Chapter 29
At Elterion Academy, the title of “overall top student” carried a very special meaning.
It did not simply mean the person with the best grades in a given year.
It meant all kinds of privileges, the envy of the academy students,
and a kind of power that could wield influence in big ways and small.
It was only natural that they became celebrities within the academy.
Even Lunaris Evermoon, the overall top freshman, became a name every student knew not long after coming to Elterion Academy.
Setting aside the fact that she pulled all kinds of antics the moment she enrolled and brought trouble wherever she went.
Her overwhelming magical ability, greater than that of most professors, had already earned her a reputation as “Elterion’s strongest mage.”
Before Lunaris enrolled, Seraphina Clarencia, the third-year top student and current student council president, had reigned as the academy’s greatest mage.
Her abilities hovered just shy of upper-rank mage level.
But what really drew people’s attention was her excellent administrative skill and fine character.
Thorough in everything she did yet never inflexible, she enjoyed deep trust from both students and faculty.
If Lunaris and Seraphina were the academy’s stars in magic, then Gaios Leonhardt, the fourth-year top student, was the one in swordsmanship.
He was already slated to join the Imperial Knights upon graduation, and was, in name and in fact, Elterion’s strongest knight.
As such, the honor of being top student often went to students from combat departments like swordsmanship or magic.
That was because the overall top-student selection at the end of each year was held as something of an event, which made things somewhat unfair to noncombat departments.
Very occasionally, exceptions did exist.
This year, the second-year overall top student was, rather unusually, from the noncombat politics department.
Miriel Adrian.
The young lady of the ancient ducal house Adrian, one of the Empire’s most storied noble families.
In fact, she also possessed outstanding talent as a mage.
Her ability to handle intermediate magic was good enough that, even in the magic department, she would have easily ranked near the very top.
Yet she herself took that fact lightly.
If someone asked her about magic, she would only answer with a faint smile.
“It’s simply part of a lady’s education.”
In truth, Miriel’s real worth showed not in spellbooks, but in human relationships.
Charisma that captured people’s hearts.
Insight that saw through the essence of any situation.
The skill to use everything at hand to tilt the board in her favor.
When you sat across from Miriel, the teacup in front of you became a tool of negotiation,
and her light smile often turned into an order that was hard to refuse.
Naturally, people who followed her came pouring in like clouds.
The power to draw people in.
The ability to persuade by elegantly wrapping up her own intentions.
Even the generosity to embrace her enemies.
Students would often call this naturally born leader by another name.
“Elterion’s hostess.”
It was a title full of reverence, acknowledging the entire academy as a manor and salon managed by Miriel.
Yet within her own family, she was overshadowed above by an older sister, one of the Empire’s three great beauties,
and below by a younger brother who was the heir—a sad second daughter with no distinctive trait to speak of.
*
Miriel Adrian enjoyed a status at Elterion Academy that was practically no different from royalty.
Even after the genuine Princess Celestina, the Third Princess, enrolled this year, Miriel’s position did not waver at all.
If anything, the princess was the one losing her shine in Miriel’s shadow.
It looked like the princess was trying to meet people all around and build up her own faction, but that was hopeless.
The politics and economics students were already in Miriel’s grasp, and the magic department from second year up was effectively under her influence as well.
As for those Sword God fanatics... no, those idiot Sword God worshippers, and the useless tinkerers who were basically the magic department’s second-stringers, they weren’t worth worrying about.
The kids who might cling to the Third Princess would probably just be the magic department freshmen who had just enrolled and still didn’t know the academy well.
That was precisely why Miriel had bothered to come watch the Magic Exchange Tournament.
To check this year’s magic freshmen overall.
And while she was at it, to see the princess’s skill as well.
As for classes, skipping one now and then wouldn’t shake her solid position as top student of the year.
I shouldn’t have come.
Honestly, I was disappointed. Very disappointed.
Princess Celestina’s magical skill was ordinary.
