You! Oh, It's You!
You! Oh, It's You!
"We're supposed to take every last gift the Magic Department received... and hand them over to the Knight Department?"
The secretary was aghast.
"Plan, Plan, if we do that, whatever goodwill might have existed for cooperation will evaporate entirely!"
The head of general affairs had gone pale as well.
But I wasn't about to reverse my decision.
Because once the Magic Department finally leaped into the ranks of true first-rate institutions, watching people crawl out of the woodwork to claim "it was all thanks to me" would simply be irritating.
Prove the maximum with the minimum.
My creed didn't change just because my body and my world had.
The record scroll that had been suspended in midair dropped limply to the floor. Sepia, deputy head of the Merhen Daily Editing Department, looked as though her very soul had drained out of her.
Sepia barely managed to open her mouth.
"Th-then... what if it's just the three remaining representative interviews? Actually, I've already arranged the appointments."
"Obviously not."
"Fine. I'll cancel them. In exchange! At least quietly accept the gifts as they are."
"What exactly are you all so afraid of."
With every word I bit off, Sepia wilted in real time. She squeezed out her voice.
"Reputation... Plan, don't you think it's time to manage your reputation a bit more carefully?"
Sepia continued in a serious tone.
"Even if it's a little tedious and difficult, let's think of it as an investment in the future and polish up your reputation a little more nicely. At least see that this one thing gets handled properly."
"I'd love to know exactly what part of this qualifies as good."
"If, someday, you end up teaching other students, or when we're advancing something at the department level... everyone will follow with motivation, won't they?"
I nodded quietly.
It wasn't difficult to grasp Sepia's intent.
"Find a way to survive even if the Subjugation Festival results are poor. That's all I'm hearing."
"Ah... well... so... hahaha...."
"Unnecessary."
"Pardon...?"
There wasn't much I had to say to Sepia.
"We're mages. Not con artists."
"That's... true...."
A weary sigh escaped Sepia. Obvious enough, but from the start, there had never been an option she would find agreeable anyway.
The secretary pushed up her glasses and parted her lips.
"...Then there's no helping it. Actually, the Chancellor did say to follow whatever Plan decides."
"She said that."
"Yes. Though the person in question seems not to have known. There are even rumors going around that the Chancellor only dotes on Plan."
I called to mind Conet's reverse eye and her unhurried, amused laugh. The boundless trust she extended toward me occasionally puzzled even me.
Well, mages do recognize mages. For the time being, I decided to chalk it up to that.
But then.
"Yes. For the near future, I do intend to engage in some open favoritism."
"...!"
Conet's voice reached us without a moment's warning. The Chancellor had at some point already seated herself at the head of the table.
Quite literally "at some point." She had manifested using teleportation.
Everyone except me shot upright from their seats and lowered their heads. The Chancellor gestured for everyone to sit.
"Having passed the preliminaries in first place, that much shouldn't pose any problem. Wouldn't you agree?"
Conet let out her usual unhurried laugh.
"I think we'll simply watch for now. As for the Subjugation Festival, there doesn't seem to be a mage more capable than Plan anyway."
The Chancellor swiftly brought the situation to order.
The secretary, the head of general affairs, the deputy head of Merhen Daily... they all busily delivered their reports to Conet. Conet listened to their words with a genuinely serious expression.
Even while doing so, Conet kept her gaze fixed solely on me. Her uncanny reverse eye seemed to pierce straight through me.
A moment later, Conet nodded.
"Understood. You may all step outside. The rest I'll discuss with Plan alone."
She continued with an odd expression.
"Just the two of us. Cozily."
◈
Once again, I found myself granted a private audience with Conet.
I more or less compiled a rough list in my head of the things Conet was likely to ask about.
Interfering with the arena's structure, peering into the circuits of the Illusion Tree... questions along those lines, I assumed.
"You're a first-year, aren't you. Plan?"
Conet's opening remark came slightly out of nowhere. I nodded quietly.
"Hobbies?"
"Magic, broadly speaking."
Even after that, Conet asked me nothing whatsoever about the match. She merely inquired about personal things one by one in a comfortable voice.
"No particular interest in clothing, I take it."
"More or less."
"Ah, in that case, here."
A black card flew toward me. Written on it in golden lettering were the words "Witch's Forest."
"You might visit sometime and choose whatever suits you. Clothes, accessories, whatever."
Witch's Forest. The name of a shop dealing in garments, apparently. For now, I slipped it inside my coat.
"I hear you passed the preliminaries in first place."
