The Strongest Brother Lost His Memory-Chapter 66

* * *

“I—I didn’t know anything! I swear!”

When we searched the priest’s robe, we found professional tools used to easily destroy Kyolister ore.

“I just... just brought them because Lady Nesha said she needed them... She said it’d be fine to bring them in and out!”

And the priest immediately dropped to his knees in front of Theo.

“Please, please don’t tell Her Majesty the Empress Dowager. Please? If Her Majesty finds out that a priest she sent helped damage her tribute gift, she’ll be absolutely furious!”

“What are you talking about?”

I blinked and said to the priest.

“Just report it as is. You were just doing a favor for Nesha in exchange for money, right?”

Just like the priest said, there was no way someone sent by the Empress Dowager personally destroyed the tribute gift.

He clearly just received a large payment, brought the tools, and then used divine power—Nesha would have smashed the [Sky Pocket] in an instant.

And once the deed was done, it was in the priest’s best interest to follow Nesha’s lead and pin the blame on me. That was the more advantageous strategy.

“Liar!”

Nesha suddenly shouted, shaking her head desperately.

“Theo Noart is Rosie’s cousin! He’s obviously covering for her! He says she donated the tools to the lab? How can you believe that just because her cousin says so?!”

At that moment, Yuta, who had been standing quietly behind Theo, muttered softly.

“I saw it...”

His expression was as dazed as always.

“When Rosie handed those tools to Theo this afternoon, saying, ‘Magic nanology is boring as hell! So I’m going to dump this junk Grandpa splurged on to someone like you!’—I was there too...”

This afternoon.

I had gone to Theo’s lab after overhearing Nesha calling for a priest, and gave him all of my tools.

I had a strange feeling something like this would happen.

If it didn’t, no harm done. But if they tried to frame me just to get me expelled, I wasn’t going to take it lying down.

“I’m not interested enough in magic nanology to use these kinds of tools. But since they’re precious gifts from my grandfather, I’d rather donate them to Assistant Theo’s lab.”

“...There’s no rule against personal donations, but still, it feels a bit awkward to just accept them...”

“Then I have one favor to ask.”

“I’d prefer you didn’t.”

“It’s nothing hard. Just exactly what you’re already doing, Assistant Theo. When Nesha Saliod tries to frame me or mess with me, please don’t take my side—just listen to what she says to the end.”

Even in his anger, Theo hadn’t forgotten that request and had listened to Nesha’s words to the end.

'But Assistant Yuta, what the hell was that weird mistranslation of what I said?'

Yuta placed a hand on Theo’s trembling shoulder and spoke slowly.

“On behalf of our dear Theo, who lost a few years of his life while clinging to that thing... I’ll make the disciplinary announcement.”

His green eyes, void of emotion, turned toward Nesha.

“Nesha Saliod. Destroying a teaching assistant’s project out of personal spite is grounds for immediate expulsion. Well, since you seem fully aware of that already, I don’t need to elaborate, do I?”

It was exactly what Nesha herself had said earlier.

“And since you’ve caused such a huge mess for Her Majesty the Empress Dowager, the Count of Saliod should hurry up and go grovel...”

Yuta shook his head slowly, as if in pity.

I looked at Theo’s shocked face and let out a deep sigh in my head.

'I thought Nesha might pull something, but... I still couldn’t let that artifact be completed.'

The magical tool Theo had created for the Empress Dowager would eventually save her life.

The Empress Dowager, who colluded with the Temple and did unspeakable things, was about to receive that artifact—and Nesha broke it for me. I had no reason to stop her.

Besides, Theo hadn’t made that artifact for the Empress Dowager out of loyalty; he’d made it for his own research.

The Empress Dowager didn’t even reward him afterward. So it was fine to think of it as something he gave away—then got destroyed.

'Still... I bet he feels pretty empty right now.'

At that moment, Yuta spoke to us.

