☆★☆★☆★

“…That size has always been twenty gold coins.”

“Orders came in from the necromancer circles. For use in ritual magic, they say. The market’s up.”

A cramped room. Sitting across a table from a pudgy man who plainly wasn’t going to engage, Sheryl puffed her cheeks out.

Well, as for what business a back guild actually does—it brokers.

In this case, that means taking an order and handing over goods.

They basically trade illegal items, so as a rule the goods themselves aren’t here on any day but the handover.

And the guild itself is just a small office. Unlike an adventurers’ guild, there aren’t adventurers… or rather, in this case, rough-trade assassins or bodyguards or thugs, hanging around.

Assemble what’s needed when it’s needed, meet supply and demand, settle immediately.

This would all be fear of a raid from above. Naturally, ledgers—anything that could become evidence—shouldn’t be here either.

Keep the damage to a minimum if anything happens… that kind of wisdom.

“…I need a magic crystal. Without it I cannot live.”

“Sorry, missy. We’ve got to give priority to whoever puts up the money.”

“…But my order came first.”

“This isn’t the straight world. In a hard business that moves on nothing but profit, it happens. Give it up.”

Sheryl went pale. Well, if her magic supply gets cut off it’s a literal matter of life and death, so that’s hardly surprising.

And then came the sound of knocking at the entrance. Three knocks, a pause, then two.

The pudgy man across from us stood and headed for the door. He returned one knock, and one came back.

He opened the lock, and the man who came in wore a black robe. The pudgy man checked him over and gave a small nod.

“Magic crystals, right. Got exactly what you ordered.”

At that, Sheryl said to the pudgy man, pleading.

“…Please wait. I will prepare the money. If you give me time… without fail.”

At that, the black-robed man dropped his gaze to Sheryl and me and cocked his head.

“Hm? What are these brats?”

“Ah, I had requests from two parties this time. This missy ordered at twenty gold coins, the gentleman at forty.”

“So that’s it. Sudden order, so… the cancellation notice didn’t make it in time, that it? Well, it happens. Give it up, missy.”

Sheryl glared at the black-robed man.

“…I cannot accept that. This man is obviously going to use it for something rotten.”

Something seemed to occur to the black-robed man. He looked hard at Sheryl’s hood and caught his breath.

“Cat-ear hood… ah, I remember. You… Brad’s little sister? He used to come around our… the Marx family.”

Sheryl gave a small nod, and the black-robed man said this.

“I see, I see… no wonder you need magic crystals.”

“…If you know the situation, then hand it over. All the more if you are Brother’s associate.”

Taking that in, the black-robed man wore a vulgar smile.

“Unfortunately, your big brother’s already out of our outfit.”

“…What does that mean?”

“He had a magic academy ID, see. Came in real handy. Said he needed money, so he’d walk right out onto any dangerous bridge you put in front of him. Gutsy kid, I’ll give him that.”

“…So I am asking what that means. I cannot reach Brother much either. I do not know how he is.”

“His head went clean off the rails lately. Don’t know what he’s doing now… but I don’t hear anything good.”

“…Regardless, hand it over. Twenty gold coins I can pay.”

“Hey, you? A minute ago you said I’d only use it for something rotten, didn’t you? Well—I probably will use it for something rotten. The man I’m passing it to is a necromancer, after all.”

“…Then hand it over.”

And the black-robed man cut her off flat.

“No. This crystal sells for a hundred gold. Which means sixty gold coins for moving it left to right, see? You know addition and subtraction? Well, that’s what it is. And so—brat. What makes you think you get to talk big?”

“…?”

“You’re living on dirty money the same as me, aren’t you? Aren’t you the sister of the sewer rat who earned his coin helping us out?”

“…I do not care about myself. But do not speak ill of Brother.”

“Let me spell it out. Living like that, you’re a filthy rag, a piece of garbage. You live on dirty money and you want to say you alone are clean? People like you are what piss me off the most. This is why brats—”

“…”

“So know your place. You piss-stinking kid.”

And the black-robed man took a pouch from inside his coat.

“Here you go. Forty gold coins.”

The pudgy man made a complicated sort of face and asked the black-robed man a question.

“A hundred gold… you’re moving it left to right at more than double? That’s a bit much, isn’t it?”

“Well, it’s a bulk order. We’re cutting it fine too… if I don’t get the numbers together exactly, we breach the contract and eat an enormous loss. And look, even if you tried what we’re doing, you can barely source a single unit here, right?”

“That’s true enough… well, nothing for it. Forty gold is double the market anyway. Still, that necromancer’s something else. Completely ignoring the going rate… must want the numbers whatever it takes.”

“Yeah, well. Here’s to a long relationship.”

The black-robed man took a seat at the table across from us, and the pudgy man, sitting beside him, opened the mouth of the pouch he’d been handed.

And the pudgy man began counting, building four towers of ten gold coins on the table.

“Forty gold coins, confirmed.”

Nodding deeply, the black-robed man turned that vulgar smile on Sheryl again.

“If it stings, go ahead and stack up more towers than that. Though on your big brother’s earnings, I doubt it.”

“Ngh…”

With Sheryl on the verge of tears beside me, I took a large pouch out of my bag.

“Then I’ll stack the coins in this kid’s place. Five towers of gold… yeah?”

I opened the pouch and dumped the coins out onto the table.

Really glad I brought two hundred just in case, I thought, from the bottom of my heart. Well, the pouch got a bit big and that was awkward.

“Wh…!”

“Hm? Some problem? I heard just now that selling to whoever puts up the money is the back guild’s way?”

And the black-robed man went pale and raised his voice.

“Hey, wait! This has to go to some seriously dangerous people! If I don’t source it properly I’ll—I’ll get beaten half to death by the boss!”

Yeah, wouldn’t know. Nothing else comes out of my mouth in a situation like this.

“So? What’s it going to be?”

I asked the pudgy man.

“No, but… the gentleman’s a regular…”

At those words the color came back to the black-robed man’s face.

“That’s right! I’m a regular! I’m not like you people, once a year!”

Ah, what a tiresome bunch. And I shrugged.

“Then a hundred gold is fine. So? What’s it going to be? You wouldn’t enjoy it either… having it moved left to right at more than double?”

Well, there’s as much money as you like in the mansion’s storehouse.

My disciples… Merlin and the rest left half of my previous life’s assets untouched, the half I told them to use for the advancement of magic.

Frankly, I’m not hurting for money. And the pudgy man thought and smiled.

“Sold!”

And taking that in, I smiled back and answered.

“Bought!”

And so the black-robed man stood there letting out an anguished cry.

And on the way home.

Sheryl, who’d been silent from the moment she took the magic crystal until we got outside, asked me this.

“…Why does Ephthal do so much for me? A hundred gold coins is… a very great deal of money.”

“My house is the Alcott ducal house. Your family’s ancestor did mine a service, so… we have a family precept.”

The service is true. But the precept’s a lie. No such thing exists.

“…A family precept?”

“The Four Emperors walked the line of death as kin. Help one another, and let that bond be eternal… let it hold through every generation of our descendants… that kind of precept.”

Well, we did swear something like that before we stormed the Demon King’s castle. We fought constantly, mind, but everyone got along.

“…The Four Emperors… the Thunder God Emperor Ephthal. I have heard he hated crooked things, and was a man of duty and feeling.”

Oh, sounds like you educated your kid well, Isaac. And I nodded along, pleased.

“…Though I hear when he got angry he was violent, and on top of that his personality was outrageous and nobody could handle him.”

That part was unnecessary, Isaac… And I nearly fell over.

Well, it’s true. Once the switch flips there’s no helping it… yeah.

“…Ephthal? Then the first sandwich too? Did you do that knowing I was of the Ice God Emperor’s line?”

“That was simply me being a busybody. I didn’t know who you were at the time.”

And hearing that, Sheryl spread both arms. And she flung herself into me and—

“Huuug… Ephthal really is a good person.”

By the way— and I asked.

“Could you tell me about your brother? From what you said, he goes to the magic academy?”

Well, after a story like that of course I’m curious, and there’s no way I can leave it unasked here.

“…Money was needed to keep me alive. The means were as you heard. I have barely met Brother for two years. He said that, dirtied as he is, he might dirty me… and told me one-sidedly that he did not want to see me. Sometimes we exchange letters, businesslike… but that is all.”

Hmm. A strong sense of justice, or caring too much, or something along those lines.

Bound too tightly by his morals, probably. But thinking of a man like that earning his money in the underworld… it makes for a feeling I can’t name.

“…Come to think of it, I saw Brother at this festival, so I am surprised.”

“Well, the story is he goes to the magic academy, right? So wouldn’t it be perfectly normal for him to be there?”

At that, Sheryl shook her head, small, side to side.

“…For some reason he has been chosen as a class representative. Brother works incredibly hard… but he has no talent for magic, and his marks at the magic academy were faster counted from the bottom. So I am surprised.”

“I mean, wouldn’t that just be incredible effort?”

“…He should already have been making effort close to his limit. Climbing from there to class representative is impossible.”

And with that Sheryl looked up at the sky with distant eyes.

“…I am very worried. I think he is probably trying to do something for my sake. Money is still needed to keep supporting me. Win the festival and your future is as good as promised.”

“Worried? Why’s that?”

“…Humans have all sorts of enhancement methods… I worry he is wrecking his body with reckless doping. That person will choose any means for his ends.”

Doping… huh. Well, there are various ways, but in most cases the downsides are too big and ordinary people don’t use them.

Concretely, your lifespan shortens, or it loads your brain or your organs. Nothing good comes of it.

“…Watching Brother get dirty for my sake, and get hurt… that is very sad, and I worry.”

And I let out a sigh.

“What a genuinely worthless breed.”

“…Worthless? My story with Brother?”

“No. The guy behind us.”

I turned around, and there was the black-robed man from before, flashing a knife, coming our way.

“Hey, kid. Hand over the magic crystal, nice and quiet.”

“Your reason?”

“I told you before, didn’t I? I bring that back or things go bad for me.”

Another deep sigh.

“You’re the ones at fault for walking around a slum like this with nothing but kids. Whatever happens, you can’t complain.”

“Right—whatever happens, there’ll be no complaining. From you.”

I scooped Sheryl up into my arms. And with that, I triggered physical enhancement, put the power into my legs, and jumped.

“…Eh?”

A single backhand, in passing.

“Aghk!?”

A joke of a sound rang out—thunk—and the feel of a cheekbone breaking came back through my hand.

And the man flew about ten meters, rolled and rolled along the ground, and eventually stopped.

Last of all I set Sheryl gently down on her feet, and that settles that.

“Right, let’s go home.”

And Sheryl blinked, and said this, looking startled.

“…Ephthal… you were that strong?”

Ah, come to think of it, Sheryl had never seen me fight.

And so I laughed and answered her.

“Well, I’m a descendant of the Thunder God Emperor.”

“…Ephthal?”

“What is it, Sheryl?”

“…There are words Maria said. I… somehow understand them. That she got a place to be. Warm and noisy… fun, a place where you can feel safe. I think for me that is here.”

The moment she finished, Sheryl spread both arms and dove into my chest.

“…Huuug.”

And so I gave a wry smile, and patted Sheryl on the head.

☆★☆★☆★

Right, today is day two of the semifinals.

We’d learn who we were up against in the finals, so we were watching from the competitors’ waiting room, scouting the enemy—

“Oh my, if it isn’t Maria-san? What is the lowest-year flat-chest doing in a place like this, I wonder?”

“Oh my, if it isn’t Irene-san? I showed you power like you asked, and you still talk that way? This is why holsteins who send all their nutrition to their chests—actually, you’re irritating, so don’t come picking at me.”

Feels like sparks are snapping between those two.

Well, the whole thing started with Irene-san and company coming to pick at us before we headed to the match.

“Fufu, but Maria-san?”

“What? Still got complaints?”

At that, Irene-san flipped from her usual harshness into a gentle smile.

“When I recall the days of being pestered day after day with ‘fight me, fight me’… I do have various thoughts about it, but—”

Ah, you got done by Maria too, Irene-san.

Those words gave me a sudden sense of kinship with her, and I had to laugh.

“I could acknowledge you now. Your ability.”

“Wh—what’s with you all of a sudden, it’s creepy.”

“I told you, didn’t I? The student council acknowledges those with ability.”

And the Student Council President held out his right hand to me.

“Ephthal-kun… was it? Your Level 5 was splendid. And Anonymous Hope-san’s illusion, too.”

A handshake, apparently.

Well, refusing when someone asks for a handshake is strange too. Let’s go along with it here.

“Which means the finals are us and you… is that it. I promise we’ll face it fairly and with everything we have. Right, Vice President?”

“Yes, that’s right, President. Ah, that reminds me, Maria-san? The truth is we’re short-handed for secretary. You kept challenging me because you wanted to join the student council… didn’t you?”

“W-well… that was true at the time.”

“Come and visit the student council room once the festival’s over—you’ll be welcome. All of you, of course.”

“What is with you, really, all of a sudden, it’s creepy… no, that’s wrong, that isn’t it… yeah, that isn’t it, is it.”

And Maria, whose face had been sour all this time, shrugged like someone giving it up.

“Thank you for acknowledging me. I really am glad about that. But I… won’t be joining the student council.”

Irene-san opened her eyes wide, startled.

“And why is that? After you were so persistent…”

“Because I got one… I guess.”

“Got one?”

Maria shifted her gaze to me, and her cheeks colored a little.

“Sorry, but I’ve already got—a place to be.”

And so Irene-san let out a slightly disappointed breath.

Straight after, Irene-san and the Student Council President looked at each other and gave wry smiles.

“It appears we’ve been turned down… President.”

“Haha, well. Free will is a thing to respect.”

And the Student Council President smiled and began walking toward the platform.