She might be fairly impressive among noble ladies, but among magic department students... probably around the lower-middle ranks. It was enough to make me think I might have worried for nothing.
There wasn’t any freshman who really stood out either.
I’d expected a bit more, with Raymond, the head of the magic department, shouting about some golden generation or another. That was all there was to it.
I thought it would have been far more useful to just attend class.
That was, until a girl with sleep-tousled ash-gray hair stepped up onto the stage.
“...!”
The final magic duel of the Magic Exchange Tournament.
The moment Miriel saw the magic Lunaris cast, her eyes sparkled.
Meteor showers poured down from a cloudless sky.
Space warped.
Frost flowers bloomed in full.
As expected, the overall top student of the year is different.
She prided herself on being at the level of an upper-rank mage when it came to judging magic and theory.
But the phenomenon unfolding before her eyes was outside the scope of her knowledge.
It lay beyond comprehension.
She vaguely heard an excited voice saying something about drawing directly on the mana of nature, but she couldn’t even begin to grasp it.
When she came to, she saw the mages from the Magic Tower, having forgotten all decorum, vaulting over the barrier in front of the stands and chasing after Lunaris.
When she shifted her gaze a little, she saw Princess Celestina staring blankly at Lunaris.
She was looking at her with restless, almost wistful eyes.
“Hmm~”
Scratch that. I didn’t come for nothing.
It was worth coming after all.
“That was an amazing spell, wasn’t it?”
“I’ve never seen such beautiful magic before!”
“As expected of an upper-rank mage, Lady Miriel!”
The followers watching beside Miriel couldn’t hide their excitement and started chattering too.
“Exactly.”
Miriel slowly curled the corners of her lips and nodded.
“That girl’s a jackpot.”
The smile on her lips gleamed with savage delight.
*
-Knock, knock, knock.
The sound of knocking rang out in a familiar rhythm.
...Ah, please.
That’s not a sound that should be ringing today.
It’s a happy-happy Friday with no classes, a day when I can sprawl out and sleep until lunch... so why...!
“Miss, excuse me for a moment.”
The door I hadn’t even locked, never imagining we’d be wrestling again today, opened silently.
“Ugh... Ms. Odette, what on earth is it...”
I burrowed deeper into the blanket and frowned.
“I’m terribly sorry. But over the last few days, you’ve received so many letters and gifts that we can no longer keep them stored separately.”
As soon as Ms. Odette finished speaking, the other maids filed into the room in a line.
On the cart they were pulling, boxes of all sizes were piled high.
I stared at the scene, blinking blankly.
What... what is all that.
“And these are the letters addressed to you, Miss.”
Boxes of letters just as thick as the gift boxes began landing on the table one after another.
There were five bundles in total.
Half of them are invitations to academic conferences from the Magic Tower, forty percent are letters from noble houses offering sponsorship, and the remaining ten percent are from academy students.
I stared blankly at the bundles of letters, then let out a long sigh.
The Magic Tower really is the problem.
Those stubborn magic addicts. Here we go again.
The noble houses are a problem too.
Hand over a few gold coins, then slyly act magnanimous and try to saddle me with annoying work. As if I wouldn’t know.
The Magic Tower and noble houses I can understand, but... what do you mean, from an academy student?
Most of them were sent by Young Master Edwin Belka. Could it be a love letter?
“Love letters, my foot... they’re obviously challenge letters.”
“Is that so? I sometimes see you writing letters in your room, and your face is all red, so I thought you were writing love letters.”
A face that red would mean you were properly angry, not in love.
I shook my head and asked Ms. Odette.
“Never mind the rest, but did anything come under the name Ria?”
“I believe there was one.”
Ms. Odette sifted through the bundles of letters, found a plain white envelope with no decorations, and handed it to me.
I accepted the letter carefully, then pulled the blanket back over myself.
“The rest is fine. I feel like I already know what’s inside without even reading it, so I’ll count it as read.”
