You Can't Avoid the Elf Lover
You Can't Avoid the Elf Lover
Left side, Saintess Irina Rowell.
Right side, Princess Lydia Ashley Aurelion.
With both hands holding the flowers any man would envy, Noel Grace sat in the lecture hall.
A girl no less beautiful than the flowers blooming on either side smiled brightly while staring into empty space.
Wondering if something good had happened, and indeed something good had happened.
Two things, in fact.
One was that she had hooked two big catches in one swoop from the Knight Department, and the other was that Professor Lucia's class, her absolute favorite, was about to start.
If it were a private lesson just for the two of them, it would truly be bliss, but even just watching Professor Lucia standing at the podium teaching was enough for Noel.
It had been well over a month since she entered the academy and first saw Professor Lucia, but no matter how much she watched, she never grew tired of it.
Naturally, whenever artifact class came around like this, a smile would escape her, and watching Noel like that, Irina and Lydia exchanged glances.
They knew she participated quite passionately in her studies during artifact class and that she liked it.
But exactly why that was, neither of them knew well.
Perhaps it was due to the technology development she'd mentioned before; they could only vaguely guess.
But seeing Noel looking even more excited than usual today, they couldn't help voicing their curiosity.
"Did something good happen?"
"She's always liked artifact class, but today she seems especially excited?"
It was almost enough to make them jealous.
The two girls swallowed those words.
It wasn't as if they didn't know that Noel was especially fond of Professor Lucia.
At first, they thought it was simply because it was the professor teaching her favorite class, but now the two had roughly caught on that it wasn't just that reason.
Maybe it was because she was an elf, and they thought she'd calm down over time as she got used to it...
Who would have thought that Noel would show such interest in someone else?
The fact that it wasn't them—both Irina and Lydia knew they shouldn't feel this way, but they couldn't help feeling a bit sulky.
"Ah, well, you see."
Realizing she'd shown too obvious affection, Noel gave an awkward explanation to the two.
"I think I can finally get permission to establish the new club now."
Seeing Noel answer that she'd succeeded in recruiting the missing members yesterday, Lydia and Irina nodded, saying that was great news.
"You finally found them."
"What kind of person are they? That Beastkin student you mentioned?"
At Irina and Lydia's successive questions, Noel shook her head.
"I never even got to meet Miss Biryuna, who was my target, but instead I found two other members who seem diligent."
Now all she had to do was ask Professor Lucia to be the club's advisor professor.
"Hmm, that doesn't seem easy, does it? From what I've heard, no one is willing to be a club activity advisor."
Because it meant more work and responsibility, it was only natural.
Of course, advisor professors did receive benefits like increased pay and such, but the professors would rather not take that and just spend time on their own research.
The question was whether Professor Lucia, who was also the department head and had a somewhat cold demeanor, would agree to such a thing.
It was suggested that finding another advisor professor might be better, but inwardly, the remark also carried a hint of wanting to check Lucia, who had been monopolizing Noel's attention lately.
"That part is fine. Actually, we've already talked about it to some extent."
What kind of person was Noel?
When she burned with obsession, she burned intensely.
She had already met with Professor Lucia in advance, asking if she could become the advisor for the new club she was establishing, and had received a definite answer that if she gathered all the members needed for the establishment, she would do it.
So after this class ended, she just needed to get the advisor's signature from Lucia and submit the documents for the club establishment to the administrative office.
"Such initiative..."
"Amazing assertiveness unbecoming of the usual Noel-jamae-nim..."
Both Lydia and Irina couldn't help but be surprised by Noel's proactive execution.
Noel, who always seemed passive, acting so actively—and for something like club activities at that.
They had definitely thought that Noel, who claimed being a homebody suited her perfectly, would never do club activities.
Or at best, she'd grudgingly put her name on a club at their request and participate once in a while.
'Did she really want to do cultural exchange with other races that badly?'
'Noel-jamae-nim seems to really like other races.'
Considering that among humans, there are many who don't welcome other races, Noel certainly was on the unusual side.
'As expected, a genius artist is different in every way...'
If it were anyone else, they'd be called an eccentric, but since it was Noel, it became the uniqueness of an artist.
And this very aspect was also why Professor Lucia agreed to Noel's request.
She had wanted to pass it on to someone else, but the Principal convinced her that such activities could truly contribute to continental peace and harmony between races.
『Considering the influence Homeros's works have on society, getting close to them—isn't that in line with your own intentions, Professor Lucia? This one thinks so. I wonder if that child's works might become the key to opening a new era of great harmony.』
As can be seen from her working as a professor at the academy, despite appearances, Lucia was quite friendly toward humans.
