Mistaken for a Masked Munchkin

Not Quite an Explanation

A holiday. No lectures.

Two unexpected visitors turned up at his door.

Gold hair and black hair. Viktor stood in the doorway with a question mark practically floating between his brows, staring at them both.

"Um..."

Ranne. Alice.

Both girls were looking up at him, waiting.

He tilted his head in confusion. Alice, who had been hiding behind Ranne, poked her head out.

"Viktor-nim, um, it's just..."

Her hands, tight around her sleeves, trembled.

"Because of what happened yesterday... I mean, it's not, not like I mean anything by it. I just wanted to know what happened after, how it all turned out..."

"I was curious too! I never would have imagined Viktor-nim had feelings for Chief Investigator Javert-nim!"

"...Feelings."

"I heard all about it! A confession, right there in the classroom, in front of everyone!"

"And Javert-nim... she, she accepted it, apparently, and I didn't know what happened after that..."

"I'm a little hurt, honestly! I had no idea! To think that Viktor-nim carried such passionate feelings all this time."

"Sniff... I'm, I'm sorry. I just wanted to know..."

Ranne making no secret of how put out she was, as though sharing these things was just what friends did.

Alice with her head bowed, murmuring things that weren't quite sentences.

The reaction was, to put it mildly, a lot.

"Congratulations, all the same! Your feelings were returned!"

"Yes, um... congratulations. Be... be happy..."

That was when it finally clicked.

'Right. I made a mess and just walked out.'

No explanation. No follow-up. The situation had simply ended.

After that, he'd stopped by Javert's office and shot straight back to the dorm to sleep.

For everyone who'd been in that room, it must have been bewildering. He'd barged in out of nowhere, launched a confession at Javert, and she'd caught it and thrown one right back.

'They probably think I'm seeing Javert.'

He had to hand it to her, she'd played along far better than he had any right to expect.

Who could have predicted she would just... nod?

Even Viktor, the one who'd fired off the confession in the first place, hadn't seen that coming.

A short, helpless laugh escaped him. He straightened the crooked mask back into place.

'This... might have been a bit thoughtless.'

Going around setting the record straight was going to take a while.

For now, though. The two people right in front of him first.

He stepped aside and waved them in.

"Well... why don't you come in? We can talk."

Ranne and Alice shuffled inside, hesitant but curious.

He sat them down and put together a simple pot of tea.

"Activate. Formal wear."

Rustle.

A quiet murmur, and the threads of the gauntlet unraveled.

They wound around him, draping over his shoulders, layering a neat set of clothes over the loose shirt underneath.

'Wiggles.'

The nickname he'd given it.

He liked it far better than Black Mist. Softer. Rounder.

Back to his usual put-together self, he took a seat on the sofa across from them.

Ranne and Alice were looking around the room with open curiosity.

"Oh! Viktor-nim's room is very clean."

"It really is... not even a speck of dust."

"Not bad for a man living alone, I'd say."

A quick exchange.

He tilted the teacup a few times, then spoke.

"Let me see. Where to even start..."

He laid out the situation in broad strokes.

All of it had been a setup, and in the aftermath, he'd been taken on as Javert's Direct Aide.

He kept it vague where it needed to be, filled in what was safe, and trimmed the rest.

When he finished, both of them were wearing complicated expressions.

"Oh... I see... so you, you weren't actually going out..."

Alice nodded, realization arriving a beat late.

Her face was flushed, her eyes red at the edges like she'd been crying. Her expression, though, was noticeably lighter than it had been at his door. Like some anxiety she'd been carrying had quietly dissolved.

"......Thank goodness."

Barely audible. More to herself than to anyone.

Before he could ask, Ranne jumped to her feet.

Her violet eyes were sparkling.

"As expected of Viktor-nim! Scouted as Chief Investigator Javert-nim's very own Direct Aide!"

"Scouted is a bit generous... it was more that the professor obliged my stubbornness."

"Even so! From what I've heard, the Chief Investigator has never once taken on a Direct Aide since joining the faculty. She's that firm about it. No matter what promises were made over the informant incident, if Viktor-nim had fallen short of her standards, she would not have accepted."

"It's flattering to hear you say so."

"Viktor-nim needs to hold himself in higher regard!"

As expected! How impressive! She attached one or the other to every sentence like punctuation.

