The outlines of the factions had roughly been decided.
Ortega of martial force.
Robian of command and strategy.
Ursel of culture and the arts.
Shuren of the dropouts.
The emergence of a fourth force was a result no one had expected.
“It’s not as if a clique forms simply because someone says to make one. For a wastrel, he’s rather impressive.”
“He seems to have a certain power to draw people in. To become the leader instead after behaving like that—he has the qualities of an overlord. Let us watch how things unfold from here.”
Paranglin and Lotte found Shuren interesting.
Nerasmun, on the other hand, was on edge, because Shuren’s every move was a bundle of unpredictable incidents.
Lea alone was already a variable large enough, yet that immature young master kept provoking her and making her cry.
Moreover, Shuren was a southerner who had served in the Northern Army during the coup.
Perhaps because of that, there was a trace of the North’s distinctive openheartedness in his actions.
He had said he was named after Margrave Derbek, and the very image Gyuren had wanted from Marvin was instead being displayed by Shuren.
Whatever the case, to her, both of them were hateful enemies.
“He didn’t speak to me today either…”
Meria Su was shocked by her beloved disciple’s cold shoulder.
It was more than just being ignored. Throughout today’s regular session, Charten had examined Lea from every angle, scrutinizing her thoroughly.
Meria had deliberately worn a faint smile, pretending to be composed, but Charten truly had not given her a single glance.
Her sharp ears flushed red with humiliation.
Even so, she only felt hurt; she did not come to hate him.
To think she would fall for him this severely.
Meria sublimated that sense of defeat into rage and thought of Lea.
That vixen of a bitch.
She glared at Lea, who could not even think to fix the makeup smudged by her tears.
Her long eyelashes and black hair pinned up neatly were both elegant and alluring.
Even Meria herself felt a destructive urge to take her in hand and crush her to pieces.
At the same time, the fact that she always wore black seemed, fittingly for a daughter of Bashport, to serve as a warning of the poison she harbored.
She was worlds apart from Meria, who had only honed her martial arts before falling into unrequited love with Charten, and had become rough-hewn as a result.
“Let us end today’s regular session here.”
At Lotte’s words, Meria grew anxious.
This had been an opportunity deliberately arranged for Charten, who styled himself a lone wolf, to join a faction.
Meria might love him, and she might be an arrogant professor, but blatant favoritism would provoke the students’ dissatisfaction.
If that dissatisfaction grew too serious, the Order might withdraw its oath of protection.
The Order had never clearly stated to the professors a date until which it would protect them.
Just as the professors evaluated the students, the Order constantly evaluated the professors as well, and if it judged them unqualified, it would withdraw that protection.
If that happened, they might be hunted down by factions that held grudges against them.
‘Please, just join any faction at all!’
With his skills, he would be welcomed anywhere, yet he still acted like this.
In fact, Ortega and Robian glanced at Charten, but when he showed no interest, they withdrew their gazes.
After hesitating, Meria raised an extremely practical issue.
“What shall we do about the ones who fail to join a faction until the end?”
“That is true. Originally, we planned to conduct classes by faction.”
Lotte pondered it as well.
She wanted to avoid continuing education with the board tilted too far in one direction.
Though each professor was overflowing with individuality, they shared one common denominator in their educational policy.
Namely, that there was no such thing as eternal power or an absolute ruler.
In the current structure, they had to leave room not only for a struggle of strength between factions, but also for the possibility of overturning everything into an entirely new phase.
“That is simple. We turn the ones who couldn’t join any group into variables themselves.”
“Variables themselves?”
“We teach by faction, and the unaffiliated students may freely attend any faction’s class, regardless of which one it is. If the competition between factions intensifies, recruitment will occur for those who know much about rival factions. At that time, the ones who handle that information best, or the unaffiliated ones whose abilities suit a faction’s plans, may rise to prominence—or perhaps form a new force.”
Paranglin’s proposal was reasonable.
Meria asked about the point that concerned her.
“If an unaffiliated student enters a faction, from then on he should have to attend that faction’s classes, shouldn’t he?”
“It doesn’t matter. Why should we, as professors, distinguish which faction that fellow belongs to?”
“Pardon?”
Paranglin cast a meaningful glance at Nerasmun.
Nerasmun responded to it languidly.
“In real politics and war, who is on whose side is something they must confirm and grasp for themselves. We professors are merely one part of their environment. Now that they have formed factions, they must somehow manage and survive on their own.”
“Whether they go around marking themselves or plant spies to gather information, that is all up to them.”
Paranglin rattled the coins in his pocket.
“Now then, hasn’t the class already begun?”
Meria Su did not bother to answer.
That alone was as good as a tacit agreement among the four professors.
If they did this, not only the other unaffiliated students, but Charten, who had been a blue-chip prospect from the start, would not be ignored.
All she had to do was thoroughly trample that Bashport bitch or separate her from him.
Do not be anxious.
Think positively.
For the past three years, she had not even had the chance to keep the object of her unrequited love and her disciple before her eyes as much as she wished, the way she could now.
The moment she thought that, Charten’s and Lea’s eyes met.
Lea, not wanting to show him her tear-swollen eyes, turned her head away with an embarrassed expression.
Gnash!
To Meria, all of it looked like a vixen’s ploy.
Lotte, unaware of these circumstances, raised another issue.
“How should we treat His Highness Prince Yurien?”
At the mention of Prince Yurien, Nerasmun also listened closely.
At present, he had not left Lea’s side.