“Then let’s meet in the finals. First-years.”

“Maria-san, I acknowledge that on average your magic skills are higher. However—how will it go in a real fight, I wonder?”

And with that—the student council members climbed up onto the platform.

Chapter 3 – The Thunder God Emperor Festival Main Tournament and the Cat-Eared Girl’s Brother

So. We were at the venue for the main tournament of the Thunder God Emperor Ephthal Festival.

For now, one thing is certain: Sheryl’s magic power depletion is in bad shape.

Long, long ago, a water spirit girl took on flesh on a whim. And there was Isaac, the Ice God Emperor. By the accident of his magic aptitude, the water spirits in the air doted on him—more than anyone else in the world, probably.

Once those two met, ending up close was fate, I suppose.

And a half-spirit, half-human child naturally runs into all sorts of trouble.

Isaac and I were friends, for what it’s worth, so back then we tore through the literature together, desperately. The conclusion was that the odds of dying of magic power depletion before turning ten were significantly high.

The thing is, a spirit devours magic power just to keep living.

Well, of course it does. A spirit is a creature of mind—its very existence is a mass of magic power.

So a spirit constantly converts the air’s energy into magic power and breathes it in, and that’s how it holds its strength as a being of mind.

A human, obviously, can’t do that. Which is to say a spirit-human half burns fuel faster than a human can produce it.

And as the human child grows, the amount it needs climbs, until eventually it hits the limit and dies.

By the math back then… by the grandchild or great-grandchild generation it just barely works out, but at the child stage, no matter how we ran it, it didn’t.

Well, descendants exist, so Isaac clearly managed something for his own child.

—Probably by the method I’m about to use on Sheryl.

I mean, the two of us concluded “with this method the child’s generation will be fine,” so it can’t be anything else.

And the thing I feared most back then is exactly what’s happening to Sheryl now—atavism.

A god-adjacent existence… which is to say, frankly, something nobody understands. Anything could happen, and in crossbreeding with other races you see cases of it here and there.

And if it happened in a descendant’s generation, Isaac wouldn’t be around, and nothing could be done. Which is why I… told him to stop, back then, until I was blue in the face.

And so, about Sheryl herself…

A fate of death, sure—but she isn’t going to die tomorrow, or the day after, or in a week. A month from now, though… I couldn’t guarantee it.

So in case a depletion attack hits and she suddenly can’t move, I prepared emergency medicine.

Which puts us in a reassuring posture, for now… except there’s one thing I can’t get to sit right.

“…Mm? What is it, Ephthal?”

“It’s nothing, Sheryl.”

“Nothing” is a lie.

For a start, I don’t understand why Sheryl used magic in her dorm room at all, Level 1 or not.

Either she doesn’t realize she’s depleting, or there’s something else that makes her sure her life isn’t in danger… and today’s match is where I need to find that out.

Sasha dropped the name Cliff, the Fire God Emperor, at this festival too, and it all smells wrong.

Even treating Sheryl, I’d better not assume everything goes the way I plan, and I’m absolutely better off confirming what I can.

“But, listen, could you stop walking around holding the hem of my coat…?”

“…It settles me down.”

I mean, how attached is this kid… Well, I don’t mind it.

What I feel toward Sheryl right now is basically what you’d feel for a friend’s daughter.

She’s practically family, and when she gets attached and comes running, thinking she’s cute is just the natural response.

I patted Sheryl on the head, and sure enough she went “Ehehe” and her cat ears twitched, delighted.

“…Being patted by Ephthal really does settle me.”

“Settle you?”

“…Because you smell the same as Brother… huuug.”

And, sure enough, I got hugged.

Anyway, today is the Thunder God Emperor Festival semifinals.

This round is a team match, single elimination. The match itself should be an easy win. But before I put real treatment into Sheryl’s depletion, I want to confirm it’s genuinely what I think. Through live combat, where nothing can be faked.

Botch the treatment and it’s a matter of her life, so: careful work, not sloppy.

☆★☆★☆★

And so the Thunder God Emperor Festival semifinals began.

Incidentally, our opponents are a third-year class.

The student council gathers the best of the whole school, so they’re a mixed unit that cuts across classes. And this time, unlike the preliminaries, it seems we’re fighting in the academy’s own colosseum.

If I say it’s like the Colosseum in Rome, tidied up, does that get some of the nuance across for a modern-Earth reader?

It’s a very large venue—this is a famous demon academy, when all’s said and done—and being able to borrow a national facility for an event is impressive, I think.

And in the middle of the flat ground, past the spectator seating, there’s a fighting platform. Exactly the colosseum, right down to the letter.

And so, about ten seconds after the “Match, begin!” signal, here we are, five facing five—

“Sh-Sh-She’s floa—ting! What the hell is that mask! That’s Level 5 Flight, isn’t it!?”

Yes. She’s floating.

This swallowtail-butterfly-masked, school-uniform-cosplaying woman… is floating. Merlin isn’t allowed to fight, so she pulled off the platform the instant we started. But—she is drawing so much attention it’s exhausting to even comment.

No, seriously, why does this girl just casually use Level 5? I had a premise to work with, at least—the mysterious boy Headmaster Merlin took a personal interest in.

A mask and Level 5? However you look at it, that’s a target-rich environment for heckling. And our five opponents have been going pale and shouting things at each other this whole time—

“I’m telling you, these guys are weird! That black-haired one used Level 5 in the preliminaries too!”

“Forget that, the headmaster uses honorifics on that black-haired human, Ephthal or whatever he’s called!? There’s definitely something with these people! And one of their members is a kid! This is all wrong!”

At that, Merlin said this, with a smug look on her face.

“Be at ease, gentlemen! What I am using is not Level 5 but… Level 4 Illusion! For the record, I shall not lift a finger!”

That again… And I went limp on the spot, thoroughly worn down.

But, well—hearing it, the five of them visibly got their color back.

“Hey, she says it’s an illusion.”

“Level 4, huh… Then there’s a chance the Level 5 the black-haired guy used was actually an illusion too.”

“Isn’t Level 4 maybe their ceiling? Then we can take them, right? The odds aren’t zero, right?”

“We are carrying the class banner, technically. If we forfeit… no telling what everyone back in class says about us afterward.”

“Yeah, Anonymous Hope says she won’t interfere, and one of them’s a kid, so realistically… we’re up against three.”

And the five of them looked at us and swallowed hard.

“…Five against three… we can do this.”

Wh-what… incredibly easy-to-read guys.

They seemed convinced the numbers were on their side, and the frightened look from a moment ago shifted into a confident one.

And the gallery, too… from what I could see, everyone seemed to believe Merlin’s illusion line.

And when I nervously checked the faculty referee… “An illusion, is it…”—for some reason, he was satisfied.

And at that point, finally, this was obviously wrong.

—Level 8: Long Range Mind Jack.

Yeah. A species of mental contamination… or rather, a confusion spell.

High-tier magic must weep to be used on something this stupid.

Anyway, the opponents seem thoroughly motivated now.

“For now… bullying a kid looks bad. So we concentrate on the one who looks weakest besides her—that soft, fluffy woman!”

Looks like they’ve fixed on Anastasia.

“They’re going to come at us with Level 4, watch out!”

“Which is what the four of us are for—Level 4 magic barrier!”

“And I, the strongest close-quarters fighter in this school, cut in and put that pink-haired woman down in one hit!”

I see. As a plan, that isn’t bad.

Anastasia, at the end of the big man’s run, was in fact standing a little forward of the rest of us, jutting out toward their side.

For Maria and me to help Anastasia, we’d need to fire long-range attack spells.

The four of them cooperated, built their formulas, and completed a Level 4-class barrier to protect the big man.

If it goes the way they intend, Anastasia gets dropped instantly and only Maria and I are left.

And then, whatever the gap in skill as mages, brute numbers can do something about it… is roughly the idea.

And as the shaven-headed giant raised his practice sword overhead and came at us—

“Please wait! You don’t need to do that—if it’s one-on-one close combat, a bout between warriors, then I’ll take you on!”

Anastasia called out to the giant at the top of her voice.

“What? One-on-one!?”

The giant stopped moving.

Well, from his side one-on-one close combat is exactly what he’d have wished for, so it’s a bolt-from-the-blue stroke of luck.

“I accept a one-on-one bout. So, first, I think we should start with a greeting. I’m a swordsman of sorts myself. This is a duel between warriors—haven’t you ever heard the words, ‘begin with a bow and end with a bow’?”

The giant thought about something for a moment, then gave a small nod.

“I’m Anthony, third-year… Anthony Ames.”

“I’m Anastasia, first-year… Anastasia—”

And at about five meters apart, the two of them lowered their heads to bow. And the instant the man’s head was all the way down, Anastasia twisted hard—

—and threw a knife.

Well, not a real one. A practice one.

Even so, it’s got lightning enchantment on it, so taking a hit doesn’t come free. And with the knife in his shoulder and the electric shock through him, the giant went “Gnnngh” and dropped to one knee.

“That’s dirty!”

Yeah. You said it. Because even I’m managing a strained smile over here.

“Well, there’s someone way dirtier than me, you know?”

And at that moment, countless rose stems appeared on the platform.

“My legs, my legs, my leeeegs!”

“Wh-wh-what the hell is thiiis!?”

What coiled around the five of them was Rose Bind.

Well, it’s a magic tool elves like to use. Incidentally, in the finals, bringing in a self-made magic tool is permitted so long as it’s nominally supporting your magic.

This was a special exemption meant as relief for the alchemy majors. But nobody from the alchemy track entered, so it’s become an exemption nobody has ever used. And that’s what Anastasia’s eye landed on.

I remember it well—Anastasia reading the rulebook and going “Ah!”

Her usual soft, fluffy expression vanished for a second, and she made an evil face. Although… I’d like to believe the evil face was my imagination.

Anyway, that magic tool of Maria’s changes strength with the skill of the caster.

Bound by a girl who put on power at a ferocious rate during the training camp… none of them are getting out of that quickly.

“—Right, now that you can’t move, it’s beating-time!”

Arrows with their attack power raised by enchantment rained down on the five of them, thick as hail. And the screaming began.

“Aaaaaargh—!”

“I-i-it’s no good after all!”

“What is with that elf! What’s going on with this binding! And these are practice arrows, right!? What kind of enchantment do you need for this much power!?”

“I told you! I told you these people are wrong!”

And with the five of them in a state of panic, Anastasia and Maria made eye contact and nodded to each other.

“Here we go, Anastasia!”

“Yes! Maria-san!”

The two of them ran up and each stretched out her right hand.

I mean, these two are genuinely good at fighting. Apparently that was the aim from the start.

“Ready—!”

And with their palms together, the two of them glared hard at the five and—

“Level 5: Explosion!”

A literal, kaboom-grade explosion.

Immobilize, beat them into collapse, then finish with big firepower from a cooperative ritual spell.

Yeah, I’d call that a fine result.

“At least the kid…! If we don’t take down even one of them, everyone in class is going to look at us like we’re dirt!”

The giant’s “strongest close-quarters fighter in the school” line wasn’t just for show, apparently.

He’d been farthest from the blast center and taken the least damage. Even so, he’d forced his way out of Rose Bind—and he came at Sheryl, next to me, sword raised.

But I don’t move. Well, I’ll save her at the last possible moment if she looks like getting hurt. And the instant Sheryl entered the giant’s range—

“Level 3: Huge Tornado.”

“Wha! Whaaaaaaaaaaaat!”

The tornado she generated threw the giant about ten meters into the air—and then he came down.

“Gwuh!”

He made a strange noise and passed out, twitching, but…

He’s got physical enhancement up, from the look of it, and at this level he’ll get away with a minor injury, so no particular cause for worry.

The problem, rather, is Sheryl.

Which is to say: she’s supposed to be depleting, in a state that runs straight to mortal danger. So how can Sheryl fire off a Level 3 at all?

The next day, Saturday.

The magic academy was closed, and in the early afternoon Sheryl and I were walking through town.

“…I have asked you many times not to follow me.”

To Sheryl’s troubled face, I shrugged and said this.

“Well, I’m curious.”

“…Why are you curious?”

“Because I’m already on the boat.”

Sheryl thought about something for a while, then fell silent and started walking.

“…Then do as you like.”

We went from the main street in the center of town into the back streets.

And we pressed deeper and deeper down the alleys, and the scenery around us grew steadily more desolate… no, more unsettling.

Trash was strewn through the narrow lanes, and homeless people slept where they lay. The smell of ammonia grazed my nose now and then, and both the mood and the sanitation were foul.

There were people drinking from midday, and around here a young man in tidy clothes is a pusher, guaranteed.

—Well, we’d stepped into what you’d call a slum.

“Sheryl, where are we heading?”

“…My once-a-year errand at the back guild. I need a magic crystal. Through legitimate channels I cannot obtain one.”

Well, roughly as I imagined.

If a girl who by rights should be dying of magic power depletion is casually using magic… she needs an external fuel tank.

Incidentally, magic crystals get used for defending strongpoints in monster-heavy regions.

They’re used for building shelters in safe zones—to hold a state where a ritual spell is running constantly, that sort of thing.

And a magic crystal is a substance refined from magic stones, which you can occasionally take from high-tier monsters.

That said, the output itself is fundamentally not strong.

Hmm, how should I put it… if you imagine a dry-cell battery with absurdly high endurance, that’s about right.

Output scales with the size of the magic stone. So something that can sustain a ritual spell runs to a price that tips a country over.

Well, they’re used in magic tools too, and they’re fundamentally expensive. So even a small one comes to quite a sum.

And trade in them is strictly controlled by the union of nations, so as Sheryl says, there’s no room to get one through proper channels.

“I know roughly about the spirits… about your magic power depletion, from the research records left in the Alcott ducal house. But dealing with the back guild… is it all right to tell me that?”

