New Friends
The cult leader suddenly heading off to the cult nation was fine. The problem was that this bastard dumped every single piece of unfinished business on me on his way out.
"Lady Saintess, these all require your approval."
"What the hell? The Church isn't some trading company or corporation. Why the fuck do we need approvals? Isn't that what Priest Lapel is for?"
"Ah, well, I don't have the authority. The cult leader transferred all of it to you, Lady Saintess."
At first I thought he was insane for shoving everything onto the Saintess. Then I realized Lapel was even worse—he couldn't handle a single task properly. I ended up processing everything myself and only reached the academy well past lunchtime.
I should at least tell them I won't be able to attend classes properly or work at the library. Tormenting the history professor over that exam question should be enough.
I decided on the Swordsmanship Department for my first class. Then I spotted a familiar face.
"Hello, Lady Saintess!"
Plene was as energetic as ever today. No matter how I looked at it, this girl seemed to be following me around and signing up for the same classes. But today she was being unusually formal.
"Why the sudden formality?"
"You're the Saintess now! I can't believe those nobles were actually bewitched by a succubus. It's hilarious, really."
Ah, right. I finished that off. The commoner students who'd been discriminated against in Atelina must have been thrilled. The bewitched nobles probably couldn't even show their faces anymore. Still, I decided to probe a little, pretending I didn't know. Something about how Atelina was running felt off.
"Atelina seems unusually noisy. Did something happen?"
"Oh. There's the thing with Lily, too."
Even if it was because of Lily, it was too loud.
"What else is there?"
"His Highness the Crown Prince has relinquished his position."
"...He actually did it?"
He gave it up that easily. I told him the Ashtars would follow if he proved himself worthy, but I never expected him to actually drop that heavy seat. What a lunatic. This was going to spark a succession struggle over the imperial throne.
One thing I knew and another I didn't: the noble faction that had supported Aslan had been severely weakened by Lily's incident. At a time like this, he should have clung to the crown prince title no matter what. The emperor wasn't exactly stable either, so the fight for succession was bound to get ugly.
"Yes. And Atelina has been completely overhauled!"
"What do you mean by that?"
I'd expected something, but this fast?
"Most of the noble students involved in the incident have been suspended or held back! The ones who helped Lily torment the commoners even dropped out!"
That definitely wasn't their own will. Their families had pulled them out. Typical—they were lightning-fast when it came to cutting ties. If only they'd shown that speed normally.
"Isn't that dangerous for Atelina?"
If the numbers dropped too sharply, wouldn't Atelina itself be in crisis? Atelina was the heart of the empire. If it collapsed, chaos would follow for a while. The magical education system I'd built for the empire would crumble.
"The children of provincial nobles are being transferred in."
"Provincial nobles?"
Provincial nobles meant the warlords, right? The provinces were all ruled like military factions, so it had to be their kids. They'd actually put some thought into this. They were bringing in provincial elites to reform Atelina. At the same time, admitting provincial nobles to the empire's top educational institution would weaken the central nobles and allow monitoring of the provincial ones. Not a bad plan. Whose idea was it?
"Yes! Especially the sons of the warlord families fighting on the front lines against the Demon King!"
"Interesting."
That changed things.
"They say they're full of wild, rugged charm—both the men and the heroines! Totally different from the central nobles bewitched by the succubus-contracted Lily!"
The balance of power in Atelina had completely shifted. Until recently, it had been dominated by central nobles—great houses with territories in or near the capital. Even the commoners had only been admitted to pad the numbers. If these were warlord families tempered by the battlefield, they'd have strict discipline.
"I heard the heir of the Libelt family is transferring in too!"
"Libelt?"
"The Libelts who wiped out the Demon King's army with just a handful of cavalry!"
The Libelts had been the empire's spear and shield since its founding. The story of their head personally leading three hundred cavalry to annihilate thousands of Demon King troops to secure supply routes for the kingdom was still legendary in the region. Of course, the Hero Party had fed them information back then, but the Libelts had charged head-on anyway. Especially that brat from their house—he never listened to a damn word.
Valen Libelt. Next head of the Libelt family and vanguard commander of the Libelt cavalry.
"Oh, he's arriving right now! Apparently he just came up from the provinces."
Following Plene's finger, I saw a black-haired man yawning as he entered the Swordsmanship classroom. Tall, well-muscled, broad shoulders. Unnecessarily handsome face and solid military command ability. At first I'd wondered why this guy wasn't the hero. The kingdom chose the hero, but there was no rule saying an imperial couldn't become one. My opinion changed after seeing that supply route battle, though.
—Are you really just charging in like an idiot?
—I charge because I'm certain I can win.
—The method isn't bad, but there are a lot of scattered monsters.
—We'll just chase them down and annihilate them.
—That's just saying we should've surrounded and wiped them out from the start. Talking to you is impossible.
He really was hopeless. Completely inflexible. The type who insisted his way was right just because he thought so.
"Lady Saintess, what kind of man do you like?"
I had zero interest in men. Was she crazy? No matter what body I was in, I was going to live alone for the rest of my life. Men were out of the question. Even if I had a child, I'd adopt. Absolutely not. The thought alone was unbearable.
"Lady Saintess, look over there!"
"Who is it this time?"
"She's from the Magic Tower! She's transferring into Atelina this time!"
Come to think of it, the Magic Tower could be considered an academy too. So transferring made sense. The mage who came from the Magic Tower was a woman I recognized. A girl with striking navy-blue short hair. The Magic Tower robe over her academy uniform proved her affiliation.
"Ah, so that brat's here too."
A chill ran down my spine.
"Do you know her?"
"Uh, well, not really. Sort of?"
