Day two of the social gathering.
Once the dazzling and eventful debut ceremony, held by young adolescents without any adult guidance, had ended, all traces of the banquet hall vanished. The academy had become a clean but ordinary auditorium, and the noble and local magnate students had been summoned there.
“Good to see you. It is I.”
Standing on the platform with the faculty lined up to her left and right, beginning with the professors, Saintess Jenau offered her greeting.
“Ah, of course, by ‘good to see you,’ I mean another day. You pigs are trash who will waste away each and every precious day regardless.”
“We are the next generation who will lead the Kingdom of Levantort.”
Insolently, someone voiced dissatisfaction in the middle of the words of the Saintess, and the future Holy Seat.
A knight of the Order struck that person with the shaft of his spear.
Clang!
“Whoops! It’s true our faction was in the wrong, but as its leader, I can’t just stand by and watch, so I hope you’ll understand!”
Ortega Derbek brazenly blocked the knight’s attack and bantered.
Even so, the Saintess did not so much as blink.
“Is that so?”
“Guh?!”
“Then, as the one who leads them, you shall serve as an example made to warn the hundred.”
Kuwaaaaang!
Instead, with a single step, she moved right in front of Ortega, then kicked him indifferently with her other foot.
Though Ortega blocked with his axe, he could not withstand it. He went flying into the wall, knocking down the members of his own faction behind him.
By the time the startled people looked at the Saintess, she had already returned to the platform.
The factions and their leaders, who had been brimming with pride when they had only just formed, broke out in cold sweat.
“Tsk. I thought I had shown you the difference in strength and authority quite sufficiently yesterday.”
The Saintess clicked her tongue and frowned.
When a nine-year-old child did that, it ought to have been cute, but when the one doing it was counted among the strongest beings in the world in both name and reality, everyone grew tense.
“It seems that, being human, I underestimated how beastly you all are. I shall apologize.”
Bang!
The Saintess slammed the platform and, sweeping a fierce gaze over the assembly, shouted.
“Listen well, you things worse than dogs! It is only in old fairy tales that they say there is no high or low birth within the academy, and that all are equal! This place is solely an early education ground meant to determine in advance the political hierarchy of the kingdom and the Order, and to prepare future cooperation and grudges ahead of time! Let the weak cling to the strong, and let the strong struggle not to become weak. Furthermore, I and our Order will rule over you rotten things with coercion and violence in order to set the ethics of the world right, and to that end, I shall formally introduce the proud professors who will do so!”
Meria Su stepped forward.
“I hear Professor Su already took the lead yesterday in providing true instruction. I shall praise her especially!”
“Until the day requests and cooperative activities between families are permitted, all of you will become capable of protecting at least your own bodies. Those who do not become capable of doing so will be weeded out and gone, so do not worry.”
It was a savage course objective.
“Professor Paranglin of the Strategy and Economics Department.”
“If any of you need a loan, come to me. I do not ask the purpose of the money. However, bear in mind that I will make you repay your debt by any means necessary. I also make investments, not just loans, so anyone may bring me a proposal.”
He was not a professor but a loan shark.
Worse yet, there was not even a trace of a strategist about him.
“Professor Lotte Shurazm of the Culture and Survival Department.”
“You must know this. Culture and manners came into being for the sake of survival. If you are students, then for the sake of survival, I believe you ought to know how to respect your teacher and show sincerity.”
Lotte pointed at Paranglin with her fan.
“For those of you who lack the preparation to express your sincerity, if you ask my husband, he will provide a special loan, so keep that in mind. By the first class, I will have prepared a death register for your survival.”
They had openly brought in corrupt officials.
Since they were corrupt officials recruited personally by the Saintess of the Order, no one dared protest.
“Professor Ophuris Nerasmun of the Intelligence and Reconnaissance Department.”
“You all heard the request the Saintess issued yesterday, yes? You will scrape together information, and based on it, search and verify, then find the whereabouts of the Order’s holy knight, Earei Virensha. Use any means and methods necessary.”
Standing there was not someone stating a course objective, but merely an agent forcing the fulfillment of a commission.
Lea, who was Virensha herself, wore a subtle expression as she watched Nerasmun’s dry performance.
Nerasmun simply found Lea’s flustered state amusing.
“The instructors who assist the other professors will introduce themselves during their respective classes. From now on, I will be busy, so it will be difficult to see me. Unless you bring news that you have found my holy knight—no, the Order’s holy knight, Earei—you will not be able to see me at all. Huaaaam~.”
Jenau yawned and rubbed her eyes.
“I’m going to sleep now. Grandpa Pope said he would scold me if I slept less than four hours a day.”
“Please go at once, Saintess. Sleeping deeply and for a long time is how one grows even prettier.”
“Good. I, too, wish to grow breasts as large as watermelons like you.”
“They are not as large as watermelons!”
“My dream for the future is to be a sexy Saintess and Pope.”
“How can a messenger of God say something so worldly…!”
“Silence. I like power. In fifteen years, I will find a man who suits my tastes perfectly, give birth to children one after another, and make the papacy hereditary.”
“Saintess…! Please go inside at once!”
Led away by the horrified knights of the Order, the Saintess withdrew from the platform.
