Chapter 6: A Class Concluded in Grand Style

No way. A fully grown woman is actually crying?

When I think back to the princess's childhood, she should be throwing a tantrum and getting pissed off, right?

I ignored Beres's comment and carefully studied the princess's face.

Her eyes were wide open, staring straight at me as tears dripped steadily onto the floor.

Hmm. So there must be some bad memory attached to this part?

Whatever the case, the situation was still positive overall.

Now ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it was time for some verbal trickery.

I'd mix in some completely ridiculous logic and bulldoze her with pure nonsense.

Women aren't the type to nitpick the accuracy of logic. When they're angry, they act on whatever emotion they're feeling in the moment. So as long as I made it sound plausible, it would work.

"Princess Reina. This is a matter of trust."

"T-trust...?"

"I came to you. What exactly do you believe in me for?"

"W-well, that's obviously..."

She couldn't finish the sentence.

Of course she couldn't.

"I'd be disappointed if you couldn't trust me, but if you do trust me, that would actually be a huge problem."

How could she possibly know whether I was an ally, an enemy, or a spy? How could she trust me?

The power struggles within the imperial family were nothing short of a filthy, underhanded battlefield.

In that sense, I needed to be careful moving forward as well.

Supporting one specific member of the imperial family meant becoming the enemy of all the others.

The moment I stepped into someone's fence, my name would go straight onto everyone else's assassination list.

'Whew. That sobered me right up.'

Maybe it was because I'd already been burned by politics once before.

I looked at the princess.

She was biting her lip hard, lost in thought.

As far as I knew, the current emperor had ten children—three princes and seven princesses.

Among them, the princess standing before me, Reina, had virtually no allies.

That made sense. The Third Prince, who held the right to succeed the throne, had already snatched up every single useful person he could find.

'So she's always without supporters, and anyone she wants gets stolen away by the other side.'

Was this an opportunity?

From my perspective, having at least one professor with real influence backing me would make things much easier anyway.

"Asking to touch your breasts one more time isn't just a deal. It's also a process of building trust."

The princess's eyes wavered.

But she didn't agree.

That meant she had at least some awareness that this was pure bullshit logic.

Still, she was already caught in my trap.

The fact that she didn't have a single useful subordinate at this very moment would drive her to walk into the snare herself.

"So if this matter is resolved well, please let me touch them. Your breasts, Princess Reina!"

The princess's head drooped.

Then she stared blankly at her own chest.

What value could my breasts possibly have...?

She was probably thinking something like that.

But she didn't know.

That a pair of beautifully nurtured, gorgeous breasts could make a man create love out of nothing...!

The woman lifted her head again.

Wearing an incredibly complicated expression—unsure whether she should be happy or sad—she spoke.

"F-fine. I understand...! I give you my word."

Bingo. The princess's tits were officially reserved.

What a great start!

"Then let's begin right after dinner."

And just like that, three days flew by in the blink of an eye.

***

"Hey, what's our next class?"

"Practical Magic."

"For real? Ugh, Practical Magic is so fucking boring..."

A group of kids grumbled among themselves.

They were already starting to regret what they'd done.

"Fuck. If I'd known it would be like this, I would've just left her alone even if it sucked."

"Right? Honestly, the princess only has a decent face and huge tits. I never imagined her classes would be this dull. What a letdown."

"Oh come on. If she was perfect at everything, wouldn't she have gotten married already? I heard she was a total mess even when she attended the academy."

"For real? Heh heh."

The boys snickered until they ran into a group of female students.

It looked like they were also heading to Practical Magic class.

They called out to the platinum-blonde woman walking silently at the very front.

"Hey, Olivia. What do you think?"

"About what?"

"About your older sister, Princess Reina."

"...I don't know. We're not that close."

"Yeah, figures. Olivia only cares about her own business anyway."

The boys followed the girls toward the training grounds.

The grounds were quite vast, so just walking from one end to the other took a good fifteen minutes.

The entire time, they kept complaining.

And they weren't joking—the class had been genuinely boring.

"Should we petition to get this class removed?"

"Oh? I was thinking the same thing. I seriously can't stand listening to it anymore."

"Then after today's class, we all go to the dean's office together? Deal?"

"Call."

That day, the entire group of noble boys and girls reached a unanimous decision, and even the few commoner students silently agreed.

But their opinion was about to be completely flipped on its head.

"We'll be ending the boring theoretical lessons as ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of yesterday. Starting today, we'll move on to practical application."

Practical?

At that single word, the students' eyes snapped wide open.

"My assistant and I will demonstrate through various scenarios, so watch carefully."

The owner of the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠charming pink hair and forget-me-not blue eyes took her stance.

About twenty-five meters away, the black-haired man finished his preparations as well.

And then the demonstration began.

"This is a situation where I've detected an enemy, but the enemy has already finished casting their spell and is about to launch it at me."

A blazing orb formed in the assistant's hand.

The students who saw it all cried out in shock.

"F-fireball!"

"Are you crazy?! You're actually going to throw it?!"

Fireball was a high-lethality spell.

It was common enough that any mage could use it, but that also meant it was incredibly efficient.