“…It is not something to hide, and this transaction is not illegal… at least on the buying side. And… I trust that Ephthal is a good person.”

Well, the selling side is breaking the law at the sourcing stage. Realistically the only routes are theft or embezzled goods leaking out.

While I was thinking that, Sheryl let out a sigh.

“…What a rotten place, regardless.”

Sheryl gripped my sleeve tightly. And there I noticed Sheryl was trembling.

“Scared?”

“…Mm. There are many thugs. So… right now I’m scared. It was not… like this before.”

“What do you mean, right now?”

“…Last year and the year before I was not scared, because I could use higher magic. Every year the magic I can handle gets weaker, and now Level 3 is my limit. A magic crystal is not all-powerful either.”

“Magic crystals, though… aren’t they expensive?”

“…Brother sends money every year, so it is fine. This year was quite dangerous, so I resorted to a last measure.”

Ah, I see. So that’s why she was selling underwear at the flea market.

“Brother—your older brother? If he needs magic crystals too, then between the two of you that’s got to come to a ridiculous amount of money…?”

“…Mm. He is not blood, so it is fine.”

“Not blood?”

“…I was bought with money by a ducal house of mages. To give the ducal house prestige.”

“I’d like you to tell me that part in detail.”

Sheryl gave a small nod.

“…My first memory begins in a room of the slave market, as collateral for my real parents’ debt… with the duke carving a slave crest into me. Since the first Ice God Emperor died, nothing has gone well for the family.”

And so Sheryl explained it to me, and summarized, it comes to this.

First, as a premise, Isaac—right up until the Fire God Emperor killed him—kept his child’s life going by “that method,” without hardship.

But once Isaac was gone, that method doesn’t hold.

So from there it got ugly. Which is to say Isaac’s child, after the father died, was kept alive with magic crystals, same as Sheryl now.

But they couldn’t get high-output crystals, so keeping the child alive was all they could manage… and at that point, as a mage, the child was finished.

And within the court of the country Isaac belonged to, the house’s standing turned precarious and the decline began.

First the land and buildings. Then, as the generations went on, more and more fatal things went up for sale, until at the end they’d sold off even the title and the domain… so the story goes.

—To take spirit blood into a line means exactly that.

You gain superhuman magic aptitude, but the fuel economy is too bad, and eventually even life itself burns out. This is why Sheryl was a genius, and it’s why her growth stopped.

And Isaac’s line took several generations before the spirit blood thinned to a level where you could live as an ordinary mage.

The upshot is that all through that stretch the house was fed cold rice, the situation became unrecoverable, and here we are.

“…The story ends here. We have arrived.”

A desolate building in one corner of the slum—this, apparently, was Sheryl’s destination.

In Japanese terms it was a multi-tenant block, with two staircases from the entrance, up and down. We took the stairs up.

Second floor of a three-story building, and at the end of the corridor Sheryl knocked three times, paused, then twice.

And from the other side came one knock, and she returned one.

Well, this’d be a precaution because they’re doing illegal trade around here.

And while I was thinking that, I immediately heard the lock come off, and the door opened with a creak.

The next day.

Today I’d invited Maria out to the great forest.

My stomach’s been in an abnormal state since I ate Anastasia’s cooking, but worrying about that is a losing game.

I’ve looked into all sorts of things since I started down the magic road, but I never knew detoxification magic worked on a stomachache from ordinary cooking.

Honestly, it surprised me. Worth writing up as a paper someday.

Jokes aside, Maria was packing magic herbs into a basket, quick and practiced. The forest smelled thick and green.

“Hey, Ephthal? Why’d you suddenly say you wanted to gather magic herbs?”

Hmm…

Well, telling Maria should be fine.

Merlin noticed the instant she looked at the flow of Sheryl’s magic power after hearing about the Ice God Emperor, and it’s the sort of thing anyone with the eyes can see anyway.

“The truth is… Sheryl has a rather troublesome illness.”

“A troublesome illness?”

“A congenital one. She burns an enormous amount of magic power purely to stay alive. Leave it alone and she’ll die. Does ‘spirit’ mean anything to you?”

“The essence of nature lurking in the air… no, a god, right? Elves are spirit worshippers, so—of course I know.”

“It’s much like the Azure Dragon or the Black Tortoise—the Four Sacred Beasts. Have you heard that a spirit, being a being of pure mind, will rarely take on flesh and imitate a human shape?”

Maria nodded, and I went on.

“And the spirit girl who took on flesh in the material world on a whim fell in love with… Sheryl’s ancestor, the Ice God Emperor.”

Maria laughed, exasperated. “Hahaha.”

“Ending up with a god. The first Four Emperors really were—with you at the head of them—anything goes, huh.”

“In any case, she has spirit blood among her ancestors, and she’s in a state where her magic power could run dry and kill her at any time.”

And Maria’s eyes went wide and round.

“You knew that, and you took her into the mansion?”

“Well, that’s about the size of it.”

“Ha. You really are strange. Same story with Anastasia, and it was the same with me too, wasn’t it. It practically looks like you go out of your way to get caught up in trouble.”

“Well… the habit of picking up strays never really left me.”

Merlin herself was an infant I picked up in the Demon King’s castle, after all.

And Maria laughed, exasperated again, thought about something for a while, then sighed.

“But it’s lovely, isn’t it. Marrying a spirit… I could get to admiring that.”

“Hm? Is this Maria saying she wants to marry a spirit?”

At that Maria puffed her cheeks a little, then shook her head as if giving it up.

“Sure, when I was a kid I admired that sort of fairy-tale thing.”

“But…”—and Maria fixed me with a straight, steady look.

“Right now I’ve got someone I actually like. Not some vague admiration. An actual, real target.”

“…”

“…”

We looked at each other for a few dozen seconds, and then Maria looked up at the sky showing through the gaps in the trees.

“But it really is lovely. Crossing species, crossing station—two people who could never happen, happening.”

“Well, that might be true.”

“…And, well, I’m having a love across stations myself, so hearing a story like that I really do think—that’s nice. I’m jealous. That’s the sort of thing I end up thinking.”

“…”

“…”

Maria kept staring at my face, steadily, as though waiting for my words.

And then she shook her head again, as if giving it up—

“…Magic herbs means you’re making some kind of medicine for replenishing magic power?”

Well, my purpose is exactly as Maria says.

I don’t know whether I’ll use it, but I’m here today so that if Sheryl collapses I can give her emergency treatment at any time.

“By the way, why did you bring me along? You can do anything on your own, can’t you?”

“Maria grew up in the forest. Just as I expected, you’re picking out the magic-herb colonies beautifully. Spotting them from subtle changes in the plant ecology… I couldn’t do that. It’s a genuine help.”

There’s no one to beat an elf at this sort of gathering.

I learned that to the point of hating it at the adventurers’ guild, so bringing Maria along for that reason is the truth.

“Well, well. I’m honored to be of use to the Thunder God Emperor-sama.”

At Maria’s theatrical tone and gesture, I laughed.

“Huh, so Maria says honest things sometimes too.”

“I have my honest moments… actually, I’d say a fair few of my thorns have come out since I met you?”

Maria puffed her cheeks as if genuinely wounded.

And then something seemed to occur to her, and Maria clenched her fist as though she’d made up her mind.

“Hey, Ephthal? You’ve kissed Anastasia before, haven’t you?”

What is this girl suddenly starting on, and I froze on the spot.

“Hey, Ephthal?”

And Maria walked up to me, spread both arms, and put them around me.

“Wait—Maria?”

She’s short, so her face comes to about my chest.

And she held me, and brought both hands around behind my neck.

Then Maria stretched up, and as her face came closer, something warm touched my lips.

“That’s thanks for saving me. There’s no more meaning to it than that.”

Maria dropped back down off her toes, and her face drew away.

“…Elves had that custom, didn’t they.”

Right. Elves are a people of obligation, and they have strange customs.

For instance, when your life is saved by someone of the opposite sex… they’ll kiss you like that to show gratitude.

In fact Bridget did this to me out of nowhere once, long ago, and that was where I was completely undone.

Well, part of it was that I didn’t know it was a custom at the time, so it was a total ambush… and that’s how I got done in.

“Er, so, Ephthal? I said I’d grant you a favor as thanks for saving me the other day, right? That promise is separate from this just now. The favor is still very much alive. So—when you use it?”

And Maria looked up at me and turned a challenging smile my way.

“…I’d be fine kissing you one more time?”

“…”

“…”

“A kiss isn’t something you do because someone asked, is it?”

“If you ask, one more time… no, as many times as you like.”

“Maria. Are you… serious about that?”

“I wouldn’t say this as a joke.”

“That sort of thing… is for people who are together. Thanks for saving you, favors… I don’t need any of it. Honestly, that kind of thing just leaves my shoulders stiff.”

“Picking up strays might be everyday life to you, but it isn’t for the one who got saved. It’s special, and… it’s not a problem you get to smooth over.”

“Which is why I’m saying I don’t need it. Much less asking for something people who are together do as a favor—”

“I wouldn’t say this to someone I disliked.”

That gave me a small jolt.

But I genuinely can’t read this girl’s intent… no, running away like that is a bit cruel of me.

And Maria said the decisive thing, exactly as I’d expected.

Without dropping that challenging air, spirited all the way through.

“You’re kind to anyone, as a matter of course, and anything crooked you knock flat by force. That’s why—I came to like you.”

Truly, this is a nuisance.

Up to now I’ve deliberately pretended not to notice, but… the fact is, her attacks… coming at me almost perfectly straight, over and over, all this time… they’ve been doing damage. Slight, maybe… but real.

“Saying I’ll grant you any favor… that’s what it means. Of course, you can use the favor on something else, but I don’t mind at all if the order is a million kisses.”

“…”

“‘Be my lover’ is fine too… or ‘marry me’. That kind of order is fine.”

“…You really are direct.”

“Ha. Well, I live as I please, wherever my feelings take me.”

And, troublingly… I don’t dislike this sort of girl.

Honestly, this is bad, I sighed, and Maria nodded deeply with a clear, bright expression, like someone who’d finished everything she came to do.

“Well, think it over carefully. The answer to what you’ll use the favor on… you can tell me by around graduation.”

“…And if I end up asking you for something trivial?”

“I’ll be furious. And then I’ll cry, on my own.”

Instant answer.

No, being told that with a lovely smile leaves me in serious trouble.

But this has genuinely become a problem. I don’t have the slightest intention of toying with this girl’s feelings, and there’s no escaping this. No—she isn’t going to let me escape… that’s why she’s been coming at me so hard, this whole time.

What she said just now comes down to wanting it settled, black or white, whether it works out or not.

Well, the whole run of it is very Maria, if you want to call it that.

“Hey. Ephthal? Back then, you said that in a few more years I’d probably grow into the sort of woman you like, didn’t you?”

I did, certainly. I did say that, but…

And Maria finally moved away from me and laughed, mischievous.

“You’re the one who lit the fire. So it isn’t my fault.”

In the end it seems I have to admit this is a seed I sowed myself.

Though in mental age the gap between us is literally wider than grandfather and granddaughter… and I let out a deep, deep sigh.

☆★☆★☆★

In the mansion’s dining room, Anastasia raised a voice of protest.

“Merlin-sama! Why does Sheryl-chan get a room in the mansion? Uu… when I live in the shed in the garden…”

“Sheryl-sama is a direct descendant of the Ice God Emperor, is she not. That she is treated differently from a useless mongrel like you is only natural—by birth!”

“That’s… how can you say that…”

“Silence, mongrel! It is a century too early for a dog to assert itself! A dog—belongs in a kennel!”

“Uu… that’s awful, Merlin-sama.”

Yes, it’s certainly awful. I have no words. Well, Merlin was attached to Isaac, so her going soft on Sheryl isn’t beyond me.

At that, Maria clapped her hands together.

“Anastasia? Before you go on about dogs, don’t you have something to do?”

Anastasia stood, and Maria stood after her.

“So then, Master! We’re going to go and cook♪”

Ah, I’d completely forgotten, but that’s right, today was the dinner to welcome Sheryl.

And we waited an hour.

To explain the situation: once it was settled that Sheryl would be taken into the mansion, the two of them got strangely fired up—“In that case we’ll do our best and cook!”

“Now then, sorry to keep you.”

Maria came back from the kitchen with a large platter.

What she’d made was fried chicken… or rather, a traditional elven food along the lines of karaage.

“Anastasia said she’d start frying after me, so I think she’ll bring hers along later.”

“Hoh. Student Maria. This karaage… I shall grant its appearance and aroma a passing grade.”

Looking at the mound of karaage on the platter, Merlin—who is fussy about food—was giving rare praise.

Then she speared a piece on her fork and took a bite.

Her eyes flew wide, and she gathered the platter into her arms and began eating at a ferocious clip.

“Delicious! Delicious! What is this!”

Chomp chomp chomp!

Watching Merlin eat on with single-minded ferocity, I drew back slightly.

I mean, for Merlin to take to something is genuinely a serious matter.

And Anastasia came pattering into the room.

“Master! My karaage is done too♪”

Anastasia’s platter was set on the table, and the assembled company looked at the karaage and lost the power of speech.

—It was purple.

And it had a pungent smell.

To put it concretely, it smelled of chemicals. Of the dangerous variety.

And on top of that, the surface was visibly, steadily beginning to melt into sludge.

Acid…?

This gel-like liquid that looks like sauce… is it acidic?

Come to think of it, the smell feels awfully close to an Acid Slime’s.

But with the ingredients in that kitchen—how do you even make food that smells like a monster?

“I’m not eating this!”

The look and the smell are both obviously far too dangerous.

“Master… you won’t eat it? I’m… sad.”

