Please Take Care of Me for a Year!
Countless rumors swirled among the students about the principal's office. As the academy's most secretive spot, even off-limits to the emperor, it sparked the innocent imaginations of teenagers that age.
"Isn't there a private lab for the principal in there?"
"Nah, who knows what kind of conspiracies they could be plotting that we can't even imagine! That's why no one gets in!"
From seemingly logical deductions to wild conspiracy theories that tickled the fancy. The academy's tallest spire was always prime fodder for endless student chatter.
So Lily had wondered what the principal's office looked like, too.
...Just not like this.
Lily's black eyes slowly scanned the room. A crackling fireplace in one corner. Piles of collapsed paperwork and shelves crammed with magic tomes filling another. Aside from the desk for work, there was no real furniture to speak of.
"So, what do you think? Simpler than you imagined, right?"
"Y-Yeah... N-No, wait! Aren't we not supposed to be in here!?"
Lily startled and grabbed the silver-haired girl's collar, yanking her close. She figured a 500-year-old elf principal wouldn't let someone trash her office and get away with it. Especially since she'd already been marked by the heirs of the five great powers. Getting on the principal's bad side on top of that? She didn't even want to imagine the consequences.
But for some reason, the girl's expression remained utterly serene.
"Wanna head out?"
"O-Of course! You know how important the principal's office is!"
"I wouldn't. In this situation, this is the safest place."
"The safest place...?"
Lily's grip on the girl's collar loosened for a moment.
"I'll show you."
The girl seized the opening, wrapping her arms around Lily from behind.
"H-Hey, wait, what are you—!?"
Brushing off Lily's feeble protests, she dragged her toward the window. From the principal's office at the academy's highest spire, the entire grounds were visible without obstruction. Academy guards hurriedly shutting the main gate. Imperial knights combing the sports field. A bit further, combat priests were searching the perimeter while controlling the back entrance.
High in the sky loomed a massive airship. An Eastern Union Kingdom cruiser hovering over the academy, its surveillance net spread wide.
The target was obvious.
Lily stared blankly out the window.
"..."
"See? If you go out there, it'll be the same mess as before."
The silver-haired girl rested her chin on Lily's shoulder as she spoke.
"So stick around here until things calm down. I'll handle explaining to the principal."
This was a space even the empire's emperor couldn't enter. No way she'd let just anyone in.
But... for some reason, it felt like this girl might be okay.
"...Got it."
"Good."
The girl beamed and patted Lily's head.
The principal arrived shortly after.
"Haa, I figured you'd be here, unnie."
Unnie?
A question mark popped up in Lily's mind. The principal she knew was a strict 500-year-old elf—the mightiest mage of the era, a living hero of the Maou War. Sylvia calling someone 'unnie'? And the woman, who never showed anything but a blank expression, was smiling openly now.
Lily had never dreamed she'd see the principal like this.
So she wondered: Who the heck is this girl?
As if answering Lily's silent question, the girl pressed a finger to her lips with a faint smile.
"That's... a secret for now."
"Ah."
"Sorry. But right now, there's something more important, right?"
All eyes turned to the Olive Wand.
Toward the seventh masterpiece, dropped right into the fray of the great powers' dispute.
"...Honestly, it still doesn't feel real."
She'd just gone to grab a meal voucher and ended up with something way too grand. People she'd never even make eye contact with in her lifetime were chasing her down. She was standing in the principal's office, a place no one ever entered. It all felt so unreal, like she might wake up in her peaceful academy dorm and realize it was a dream.
"I've never thought of myself as someone worthy of holding a wand like this. I only went to the auditorium for the meal voucher, after all."
Legendary weapons falling into ordinary hands? That was novel stuff. She'd never imagined herself as the protagonist.
"I..."
Lily had never considered herself a good person. With all the resentment and hatred she carried, she couldn't define herself that way.
She hated this world that had worked her parents to death. She loathed the society that abandoned dying people as slaves. She resented the gods who only granted miracles after her parents were gone.
Could someone filled with these feelings truly grasp values like 'peace' or 'protection'?
"I... don't really know."
Lily wasn't pure. The world had been too cruel to let her hold onto such innocence. That's why she'd asked first what would happen if she refused the wand.
"What if I refuse this wand? What happens then?"
"The heirs would probably scramble for it again. Whichever power claims it would reshape the world around them."
