Chapter 44
-This time you really did an excellent job, Miss Lunaris.
A voice flowed out of a tiny display panel no larger than my palm.
The first long-distance call test of the ‘Apple Phone walkie-talkie ver’ was, for now, a success.
-We've already heard the news. You moved quickly and suppressed the magical golem before it could go berserk, didn't you? You handled the job properly.
The Deputy Director showered me with praise until his mouth must have gone dry.
But honestly, I didn't feel much of anything.
It was awkward to be praised this much for catching just one golem.
If anything, meeting the Princess for the first time was more suffocating.
“Well, it was nothing. It was just sturdy, so I flattened it with overwhelming mana. That was all.”
-Hah, nothing, indeed. After we submitted the schematics as evidence, the Imperial research institute and even the Magic Tower were completely turned upside down.
“Huh? That much?”
-If that blueprint had been completed exactly as designed, it would have become a truly dangerous weapon. In theory, neither blades nor magic would have worked on it.
Suddenly, I thought that if it were such an incredible weapon, the Imperial family might want to study it as well.
“Just in case, let me ask: you're not planning to research it and mass-produce it, are you?”
-Without even being asked, the Magic Tower has already started weighing in.
See that? I knew it.
As expected of the Magic Tower, the moment they hear about an interesting kind of magic, their eyes practically spin.
-They want to study the ancient magic circle and use it to strengthen the empire's armaments, too.
“Hmmm-”
But they must have failed.
If they had succeeded, it would have been mentioned at least once in the original work.
Sure enough, Deputy Director Albert muttered as if disappointed.
-The problem is that a fatal flaw was discovered during the analysis.
“A flaw, you say...?”
-If it had been completed just as designed, it would have turned into a nasty thing that sucked mana from the atmosphere without limit.
“...!”
-In the worst case, the entire territory of the empire might have withered into barren land from mana depletion.
I suddenly remembered what Estel-senpai had told me about how she got the golem's schematics.
She said that not long after the academy entrance ceremony, some suspicious person had just handed them to her and told her to study hard.
Deputy Director Albert let out a long sigh, as if he had just thought of the same thing I had.
-Well, it doesn't seem like an ordinary academy student would have known how dangerous it was... We're separately looking into the person who gave the schematics to Miss Estel.
Deputy Director Albert muttered grimly that this might be a Resistance group recently rumored to be plotting the empire's downfall.
But I thought a little differently.
The magic circles that made up the core drawn on the blueprint were a little rough, but they didn't feel malicious.
“I don't think you can really call the blueprint flawed...”
-Hm? What do you mean by that, Miss Lunaris?
“Well... if you just engrave a few magic circles over the core to put limits on its mana absorption rate, wouldn't that do the trick?”
Of course, just 'engraving them appropriately' was enough to give me a nasty headache, but it was still far easier than modifying it into a portable mana charger.
“Then the power would drop a bit, but the stability would shoot way up... yawn.”
As I idly muttered while stretching out another yawn, I distinctly heard Deputy Director Albert clear his throat over the walkie-talkie.
-There's probably no one but Miss Lunaris who would think nothing of interfering by layering another magic circle over a finished one... Ah, come to think of it, this blueprint was submitted by you personally, wasn't it.
“Well... yes, it was.”
-Then you must have looked over everything in it before submitting it. Did you perhaps transfer it somewhere else and redraw it?
“Why would I do something that troublesome? I'd rather take another nap.”
-Ah. So you memorized the whole thing.
“Whaaaat...“
I can't exactly deny it.
Just by looking through it once, I end up memorizing it—what am I supposed to do?
“...I forgot it all already.”
If I told the truth, I felt like it'd only become a hassle, so I brushed it off appropriately.
What, you've got proof I memorized it?
If I just keep insisting I don't know, what can they do about it?
-Haa. Well, let's say that's how it is. With Miss Lunaris's personality, there'd be no reason for you to go out of your way to make something like that anyway.
As expected of the Deputy Director. He knows me far too well.
-Well, let's set the golem matter aside for now... I also heard you've been getting along very well with the Princess lately.
“Well, we've more or less become acquainted.”
-Haha. It doesn't sound like you've just become acquainted to me. Rumor has it you're practically glued together these days.
Deputy Director Albert was right.
During my disciplinary period, I spent a pretty large part of each day with the Princess, so the distance between us really had narrowed quite a bit.
Lately, she's even been calling me by the nickname Luna, just like Miriel-senpai.
And she's been subtly—no, openly—forcing me to speak casually with her too... honestly, that's a bit burdensome.
-If you're doing that well, why were you avoiding the Princess until now?
“I wasn't exactly avoiding her on purpose...”
-Could this be a strategy? Is this that push-and-pull thing or whatever? The kind popular in high society?
“It just sort of happened that way. More importantly, how do you know so much about this, Deputy Director?”
Wouldn't that make the regular reports pretty meaningless?
-Ah, I actually know the guard captain serving the Third Princess personally. We meet now and then and exchange news.
A dry laugh crackled through the walkie-talkie.
-Until just recently, that guy had been sighing and saying the Princess was already having a hard enough time with academy life. But when I contacted him recently, he grumbled that he was worried because you and Lunaris were stuck together all the time.
“Ahaha...”
-Well, I'm sure you'll handle things properly on your own, but... if I could offer one needless piece of advice, it would be best not to get too close to the Third Princess.
It was a single offhand remark, tossed out as if it meant nothing.
But that seemingly trivial advice carried teeth.
“You were the one who said I should get along with her, weren't you?”
-I did say that, but I never expected you'd get this close.
Deputy Director Albert continued with a sigh.
-There's nothing good about getting deeply involved in imperial affairs. Power struggles like that, if you get caught up in them the wrong way, don't end at merely being a nuisance.
