Hoping to Get Closer (3)

I had been invited to join Princess Seraphin's student council cabinet, yet I felt none of the flusterment that such an honor might normally bring.

Our conversation just now had told me enough to know that recruiting me into the student council was not her true intention.

'She's after Ethan.'

The current Ethan Richard Blackwood was actually a rather serviceable pick for a student council cabinet candidate. Good looks, good family, and his personality was, well... on the surface, at least, fairly passable. He had no faction to speak of — had neither built one nor joined one — so he had almost no visible followers yet, but the moment he joined someone's cabinet, that would be a matter of time. All the more so if he went under someone like Seraphin, who had already carved out a faction of her own.

So this offer was simply one gambit in a campaign to lure Ethan in — and approaching me first, his exclusive maid, would draw far less attention than making the proposal to him directly...

'Wait, hold on. Something about this doesn't add up.'

"...Princess ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Seraphin."

"Yes, Miss Lilith?"

"May I ask one question that might come across as rude?"

"Of course you may."

"Could you perhaps have mistaken who it is ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you're supposed to be making this offer to? If you intend to recruit both Young Master Ethan and myself, it seems it would be more effective to persuade Young Master Ethan directly rather than approach me first."

"......"

At my question, Seraphin went quiet for a moment, offering nothing but a smile.

Honestly speaking, mine was the logical position. Who on earth recruits a noble's servant ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠first when trying to draw the noble into their faction? It made no sense. And the person Seraphin actually needed to persuade — Ethan — was a boy in the full bloom of adolescence. So fervent that I'd had to soothe his boiling lust roughly once a week back at the estate. A woman with Seraphin's looks should have been more than enough to enchant a boy like that, so I couldn't understand why she would go to the trouble of extending a recruitment offer to me instead.

"I have not mistaken who I'm offering this to, Miss Lilith."

"I'm sorry?"

"My recruitment offer is for you, Miss Lilith. Naturally, it would please me to bring Young Master Ethan along with you, but even if that proves impossible, I intend to recruit you regardless."

"......I'm sorry?"

"And if I can secure you alone, Miss Lilith, then Young Master Ethan will be far easier to obtain."

"......?????"

"So all you need to do, Miss Lilith, is share your own thoughts on the matter."

The longer we talked, the more bewildering the questions became. Pressing further didn't seem likely to produce a clearer answer, though. For now, the most reasonable reading was that Seraphin intended to hide her true motives and use me as bait to reel in Ethan. Nobles concealed their real intentions and spoke words at odds with their actual goals all the time — and with royalty, it went without saying.

That aside, the student council cabinet...

'On its own merits, it's not a bad offer.'

Anyone Seraphin gathered into her council would be a capable individual, each and every one. There was every chance she'd already recruited a few of the heroines of Luminor Academy, too — and being heroine-tier in Luminor Academy meant, at minimum, talent that could carry more than their own weight. Besides, as I'd noted earlier, the final evaluation of second semester was the monster-hunting Hunting Festival in the Dark Forest, so building rapport with the other cabinet members and entering the festival together as one party was entirely within reach.

'But ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I haven't even managed a proper reconnection with Lizzie yet. If student council work piles on top of that, this semester is going to be seriously short on time...'

"...It seems your worries are deepening, Miss Lilith, so perhaps I'll ease your mind by naming just one person you already know."

"I'm sorry?"

"Miss Lizzie Lyn Auguste. She has agreed to join the cabinet I am assembling this term."

"Miss Auguste has?"

"...Conditionally, for now."

If Lizzie had already resolved to join Seraphin's faction, then I apparently had no need to agonize over this particular reason after all. With my thoughts settled to some degree, I gave Seraphin a deliberately noncommittal answer — one that left the door open.

Although, in truth, whether the cabinet happened at all would hinge on Ethan's will, not mine.

"For the time being, I will discuss it with Young Master Ethan. This is not a matter I could settle on my own without his permission."

"Of course."

A strange, knowing smile played at the corners of her mouth.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

After finishing the day's schedule with Ethan and returning to the dormitory, I sat down at my desk and began sorting through, one by one, the tasks currently on my plate — all the events that had ambushed me the moment this semester began.

For the moment, that was about the size of it. As for Lizzie, her case hinged entirely on Seraphin's plans going smoothly — that was the only opening I'd have to reach her at all.

Building genuine friendships with three different women over a single semester. What was this, some kind of dating sim... actually, come to think of it, it was exactly a dating sim. The only odd part was that I wasn't the protagonist, yet I kept getting tangled up with the girls from a protagonist-adjacent position anyway.