And Anastasia’s eyes filled with tears and she made a sorrowful face.

Anastasia’s expression—fragile enough to break at a touch, wistful, lovely, and about to spill over at any moment.

Merlin saw it and clenched her fist tight.

“Ephthal? Anastasia would like you to eat it, it seems?”

“No—like I said, I am absolutely not eating it!”

“Hmm… if you say so to that degree, Ephthal, then I have no choice but to step forward. The useless mongrel did make it with all her might, in her useless way… hm.”

And Maria sighed.

“Hmm… no, I’ll eat it. Not wasting food is a principle of mine. And Anastasia worked hard on it.”

“Wait, student Maria. Here, I, as the elder—”

“Merlin-sama, please don’t force yourself. I’ll eat it.”

“But that won’t do, will it? When Anastasia made it with such effort. We cannot waste that feeling.”

“No, no, I’ll do it… Anastasia did work hard on it.”

“You are a difficult one. I said I would eat it.”

Anastasia on the verge of tears.

And watching those two look out for her… I started to feel like I was the one doing something wrong, refusing to eat the food.

And so I steeled myself and said it.

“Then I’ll eat—”

“Go ahead.” “Go ahead.” “Go ahead.”

Perfectly in sync.

Which is to say all three of them, Anastasia included, thrust the platter of purple karaage out in front of me at the same instant.

—Dammit… they got me!

Unbelievable… I never thought I’d get hit with the Dachō Club bit in another world.

And why are the three of you so perfectly in sync?

Besides. Technically, all of you… are my disciples, aren’t you? I’d had an inkling, but with Merlin at the head of it, the way I get treated when things are loose… when everyone’s cutting up… isn’t it a bit off?

Still, once it’s come to this, eating the karaage isn’t something I can avoid. So I resolved myself, speared a piece on my fork, and put it in my mouth, gingerly.

“Gobfa!”

It was—

Like taking an explosion spell to the mouth… wait, an explosion spell!?

“A-A-Anastasia? What did you put in this purple, pungent karaage?”

“Eh? Gunpowder… maybe?”

You actually used an explosive as a seasoning!?

“And… mandragora, maybe?”

That’s a narcotic!?

“And… fly agaric, for a secret note?”

That’s a certain-death note!

“A-Anyway, I said I’d eat it, so I’ll make an effort.”

And as I reached for a second piece—

“No, Master! Not a second one! It exceeds the lethal dose! From the second on you can’t handle it without an antidote potion!”

“You aren’t even trying to hide that it’s poison!?”

“I’ve mixed antidote potion into the drinks, so please enjoy it as you drink♪”

“You smiled sweetly at me, but all I can see is a demon’s smile!”

And while Anastasia and I went back and forth, a fork came in from the side, and Sheryl, having taken a bite, gave a small nod.

“…Mm. Surprisingly good.”

And with that Sheryl dragged the platter over to her own place.

“Really?”

“…Mm. The look and the smell are certainly bad. And the moment it enters the mouth there’s certainly an explosive shock. But chew it through, and there’s a mellow, well-aged aroma—and a deep, savory richness.”

Hmm. I spat it straight out earlier, so I certainly didn’t chew and taste it.

Guessing at it, it might be something like natto in Japan—actually good.

And so I speared the purple chicken on my fork and put it in my mouth again and… ugh, no, this is awful. Far too awful.

But apparently it’s good if you chew it… and I steeled myself and bit down. And—

“Gobfa!”

Garbage.

What spread through my mouth when I chewed was… the smell of well-aged garbage.

“…Mm. Why are you spitting, Ephthal?”

“G-G-Garba—”

“That’s awful… are you trying to say garbage, Master?”

Bad!

Anastasia’s about to cry again!

“…Mm. In any case, what’s good is good. This mellow, well-aged aroma…”

No, that’s the smell of garbage. Well, Sheryl gives off a strange-girl aura, so a ruined palate wouldn’t be odd.

“…It really is good, Anastasia. Thank you for working so hard on the cooking for my welcome party.”

“You’re very welcome!”

And with tears pooling at the corners of her eyes, Anastasia started bouncing on the spot.

“…Anastasia? Why are you so delighted?”

“Um, uh… er… I… it’s the first time in my life anyone’s praised my cooking!”

Obviously!

And while I sat there with my face twitching—

“So Master won’t eat it after all? When the person I most want to eat it is Master… and you spat it all out.”

“Ah, no… yeah, sorry, but… I think I’ll pass on any more?”

“Uu…”

For the umpteenth time today, Anastasia’s eyes went teary. And Merlin, seeing that face, pulled a sour expression.

“If you say you dislike it, Ephthal, then here too I have no choice but to eat it.”

“No, I’ll eat it. I was taught in the elven village that you must never waste food.”

Merlin and Maria, squaring up to the purple karaage with expressions of grim resolve.

And Anastasia, once again on the verge of tears.

And watching those three… I started to feel like I was the one doing something wrong, all over again, refusing to eat the food.

“Then I’ll go ahead and—”

“Go ahead.” “Go ahead.” “Go ahead.” “Go ahead.”

Sheryl included, every one of them reached for the platter of purple karaage and thrust it out in front of me.

A second round, no less.

The Dachō Club… double-down… And as I sat there with a look of dread—

“…Fu… fufufu. Kufu… fufu.”

“Sheryl?”

“…Mm. It’s been a long time since a meal was this noisy. And I think it’s been about two years since I laughed out loud, too.”

Laughed, she says, but it was only her mouth—expressionless as ever.

“Two years?”

“…For two years I’ve eaten alone, and I haven’t had a proper conversation with anyone. Today is… fresh. A strange feeling.”

“Sounds like you’ve got a lot going on. If you want, stay in this mansion as long as you like.”

“…Mm.”

And with that Sheryl gave a small nod.

And then Maria stood, and set her palm on Sheryl’s head with a pat.

“Well, I’m sure there’s all sorts going on, but I think you can relax now. I was stubborn and alone at first too… and one way or another I ended up with a place to be.”

“…A place to be?”

“Ah, you’ll get it… eventually.”

And Maria ruffled her hair roughly, and Sheryl made a troubled face.

☆★☆★☆★

And thirty minutes later.

“Um… why are you two cleaning Sheryl’s room, exactly?”

Just as I said, Maria and Anastasia were in the thick of tidying a room in a dire state.

The room was… not so much dirty as comprehensively strewn. Grimoires scattered everywhere, and my first impression was of my own laboratory back when I lived alone.

Come to think of it, Bridget was always angry at me about that once we married. And once I started taking disciples, Merlin cleaned up of her own accord, which was a help.

And the mistress of the room, Sheryl, was doing nothing at all, savoring an apple pie.

“…I don’t say it to boast, but I have zero capacity for daily life.”

“That’s genuinely not a boast, no. By the way… why are you sitting on my lap?”

Sheryl had asked Anastasia and Maria to tidy the room, and asked me to sit down in the middle of it.

That was the condition for becoming a class representative, but…

And the moment I sat cross-legged, she plopped herself down between my knees.

“…Ephthal smells good.”

And for the whole thirty minutes she’s been sniffing at my chest and my neck.

I’d like her to stop, but is this some habit particular to beastfolk?

“You said something like that before, too.”

“…Mm. You really do smell the same as Brother.”

She sniffed at my neck, her nose creeping steadily upward—and by the time it reached my ear it tickled.

“…Haha, that tickles, so stop.”

I pried her away with a wry smile, and Sheryl puffed her cheeks out and—

“…Raargh.”

I’ve been threatened. Or is she angry?

“Are you angry?”

“…Mm. I don’t like being pushed away. So I’m in a bad mood. Bad enough that I might say I won’t be a class representative.”

And she puffed both cheeks right up.

Good grief, what a handful, I thought, and spread both arms.

“Sorry, sorry. I won’t push you away again. It just tickled, that’s all.”

And Sheryl’s face lit up like a flower blooming… although, well, still expressionless.

“…Huuug.”

And she dove into my chest.

Just then Maria, cleaning the room, turned an exasperated look our way.

“You’re weirdly used to handling little girls, huh?”

“Am I? Well, I think she’s honest and a good kid. For some reason she seems to have taken to me.”

“…Mm… good kid? Sheryl’s a good kid?”

“A strange one, though.”

And Sheryl said “Ehehe” and clung to me harder.

Still completely expressionless the whole way through, mind.

And—

We got the room somehow tidy, and by way of a break Anastasia made everyone tea.

Incidentally, the business about Sheryl having zero capacity for daily life turned out to be true—she had no tea set and no crockery, so it ended with a trip to Maria’s room in the dorm to fetch some.

“Ah, Ephthal, it’s about lunchtime, so—eat this.”

Maria came out with that suddenly while we were all drinking tea.

“…A sandwich?”

“You like beef, right? I stuffed the filling with a stupid amount of roast beef.”

It was a good-looking sandwich, generous with the beef, lettuce tucked in.

Well, let’s see, and I took a bite.

Mm, it’s good. A steak-sauce base, with a light note of lemon that pulls at the appetite.

“How did you know I like beef, though?”

“You can tell that much watching what someone eats.”

And Maria lowered her lashes and muttered.

“…I’m always watching you, so… I’d know whether I wanted to or not. I just would…”

Well, now she’s started saying things that are hard to respond to.

And Anastasia has frozen in sheer bewilderment.

At that, Sheryl sent Maria a look of naked want.

“…I’m hungry too.”

“Yours is here. Ah, and there’s one for Anastasia too.”

And Maria pulled paper-wrapped sandwiches out of a parcel.

“They’re from the place Ephthal always goes, so they should taste good.”

“…Mm.”

Delightedly—though, well, expressionless—Sheryl started working through her sandwich.

“Why is mine the only handmade one, Maria?”

“Because Sheryl’s and Anastasia’s are obligation, and Ephthal’s is the real thing.”

Said with a completely straight face.

Does this girl have no intention of hiding it… no, that’s bad. That’s a bad sign.

And Anastasia’s watched Maria’s attitude and gone into total freeze, like a PC that’s stopped functioning.

“Ah, Ephthal. That favor I said I’d grant you as thanks for saving my life—that wasn’t a joke, it was serious. Think properly about what you want.”

“Meaning?”

“Anything’s fine, really. For example…”

“For example?”

“Asking me on a date. There’s all sorts.”

Straight face again. Lately she’s really been—

—coming at me hard.

This is… ah, this is a nuisance. That’s exactly the development I don’t want to think about right now…

“Ah, that reminds me, Merlin gave me a lunchbox.”

“From Merlin-sama?”

“Yeah, let’s all eat it together. Merlin’s a good cook, believe it or not.”

My previous-life self drilled the fundamentals of cooking into her, so her seasoning necessarily runs to my taste.

There’s a certain guy-cooking bluntness to it, but it’s good, no question.

“…Mm. It’s good.”

“That’s a surprise. It really is good… I assumed Merlin-sama would have made something strange.”

Merlin’s lunchbox seems to be going over well.

And Anastasia looked about to cry.

“Um, uh… I’m sowwy!”

She tripped over her tongue for the first time in a while. What’s wrong?

“U-Um… I-I didn’t notice! I’m sorry for not making anything!”

“Ah, that’s what it is. It’s fine, don’t worry about it.”

“B-B-But… this bit—no, Maria-san went and made sandwiches! And I’m a clumsy, useless slave who can’t even read the room!”

I just heard “bit—” there…

Surely not. Surely she wasn’t about to say “bitch.” Anastasia isn’t that sort of girl. She just tripped over it.

Right. That’s bad for my mental health, so let’s think of it that way.

“No, really, don’t worry about it, Anastasia.”

Still, I thought, and looked around.

A room without even a table, all of us sitting in a circle on the floor—thinking about it properly, this is quite the chaotic situation.

Well… compared to camping out in my adventuring days it’s nothing at all.

“Um… Master?”

“Hm? What is it, Anastasia?”

“This has nothing to do with anything, and it’s rich coming from me when I made the tea, but… I have a cat’s tongue. I can’t drink it hot.”

“Ah, is that right.”

At that, Sheryl turned her left palm toward Anastasia’s teacup.

“Level 1: Create Ice.”

Moisture in the air condensed, and ice went tumbling into Anastasia’s cup with a clink, clink.

“Awawa, it’s going to spill!”

Anastasia grabbed the cup in both hands in a panic.

Well, holding it in both hands doesn’t help, but the tea didn’t spill, so, fine.

“Huh, handy little utility spell. Making ice that small… actually, I’ve never heard of that spell?”

And I lifted Sheryl off my lap. I stood, set her gently on the floor, and turned back around—

“Hey. You. That spell… where did you learn it?”

It wasn’t the student who asked that. It was the Thunder God Emperor.

The first time I saw that spell was the night before the decisive battle, in a tent, camped outside the Demon King’s castle.

—This is the Ice God Emperor’s original spell.

Or more precisely… I, with knowledge of the modern world, gave the Ice God Emperor the concept of chilling a drink with ice, and he devised the utility spell off the back of it.

“…What’s wrong, Ephthal? Your face is frightening.”

“I’ll ask again. Where did you learn it?”

“…Will you keep it secret? I’m not forbidden. But I think speaking of it… wouldn’t be good.”

I nodded, and Anastasia and Maria nodded after me, and Sheryl let out a small sigh.

“…My name is Sheryl. Sheryl Oldis. Adopted daughter of a ducal house of a certain country. No… I was. And—”

Sheryl thought for a moment, gave a small nod, and said this.

“The name I had before I was taken in was Sheryl Alford. Which means—the Ice God Emperor… the founder of that line is my ancestor.”

So she’s a blood relation of the Ice God Emperor Isaac, the one the Fire God Emperor killed… is she.

Now that she’s said it, I feel like a faint trace of him lingers around her eyes.