“Alright, everyone—except Nesha and her roommate—off to bed. It’s late.”

As he glanced around at the kids, he gave me a very faint smile.

“We adults will handle this messy business. Innocent children shouldn’t have to worry about it.”

I was included among the ‘innocent children’ he mentioned.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

'Yeah. I’ll leave the rest to them.'

I nodded and blended in with the other girls heading back to our rooms.

Behind me, I heard Yuta’s slow voice:

“But Zahid Dyfenril, didn’t I tell you not to take your Divine Beast out at night? Minus ten points.”

And even in the midst of it all, Zahid was getting point deductions again.

* * *

The next day, peaceful lunchtime.

Today’s lunch menu was really good, so I went for seconds and ate with great satisfaction.

After lunch, the three of us got our usual ice cream.

I still had a bandage on my hand, but it only made me a little clumsy—it wasn’t a problem.

Of course, Zahid and I were the only ones who looked peaceful.

Lots of kids were huddled in ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) small groups, chattering about this and that.

Ray shrugged as he bit into his ice cream and said,

“Phew, what a mess. I mean, even if you hate Rosie, going that far is just...”

Everyone was talking about Nesha. It had been a shocking incident for all of them.

Nesha had been expelled immediately yesterday. She’d already received one warning before, so there was no room for leniency.

Her roommate wasn’t expelled on the spot, but she did get an official warning. For siding with Nesha.

That girl used to bolt the moment our eyes met in the hallway—there’s no way she’d mess with me again.

'The relationship between the Saliod County and the Empress Dowager will probably sour now too.'

I thought with satisfaction.

The Empress Dowager was petty to an extreme. There was no way she’d let this slide.

'Breaking a magical artifact meant as tribute to the Empress Dowager... and even summoning a priest to do it? Of course she’d take it personally.'

Nesha aside... what mattered most was that I had driven a wedge between Count Saliod and the Empress Dowager.

Count Saliod, the Empress Dowager’s closest ally, was too capable—and had too many evil deeds lined up for the future.

So even loosening their connection just a little was a huge win.

'This isn’t what I came to the Academy for... but hey, they struck first. I might as well fight back properly.'

Zahid crossed his legs, clearly displeased.

“You should’ve said something when she started messing with you. I didn’t know what was going on in Class 1.”

“She didn’t bully me that much. It was fine. Now that practicals have started, I figured she couldn’t really mock me for not being able to read anymore—but then things turned out like this.”

“...So how much were you and Ray holding hands during magic nanology lab?”

While the three of us were sitting around, we saw the teaching assistants heading off together after lunch.

“Man, Assistant Theo really has zero humanity.”

Ray chuckled as he spoke.

“You know he didn’t say a single word about it in class today, right? Just did his lecture like nothing happened and left. I mean, he was directly involved! Rosie, he didn’t say anything to you either?”

“Why are you bringing up Assistant Theo again with Rosie? You know they’re not close.”

Zahid snapped at Ray, glaring.

But Ray’s assessment of Theo was spot-on.

He really looked like someone who had zero interest in anything beyond regulations and procedures.

Even after all that drama yesterday, his attitude said: I handled it by the rules, so that’s that. As if punishing the perpetrator was enough for the victim to be fine.

'What a strange guy.'

I thought as I bit into my ice cream.

'Well, he’s always been obsessed with magic nanology and completely uninterested in anything else.'

Now that I’d met him in person at the Academy, I could tell—he had genuinely dedicated his life to magic nanology.

The lectures were mind-numbingly boring, but if you paid attention, you could sense Theo’s overwhelming passion for the field.

His late father had apparently also been an eccentric professor here at the Academy—and Theo seemed to take after him.

But according to what Zahid told me before regression, Theo would soon quit his assistant position and enter the Noart Count Family...

'It wasn’t by choice.'

I thought as I watched Theo’s back, blending in with the other assistants heading to the staff room.

'He had no other option... that’s why he joined.'