By Zephyria 
The buildings in the capital city of Sierren were mostly three stories high.
The strange person ran across the rooftops. They seemed to have no thought that anyone would be chasing them. I wondered what kind of success they must have had in stealing people so stealthily and brazenly to look like that.
The person carried on the shoulder of the strange person wearing a black mask did not resist much. A sack was placed over their head. Their hands were tied behind their back.
No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t think of anyone within the Academy who would be kidnapped like this.
Prince Rubel? But I dismissed the suspicion due to the difference in physique.
If that child had been kidnapped, it would have been difficult for my heart to be this calm. I thought it was fortunate, then immediately felt apologetic and shook the thought away.
I ran along the street beneath the rooftops.
Two moons, one white and one red, cast chaotic shadows. The murmuring sounds from houses where the lights were not yet extinguished brushed past my ears.
I ran as I had learned from Wilton Roberts, intending to follow stealthily. In between, I had to cover my mouth to catch my breath when I became winded.
Occasionally, the strange person would stand straight like a spire and look around. Each time, I pressed myself close to the wall and hid behind shadows, not getting caught.
I passed five blocks. My body grew cold.
Just as I began to worry that I had come too far, the strange person opened a window of a building that jutted out more than the others and slipped inside.
I looked around, wondering if it was a den where suspicious individuals gathered. A drunkard left the building, humming a song.
Looking around, it seemed like an ordinary inn. I stood there blankly for a moment.
With this young body, I couldn’t commit the foolish act of entering the inn’s front door at this hour. I reached out and touched the wall.
Climbing the exterior of the building was my first time in this land, but with sufficient strength in my arms and legs, it wasn’t difficult.
I hadn’t worried about it when following from a distance, but as I got closer to the strange person, I became concerned about being discovered and starting a major fight.
I climbed to the inn’s roof and hooked my feet onto a pillar. I reasoned that a downward gaze from above would allow me to observe the situation more stealthily than climbing up from below.
Through the half-open window, I saw the figure I was chasing.
As the kidnapped person, thrown onto the bed, stirred and tried to sit up, it seemed they weren’t seriously injured.
The masked strange person pushed their shoulder, laying the kidnapped person back down.
Though the touch was rough, it wasn’t enough to injure the person. Was it someone they knew? While I held my breath and observed, the two said nothing. It was then that I grew puzzled.
The masked martial artist brought the sack close to their lips and whispered something. The captive struggled violently to break free.
The masked person let out a growl, a sound bubbling up from deep within their throat. Their hand grabbed the kidnapped person by the collar, then began to tear at their buttons. It was at that moment that I knew the strange person’s identity.
Without hesitation, I opened the window and entered. My drawn sword was held firmly in my right hand.
“Stop, Senior. What kind of barbarous act is this?”
It was Walter Orgen, that boy.
I hadn’t recognized him due to the black mask, but I knew it was him by the way he used his right and left arms differently. A sigh escaped me. To think that someone with a lover would kidnap another man and commit such an act.
Walter, who had been on top of the kidnapped person, turned to look at me blankly.
The movements of the person who had been struggling beneath the strange person froze. Thinking they were scared by the appearance of a new person, I raised my voice.
“There’s no need to worry. I will help you.”
“No, shit, ah. Hey, that’s not it.”
“If you don’t move aside now, I will cut you. Does Professor Agridgent know what kind of person you are? You spoke of loving them so desperately.”
“Junior. That is…”
Although Walter Orgen was a master of the Peak, I believed he wouldn’t be able to attack me in a real fight.
I had come prepared to commit my first murder in Sierren. While I was glad to have met someone I knew, I did not lower my sword out of caution.
Walter, raising both hands above his shoulders in a gesture of surrender, hesitantly got off the bed.
Keeping him in my sights, I approached the bed step by step. As the child tried to stop me, I aimed my sword at his neck.
Walter covered his face with both hands, then gritted his teeth, muttering curses, and removed the black mask. With a familiar gesture, he untied his hair and ran his fingers through it.
Facing his fierce demeanor, I gently took the kidnapped person by the shoulder and pulled them behind me.
The person, who remained motionless, holding their breath, was a man. Even if Walter was homosexual, I hadn’t thought him so shameless as to kidnap just anyone for such acts, so my brow furrowed involuntarily.
I silently untied the wrists of the quiet person.
“Junior. Won’t you listen to me for a moment?”
“I have no intention of listening.”
“I’m saying this because I don’t think you should touch that person right now.”
“What did you do? Did you use some kind of drug?”
“No, no, no, shit… I know this looks unbelievable even to me.”