But thanks to that, I understand why she suddenly went from genius to ordinary. And why she was a genius before.

Because—it seems that idiot Isaac really did cross the species barrier and father a child.

I told him again and again to leave it alone, that it would absolutely become a mess. The cat ears had me thinking beastfolk at first, but Sheryl isn’t.

Right. It isn’t beastfolk blood in Sheryl, it’s spirit blood.

And it’s outrageously thick.

Something like an atavism. Her magic power running dry is a matter of time.

I mean, I did everything to stop him, and now I get to clean up after him? Come on, Isaac.

“Haa…”

Nine years old. Leave her be and dying inside a year is on the table. This is nothing but a nuisance.

Still. She’s an old friend’s descendant.

Can’t very well let it slide.

“Hey, Sheryl?”

“…What? Ephthal?”

“Your dorm fee waiver runs out soon, doesn’t it? Looks like your adoptive father’s abandoned you, too… if you’ve got nowhere to go, want to come to the mansion where Anastasia and I live?”

Merlin’s going to grumble at me about picking up strays again, but it can’t be helped.

I need her close by to observe the situation. Honestly, give me a break, Isaac… And there I laughed at myself.

No… I’m at fault too.

Level-headed his whole life, and then he lost it over a spirit at past forty. My mouth told him to stop. Somewhere in my heart I was cheering him on.

“…Ephthal. Your air changed suddenly. But… you really do smell like Brother.”

“So? What’ll you do?”

“…Mm.”

And Sheryl gave a small nod and said it.

Chapter 2 – The Cat-Eared Girl, the Spirit, and the Emperor of Ice

—The magic academy cafeteria.

We’d secured our place in the main tournament, so we were holding a celebratory meal in the academy cafeteria.

Incidentally, this is a custom of ours going back to my previous life.

When a disciple gets recognized—a tournament, a paper, whatever—we all turn out and eat and drink like this.

Being strict is necessary to raise someone, but there’s a saying that praise makes a child grow, and praise… or rewards, anyway… matter every bit as much.

So on occasions like this, I pay, and we make a racket.

“Still, that was a masterpiece, Ephthal. The faces on those student council brats—”

I brought a fist down on Merlin’s head. Hard.

“Do that again and I really will get angry.”

“…My apologies.”

“Merlin… you’ve been alive over four hundred years. It’s about time you stopped acting like a child.”

“And by the by. This fried shrimp is quite the fine article.”

Maria nodded hard at that distinctive way of speaking.

“You think so too, Sasha-sama? I love them!”

“Aye, and by the by, this cafeteria keeps a decent wine. Is this stock for the faculty?”

Washing the shrimp down his throat with gusto, my master… Sasha tipped his wineglass.

And it was Anastasia who answered.

“Yes. They won’t sell alcohol to students.”

And at that, Merlin and Anastasia and Maria and I all opened our eyes wide at the same instant—

““““What are you doing in a place like this!?””””

“Hm? There was a delicious smell.”

“No, Master!? You normally shut yourself up in your quarters in the World Tree and sleep, don’t you?”

Sasha tilted his head slightly at my question.

“Aye, well. I thought I might get to see a Level 10. There’s a festival on… is there not?”

I considered what he actually meant by that, and shrugged. Good grief.

“Do you honestly think I’d use a Level 10 here? It’d be nothing but trouble.”

At that Sasha laughed—“Ka-ka”—and took another mouthful of wine.

“Nay, not you. A Level 10 other than you.”

“A Level 10 other than… me? In this era the only ones who can handle a Level 10 are me, and you, Master, and… the Fire God Emperor, Cliff. Right? Because of the Magia Burst even Merlin can’t manage one.”

Sasha gave a small nod.

“That is how it stands. Officially.”

“Officially…?”

“For instance… take this.”

Sasha pointed at Anastasia and Maria.

“Ephthal. You used Vessel Transcription on these two, did you not?”

“…Nothing gets past you, does it.”

“Look at the flow of their magic power and it’s plain. In theory these two fledglings have souls the same as the lot from before the change… from over four hundred years ago. Train them and reaching Level 10 only stands to reason.”

The two of them went “Eh!?” and stood there dumbstruck.

“We can…”

“…use a Level 10?”

“Beyond training that beggars imagination, aye.”

“I told you back then, didn’t I, Maria?”

“Told me… what? Ephthal?”

“That I’d take you to the highest title a young mage can hold—the realm of the Hihiirokane.”

Maria swallowed audibly at that.

Well. Exactly as Sasha says, it’s an outrageous road.

In the end it comes down to their own effort… but if they want it, I intend to teach them how to walk it.

A hard road, with wall after wall and a guaranteed run of setbacks, mind.

Anyway, setting that aside—

“What do you mean, a Level 10 other than me, Master?”

“It means there are ways. Even in this world, changed as it is.”

“But… if you came to watch the Thunder God Emperor Ephthal Festival… that means they’re among the students?”

There’s no way. Not a chance.

Even back in that era four hundred years ago… no, in the whole of history, I’ve never seen or heard of a Level 10 in their teens.

“Say, Ephthal. Shall I tell you a piece of the secret of magic aptitude I’ve been keeping from you all this while? You’ve been hunting for a way to cure aptitude, have you not? For the other Level 10, we get nowhere unless I explain that first.”

“You knew about my aptitude too. Nothing really does get past you.”

“I am your master, for what it’s worth. So then… having no aptitude means, in short, being colorless. Fire is red, wind is green, earth is brown, water is blue. That sort of thing.”

“…I’m not following.”

“Faster to give you the conclusion. The only cure is the chain of phenomena connected to the Root of Roots.”

“The Root… of Roots?”

“You have a singularity at the level of your soul. There are those in this world who rarely happen to be colorless, but in your case it’s inevitable.”

“My lack of aptitude is… inevitable?”

At that, Sasha stood and murmured into my ear.

“So it was the second time too, was it not? It is inevitable. That fate of yours.”

A chill ran down my spine.

“Master. How much do you know about me?”

“I am your master. I knew from the start. And after your death… no, the Fire God Emperor knew too, did he not? Before he made the aptitude reagent.”

“…The Root of Roots. What is it?”

“The Roots… the road that leads to the goddess. The ancient artifact the Fire God Emperor was after… well. It’s a bit much to tell you for free.”

“The goddess… and the Fire God Emperor!? Hey, what the hell are you actually saying?”

“Are you not better versed in the goddess than I? Unfortunately, I’ve never met the thing. I’m wild-caught, you see.”

Hey now. So Sasha knows about the goddess of reincarnation herself?

At that, Sasha grinned.

“You’ll run into that Level 10 at the festival whether you like it or not. Better I tell you once you’ve seen what it is.”

And with that, Sasha waved a hand behind him—“Be seeing you. Come to my quarters once the festival’s done”—and started to walk off, and—

“Hey, Master! We’re not finished—”

I clicked my tongue.

—Level 9: Ex Teleport.

“He ran. Still… he’s a genuine monster, that one, no mistake.”

He vanished without letting me feel so much as the first stir of his magic power.

Honestly. Wily old man. And I shrugged.

Saturday, our day off.

“So! We’re heading for the dorms to drag in our last member!”

At Maria’s clarion call, we set off for the student dormitory.

Incidentally, Anastasia and I are day students, so I don’t really know much about the dorm.

Anyway, the six-story building in the corner of the school grounds is the dormitory. And inside, I’m told, it isn’t shared rooms—every one is private.

Word had it the interior was fairly luxurious, and the instant we stepped inside I knew that was true.

Well, for all its faults this school is a prestigious one, with plenty of demon nobles from far-off places, so that much is a given.

“So whose room are we heading for?”

“Remember I said our classmates are useless as fighting strength? There’s exactly one exception. She’s got a difficult personality, but… our candidate lives in the dorm.”

I don’t think she wants to hear “difficult personality” from you, of all people.

I nearly said it out loud, but it looked like trouble afterward, so I stopped.

“Um… Maria-san? What sort of person is she?”

“Special recommended admission, affiliated with the human religious organization—the Holy Church. A genius girl who entered the magic academy at six years old.”

Anastasia and I opened our eyes wide at the same time.

“Six years old… that’s incredible!”

It really is. There were skip-a-grade systems in my era too, but I’ve never heard of anyone being admitted to a magic academy at that age.

Anastasia tilted her head.

“But why would someone from the Holy Church be at a demon school?”

“Seems she’s got circumstances. The Holy Church affiliation is her being dispatched from her family, and then dispatched on from there. Part of her magic training, basically. From the day she was born she was knocking on the doors of one school after another, learning magecraft from all sorts of traditions until she was six.”

“Sure, but she’s six, right? All those traditions, at that age? There isn’t even time to learn the fundamentals…”

“No, she’s got them down to a serious level. Bluntly? That girl is the one person who—and I don’t even need a ‘maybe’ here—has surpassed the genius beauty that is me.”

For Maria to go that far… This might genuinely be quite the talent.

“But then why… wasn’t she picked for the class selection to begin with?”

Maria let out a deep sigh on the spot.

“…She’s a shut-in of monstrous proportions.”

“A shut-in?”

“Yeah. I mean… she’s already repeated three years. Disowned by her family, expelled from the Holy Church—seems it hit her pretty hard. And she’s repeated so many times the academy’s about to throw her out too. Cornered, is what she is.”

“Hold on, Maria. I don’t follow. The girl was a genius, wasn’t she? Three years repeated…?”

“Er… a child prodigy at four, a bright kid at five, and by six just an ordinary person. Sure, compared to the normal crowd she was miles ahead, but the plan was to skip her up a grade in two months and instead she got a normal promotion, and that’s where she broke.”

“So… she fell from grace at a spectacular rate. Is that about right?”

“That’s about it. Anyway, from what I hear there’s no question she’s head and shoulders above the first years. She’s obviously a usable piece as things stand. And besides?”

“Besides?”

“Like I said, she’s repeated three times, so her scholarship waiver on tuition and dorm fees expires with this Thunder God Emperor Festival. It’s a fact she’s cornered enough that without a result here she’s got nothing left. Depending on how we pitch it, I think she’ll cooperate.”

“I see… all right, let’s go.”

And after a few minutes’ walk through the dorm, we arrived in front of the room.

Knock knock. I rapped on the door, and something snagged in the back of my mind.

Entered at six, three years since, and a shut-in… meaning she never goes out.

And that girl did say she doesn’t live with her parents. Come to think of it, an outsider selling things inside the magic academy grounds was a question in itself.

The soft pat, pat of someone padding toward us from beyond the door.

And then the door opened. A cat-eared girl with sleepy eyes stood there, expressionless.

“…And here I was enjoying my shut-in life in peace. What do you want?”

Well. Needless to say, the girl in question was that light-blue-haired girl… Sheryl.

And I sighed.

—Now then. Target destruction.

To explain the situation: our turn was the very last of the preliminaries. The closer.

The order ran third years first, then second years, the student council slotted in partway through as a sort of exhibition, and then us, the first years.

And being the closer didn’t mean anything was expected of us… quite the opposite.

If anything the gallery had gone cold, settling into a general you lot are hopeless anyway, so hurry up and finish.

Provisional fourth place at that point stood at one hundred twenty-four targets, so our minimum goal was to beat that.

“Hey, Ephthal, take a look at the student council lot.”

I looked. Over in their reserved tent, the student council were enjoying a leisurely little tea break.

Their treatment is obviously different from everyone else’s, though. There was a red carpet laid under the tent, and tables, outdoors.

And to top it off they had a valet, some butler sort of person attached to the council… ah, and it looked like he was the one preparing the coffee.

Anyway.

“All right, Maria, want to lead off?”

“Okay. I’ll knock the wind clean out of them.”

Maria thrust her right palm high toward the sky.

She closed her eyes, focused, and began building the formula as she worked her magic power up.

Still… I thought. When you think about where Maria came from, there’s a lot in this.

Born a guardian of the elves, her branch family slaughtered to the last, persecuted by everyone around her.

She’d been determined to prove them all wrong. Enough to study abroad at a demon magic academy, even. And all that time she’d been straining, bluffing, fighting alone.

I nodded to myself.

—Go on. Knock the wind out of the ones who mocked you, exactly like you said.

Because that’s what this is. The spell she fires next is her signal flare… her counterattack.

Fate’s been dragging her around this whole time. And now she’s about to start walking somewhere better on her own two feet, on nothing but the work she put in… and this is step one.

And just as Vice President Irene put her lips to her coffee—Maria’s magic caught fire.

“Now, I’ll show you! Level 4, the top tier of the fire attribute—Fire Dance!”

Good. The formula’s cleanly finished, and the flow of magic power is superb. A hundred arrows, near enough, and her control had sharpened markedly since before.

Elves practice archery to begin with, so it probably sits well with the image in her head.

This was Maria’s signature spell at present, and with this there was essentially no chance of a miss.

And the record so far was the student council’s two hundred eight targets, across four of them.

Which meant Maria alone would reach nearly half of that.

The hundred arrows soared high into the empty air, then reversed, angled, and flew for the distant targets.

Or rather—to be precise, each one was guided in, as though the targets were drinking them down.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM! The fire arrows landed almost as one and detonated, and roughly a hundred targets burst into fragments. A perfect finish.

“Splendid.”

Honestly, that’s the sort of flawless, unwavering arrow control you’d see at a Self-Defense Force artillery exercise.

You could call it beautiful without any trouble at all… honestly. And when I looked over at the student council lot, in the middle of their tea break, the whole council—

—sprayed their coffee out in perfect unison.

“Hack! Hack… hack!”

“Wh-Wh-What was that!? What in the world was that!?”

“Impossible! A first year, using Level 4… and the top tier, no less…”

“Ridi… cu… lous.”

“Ah, am I dreaming…?”

Maria threw her chest out with a triumphant little ta-da, folded her arms, and nodded, over and over.

