Chapter 100
In the Government Affairs Hall, where students of the Political Science Department mainly gather, there is a salon that students can use freely.
...though "freely" is putting it mildly; in practice, it's no different from a study room and exam hall for Political Science students.
That’s because almost everything done in the salon is recorded and factored into major-subject grade evaluations.
Ruling the salon of the Government Affairs Hall is not a fourth-year or third-year student, but the overall top second-year student, Miriel Adrian.
Today as well, she is elegantly enjoying teatime amid a crowd of followers.
"This season’s Darjeeling is different even in aroma. As expected of Lady Miriel, your taste is excellent."
"Did you have the teacups specially ordered? My, they’re so luxurious!"
Miriel elegantly tilted her teacup with her pinky raised, giving a faint smile to the students surrounding her.
"What taste? It’s just that it’s the beginning of the semester and I was too busy to worry about it, so I used the tea leaves left over."
With every word and every gesture of hers, the young ladies around her chattered excitedly and chimed in.
No one suited the title of the Academy’s hostess better than she did.
Of course, the rot inside her was growing worse by the day.
'...Haa.'
Miriel covered her lips with the teacup and let out a long, heavy sigh.
Only after inhaling the unbearably sweet aroma deep into her lungs did it feel as if the corset constricting her chest loosened a little.
How ironic.
This boring academy, where everyone else was desperate to graduate as soon as possible, was the only place where she herself could breathe.
'I want to keep... staying here...'
Words she would sometimes mutter by habit when she was alone.
Lately, it was something she found herself repeating in her head even when other students were around.
Though she did worry a little that she might make a huge mistake someday.
If she didn’t let her emotions out little by little like this, they would fester and rot from within.
Of course, she knew very well how fleeting this wish was.
The moment she graduated, she would be reduced to a discarded pawn of House Adrian.
'Still, for the time being.'
Two years and one semester left.
She could live immersed in sweet dreams for the time remaining until graduation...
"Oh, Lady Miriel! Come to think of it, I heard something from my father!"
At that moment, a female student exclaimed and changed the subject.
"Last vacation, I heard you handled the imperial palace schedule on behalf of Duke Adrian, didn’t you?"
At those words, Miriel nearly choked without realizing it.
It was the moment she was pulled back from a dream into reality.
"And I heard you had a rather long, in-depth conversation with Prince Valerius, the Second Prince, back then!"
"As expected...! Already meeting with royalty one-on-one as the acting head of the house!"
"Have you become the prince’s closest confidant? Hm?"
"Come to think of it, the imperial palace suits you, junior Miriel. The academy is too small for you."
"I heard you’ve also been exchanging greetings often lately!"
Under the admiring gazes of her followers, Miriel smiled as though she were relaxed, as though nothing were the matter.
"We didn’t talk about anything special. I just sent my father’s regards and chatted a little about academy life. Lately, our messages have just been simple greetings, too."
At that, the young ladies burst into giggles, saying how humble she was.
Only Miriel herself could not laugh along.
-Have you spoken with Miss Lunaris yet?
-When are you going to set the schedule you promised?
-Do not test my patience, Lady Miriel.
Talk with the Second Prince, my foot.
She was just being hounded one-sidedly by that sword-obsessed psycho.
Up until now, she’d managed to get by with one excuse or another, but she was reaching her limit.
It seemed like she’d have to arrange a meeting somehow, at least once.
'But... how?'
In the first semester, she had at least been able to strike up a conversation, but now it felt like she was a completely different person.
'How is it even possible to break through that wall in just one semester?!'
An archmage was basically a noble that even an imperial count wouldn’t dare treat lightly.
Someone like her, merely a lady of a ducal house, had instead become someone she ought to address with honorifics.
Of course, at the academy it was an unwritten rule that teacher-student and senior-junior relationships came before noble titles, but the fact remained that she could no longer take her lightly.
'No, the title of archmage isn’t the problem at all.'
Miriel recalled the rumor that had recently been setting the academy abuzz.
The incident that had occurred on the first day of the second week after classes began.
There was no teacher or student who didn’t know the rumor that Raymond Cloud, the academy’s foremost mage and Head of the Magic Department, had lost to Lunaris.
Apparently, it hadn’t even been a one-on-one match.
What was even more shocking was that he still lost even though the maids of Linea Hall and the Third Princess’s escort knights had joined Head Raymond’s side.
'How am I supposed to persuade a monster like that...?'
She wouldn’t listen if she acted high and mighty, and sweet talk didn’t seem likely to work either.
More than anything, it was difficult even to arrange a time and place where the two of them could meet alone.
"Her Highness the Third Princess has been staying with Lunaris lately, hasn’t she?"
"It seems like she’s staying right in the princess’s room, too... Could she be her dedicated guard?"
Just as the other students said, since the second semester began, Princess Celestina, the Third Princess, had been glued to Lunaris’s side.
In this situation, go to Lunaris and ask her to meet the Second Prince?
...She couldn’t even imagine what she’d hear from the Third Princess.
'So much for saying you weren’t going to do anything...'
