I Am the Academy
It was not a particularly difficult sentence to understand.
At the same time, the others found it just as difficult to understand why she would say such a thing.
Watching them flounder in confusion, the student council woman opened her mouth again—this time with a sneer that left no room for doubt.
“Where was it… Ah!”
She pulled a document out from under the desk.
Leo Epsilt, Esther Kalt, Elin Nidia, Veronica Eltwin, Felice Ansberg, and Aine of Class A, Year One, First Party, are hereby expelled from the party upon the application of Louis Wallenstein and with the consent of party member Louis Wallenstein.
She read the document in a dry, emotionless voice. Yet pleasure still flickered across her face.
While everyone else reeled from the shock, it was Leo Epsilt—perhaps because of his sheer simplicity—who recovered first.
“D-Don’t be ridiculous!”
Leo bellowed.
“There’s no way something like that is possible! In the first place, what about the expulsion request we submitted?!”
“Louis Wallenstein submitted his application first.”
Beside him the Saintess raised her voice in support.
“One problematic person expelling the rest of us? That doesn’t make any sense!”
“School regulations.”
The student council woman answered simply.
The Saintess demanded an explanation.
“What do you mean by that?! Speak properly—”
“According to the regulations, expulsion is possible if every party member except the one being expelled gives their consent.”
She spoke with open enjoyment, recalling the rather entertaining scene from that day—and the man who had stood so brazenly at its center.
“The ones to be expelled are everyone except Louis Wallenstein. The ones giving consent are all the remaining party members.”
Which, of course, amounted to only Louis Wallenstein himself.
“Bullshit!”
Even someone as simple as Leo could tell that the regulation was never meant to be used that way.
“Who the hell pulled this stunt?! Was it you, you bitch? I’ll report this to the top right now and—”
“It was me.”
A voice came from behind them.
Everyone whipped their heads around at once.
Standing behind the party members was the Imperial Princess, Kalia Speltz.
“Y-Your Highness?!”
“This one granted permission.”
“But why would you do such a thing?”
the Saintess asked.
“Well, if you had any conscience at all, I believe you would know better than anyone.”
That peculiar answer only left them looking more bewildered.
“Anyway! Even if you are Her Highness the Princess, do you truly believe something like this will be tolerated?”
Leo said. Even in his anger he could not shout the way he had a moment ago—not in front of the princess—but his tone remained heated.
The princess answered with perfect calm.
“And what, exactly, is there that cannot be tolerated?”
“This is a clear violation of school regulations!”
“And what of it? Why should this one be bound by something so trivial as school regulations?”
At that shameless declaration, every mouth in the room fell open in pure astonishment.
“My father once said, ‘I am the state.’ If that is so, then as president of this academy…”
She placed a hand over her heart.
While they were still struggling to recover from the shock—
“Ahem.”
A small cough sounded from somewhere nearby.
Before they realized it, a young-looking girl was standing right beside them.
Everyone wondered who the little brat was supposed to be.
Only the princess’s expression turned startled.
“Who the hell are you all of a sudden, you little kid?”
Leo snapped irritably.
The girl ignored him completely and addressed the princess instead.
“Kalia… there seems to be a misunderstanding.”
“Pardon?”
“The master of the academy is me—the principal.”
“……”
While the princess searched in vain for a counterargument, Leo’s face went deathly pale.
To think the principal he had never once seen in person was this little girl!
“Well, that said, I have no intention of objecting to the president’s decision. The rest of you may leave now.”
At the principal’s words the party members fled the office without the slightest hesitation.
The one who scrambled out fastest of all was, of course, Leo Epsilt—who had just made the mistake of insulting the principal to her face.
Thanks to the principal’s sudden appearance, they never managed to properly protest the expulsion.
Once they were all gone—
“Kalia. Sasha. It has been some time.”
She greeted the princess and the student council woman.
“What brings you here, Principal?”
the princess asked.
Luisa Falken, principal of Helon Academy, almost never showed herself in front of the students.
“Hmm. What do you think brought me here?”
