Jay belatedly noticed that gloomy appearance and looked at him worriedly. Vittorio with a painful expression looked as if he would drown at any moment. Shadows were deeply cast under his drooping eyes. He seemed unable to sleep properly. Well, being in a school like this would give anyone a mental illness they didn’t have before.
Jay asked.
“Is something wrong?”
After a long silence, Vittorio carefully opened his mouth.
“I, I, I… I, I… think I’m bro, broken.”
He trembled violently, filled with extreme fear. At Vittorio’s nonsensical words out of nowhere, great worry surged in Jay.
“Broken? Is there somewhere that hurts?”
“Ye, yes. Pro, probably.”
Vittorio truly trembled all over as if something had broken down.
Jay momentarily thought of the infirmary professor. However, because of the scene he had witnessed directly, he couldn’t bring himself to tell him to go to the infirmary and could only watch restlessly. Vittorio continued speaking while trembling his hands as if he had suffered a stroke.
“Thi, this school, if, if, if students go cra, crazy…”
Vittorio gulped down his saliva. He seemed unable to easily continue his words due to extreme fear. But even without hearing it all, Jay could anticipate what came next.
This school openly gave students demerits and merits and ranked them. Like managing livestock. Quality livestock should be disease-free. Anyone looking for a marriage partner from Connubium wouldn’t want to take someone sick. Whether mentally or physically, they would want an at least outwardly perfect partner.
Jay slowly waited for Vittorio, who couldn’t continue speaking and was catching his breath.
“They, they kill them.”
But the words that followed were completely unexpected. Jay hadn’t thought of the option of killing, so the color instantly drained from his face.
I too had thought there was no way they would kill them, so I was quite flustered. It was because I thought lowering the rank would be all.
How foolish. I reproached my short-sighted thinking. If lowering the rank was all, as I had vaguely guessed, then by now there should have been a bunch of C-rank students. However, the only C-rank student that actually existed here was Sayed.
This school’s educational policy was structured so that illness couldn’t not occur. And no matter how much one pretended otherwise, if serious symptoms developed, there was no way to hide them. Then where did all those sick students go? It was something that could be naturally deduced with just a little thought.
“…Kill them?”
“Y, yes.”
Vittorio squeezed his eyes shut as if he couldn’t bear to think any further. To them, professors were no different from executioners.
Where did all those dead children go? Underground, or to the bottom of the Inland Lake?
An isolated island cut off from other countries. This school was truly The Crown of Lilies (coffin).
“I, I, I don’t wa, want, want to be, become li, like that. I, I’ve go, gone cra, crazy…”
The sinisterness that had shown anxiety and jealousy toward Jay disappeared, and only a pitiful child seized by fear remained in that place. His lips were deathly pale, as if his breath would stop at any moment. He poured out words as if vomiting out everything he had been holding back.
“Eve, every day, hal, hallucinations, I’m sca, scared…”
“Valli.”
“I, I too, I, I, I too am dea, dead…”
“Valli!”
As Vittorio turned deathly pale as if about to faint and muttered, Jay urgently grabbed both his shoulders and called out loudly.
Belatedly realizing that Jay had approached right in front of his nose, Vittorio was startled and looked at Jay blankly with wide eyes. In his murky orange pupils, Jay with kind black eyes resembling the night sky was reflected. Despite being an appearance created by my ability, it felt utterly unfamiliar.
“It’s okay. Calm down.”
“Pro… Pro, Professor.”
“It’s okay. You haven’t gone crazy. You’ll be fine.”
It was a statement close to bluffing. Jay didn’t have the ability to assess another person’s mental state.
But he also had his reasons to believe. If Vittorio had truly gone crazy, there was no way those around him wouldn’t notice the symptoms worsening. A truly insane person isn’t thorough enough to hide their condition. So, if he had truly gone mad, it meant he wouldn’t even have had the opportunity to tell Jay about this fact.
At Jay’s words, Vittorio seemed greatly relieved and let out a sigh with tears welling up.
Surely Vittorio must have wanted to receive an answer from someone that he hadn’t gone crazy. Whether it was true or not, he must have hoped someone would believe him. One gentle word stabilized Vittorio. His breathing that seemed like it would suffocate at any moment became normal, and his body that had been stiffly tensed from nervousness relaxed.
“I, I ac, act, actually…”
Bead-like tears rolled down from Vittorio’s eyes. He began his confession as if vomiting out the sorrow he had been holding back.
“Yeah.”