Miriel bit her lip, muttering that the slippery junior princess had finally managed to win Lunaris over.
Of course, Miriel, who was at odds with the Third Princess, had no way of knowing that this was only a temporary cohabitation until a new bed could be brought into Lunaris’s room.
To her, it only looked as though Lunaris had become a core member of the Third Princess’s faction.
'How on earth did it come to this?'
Feeling as if she had gotten properly swept up in a struggle for imperial power, Miriel let out a quiet sigh.
In any case, she had to make contact with Lunaris.
At this rate, she’d incur the Second Prince’s wrath.
As naturally as possible, like she’d come for some other purpose and just happened to meet Lunaris while she was at it.
Conveniently, Friday afternoon was club activity day.
That damn Ghost Story Research Society.
She’d already made a point of showing interest in it in the first semester, so visiting again now and using that as an excuse wouldn’t be too forced.
It stung her pride a little, but it was better than being hounded by the Second Prince.
"Lady? Lady Miriel, are you feeling unwell?"
"...Mmm. It’s nothing."
Miriel came to her senses and once again put on an elegant smile.
"I just have a few things on my mind."
She let the now-cold black tea slide into her mouth.
The tea that had been sweet until just a moment ago now tasted unusually bitter.
*
In the annex of the Magic Hall, the classroom where Magic Engineering students took their major courses, a peculiar smell lingered.
The scent of metal was mixed with the sharp smell of chemicals used in alchemy.
It wasn’t a smell she disliked. If she kept breathing it in, it made her feel like she was sinking into some old nostalgia, all warm and fuzzy.
"Oh? Luna!"
I was slumped by a sunny window, letting out a huge yawn, when someone tapped my shoulder.
When I turned at the familiar voice, Senior Estelle was smiling brightly at me.
"Long time no see, senior."
"Hey, you. Isn’t this seriously too much?"
Senior Estelle put on an intentionally stern expression and placed her hand on her hip.
"How could you not send even a single letter during the entire vacation? I contacted you several times, telling you I was going to the capital to sell magic engineering supplies and that we should meet if you had a little time."
"Ah, well..."
I scratched my cheek with an awkward expression.
"A lot happened during vacation."
"No doubt you were busy sleeping."
"It’s true, though... I went to the Magic Tower and the imperial palace and everything..."
"You weren’t at the Magic Tower and the imperial palace the whole vacation, were you? And I heard everything. Starting about two weeks before vacation ended, you were sleeping almost all day!"
"Sleeping is the most important schedule there is."
"Anyway, that’s just like you."
Senior Estelle shook her head back and forth as if she couldn’t help it.
She could have kept grumbling in disappointment, but as if she were used to it, the senior sat down beside me.
"More importantly, why didn’t you come again last week?"
"I keep telling you, skipping the first week is the unwritten rule."
"True, nothing happened in the last class. They just told us to get close again, since we’d gotten awkward with each other during vacation."
"We’re close even without that, senior."
"Oh, if you can’t even say it properly."
At Senior Estelle’s grumbling, I couldn’t help but laugh.
Whether it was the first semester or now, the way the senior treated me had not changed.
Whether I was a high-ranking mage or an archmage, to the senior I was just Luna, that troublemaking junior.
As the senior and I were exchanging trivial jokes, the front door of the classroom opened and someone came in.
I thought it would be that professor from the first semester, the one who couldn’t be bothered to do anything and had practically abandoned us.
"B, nice to see youuu..."
Liliana Gearhart, Head of the Magic Engineering Department, had come in person.
"...Senior, is that the professor who’s in charge of our Magic Engineering major classes, the department head?"
"Yep. I was surprised too when the department head suddenly came to the classroom last week. Why, Luna, are you surprised too?"
"Not really, but..."
Since I’d even had one-on-one lessons with Head Raymond in the first semester, the weight of the department head’s position felt rather light to me.
Moreover, Head Liliana felt, how should I put it... even compared to the other department heads, strangely lacking somehow.
"I-I came on time... kyaaa?!"
Just look at her now. She tripped over the edge of the podium as she came in and went sprawling.
"Ugh..."
Head Liliana rubbed her reddened nose and got up awkwardly.
The department head glanced around with a timid expression, then when her eyes met mine, she broke into a bright smile as if nothing had happened.
"Student Lunaris! You came this week!"
"Hello, Department Head."
"I was worried about what to do since you didn’t come last week... You’ll come to class properly now, right...?"
"I’ll come to the afternoon class."
"Theory is important too, Student Lunaris...! Be sure to come in the morning as well, like today. Okay?"
"Got it. I’ll come if I’m not sleepy, if I’m not sleepy."
At my words, Head Liliana chuckled and stood before the blackboard.
"Then since everyone’s here... shall we start class properly from this week?"
Before I knew it, the department head’s eyes had begun to shine.
She hadn’t become the youngest department head at Elterion Academy for nothing.
Head Liliana was a genius who usually went about looking utterly frivolous, but the moment the subject turned to magic engineering, her mind snapped instantly into gear.