“Well, I'm being careful.”
Honestly, I wasn't paying it much mind.
That was because the imperial family's struggles for power weren't explored all that deeply in the original work.
If there was an episode where someone other than Princess Celestina played a major role...
The missing Crown Prince would appear with a black mage in tow.
The Second Princess would be assassinated out of nowhere, and the First Princess would be named as the one behind it.
And the Second Prince would try to swallow up Miriel-senpai's family.
...Wow, looking at it this way, a lot of things really did blow up.
The one fortunate thing was that, even with all sorts of chaos breaking out in the imperial family, the area around the Third Princess and Kyle had been surprisingly quiet.
As expected of a hot-blooded coming-of-age story.
As expected of an academy harem story...!
There was no room for headache-inducing political scheming or conspiracy.
Of course, that didn't mean I could let my guard down completely.
For all I knew, something could have been happening outside Kyle's line of sight.
And besides, I didn't know what kind of butterfly effect the worldline I'd twisted might bring about.
-If things get tangled up, just come join the Imperial Mage Corps. Do you know what? There's nothing more politically safe than joining an imperial institution.
“Even if you say that, I'm not joining the Imperial Mage Corps.”
-Darn. That was my trump-card offer, too. You're really not coming over, huh.
Deputy Director Albert let out a regretful bitter smile.
-Well, the conversation got a bit long, but the point is that you're doing very well right now.
That's the complete opposite of the sighing he used to let out at the start of the semester, when he'd ask why I was always causing trouble.
-Keep going like this. Just take care of the Academy, take care of the Princess, attend lectures, and do your research exactly as you are now.
So you're saying I can keep secretly skipping lectures like this?
Is that permission from you, Deputy Director?
-Oh, and that Apple Phone thing you sent this time? The Apple walkie-talkie? Anyway, this magic-engineering communication device, its performance is incredible. Truly amazing.
“Ah, it's still unfinished.”
-Is that so? The sound quality is this clear, and mana efficiency is excellent too, so I'm very pleased with it. Honestly, it's good enough that I'd want to distribute it throughout the empire as is.
“It doesn't even have a faceplate yet. Well, anyway, once I finish it, please test it for me.”
I glanced down at the walkie-talkie.
A translucent glass panel powered by mana had an incomplete circuit faintly flickering across it.
There was even a faint smell of something burning, so there were still plenty of problems.
There was so much I needed to keep track of.
I didn't have any room to worry about enemies of the empire or imperial intrigue.
*
“Miriel, did you see? The test results were just posted in the Student Council Hall.”
The salon in the main building of the Political Affairs Hall, where the political science students gathered.
At the news someone brought, the students all began whispering at once.
After every exam, laying bare all the students' rankings and grades was an old tradition of Elterion Academy.
It was also a rotten custom that didn't take student rights into account at all.
The academic office gave all sorts of reasons, saying it was to ensure fairness and transparency in selecting scholarship students and upper-dormitory residents.
In truth, there was nothing else to it. It was just to give the noble slackers a dressing-down for not studying.
Commoners were the sort who, from the very start, would throw themselves at it with everything they had just to get good grades.
As for nobles, whose lives weren't really inconvenienced even if they didn't study, they were so full of themselves that they wouldn't listen no matter how much you told them to study.
But because they cared so much about face and honor,
if you didn't want to hear someone nagging that the son of some family in the neighboring territory had made the department's top ten, so why were you stuck in the bottom ten, then you had no choice but to sit down at your desk.
There was another reason, too.
It was to solidify the influence within the Academy of the top-ranking students, especially those who ranked first in each department.
Authority, after all, comes from visible numbers and rankings.
“As expected, Miss Miriel's name was at the very top!”
“Congratulations, milady~”
“Why stop at just the second years? Looking at the Academy as a whole, there probably isn't a single student who can surpass Miriel.”
Amid everyone's praise, Miriel showed no particular reaction and merely smiled sweetly while looking out the window.
“Well, isn't that obvious?”
There were some departments where the competition for first place was fierce, but in the second year of the Department of Political Science, where Miriel stood firm, no one could topple her throne.
Even the point gap between her and second place was so huge that calling it a competition was almost embarrassing.
So for Miriel, exam scores were naturally nothing to care about.
By the time you reached second year, there was no reason to get so worked up over first-semester midterms.
If you spent about a year at Elterion Academy, you'd learn that the first exam of the year was surprisingly nothing much.
Of course, the first-years must have been dying the whole time during exam period.
Since this was the first exam they took after entering the Academy, it even decided whether or not they'd get their backs smacked by their family elders.
The glorious title of 'Overall Top Freshman,' which had been decided by the entrance exam,
could, the moment it changed to 'Overall Top First-Year,' have its owner changed as well.
Miriel set down her teacup and asked,
“So, how were the top students in the other years?”
“They're all as impressive as ever. The third-year student council president and Sir Gaios of the fourth year were both overwhelmingly dominant.”
Miriel's follower eagerly rattled off the report.
It seemed to be quite the honor that the admired young lady had spoken to her directly.
“But... it looks like the top first-year is a little shaky.”
“Hmm- why don't you tell me a little more about that?”
Miriel's eyes narrowed with interest.
There were very few things that she took interest in.
That was because Lunaris was one of the few people who satisfied the exacting young lady's eye.
If Lunaris had yielded first place to someone else.
That would probably mean she had deliberately thrown it away because the responsibilities of being first place were a pain.
‘Yeah, that'd be just like her.’
Miriel let out a quiet puff of laughter to herself, thinking how very true to form she was.
By the way... was there even a first-year student who could push Lunaris out of the way?
‘...I don't think there's anyone, right?’