Just as she had shown during the previous day’s debut ceremony, she snapped her fingers, and the Order vanished along with a cluster of light.
After confirming that the Saintess had truly departed, Meria Su looked around at the professors on either side.
Paranglin and Lotte nodded, and Nerasmun turned her gaze away altogether, expressing tacit permission.
“Hey, disciples.”
Meria Su leisurely looked over the students.
“The world is one where the weak are prey to the strong. And we professors stand at its peak.”
When she lifted her halberd and struck the floor with the shaft, the spirit of the martial arts professor was conveyed to them.
“No matter how lofty the titles your families hold, no matter whether you possess power that can shoot down even birds in flight, we do not care. No matter how great you think you are, are you greater than the Order’s oath of protection?”
Meria Su openly declared that the Order was their backer.
The noble children who had been grinding their teeth flinched at those words and were forced to reconsider.
“During the education period, you will obey us and learn. If you do not, we will prove to you that we are not people who received the Order’s oath of protection for nothing.”
Meria found Charten in the crowd.
“Your goal is to endure our contempt for the weak, proudly grow the strength of your factions, and receive the respect of the professors.”
Or quietly accept her love.
He must not hurt his teacher’s tender heart with needless antics.
“The more you grow, the more you will come to worship strength. When that happens, you will naturally respect us and wish to keep us as allies.”
Originally, she had been terribly angry and hurt,
“But for that, each faction must recruit and sort out the talents who suit them.”
Yet it weighed on her that, because she had ruined the debut ceremony midway, her beloved disciple had been left all alone, belonging nowhere.
“Today is the follow-up to the debut ceremony. The leaders of each faction shall recheck the members they have chosen and take time to reorganize.”
And she was curious how her disciple would use the opportunity he had been given.
“Additionally, reinforce yourselves with the talents you failed to take in.”
Her eyes met Charten’s.
Meria Su smiled without realizing it.
Damn it. To think just looking at him could make her happy.
She had thought this kind of feeling only existed in clumsy romance novels.
Good. Let the grandchild’s name be Charia Su.
Meria Su had just established a perfect life plan.
“Warriors of Derbek, gather!”
“Strategy meeting. Summon all the staff officers.”
“It is time for planning. What seizes the future is the soft power known as culture.”
The three factions represented by Ortega, Robian, and Ursel were already as good as complete.
Though he had lost face after being marked by the Saintess and the professor one after another, the faction that outwardly possessed the strongest power was Ortega Derbek’s.
Following behind were the Mashel and Puyol families.
Yurien pondered.
He wanted to gather his support base immediately, but royalty generally stood in the position of mediators.
Moreover, if he, the king’s younger brother, went around too actively creating balance or leading an independent faction, the gazes around him would become fierce.
On top of that, he himself possessed a level of recognition no different from Bashport’s, so he judged it better not to move rashly.
It was good to seize momentum early and push forward, but he had no justification for that at the moment.
There was nothing absolute in this world.
No matter how tightly woven power appeared, the farther down one went, the looser its support and seams became.
Yurien decided to take his time and begin attacking from below.
To do that, he had to watch carefully what shape the factions intended to take today.
And so Yurien’s eyes naturally turned to Lea.
“How about it, Bashport? Why not make a faction with me?”
Surprisingly, Shuren was inviting her.
“There are already three factions, so let’s gather the dropouts who couldn’t get into any of them and go around getting revenge! How about it? Belgirt?”
“Wow, young master, you really are rotten! Did you think I wouldn’t know you were obviously planning to make Lady Bashport carry out poisonings and assassinations, then abandon her and run the moment she gets caught?”
“Oh….”
“…Was that really it?”
When even Belgirt grew serious, Shuren glanced around, then heartily drank from his bottle.
“Hahahahaha! No matter how much of an idiot I am, I wouldn’t do something that obvious!”
Then he shouted toward those around him.
“Dropouts, gather to me! Those bastards excluded us yesterday anyway. If we bend our pride for a second day in a row only to be coldly rejected again, our hearts might be torn to shreds and leave us unable to recover. Why not plan for the future with me instead?”
For a drunkard and unwanted nuisance, it was quite a plausible statement.
Shuren held out his hand to Lea.
“Honestly, there’s no faction that would accept a sinister woman like you besides me, is there?”
Lea was confused.
He had publicly insulted her yesterday, and now he was holding out his hand?
However, the same was true for Shuren.
His life was already a mess, so he had blurted out whatever came to mind and caused an incident, but even he did not know why it had started with Lea of all people.
Other than that his gaze had gone to her and his heart had followed, he could not convince even himself.
But regardless of what was going on, Lea’s answer was obvious.
“No, thank you.”
It was only natural.
“You’d be better off accepting.”
Shuren, offended, whispered.
“Because it would be far too easy to drink with your tears as my snack again.”
“Then it seems the lady needs someone to protect her so that she does not shed tears.”
An unfamiliar voice cut in.
Lea’s eyes widened.
The one who had stepped in between Shuren and herself was none other than Charten.
“Viscount Tortmund?”
“Oh, my.”
At Lea’s startled reaction, Charten smiled gently.
“What an honor that you recognize me, Lady Bashport.”
Sparks flew from Meria Su’s eyes.