How the Chairwoman Eats Her Meals
Rosen Academy's Chairwoman's office always fell into a peculiar standoff during mealtimes. The academy's exclusive top-class chef delivered the finest meals prepared with utmost care exclusively for the Chairwoman every morning. After all, she was the head of the largest and most prestigious educational institution on the entire continent. Naturally, everything she wore, ate, and drank should have been of the highest quality—something even the long-gone emperors of the empire would envy.
Yet Elina, seated on the sofa, sat rigidly before the appetizing dishes like a frail young animal facing a predator. Her gaze kept drifting toward the nameless weeds sprouting haphazardly in the corner of the office terrace planter, or the damp, hardened bread crusts used to erase graphite from a pencil. Those were "safe." They carried no scent of seasoning and weren't temptingly processed. At least, not until Karl caught her.
"Chairwoman."
At Karl's voice, Elina flinched and snapped back to her senses.
"Please stop staring at the inedible weeds on the terrace or the trash bin with such a starving look. I would rather not have rumors spreading that the continent's savior, the Great Sage, is forced to forage for weeds because the academy has no food."
"W-when did I ever do that?! I was just observing the growth rate of those weeds, that's all! They're really sprouting up nicely these days! Yeah!"
Grumble—
Pathetically, Elina's slender stomach clock proved less than loyal. She hadn't had a proper meal since yesterday's lunch. And after cleaning, of course she was hungry. She could simply eat the excellent food in front of her, but Elina could never bring herself to touch the vibrant, red-cooked meat. The warm bread giving off a sweet aroma. The meat roasted to a golden brown as the red blood faded. The poison hidden within. The nightmare of her comrades vomiting blood and dying with their eyes rolled back after eating it. Eighty years ago, during the street fighting at Castella Fortress.
Back then, to lure out the starving human soldiers, the demons had set out an grotesquely lavish and appetizing feast right in the middle of town. That memory still lodged in Elina's throat like a stone whenever she saw red, well-cooked food. That was why, for Elina, dirt-covered dried rat meat or rotting hard tree roots were a hundred times safer and easier to swallow as a "meal."
Without a word, Karl lightly lifted Elina's small body with one hand. At first she had resisted, shouting, "Hey! I'm the Great Sage! The owner of this academy! Where do you think you're putting your hands, you rude knight?!" but now she only struggled a little. Between Elina's parted lips as she squirmed, Karl mercilessly shoved something from a paper bundle.
"Mmph?! Mmph, mmph… nom nom…"
Between roughly sliced, tough rye bread was a plain sandwich with unseasoned, dry grilled chicken breast and a single slice of bland cheese. A dull sandwich with no flair and no fragrant sauce to whet the appetite. But precisely because of that, it was the safest food in the world—one where no foreign substance or poison could be hidden.
With her cheeks puffed out like a squirrel's, Elina let out a relieved sigh and began chewing the rye bread. Brushing the white breadcrumbs from her cheeks, she looked exactly like a small squirrel with bulging cheeks.
"…At this rate, you'll really collapse from malnutrition. If the meals I bring don't suit you, at least complain that they taste bad. Why must you covet the terrace weeds and make your secretary's heart skip a beat?"
Karl clicked his tongue shortly as he carefully set the struggling Elina back on the sofa.
"Mmm… Your cooking tastes bad but it's easy to swallow…"
"Please omit the 'tastes bad' part. It is hardly proper courtesy toward a secretary who bakes rye bread and boils chicken breast with his own funds every morning for the academy's highest authority."
After confirming Elina had swallowed the sandwich, Karl tapped the thick file folder on the desk—the planning proposal for next month's academy founding festival.
"By the way, regarding the founding festival proposal. I must speak about the approval for the 'large-scale magic fireworks show' on the final page."
"Huh? Why that? What's the problem? I put so much effort into it and even calculated the magic circle coordinates!"
"I clearly submitted a revision proposal during the budget adjustment stage, yet you insisted on keeping it. Cancel the fireworks event effective immediately."
At Karl's firm words, Elina began waving the half-eaten sandwich in the air and launching into a passionate speech.
"No! Absolutely not! Fireworks are the highlight of any festival! Under the dazzling lights exploding bang! bang! in the dark night sky, shy boys and girls who usually keep their distance will go 'Ah, that startled me!' and naturally press their shoulders together and hold hands—that historic moment I've been looking forward to so much! It's the time of year when dopamine explodes the most!"
"I don't believe the person who, every time fireworks go off, crawls under the desk in the Chairwoman's office with pupils smaller than beans muttering 'The left defensive line has collapsed! Request artillery support immediately…!' is in any position to say that."
"…"
Elina's thin lips pressed together like a clamshell.
"T-thunderstorms can't be helped, but… I can overcome fireworks with the Great Sage's mental strength and magic control, you know?! My mind is so clear these days!"
"Do you not remember last month during the Knight Department's mock training, when a single signal flare went off and you clung to my suit sleeve crying for half a day? Thanks to that, my overtime paperwork was delayed by three hours."
"Ugh…"
With no more rebuttals left, Elina groaned and lowered her head. The noise of war. The ear-splitting explosions and screams, the merciless tremors that shook the very ground beneath her feet. Those afterimages remained etched as indelible scars deep in her soul even eighty years later. No matter how great a sage who saved the continent she might be, the battlefield terror etched into every cell of her body was not something mental strength alone could control.
Looking down at the drooping half-elf's pointed ears, Karl lightly flicked his fingers and tapped Elina's forehead.
Thwack!
"Ow! That hurts! I'm really going to charge you with assaulting the Chairwoman and send you to the empire's highest court!"
