Unexpected Elf Connection #3
I realized that I needed to get a proper grasp of the situation. I had to meet Professor Milaze, who had started the entire matter.
I immediately left the afternoon lecture and hurried to her office.
Professor had her own full schedule, so I didn't want to waste time and risk crossing paths with someone else.
Luckily, when I reached the front of her office, a sign reading “Knock” was hanging there.
This was clear proof that the professor was inside the room without needing to go anywhere else.
Before entering, I calmed my slightly roughened breathing from all the rushing.
Knock knock—!
“Professor. This is Lucian Theodore von Deodor, a first-year Literature Division student.”
“Yes, please come in.”
Her voice somehow carried the feeling of “I knew you’d come,” but it was probably just my imagination.
I carefully opened the door and, just as I’d expected, the room was filled with books that greeted me first.
Professor Milaze was sitting inside, sipping tea and intently studying something.
I stepped carefully so as not to step on any books or research materials.
Almost all of them were related to Ju Cloud Low Dragonschultz the old man, and since the professor was an absolute fanatic about that topic, she would have been thoroughly displeased if I had stepped on one of those books.
“I thought you might come by today,” Professor said.
“Since you expected me to visit, I’ll be direct, Professor. Why exactly…?”
“There are many other elf students, so why a princess in particular? That’s what you’re asking, isn’t it?”
I slowly nodded.
I had simply wanted to build a modest network at an appropriate level.
It wasn’t a paper discussing the elf royal family at all; it was a thesis centered on how ordinary people would view the future of the two nations.
Building connections was my goal, but choosing a princess was going too far.
Moreover, from our conversation, Princess Charlotte Monzen Heinrich of the current elf royal family was being almost completely protected by the other elves attending her.
If I ended up under the same surveillance, that was definitely not something I could call enjoyable.
“First of all, I won’t bother Lucian much.”
“Huh?”
“I sent all the elves who were loudly fussing around Princess Charlotte, telling her what was allowed and what wasn’t, outside the academy. They were interfering with the student’s education.”
“Eh… is that allowed? They were academy…?”
“They weren’t students. The elves themselves requested that the academy accept the personnel supporting the princess, so I did exactly that. If I have to put it nicely, I guess they were like nannies? But they kept interfering with Charlotte the princess and only made things worse. That’s why I kicked them all out. Expelled them, you could say?”
“…”
Professor Milaze had changed her evaluation from pioneer to something else, but if word got out that she had literally kicked out the people supporting the elf princess, she might feel quite uneasy.
In any case, every professor at the academy had a certain toughness hidden inside.
“Lucian, didn’t I tell you back then? I want you to look at the future relationship between Lebechia and Minas with ordinary eyes, not making it unnecessarily difficult.”
“You definitely said that.”
“How did you feel after meeting Princess Charlotte Monzen Heinrich?”
After a moment of hesitation, I decided to give my honest impressions.
It sounded like I was treating the princess of the Minas Elf Kingdom a bit like a child, but.
It felt better to speak honestly about this part.
“She’s pure. She seems like a child who knows nothing yet, and like clean spring water.”
“That’s right. Charlotte the princess. No, Charlotte the student in the second year is like that. The other elves accepted a lot from the kingdom and the human side within a year, but Charlotte the student didn’t. Because of those annoying nannies. Thanks to them, even in her second year, there are still many things she’s lacking.”
“…”
“I heard that as the royal direct descendant, there were many things she couldn’t do.”
Professor Milaze let out a “hic!” laugh at my words, looking incredulous.
Then she set down the documents she was holding and propped her chin on her hand, lips parted.
“What nonsense. You open the door and still say royal elves can’t be influenced by the other world? They’ve already opened up for change, so what’s with this stupid talk? Don’t you think so too, Lucian?”
“I know that the gap between those who open the way and those who build walls widens the more you go along the road.”
“Exactly. The royal family should have been the first to accept the change, but even so, the princess must maintain the elf appearance as the royal direct descendant until the end. This is not allowed, that is not allowed. I don’t know how your face would twist if you heard that.”
Especially since she was a history professor, it was even more unbelievable.
The fate of a world that rejects change and slams the door shut is told by history.
Just two hundred years ago, elves were far superior to humans, but humans followed them at terrifying speed and ultimately overtook the elf race.
Elves now needed to learn and ask for guidance.
If I heard that they were still clinging to their paltry pride or nobility and blocking the wind of change from reaching the princess.
Professor Milaze, who had left the elf kingdom and settled in the kingdom to live in accordance with the change, must have been bursting with indignation and ready to lose her mind.
“Currently, Charlotte the student may only be in her second year on paper, but in reality she’s no different from a new student in Lebechia and the academy. What good is just learning academics? She knows nothing about the society or culture of that world. No matter how much she learns academically, if she doesn’t understand social change or culture, it’s just as good as dead knowledge.”
“…”
“I want the elf students who came to the academy after Lebechia and the Minas Elf Kingdom formed an alliance to bring the wind of change, the waves of reform. The elf society has been too rigid. If it continues like this, it will be absorbed by Lebechia or Pirot no matter where you go.”
“Is that serious?”
“History is the study of learning the future from the past. That’s why I love history. I keep studying it too. If it’s like this, Minas won’t last long. Up until now it has survived thanks to the unique greatness of the elf race, but with that paltry pride, it won’t even last two hundred years at best.”