“What should we do with the gifts?”
“...Gifts?”
I poked my head out from under the blanket and stared blankly at the mountain of boxes.
...Just thinking about opening every single one of them gave me a headache.
And thinking about cleaning them up and sorting them out made my vision go dark.
“I want to give them to the maids as gifts. They always work hard because of me.”
A brief silence fell.
Soon, trembling voices as if deeply moved began leaking out from here and there.
The young maid standing by the dresser was misty-eyed, as if she’d been moved.
“Miss.”
But Ms. Odette alone remained unmoved.
“Aren’t they all things filled with your feelings, Miss? We couldn’t possibly accept them.”
Ms. Odette signaled to her subordinate maids, then bowed her head toward me.
“And dumping them on us because you find them troublesome would be difficult.”
...Tch, caught.
*
For the past few days, stalkers have been tormenting me.
No—could I even call these people stalkers?
-Lady Lunaris, up for a magic discussion?
-Please, just once! Show me your magic one more time!!
Whenever I walked down the street, my life got exhausting because Magic Tower mages would openly trail after me.
The Magic Exchange Tournament was already over, so I wondered why outsiders were still staying at the academy, only to find out they’d all been hired as temporary instructors.
These people are seriously obsessed with magic.
The moment I managed to shake off the magic addicts, some guy named Edwin would bother me again, asking for another round.
There weren’t many places where I could relax in peace.
One of them was this old library building, used as the ghost-story research club’s clubroom.
“I’m exhausted to death, seriously...”
As I slumped across the table and kept sighing, Claire, sitting beside me, burst out laughing.
“Well, you shouldn’t have gone so hard. You know you were amazing at the Magic Exchange Tournament?”
“No... I was trying to finish quickly and go rest too. But they just kept stubbornly hanging on, so I got a little mad, that’s all.”
As I let out a long, drawn-out yawn, Claire suddenly changed the subject and asked,
“By the way, you’ve been coming to the club regularly, huh? I thought you’d just put your name down and never come.”
“I don’t really have anywhere else to rest besides here.”
I sighed and rested my chin on my hand.
“And searching for ghost stories is useful in its own way.”
“Right?!”
Claire’s eyes began sparkling to an almost uncomfortable degree.
“I knew you’d find it fun too, Lunaris~”
Honestly, it’s less that it’s fun and more that I can use black magic as a pretext to get an off-campus activity application stamped with the Imperial Mage Corps seal.
But there was no need to say that part out loud.
“By the way, Vice President Sylvia and Vice President Thomas are late.”
“Didn’t they say they went out to scout the haunted spots beforehand?”
“Yeah. But there’s no way it should take this long... and ghosts shouldn’t be coming out in broad daylight either...”
The moment Claire muttered while checking the time, the door opened with a creak.
“Ah, you’re here? Senior—”
What entered the clubroom was a group of unfamiliar girls.
The red-haired girl at the very front stood out.
“There you are.”
A gentle smile rested on her lips.
“I’ve been looking for you for ages, Lady Lunaris.”
...?
I didn’t know her.
But I could tell instinctively.
Anyone with this much distinctive presence had to be at least a named character.
Who was the red-haired girl in the original story again...
Wait, could it be?
“Lunaris. That’s her. Senior Miriel. The second-year top student. The most famous person at the academy!”
Ah, I remember now.
That gullible ducal young lady who jumped on the protagonist bandwagon too late and got burned buying at the peak.
“...I don’t really know.”
Of course, the Miriel I know is the one from after the original story had already progressed quite a bit.
I don’t know that much about the current Miriel.
And I don’t particularly want to know.
And getting involved with her is even more out of the question.
“If you don’t know me, why not start getting to know me now?”
Sweetly.
She smiled, her eyes curving.
“I’d like to learn a little about what kind of person Lady Lunaris is too.”
It was an elegant, flawless smile, as if to say the option of refusal did not exist.
“So, could you spare me a moment?”