Hearing that, Furina began to question what Avrora had been thinking when he said it. He was not the sort of person to blurt something out without a plan. She would get hurt if she became involved with him? Honestly, if it meant she could live with Avrora, she was willing to suffer any amount of pain. But what if the wound ran too deep? It could leave aftereffects and scars—or, if things went wrong, kill her. Had he meant Peruel? But having seen Peruel countless times, Furina knew she was not someone who would object to Avrora’s decisions. Then there had to be something else.
"Don’t tell me... Avrora, you’re terminally ill or something... right?"
Terminally ill? It was true that he would die, but it was not a terminal illness.
"I’m not terminally ill."
"Then why would I get hurt?"
"Naturally, because of who I am?"
"Are you Fatui or something?"
"Well... if you have to classify me, then yes, I am Fatui, I suppose? The House of the Hearth belongs to the Fatui."
Furina was horrified. She had sensed that there was something strange about the orphanage Avrora lived in, but she had never imagined it belonged to the Fatui.
"Then... why did you take the bar exam...?"
"The director made me study so she could get me close to Neuvillette. The idea was to strengthen the House of the Hearth’s position by having me become friendly with Neuvillette."
"The director... Then was she the one who made you study, too?"
"No. I did all that entirely on my own. There’s no issue with my ability. To begin with, the director knows nothing about Fontaine law."
Furina had asked because she wondered whether Avrora had cheated somehow, but she was relieved. Even if someone cheated on essay questions, taking first place would have been impossible.
"A Fatui child and the Hydro Archon as lovers... That certainly is the kind of scandal reporters would love."
"So? Can you handle it?"
"Handle it... It’s not as if I can’t! Wouldn’t it be enough to alter all of your address and personal records?"
"Do you really think that’s possible? The newspapers have already printed that I’m from that orphanage. If we tried to alter my records now, people would find it even stranger."
The problem was that I had become far too famous. There was probably hardly anyone in Fontaine who did not know my name.
"Waaah... Then what do we do... I heard that orphanage is going to be audited soon..."
"Wait... What? An audit?"
"Yeah... Neuvillette thought it was suspicious that someone like you had come out of there, so he said he was going to audit it... I thought it was fortunate that you had gotten out of there, but..."
Fuck, I was screwed. An audit of the House of the Hearth? Wouldn’t they dig through all the internal documents? Then the story would really be ruined!
I immediately opened Peruel’s door and urgently spoke to her.
"Peruel? Go to the House of the Hearth right now."
"...Huh? Why? We don’t need to go back there anymore."
"I heard an audit team will be storming the place soon. If they uncover my information then, it’s over! Go tell Kujavina this news immediately. Got it?"
"Okay... I understand... If that is what you want, brother..."
Peruel got ready to leave. I just hoped she would arrive before the auditors did...
"Brother..."
"What is it, Peruel?"
"Don’t do anything strange with that bitch while I’m gone... If you do anything strange..."
"Then...?"
"You’ll have to do the same thing to me, too."
Having issued that terrifying declaration, Peruel went down the stairs, opened the front door, and left.
That left just Furina and me in the Bouf d’ete Residence.
"There’s no one here..."
"You’re right... Avrora..."
"Should we practice the piano?"
"Sure~~ If we’re practicing piano, your little sister can’t complain about it~ Sounds good!"
I practiced the piano with Furina until Citra and Cravie returned. Furina tried to kiss me several times in between, but whenever I told her to think about Peruel, she stopped.
That evening, Furina returned to Palais Mermonia, and Citra and Cravie came home. When Cravie asked where Peruel was, I told her I had sent her to the House of the Hearth because it seemed something serious was about to happen there. The three of us had dinner, and Peruel did not return until ten at night. She said Kujavina had smiled and told her she was very grateful to me. The impending audit had been confidential information within the Court of Fontaine, so it had not reached the House of the Hearth. Thinking that Kujavina would protect me, I went to sleep.
But five days before my interview, The Steambird printed the following.
[The Bar Exam’s Top Scorer Was Fatui?!]
[Public Divided Over Top Scorer’s Identity... Revoke His Results vs. Scores Were Fair]
[Chief Justice Neuvillette: The Interview Will Determine His Passing]
Kujavina had stabbed me in the back.
The moment the article was published, I visited The Steambird. The look in Euphrasie’s eyes said she had landed a scoop, and she immediately dragged me into The Steambird’s interview room. Even the bald editor-in-chief was delighted. After all, the child who was both the top scorer on the bar exam and at the center of a Fatui controversy had walked into their newspaper office on his own, which did wonders for The Steambird staff’s devotion to their paper.
In the interview room, I said to Euphrasie,
"Where did the claim that I’m Fatui come from?"
"That? I heard Fontaine administrators audited the orphanage where you used to live yesterday, and your name appeared in the documents there. Well, of course it did. You lived there. But apparently, among the reports they brought back, they found records showing that you went on missions alongside the Fatui? So the second reporting team decided it was a scoop and printed it."
"Which team are you on, Euphrasie?"