Sometimes he genuinely wondered what she made of him.

"I need to push myself harder too! No matter how hard I work to keep up, Viktor-nim only gets further away..."

"That's not true at all. Really."

Without the bug, you'd have me in a second.

He swallowed that and moved on.

"For now, keep what you heard today between yourselves."

"Ye... yes?"

"Why is that?"

"Because we've agreed not to announce it yet. The news that I'm being appointed as Javert-nim's Direct Aide will come out later."

"Is it because of the situation with Class B Top Seat?"

Ranne asked, pieces falling into place.

"You're planning to settle things with Caitlin before the announcement, Viktor-nim."

"That's right. If word gets out now, Class B Top Seat won't have any room to make a move. Nobody's going to go after the Direct Aide of the academy's de facto second-in-command."

"So you're holding off on the announcement until after you've dealt with Caitlin... I understand."

"Exactly. It's cleaner that way all around. An E-class top seat being appointed as a Direct Aide is going to raise eyebrows. Direct Aides are almost always Class A students."

"That's true. The competition for those positions is fierce!"

"So for an E-class top seat to land one is absurd on its face. But if that same person carries the title of having beaten Class B Top Seat..."

"It becomes a lot easier to swallow!"

"Precisely."

Just holding the position wasn't enough.

What mattered was how much that position was recognized.

To wield authority, you had to earn the right to it first.

'To make the authority count when it matters, I need enough recognition that no one can push back.'

And the clash with Class B.

That would be the first step in laying that foundation.

"Um..."

Alice, who had been quietly listening to the whole exchange, spoke up carefully.

"But... couldn't they just let it go? Like, if Class B's top seat just decides not to... start something..."

"Somehow I don't think she's the type."

"I agree! From what I've heard, the atmosphere in Class B has been strange lately."

An interesting detail from Ranne.

"Strange how?" Viktor asked.

"Yes! After Viktor-nim's speech, it sounds like they're planning something."

"What kind of things, specifically?"

"Hmm... Class B Top Seat has been approaching various assistant professors around the academy, and the Class B students have been spreading rumors about Viktor-nim. I don't know the details, but it looked like they were preparing for something."

"So they are."

"Do you have some idea of what it might be, Viktor-nim?"

"Hard to say. If they're preparing, the direction seems fairly obvious."

Approaching faculty while running a smear campaign against him among the student body.

There was only one event that fit.

If his read was right, it would make for a perfectly laid stage.

What he needed to do right now was exactly nothing. Let them build it themselves.

'They're going out of their way to set the stage for me... no reason to turn that down.'

He smiled.

"Either way, I'll handle that side of things."

"Of course! Is there anything I can do to help?"

"One thing. Yesterday's incident has probably spread pretty far by now, students talking about Viktor and Professor Javert having started a relationship. I'd be grateful if you could put that to rest. Correct the record, that it was nothing of the sort."

"Understood! With that rumor going around, Class B Top Seat can't exactly make a move against Viktor-nim, after all."

"Something simple will do, that it was all just a minor incident. Ranne, you in particular have wide connections in the upper-tier classes, so if you could lend that reach, I'd appreciate it."

"For the person who saved my life, this much is the least I can do! Leave it to me!"

"I-I'll help too...! I'll do as much as I can...!"

Alice, who had been quietly following along, spoke up on her own.

Like she'd decided she needed to contribute something too.

Her pale blue eyes wavered slightly where they met his. He tilted his head.

"Hmm."

Well.

Alice helping with something like this seemed doubtful. She was the type who struggled with people to begin with.

"Thank you. I'm counting on both of you."

Still, the intention was what mattered.

He reached over and ruffled her hair.

"He, hehe..."

She startled, then broke into a dazed, lopsided grin.

The conversation had just about wrapped itself up.

He caught the lull and eased in.

'Now.'

He had been meaning to find the right moment for this. And now, by some convenience, both of them had come all the way to his dorm room.

Trust had built up enough. Today felt like the right time to bring out one of the things he'd been sitting on.

He set his teacup carefully down on the table.

Clink.

"Well, hmm... speaking of which, there's something I wanted to say to you both."

"What is it?"

"To, to me...?"

Both of them looked at him, puzzled.

"There's someone I've been meaning to introduce to you for a while now."

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