Thanks to that, Charten merely watched quietly, while Shuren, itching to torment Lea, could only sneak glances at her.
“Separate from the fact that Her Majesty’s schedule for attending the Social Arena has been delayed, His Highness is also likely another watcher who has come to inspect the nobles’ factions on behalf of the royal family.”
What Lotte meant was this.
Would they make allowances for Yurien and place him under their protection?
Or would they treat him as a student?
Meria Su snorted.
“Hmph. Is there any reason to watch the royal family’s mood? One of the monarch’s twin wings is nowhere to be seen, and the other has been demoted and is standing there blankly, unable to go anywhere.”
It was a meaningful assertion that there was no need to fear the royal family.
“Now that I think of it, the monarch’s twin wings were swords of the Su family, and ones personally forged by Lady Meria at that.”
Lotte assumed the reason Meria was displeased was that the royal family had treated her disciples carelessly.
Nerasmun remained silent this time as well.
From the moment the viscountess had married into Nerasmun, she had faithfully followed her family’s words.
It was both her family’s warning and strict precept that information leaked from the moment one opened one’s mouth and moved one’s eyes.
“The royal family cannot even repay the interest on the money it borrowed from the World Postal Banking Bureau, so what is there to respect? Nobles and commoners bow their heads because those above them take responsibility for money and food. If they do not, then it is every man for himself.”
The cold, greedy Paranglin snorted in a way unlike himself.
“I shouldn’t have purchased more government bonds last month.”
“Honey, what do you mean? Purchased more?”
“No, that is…”
“Government bonds? You purchased more of those scraps of paper?”
Lotte turned a stern face on her husband.
“Are you insane?”
“I shall step away for a moment.”
Paranglin hurriedly took his wife to a corner.
A short while later, from that corner came the scream, “Fifty million barks?!” followed by the sound of something being struck.
“What do you think, Viscountess?”
At Meria Su’s question, the viscountess gazed at Yurien.
Elsewhere, Lea’s eyes were vacant and unfocused, and Yurien was stealing a glance at her.
A sigh rose of its own accord.
But she could not let it show.
It was Yurien who, brushing aside Bashport’s and her own opposition and dissuasion, had wagered on the gamble that Earei would become a woman.
Yurien had truly succeeded in that gamble.
Mistress was said to have called it a probability rarer than one in ten million, rarer even than one in hundreds of millions.
On top of that, Lea had become a woman without dying, even though she had not properly swallowed a single mouthful of the magic potion that protected the soul.
And quite intact, at that.
Well, relatively quite intact among those whose souls had been torn apart, that was.
“Viscountess?”
“The monarch is the monarch, and the prince is the prince.”
“Pardon?”
Nerasmun pointed at the two of them with her finger.
“The family Her Majesty accepted by force, His Highness the Prince seems willing to embrace as one of his own.”
Not merely as one of his own—he was scheming to take her as his wife.
“Hmm.”
To Meria Su, a martial artist to the bone, Nerasmun’s words did not strike very deeply.
It was simply a matter of, so that was how it was.
Just then, Lotte, who had beaten Paranglin, rejoined them.
“Have you finished speaking?”
After hesitating briefly, Meria opened her mouth.
“We will treat His Highness the Prince as a student. Unlike Her Majesty, who was sensitive, he is also the scholarly type, so I believe he came to the Social Arena to find pleasure in learning.”
“Hmm. He was a sickly fellow who only clung to his older sister, so I only hope he does not pointlessly tattle later that we failed to give him proper treatment.”
“Honey.”
When Paranglin sneered, Lotte cautioned him.
But she, too, meant only that they should be careful; she did not deny Paranglin’s words.
Seorin and Yurien had originally had poor reputations because of the tyrant Orban, and compared to Seorin, who had ultimately become queen, Yurien, hidden in her shadow, either had no presence or was a target of disregard.
As a discussion whose conclusion had already been reached dragged on, Nerasmun found all of this merely bothersome.
So she urged Meria Su on.
“Now then, please proceed as planned.”
“Mm!”
Meria struck the floor with the shaft of her halberd.
Thud!
“Everyone, listen! From now on, I will announce tomorrow’s class schedule!”
The murmuring of the factions stopped.
The leaders of each faction also listened.
“First, my martial course, Meria Su’s, will hold its first session with Young Master Shuren’s faction.”
“Ah, damn it.”
Shuren immediately cursed.
What was coming had come.
It was obvious to anyone that the band of ruffians intended to beat down Shuren’s gang.
“The strategy and economics class will be held with Lady Derbek’s faction.”
“The liberal arts and survival class will have its first session with Young Master Pashel.”
“This is an espionage and reconnaissance mission. Lady Puyol and the arts group are to find me before the sun sets tomorrow. That is all.”
The first classes had been proclaimed for the factions that seemed least suited to them.
The factions were bewildered.
They immediately began discussions about how to prepare for and follow their first classes.
Yurien and Lea stared blankly at that.
Lea was confused, since no one had said what the unaffiliated were supposed to do.
Yurien tried to whisper it to her, but instead, someone else swiftly brushed past and whispered.
“He says he will see you this evening.”
Yurien’s movements stopped.
It was one of the queen’s agents, one who had not been in his mind.
Wondering what had happened, he looked toward the professor of espionage and reconnaissance, but Nerasmun was wearing a sneer.
Ah, I see.
Now he understood.
The person just now was a double agent planted by Nerasmun.
That was why he had not been on the list of Seorin’s agents previously reported to him.
Yurien decided to demand that Nerasmun hand over the list of double agents as well.