The principal answered a question with another question.
“Surely not because of that party’s business?”
“Aha, correct.”
“Why would the principal take an interest in something so trivial…?”
The princess let the sentence trail off.
“Who do you think approved that absurd application in the first place?”
“Surely not the principal…?”
The principal nodded once more.
“I reviewed every single recording of their assignment.”
Only then did the princess nod in understanding.
“So let us set aside such tedious matters as party expulsions. I would like to discuss those recordings.”
The principal looked thoroughly entertained.
The princess, on the other hand, wore a faintly troubled expression.
“As for their punishment—will it be as student council president of this academy? Or as Imperial Princess of the Empire?”
she asked the princess.
“If it is the former, I already have something in mind…”
“The latter.”
Kalia declared she would punish them as Imperial Princess of the Empire.
“Oh? And why is that?”
“The Ansberg Count family is the Imperial Sword. Even setting that fact aside, their careless judgment left an imperial count and a superb warrior in critical condition, and drove the people of the Empire to their deaths.”
“Even so, is it not expecting too much of mere cadets?”
The principal’s question sounded less like genuine belief and more like a test of the princess.
“Certainly they are only cadets. And to leap from disturbing a gargoyle nest all the way to an attack on Ansberg Territory is, I admit, a considerable stretch of logic. However…”
The princess continued, the image of Louis rising in her mind.
“There was a cadet who actually managed it. None of this would have happened if they had simply listened to Louis Wallenstein.”
The principal nodded.
“Mm. Excellent. Perfectly accurate.”
“In the end their judgment inflicted serious damage upon the Empire. This is not something that can be settled with academy-level discipline. The Imperial Family will step in and impose sanctions at the family level.”
“If that is your judgment, then my own plans are useless. A pity… a real pity…”
The principal looked genuinely disappointed.
With the necessary discussion more or less finished, the principal—having gone to the trouble of coming out—began making small talk.
“Sasha. It has been quite a while since I last saw you. How have you been?”
“If the principal had not chosen this moment to interrupt my reading, I would have been able to answer that I was doing rather well.”
The student council woman, still reading with her usual blank expression, answered just like that.
The principal looked faintly incredulous.
“Do you not think speaking to me that way might make me angry?”
“Surely the principal would not personally scold a mere cadet like me? At most you would tell the president to manage the student council properly.”
“…So you do not mind if the president gets scolded because of you?”
“That is precisely what I was hoping for.”
The principal turned her gaze to the princess.
“Kalia. Did something happen between you and Sasha?”
The princess looked a little flustered, but before she could speak—
“It is merely my small act of rebellion against the president who dumped all this bothersome work on me.”
“It does not look particularly small…”
“Well, I was joking. I trust you have been well, Principal.”
The principal accepted Sasha’s greeting with a dubious expression.
It was hard to call it a joke when Sasha’s face while complaining about the president looked so utterly sincere.
Thus, a short while later, the principal left the office with one last remark for the princess.
“Do not overwork Sasha. For all that she looks like that, she is still only a first-year.”
“…She will be a second-year soon enough. In any case, take care.”
Having finished her conversation with the principal, the princess first stared at Sasha for a moment, then left the building.
It was mealtime, after all.
Not that she was particularly hungry.
The reason she headed alone to the student cafeteria once again, leaving everyone else behind, was simple: she intended to attempt the conversation with Louis Wallenstein that had failed last time.
The day Louis had refused to speak with her and left the table first, the princess had been badly shaken.
If he had truly finished eating and simply stood up, the half-full plate of food still sitting in front of him would not have kept floating through her mind.
Surely… he does not dislike talking to me? No, that cannot be.
She shook her head, forcibly denying the thought that kept rising.
Right. He must simply have had no appetite that day. There is no need to overthink it.
She had not shown it outwardly, but Louis’s rejection had genuinely shocked her.
Resolved that she would speak with him today no matter what, she was heading toward the cafeteria when she spotted Louis himself just entering the building.
Lucky.
She quickly followed him inside.