It was unavoidable. Luminor Academy was a game of such sprawling variety that its romance events could never all be completed in a single playthrough. And the absence of a protagonist didn't erase the events that would have happened to the original heroines — the old storylines simply kept flowing on without him. For some reason, though, I couldn't shake the feeling that I kept getting dragged into the spaces he left behind.

'That protagonist kid is probably run off his feet with Serista and Silena business this semester.'

The event where he helped restore the people's faith in Serista, the fake saintess, and the event where the academy's sole elf, Silena, latched onto him and he sorted out her endless bothersome errands — both were concentrated in second semester. Judging by how he'd carried himself through first semester, he seemed to have a real sense of duty, so this term he'd surely move decisively to win both of them over. The proper courtship campaign for assembling the demon king subjugation party began in third year; until then, consolidating the cards already in hand was the textbook play.

When I first saw the absurd name Gehmajoshigi-gwat, I'd written him off as an untrustworthy sort, but after watching his conduct for a semester I'd revised my opinion somewhat — enough that I'd begun thinking I really should arrange to meet him properly at least once, as fellow transmigrators, and actually talk.

In any case, the events I'd gotten tangled in were all ones he had already decided not to touch, so there was nothing to feel bad about. No doubt Seraphin had approached him first — the Hero himself — before offering the position to me. Picking up an event he'd already passed on once wasn't going to cause any trouble. It wasn't as if I was sabotaging him by doing this much.

"Lilith, the bath's free."

"Young Master Ethan, there is something I need to discuss with you."

"...What about?"

Once Ethan emerged from his evening ablutions, I laid out the offer Seraphin had made me that day. Having heard it all, the very first thing he did was turn the question back on me.

"What do you want to do, Lilith?"

"I'm sorry?"

"...Just for reference. It's not that I intend to simply follow whatever you say."

Ah. So it was just for reference.

Well, fair enough. Ethan had his own mind; I hardly expected him to go along with whatever I suggested without a thought of his own. And since he'd made it plain that my words wouldn't particularly sway his decision, I felt free to relay the thoughts in my head to him, uncensored and without pressure.

"For what it's worth, I don't consider it a bad offer."

"...Is that so?"

"Princess Seraphin has already used her rank and personal magnetism to build a faction of her own within the academy. Absent any major setbacks, that base of support will hold until she graduates."

"Yeah, I agree there."

"In that case, I believe the wisest course is to join her faction now, while it is still short of close confidants. From third year onward, the curriculum does away with departmental boundaries almost entirely — most instruction becomes practical combat training — which gives her faction far more room to grow than the groups that only build connections within their own departments."

"Hmmmm..."

Ethan wore a visibly dissatisfied expression. Understandable, I supposed. He was, after all, a son of House Blackwood in his own right; joining someone else's faction already probably didn't sit well with him.

Reading his mood tolerably well, I dangled an alternative to catch his interest.

"Alternatively, Young Master Ethan could begin building a faction of his own right now — though frankly speaking, I doubt you could grow one to rival Princess Seraphin's, who already has momentum behind her."

"Exactly. That ship has sailed, I think."

If his only goal were to graduate from the academy, period, he needn't form or join a faction at all. Most commoner students couldn't play at aristocratic faction politics even if they wanted to. But Ethan was a son of the Blackwood ducal house, and erasing his presence that way to focus solely on graduating would be difficult. Unless one possessed the raw power of someone like Harold to clamp every mouth shut, a noble needed some faction to lean on. Unlike the commoner students, who could coast comfortably through the rest of their lives on a diploma alone, the society of nobility demanded that its members carry the alliances of their academy days forward long after graduation.

Which meant the most efficient way for Ethan — currently a scion of the Blackwood Dukedom — to accumulate connections was to enter a large faction well disposed toward him. And one such faction was Seraphin's. As for other factions that might someday grow into major powers while remaining friendly toward Ethan in the present...

"If Princess Seraphin's faction doesn't suit you, Young Master Ethan, there is also the option of cultivating a friendship with the Hero, Gehmajoshigi-gwat. He currently looks upon you with favor, so if you were to make a good impression on him early, I'm sure he would—"

"The Princess is the better choice."

"I'm sorry?"

"Tell the Princess I received her offer favorably, Lilith. That lecher... ahem, I simply have no desire to get chummy with the Hero."

"As you wish, Young Master Ethan."

What on earth? Had he and the Hero clashed somewhere without my knowing?

Watching Ethan's face harden the instant the Hero's name came up left me a little uneasy, but the end result was that Ethan had chosen Seraphin — and for me, with unfinished business still pending on her side, that was nothing but good news.