I wondered who he had brought that made him so anxious.
As I, now curious, reached for the knot of the sack covering his face, the person who had been quiet until then suddenly grabbed my wrist.
“Don’t worry. I’m trying to help.”
The man didn’t loosen his grip on my wrist. However, the strength was so weak that it was obvious he wasn’t a martial artist, which made me even more concerned.
“…It’s alright. I’ll handle that person.”
The man shook his head. The more I tried to soothe him, the more desperately he shook his head. As I looked at his slender fingers, I learned a fact I didn’t want to know. No way.
I looked at Walter. I looked again at the man with the sack over his head. Then I looked at Walter again.
And then… I looked at the man with the sack over his head.
Looking closely, his build was familiar. My mouth fell open.
“…Professor Calypse?”
The man with the sack over his head, Professor Calypse, covered the sack with his thin, bony fingers.
Watching his thin shoulders hunch up, I was stunned. I tried to steady my sword-wielding hand, which had lost its grip, when Walter clicked the mask he was holding onto the side table.
His fair, delicate face was flushed crimson from his forehead to his neck.
“…Let’s put the sword away first, Junior.”
“…”
There was nothing I could understand. No, what kind of bizarre game was this?
Hesitantly, I sheathed my sword.
For some reason, I remembered that day, long past lunch. I should have jumped in to stop them. That would have been less embarrassing and awkward than this.
Was I here tonight, chasing after him, to interrupt my lover’s intimate moment?
“…Both of you, go back to the Academy.”
As I stood there, unable to do anything, a dry voice came from inside the sack. Without a doubt, it was Calypse Agrigent’s voice.
If I had heard this voice even once from outside the window, I could have hesitated twice before barging in. I felt a sense of injustice.
“No, but…”
“I will rest here.”
I stared blankly at Calypse, who was shuffling to lean his back against the head of the bed.
I couldn’t understand why he still hadn’t removed the sack from his head. I thought it might be for the same reason Walter was covering his face with his hands, unable to meet my eyes, but that sack was just too unsightly.
“…Could it be, consensual…?”
“Are you insane?”
Calypse’s sharp reply was some comfort.
I did not refuse when Walter grabbed my wrist and pulled me out.
There were three people in the room, and I worried it would seem suspicious if all three of us entered through the window and left through the door.
Then again, that wasn’t the only thing I should be worried about right now.
Walter, who had been making strange noises like “Ugh, Aah” for a long time without speaking like a human, asked,
“Why did you follow me?”
“Because a vicious person was carrying someone away in the dead of night.”
“…Right… I did that… Why did you have to see it…”
“That’s what I’m curious about too.”
It seemed clear to the child that it wasn’t my fault, so he didn’t add any more words.
We slowly descended the stairs to the first floor. During that time, Walter held my wrist tightly and didn’t let go.
Did I look like I would run away? I didn’t have the energy for that. I shook off his hand, and the child awkwardly let go of my wrist.
Walter no longer seemed like a sweet and amiable child. Kidnapping his lover and throwing him onto the bed, all before he was even twenty, was an act no beast would commit, I thought.
“I know you won’t be able to sleep if you go in now. Let’s talk for a bit.”
“Alright.”
The first floor of the inn, as usual, had a restaurant. A few people were gathered, laughing and preparing late-night snacks in a peaceful atmosphere. It was fortunate that I had left the black mask behind.
I wiped my eyes with my cool, chilled hands, trying to steady my vision that kept blurring.
I pulled up a chair to an empty table not far away. Soon, a server bustled over to take our order. Walter asked the server in a listless voice,
“Do you have anything for the child to eat here?”
“We only have orange juice. How about a meat pie?”
“A warm one.”
“Hmm, warm… Quince tea? Is quince tea alright?”
The server who turned to look at me was also a young person around Walter’s age. I nodded obediently.
“Yes.”
“Then, one quince tea for this friend, and one beer for me.”
“No, please give me quince tea and orange juice.”
“Huh?”
“Is this the time for Senior to be drinking alcohol?”
“…Sorry. Yes, give us that.”
“Yes.”
The server retreated with a smile. I had tried to respond kindly, but it wasn’t easy. I ended up scolding him, but it was appropriate.
Neither Walter nor I spoke for a while. Or rather, we couldn’t speak.
Soon, the drinks and food arrived.
The steaming meat pie looked presentable, but I had no appetite.
I moistened my lips with the sweet tea and looked at the child. The orange juice glass, held in Walter’s large hand, trembled.
Seeing that, I let out a sigh. I drank the quince tea in one gulp.