27 - Can I Cry Now?
Chapter 27
The Academy for the Gifted's cafeteria was bustling with students who were late for dinner.
They were excited, talking about the Imperial Palace they had seen during the day, but fatigue was evident on everyone's faces from walking around all day.
Students, hurrying to leave earlier than usual, spoke as if they had suddenly remembered something while discussing what they had seen during the day.
"By the way, did they find the missing student?"
"I don't think they've found her yet. Several dormitory staff members are missing too, so I guess they went to look for her."
"What if they can't find her like this... or if she's found in a bad state..."
Another student was horrified by those words.
"No way, this is inside the Imperial Palace. She's probably just sobbing somewhere in a corner. I heard she's the youngest of the new students."
"But if that were the case, wouldn't she have been found already? A child who got into the Academy for the Gifted isn't stupid. If she got lost, she would have asked a nearby guard for help. But the fact that they still haven't found her means she hasn't shown up."
"That's true."
Some students' expressions grew darker and darker as they listened to the conversations of the passing students.
They were the students who were with Limora.
Sitting in a corner, they looked at each other and spoke in small voices.
"What should we do?"
"I don't know. I didn't think things would get this big..."
Limora's friends recalled the terrifying expressions of the staff when they heard that a student had disappeared.
"Honestly, I thought they would just be flustered for an hour or two and then find her."
"Right. I didn't think they wouldn't be able to find her this late..."
Even though they were much bigger than Ibi, they were still young students.
At first, they giggled along with Limora's prank.
They thought she was subtly showing off because she had been chosen by the Emperor.
So Limora seemed amazing and clever for exposing her lie.
Therefore, they thought, what did they care if the annoying little kid got into a little trouble...?
Meanwhile, outside, which had grown even darker, the sounds of nocturnal birds could be heard. The wind was also getting stronger.
It would be scary to be alone in an empty place in the Imperial Palace on a night like this.
'What if she gets hurt or something even bigger happens?'
That wasn't what they had wanted.
Limora's friends were filled with belated regret.
Just then, Limora suddenly cut in between them.
"What are you all doing? Aren't you going back to the dormitory?"
They had expected her to be just as helpless and anxious about the situation that had grown so big, just like them.
But Limora was smiling with a calm face, as if nothing had happened at all.
One of her friends, dumbfounded by her composure, cautiously opened her mouth.
"Aren't you worried...? They still haven't found her."
At those words, Limora blinked and looked at her with a face that seemed to ask what she was talking about.
Then, she seemed to understand belatedly.
"Ah, that kid. What's there to worry about? Everyone went to look for her, so they'll find her soon enough."
Limora, as if wondering why they were worrying about such a thing, got up from her seat.
"Then I'll go first. I'm tired from walking too much today, so I need to wash up and go to bed early."
Then, she called another friend and went back to the dormitory with her.
The faces of the remaining friends grew even darker at her completely unworried appearance.
"Should we tell?"
They all had an idea of where Ibi might be.
Since Limora had said that she had resolved things well and come out, she must be trapped in one of the many rooms inside the museum.
But it wasn't easy to say that.
Saying where Ibi was and why she was there was like telling on Limora for doing such a thing.
Even though she was a commoner, Limora's family was a prestigious one.
Moreover, she had been friendly with other commoner students since before entering, so telling on Limora could potentially make them enemies with Limora and other students as well.
Also, if the staff asked why they had pretended not to know when they knew, they would have nothing to say.
Even though they hadn't done it directly, turning a blind eye made them accomplices.
The students were at a loss, unable to return to the dormitory.
"Let's just go back and pretend we don't know. They went to look for her, and the headmaster came too. So she'll be back soon."
"But what if they still can't find her?"
It was when the students were still unable to decide what to do.
"You guys."
Suddenly, a male student thrust himself between the female students.
"You know where that kid is, don't you?"
The female students' faces turned white at the words filled with certainty.
They thought they were talking quietly in a corner so that others wouldn't hear, but someone had been listening!
Moreover, the person who had appeared was someone they all knew well.
"L, Lord Ruska...!"
The smile that always made him look friendly was nowhere to be found.
Ruska, glaring at them with a cold expression they had never seen before, took another step closer.
Everyone flinched and stepped back at his actions.
Ruska's atmosphere was so fierce that they felt like they would get hit if they didn't.
At the moment when everyone was terrified and shut their mouths, another voice was heard.
"Stop it, Ruska."
The person who grabbed Ruska and stopped him was Arcel.
He subtly pushed Ruska, who was in a fierce mood, behind him and smiled brightly, unlike Ruska.
Arcel was usually expressionless. When he smiled gently like that, the female students, who had been nervous and stepped back, relaxed their expressions a little.
"I know it's a difficult situation. You know where Ibi Elden is, but it's hard to say, right?"
Ruska looked at Arcel from behind, who was speaking kindly, with an expression that seemed to say, 'Did he eat something wrong?'
"But you want to tell me because you're worried about the child."
At Arcel's words, the female students nodded.
"I'll make sure no harm comes to you, so won't you tell me where she is? I promise in the name of House of Keilon."
At Arcel's words, not only the female students but even Ruska looked surprised.
In the first place, Arcel wasn't the type to get involved in these kinds of things.
So it was surprising that he was asking the students about Ibi's whereabouts like this, but he was participating even more actively than they had thought.
'It's the first time I've seen this guy doing something using his family's name.'
Arcel hated using the power of his family, the House of Keilon, to handle things.
So even though everyone knew who he was, he never mentioned his family's name.
But now he was putting his family's name on the line to find a young girl.
'Why is this guy so desperate?'
Ruska looked at Arcel with a puzzled gaze.
Meanwhile, as Arcel even brought up his family's name and made a promise, one of the female students mustered up her courage and cautiously opened her mouth.
"We didn't do anything. L, Limora..."
"Limora? You mean that girl with the pigtails and brown hair?"
Ruska cut in again and asked, and the female students nodded.
"I thought she was acting a bit strange during the day. So she did something when we were in the museum, right?"
"W, when that kid was looking at the portrait, she closed the door from the outside and left..."
Before the female student could finish speaking, Ruska turned around and ran.
Arcel, seeing that, also smiled brightly at the female students and gave a short greeting.
"Thank you for telling me."
"Um, about us telling you..."
"Don't worry about that."
Arcel's eyes turned cold, unlike his smiling mouth.
"Even without your testimony, there won't be much of a problem in resolving it."
With those words, Arcel also ran after Ruska.
\ \ *
Ibi grasped the approaching Light Swarm. At that moment, an intense light that was almost blinding erupted and disappeared in an instant.
"Huh?"
As if nothing had happened, the space was silent.
Ibi blinked her eyes, which were still seeing afterimages of the light, and raised her head.
The light that had been visible beyond the window had also disappeared at some point.
'I definitely saw the light.'
Her eyes, startled by the bright light, were still not seeing well enough to call it a dream.
But just as Ibi was about to look at the portrait again in a situation that was still unchanged.
Thump, thump, thump!
The sound of something running was heard from outside.
Ibi hurriedly approached the door at the first sound she had heard since being trapped.
Just as she was about to shout that there was someone here and ask for help.
"Ibi Elden!"
"Ibi! Are you inside?"
The voices of two male students shouting at the same time were heard.
