Olivia Is Weak
We returned to the Imperial Capital.
My mood was absolute garbage.
"Of all things, the second I get back I end up at Attelina."
Valen Ribelt had vanished at some point too. So what had become of Natalia? That woman had disappeared just as suddenly.
And me…
"My goodness, Saintess. We heard the news. You distinguished yourself so brilliantly in the war, did you not?"
"You're truly incredible! My father asked me to invite you—what do you think? The honey from our family's territory is simply divine."
"The jewelry crafted by our house artisans would suit you better than anything else, Saintess. What do you say?"
The same girls who had once fawned over Olivia like disciples—only to scatter after the Lily incident—were suddenly trying to reconnect for whatever connections they could scrape together.
What exactly did they want from me?
Why were women always this loud?
Right now I just wanted to feel at ease.
"Wow. Lady Olivia's popularity is through the roof!"
"Shut your mouth."
Celia cackled, completely oblivious to how I felt.
"Th-that person…"
"Isn't that one of the Seven Stars?"
"The same one who went on the expedition with House Ashtar not long ago."
What now? Who was showing up?
"Oh, Lady Olivia—look over there. That's Natalia."
At Celia's words I glanced toward the front of the classroom, and sure enough, there stood Natalia, the same woman who had vanished without a word from Ashtar territory.
So that was where she'd been hiding—she just popped up here?
"Starting today I will serve as your practical instructor. I am Light Sword Natalia. I will also take over swordsmanship classes in place of the professor currently bedridden."
"Natalia? No way…"
Natalia, all the way out here?
"With the Four Heavenly Kings launching full-scale attacks, there is a great deal you all need to learn."
"Ugh."
She could have come earlier. Why now?
"Recent events have piled up until the Empire finds itself facing total war against the Four Heavenly Kings. Therefore the examinations will also take a practical form."
"All of them?"
One young lady asked, face tight with nerves.
"No. Young ladies who only enrolled in liberal arts courses need not participate. There is no point forcing training and exams onto those who have no intention of fighting. Isn't that right, Olivia?"
"Yes."
I didn't mind this. Students needed a healthy sense of crisis if they were ever going to break free of the corrupt nobility.
"Olivia, come with me."
"What?"
Why me all of a sudden?
I still had to go see the Emperor after this. Today already felt like nothing but a parade of headaches.
"Natalia. What exactly is your relationship with that woman?"
"Who knows? At least as Olivia, I don't have any long-standing history with Natalia…"
Or did I?
Even if Olivia herself claimed some connection with Natalia—
"No, you already know that. What I want to know about is your Noah days."
Ah. Back when I was Noah, Natalia and I had shared a bit of history, yes.
"Why does that matter?"
"How could you leave a woman like me for that old sword-swinger?!"
Okay, Natalia was definitely a sword-swinger, but did she really deserve that level of loathing?
Mages and sword fighters did instinctively hate each other. From a mage's perspective a swordsman looked like an idiot who charged into melee and died; from a swordsman's perspective a mage looked like a coward who never trained their body and just leaned on spells.
Celia wasn't any different.
No—wait. Celia at least had the raw physical stats to pull off battle-mage nonsense.
Squeeze.
Worse, if I didn't answer soon I was going to die. Before I knew it she had seized me by the collar and started choking me.
"Wait—let go first! I can't breathe! I don't know either! We just did Imperial army drills together or bad-mouthed the Hero Party, that's all!"
"That's it."
Celia finally released me and jabbed a finger at my face.
What "it"?
I had never done a single thing that would make Natalia fall for me.
"No, what?"
"Women fall for the smallest things like that, you know."
If someone fell for something that trivial, were they even human?
Besides, if that were enough, Natalia would have been married ages ago.
"Wouldn't she have gotten married already if that were true?"
The moment a Seven Star announced an engagement, people would swarm.
"Honestly, even if someone like you is a pain, women still line up. I lost count of how many times I had to chase off Magic Tower mages trying to get close to Noah. And let's be real—you probably thought nothing happened, but from Light Sword's side there must have been some lingering attachment."
Lingering attachment my ass.
Anyway, Light Sword had summoned me, so I should probably go. High chance my identity had already been blown.
Since Light Sword had told me to follow, I followed.
Except now she was staring at my face like she was trying to burn a hole through it. Creepy as hell.
After a long, piercing look, Natalia crowded me back against the wall.
"I never expected to find you as a princess of House Ashtar."
"Ah. So you did figure it out."
She knew, all right.
"It would be stranger if I hadn't. Did you really think I wouldn't recognize you?"
Well, when she put it like that… Light Sword knew me better than most. Still—how did she put it together this fast?
"So what? Planning to cut my throat with that sword? Afraid I used some body-snatching magic and stole some clueless princess's body?"
"I'll decide after a closer look. You've gotten quite beautiful, though."
Natalia tilted my chin up and narrowed her eyes.
I hated that look.
"Excuse me? Consider Olivia's age versus yours. And wait—you're into that?"
First Celia, now this woman. What was wrong with everyone?
"What are you talking about? The person I liked simply became a woman."
"Whatever. So? What do you want?"
Both Celia and Natalia had never said things like this when I was still a man, only to start the second I wasn't. If they'd confessed back when I was Noah, I would have bragged about it to that bastard Hero. Looking back, the whole "gloomy mage" act had just been annoying.
