[ Not Applicable ]
[ Not Applicable ]
Before Violet left, she added one last remark.
"You've risen in the world, haven't you. It's fascinating to watch. A first-year who's already in and out of the Chancellor's office...."
She lowered her voice and offered a small piece of advice.
"And one more thing — the Chancellor isn't the only one inside. The Head Professor will likely be there too, so conduct yourself accordingly."
"Yes."
The Head Professor, was it. Not that it mattered who else was present — I wasn't about to feel nervous either way.
Once Violet departed, the massive wooden door swung open on its own.
Just as I'd been told, the Chancellor was not alone. Conet sat in the seat of honor, and to her left and right sat one man and one woman respectively.
"This is the Head Professor. And this is my Secretary."
Conet introduced the man first, then the woman.
'Decent composure, I'll grant them.'
The flow of mana inside the Chancellor's office was calm and measured.
When mages of a certain caliber gather, a natural air of dignity settles in — what they call Mana's Dignity.
The three gazes fixed on me, however, each held a distinctly different character.
Conet was smiling at me. The Secretary's face was blank. The Head Professor, meanwhile, was eyeing me as though I were an irritation he had been forced to swallow.
"Please, have a seat. I've been waiting for you to arrive."
The Chancellor gave a soft smile and produced a chair. I sat down without a word.
"It's been a while. Since our game of Agora Chess, hasn't it?"
At Conet's abrupt remark, the two seated on either side showed faint traces of surprise.
Whether they were surprised that I had played Agora Chess, or surprised that I'd had a private audience with her before... neither possibility mattered to me.
Instead of answering, I gave a nod.
I had kept the blank card I'd received then in good condition — though the ink was only now beginning to surface on it.
"Have you seen the flood of articles that followed your interviews?"
"I've glanced through them."
"The reaction has been quite heated. For the record, I personally am rather fond of this sort of chaos."
A soft laugh slipped from Conet before she abruptly asked,
"Do you have a wand?"
"Yes."
I answered without thinking. Conet's head tilted ever so slightly. The two beside her looked startled as well.
Only then did I realize I'd answered wrongly.
My treasured wand — that belonged to my previous world. I corrected myself.
"I do not."
"Aha. Are you interested in acquiring one?"
"Yes."
It is inevitable that a mage takes an interest in wands.
Not only for the magical assistance they provide — wands possess a strange allure that stirs a collector's instinct as well.
"Have a shape in mind. Once the Subjugation Festival concludes satisfactorily, I'll see that you receive one."
"...?"
I doubted my ears.
It wasn't as if wands came cheaply in this world either. And sure enough, the expressions on the other two faces were etched with shock.
After all, custom-crafting a wand to match the user's mana, circuit, elemental type, and every other individual trait was by no means an easy task.
The Chancellor's Secretary pushed her glasses up and spoke.
"Student Plan, at least show a proper reaction. We are talking about being granted a wand, of all things."
"What is the budget being allocated?"
"...?"
The Secretary's head tilted slightly to one side. She must have been expecting a reaction more along the lines of 'Thank you.'
That was when the Head Professor beside her parted his lips and added a word. The nameplate on him read 'Aaron.'
"Chancellor... isn't a wand going a bit far? What if he childishly just snatches up some intangible-type wand without a second thought?"
"That is a point. Would we have to sell off part of the academy grounds, I wonder."
The joke eased the tension in the room slightly. Even the Secretary, who had been expressionless until then, readily laughed at Conet's remark.
"Now then, let us get to the main point."
Conet parted her lips once more.
Her Reverse Eye glittered strangely as she toyed with a chess piece.
"The Magic Department's Subjugation Festival results have been abysmal in recent years. No — 'abysmal' may still be too generous. They have rarely even cleared the preliminaries."
So this was the reason she'd gone so far as to offer a wand as a reward.
The Magic Department's Subjugation Festival record was abysmal — and even that phrasing was heavily softened. In reality, it was practically beyond remedy.
"Yes. Abysmal results."
"Precisely. So, what I am hoping is that Student Plan might once again do something about it."
Conet's uncanny Reverse Eye shifted toward the Head Professor.
"That is my personal hope, at least. As for the rest... Head Professor?"
At the Chancellor's call, the Head Professor exerted his Telekinesis. Countless sheets of paper flew toward me.
"Student Plan, was it? You've made things quite irreversible, I see."
He looked straight at me as he spoke. His voice carried faint traces of dissatisfaction and resentment.
"That was what I intended."
"Thanks to you, we're now past the point of no return as well. Take a look at those papers I've handed over. You'll have to form a team, won't you."
I used Telekinesis to hang the papers in the air one by one and examine them. All of these documents contained student profiles.
While I was checking them sheet by sheet, the Head Professor added more.
"You know the entire academy has their eyes wide open, don't you? I've narrowed it down to the ones who are considered geniuses in their own right."
2nd-years, 2nd-years, 2nd-years, 2nd-years... Every single one of them was a 2nd-year. Not a single 1st-year was included.
"If it were up to me, I'd just suggest we prepare for the next discipline and move on... but of all things, you had to say what you said in that interview... Haah."
At that moment, the Secretary addressed the Head Professor.
"Please moderate your tone. The decision to put our full effort into the Subjugation Festival is also the Chancellor's opinion."
"Oh, honestly — there she goes again, saying such frustrating things."
The Head Professor thumped his own chest.
"You can put your full effort in quietly, from behind the scenes. There's no need to go broadcasting it to the whole neighborhood like this."
"A fight fought out of sight is still a fight. You ought to see the battle for public opinion as a legitimate discipline in its own right."