“I, I didn’t wa, want, want to co, come to this school.”
Someone must have wanted to come to this school. Since outwardly it’s a prestigious school.
But even without knowing the truth, there must surely be people who refuse this school. Aren’t they people who don’t wish for their lives to be recorded merely as a spouse? Vittorio must also have been a child who belonged to that category.
“I… I, I… wanted shi, ships.”
The Valli family is one of the largest military households in Ripinum Kingdom. In a place where the military ruled the country, the Valli family’s position was unparalleled.
Between the Army and Navy, the one with the greatest power was undoubtedly the Navy. Though there had been no invasion from other countries for a long time, sea monsters always threatened Ripinum Kingdom. The prestige of the Navy that protected the country from monsters was sky-high.
In contrast, the Army had relatively little to do. Ripinum Kingdom had little value for other countries to gain by invading. No matter how great the profit, a country invaded so frequently by sea monsters was no different from a double-edged sword.
Given that situation, the land route that was the invasion path for other countries was empty, and the Army’s prestige had no choice but to be trampled into the ground. For a Ripinum Kingdom child to want to ride ships was, in a way, as natural as a person breathing.
“I wanted to, ri, ride, ride ships.”
Vittorio’s eyes sparkled with tears as he spoke of the dream that had been forcibly taken away.
Wanting to ride ships… It was now an unattainable dream. Because the current him had no way to escape this school, and no power either.
“To the sea, ships…”
Vittorio speaking without stuttering the most so far looked intelligent. Jay was a bit surprised at that appearance. It seemed like he was seeing various sides of Vittorio today.
“I see.”
Jay lightly agreed. Even if it was an unattainable dream, a dream had value in itself. A dream is something any existence can have. Moreover, isn’t there such a thing as a glimmer of possibility? If one obtains that Holy Grail that rumors speak of, Vittorio might also be able to achieve his dream.
Perhaps surprised by Jay’s unexpected reaction, Vittorio asked with wide eyes.
“Isn, isn’t it, it stra, strange?”
“What is?”
“I, I’m we, weak, weak…”
“Weak?”
Jay looked at Vittorio who was bowing his head. His face shadowed in darkness was completely dispirited.
Vittorio certainly stuttered and was timid. He seemed weak-hearted, and was actually weak-hearted. However, that didn’t mean it was strange for him to have the dream of riding ships. Who would know? Whether he had talent in riding ships and could display his abilities. It was something no one could know without trying.
“Valli, you are timid.”
“Tha, that, that’s right…”
“But that’s not a reason you can’t ride ships.”
“…”
Vittorio quietly looked at Jay. Jay was looking at him with clear eyes without a hint of falsehood. He unconsciously desperately clutched Jay’s clothes. Jay continued speaking without minding.
“Among people I know… No, I mean, someone I know… Right. There’s a story I know, there was a pirate.”
Jay clutched his own head as if confused and stammered. I couldn’t guess what he was trying to say and just listened attentively.
“A pirate…?”
“Right. One of the greatest pirates. Even the country’s elite military couldn’t defeat them and ultimately couldn’t send them to prison.”
“Ho, how?”
“The number of subordinates under them exceeded ten thousand, and with thorough rules maintaining discipline, they boasted tremendous power.”
“…”
What is Jay talking about right now? This is a story Jay shouldn’t know? I tried to stop it, but Jay’s body didn’t listen to my control. The story kept bursting out of his opened mouth.
“That pirate crew’s captain was a woman. She wasn’t someone who learned navigation either. Not only that, she was the former captain’s concubine. Some say she was a prostitute.”
“Bu, but a cap, cap, captain…”
“Right. All her conditions were close to being inadequate to take on the role of captain. Nevertheless, stepping over all adverse conditions and insults, that person succeeded. The pardoned captain lived affluently until death.”
“…”
“Valli, even such a person rode ships and commanded the world. There’s nothing you can’t do. You can do it too.”
“Ho, how do you kno, know whe, where that per, person lived?”
“Um, China…”
A story Jay doesn’t know. A story Jay shouldn’t tell. A story I, Jack, know. I could only observe the current situation while turning pale inside Jay.
“Pro, Professor?”
“Ah, no. Anyway Valli, what I want to say is, you can do it too. Um… I’m sorry. I’m not feeling well right now.”
“Ah, sor, sor, sorry… I’m sorry.”
“No. I’m more sorry. Next time… Let’s talk again next time.”
After Vittorio left the room, Jay remained, frozen like a plaster statue.
