying to do; it was something about ‘creating a world of chaos’, but I had no way of knowing what that even meant. And considering they hadn’t even hesitated to endanger the life of royalty, it was hard for me to predict what they would do next.

So to prepare them for unforeseen circumstances, I would have them train by keeping up a magical shell at all times, except for when sleeping. This also had the benefit of not only increasing the maximum amount of magical power their body could hold but also making them better at manipulating magical energy and controlling their output, which minimized any excess use. That was the goal of this regimen.

“Although I understand the effectiveness of this training… it does not make doing it any easier.”

“Indeed, it is very difficult, but also very rewarding. And because of it, I sleep very well every night after returning to my room!”

Keeping up a magical shell for an entire day sounded simple enough, but doing it was something else.

It involved constantly monitoring how much magical power was available and carefully adjusting its usage so as to maintain protection, so it was like having to go about everyday life at the same pace as one of those running competitions from ancient times. What it really came down to was how well the person could control their magical power, but ordinary people wouldn’t be able to keep this kind of thing going for even an hour.

But in only three days, these two have learned to do it. Well, they still passed out from exhaustion every night from doing so, but they have also gotten to the point of being able to joke around while training. I really expected nothing less out of royalty with their lineage — their natural talent was extraordinary.

…Having originally been someone without a trace of magic, I felt faintly envious, but what became even clearer was how unreasonable it was that the scum called ‘Mylene’ had been given power as the bearer the Hair of Sulberia.

Well, I suppose I didn’t have anything to complain about now, having become one of those people with ‘extraordinary natural talent’. Even so, I had no intention of living a life of complacency, and — setting aside the ones already targeting me — I wanted to avoid making enemies like ‘Mylene’ had.

“Hmm… We’ve made quite some progress now.”

That aside, in regards to these two, I would continue them through harsh training like this. They were already showing great results, having greatly increased the amount of usable magical power after onlya few days of this.

Well, they still weren’t strong enough to deal with a Pelmann-class opponent. If I were to guess, I would say Colette was strong enough that the top generals of Colhoun would have a hard time facing her, while Albert was around the level of most knights in Iltania.

And of course it went without saying that the brats of our age didn’t stand a chance against us.

“Fufu, I wonder, what progress might you be referring to?”

But that wasn’t the only thing making progress.

“I’m referring to both the training and that, of course.”

I returned a bold smile to Colette.

I certainly couldn’t deny that they had shown amazing growth, and as the one responsible for teaching them, I couldn’t help but feel something when I saw how they were improving.

But there was something else, something aside from their training that had progressed further.

stares

Even now, Melissa continued to observe us. But I felt we made progress on that end as well.

“She has been getting closer and closer while watching us, hasn’t she?”

“Indeed, she has.”

As Albert said, the distance between us and our little watcher had been shrinking the whole time.

Despite having been caught that day, Melissa continued to watch me, though from a considerable distance. Lately, however, she had begun coming closer and closer with each passing day.

I wouldn’t go as far as saying we were on good terms with each other now, but it was clear that she was lowering her guard. Whether it was because she was growing lax or otherwise, I couldn’t tell.

Even now, Melissa was stuffing her face with a sandwich as she watched us. For her to be casually eating as she followed us around… it was more accurate to say she had become careless rather than defenseless.

“So what would you like to do? If she is this close, it would be an easy matter to catch her before she is able to escape.”

Colette came close and whispered with a soft voice, with a mischievous smile floating on her lips.

Melissa suddenly gave a start; had she somehow sensed what we were planning?

Colette wasn’t wrong though; at this distance, and with the three of us on the chase, it would be easier than catching a rabbit.

I would have to put an end to this farce between us sooner or later…

“No, don’t do anything just yet. I can use this to clear up any misunderstandings between us.”

…but I didn’t want to waste this opportunity by being too hasty.

And since she’d come this far anyway, I’d rather have Melissa finish our little game of tag herself.

It would be faster and easy enough to catch her myself, but I didn’t want to risk having her double down on refusing to talk with me. It wasn’t like I could force her to speak with me, either.

“I see… Well, there is nothing to worry about. I am sure we only need to wait a little longer for her!”

“It does seem that way, doesn’t it.”

Albert raised a fist to eye level, showing his excitement.

Well, it’s not like I knew how much “a little longer” was going to be.

As far as I could tell, Melissa still acted like I was her enemy.

Was it because of a prophecy from Iltania? Or maybe because she felt connected to ‘Mylene’ somehow? Whatever it may be, that small animal had to have some weird circumstances going on that made her follow me around with that kind of determination.

“This is getting to be pretty irritating…”

I also had things I couldn’t stand doing, but I also knew it took time to resolve misunderstandings.

So for now, the only thing I could do was to continue waiting.

I took a stance again and focused my gaze on the tip of my sword before I began swinging again.

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