"At the very least I want to hear how that body became yours. And the Demon King while you're at it."
Right. This was the real her—straight to the point.
In the end I had to tell her everything I knew.
Natalia listened with interest, then frowned.
"You killed the Demon King… and nothing happened?"
"I know. Honestly I still don't understand why the Holy Sword even exists."
I could invent a few theories. Maybe I was supposed to kill the Demon King and take the curse, only we both died instead. That could explain it.
Natalia's thoughts ran elsewhere.
"Remember what you once said? That Pector claimed you were supposed to be the Hero, but your origin in the Ruined Land disqualified you."
"What are you getting at?"
Was that somehow a problem?
"What if that was true, and the Holy Sword's power settled into you instead?"
"…There's some logic to that."
Now that she mentioned it. One or two records would be coincidence, but countless accounts insisted the Hero who held the Holy Sword had done the killing.
"But that doesn't really matter right now, does it?"
"Just idle curiosity. Either way, the Demon King being dead is good news."
Fine. That topic was closed. I had something else to say.
"Let me say this first."
"I won't spread it. For whose benefit? Celia and Noel already seem to know anyway."
"Couldn't be helped."
Noel was my little sister, and Celia had a nose like a bloodhound.
"Enough about the Demon King."
The digression had gone on long enough.
"You. The student training and live combat—that's just an excuse, isn't it?"
"Oh? Caught me?"
"Painfully obvious. You came here because of me, pure and simple."
I was certain. If a Seven Star was willing to become a professor in person, some extra headache had to be tangled up in it.
"Hah, our Ashtar princess knows me far too well."
"Why?"
"Marriage hunting?"
As if. That couldn't be it.
We had already captured Berna of the Four Heavenly Kings, and while Pector wasn't dead, the Empire had been told he was driven off. He wouldn't be coming near the capital.
"Stop joking."
"You know the anti-Imperialists, right?"
I knew the anti-Imperialists just fine.
"Yeah, I know. The ones who claim the Empire is too big and it would be better if it just split so everyone could grow on their own?"
Anti-Imperialists. Mostly poor commoners who resented Imperial society. Of course the destitute and lowborn had grievances—watching the well-off live large made their blood boil, and since the country they lived in was an empire, they became anti-Imperialists.
"Right. Among them are lunatics who want to revive the old kingdom of Pastia and move the whole thing into the Empire."
"Nostalgia for the past is better left alone. It's always the ones who don't know Imperial history who talk like that."
The Kingdom of Pastia—founded by refugees from the ancient kingdom. They had only private trade with the Empire and relations were never warm. The Empire left them alone because further expansion would threaten neighboring states, and because Pastia's royal house was not the Kart royal line. There had never been a real need to leave a legitimacy-less Pastia standing.
"Exactly. And the whole 'split the Empire' idea is laughable too. The Imperial House's direct domains are only the capital and its immediate surroundings. Everything else is ruled by nobles."
Of course, even if the territory was small, the Imperial direct domains still held more people than Ashtar—the most populous of the noble territories.
"True, the country has been run by the Imperial House and the founding nobles since day one, so it's rotten. I can understand the anti-Imperialist ideology that far…"
Over fifteen hundred years had passed. Without magic civilization, peasant revolts and military coups would have erupted ages ago. Plenty of nobles held territories the size of small kingdoms and strutted around enjoying the title of lord-king. There were plenty of rotten ones.
"If it stayed at the level of 'understanding,' they would just complain. They wouldn't form actual organizations and act like fanatics."
"They have organizations?"
Were those bastards really getting that bold?
"The Kart Revival Organization."
"They just openly called it Kart Revival?"
Kart Revival was practically impossible. The royal line itself had been wiped out, and Pastia had zero legitimacy.
In answer to my doubt, Natalia handed me a scrap of cloth.
Written in the ancient tongue: Kaert Revival Group.
"More precisely, they want to return this land to the age of the federal kingdoms, when the Kart Kingdom and various small states stood side by side."
"So they line up perfectly with the people who already wanted the Empire to fracture."
If the Kart Kingdom were restored, every region of the Empire would declare independence. Everyone would get what they wanted.
"Exactly. Idiots who don't even realize the benefits of living in a great power, who don't understand that carving the country up will only create chaos."
The Empire had lasted fifteen centuries. Even if a revival group somehow swallowed the capital and split the Empire, would it hold? Until a new unifying dynasty rose, we would just get a new Warring States period.
"But they're small-scale at best."
Local forces could handle that much.
"There's a rumor they're cooperating with Mains and Pastia."
"That's going to be a pain."
Mains and Pastia. Pastia was one thing, but Mains meant deep ties to the Demon King's army.
"Honestly they're small enough that we could ignore them… but if they grow, they become a real headache. The capital was already in an uproar over the succubus incident."
"True."
"So this time I'll take charge of the capital. The other Seven Stars will handle the Kaert Revival Group and the New World Group."
The New World Group—that black-magic cult, right? The bastards who wanted to resurrect a dead god.
"Yeah, yeah, okay. So can I leave now?"
"Where do you think you're sneaking off to?"
I tried to slip away; she immediately grabbed me.
"Huh?"
"After I told you all this, the least you can do is help a little, don't you think?"
Why me? Why did I have to help?
Olivia was just a frail little girl, you know.