Finally, we'd reached the main topic. Both her expression and mine grew markedly serious.
"Yes."
"I'd already promised to arrange a wand... I've been thinking about what else I might do for you, Plan."
Conet began anew.
"I'm considering further subdividing the Academy's Vans. I've been researching methods of teaching magic without regard for age or year, and capable leaders have naturally become necessary."
As I listened in silence, the Chancellor came out with it plainly.
"Perform in the main tournament just as you have been. If you do, I'll assemble a Van under you, Plan."
A Van.
That was an offer I had not remotely anticipated. I fixed my gaze quietly on Conet's reverse eye.
Entrusting students to someone is an exceedingly dangerous thing.
As one example, in my previous world, a figure harboring dangerous ideologies cultivated first-rate students into criminals — a major incident in its own right.
I quietly asked in return.
"...A Van?"
"Yes. A Van led by Plan."
Conet silently extended her index finger and tapped twice against her own eyelid.
"My judgment has never once been wrong, you see."
I thought for a moment.
"More to the point, I have a few requirements."
I decided to extract what I wanted first.
◈
"This suits me rather well."
As he left the Chancellor's office, Plan quietly murmured.
First, arrange the highest-quality lodging capable of housing four people for three days. Second, supply meals on time.
The two demands he had made of Conet were as follows, and he had obtained a ready promise on both. With this, the conditions to properly prepare for the main tournament had been met.
"Ah, Plan."
At that moment, Violet addressed him familiarly.
She had been waiting outside the Chancellor's office the whole time. Naturally, the reason was to see Plan.
Violet cleared her throat awkwardly and continued.
"Fancy meeting you here. By sheer coincidence."
"You had business, I take it."
"Ah, well, nothing major."
Violet first held out a key. Plan's brow furrowed slightly as he looked at it.
"It's a key to a research lab. While you're preparing for the main tournament... you know. Use it. Use the facilities freely too."
"...."
Plan silently stared at the key, then asked in return.
"What is this."
"Ah, I may be a professor, but I do have my connections."
Violet put on a deliberate show of self-importance.
In truth, Violet had asked Sepia for a favor.
She had clung to her, calling it a request from her one and only older sister, and as a result, had managed to secure a spare space in the Editing Department.
Her reason for acting was simple.
Plan was Violet's student, so out of a pure desire to cheer him on, she had simply wanted to do something for him.
"You can use it right away. I've already had it cleaned up nicely too."
"I don't need it."
"...."
Violet froze like a statue.
"...Pardon?"
"I've secured the Magic Tower facilities. I intend to have the representatives stay there for three days."
"Ah... the Magic Tower... the Magic Tower facilities...."
Violet fumblingly tucked the key away. The sharp tip of her pointed hat somehow seemed to have wilted slightly.
"The Magic Tower facilities are indeed excellent... yes."
Plan then thought of something. Come to think of it, there was something he had to say upon encountering Violet.
"How goes your Rune Language research these days."
"Rune Language... Rune Language research?"
Violet's eyes widened slightly.
"There has been some progress, in its own way. I mean, personally, I spend every spare moment on nothing but that."
"Is that so."
At Plan's response — merely a single nod — Violet's pointed hat drooped just a little more.
But then.
"Once the main tournament is over, I was thinking we might research it together."
"...!"
Violet's shoulders gave a startled flinch.
"With me? Er, that is to say. Rune Language research?"
"It wouldn't be in the capacity of an assistant... but for now."
"Ah, w-well, in that case."
Violet's lips twitched.
But it was at that moment.
Sepia came hurtling toward Plan, frantic. Her orange hair was completely disheveled.
"Plan... Hack— ptoo, ptoo!"
Some strands had even gotten into her mouth, and Sepia spat them out in a hurry.
Then she looked up at Plan with a face full of shock.
"Are you busy? No, of course not. Even if you were, I think you'd need to confirm this anyway?"
Plan watched Sepia in silence.
"The Magic Department representatives. The two female students. The Knight Department just published a scandal story about them!"
I found myself furrowing my brow before I knew it. They barely have enough hours in the day to devote themselves entirely to magic, and yet they're concerning themselves with romance.
"...I'm curious about the other party."
For now, I was curious about the other party.
Unless the person in question was someone more formidable than magic, more captivating than magic itself... my disappointment in those two female students threatened to be overwhelming.
"The other party? The other party?"
Sepia extended her index finger straight out.
"Who else? It's Plan!"
And pointed straight at me.
"You! Ah, you of all people!"