Elina jumped up, clutching her forehead with both hands in indignation.
"If you're that scared, why do you keep insisting on the fireworks event?"
"…"
Elina slowly lowered the hand rubbing her sore forehead. Beyond the large glass window of the office, the main sports field was bathed in the deepening orange glow of sunset. The lively voices of students bustling about preparing for the academy founding festival and Victory Day event a month away drifted in on the breeze.
"…It would just feel too guilty."
"Pardon?"
"It would be too cruel to steal away the most brilliant page of those children's youth just because I'm scared. The children have done nothing wrong. I'm the one who went through the war, not them."
Elina smiled. And that smile made Karl sad. It overlapped with the face of the failing half-elf girl who had to let go of her comrades' hands in the middle of the battlefield eighty years ago.
"During the fireworks, I'll just stay in the deepest underground storage room of the office. If I put up plenty of barriers and cover my ears, I won't hear a thing. So don't worry about me, Karl. As long as the kids are happy, that's enough."
Her stubborn wish to show the children the brilliant, peaceful night sky she herself had never seen—without any fear. Now that a peaceful world without the Demon King or demons had arrived, she too should be able to sleep without nightmares every night, without recalling bombings when seeing red, well-cooked food, and to laugh out loud while gazing at the shining sky together with the children. She was more than qualified for that.
Karl swallowed all the words that rose to his throat. Such was the weight carried by those who survived. Instead, he quietly touched the inner pocket of his suit. Inside were three Silent Barrier Scrolls from the Tarento Papal State—absurdly expensive items worth a full month's salary. They were treasures the notoriously stingy Karl had obtained by emptying his own pockets and scouring the empire's black market. A magical tool made solely for one person, ensuring not even a single explosion would reach her ears when the fireworks painted the night sky.
"…The underground storage room has poor ventilation and grows mold. Crawling into such a damp place would harm the Chairwoman's personal dignity."
"Then what am I supposed to do?! Stand in the middle of the sports field covering my ears and trembling while crying?!"
"On the night of the festival, please come up to the main building rooftop."
Karl began organizing the approval documents. It was time to leave work.
"It offers the best view of the fireworks. Of course, I have prepared perfect countermeasures for the noise."
"Huh? Really?"
"Yes. On my honor as secretary, I will ensure not a single explosion reaches the Chairwoman's ears. So please do not think of fleeing to the underground storage room in such a pathetic manner."
Elina's violet eyes brightened as if by magic, and her pointed white ears perked up in delight.
"…For a penny-pinching secretary, you occasionally say something quite useful."
"It seems you've forgotten who threatens to fire this useless secretary every morning. Enough joking—please prepare to leave. If the Chairwoman doesn't leave, neither can I."
Karl gave a light bow and turned away. It was a plan he had prepared for three whole months. He didn't want to show his tense expression. Not to the person he admired.
"So I can really watch the fireworks? Isn't that really expensive…?"
"If they prove useless, I will tear them up right here."
When Karl moved to tear the scrolls in half without hesitation, Elina grabbed his sleeve in alarm.
"Ah! Don't! That's a waste! I'll go! I said I'll go! I'll definitely go up to the rooftop or wherever, so don't tear them!"
"It would have been better if you had said so earlier."
Karl quietly tucked the scrolls back into his pocket and calmly adjusted his glasses.
"Also, I never said only the Chairwoman should come. You may bring Ruto and the others as well. That is why I purchased several. If you wish, you may also invite Miss Rine, the freshman representative under the secretary's office."
At Karl's nonchalant tone, Elina stared up at him blankly for a moment. Karl gave the stubborn hero a slightly mischievous smile.
"Surely you didn't think the precious scrolls obtained from the empire's black market were meant to give special treatment only to yourself?"
"Y-you mean little secretary! Give me back my ! A penny-pincher like you sure knows how to show off!"
Elina threw a cushion and shouted, but Karl easily caught it with one hand.
"By the way, something just occurred to me."
"Huh? What?"
"Since this academy founding festival will also serve as the Victory Day event and be held on a grand scale, I heard that Cultural Protection People's Commissioner Nikolai Gorky will also make an official visit to the academy for inspection and congratulations."
Karl tilted his head, stroking his chin.
"He clearly said he would send a visit notification letter with the schedule and detailed plans today, but it seems the letter has not yet arrived at the secretary's office. I wonder if it was missed at the administration office. Strange."
"Hmm? Old man Gorky didn't send a letter? That geezer, instead of acting his age, is probably off somewhere chasing after 'talent with the rock spirit' again."
"That could be. I should check the administration office mailbox again later."
As Karl looked at the brazier with a suspicious expression—just in case—
At that same moment, on the central market street of the academy.
"Ugh, my ears are itchy…"
Rine adjusted the dirt-covered potato bag in her left hand and scratched her right pinky finger inside her ear. In the countryside, they said itchy ears meant someone was badmouthing you from behind or a bad premonition, and somehow her spine felt chilly.
"Oh? Miss Rine, what's wrong? Did some dust get in?"
Arthur Pendleton, the blonde Knight Department student carrying a box the size of a cart as lightly as a toy, looked down at Rine with a worried gaze.
"No, Arthur. I just have this feeling that someone far away in the imperial capital is directing some terrifying grudge toward me."
"A grudge?! Is it a curse spell?"
"Ahaha, I'm joking, just joking. Anyway, we've bought enough groceries, so let's head back to Pinecone Villa and prepare dinner."
Rine laughed it off and took a step forward. She had completely forgotten about the existence of the letter from old man Gorky that had turned to ash in the secretary's office brazier that morning.