Then she came at me with her right palm raised high, so I raised mine and met it.

A crisp smack rang out, and a bright, cheerful flower of a smile bloomed on Maria’s face.

“See? I really am a genius.”

She grins, and the expression is genuinely adorable. But… I thought I’d made a point of nailing that down earlier—don’t get carried away.

Apparently I’d let a sour look onto my face, because Maria tilted her head with a puzzled “Huh?”

Hmm. Well, she’s been trodden on her whole life. Giving her no confidence at all is its own problem.

This kid has been working nonstop to make the people around her acknowledge her, so—yes. Let’s allow her this much strutting.

“Okay, next up, Anastasia—”

She fired before I finished the sentence.

“Wind system, Level 4… Thunder Storm!”

A roar went up, and violet lightning tore around us like a storm.

The spell Anastasia used burns everything around her to cinders with lightning, centered on herself.

Which meant every target within a ten-meter radius of her got wrapped in the discharge and charred black.

Target count… seventy or so, at a glance?

Either way, that was every close-range target wiped out.

And of course, centered on Anastasia meant… we were caught in it too.

Not that anyone got hurt—I panicked and threw a defensive circle over Maria immediately.

“Anastasia. Maria’s mind is worn thin right now, right after a delicate piece of casting. You should think about the people around you a little more.”

“Ah, I thought Master would protect Maria-san.”

I see… so that was factored into the casting.

She’s usually all soft and fluffy, but she turns sharply calculating at moments like this.

I actually rate that side of Anastasia rather highly… although that was a touch excessive just now.

Anyway. The target count was already up around one hundred seventy.

Provisional fourth place stood at one hundred twenty-four, so we’d already cleared the goal.

All that’s left is for me to lob something around Level 3 and call it a day.

And that was when I caught the voices from the student council.

“C-C-Calm down! We are the student council! What are we doing, panicking over that!”

“Yes—we are the superior chosen people who lead the entire student body!”

“Quite so! Their advancement is settled, but we shall show them the difference in strength in the main tournament!”

“Right. We’ll show them that target destruction and real combat are different things! And it’s only those two who are impressive. The black-haired man is just Merlin-sama’s favoritism! The rest have to be small fry!”

“Yes—first, let’s calm down. If we deal with this calmly… we cannot lose. We may suffer narrow defeats against those two on an individual level, but the rest are small fry… yes, the rest must be small fry… they must be… The fact that our overall strength is superior is immovable, after all.”

Right… change of plan. No more fudging it with a Level 3.

Because being called Merlin’s favorite forever is genuinely uncalled for.

At this rate it affects Merlin’s reputation, too.

“Time I taught you why, exactly, Merlin treats me as special.”

Within the bounds of common sense, mind. Nothing that throws the world into confusion.

The student council picked up their coffee cups again to settle their nerves.

And just as Vice President Irene put her lips to hers a second time—my magic, quite literally, caught fire.

“Level 5: Red Genocide!”

A heat ray shaped like a small dragon shot from my palm, and one of the targets evaporated with a hiss.

If it keeps going it’ll hit the gallery, which wouldn’t do, so I controlled it.

I closed my open palm into a fist. Thumb up—and the dragon climbed to match it.

Up it went, spiraling, spiraling, racing for the heavens.

“Right. There.”

I flicked my thumb over and pointed it at the ground.

And the dragon, obedient, plunged straight back down—jaws open, and bit into the earth.

The heat ray landed on the field, and—

—BOOM!

Pebbles and dust drifted down in the wash of the blast.

The result being that, along with a large explosion, a scorched crater on the ten-meter scale had formed in the ground.

As a way of saying ‘abnormal enough that Merlin treats him specially’—this much of a demonstration ought to do it, I think?

And thinking that, I looked over at the student council, who’d been drinking coffee to settle their nerves, and—

—they sprayed their coffee out in perfect unison. Again.

“Pffffff—!”

“Hack! Hack… hack!”

“L-L-L-Level 5!? That’s the sort of monstrous MVP the inter-academy tournament sees once in several years!?”

“Wh-Wh-What is happening!? What is happening to those first years!?”

“I can’t believe it… I can’t believe what’s in front of me. E-E-Everyone… let’s have some coffee to calm down…”

They really do love coffee… And as I was thinking that, Merlin took a step toward the student council lot.

Then she thrust her right palm above her head.

“What are you doing, Merlin? You aren’t supposed to do anything today.”

That was certainly the arrangement we’d made beforehand. But Merlin… why are you refining magic power?

And this is… Just as I got a bad feeling about it, Merlin spoke the name of exactly the spell I’d feared.

“Level 6: Degraded Thunder God Emperor, Lesser Ephthal!”

A flash of lightning. Whiteout and thunderclap, arriving a beat behind.

It was a spell of a power Anastasia’s lightning couldn’t be mentioned in the same breath as—

—CRASH-SMASH-KRAKAAAAAOOOOOM!

And what came last was a colossal explosion.

Which is to say: along with the lightning strike, every single target prepared for the trial was blown away.

At the same time, the student council sprayed coffee from their mouths in unison, again.

“Pffffff—!”

“Hack! Hack… hack! How much coffee would it take to calm this down!?”

“L-L-L-Level 6!? Solo!? Not even a ritual spell by a professional court mage!? S-S-Solo!?”

“What in the world!”

“Ah, I’ve finally realized. It’s a dream… this is a dream. Haha, well, in that case… right, let’s try pinching my cheek… wha—Ehhhhhh!? It’s real!? Level 6!?”

Mouths and clothes soaked with coffee, the student council fell out of their chairs in sheer shock.

And then, opening and closing their mouths—gape, gape, gape—arching backward, flopping like fish landed on a dock.

Or rather, this is… this has genuinely turned into something outrageous!?

Merlin… I used a Level 5 while pushing right up against the real limit, you know?

And yet the one who wasn’t supposed to do anything goes and uses a Level 6. Why…?

If Merlin noticed how stunned I was, she didn’t show it. She just fixed the student council with a hard glare.

“You there, Student Council President! There is something I must say to you!”

“T-T-T… to me? Something you must say?”

And Merlin fell silent.

Then she drew in a great, great breath, and said this.

“The taste of this mask is not poor! It is decidedly not poor—you fool!”

Ehhhhhh!?

There!? That’s the part, Merlin!? That’s what you lost your temper over and did that for!?

And so I brought a fist down on Merlin’s head without a moment’s pause.

“Merlin?”

“What is it, Ephthal?”

“I’m actually going to get angry. Don’t tell me you did that in a fit of temper? You understand this is going to become a problem, don’t you?”

Merlin shook her head side to side at that.

“…I merely taught those little brats their place a little. I have thought that part through, Ephthal. Please be at ease.”

The snap of Merlin’s fingers.

And a formula began building, right after. Hm… this is Level 8: Repair Matter, and Level 4: Illusion.

The result was that, first, glittering particles of illusory light appeared. Then a swarm of lights like fireflies drifted up into the sky. Follow the particles with your eyes, look up—and there was a rainbow.

And this is a distraction, by Illusion. The staging drew the eye, and every single person, gallery included, was riveted.

And while everyone was looking up at the sky, the targets were quietly restoring themselves under the effect of Repair Matter. But what on earth is Merlin planning to do with this…?

And the instant that only the targets Merlin had destroyed with her Level 6 lightning were back to normal—

Merlin drew a deep breath and called out to everyone at the top of her voice.

“That Level 6 just now… was not a true Level 6! As you can see, it was a Level 4 illusion!”

Ah, incidentally, Merlin’s altered her vocal cords with an application of disguise magic.

So her voice won’t give her away. That part’s fine. And at Merlin’s words, voices went up from the gallery, one after another.

“W-Well, yeah, obviously. A Level 6 is impossible.”

“R-Right. A Level 5 alone is earth-shattering… a Level 6 would be a bit much, wouldn’t it?”

“Still, that first-year class really is high level… no, too high. Isn’t this the first time since the age of the first Four Emperors?”

“For that matter… that class is strange from the moment Headmaster Merlin became its homeroom teacher. There’s absolutely… something going on with that class.”

“Still, that black-haired first year wasn’t favoritism after all. All sorts of nasty rumors were flying around, but the truth is probably that he’s Headmaster Merlin’s treasured protégé.”

Good, good. Our reputation seems to be settling nicely, right up at the line and inside the bounds of common sense.

The rumors about Merlin’s thing for young boys were flying thick and fast too, so it looks like we can clear that misunderstanding up.

And in contrast to the buzzing gallery, the student council’s tent had gone silent, and the president simply muttered to himself with a blank, stunned expression.

“And yet… I cannot think that was a mere Level 4 illusion. That level of completion… and to show a hallucination to this many people at once… Anonymous Hope… what in the world are they…?”

If you’re asking what she is… she’s the headmaster.

And with that, we’d somehow scraped through the preliminaries. And just as we were about to head back to the players’ tent, the lot from our class came rushing over all at once.

“That was incredible, Ephthal-kun! I always knew you were no ordinary guy!”

“Maria and Anastasia too! Unbelievable!”

“You were recruiting representatives, right!? Can’t I join as a class rep too!?”

“No, let me compete! Let me ride the winner’s coattails! Win the thing and get a medal and it looks good on you! Monsters like you lot are a lock for placing at the inter-academy tournament!”

“Just being one of the members would be a huge deal! Put me in!”

What an… admirably transparent bunch. Apparently Maria thought so too.

The proof being that she was staring at this magnificent about-face with her mouth hanging open, jaw ready to come unhinged.

But, well, that’s a bit too convenient. Maria and I seemed to agree there too, because she smiled at once, mean and delighted.

“Class representatives are—closed♪”

And with that Maria waved a hand behind her and started back toward the players’ tent… then stopped for just a moment and, without turning around, threw these words over her shoulder at the lot behind her.

“Well, if the last person I’ve got in mind turns me down… I might use one of you.”

And so we headed back to our seats with a convenient cry of “Let me ride the coattaaails!” at our backs.

So in the end, the four of us—Merlin included—were entered in the preliminaries.

And the method for ranking the top four teams that advance was, bluntly, target destruction.

I mean, why does the magic academy like destroying targets so much? It was the same back in my previous life, but why?

I asked Merlin about it once—she’s the headmaster, she’d know—and got shut down with a single line: “It is one of those things. Ancient tradition, a given. Every other magic academy does it too—every man and his dog destroys targets.”

Hmm… what in the world is ‘one of those things’ supposed to mean? The mystery only deepens.

Anyway. The venue was a super large field, as befitted a place gathering the entire student body.

And not just the student body—residents from the surrounding area had turned up too, and the whole thing had become something of a local event.

In any case it looked like a roaring success, and the gallery was in high spirits.

The short version is… picture a sports day at a modern Japanese high school, or a truly enormous elementary school field day. That’s more or less it.

The competition area was the middle of the field. The event: destroy the targets scattered radially out from the center, each competitor firing exactly one all-out area spell.

Victory was decided by the total number of targets destroyed by the whole team.

So that was us. Four players, Merlin included.

Except Merlin… I was honestly out of words at this point.

The swallowtail-butterfly mask was the same one I’d seen in the classroom the other day, but the clothes were a student uniform. The same uniform as Anastasia’s.

The cosplay energy is genuinely off the charts. Well—in terms of being recognized or not, she had the mask, plus she’d layered on the perception-blocking magic that assassins favor, so it was probably fine.

And so, with all that going on, we were under the sun-shade tent in the players’ waiting area, watching how each class representative was doing—

“Level 2: Fire Lance!”

“Level 2: Ice Edge!”

“Level 3: Ice Blizzard!”

“Level 2: Lightning!”

Hmm. I’d been watching the target destruction for a while now, and this was about the average standard for a second-year class representative.

Then, from the gallery behind the tent, a murmur went up.

“That’s a high level, all right. Using top-tier Level 2 like it’s nothing.”

“Level 3s are flying too. That’s the Thunder God Emperor Festival for you.”

So I turned to Anastasia beside me and asked.

“What do you think, Anastasia?”

“…Am I allowed to say it straight?”

“Sure, go ahead.”

“Um… well… I think… it’s low level.”

“Maria?”

“Same. No words other than ‘low level’ are coming out.”

At the training camp the other day these two had gotten Level 4 fully under control.

So in practical terms, from where these two were standing now… the scene in front of us must have looked like children playing.

Still… I made my voice deliberately heavy.

“That’s how it looks to you now. But from where I stand, you’re both plainly half-baked. There’s always someone above you. Never get complacent.”

The two of them nodded, and a great cheer went up from the gallery.

A group had begun walking out from the players’ waiting area toward the center of the field, shoulder to shoulder in a line.

Wait, I recognize one of them. One of the student council people who’d run the representative-selection assembly before the camp.

And so the student council, riding that enormous cheer, took their place at last and began destroying targets—

“Level 3: Ice Blizzard!”

“Level 3: Elder Lightning!”

“Level 4: Salamander!”

“Level 4: Wind Shelter!”

Top-tier Level 3 as their floor, up to mid-tier Level 4. That’s about the size of it.

From the gallery behind the tent came something other than a murmur this time—a swell of noise, and sounds of admiration.

“Hey, hey, Level 4 is teacher grade!?”

“That’s the student council for you… I can’t believe they’re our age.”

“Well, that settles the win for this year too!”

“Hey, hey, their target count’s… over two hundred!? All you can do is laugh.”

And so, to cheers and applause, the student council came back to the waiting area having posted a runaway score.

Or rather, they came back to Maria.

“Well, well, if it isn’t Maria-san? What is a bottom-year flat-chest doing in a place like this, I wonder?”

Irene-san, the one with the large chest… and, apparently, some history with Maria.

Then a giant of a man, pushing two meters, cracked his knuckles while glaring at me.