"...I don't want that."
She recalled the four who'd come after her: the empire's prince, the southern viscount's daughter, the union kingdom's envoy, and... Saintess Clara.
She didn't want to see any of them wielding it with a smile.
"Then it's simple. You take the wand."
"With feelings like these?"
Wishing ill on others wasn't clean or pure. The scriptures even warned against envy and jealousy. Though this was a slightly different shade of emotion... still, was it okay to hold the Olive Wand with a heart like this?
Lily gave a wry smile, thinking the wand had made a mistake.
"Pfft, now I get why it chose you."
But the silver-haired girl's response was unexpected.
"Because you have those feelings, you're the wand's master."
Chosen because of these feelings? What did that even mean? How could a heart like this help with peace?
Lily couldn't comprehend it.
"Peace isn't guarded just by being pure and kind. That's just a gullible pushover."
"Then..."
"Right. Someone who hates them like you won't be easily swayed by those powers. And yet, you're still the kind of person who ultimately wants to help others."
The girl squeezed Lily's hand holding the Olive Wand.
"Looks like your mind's made up, huh?"
"..."
Lily nodded slowly without a word.
The silver-haired girl grinned and winked at her.
"Don't worry about the powers. I'll protect you."
"How?"
She could tell the girl was an amazing mage. But magic prowess and political power were different. Individuals couldn't beat organizations, after all.
Yet the girl just flashed a pretty smile.
"You'll see soon enough."
Two weeks passed since that conversation.
Short spring break ended, and March brought blooming cherry blossoms.
New semesters at the academy always buzzed with excitement.
But this year was different.
Olivia's seventh masterpiece. The Olive Wand—a massive bombshell—had dropped right in the academy's heart.
And at ground zero was Class 2A.
The empire's second prince: Askleon.
The Holy Kingdom's saintess: Clara.
The union kingdom's viscount: Ian Vermonth.
The union kingdom's envoy: Cecilia Vermonth.
The north's shield: Gunter Nordenburk.
And the academy's second-most famous girl: Lily.
Before first period on the first day, over 50 pairs of eyes in Class 2A subtly—or not—fixed on Lily.
"That's her..."
"The Olive Wand's..."
"Kinda ordinary-looking..."
Curiosity, interest, a touch of jealousy. It was unfamiliar but not overwhelmingly intense.
After all, Lily was still the academy's 'second-most' famous girl.
People remembered negatives far better than positives. More interest in 'the girl who recklessly challenged the heirs' than 'the new Olive Wand master.'
You could see the Olive Wand wielder all year. But the aftermath of defying the four great powers' heirs? Now or never.
So Lily worried about that girl.
"Think she'll even show up for school?"
"Pfft, after pulling that in the auditorium? No way she'd stroll in unscathed. She probably bolted."
"Yeah. Can't survive academy life after pissing off those five."
Empire, union kingdom, Holy Kingdom, Nordenburk. Excluding the Red Tower that trained its own mages, every continental power was represented. Add their supporters, and that was over 80% of students.
Graduate to senior year hated by 80%? Physically impossible.
So she worried.
"I hope she just ran away..."
But she doubted it.
Voices drifted from behind Lily.
"You guys think she'll run?"
"I-Ian, sir?!"
"No way. If she fled from this, she never would've pulled that stunt in the auditorium."
Ian grinned, slinging an arm around the chatting students.
"She's definitely coming. Bet you a hundred silver."
House Vermonth had aggressively merged rivals to monopolize the union kingdom's food supply. Ian, the second son, wasn't one to just take hits.
"Let's give her a tumultuous academy life."
A dark smile spread across his face. The two boys thought: Whoever's backing her, she's in for a lifetime of misery.
It didn't take long for their misconception to shatter.
The rumor mill's star arrived boldly.
"Hey, everyone?"
Exactly at nine on the dot. Through the front door, not the back.
In academy professor robes, not the uniform.
"Lots of you probably know me already... but let me introduce myself again."
The girl naturally picked up the chalk and wrote on the blackboard.
[History and Understanding of Wands]
[Homeroom Teacher, Class 2A]
[Ria]
"I'm Professor Ria, in charge of the new 'History and Understanding of Wands' course."
Her blue eyes curved into pretty half-moons.
"Please take care of me for the year!"