"And so, in your eyes, does that public opinion currently look favorable?"
One thing was now certain: even among the Magic Department's highest officials, opinions were sharply divided.
This, too, was by design. A perfectly natural development.
"In front of a student... I would ask you both to set an example."
Thud. Conet placed a piece on her desk with an audible sound. The room immediately fell quiet.
In the silence that had returned, I quietly parted my lips.
"Who narrowed down this list?"
"The 2nd-year professors narrowed it down. I inspected it."
I spoke a single line toward the Head Professor, who had answered in a decidedly half-hearted tone.
"Is this... the best you could do."
"...What?"
I used Telekinesis to gather up the papers that were spread across the air. They stacked themselves neatly on the floor without the slightest deviation.
"First of all, I regret to say."
Once again, the Head Professor couldn't restrain himself and cut in.
"It's a bit late for regret. Take responsibility for the words you yourself uttered. Pick your team and produce results, however you can."
"No."
I shook my head calmly toward the Head Professor.
That was not the aspect I was expressing regret over.
"None of these are the team members I will choose."
A silence close to a Void settled over the room.
A long while later, the Head Professor scratched his shoulder and asked again.
"What is that supposed to mean? Don't tell me even this selection isn't good enough for you?"
"I have already decided. All of them will be 1st-years."
"...!"
All three faces went blank at once. The Secretary pushed up her glasses with a troubled expression.
"Friendship, loyalty... something of that sort, is it? This is reckless. The Subjugation Festival is a discipline in which 2nd-years are allowed to participate, and it is difficult for a 1st-year to deal with 2nd-year knight cadets."
The Secretary continued in a composed voice.
"If many of the Knight Department's teams were like that, it would be one thing — but likely every team will be composed solely of 2nd-years."
As though he had only just now recovered his wits, the Head Professor also cut in again.
"Student Plan. When you converse with us, leave that prankster streak aside. It isn't the least bit amusing, and only provokes anger."
It was not that I failed to understand their mindset.
For students who are still growing rapidly, a single-year gap is enormous. Proposing to form a team of 1st-years against 2nd-year knight cadets would sound like sheer nonsense to them.
But I have no interest in prettily polished pebbles. What I want are rough gemstones, uncut and unshaped.
And those rough gemstones — I already had three of them among the 1st-years.
"Pfft...."
Conet let out a laugh as though she found it thoroughly entertaining.
"Indeed, in all sorts of ways, Student Plan acts in ways I could never have foreseen."
Her lips drew a satisfied arc.
"In that case... shall we conclude by taking a little more time to think it over?"
"No, this is not acceptable. Chancellor."
The Head Professor struck the desk with a thud.
"The combat discipline was still, at least, a contest between 1st-years. But the Subjugation Festival... I must be absolutely clear. 1st-year team members are not permissible."
The Secretary also cautiously pushed up her glasses and added her voice.
"Freedom must be guaranteed within the boundaries of the rules. He has been given the freedom to choose his team, so the year must be fixed to 2nd-year."
I quietly imagined the forms of the rough gemstones I would refine.
The ones who would rise to the highest ranks, and the many dreamers who would walk the path behind them.
The moment that scenery becomes reality.
The world will already have changed, and even without me, the magic of this world will flow in the right direction.
"Chancellor."
I parted my lips, low and even.
At the same moment, all six eyes turned toward me.
Among them, the mana dwelling in Conet's Reverse Eye was strangely lucid and peculiar.
"The reason I am currently sitting here...."
Things like deliberation — I have no need for them.
"Is not to negotiate."
And I will not be changing my mind, either.
◈
"Huff...."
In her private room, Trixie had just finished her ballet practice.
As she went to change her shoes, her unsightly feet caught her eye.
The deformed joints of her toes protruded grotesquely — even she could not find the sight of them beautiful.
'The blue flame' was both a blessing and a curse. When she was young, her feet had been completely burned by a blaze that even she could not control.
Fortunately, the Fritz Family had poured a tremendous sum into restoring basic function to her feet... but their outward appearance had never been restored.
That was the reason she had taken up ballet in the first place. She had thought — since my feet are unsightly anyway, perhaps I could at least attach a graceful reason to them.
"...."
She silently pulled on her socks.
The eldest daughter of the Fritz Family had no leisure to feel regret or sorrow over such things. Wiping away her sweat, she opened Trivia.
She had been about to send a message to Mentor-nim as usual, when—
"...!"
On Trivia's open board, she spotted posts that stood out sharply. The contents were rather shocking.
[ wtf this is insane, the Magic Department's Subjugation Festival reps got decided ]
[ How much free time do you even have to lie like that ]
[ It's real, it's posted on the Agora Board ]
'The representatives have been decided?'
Trixie was on her feet before she realized it. By the time she came to her senses, she was already running toward the Agora Board.
From the moment she was born into the Fritz Family, from the moment she had come to possess the blue flame... she had a reason she absolutely had to participate in the Subjugation Festival.
A crowd of students had already gathered in front of the Agora Board. Trixie pushed her way into the gap without a moment's hesitation.
"Excuse me — move. Let me through."
Shouldering past one, then another, she soon found herself at the very front.
"Haah... haah...."
She quietly raised her head and scanned the representative list.
[ Plan ]
[ Becky ]
[ Lewis Rosevalt ]
'Becky...?'
She had questions about why the utterly ordinary Becky had been chosen, but she decided to set that thought aside for now.
"Haah... haah...."
For now — for now — the single most important fact was that her own name had to be on that list.
She looked downward.
"Hah... ah...?"
And the very instant she faced the truth, Trixie froze solid.
[ N/A ]
In the list's final slot, that was all it said.