“Hey. Don’t get cocky just because Headmaster Merlin’s taken a liking to you.”

I have some idea what he’s referring to… but he really doesn’t need to bare that much hostility.

And then the man with the glasses nodded, deeply.

“Just so. A human inferior species and… an elf aborigine!”

Several veins stood out on Maria’s temple at once. I understand the feeling perfectly, knowing the circumstances. Still, that short fuse is a bad habit of hers.

I was about to step in when Irene-san held the man with the glasses back with one hand.

“Michael? Headmaster Merlin has said this before, but discriminatory remarks in public are forbidden. At the very least, restrain yourself in front of people. It reflects on your dignity, you know?”

“But, Vice President Irene—!”

“What? Do you mean to argue with me? Honestly… since when did you get so important…?”

This one might have the same instant-boiling-kettle temperament as Maria. She’s beautiful, but her angry face is genuinely frightening.

“M-M-My apologies, Vice President.”

Irene-san let out a huff through her nose, as if to say, well, so long as you understand.

And then Maria fixed her with a glare.

“Vice President Irene. How about you train your pet dog properly?”

Irene-san laughed at that. “Fufu.”

“Train? Well, quite. However—thanks to certain people basking in the headmaster’s reflected glory, our General Secretary has been confined to his room. Naturally, there isn’t a single person here who thinks well of you.”

Ah… right, that did happen. The General Secretary was this man with the glasses. He’d made discriminatory remarks about Maria and me, and Merlin had thrown her authority around and disciplined him for it.

“Besides, it’s a fact that you aren’t thought well of among the forest elves.”

“…”

“You know that, and you’re prepared to have people talk behind your back, and you still mean to step onto a public stage like the Thunder God Emperor Festival, don’t you? Then acknowledge reality first, show them your strength, and shut the peanut gallery up. If you can’t do that, you’ll be a loser forever. And I make it a rule never to recognize a loser as standing on the same stage as me—that’s simply my disposition. Personally, I’d recommend a loser live like a loser. Yelp, and keep your head down.”

Ah. This is bad. Maria was trembling, her eyes half-lidded and starting to roll back.

This isn’t five seconds from snapping. Her anger has broken through the ceiling and she can’t hold the thing back herself anymore.

“And you there, the black-haired one? It’s also a fact that, unlike we demons, you belong to the species called human—the ones called inferior. If you’re going to make it at this academy, choose your path early.”

“My path?”

“Whether you live in the shade with your head down and stay unnoticed, or shut the peanut gallery up with overwhelming ability. We—the student council—welcome anyone with real ability. Human or hated elf alike.”

Irene-san threw out her ample chest and smiled, challenging.

“Provided you can, of course. If you’d like to know the world above—the celestial world of magecraft, on a different stage from the one you live on—then force everything down by strength and crawl your way up to the student council’s territory.”

Hmm… having confidence is a good thing, I suppose.

And what she’s saying isn’t outrageous in itself. It’s an unpleasant piece of logic, but still.

It’s elitism founded on pure meritocracy, basically. Although… there were plenty of self-assured people among the first Four Emperors, but I don’t think any of us talked quite that big. Myself included.

At that, Maria shrugged, thoroughly fed up.

“So in the end you came over to be snide because your General Secretary got confined? That tells me the size of you, Student Council President.”

At the end of Maria’s line of sight stood a man with long blond hair.

His features were androgynous enough that if someone called him a beauty in men’s clothing, you’d find yourself nodding along.

“…”

And the blond man showed no reaction to Maria’s words at all. He simply gave all of us a single glance, as though we were scenery.

“Hey—why aren’t you saying anything?”

And there, finally, the blond man responded to Maria.

“We are… no, the Vice President and I are a chosen people who can handle Level 4 while still students. Which is to say, you lot are no more than pebbles on the roadside. Come now, think about it. Do you take an interest in pebbles? Do you go so far as to speak to them?”

“…Meaning what?”

“Meaning I hold no feelings toward you whatsoever. You asked me just now why I was silent, didn’t you? If you’d like me to speak with you properly, I’d appreciate it if you could at least manage top-tier Level 3 first. Even among the student council’s members, everyone but the Vice President refrains from speaking to me beyond the minimum.”

The Student Council President seems to have quite a lovely personality.

And then, waving a hand behind him as he went, the president said this on his way to the reserved seating.

“I’ve opened my mouth today as a special service, but time is finite. I don’t have a mouth to spend on people without value. Ah, and… the masked one over there has poor taste. A ridiculous outfit and a ridiculous name—I had a look at the entry list, and Anonymous Hope? That’s on the level of doubting your sanity.”

The president walked off, and the rest of the student council followed after him.

Some with contempt on their faces. Some with confident smiles. That was how the remaining four of them left.

Well, we’re being thoroughly looked down on and mocked. That’s the gist of it.

And this is absolutely going to become a problem, I thought, and looked at Maria, and I was right. She was shaking from head to foot, veins standing out all over her face. Eyes rolling back, gnawing at the thumbnail of her right hand.

Ah. This is definitely the bad one.

“Hmph… I always thought they were insufferable, but honestly—those people really do have lovely personalities.”

Well, everything you say is correct. Then Maria said “surely not, but,” and asked me:

“You’re not about to say something pointless like don’t use your real strength, are you? Not at this stage?”

Well… I agree with Maria’s thinking, honestly.

Obviously, making Merlin destroy targets would be cheating in every sense, so I can’t let her compete.

Which means… thinking it through, there are only three of us.

Doing with three what the other teams are doing with four is a serious handicap.

If the two of them can’t manage it, in the end I’ll have to do something about it myself, but obviously I can’t go firing off a Level 10 Thunder God Emperor, Ephthal, and even if I did there’d be limits.

These two, even going all out, stay within the bounds of common sense—so honestly, I want them to go all out.

“No. I’m not stopping you.”

“Good. Then let’s give them a shock, shall we. With mine and Anastasia’s Level 4.”

—One week later.

We were in a carriage on our way to the Thunder God Emperor Festival preliminaries.

Two carriages had been arranged to take us to the venue, and this one held me, Maria, Anastasia, and Merlin as our chaperone.

The other one had the two boys from our class.

“Still, a special match venue? We really didn’t need to go that far, did we?”

“Well, it is a festival.”

Merlin cleared her throat with a little ahem.

Today’s venue needed a lot of open ground, so they’d apparently borrowed the training grounds of the national Order of Magic Knights… which seemed like a lot.

Equipment-wise the academy’s own field would have done fine, but the whole student body was coming to watch, and that’s what settled it.

The main tournament, incidentally, would be held in the colosseum on academy grounds.

“And a carriage, too… Isn’t that a bit much? We could’ve just walked. It’s not far.”

“Being class representative is an honor. Those with ability receive treatment to match… and that, too, is part of an education.”

“Except in our class it turned into nobody wanting the job at all.”

Merlin gave a wry smile at that.

“There’ve been rather a lot of that sort lately. It’s a fine thing for peaceful times to continue, but peace does make people soft.”

We both shrugged at each other, good grief written all over it. Seems we came away from watching that spineless lot with exactly the same thought.

Then Maria, sitting beside me, spoke up.

“By the way, Ephthal? The other day, the way it worked out, you saved me. Right?”

“Yeah. That’s more or less how it worked out.”

“Being in someone’s debt, one-sided like that… it doesn’t sit right with me.”

She held up one finger.

“So. As thanks, I’ll grant you one favor. Anything. Go on, say it.”

“I mean, springing that on me out of nowhere…”

Where does this kid get it from… honestly.

Then again, ‘out of nowhere’ is extremely on-brand for Maria.

“…I’ve been thinking about it this whole time. How I’d pay you back. You saved my life, so obviously I have to get serious about it and… do all sorts of things. Anyway, that’s how it is, so I’ve made up my mind. You really can ask for anything.”

Maria’s expression was dead serious, and I shrugged. She really is earnest, huh.

“I didn’t save you because I wanted thanks. So I don’t need any of that.”

“But then I don’t get to settle up, do I? Having something handed to me one-sidedly… no thank you. If I leave it here I’ll never be able to look you in the eye again, and I hate that.”

Earnest… or maybe just hates losing.

And that was when Merlin turned a challenging little smile on her.

“Well now, student Maria? I could not help overhearing… you said you had made up your mind, did you? I do not admire the casual use of such words.”

“Meaning what, exactly?”

“For example. If Ephthal told you to share his bed, what would you intend to do? Making up one’s mind… can include that sort of thing as well. Which is precisely why one should not say it lightly.”

Maria took that in, then looked me dead in the eye.

“Hey, Ephthal. Do you want to sleep with me?”

And it wasn’t just me—Merlin and Anastasia both went “Eh!?”

“Do you… want to sleep with me?”

“…”

“…”

“…”

Silence descended.

The air in here has gone strange, and Anastasia has frozen solid, and Merlin herself is doing an ‘Er, hang on!?’ face.

Good grief. I knew elves took their obligations seriously, but committing to that level over a thank-you? That’s a bit much. And Merlin—what exactly do you plan to do about this atmosphere you’ve created?

“No. My favor is not going to be something that backs you into a corner like that.”

Merlin cleared her throat once and tried again, her tone the very picture of a patient tutor.

“W-Well, then. Student Maria. That you are prepared to go as far as sharing a bed… I understand. However, what if it were not a single night? What if you were told to become his lover, or to marry him? Making up one’s mind means, in other words—”

Maria cut her off halfway and looked me dead in the eye again.

“Hey, Ephthal. Do you want me to be your lover?”

And once again, it wasn’t just me—Merlin and Anastasia both went “Ehhhh!?”

“Do you want me… to be your lover?”

“…”

“…”

“…”

Silence descended again.

No, no, no. The air has gotten even stranger, and Anastasia has been frozen so long she’s basically statuary, and Merlin herself is doing an ‘Er, hang on, hang on!?’ face.

“Like I said, I’m not going to ask you for that. And besides, that’s not something that belongs in the category of thanks or favors in the first place.”

Maria shrugged, looking genuinely let down. “And I’d made up my mind, too…”

Why does she sound disappointed. How exactly am I supposed to take that attitude?

“By the way, Ephthal?”

“Yeah, I noticed. A freezing barrier.”

Right, joke’s over. I stood up immediately, tucked Maria under one arm, and dove out the window.

Merlin, for her part, took Anastasia and the driver up on the box under either arm and went out the front.

The instant we were clear, the magic went off, centered on the carriage.

Cold air rolled out and the carriage was swallowed in a hemisphere of ice in a heartbeat. Which is to say, the carriage we’d been riding in a moment ago—horses and all—was now sealed under a thin dome of ice.

Naturally, if we’d stayed inside, we’d have been sealed into an ice prison right along with it.

We were a little slow getting the driver out, so he’d passed out. He’d only lost consciousness, and no injuries… so, fine.

“M-Master! What’s happening!?”

“Ah, this is Level 5: Magic Eater… I think.”

Anastasia and Maria both went “Eh…” and went pale on the spot.

“Hey, hey, what’s that supposed to mean? Level 5 is seriously heavy magic, you know?”

“Specifically, it’s a curse barrier that strips every scrap of magic power out of whoever’s sealed inside the ice wall. Anyone half-trained ends up unable to cast for days. Merlin, mind if I ask you something?”

“Should you ask whether you may—if it is a thing Ephthal desires, then this Merlin has only two answers available to her. ‘Yes’ and ‘of course.’”

I can’t tell whether she’s joking or serious, so let’s skip right past that one.

“This Level 5 didn’t let me sense a thing until the instant before it fired. Just to be sure—same for you?”

“Indeed. And yet, while the difficulty of the spell itself is a mere Level 5… to move magic power that quietly takes a skilled person of some standing. Whether even the Four Emperors of old had such a practitioner… is questionable. I certainly could not do it.”

“Right. Casting a Level 5 solo is nothing much in itself… but that’s the part that catches.”

“Er, Ephthal? You two are talking like Level 5 is nothing at all, but casting one solo makes you an ace among aces even for a court mage, you know?”

“Then, might this be Sasha-sama at play?”

Merlin ignoring Maria completely is a little funny, and I almost laughed. Well, no time for that.

“Sasha’s hardly got the free time to be teasing us out here, though.”

“He does seem the type to enjoy a prank… but.”

True enough… I don’t know any other monster capable of this trick.

I ran a detection spell just in case, but there was no trace of anyone in the vicinity carrying magic power above a certain threshold. Nobody but Merlin.

A caster who can slip my detection… so it really is one of Sasha’s pranks?

“Anyway. It’s a good opportunity. Anastasia, Maria—watch closely.”

This spell has no habits, no color of its caster… not a trace. It’s uncanny.

It’s so textbook that building the formula this way would actually be difficult. Which brings me back to Sasha.

I couldn’t do this even if I aimed for it. Well… if Sasha set it up, there’s no clearer teaching material going, so let’s put it to use on my own grand-disciples.

I held my palm out toward the ice wall. Then, focusing, I started working on the formula laid into it.

“Master? What are you doing? Are you canceling it out with defensive magic?”

“No. I’m rewriting the formula that’s building the ice wall. Watch the flow of the magic power and you’ll see.”

“Um… I have absolutely no idea what you’re saying?”

The two of them tilted their heads in matching question marks, and Merlin gave a little laugh.

“Fledglings would not understand yet. But once one becomes a mage of our tier, intervening midway into an enemy’s formula is a perfectly ordinary occurrence.”

“…No, I genuinely don’t understand what you mean, Merlin-sama.”

“The gist is this. Fundamentally, magic is won by whoever fires first. The higher the difficulty, the longer the formula takes to build, and tactics are founded on that fact.”

“That part I understand. Master’s school is famous for its divine-speed barrages.”

