The Royal Family Affair
A fortnight had passed in the blink of an eye.
I had failed to remove the lingering magic parasites from Arin and Kana, but every day had otherwise been the same monotonous routine.
Every morning I rose early, prepared meals for the temple, and once the kitchen duties were finished I headed to the academy on weekdays for classes or spent weekends driving Isolde and Morgan out to hunt down the parasites they had planted across the kingdom.
Precisely the parasites they had sown for the gigantic magic circle we had encountered before.
Isolde and Morgan, being experts in the same field as the demons, were always happy to accompany me on these hunts. I would hand over their original weapons each weekend and they accepted with open joy that they could finally wield them again.
After handing over their parasite-ridden weapons, however, the danger level rose sharply. I also made sure to equip them with safety measures so they wouldn’t annoy anyone else.
And of course I wasn’t idle while they were gone either. I used the spare time to become more familiar with my avatar bodies and trained the supporting characters who had asked for supplementary lessons: Arin, Kana, Riana, Shaty, and Pina.
On top of that I spent hours crafting the buff foods they all needed, so I could honestly say I had worked myself ragged.
Thanks to all that effort, Arin, Kana, and Riana—who couldn’t even sense neutralization before—now had a fifty-percent success rate with the technique. Shaty and Pina had mastered the infinite-style magic that almost perfectly translated their imagination into reality.
I had only been able to send Morgan and Isolde out twice in total over the two weekends, yet they returned every time with impressive results.
I had thought that since I was so busy, locating just a few key points would be enough, but they had actually found more than half of the parasites Ide and the demons had hidden among the human tribes and marked them on the map.
Thanks to them the looming threat of the gigantic annihilation magic circle was finally resolved, and I had trained the students as much as I possibly could.
And now, after this rewarding fortnight.
At the academy the entire first-year class and the teaching staff had gathered to prepare for the experiential learning trip to the Undersea Kingdom.
The morning of the experiential learning day dawned, and the vast courtyard of the academy—where the first-years and professors who were going today had all assembled—was in absolute chaos.
Bodies darted back and forth, voices overlapped, and the entire space was so loud and hectic that one would barely have been able to think straight.
“Student headcount check—is it finished?”
“Yes, it’s complete!”
“Good, then let’s check the professors now!”
Various staff members were dividing the students and professors into groups to count their numbers.
“Adjust the mana injection rate!”
“I’m doing it! It must be that side that’s off!”
“Don’t fight, just concentrate and do it properly!!!”
The mage professors who were about to open the colossal gate leading to the Undersea Kingdom were all busy.
“We’re only going for a single day, right?”
“Yeah, probably.”
“It’s a pity… I wish it had been two nights and one day…”
Amid the hustle and bustle of the professors, the students were gathered together chattering.
Here and there some students were running around playing pranks while the professors who had clashed earlier were arguing. The courtyard truly felt like a battlefield.
Standing there staring at this chaotic scene, I, who had just arrived at the academy along with Mu, Isolde, and Morgan, couldn’t help but let out a weary expression.
“This is the worst.”
“It’s a mess…”
“If we actually go in there we’re going to get crushed.”
“I feel a bit reluctant about stepping inside, though.”
All four of us voiced the same negative opinions without exception.
For the record, at the moment I was using my usual avatar of Aria. Mu was in the form of Meiel. And because the new professor I had joined as—Yeonha—had been told to bring all five of my avatars to today’s event, the duplicates of Yujia and Kama controlled by Mu were standing right beside me as well.
I stood there with five of us in total—my avatars and the duplicate students—wearing the same exhausted expression as we watched the courtyard.
If we went inside there we’d be completely out of place. No, moving around was easy, but entering that kind of pandemonium… that was the real problem.
It was like discovering a little kid peeing in the water park.
Standing outside the courtyard, I watched the scene with resignation. Some of the students near the edge suddenly turned toward us, startled, and began whispering.
“Hey, look there! I’ve never seen professors like that gathered in one place before…”
“Whoa, me neither. This is really the first time I’ve seen something like that…”
“I can’t believe all four of them are together…”
The students were whispering with faces that went beyond surprise—almost disbelief. They were speaking quietly so the avatars wouldn’t hear, but the words carried perfectly.
…Is it really that surprising that my avatars are all gathered like this?
I tilted my head, unable to understand the students’ murmurs. Then I remembered that, aside from joint classes with the extra students, I had never shown them a private gathering of all my avatars at once. That made sense.
If so, it was only natural that it was surprising.
Accepting that, I let the students’ whispers fade, but as soon as my mind settled again the unresolved problem returned to haunt me.
“How exactly are we supposed to get inside?”
Of course, like the other professors sitting outside, I could have just stayed outside and waited, but since I had to go in there was the problem.
“The principal Mira said she would come to meet me the moment she arrived, but… I still can’t find a way in.”
That was the exact thing Mira had said to me the day before the experiential learning trip began. The moment he arrived he had told me to come meet him with my siblings.
The instant I reached the academy I had scoured the entire outer area, but Mira was nowhere to be seen. That meant he was somewhere inside this crowd.
In other words, I had no choice but to push through this sea of people and find him.
While I was steeling my heart and slowly beginning to walk toward the inside of the courtyard, a completely unexpected answer came flying from beside me.
“Hey, I don’t want to go in there either, but how about flying? I see quite a few students flying around among the humans.”
“…I hadn’t thought of that.”
The speaker was, of course, Isolde.
She waved her staff at me and asked, and my eyes sparkled at the brand-new method I had never considered.
I had forgotten because I had always been in Aria’s body and Mu in Meiel’s, but now I realized that this colorful world offered a superb means of flight magic.
Isolde narrowed her eyes at my stunned face and held her staff up.
“So I fly?”
“Yeah, that sounds perfect.”
As Isolde activated the flight spell, Mu—who had been standing beside me—flicked her hand as if she had been about to try it herself, but sadly Isolde’s magic activated faster than anything Mu could have said.
“‘Rise.’”
Isolde murmured the spell briefly, and every one of our bodies lifted into the air at once.
If only we four had been flying alone the stares would have been unbearable, but fortunately there were other students soaring through the narrow crowd as well, so the attention stayed focused elsewhere.
Thanks to that we were able to fly comfortably through the air without any issues.
“Look, there she is.”
“Ah, right.”
As we rose higher the sight of Principal Mira standing before the colossal gate opened by the students, along with the other familiar representative students beside her, came into view.
When I pointed in that direction Isolde clicked her tongue and nodded, then flicked her staff. Our bodies, still in the air, began flying straight toward Mira.
“I wanted to do it myself though…”
“Don’t worry about it, Mu. Besides, when we get to the experiential learning trip I’ll be relying on you even more.”
“Aaaah… Yes! Mother!”
And so, before I could even reach Mira, I had to comfort Mu, who had lost a chance to help and was sulking.
Truly, this was the moment I felt like I was raising a real daughter.