Professor Milaze was an elf herself, yet she was giving a scathing critique of her own homeland.
Even among her fellow countrymen, it was hard to imagine how frustrating it must have been to pour out words like that.
“…”
“Sigh. Sorry. Did I get too excited?”
“No, Professor. It was just appropriate criticism. Other scholars have expressed similar concerns about the Minas Elf Kingdom.”
“Whether elves are deliberately ignoring what humans feel or truly don’t know… In any case, it’s impossible to send a few members of elf families to the academy to train them. I think the royal family, the heart of their society, and among the few direct descendants, should return and wholeheartedly understand the need for change in elf society, becoming a force to help.”
“…”
“So you placed Charlotte the princess, that is, Charlotte the senior, beside me?”
“If you’re asking whether I did it to use Lucian, I’ll say half of it is true. In my eyes, there weren’t many students as trustworthy as you. Seeing Charlotte the student’s appearance, hehe, or aiming for something else.”
“…”
My heart skipped a beat and my conscience stung. Why?
Honestly, I had also used the thesis as an excuse to build connections with the elf side.
Perhaps Professor Milaze really thought I was deeply interested in the future development of the relationship between Lebechia and Minas.
Ah, now I had to suffer a five-minute guilt trip.
“But it will definitely help Lucian as well. Charlotte the student is pure. A bit childlike. That’s why it will be even more helpful for Lucian’s thesis. She will learn one by one, and she can tell me which parts of Lebechia are strange and disappointing, and which parts she likes. So, as the two nations develop their future relationship, perhaps she can provide a small clue about which parts to focus on. Is my claim too exaggerated?”
It wasn’t exaggerated at all. In fact, if I were to be honest, I liked it so much that it was a problem.
Simply thinking about the thesis, Charlotte the senior was better than the other elves.
She still knew nothing and, above all, expressed her own impressions immediately.
No roundabout way of saying it or using any strange expressions.
Just a moment ago, hadn’t she already spoken very precisely about the elves’ problems?
Sometimes the child’s perspective can be more accurate than the eyes of a socially worn-out adult.
Charlotte the senior seemed to have something of that quality.
“And the connection part… Honestly, this is a jackpot.”
I had thought a normal elf royal family member would be enough.
But what was this? Not a normal family, but the royal bloodline at the center of the Minas Elf Kingdom.
And not even collateral; it was Princess Charlotte, the direct descendant of the current king, who had firmly attached herself beside me.
This was truly a heaven-sent opportunity, and honestly, it was so much luck that it felt excessive.
The best connection I currently had was some acquaintance from the Magic Tower.
Of course, former Prime Minister Ju Cloud Low Dragonschultz was there too, but he was a man whose inner workings were too mysterious, making it too uncomfortable to move freely with him.
Compared to that, the Magic Tower acquaintance was somewhat controllable, so I could feel at ease.
Under such circumstances, if I could connect with the princess of the elf kingdom and, through her, build connections in many areas.
The probability that I wouldn’t have to worry about my livelihood later had become very high.
Moreover, many people who might otherwise have come to bother me and make things tiring would no longer do so.
“If it doesn’t feel burdensome, then it’s a lie.”
“Is that so?”
“But it’s not bad at all. On the contrary, Professor Milaze seems to be taking such good care of me that I’m starting to worry. Are you perhaps telling me to do assistant work or to come to the academy’s affiliated graduate school…?”
“No matter how much I use Lucian a little, I wouldn’t do anything that evil. Assistant? Graduate school? That’s only when the person wants it or when I give a recommendation letter.”
“Our Professor Milaze really has a conscience. How fortunate.”
In my previous life, several friends had suddenly been caught in a professor’s grip and, in a daze, become graduate students.
And they all turned into zombies, groaning “Gueee.”
Actually, I had heard similar words from some professors before entering the academy.
“We’ll take good care of you, so can’t you help with some work? Don’t you want to try research together?”
Of course, I had refused them all. I only wanted to have fun; I had no intention of becoming a slave.
“…However, lately my plan to introduce my name a little and have some fun and survive has somehow gone awry… Oh well, what can I do.”
Instead of suffering through that difficult time, I thought of Rie beside me, and I figured I could get over it with a laugh.
But there was one thing, really just one thing, that I wanted.
If she would only let me eat a little more chocolate, there would be no better blessing.
“Anyway, please take care of me, Lucian. It may be an unexpected turn of events, but there will definitely be good parts for both of us. You’re an elf and a princess, but Charlotte the student doesn’t show any special authority or arrogance, does she?”
“That’s true. Honestly, I was a little surprised because she’s too childlike.”
“That’s exactly why the nannies kept fussing over her. But we have to let the tender new sprout grow properly; if we keep meddling, it will go wrong in some strange direction.”
“…”
“You’re giving me such a difficult task. Didn’t you say there would be no assignment?”
It wasn’t that there wasn’t any, but this was like raising an elf princess and I had no idea what was going on.
Using the thesis as an excuse to build connections had only brought more troublesome things.
At that, Professor Milaze smiled with a grin that sent chills down my spine.
“It’s secretly fun and rewarding. It’s like teaching a bit childlike people.”
“No, no way. I feel like my stomach is about to burst, Professor.”