"Me? Team One. Since I’ve been getting information about you lately, Team Two has been jealous. I guess they thought they finally had something on me and rushed it straight to the presses."
"What do you think, Euphrasie? Do you think I’m Fatui?"
"Hmm... The documents are right there, so I can only think you are Fatui... But shouldn’t being Fatui and getting high marks on the bar exam be treated separately? Everyone’s still a person, after all."
"Then... Write down exactly what I say. You can probably consider it a scoop."
So Kujavina had decided to screw me over. She left behind the documents about the mission I went on with Capitano? Capitano would probably see this news and let out a hollow laugh. Fine. I had my own ideas, too. The story? To hell with it. Beating Kujavina down came first now. If she was going to take a stance that ruined the story, then it was an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
"Euphrasie? The orphanage where I lived is..."
"What about it?"
"A training facility for spies directly under the Snezhnayan Tsaritsa."
"...Oh."
Perhaps sensing a scoop, Euphrasie could only let out a breath of amazement.
"That little bastard stabbed me in the back?!!!"
"Mother... Please calm down..."
"How am I supposed to calm down after seeing this newspaper article?!!"
Smack! A copy of The Steambird was slammed onto the desk. It contained an article about the House of the Hearth.
[The Orphanage Where the Top Scorer Grew Up Was Actually a Training Facility for Killing Machines?!]
[Snezhnayan Embassy in Fontaine: We Have No Connection to It.]
[Residents Say the Top Scorer Is Impressive for Studying in Such an Environment... Sympathy Grows]
"It is true that I deliberately left the report involving Capitano behind... But even I did not expect him to stab me in the back so spectacularly!"
"Then what shall we do with that child, Mother?"
"Hah... The fourth interview is coming soon, isn’t it? If we kill him before or after it, it will only raise suspicions. We wait for the right time. And bring Sergei and Angelina to me. I’ll make them pay dearly for failing to manage this."
"Yes. Understood."
The day after that article came out, Sergei and Angelina said they had received a summons from the House of the Hearth and were going there. They told us to grow up well from now on before leaving, but something felt wrong. Using the stealth techniques Capitano had taught me, I followed Sergei and Angelina. They arrived at a beach a short distance away from the House of the Hearth. Kujavina was there to greet them.
"I even gave you poison and told you to kill those brats, yet in the end, you never used it."
"It is still too soon for that child to die, Harbinger. That child is unquestionably the Fatui’s future."
"You call him the Fatui’s future while he stabs me in the back?!!! That is the future?!!!"
"Arlecchino... Please calm down..."
"That damn brat you brought in is about to destroy the House of the Hearth. How am I supposed to calm down?!"
Kujavina seemed thoroughly enraged. If an ordinary orphan who had merely escaped the House of the Hearth had said such things to the newspapers, all she would have had to do was kill the orphan, and nobody would care. But my standing as the youngest-ever top scorer on the bar exam had turned into a solid position that was devouring Kujavina instead.
"Can’t we simply establish a new House of the Hearth somewhere else...?"
"Is your family going to pay the relocation costs?! If I go to Her Majesty and say, ‘I failed my mission, so please give me some money,’ what do you think that will do to my standing?!"
"I will give you two one last chance. Kill the other three, excluding that bastard. We can kill that damn brat once he graduates from the Judicial Training Institute. By then, his popularity should have faded."
Kujavina ordered my siblings killed. I wanted to rush out immediately, but then the two Fatui agents activated their Delusions.
"I cannot obey that order, Arlecchino."
"So you can understand words this time, can’t you, Little Pepper?"
"Still calling me Little Pepper to the end... That was the nickname Avrora gave me... What a shame."
"Fine. I will personally kill the two of you."
The instant Kujavina snapped her fingers, Fatui Debt Collectors appeared and killed the two of them.
"Urgh!!"
Sergei and Angelina were cut down. As Angelina lay dying, she spoke to Kujavina.
"You said... you would kill us... yourself..."
"There is no need to show my true intentions to liars like you. Debt Collectors? Throw them into the sea."
Kujavina walked away into the distance. To keep the corpses from bloating with gas, the Debt Collectors stabbed several holes into their bodies with their blades before throwing them into the sea.
I could only hide and cry. I did not yet have the strength or authority to fight Kujavina, so all I could do was sob. Even with Capitano’s training, fighting a Harbinger would be the difference between heaven and earth.
"Was I... the same as Cravie...?"
I had assumed Cravie could not leave the House of the Hearth because her mother was too powerful for her to kill. Peruel would kill her after awakening later, but for now, we simply lacked the strength.
An hour after Kujavina and the Debt Collectors had gone, I threw myself into the sea and pulled their bodies out. Then I dug graves by hand in the nearby brush and buried them both.
"Uncle... Auntie..."
The uncle who had first given me a name, and the auntie who had cooked spicy fish stew for me. If I had known their ending would be so futile, I should never have met them...
"Uncle... When I go to Snezhnaya someday, I’ll buy alcohol and pour it over your grave."
All that remained there were two large stones and one small child weeping sorrowfully.
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