The assistant hurled the fireball—larger than his own head—straight at the professor.

The scorching heat stung the watching children's cheeks.

"H-he really threw it!!"

"Kyaa!!"

These were still first-years.

Kids who had only been at the academy for five months.

They were complete rookies who had never experienced real magical combat, so it was only natural that the current situation looked extremely dangerous to them.

The woman who had been standing with her back turned slowly rotated her head.

There wasn't even a trace of fear on the face that had become the fireball's target.

She stretched out her hand.

Then spun it lightly in a circle as she shouted.

"Distortion."

The fireball stuck to her hand as if by magic.

It spun once, then flew toward the opposite side of where the students were sitting and exploded.

The small crater and flickering flames left everyone—noble and commoner alike—completely silent.

Into that silence, the voice of the Practical Magic professor, Princess Reina, rang out clearly.

"Starting today, theory is over. We will now begin practical training. Don't be afraid. You are all still very lacking, so instead of fireballs, we'll be using tiny water balls. Are you ready?"

The children looked at each other.

Then they shouted in perfect unison.

"Yes!!"

***

'A complete success.'

It wasn't just successful—it was a massive triumph.

The children's reactions far exceeded my expectations. The ones who had shown zero interest in participating were now bombarding her with all sorts of questions.

'Good thing I prepared answers for every possible question in advance.'

Princess Reina answered every single question from the students with perfect composure and skill.

The icy expression she'd worn during ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠our first meeting had completely vanished, replaced by a relaxed and benevolent smile.

"As you can see, Distortion magic can be applied in many different ways. You can redirect projectiles to wherever you wish, or even alter the formula of area-of-effect spells to send them in a completely different direction."

'Call me whatever you want. Either one is me.'

Not even close.

If anything, their level had probably declined.

After all, no one had ever reached the toes of the great Carlos.

At Beres's words, I turned my gaze to one side.

A group of eleven boys and girls were watching the professor and the other students with bored expressions.

And among them, one person stood out in particular.

'Olivia von Kshanberg, huh.'

She was the Fifth Princess by title.

Since she and Reina were half-sisters... this was probably some kind of rivalry.

These little shits were already playing politics at their age.

An eighteen-year-old acting like this—truly, the world was coming to an end.

It was then that Reina's flustered voice reached my ears.

"Um... well... that is..."

She must have gotten a question she didn't know how to answer.

Time for me to step in.

"Princess Reina!"

"What is it?"

"Could you come over here for a moment?"

She told the students to wait and came over to me.

A tiny look of relief flashed across her face, so subtle no one else would notice.

Every time a crisis like this arose, I created some kind of incident to summon her.

And during all the other times, I focused entirely on relieving her stress.

You want to know how?

"Aaaack!!"

"Damn it... Again!!"

I slowly launched water balls toward the children lined up in front of me.

The orbs flew at a steady, gradual speed.

The kids tensed up as they approached and moved their hands.

"Distortion!"

Those who succeeded let out satisfied sighs. Those who failed got hit by water bombs.

"Damn it...! Again! One more time!!"

This was exactly why I loved young people.

They were overflowing with energy.

Thanks to that, all the pent-up stress melted away in waves.

'Don't be like that. I'll let you do it too later.'

'I should plant my seed on your face every now and then, shouldn't I?'

And so, Princess Reina and I somehow managed to complete the precarious Practical Magic class with flying colors.

The children ground their teeth and headed off to their next lesson.

"Thank you for your hard work, Princess Reina."

"You worked hard too, Kael. But is this really okay? They looked pretty upset..."

I reassured her that there was nothing to worry about.

"They're just kids. And nobles, at that. Nobles care a lot about trends. They want to be at the center of those trends. The moment they saw that fireball change trajectory and were left speechless, the game was already over. In fact..."

"In fact...?"

"Not only the first-years, but even students retaking the class might show up. Or perhaps just for observation."

The princess's eyes sparkled.

Because that meant her own value would rise significantly.

"By the way, I heard that spell is used quite frequently on the battlefield."

Since she'd never been there herself, she was probably recalling one of my old lectures and asking about it.

I nodded firmly.

"Yes. On the battlefield, life and death are decided in an instant. The mages on the front lines master Distortion magic first in order to survive."

"I see. Only one person ever told me that, so I couldn't quite believe it."

"That's understandable. It's always the commoners who are sent to the front lines, after all..."

At those words, the woman fell silent.

Oops. Was that a bit too uncomfortable a topic?

Realizing it wasn't wise to bring up commoners in front of nobles or members of the imperial family, I quickly added something related.

"That's why, during civil wars or imperial succession struggles—those kinds of ugly incidents—noble-born individuals often end up easily killed by commoner-born mages."

"Is that true?"

"Yes, it is."

Nobles valued style and honor more than life itself.

Commoners would roll around in a dung heap without hesitation if it meant avoiding magic, but to nobles, such desperate struggles for survival were more horrifying than death.

So as a princess, she probably found it difficult to fully understand what I'd just said.

'Which is why I'll have to thoroughly impregnate her descendants so they don't end up like that.'

I walked slowly with the princess.

Then followed her into her quarters.

It was finally time to receive my reward!

* * *