"... a letter?
Almark asked back to Torque as he managed to slip into the dining room and the two lined up for a perfectly cold dinner.
Wendy had a letter for you.
"Oh."
Torque nods as he opens his big mouth and stirs his dinner.
"Wendy left the classroom with Norish that day."
"Yeah, you did"
"When I got back to the dorm, I had a letter coming to me, and I went to get it, and I got another letter from him."
Torque continues to do so by dropping his eyes on the meal.
"It seemed like it was a long time before he came back with Norish. I remember because all I had left was my letter and his letter."
"Letters."
Almark thinks.
Wendy came back that day, received a letter, and her attitude toward Almark changed from the next day.
Is it possible?
"Who wrote this letter from?"
"I don't remember that much."
Torque shakes his head.
"But you didn't seem like a parent or anything. It was someone else's name."
"Right."
"Man."
Torque laughed as he glanced sideways at Almark.
"Huh."
"If you look at the letters, you'll see. That was a man's letter."
"Man... not your father"
"Lord Elmond would know my name."
Torque names Wendy's father, the great nobleman of the Kingdom of Galais.
"The sender wasn't at least Sir Elmond. Besides, I think it was a lot more manners to write the address."
I didn't see it clearly, so I don't really remember it, but Torque goes on.
"Right."
What does that letter have to do with Wendy's attitude towards herself?
It's not something I can tell by thinking about here.
"Letters."
Squeeze like that and carry the meal to your mouth.
Only the sound of a spoon or fork hitting a dish for a while sounds.
"You're a pardoned wife."
Torque said inadvertently.
"Huh."
"Forgiveness, forgiveness."
Torque said that again with certainty.
"I listened to you, and it was clear. Apart from his father, there's only a man who writes letters and sends them to his wife."
Wendy had a pardon?
It was my first ear.
Almark asks back in surprise.
"I don't."
Torque shakes his head lightly.
"But it's as aristocratic as the Bar Herbs. It wouldn't be strange if Wendy decided to marry some prominent nobleman to succeed you because he has a brother."
"Is that what this is about?"
Almark nods.
'Cause I don't really know the world of nobility.
"You're the extreme difference between what you know and what you don't."
Torque laughs.
"If I was having fun in college, a letter of love from my pardon came to remind me of reality. That's crazy, isn't it?"
"Really?"
Seeing Almark's astonished face, Torque flashes his face.
"You told Wendy to follow you, what were you going to do in the future?"
"The future"
Almark repeats.
"I haven't thought about it"
"I like you. I like you."
Torque sighs like a shudder.
"Wendy's home is not a wooden nobleman around here. Be prepared if you want to."
"Sara"
Almark frowns at disturbing words.
"Sarahu, what do you mean?"
"Run off, run off"
Torque said.
"If you're going to make a woman with a pardon, you're going to have to."
"Is that what it is"
What will you do with Wendy in the future?
I've never even thought about that with Almark. It's a story ahead.
But for Wendy's home, Almark also knew that his origins were not naturally welcome.
No, it's not just my parents.
Almark rethinks.
Wendy herself would not welcome my origins in the first place.
Where you're not welcome.
Shit, Torque pounded his tongue.
"I even got out today. Pot Bubba."
With that whisper, a shitty metal sound of cancer, rang in the dining room.
Maia, the dorm administrator, came into the dining room with a large pot about half her body and started pounding it with a wooden stick.
"If you do, how long have you been eating? We don't have to clean it up at all times."
Maia says so, slapping the pan with a stick.
"Look, eat fast. I don't have time for this. If you have a mouth to open to talk to, stick to your meal there."
So that Maia can rush, the few students who remained in the dining room take their seats one after the other.
Almark and Torque also rushed the rest, washing the dishes and leaving the dining room.
"Does Torque have a pardon?"
As Almark asked as he walked in the corridor side by side, Torque looked disgusted.
"Why are you asking me?"
"No, I wonder if that's what all the nobles are like."
"I hear you're in Polois."
Torque says.
"There may be others, but I've never heard of them"
"Right. Then for torque."
"I was there."
"Were you there?
As Almark looked up at Torque with a strange face, Torque grinned and opened his gripping hand all the way to show him.
"It didn't work. 'Cause we leaned."
"Really?"
Almark raises his eyebrows.
"I heard it was a bad thing"
"Nothing."
Torque shrugs his shoulders.
On its face, a dark shadow cast only for a moment.
"Forgiveness of nobility is such a thing. You know, I've never even met him. He wrote his name next to mine, and he just erased it again."
Torque says so and laughs in a self-derisive manner.
"In short, we're not really going to like each other together. So you have a chance too."
Torque stands two fingers in his usual sarcastic tone.
"Even if you don't expose Wendy, there are two ways to be together in circles."
"Two."
Almark is astonished.
"I can't imagine. Tell me."
"First one."
Torque says pleasantly.
"It's about bringing down Wendy's parents' bar-herb family in a mess. That's more than I can say about forgiveness."
"Torque"
Almark blushes.
"That's no good."
"Right. I think that's a good idea."
Torque answers, breaking a single finger.
"Then it's the other one"
"Yeah."
Almark nods.
"The other thing is, you're great, and that's what makes you a great magician like the Dean of the Academy."
"Me."
Almark unexpectedly looks at Torque's face.
Just then I plugged into the darkness between the lights in the hallway, and I didn't see the look on Torque's face very well.
"Mages are free. Do you know why?"
"No."
"Mages aren't who they are. Because it's a way of life."
Torque said.
The usual sarcastic expression appeared on the face of the torque lit by the lights again.
"It's not my word, though. Besides, it's not my favorite word."
Dr. Illmis.
To Almark's words, Torque shrugged his shoulders and did not answer.
"The words of the Dean of the College move even the King"
That's what Torque said instead.
"If you do, you can't complain about Lord Elmond."
Hearing the words of Torque, Almark had previously remembered what he had heard from Ward, the Butler of the Bar Herb family, at the Winter Mansion.
To open Wendy's heart, which was closed and caged in his shell, only one appeared, the dean of the College said, suppressing even Sir Elmond with its majesty.
"Right."
Almark nodded.
Become a fine magician.
That is my father's wish and now Almark's goal.
But this goal, which apparently leads to many other paths, finally appears to be Almark as well.
"Thanks, Torque"
Almark says, Torque, um, snorts.
"Just a little back to your usual favor."
Then add in the same unfathomable tone.
"I don't like it. You have the power, you're like a whimper. It's frustrating to watch."
"Sorry."
Don't apologize to me.
Torque said at the end to throw up.
"You can't just wander off on every step of a woman. You're as annoying as you always are. This one's going crazy."
Then he walked away with his big crotch down the hall towards his room.