Chapter 187 : Chapter 187
Cecilia smiled and said nothing more.
Iruya swallowed the last bite of bread, raised her head, and glared at her. In those violet eyes were fear, anger, and also a stubborn light that refused to yield.
Cecilia looked at that gaze, and the curve of her lips deepened slightly.
“Well then,” she said, lifting her teacup for another sip, “let us continue the topic from just now.”
She set the cup down and looked at Iruya with those ice-blue eyes.
“It seems that you were... rather surprised that I recognized you as an elf?”
Still glaring at her, Iruya nodded.
Of course she was surprised.
She had spent a whole year at Saint Roland Magic Academy. An entire year. Every day, she wore her hood, kept to herself, and spoke to no one. To others, she was merely a withdrawn commoner student who had entered the academy on excellent grades but had no friends.
When people noticed her at all, it was only because of her face. Even with it half-hidden, the parts that were occasionally revealed were undeniably beautiful. But that was all. No one had thought any further.
She had hidden herself well.
So well that she had nearly forgotten she was not human.
And yet this woman had only met her once. They had only just met, and already—
“How did you find out?” Iruya asked, her voice hoarse. “I did not reveal anything.”
Cecilia looked at her, the smile on her face deepening.
“Yesterday,” she said, “do you remember when I came across you?”
She paused, then smiled again.
“Oh, that is right. You were already unconscious by then.”
She rose and walked over to Iruya, looking down at her from above.
“Then allow me to explain,” she said. “You climbed over the academy wall, slipped, and then rolled all the way down from that wall until you landed right in front of my carriage.”
As she spoke, she traced the path of that tumble with one hand.
“I had just finished visiting the academy and was about to leave. I heard the noise, lifted the carriage curtain, and there you were, lying on the ground.”
Her tone was light, casual, as though she were recounting something mildly amusing.
“At first, I thought you were simply a young student trying to sneak out over the wall. Perhaps you were skipping class. Perhaps you wanted to slip out and have some fun. Perhaps you had quarreled with someone. I have seen such things many times.”
She lowered her head and looked at Iruya.
“But I found something rather remarkable on you.”
Iruya stared at her, her pupils tightening slightly.
Cecilia set her teacup on the little table beside her and stepped forward, sitting down at the edge of Iruya’s bed. She was very close now, close enough that Iruya could see the fine texture of her skin, close enough to smell the faint fragrance clinging to her, something that mingled tea with some expensive perfume.
She lifted a hand and tilted Iruya’s chin upward.
The motion was light and gentle, like the touch one might use while admiring a work of art.
“You see,” she said, staring directly into Iruya’s violet eyes with her own pale blue ones, “Spatial Magic, is it not?”
Iruya’s pupils shrank to pinpoints.
Cecilia smiled. Seen from this close, that smile was as warm as spring sunlight.
“Do not be nervous, my dear,” she said softly, reaching into her sleeve with her free hand and taking out a silk handkerchief.
It was pale violet, embroidered at the edges with silver patterns, so soft it seemed almost liquid. Holding it delicately, she carefully wiped away the crumbs of bread and the trace of milk at the corner of Iruya’s mouth.
Iruya sat stiffly, unable to move.
“I do not know where you came from,” Cecilia said as she wiped her clean, her voice so gentle it could have lulled a child to sleep, “nor do I know what you have gone through that made you choose to hide within Saint Roland Magic Academy as an ordinary student.”
She drew the handkerchief back and looked at Iruya.
“But you should know that Spatial Magic is extraordinarily rare across the entire continent.”
Iruya pressed her lips together.
“Those who learn it are without exception at least Archmages. And even then, the Spatial Magic they wield is usually quite crude,” Cecilia said. “Its side effects are severe. It can only manage short-distance displacement, and afterward it leaves the user dizzy, nauseated, and physically ill for quite some time.”
She paused.
“And after a human uses Spatial Magic, there is never any magical residue left upon them.”
“Do you know why?”
Without thinking, Iruya shook her head.
The motion was very small, almost foolish, like a student called upon by a teacher who did not know the answer.
Cecilia smiled.
That smile was truly gentle, like a patient teacher instructing her favorite pupil.
“Because Spatial Magic does not truly draw near to the mage who uses it,” she said.
“Between humans and Spatial Magic, the relationship is merely one of cooperation. A human says, ‘Hello, I need a door.’ The magical particles within space respond and open a coordinate gate. The human steps through, passes through the turbulent currents of time and space, and exits from another gate.”
She raised a hand and traced a light arc through the air.
“During that process, the human must protect themselves with their own mana. Otherwise, they will be torn apart by the current. That is why Spatial Magic is regarded as the most difficult, and the most dangerous, of all magics. One mistake, and a mage can be lost forever in endless void.”
Her hand came to rest on Iruya’s shoulder, patting it lightly.
“But,” she said, “there is one kind of people—or rather, one kind of race—for whom the situation is entirely different.”
Iruya’s breathing stopped.
“When they use any kind of magic, those magical particles wrap around them with all their strength. They protect them. They aid them. There is no need for communication, no need for cooperation, no need for any ritual.”
Cecilia lowered her head, leaning close to Iruya’s ear, her voice as light as a wisp of smoke.
“It is as though... those magical particles already know them.”
Then she straightened and looked into Iruya’s widened violet eyes.
“It is as though... those magical particles belonged to them from the very beginning.”
She smiled, rose to her feet, and returned to her seat. Her movements were elegant and composed, as though nothing at all had happened.
She picked up her black tea and took a light sip.
She set it down.
Opened her eyes.
Those ice-blue eyes looked at Iruya with warmth and kindness, like a teacher gazing at a student who had finally understood the lesson.
“Am I right?”
She smiled.
“Miss Elf.”
Iruya said nothing.
She sat there, those violet eyes fixed straight on the woman before her. Cecilia’s smile was warm, kind, like sunlight filtering through a carved window.
But all Iruya felt was cold.
She had been exposed.
Just like that. So simply, so easily, so completely off guard.
She had hidden in that human academy for a year. An entire year. She had worn her hood low, kept her head down, spoken to no one, and drawn no attention. She had even learned how to breathe like a human, walk like a human, smile like a human.
She had thought she had hidden herself well.
Yet this woman had needed less than the time it took to drink a cup of tea to see straight through her.