The Special Spirit and the Legend of the Serial Confessor
Spirit: "In summary, this demon—that is, the Truth Church—snuck into even the Academy because of Lady Berniche."
"That's right."
More precisely, it seemed to be because of some unusual spirit that Adelia possessed. But what the hell did "unusual spirit" even mean?
For starters, Lucilla had only received the order to secure Adelia herself—no info on what spirit she had. So she'd infiltrated the Academy alone on a simple kidnapping mission.
She'd bided her time, and during midterms, the perfect chance arose. But Aren stopped her, leading to this.
Speculating on the unknown: 'Not an elemental spirit, then... maybe a conceptual spirit?'
I reflexively glanced at Iri. She flinched and floated up into the air.
"W-Why?"
"Just thought you might know something."
"Hmm..."
She pondered for a moment after her initial flinch.
"...No idea."
"I see."
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
She spun around me in a circle, flinching at my gaze—which felt like I was staring at something useless (it wasn't).
"How am I looking?"
"Like you're seeing a total freeloader who can't help at all...!"
"...Me?"
"Yeah...!"
...Not even close. But correcting her wouldn't help; she wouldn't believe me anyway.
She was in a fragile state of mind right now. Why so suddenly? She'd just contracted a new master out of nowhere, then witnessed him messing with a human brain to extract info. No wonder she was dizzy.
"Anyway, putting that aside... You really have no clue?"
"...Yeah. But think about it—I'm a special spirit too, right?"
"True enough."
Iri was a conceptual spirit of space, no less. Conceptual spirits were all rare by nature, so yeah, she was special.
But the one the demons were after had to be something even more extraordinary...
"...No answers here."
Veronica was spot on. Iri had lived over a century—no, way longer—and still knew nothing. Lydia and Veronica were out of the equation from the start.
For us outsiders, answers were impossible.
Just as the case seemed headed for a dead end—
"Um, excuse me..."
Lydia timidly chimed in.
"Why not just ask Adelia herself...?"
"Ah."
"Ah."
"Ah."
Veronica, I, and Iri all let out sighs in unison. (Iri was just mimicking me, of course.)
"...You're right. No idea why we were circling around it instead of asking her directly."
"W-We just got fixated on the spirit angle and narrowed our view for a sec. Don't be too hard on us."
"Is that so?"
"Y-Yes."
I smiled at her and gently patted her head.
"Lydia's the best."
"Hehe..."
I swear I saw a puppy tail wagging behind her in a hallucination.
'Golden retriever vibes.' She used to remind me of a squirrel, but now it was full retriever. Was the pink charm truly limitless?
Meanwhile, Veronica watched me pet Lydia with a sidelong glare she couldn't quite hide and muttered:
"...Looks like we're mostly sorted. So, what's next?"
Her tone was unusually icy—even she flinched at it—but luckily, no one noticed her odd mood.
"Oh, one more bit of info to squeeze out."
"What?"
"Details on the Truth Church and the other demons."
"...Right. That's still pending."
I wasn't the type driven by justice or a duty to save the world and protect the weak.
But there was one thing I couldn't ignore...
"We have to kill all those vermin, don't we?"
My lips twisted into a smirk. Lydia, Veronica, and Iri all flinched.
The overwhelming killing intent and ruthlessness radiating from me. For a split second, they almost mistook me for someone else—not the honest, carefree Aren, but a cold, heavy murderer.
'......'
'Is that... really Aren?'
They swallowed hard.
'Must be some backstory...'
'...Lost his family or something.'
They invented some tragic hidden past for me on their own. Total misunderstanding, of course.
I had no family to lose in the first place. My hatred for demons was pure survival instinct.
Demons rampage, society crumbles. Society crumbles, humanity hits rock bottom, hell unfolds. Demons thrive on that blood, leading to outer god annihilation.
So, to survive: kill all demons. Simple logic.
"Alright, time for round two of interrogation."
In the awkward, misunderstanding-filled silence, I resumed.
We extracted detailed Truth Church intel, active demons in the Empire, and branch locations—
"Disappointing."
The haul was underwhelming. No HQ location, no root reason for targeting Adelia's special spirit.
At least we got other branches and strong demon info.
I coldly looked down at Lucilla, mouth agape in a dumb "heh."
'...What now?'
Info fully extracted—no more use.
'But scrapping her feels wasteful.'
After a brief ponder, I shoved her back into my subspace. Might come in handy someday. Like buying insurance.
"Let's head up."
"...Okay."
"Sure."
"...Yeah."
The weekend passed, and school life resumed.
First thing I did: head to the Spirit Studies department for Adelia.
"Ah... Lady Berniche? She should be here soon."
"I see."
"Yeah, she usually shows up around now... But why Lady Berniche?"
A female student from the department eyed me warily.
She knew I'd stopped the demon attack during midterms and saved the crown prince and Adelia.
But I was more infamous as women's enemy(?) No—serial confessor fit better.
Veronica was the only public confession(?), but rumors swirled: parading Lydia and Veronica, seducing the crown prince's fiancée in the clubroom for sweet nothings...
Of course she'd be on guard. Especially as a commoner—handsome and charismatic as I was. Had to stay sharp to protect her purity(?).
"Nah, just have some business."
"...What kind?"
"No reason I should tell you."
"Ugh."
As I faced off with the nameless girl, drawing a crowd...
Adelia finally appeared.
Here for class as usual, she froze at the gathered crowd—unlike normal.
And then.
"Ah, Aren?"
Her face flushed at the sight of me in the center.
...Hold up. Why's her face red?
"?"
"...As expected, he's already got to Lady Berniche too...!"
"??"
I was baffled. Why was she blushing at me out of nowhere? I hadn't done anything!
No training excuses for skinship like with Veronica, no kisses like Lydia.
Why...?
"Um... Adelia?"
"...Yes."
"I need to talk. Mind coming with?"
"......"
I heard her gulp.
"Hey, look—top student's confessing, right?"
"Crazy... But Lady Berniche has tons of suitors already, yeah?"
"Yeah..."
"And now top student joins in?"
"Seems so."
"Whoa... savage."
No, that's not it! Just asking about her spirit. Why frame it like a confession?
'Not planning to dive into the romance novel slaughterfest.'
Felt kinda wronged. But yelling "it's not a confession" wouldn't help...
I tried pulling Adelia away quick to explain—but
Whoosh—
Her face burned even redder. Bonus: couldn't meet my eyes, all shy.
...Seriously, what's up? It's not like that.
"Just follow me for now. Got one question."
"O-Okay..."
I dragged Adelia off, while
"Eek...! That serial confessor...! He's clearly targeting Lady Berniche too...!"
"LEGENDARY EVENT!!!"
The rumor spread: top student finally gunning for Adelia.
Soon reaching the ears of those romance novel male leads.