“Just so,” Merlin said, nodding.

“My own byname in the academic world is the Thunder God of Flashing Chains. We prize speed above all. And there are occasions where intervening in a formula midair and collapsing it from within is faster than raising a high-level barrier to defend.”

“Formula intervention? Meaning…?”

“Meaning one does not use defensive magic to meet it head-on, force against force. One intervenes in the formula the enemy has assembled and makes a nuisance of oneself. Not merely weakening the spell—hit the right spot and you can force it to cancel outright.”

That’s a thing…? The two of them blinked at us.

“Well, obviously the other side fights back against your intervention with intervention of their own, in the form of defense. Anyway, worth seeing for your future studies. Do it like this and you can cancel an enemy attack without using defensive magic at all.”

So I intervened in the formula building the ice wall, overwrote it with one that generated flame instead, and steered the two into canceling each other.

The ice wall crumbled away before our eyes, and as it vanished, the mass of magic power left with nowhere to go dissolved into the air in glittering motes.

“See? Pretty, isn’t it. Anyway, that’s how you—”

““How you what!?””

They both came at me at once.

Well, this is more or less a secret art of the Ephthal school.

Fundamentally it comes up in Level 9 and 10 exchanges, in that tsume-shogi world where you’re fighting over fractions of a second.

It might well be a technique this era has no use for anymore… but still.

And it’s also very much a hit-and-hope move—the kind of thing where the other party goes, ‘Ah, I forgot to watch for that! You’d been sneaking in there!?’

And obviously, the caster built the formula themselves.

The one attacking has to start from formula analysis, so the caster already knows everything from the outset… the original caster has a vastly easier time blocking the intervention.

Which means that unless the skill gap is enormous, it only works as a surprise. Then again, being a surprise is exactly why it’s devastating when it lands.

“Anyway, I’ve been teaching Anastasia and Maria formula construction properly from the foundations, so if you go step by step you’ll get to this eventually.”

Right after I said it, Merlin nodded, proud as anything.

“Yes. Just like me… mm.”

“Still… this is bad.”

I’d dispelled the barrier, but the horses had passed out with their magic power drained. It amounted to having their life force siphoned off… so healing magic wouldn’t touch it.

“Yes, it’ll have to be on foot.”

I shook my head at that.

“No, that’s not it—I mean the other two.”

The Thunder God Emperor Festival preliminaries.

Eleven teams total were entered: five classes from the second years, five from the third years, and among the first years, only our class.

Add the student council, who get a special slot, and that made twelve.

With that many, you need to thin the field in the preliminaries before the main tournament can start.

The top four teams advance, so of course only four survive. Incidentally, the preliminaries apparently don’t require all five members.

There’s a reason for that. They’re young students, so once in a while somebody’s talent suddenly wakes up and they shoot forward in a matter of months.

And when some unmarked student who’s grown like that turns up as a sort of secret weapon, it’s entertaining. It gets the crowd going.

Some of that is Merlin’s own taste, but in any case, to stage that dark-horse feeling, they allow the preliminaries to be run with four.

And it was only ever allowed, originally. But the average of four players’ preliminary scores gets converted to a five-player figure—multiplied by five, in other words—to produce the team’s score. So somewhere along the way it became standard practice for teams to field their best four.

So we arrived at the venue and Maria went straight to the entry desk, and—

“I’m telling you, we were attacked!”

“Rules are rules.”

Well, as expected—our two remaining classmates had taken the spell head-on, and like the horses, they’d had their magic power drained and were unconscious.

They’d be useless for a while, which made registering them as players impossible too. Hence Maria going around and around with the staffer at the reception tent. Though, well… ‘rules are rules’ is a hard thing to argue with.

“Hey, Merlin? Either way, we need four minimum to get through today, right?”

“Five for the finals and semifinals, but at this point in time… that is correct, yes.”

Maria came back over and let out a sigh. “Haa…”

“No good. There’s no talking to them. I’ve got one last-resort person in mind, but getting them signed up today, right now, is impossible… I’m done looking for members. Nothing we can do.”

And then everyone’s eyes, mine included, turned to a certain person.

Merlin took all those looks and swept her long silver hair back with a great theatrical whoosh, like she’d been waiting for this.

“Well, if you all expect it of me to that degree, then it cannot be helped. Yes, this Merlin—”

She fell silent.

Then she drew in a great, great breath, and said this.

“—shall have no choice but to enter in a student uniform and a mask! In cosplay!”

Which… yeah. There isn’t any other way, so.

But Merlin… why do you look so happy about it. You look like you’re in your twenties, you know. Are you really going to go through with cosplaying a student uniform?

“Merlin. I’m sure you know this, but you’re only there to make up the numbers. You’re not allowed to do anything except forfeit.”

If Merlin actually competed, that would be cheating in every sense. Well, that goes without saying.

And so… I let out a thoroughly dejected sigh.

…And so, time passed. It was now after school, in the classroom.

“Maria? What is this ‘secret plan’ of yours?”

“Well, our classmates are a bunch of cowards who are too scared of the upperclassmen to compete, right? I checked the rules, and apparently, this has happened before. This is a school for rich kids, after all. It’s rare, but sometimes a class does only have three or four people who are actually willing to fight… And if you have people in the match who have no fighting spirit from the get-go, it just kills the mood for the audience, doesn’t it?”

“That’s true. Imagine a super-hyped finals match, and right at the bell, someone just says, ‘I forfeit.’ It would be a total buzzkill.”

“Exactly. So, to prevent that, they made a rule. In the finals, for example, you have to stay in the arena for at least one minute after the match starts.”

“Meaning, if you’re going to stand there as a class representative, you have to be prepared to take a hit.”

“That’s part of what’s scaring them off. But anyway, whether you get beaten to a pulp, run around like crazy… or just stand there like a statue. As long as you’re in the arena for one minute… you’re considered to have ‘participated,’ and then you’re allowed to forfeit.”

“So, what’s your point, Maria?”

“My point is, we just need people who can withstand a fierce assault for one minute! That’s all they have to do! In other words… this! Now, come in! My ultimate weapon!”

Maria confirmed that the three of us were alone in the classroom, and then snapped her fingers.

Sure enough, the front door of the classroom rumbled open, and the person who entered was—

—A masked woman.

She wore a swallowtail butterfly masquerade mask, and her lips were a glossy red. Silver hair, a large chest… wait a minute. That outfit… her outfit is completely identical to her usual one… Th-This is…!

“What are you doing!?”

“R-Right now, I am Ephthal’s classmate, ‘Anonymous Hope’.“

As Merlin floundered, Maria leaned in and whispered to me.

“Merlin-sama is totally into this, so don’t ruin her fun, Ephthal.”

“H-How did this happen?”

“At first, she wouldn’t give me the time of day, but the moment I mentioned the word ‘mask,’ she got weirdly excited. After that, all I had to do was flatter her a bit, like ‘Oh, Merlin-sama, your mask is… so wonderful!’… and, well, here we are.”

Then Maria took a deep breath and shouted—

“It’s wonderful! And I can’t tell who you are at all!”

“Fuhaha! Of course it is! It’s marvelous, isn’t it! As expected, I look good in absolutely anything!”

That’s right… I sighed. Merlin always loved masks and costumes, even back in the day. She was always… abnormally passionate… about the Halloween parties I came up with in my past life. I remember thinking back then that if Merlin ever ended up on modern-day Earth, she would absolutely get addicted to cosplay.

“Come on, Ephthal.”

Maria nudged me with her elbow. She clearly wanted me to play along. So, with no other choice, I said in a deadpan monotone,

“Wow… ‘Anonymous Hope’… I wonder who it could possibly be. I mistakenly said ‘Merlin’ earlier, but it’s totally not her.”

“Fufu, so you can’t tell either, Ephthal? However, I suppose I must tell you the truth. The fact is… I introduced myself as ‘Anonymous Hope,’ but—”

Merlin paused dramatically. And after taking a huge, deep breath, she declared,

“—It is I, Merlin!”

Yeah, I know.

Just then, Anastasia, her jaw dropped in utter shock, gasped out loud,

“What!? ‘Anonymous Hope’ was Merlin-sama!? I couldn’t tell at all!”

Eeeeeh!? Are you being serious, Anastasia!?

“A-A-And that mask… it’s so cool!”

Receiving a look of pure, sparkling-eyed admiration, Merlin puffed her chest out as far as it would go.

“Fufu, Anastasia, you have a discerning eye. For this… I shall have to consider upgrading your rank from ‘useless mongrel’ to ‘useless wolf’.”

“Yay! I’m so happy!”

‘Useless wolf’… Are you really happy with that, Anastasia…? Good grief… They’re all, without exception, a bunch of idiots.

Feeling completely drained, I slumped and said to Merlin.

“Look, Merlin? Let’s at least… do something about the clothes. If you wear your usual outfit, I’m pretty sure you’ll be recognized.”

“Hmm, that is true. This lacks artistry. In other words, you are telling me to engage in further cosplay? Very well! This Merlin shall pour all her skill into crafting a costume!”

Oh, she’s making it herself. But why does she look so incredibly happy about this…?

Okay, this nonsense was escalating, so I put my foot down.

“Merlin? You are not participating in the tournament.”

“What!?”

“That’s just going too far, isn’t it? Even stupidity needs a break, or I’m actually going to get angry.”

At that, Merlin made a face as if she had just witnessed the end of the world.

“N-N…o… My perfect plan… to be of service to Ephthal… is…”

She hung her head, utterly dejected.

Anastasia, by the way, just froze in place as if to say, “But why not?” while Maria just shrugged. “Well, figures.”

“So, what’s the plan, Maria?”

“Oh, you see right through me, don’t you? I didn’t think you’d realized I had another card to play.”

Of course I did. When Maria is feeling confident, her elf ears twitch happily. She kept glancing toward the door, her ears twitching, so it wasn’t hard to guess she had something else lined up besides the Merlin plan.

“Alright then, come in! My true ultimate weapon!”

And with that—Maria snapped her fingers.

The classroom’s front door rumbled open again, and a pair of guys walked in.

“And so, I’ve prepared our new members. I really didn’t want to have to resort to this, though.”

It was a duo, one with blond hair and one with a shaved head. I definitely recognized them from our class.

“Are you two really going to participate?”

The two of them nodded in response to my question.

“Wait, but Maria? Why did they agree? This morning, everyone was so dead set against it…”

“I used a little… ‘seduction’ to make a deal.”

Seduction? For some reason, that word made me think of Sheryl. Right… she was trying to sell her underwear, wasn’t she?

Hmm. Is it possible Maria lured them with something like that? Like promising a date, or… showing them her underwear?

For me, Maria is so similar to my wife from my past life, Bridget, that I sometimes wonder if she’s her reincarnation. Because of that, I have strong feelings about this.

In fact, I’m starting to think Maria and Bridget can’t be total strangers. They’re from the same branch-tribe in the same elven village, and they look this much alike.

It’s only natural to assume they’re strongly related by blood somewhere down the line. Because of that… I really, really don’t want Maria to be doing… that…

“J-Just out of curiosity, Maria… when you say ‘seduction,’ what kind of deal did you make, exactly?”

I asked, swallowing hard.

To be honest, part of me didn’t want to know… or rather, I was almost afraid to ask.

“…I promised the two of them I’d make them a home-cooked meal if they listened to me.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

Maria looked extremely awkward and explained,

“Well, the thing is, Ephthal… I’m… I’m actually, like, secretly really popular. My personality is so impulsive and aggressive that nobody will openly say they like me, but…”

Ah, so she is self-aware about that part.

“But, as a matter of fact, it’s an undeniable truth that I’m cute, right? I mean, I’m practically a genius beauty. And because of that, there’s a certain number of guys who are interested in me just for my looks and my ‘specs’…”

“Well, I won’t deny that.”

I really do think she’s cute. In fact, she’s exactly my type.

‘Genius’ might be an exaggeration, but she has a talent for magic, and more than anything, she’s a hard worker.

“Wait? You’re not-denying that I’m cute?”

“Like I said, I’m not denying it.”

“…”

“…”

“…Tee-hee♪”

Wait, Maria-san… where exactly did you learn to strike a cutesy pose like that?

Setting aside the fact that Maria looked incredibly happy despite her slight embarrassment…

“Anyway, those two have been pestering me for ages. Asking me to be their girlfriend, asking me to go out with them… No matter how many times I turned them down, they’d come back to life and attack again like zombies…”

“Okay, and?”

“So, when I made the announcement to the class this morning, right? Afterward, the two of them proposed a deal. They said they’d give up on me and agree to be class representatives… but in exchange, for one last memory, they wanted me to eat a meal with them just once. Or if I wouldn’t do that, they wanted me to make them a homemade bento.”

Maria sighed, looking exhausted from the bottom of her heart.

I don’t have any experience with it, but I guess being good-looking comes with its own set of hardships.

“So that’s how those two ended up becoming class representatives?”

“Well, I was having trouble with how persistent they were, anyway. Since they said they’d finally give up, it wasn’t a bad deal… But I really didn’t want you to think of me as some ‘bad woman’ who uses men for her own gain… That’s why I didn’t want to use this card.”

“…?”

“No, I mean… I didn’t want you to have a bad impression of me. Especially when it comes to relationships… I absolutely didn’t want you, of all people, to think of me that way.”

For the time being, how exactly was I supposed to interpret that?

As I looked confused, she continued.

“In short, the point is… I didn’t want you to think I was that kind of woman. Right… I didn’t want you to think that.”

She wasn’t stumbling over her words, but she certainly wasn’t summarizing anything clearly. And for some reason, Maria was directing a heated gaze toward me. How was I supposed to react to this? Honestly, I was at a loss.

“So, with that, we have our five members.”

And so… it seemed we would be challenging the festival with this group of five.