Seria the Puppeteer. A woman who fought by controlling puppets with mana threads pulled from her hands. She was quite strong. When the Magic Tower sent mages to support the kingdom, she'd been their representative. Strong, sure. Honestly, compared to the other two bitches in the Hero Party, her personality was decent. The problem was that this puppeteer wanted to turn everything into a puppet. That's why she'd once dissected a strangely shaped monster corpse right on the spot.
—Lord Noah, can I take this?
—It's useless, so do whatever you want.
—Thank you?
—You crazy bitch, why the hell are you dissecting here?!
Her personality was fine, but she was quite the eccentric. She solved almost everything in daily life with puppets too. That was why she wore gloves made from dragon hide with high mana conductivity.
That was when our eyes met.
"Shit, eye contact."
I quickly looked away.
"What's wrong?"
"Ah, the weather's nice today for some reason."
It would be troublesome if she took an interest in me. But I'd momentarily forgotten how persistent this woman was.
"Oho. The Saintess of House Ashtar?"
Before I knew it, she'd stuck herself right next to me.
"Ah. Yes."
"The vicious older sister who sent her younger sister to the executioner's blade!"
She really knew how to piss people off.
"Would you rather I let the empire fall apart?"
At my words, Seria's eyes curved into gentle crescents.
"Just kidding. Kidding. Hehe?"
"So, what brings you here?"
"I'll be in the Magic Department with you, so please take care of me."
You? Me? A woman who only cared about people who could become puppet material or had the talent to use puppets?
"Why me specifically? You're not thinking of using me as puppet material, are you?"
"Gasp, you caught me!"
Of course. She could at least try to hide her true intentions. Not that it was strange. Compared to Lily, she was practically a saint. Even if her head was messed up, she didn't go so far as to turn living people into puppets.
"You should at least try to hide your true intentions."
"But you recognized me as a puppeteer right away."
She was still pushing her own narrative. What was so hard about knowing? It wasn't because I'd been Noah before. Anyone who paid even a little attention to the Hero Party would know.
"I'm someone with a lot of interest in magic. Naturally I know about the Magic Tower, and there's no way I wouldn't know about Seria who went to support the Hero Party."
"Wow! To receive such high praise from Lady Olivia, the empire's first Saintess—I'm honored!"
Where exactly was the high praise? And why had she come here? The Magic Tower was fundamentally independent from Atelina, a place that only researched magic and trained mages. There were cases of people going from Atelina to the Magic Tower, but never the reverse. Was Atelina that desperate? It would've been better to bring in outstanding adventurers from Galedo instead.
"I understand they need to fill the numbers at Atelina, but I don't think someone from the Magic Tower would transfer. Why did you come, Lady Seria?"
"There are many professors at Atelina who knew Lord Noah, right?"
Ah, that was true. At least one or two of the professors in charge of combat education at Atelina must have met me. We'd exchanged information while fighting the Demon King's army.
"And?"
"If I build connections with them and become a court mage, wouldn't I have a way to find Lord Noah?"
Oh, so she was aiming to become a court mage from the Magic Tower. Still, she'd probably just want puppet material. This seemed like it could cause problems.
"Thinking of Lord Noah as puppet material... Even so, he's a member of the Hero Party. That's a bit much."
"What are you talking about? Lord Noah is someone I love."
"Huh?"
What the hell had just come out of her mouth?
"For a puppeteer like me, Lord Noah is the one who made me feel love instead of seeing him as puppet material."
"Aha."
Bullshit. We'd barely had any contact, and she loved me? She should tone down the nonsense.
"Since his body was never found, I'm certain he's still alive."
That certainty wasn't good.
"Why do you think that?"
"There's no way a great mage of his caliber wouldn't have prepared anything for the fight against the Demon King. He must have made some preparations."
I hadn't prepared shit, honestly. I'd just been careless. If I'd known I was going to die, I would've made plans too. Wait, more importantly—she'd just called me a great mage, hadn't she?
"You just said great mage."
"Well, Lord Noah is a great mage, isn't he?"
Of all people, she was the one calling me a great mage.
"Let's get along. The two of us."
I'd thought this woman had potential from the start. She was gloomy like a puppeteer, but I'd figured she had her head on straight.
"Hm? Don't tell me..."
"Yes?"
Seria shoved her face into every corner of my body and sniffed.
"Hmm. You smell similar to Lord Noah."
"I have no connection to Lord Noah whatsoever."
Was it a mage's unique intuition? Or maybe she could sense it because of Mana Fusion. Seria had envied my Mana Fusion. Maybe she'd smelled that.
"Something's suspicious. Could it be that you like Lord Noah too, Lady Saintess?"
"What?"
Why the hell had I become a pervert who liked myself?
"Hmph! We'll get along, but Lord Noah is mine!"
"Ah, yes. Sure."
"Well then, I have to meet the dean about my transfer, so I'll see you later?"
The eccentric waved her hand repeatedly, promised to see me later, and disappeared with her companions.
"I never thought the Saintess would be in love with Lord Noah! Cheer up! Lord Noah is definitely alive!"
"Uh, look over there! There's another handsome man!"
"What now?"
I was starting to get annoyed. Why was Plene so into men?
"It's Lord Rockton Lapa Ashtar, the next head of House Ashtar!"
"Right. Yeah. Rockton is handsome."
Surprisingly, House Ashtar had excellent bloodlines, so their looks were good. Rockton alone had appeared on the front page of newspapers. Wait, hold on. That guy had come all the way to the academy. As the next head, he'd even come to his sister's classroom. When he saw me, he approached with the dignified movements befitting the heir of Ashtar.
"Olivia. So you were here."
"Yes. It's been a while."
But what had the first Olivia called Rockton? Oraboni? Oppa? One thing was certain—thorns were sprouting in my mouth.