She was a moderate who believed that humans and elves, through understanding each other, could move toward a positive future through dialogue.
Regardless of her somewhat cold atmosphere.
So at the Principal's words, recalling the works Noel had written and the manga she had led, she thought that the club activities might leave a meaningful mark, so she said if Noel gathered the members, she would be the advisor.
"Let's begin class."
But Lucia, who had been lecturing from the podium, felt regret upon noticing the fervent gaze directed at her.
Noel Grace.
Encountering the girl who showed such overwhelming fondness toward her again made her feel burdened.
Lucia valued distance as much as atmosphere.
To her, Noel, who unabashedly expressed intense affection upon first meeting and kept approaching recklessly, was an awkward existence.
Thinking that she would now be tied to the existence called Noel, who always disrupted her rhythm, not only through lectures but also through club activities...
'Hoo.'
In fact, Noel wasn't the only problem.
When considering the people who came along with Noel, she couldn't avoid pressure from above even as a faculty member.
Royal Blood, Holy Blood, Noble Blood...
The thought of being responsible for them as the advisor gave her a headache, but there was no choice.
As Lucia who aimed for racial harmony and peace, she did feel the need to cooperate with Noel.
And inwardly,
'Also, that video production she mentioned before bothers me.'
As a scholar, she had heard something she couldn't just ignore, and although she felt like a path of hardship was opening up, she ultimately decided to get involved.
'It's not like I can avoid it forever.'
Noel herself was a good student.
She had high academic zeal, and her class attitude was excessively good.
She thought that as time passed, the excitement about communicating with an elf would settle down and things would be fine.
"Then let's end class here. Make sure to record today's lecture well. It's the most basic yet core part of the artifact production process, so it will be on the exam too."
Lucia, taking off the glasses she had been wearing during class, ended the lecture before the bell rang.
"Have a nice lunch."
The class was easy to understand, and contrary to her cold impression, she ended class a bit early for the students' sake, so Lucia's classes were popular among students.
Tak-tak, packing her teaching materials, Lucia left the lecture hall.
Noel quickly followed behind Lucia.
"Professor-nim!"
Lucia turned around at the voice calling her—a voice that had become familiar from hearing it so much over the past month.
"What is it, Miss Noel?"
Noel's eyes sparkled as she held out some documents to Lucia.
"I've gathered all the members. Please take care of the club establishment."
"Already...?"
She had thought it wouldn't be difficult for a popular student to find members, but a club isn't just made of members.
You also need to secure a club room, a base for the club, and submitting the establishment application means the club room is already secured.
Was there a spare room? Lucia wondered in surprise.
Considering that there are clubs that can't be promoted to official clubs because they can't find a room, it was astonishing.
Lucia had thought she might need to help find a room after the members were gathered, so it was quite unexpected.
"How on earth did you get a room?"
"Oh, someone gave it up."
Lucia blinked at Noel, who spoke as if it were nothing.
"Gave it up? There's a club that would give up their room?"
It sounded unbelievable.
Club rooms are the very thing people struggle with because they don't exist or can't be claimed, so it was hard to believe there was an existing club that would just give one up.
There was a trick to it: she made a deal with the Reading Club.
In exchange for letting them preview the yet-unreleased manuscripts of 「Magic Investigation Team」 for a year, the Reading Club gave up their room.
They said what mattered was reading, and as long as they could read, the place didn't matter, so they gladly accepted Noel's deal.
"Heh, haah...?"
Lucia felt a slight confusion about how to take this.
Yet inwardly,
'Unreleased episodes of Magic Investigation Team... I suppose I might want to see them a little.'
She found herself sympathizing with the Reading Club students.
Anyway, at this point, there was really no turning back.
Having made up her mind, Lucia took the application Noel held out and asked.
"I'll submit this to the administrative office. But as you know, club activities aren't just about gathering and playing around; you need to produce results. You should think of a first goal for the Cross-Cultural Exchange Club."
If they can't do it properly, the club will be disbanded.
For a club she'd gone to all this trouble to create, and for her future academy life, she needed to preserve it long-term, and Noel already had something in mind.
The right talents had gathered for the club.
She was thinking of creating something like a manga that would enhance understanding between races, with themes like "other races from a human perspective" and "humans from an other race's perspective."
If that were the case, there'd be no risk of disbandment due to lack of results.
Hearing Noel's plan, Lucia thought,
'Isn't this kind of cheating...?'
Putting out works under the name of Homeros—she wondered if that could really count as club activity results.